Each time I visit the beautiful island of Mauritius or Santorini in Greece, I take in the extraordinary sights and sounds of island life and marvel at the mysteries of the ocean. The human mind is like no other—as much as we are intrigued by mysteries, we are just as fearful of entering unknown territory. With all the years of ocean exploration, the NOAA reports that we have explored less than 5% of the ocean till date. To step up this effort, the NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration and Research is now supporting expeditions that will venture into unknown waters, investigating and documenting new observations that we can learn from. What is interesting is that the support from NOAA is not just to provide these scientists and ocean explorers with the latest equipment and tools, but to really bring out the “Lewis and Clark” spirit of discovery in teams.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out in May 1804 running more than 2 years until September 1806. Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark were tasked by then US President, Thomas Jefferson, to explore and document their findings in the search for a practical route across the Western half of the continent. The political goal was to establish an American presence in the region before any European powers did.
In the demand generation landscape, I think it is time to embark on a new expedition. We need a strong and focused infusion of the “Lewis and Clark” spirit of discovery. The inspiration for this can be found in the Blue Ocean Strategy. What is it?
The Blue Ocean Strategy has 8 key points as outlined by Professors Kim and Mauborgne.
As B2B marketers, here are 4 points that you can apply right away to your demand generation activities.
- Using the right tools and frameworks to empower your lead generation campaigns: By this I don’t mean automation. In fact, as I said recently, you can’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito. What you need is a set of tools, a sound process and a customized framework that takes into account your specific offering and how best to present it to your target buyers. MyLeads2Go gives you the tools and customizable framework to run a revolutionary, transformational lead generation program. Request your demo today.
- Maximize opportunity while minimizing risk: This goes back to the age-old wisdom of test and learn. You have to be able to test the effectiveness of your campaign strategy and the tools you are using to measure the results and ROI. Here is an outstanding tool that allows B2B companies to maximize opportunity with minimum risk. Take a look at the Heroes & Lifeboats Program and their extraordinary HeLP Networks platform. It lets you amplify your results without increasing your marketing budget.
- Pursue differentiation and low cost: Buyers want to see innovation, they crave differentiation, but rarely are they willing to pay a higher cost for it. As marketers, our challenge is to deliver true differentiation AND offer it at a lower cost. Coming back to the example of HeLP Networks, this platform empowers corporations to reach out across the vast ocean of unexplored online territory at a fraction of the cost involved with using established networks like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. See how their simple, yet robust technology works.
- Build execution into strategy: Among the more common problems afflicting lead generation programs are: the complexity of tools, mountains of data across multiple sources, a tunnel view of the lead generation process and lack of capability to execute effectively and gain real-time intelligence and insights. What is required is a clear, 360° view of the lead generation process—one of the key reasons why MyLeads2Go has seen tremendous and very quick success in the market. In fact, it has received an award for the best demand generation program by a large multinational technology company that is using it for their channel marketing campaigns. Not only has the company benefited from having a defined, practical strategy for the campaign, but they are also empowered to execute flawlessly and achieve 100% improvement in their lead generation efforts.
- Create uncontested market space: In the old days, it was all about “beat the competition”. Then it was about “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Today, what really works by applying the Blue Ocean Strategy is “making the competition irrelevant”. That is what companies like Apple, Tesla Motors, Cirque Du Soleil, Bloomberg have done so successfully. Their products are also great examples of Growth Hacking in action.
Adopt an organizational culture to explore and experiment. Find different tools, techniques and methodology, so you can see what really works with your target audience. Carefully examine your B2B marketing initiatives to see which ones yield the best engagement. Then look at ways to intensify them and repeat. Use predictive modeling and Big Data to explore B2B buyer behaviour. Your observations will lead you on the path to refine, amend and maximize your demand generation strategy.
