by tradesmeninsights | Aug 27, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Traditional Marketing
In my mind, not much. I think they both work together to move prospects through the sales funnel. Using a nurturing system, you can start to identify their needs. The key is to do follow-up in some manner.
Nurturing keeps you top of mind, builds credibility, solves prospect’s problems and positions you as an expert. Quality lead nurturing can lead to more sales.
Not all leads are ready to buy, and it’s important to have a process in place to sort them out. According to Russ Hill from Ultimate Lead Systems:
- 67% of all leads are legitimate prospects.
- 34% have a need that must be satisfied in the next 6 months.
- 70% of those prospects didn’t know you made that product.
- It takes on average 5-6 sales calls to close a sale.
- 80% give up after the first call and 90% plus give up after the second call.
It’s important to get the lead the information they requested. A CRM system would help in organizing and communicating with them. It’s also important to find out where they are in the buying cycle. Some cycles are longer than others, and it would be important to know where they are so you can get them the relevant info to get them to the next stage. Lots of this can be done via email or even snail mail depending on the preference of the prospect.
The key in my mind is not to call until they request. Once they do, then periodic calls are appropriate. Depending on your company, it might go to an outbound sales person or into the field for follow-up.
When do you take someone off your list? Unless you determine they will never buy the kinds of things you make, I’d say never. Start a database if you already haven’t. If you publish a newsletter, put them on the list. When introducing a new product, make sure they are copied on the promotion. The key is, even if they bought the competitor this time, it doesn’t mean they will the next time.
Whatever you do, have a process in place and use both lead nurturing and sales call follow-up together.
What are you doing to follow-up leads?
If you like this post, you might like:
What’s your Lead Nurturing Strategy?
Why Email Marketing is so Important in Lead Nurturing to the Professional Tradesman.
What’s Your Plan for Lead Nurturing?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 21, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I guess we haven’t talked about this for some time, but I’m seeing more and marketers reverting back to selling on social media platforms and complaining that social isn’t working for them. Should that surprise them?
I recently read a post by Jason Falls in Social Media Explorer that outlined Why Marketers Get Social Media Wrong. I don’t know if their management is putting pressure on them to sell more or what the problem is.
Here are a few tips from Jason’s post:
- Understand your audience – this is social and they probably aren’t there to solve the problems of the world.
- The audience, contrary to some opinion, is not there to buy.
- Social should nurture your brand – talk about experiences or solution to things you’re doing and hope for engagement.
You need to understand why the audience is participating in these networks. Don’t try to measure/compare to traditional channels because they’re apples and oranges.
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 20, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Traditional Marketing
I have this running conversation with clients about which is better, a traditional direct mail program or an e-blast. It’s a tough question to answer and I’m not too sure there is only one answer.
There are challenges for using both methods and we have seen it become more and more difficult to get emails delivered even if we use opt-in lists from trade publications and have them send it out under their name.
I think that when reaching out to our target market, the professional tradesman, you have just as good if not better of a chance of reaching them with the traditional snail mail.
We recently did a sampling program for a client who wanted to focus more on the electronic side of things and wanted to use more, if not most, in this media. They assumed that direct mail was a thing of the past and was too costly (neither of which are true). We convinced them to give both a try and the results were surprising.
The DM portion of the program outperformed on average 3 to 1 over the e-blasts. We used the same criteria for both lists and did both within 2 weeks of each other. We’re doing a second test using the same message and list parameters and it will be interesting to see if it still holds true.
We’ve all used both of these marketing tools. My question to you is have you found one better than the other in reaching contractors or the professional tradesman?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 14, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
B-to-B marketers are always trying to identify more/better qualified leads. Does it surprise anyone that social media ranked very low in this category? The traditional methods of telemarketing, event marketing, webinars, trade shows, email marketing and yes, even direct mail pull better results according to a Survey in MarketingProfs from InsideSales.com
They surveyed 423 B-to-B Sales and Marketing professionals that cited that generating and improving leads was their biggest challenge.
