B2B Marketing Blog

With more companies likely to tighten their financial budgets going into 2012, ask yourself if your business has the financial stomach to spend more on marketing, about the same as this year, or even possibly reduce what you spent these last 12 months.

That thought especially holds true with online marketing, given that your company has a real-time impact with both current and potential customers in a matter of minutes, something that cannot be achieved through more traditional ways like newspapers, radio ads, flyers, newsletters etc.

According to a recent The CMO Survey, even with an up-and-down economy forecast to continue into 2012, chief marketing officers are looking to add to spending on all aspects of marketing in 2012.

This will especially be true when it comes to funds for social media marketing (see more on importance of social media in marketing below). The survey also goes on to note that companies will likely grow spending for marketing hires, likely around 7.2 percent on average in the next year.

That being said, those companies looking to reduce their marketing expenditures in 2012 have ways to cut back and still get some bang for their dollar, however they need to be creative to say the least.

The last thing companies will want to do is turn down or even off their marketing engines to the point that the competition takes advantage of the downswing.

In the event your company is thinking about trimming the marketing budget for the New Year, keep several factors in mind:

• Stay the course – Keeping your marketing awareness and staying engaged is less expensive than having to try and get it back down the road when the economy improves;
• Exude confidence – When you slash your marketing expenses out of what appears to be fear, current and potential customers may lose faith in your abilities. The common perception when you make such a move is that your company may be lacking some stability, therefore leading customers to question you;
• The competition likes you – When a company slashes its marketing budget, a competitor sees an opening. The competitor, who may in fact have cut back some too, could seize the opportunity to pitch their message to some of your current customers or leads you were pursuing. If that happens, you could find yourself on the outside looking in when it comes to getting that business at some point;
• Vendors may be willing to work with you – Businesses have to remember that not only are they looking to save dollars here and there, but many they work with are too. The companies you work with for your promotional items, printing, display, etc. are more apt to want to work with you than lose you altogether as a client. Just because financial times are tough does not mean there may not be some deals to be had;
• Re-evaluate your marketing techniques – Whether you are cutting back or not in 2012 on your marketing operations, take the time now to review 2011. What has worked with your marketing plans? What did not work? What are some techniques you would like to try but have hesitated in doing so up to this point? Use the last 12 months as a guiding tool for the next 12;
• Are you properly using social media? – Even though social media is there for the taking, too many businesses still do not take advantage of all it has to offer. With sites like Facebook and Twitter just to name two, companies should be sure to have fan pages set up and maximized to the hilt. Be sure that your marketing team is taking the time and effort to share and tweet pertinent information about the company, its products and services. Given the fact that more businesses will be transitioning from initial adoption of SM marketing to a more reflective and refined campaign, they are apt to want data that clearly defines the cost-effectiveness of such campaigns. Having another year of experience with social media techniques, more companies will likely show more sophistication when it comes to properly surfing the social media channel. As a result, they will seek more tools that properly enable tracking, measuring and bettering their returns on investment.

Take a look at your marketing techniques, go into 2012 with a plan in place, and market your company to success.

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ document management and HR software, writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

With the holiday season right around the corner, does your small business have its e-mail marketing campaign in place and ready to go? If not, you could be left scrambling at the last minute.

The holiday season for many small businesses can be a make or break time.

For those in the retail business, for example, the holiday rush can be an opportunity to make up for lackluster sales earlier in the year. For small businesses that have a tough time selling over the holidays, it can place them in a very precarious position heading into the next year.

In the event your company’s got questions regarding its e-mail marketing opportunities with the coming holidays, here are some thoughts to consider:

• Make sure your distribution frequency is good – Another important item to keep in mind is that your distribution frequency is solid. Be sure to check the activity from your mailing list a year ago at this time, making necessary adjustments along the way. Prior to the holiday email cycle starting, push out a re-engagement campaign to get less active members engaged. That can include a special email to folks who haven’t opened or clicked in the last several months or a holiday survey to determine what subscribers want from you this season. Also look into having an added opt-in with a holiday campaign to grow the distribution frequency just for those customers seeking it;

• Stand out from the crowd – It is important to remember that your subscribers’ get inundated with email promotional content leading up to the holidays. That being the case, you need your online marketing message to stand head and shoulders above the rest. Make sure you give the subscriber incentive to want to read your message and not hit the delete button;

