by tradesmeninsights | May 12, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
In today’s economy, you won’t find any marketer that isn’t looking for a better ROI.
I recently read a post by Modern B2B Marketing, sharing some insights as to best practices from some of the industry leaders. I couldn’t say it any better, so here are the top 5 tips that will help you increase your ROI:
1. Be Found — “According to a recent study by Marketing Sherpa, 80% of B2B purchasing decision makers say that they found the vendor when they were ready to buy, rather than responding to a vendor finding them,” answered WebMarket Central’s Tom Pick.
This is coming to be known as inbound marketing. It boils down to ensuring that you have content spread across the web wherever your prospect may be looking, and that your web site is optimized so that prospects can easily find you regardless of where they are in the buying cycle.
2. Implement Lead Nurturing — “Lead nurturing is having consistent and meaningful communication with viable customers regardless of their time to purchase. One of the speakers at a conference recently said, ‘someone is a lead for life.’ I would agree with that sentiment,” said Brian Carroll, author of the popular book, “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”
Combined with lead scoring, lead nurturing programs enable you to profile the behavior of those most interested in your company’s goods or services, keep in touch with prospects until they are ready to buy, build preference for your brand, and in some cases, accelerate your customers’ buying cycles.
3. Create Content That Compels Your Prospects To Buy — A compelling video from your CEO may be just what it takes to convince your prospect to buy from you. From white papers and email to blogs and podcasts, there are several ways to share your message in an engaging way, as detailed in our interview with Craig Rosenberg, Vice President of Products and Services at Tippit, Inc. If your goal is to increase the ROI of your marketing efforts, the key is to create and promote content targeted to be relevant to buyers at each stage of your funnel.
4. Integrate Everything — Your prospects don’t just visit web sites. They go to events, enter social media discussions, read blogs, and so on. Amy Hawthorne, Director of Marketing at B2B lead generation company ReachForce, said that your prospects don’t exist in silos, and your marketing efforts shouldn’t either.
When you determine the types of content that will compel your prospects to engage and eventually purchase, promote it on your web site, on your blog, in social discussions, or anywhere else your prospects are spending their time.
5. It All Comes Down To Testing — Nearly every thought leader I spoke with insists on testing. There are potentially hundreds of channels for you to push your marketing message and thousands of combinations of elements for your web site. The best testing programs are ongoing and can include everything from “offer tests,” which experiment with varying pieces of fulfillment, to testing various elements of a web site including images and navigation. The goal of testing is to predict what combination of channels, offers and elements will be most profitable.
Marketing automation can help immensely with the effort it will take to implement the tips above, particularly as they relate to lead nurturing and lead management. By properly implementing the advice offered by our B-to-B Marketing Thought Leaders, you will soon be heading up a detailed and profitable marketing program.
