Entries from July 2006
Targeting Your B2B Lead Generation
When searching for leads to buy your products or services, you want to find those companies who have a problem for which you have the solution. How do you go about finding those companies and how do you find the level of contacts you need from within the companies?
I’ve added an article to my website about the process of targeting your lead generation:
- Rank current customers
- Add information about each customer
- Determine likely prospects
- Target lead generation by market or geography
- Research the media they use
- Focus on B2B marketing vehicles
Read the full article: Lead Generation: Targeting your B2B lead generation
4 great solutions for a marketing ROI challenge
What do you do when you have a tough time quantifying marketing return on investment? Recently someone contacted me asking for advice.
A Marketing ROI Challenge
The challenge I face is that we sell 98% of our products through one and two step distribution. As a result:
- Even if my sales guys follow up the lead, it’s being referred to one of our distributors,
- We don’t know if the prospect ever visits the distributor, much less buys from him,
- Our distributor doesn’t share sales or customer data, because they’re afraid that we’ll ‘poach’ the customer,
- If you ask the sales team how much the advertising drove the sale, they (obviously) tell me that while it was helpful — they were the key variable in closing the sale.
We track all of our marketing expenditures and leads, so we have a good sense of what each lead generation source costs us. But I can’t close the loop on an ROI. Any thoughts on how we might approach quantifying it?
4 Marketing ROI Solutions
- Conduct “Did you buy?” surveys (by mail, e-mail or phone) to the leads to determine what sales resulted and why or why not.
- Compare warranty cards or registrations to leads. Incentivize the returning of warranty cards with hats, t-shirts, etc.
- Incentivize the distributor salespeople to report back on closed sales by offering spiffs, bonuses, etc.
- Give the lead a “coupon” they can redeem at purchase for a discount or upgrade or add-on. The distributor has to turn it in to get reimbursed, closing the loop.
Marketing Lead Calculator
I’ve also developed a spreadsheet you can download and use to calculate marketing return on investment:
Lead generation tactics e-book
Lead generation
Successful B2B marketing includes using a broad range of tactics. This “recipe for success” guide gives you the knowledge how to drive lead generation with:
- Relationship marketing
- Direct marketing
- Online marketing
- Events and tradeshows
- Educational events
- Additional tactics
Lead generation checklist included
Get a head start with the included Sales Lead Generation Checklist to maximize results.
Download my 24-page e-book with proven B2B sales lead generation tips and techniques. I recommend it to my clients and I hope it is thought provoking for your lead generation programs.
Lead generation tactics: A recipe for success.
Getting marketing done
I think most business-to-business marketers should aim for “good enough” and “get it done” rather than aim for perfection when it comes to marketing to drive leads and sales. Why? Because aiming for perfection, in addition to being nearly impossible to achieve, results in your marketing campaigns and materials spending far too much time in the concept and development stages and causes significant delays in delivering your lead generating messages to prospective customers.
Or worse, your marketing messages never get delivered at all.
With all this in mind, here are some ideas and resources to consider for your marketing:
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Instead of constantly re-inventing the marketing wheel, consider re-purposing or refreshing your existing materials.
The reasons someone should engage your company are often the same as in the past, so why not update the marketing materials that were successful in the past. (We are usually sick of our marketing materials long before they stop working with our prospects.)
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Instead of trying to come up with oh-so-clever copy, focus on crafting clear, well-targeted headlines and messages which offer real solutions to your prospective customers’ problems or pains.
If you think you have a knack for writing, a great book on the subject is The Copywriter’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Copy That Sells by Robert W. Bly. Or you can find copywriters who can do the job for you by searching on the internet using phrases like “B2B copywriter” or “direct mail copywriter.”
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To avoid typos and grammatical errors, use a proofreading service like ProofreadNow.com.
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Instead of using costly give-aways, make compelling “how-to” or information offers or “buy now” calls-to-action that will get prospective customers to respond.
Mark Joyner’s book, The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less is worth reading.
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Instead of spending a lot of time creating fancy, expensive mailers, fire up your laser printer and send personalized letters to your prospects. Then use window envelopes so the address on the letter shows through to avoid having to address the envelopes too.
Or use one of the online lettershop services like MailersClub.com to mail-merge, print and mail your business letters.
Remember, longer copy that is easy to skim (i.e. using subheads, bullets, call-outs, boldface, etc.) works with both those prospects who prefer to read all the details and those who prefer to get right to the bottom line.
You can also use postcards as a less costly alternative. Companies like Amazingmail.com, Modernpostcard.com or Touchpointmail.com can help you get your postcards designed, printed and mailed cost-effectively.
E-mails to your opt-in list of prospects are another option to developing more costly mailers. For a comprehensive listing of email service providers, see page 26 of BtoB’s Marketers Resource Guide 2006.
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Instead of creating printed brochures, consider printing pages from your Web site instead. If you’re worried about your company’s image, place them in a glossy file folder, imprinted with your logo.
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Instead of developing seminars, workshops, or executive briefings on your own, consider partnering-up with another company to or organization to co-produce an event, or simply take your prospects as your guest to Microsoft events on the subject.
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Instead of paying for custom photography, consider low-cost stock photo websites like istockphoto.com or Photos.com.
In addition to hiring full-time people, consider part-timers to help get the marketing job done.
As my oldest daughter just started kindergarten, I’ve met a number of moms (and a few Mr. Moms) who are ready to go back to work after taking a few years off to raise their children, but now only want to work part-time.
If you need specialized expertise on a project-by-project basis, consider hiring independent contactors like copywriters, designers or event coordinators.
And if you’re willing to trade experience for enthusiasm, consider hiring one or more interns from your local college or university.
Where do you find these people? The following Web sites might help.
For full- or part-time marketing employees:
- AquentMarketing.com
- Careerlink.marketing.org
- Craigslist.org
- Yahoo HotJobs’ Marketing Jobs
- MarketingHire.com
- MarketingJobs.com
- marketing.jobs.net
- Marketing-Watch.com
- MarketingPower.com
- Marketproinc.com
- Monster.com
For freelancers or contactors:
For interns:
So, next time you find yourself thinking about how to make your marketing perfect, I challenge you to think instead about what constitutes being good enough, and how to get it done sooner rather than later. After all, no one can respond to your marketing if it doesn’t reach them at all or in time.