• Get your message out early – Start the message campaign early and inform your subscribers the importance of doing their business sooner rather than later with the holiday rush coming up. Make sure that your promo emails are done in plenty of time so that they get to the consumer sooner than your competition’s does;

• Engage your social media channels – Given the importance of social media in today’s marketing efforts, make sure you engage the different social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.) to target additional audience members. The great thing with social networking sites is it is a free other than a little time and effort. Be sure, however, you don’t use SM just to promote endlessly. Take the time to engage with both present and potential customers regarding your products and services. Bottom line…. be engaged;

• Be relevant after the holiday rush – It is a given that many shoppers look for bargains right after the holidays, so give them a reason to want to come back to you in 2012. Offering incentives to stick with you after the holidays is a great way to go about that;

• Be a mobile player – With more and more individuals using mobile devices to stay in touch with the world, be sure your campaign can accommodate such needs. When designing copy and images, make sure they will work smoothly with mobile devices. This brings on added importance given that many individuals will have their mobile devices with them while shopping etc. You can provide them with valuable deals and offers right at that time.

The bottom line is that the holiday season demands much attention from consumers; make it so that you’re at the top of their shopping wish list.

Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects vehicle insurance writes extensively for www.business.com an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Blogging is considered to be one of the most effective methods of pull marketing. Prospective buyers are drawn towards the valuable content offered in the blog.

Another channel that can be used for sharing valuable content to increase your inbound marketing reach is to publish and engage in social media.  Sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn have proven to be great tools for B2B companies, and Facebook is not far behind.

Twitter, a micro-blogging community, provides a portal to learn the behaviours and habits of the end consumer.  For B2B companies, this is a fantastic tool to understand their customer’s customer.

LinkedIn is a social media portal designed for businesses and business-people to connect with each other and share knowledge, ideas, and opportunities.  This has become the go-to tool for finding experts, employment opportunities, and potential employees.

ActiveConversion recently conducted a webinar on SEO, Content, and Social media. This webinar examined inbound marketing and the value of content in generating thought leadership and credibility for your company, products, and services.

Martha Boulianne also recently published this blog on FoundPages, that discusses the value of blogging and outlines eight ways to improve a corporate blog.

Here are the main points suggested by Martha on improving your corporate blog:

1. Spread the word.
2. Add quality content.
3. Blog early, blog often.
4. Link to your own old posts.
5. Add links and images to your blog posts.
6. Write comments on related blogs.
7. Write title tags for both your readers and Google.
8. Cover topics that need attention.

Read the rest of the blog here…

Related articles

• Corporate Blogging Tip: Use Your “More” Tag (socialtimes.com)
• Guilt-Free Business Blogging – 7 Ways A Blog Can Grow Your Business (blogherald.com)
• Corporate Blogging: You’re Doing It Wrong (blogs.sitepoint.com)
• Whiteboard Friday – Corporate Blogging Tips (seomoz.org)

It can be a challenge to generate the same level of interest from an outbound lead that you would get from an inbound lead. Most times they will not have been to your website nor will they be familiar with your company.

Many sales professionals dread making outbound calls. However, they are an excellent way to reach out to prospects. In fact, with outbound calling, you are not only giving yourself more opportunities to sell, you are also taking control of your future success.

In order to generate more outbound interest for your product/service, I suggest using these tips when contacting your prospects in order to move along your sales cycle:

1. Be Fearless and Enthusiastic:

Make sure you believe what you are saying. You are less likely to spark the interest of a prospective client if you sound like you are just going through the motions. Be enthusiastic and smile when you speak, it really shines through on the other end.

2. Make Your Value Proposition Specific and Concise:

Consider your prospect’s industry and position your product/service in a way that would specifically help them. When most people make calls, their opening statement is too vague or general. You should avoid saying things like “Our product/service will make your business more efficient and more profitable” because EVERYONE is saying that. Remember, your call is probably not the only call your prospect will be receiving that day, so it is very important you separate yourself from the masses.

3. Be Persistent:

Never take the first “no” for an answer. In fact, don’t take the second one either. 95 percent of the time, your prospect will throw up screen objections in hopes of getting you off the phone. You need to persist past this. You will be surprised how overcoming their objections and persisting past the first couple of “no” answers can get you results. Remember, you are calling because you want to help your prospect. You just have to make them see it that way.