I think sometimes we’re all so focused on the new tools available to us to generate leads that we forget about some of the old standbys.
I have found that we usually have more success using traditional marketing tools when it comes to actually generating good qualified leads.
What are you finding out that works best for you in a B-to-B environment?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 13, 2013 | Marketing Tips
Today, Matt Sonnhalter is sharing about a recent seminar he co-presented.
I recently had the privilege of co-presenting a “Marketing 101 for Manufacturers” seminar for MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network) with a colleague of mine, Sage Lewis, president of SageRock. You can see the full presentation here, but I want to focus on one of the closing slides of this presentation, “10 Key Factors for Successful Marketing Programs.”
- Upfront Planning – it’s not ready, fire, aim! Make sure you have clearly defined your objectives, target, budget and message. Also make sure you set priorities, it is better to do one thing well than multiple items poorly.
- Marketing Champion – often times marketing is one of the most overlooked functions within an organization. It is important to make sure someone internally is dedicated to leading your marketing efforts and ensuring their success.
- Lead Process – I can’t tell you the stories I’ve heard from manufacturers who spend tens of thousands of dollars at a trade show to generate leads, only to find out the leads are never followed-up on. You have to have a clear plan in place to handle the leads generated by your marcom efforts, from where the leads are going to be stored, and how these leads are being qualified, to who’s following up on the leads and in what time frame.
- Patience – in this technologically driven world where we have access to everything 24/7, we seem to always expect results instantly. Sometimes marketing programs take time to run and reach their full potential, so you must be willing to make a commitment and have faith in your marketing programs. If you’ve done your initial upfront planning, you have nothing to worry about.
- Resources (internal/external) – none of us have all the resources or time to do everything we would like…not even mega-brands like Nike and Coca-Cola! It’s important to be realistic about what resources you have internally at your company, and if you do not have the bandwidth to successfully implement all of your marketing programs, then you need to prioritize the list and focus on the ones you can handle and/or leverage outside firms to help augment the workload.
- Strong Call-to-Action – all of the elements in your marketing program need to have some sort of call-to-action. It can be as simple as going to your website, but you should always give your customers a “next step” with your marketing efforts.
- Marketing & Sales on the “Same Page” – if there are ever two departments within an organization that need to work closely together, it’s Marketing and Sales. While they are two very distinct disciplines within a company, marketing is there to support sales and it is critical that both of these departments are working towards the same goal.
- Integrated Program – there is no single one marketing tactic that works all the time, so it is important when building your marketing program to have a mix of marcom tactics.
- Measure – in order to grow and optimize your marketing plan, you need to try and measure results wherever possible. Otherwise, how do you know if something is working?
- Experiment – you can’t be afraid to experiment. There is no “magic formula” or “silver bullet” in marketing; what works for one manufacturer is not going to work for the next.
These are some of the top factors for helping ensure a successful marketing program, but it is by no means an exhaustive list. What are some of the key factors for your successful marketing programs?
by tradesmeninsights | Aug 7, 2013 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing, Traditional Marketing
As marketers, we have two challenges: one to create great content and two to deliver it. Recent studies have indicated that email still ranked among the top outreach channels to reach buyers no matter what stage they are in the buying cycle. Studies also show that emails should be integrated into other marketing tactics as well.
So knowing the emails are a viable way to deliver the message, we should probably spend some time on the other deliverable – relevant content!
Relevant content addresses the needs of a potential customer. It gives them options to solve a problem or gives them resources for them to investigate. Relevant content draws in potential customers.
According to an article in eMarketer, content creation was still the #1 challenge for them.
So our challenge is to give the reader WOW info every time, which is no small task. You should enlist the help of others within your company that have specific expertise to help develop relevant content.
Sales, engineering and customer service are certainly three places to start. They all are talking to either existing or potential customers and can readily identify issues that need to be addressed. By addressing them, you’re becoming that thought leader which should be one of your objectives.
The key to successful engagement comes in a variety of types of content.
A golden rule is, don’t put content out for the sake of having something out there. You should be looking for relevant stuff, not quantity.
