Sometimes it is not enough to simply make incremental progress on the small things. There are times when you need a marketing or sales accelerator – something that takes you to an entire new level. Here are six ideas to get you started.
- Find a new target audience. One of the best ways to reinvigorate a flagging B2B marketing program is to find an entirely new audience for you existing products or services. This can be a related vertical market or an entirely new industry or departmental market. For example, one of our Fusion Marketing Partners clients built a solid business by selling technical courses directly to students. The company was able to vastly expand its market by offering multiple copies of its courseware to corporate managers. Very few changes to the product were required to tap this rich new source of revenue.
- Change your delivery model. You see this all the time. In the computer software arena, software delivered as a service (SaaS) has challenged legacy installed software. Instant streaming media (e.g. Netflix) has largely replaced brick and mortar media outlets (e.g. Blockbuster). Getting in front of these new delivery models can be quite profitable. Delaying can have a huge negative impact. Witness Kodak, who was forced to declare bankruptcy because of the death of processed film, and Encyclopedia Britannica, who just announced that it would no longer offer its printed encyclopedia.
- Differentiate yourself. Do a web search on your six toughest competitors and write down their tagline and value propositions. If what you are saying on your website is the same as any of these competitors, it’s time to do a branding exercise and come up with your unique value proposition.
- Follow up all sales leads, quickly and appropriately. It’s sad but a majority of B2B companies do a poor job at sales lead qualification. They follow-up slowly (if at all) and in a manner that doesn’t produce the desired results. This change alone can lead to a big revenue payoff.
- Create a lot more content. It’s no coincidence that websites with a lot of visitors also have a great deal of content. For most B2B industries, the expression “Content is King” is spot-on. Content is critical for two reasons. First, to satisfy the information needs of your website visitors and convert them to leads or sales. Second, to attract visitors through organic search. Your content should serve both purposes.
- Be consistent. How many hours have you wasted sitting around the conference table talking about how you need to come up with a new message to beat the competition? While you may indeed need a new message if you aren’t differentiated from your competition, it is just as likely that what you need is to relentlessly and consistently share your existing message. In other words – stop with the “new message of the month” marketing.
- Start the transition to pull marketing. If you have been generating B2B leads with push marketing methods, and have seen a drop off in lead quantity, or an increase in lead costs, it might be time to jump on the pull marketing bandwagon. There are a number of ways to do this including social media, content marketing and public relations. But you do need to get started.
Each of these strategies has the capacity to boost your B2B marketing and sales performance by 10 percent, and possibly a lot more.
I agree wholeheartedly with your contention that we should stop “new message every month” marketing. As creative individuals it’s perfeclty understandable that at times marketers may want to rework a message, but if you never take the time to reinforce the message and let it gestate it’s not going to amount to anything.
The difficult thing right now is crafting your message so it cuts through the clutter. Consistency is certainly a key factor. Would you say that consistency is more or less important than the content of the message itself? I realize that’s somewhat of a trick question, as they’re both valuable aspects of any campaign, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Interest can appear to be flagging but it’s often because the way you say things is not the way your prospects and customers want hear them.
We identify their personality types and speak to them in the “language” of their type — for example, one type thrives on details and systems, another type hates details and prefers to do business and have fun at the same time and yet another type needs social proof (endorsements and testimonials) to decide.
People are always seeking people like themselves and they always prefer to buy from people they like whether it’s a muli million dollar decision or shopping at a grocery store.
People buy people first so consider getting to know your prospects much better and try telling them what they most want to hear, not just what you think you should be saying.
Jay
Jay, thanks for your comment. I agree that it is important to understand the personality types of your prospects and market to their specific desires and needs. It is equally important to have content at your website that is aligned with the needs of the different audience types.
Best,
Chris Ryan