4. Suggest Specific Times to Meet:

You want to make it as easy for the prospect to agree to a meeting with you. Avoid asking them to suggest a time to meet. Say, “I’d like to meet with you at 11am on Tuesday to discuss…” Always have your calendar open in front of you when making calls.

5. Follow Up:

If your first attempt to get a meeting isn’t successful, look for a reason to follow up. Try asking for their email and suggest that you will send some related information. If they agree to this, great! You just opened the door for your next call and got yourself one step closer to getting a face-to-face meeting.

Using the above steps, I was able to generate interest for my services and land my face-to-face meeting with a prospective client of mine. The conversation was smooth because I knew what I had to offer was valuable and I delivered my value proposition in a way that was enticing. Although he said no at first, I persisted to the point where he saw value in meeting with me.

Related articles

• The Mechanics of the Outbound B2B Campaign (funnelholic.com)
• It’s the ‘Cold’ that’s Dead – Not the ‘Calling’ (customerthink.com)
• How to prepare for your next sales call (customerthink.com)

A common theme I see in marketing is the confusion over marketing features versus marketing the value your product or service is providing. Features are individual aspects of your offering that collectively provide the business value. Of course they are important to your customers, but quite often they are just how you stack up against your competitors. People get hung up on individual features, sometimes at the cost of losing sight of the overall picture. Worse yet, if it comes down to feature by feature comparisons, it can quickly turn into a pricing discussion, usually to your detriment.

The key to making any sale is your customer seeing the overall value your product or service provides. Ultimately, the value you are providing to your customer is your vision for solving their business problem. It’s your solution, they want you to solve and they are willing to pay to have it solved. Market the vision and the value. Speak your customer’s language. Focusing on features to the exclusion of the true value you are bringing, is really missing the message. Tell your story about how you are going to solve their problem. Market the value, not the features.

It is important to be memorable and to be able to leave an impact at the same time when we are faced with hundreds of advertisements within a day. This is not only for B2C marketing – it is for B2B marketing as well, where B2B marketers have to be more creative than they have ever been to catch that human attention span of less than 8 seconds. To be noticeable and inspiring at the same time it is important to be making a bold statement and be fascinating at the same time. Companies who get the most attention from their prospective customers are those who fascinate.

Sally Hedgehog, the author of “Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation”, says, “Fascination is the most powerful way to influence decision making”. Every day, intentionally or not, we are all using fascination triggers to persuade people at work and our prospective clients. Whether you’re pitching a new client, creating a new marketing message to sell a new or an existing product, you’re using triggers to elicit a certain response. Each trigger leads to a different style of communication, and a different type of relationship. The more accurately B2B marketers identify their audiences personality triggers, the more influential their message becomes. There are seven types of triggers that Sally defines in her book. I found few that can be used pretty effectively for B2B marketing. They are: power, alarm, trust and prestige. These triggers when understood and used correctly in the marketing campaigns can help marketers create compelling messages to persuade their audience to take that desired action. To know more about these triggers and to find out where you fit with your fascination score click here.

Here are a few questions that marketers can ask themselves when they are in the thought process and ready to create something that will generate them the leads they desire. Also are some supporting points that demonstrate how ActiveConversion uses some of the fascination triggers to create a compelling marketing message.

1. How would I fascinate my audience to influence them to take action? Pick the trigger that you think your audience will be influenced most with. Here at ActiveConversion, we recently used the message: “OUTSELL & OUTMARKET your larger competitors”. This call to action to outsell your competitor used “POWER” and the “ALARM” trigger by defining consequence where specific demands causes more specific actions.

1. How can I relate to my audience at a personal level? Pick a trigger that would take for YOU to take that specific action? Put yourself in their shoes and visualize the impact that you want to create. For instance, if you serve small businesses and are targeting other small businesses, talk to your audience in their language. Use the persuading power by triggering the sense of “TRUST”. For example, message that emphasizes how you know their business and how you have helped other similar businesses get value with a minimal budget. – “Do more with your budget. Let us show you how.” Using other companies as a reference and relevant case studies will leave the feeling of trust and motivate your audience to take the desired action.

The above few pointers will hopefully make you explore other triggers that will let you harness the power of your creativity in order to be fascinating when you are marketing. And as a final note – Be fascinating to be inspiring!

Many small to medium sized oganizations are taking the leap to starting up a company blog. Blogs often get neglected until there is a major press release or news event, which can be very infrequent for SMBs in products and services. It is common to see a company blog that hasn’t been updated in months, or over a year. It can be a struggle to come up with ideas to blog about therefore, I wanted to offer help ideas that will have you blogging on a regular basis.

My company is a services company, what can I blog about?

Projects in the works, recently completed projects
If you offer development services, post about projects that have been recently completed. For instance,  if you are a realtor, post about recently sold properties. If your organization works with other larger organizations, post about that. These kinds of posts will help re-enforce confidence in prospects and highlight services that your existing clients may not know you do. It’ll also keep you top of mind of your interested prospects and clients.

Process Highlights
Highlighting processes in the way you deliver your services to your clients can be the differentiator between your company and your competitors. It’s important to pitch your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and it can be better received if it’s passively served via your blog.

My company is a product company, what else can I blog about?

Your products are your bread and butter and when possible they should also be the focus of your blog.

New Products or Vendor/Suppliers
It’s not uncommon for companies to bring launch products and fail to appropriately announce it. Use your blog as a channel to highlight when your company has something new to offer and the problem it solves.

Featured Product
Sometimes an organization has many products. With so many choices, prospective customers may find it hard to find the right product. Other times, product information pages can be too limited for customers to get the information they want. Highlighting products, particularly ones that are of high popularity can help your company around those issues. It’s particularly effective if images or videos are available with these postings.

Product Promotions or Discounts
Everyone likes a sale, particularly if you sell consumer products – a promotion/discount announcement can be picked up by one of the many popular consumer deals sites online.

Other Common Topics

• Success Stories
• Commentary on industry events or commentary from other industry leaders
  Posts that reference well known individuals are particularly effective in driving traffic from searchers online. Both commentary and client success stories help establish credibility for your company, which helps to differentiate your company and reinforce confidence in prospects.

I’m Still Stuck

Sometimes you just don’t have anything to talk about.  At those times, you have to defer to the backup plan.

• Best posts of July, September, 2009, etc
• Links to other industry blogs…
  If you choose to blog about another blog or resource, you should notify the person you are promoting and many bloggers will make a post about it, hopefully crediting your company or blog. This will help build up your blog’s network and credibility.

The Most Common Mistake

The most common mistake for company blogs is to only post company news or press releases. Although those types of posts can be a part of your company’s blog, they should be the minority of the posts. If you make this common mistake, the only people who will read it will be your company’s staff or your competitors.

Sending out newsletters and other information about your company is a great way to keep both your customers and potential customers in the loop. They can also help with getting your message across in a timely manner and help with promotional items. But have you ever wondered why they started subscribing to your emails?

EmailStatCenter.com is reporting that, “67% of US internet users say the motivation behind giving their email address to a company is to receive discounts and promotions. -ExactTarget “Email X-Factor Study” (2010).” If this is the case for your subscribers, you got over the first hurdle which is to get them to subscribe, but then you have to keep them engaging.

Segmenting Your Audience
Another key point in email marketing is making your readers feel like you didn’t send out a mass email. They probably know you are sending out a mass email, but the more targeted you can make the email, the more you can make them feel like they are getting a private email from you.

BtoB Online points out, “Understanding the status of the subscriber is critical in crafting your copy. Are they customers, prospects, lapsed customers or lapsed prospects? Imagine the different messages you could convey just on that knowledge alone.” If you don’t already have a few different emails drafted to send to these different categories of subscribers, test it out see if you see better conversion rates.

Call to Action
Having a call to action can be very beneficial—not to mention a great way to measure how many people are reading your emails. Most email programs have metrics for how many people are reading your emails, but what you may not know is if people don’t scroll down far enough in the email then many email software programs don’t count that open rate.

Setting up specific landing pages for your readers is a great way to measure not only the people opening your emails, but the number of readers who are actively engaging in your brand. If you already do this, see if moving your link from the middle or bottom of the email to the top has a better response. The more you change things up, the better you can see what works and what works better.

Scheduling
Scheduling your email is just as important as the copy and who you are sending it to. Daily tips or emails can be a great idea, but who is going to take the time to actually read and click through your email every day—probably not many. Instead try and keep it to monthly or even bi-monthly. It saves you time, and your customers can get more information in each email—which could make them more eager to read it.
Email marketing is a great tactic to utilize, and “according to the Direct Marketing Association, every dollar spent on e-mail marketing generates $43.62 in revenue,” reports DM News. Keep in mind this is just an average, being able to hone your skills and get more organized can produce even better results. What have you found useful?

Shannon Suetos is an expert writer on phone systems based in San Diego, California. She writes extensively for an online resource that provides expert advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs such as VoIP service at Resource Nation.

Business blogging is regarded as the domain of experts, experts willing to spend lots of time each day telling the world about an industry or a sector.  We’ll call this “hard blogging”.  The benefits of hard blogging are many, but the time commitment of hard blogging is usually a huge deterrent so most SMBs balk at it because they feel that a) they don’t have the time to think up analysis or insight that anyone would read, and b) there’s nothing to blog about my business that my customers would be interested in reading (e.g. after I buy a granite countertop for my kitchen, I’m probably not interested in following the granite countertop industry).

An alternate form of blogging that brings it’s own basket of  benefits is what I’ll call “soft blogging”; not blogging analysis but rather easier, once a week, announcement-like content.  Here are five examples:

1. Customer testimonials; getting testimonials from happy customers is an obvious best practice, and when you do, a blog is the perfect venue for maximizing the return on that testimonial.  Include a small description of the service or product rendered to get the testimonial.
2. Portfolio of projects; this is for companies with fewer clients but bigger projects – this is a case study in effect.  Nothing makes you real like a list of real projects you’ve completed, far more so than all the “motherhood” statements on your website.
3. News and Press releases; all companies should put out press releases, submitted to an online wire service like PR web, once a quarter. They are like little golden micro-sites devoted to your company that deliver visitors for years.  Examples of what to put in them include a new management hire, a major client landed or project completed, a new service you now offer, or a new product line you’ve begun carrying (here’s a bigger list).  Publish to your blog as well.
4. Job postings; hiring people says your company is growing and the job description is a wonderful grab bag of what your company does well.  Blogging a job posting is one of the only ways a small business can attract attention to a job posting on its own without relying on a 3rd party website.  Once you hire someone, change the post to a hire announcement and re-publish.
5. Marketing and Sales collateral; you have brochures, and you have digital versions of them. Do a paragraph summary of what they contain and post them online.  Instead of emailing a PDF to a prospect, your sales person can now email them a link to where it resides on your web page, and if they do come to investigate it, they may partake more of your messaging on your website/blog.

A key element of this strategy is that the blog must be sub-domained to your website; the search engines will then see it as part of your website.  This is a bit technical, but here’s a company that will do it for you.  This approach is search engine ‘gold’.  You are adding new content to your website on an ongoing basis (I’d suggest once a week) and you are educating search engines (i.e. Google) about what you do.

In some ways for many companies “soft blogging” is more beneficial than “hard blogging”. Testimonials and /or a portfolio of projects is often a more powerful aid in getting new business than stating your opinion on topics many of your prospects will likely not have the time or inclination to read.  Getting new business is the acid test after all; will this activity bring you more business?  The answer is yes.  This approach will bring more visitors to your website, and you will convince more of them you are a real company that has happy customers.  More visitors will identify themselves and ask questions and request quotes.  Go “soft blogging”!

B2B marketers have uncovered 3 key behavior changes that require today’s SMB to incorporate thought leadership in their marketing efforts. The good news it is neither as expensive nor as time consuming as it used to be.

Download this guide to thought leadership and learn how incorporating thought leadership marketing into your B2B marketing efforts can get you astounding results. In this dynamic social media driven world, it is more important than ever to utilize these strategies and techniques to successfully be a thought leader in your industry.

There is a sea change in the way buyers and vendors engage each other and that is being driven by three key developments in buyer behavior:

First, research is being conducted by chief executives themselves. According to a 2009 Report by Forbes Insights in association with Google, more than half of C-suite executives prefer to locate information themselves instead of delegating to subordinates.

Second, the internet has become the preferred means of business research. In the same Forbes report, executives declared the internet more valuable than any other source for gathering business information, surpassing even colleagues and personal networks.

Third, when executives go online, they first turn to mainstream search engines. This development levels the playing field for B2B companies. A firm’s appearance in search engine results does not require the substantial budget required for conventional advertising/branding campaigns.

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