Entries from March 2009
Marketing-for-Leads Guide: Step 10 – How will you reach the best prospects?
Step 10: Determine how to reach the best companies and contacts.
After you have identified the right companies and contacts to target with your B2B lead generation efforts, you need to determine the best ways to reach them.
The first step is to determine to what media your target audience is exposed to. For example, which magazines do they read? This may include national business or industry magazines as well as regional and local trade journals.
In addition, you should think about the
- Professional associations to which your target contacts belong.
- Conferences and tradeshows they attend.
- Newsletters (print or electronic) to which they subscribe.
- Websites they visit for professional or produdt information.
- Radio and television programming that attracts them.
Each of these, potentially, is the source of a mailing list, website, conference or publication that would be appropriate for reaching your target contacts.
| To download the complete guide as a PDF, visit B2B Marketing-for-Leads Guide. |
Another way to reach your target companies and contacts is through their professional advisors. Accountants, attorneys, consultants and other advisors often provide recommendations on purchases relevant to their spheres of knowledge. In other words, they influence buyers. For example, a decision-maker in search of a commercial printer might ask his/her graphic design firm for recommendations. Therefore, your marketing plan should have some provision for articulating your competitive advantage to key these influencers.
Benchmarking shows B-to-B marketing budgets have been cut by roughly 44 percent, but spending on pipeline acceleration programs has doubled
A recent press release from SiriusDecisions states that based on the company’s business-to-business benchmarks:
- Roughly 44 percent said their marketing spend for 2009 will be reduced;
- The hardest hit marketing budget categories are advertising (down 17 percent) and events (down 12 percent);
- 25 percent said marketing spending will remain about the same as in 2008.
However it appears that some B-to-B marketing initiatives are getting more funding rather than less.
“We estimate B-to-B companies are doubling their number of pipeline acceleration programs instead of focusing on new leads,” says Alden Cushman, SiriusDecisions’ research director and benchmarking analyst.>
In my opinion B-to-B marketers traditionally spent too much of their marketing budget on lead generation, but spent too little on lead development. I’m glad to see that this may be changing.
What’s happening at your company?
- Has your marketing budget been cut? If so, what got cut?
- If you are one of the minority of B-to-B marketers with a larger marketing budget, what are you spending the extra money on?
- Has your company shifted its marketing spending from lead generation to lead development?
Marketing-for-Leads Guide: Step 9 – Who are your best prospects?
Step 9: Target the best companies and contacts with your lead-generation efforts.
Determine who has the business problem your products and services address, both at the level of companies and at the level of contacts within those companies.
Create three lists that rank your current customers using three criteria:
- Gross revenue. Place the largest companies at the top of the list and the smallest at the bottom.
- Profitability. List from "most profitable" to "least profitable." Keep in mind that the most profitable are not necessarily those with the most gross revenue.
- Fit. Which companies represent the best fit for what you are selling? This ranking is more subjective than the first two. It identifies the companies you know well, those with business you understand, those that are fun to work with, those you understand best and those with which you have—or could have-a great working relationship. Rank these companies in order, descending from the best fit.
Your ideal customers are those that are at, or near, the top of all three lists. While reviewing your existing customers, consider the following questions:
- What industries are they in?
- Are they small, medium or large businesses?
- Where are they located geographically?
- What is their Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code?
- What are the titles or job functions of their decision-makers?
This information will help you find similar companies and decision-makers to target with your marketing efforts. Determine what is unique about them so that you can find more like them.
In addition to looking at your current customer base, review your company’s internal expertise and credentials to determine likely prospects for your solutions. If your company is a start-up and has no existing customers, you can leverage your own past experience and that of your people. Think about the kinds of companies you and your team have had success with in previous jobs.
You also can educate yourself on a vertical market (i.e., a particular industry, such as residential or commercial construction, banking, distribution or the retail clothing business), weaving the industry’s concerns and buzzwords into your marketing-for-leads materials. This will suggest that you do understand the market and its needs. However, be prepared to answer the question, "Who else in my industry have you served?" It is bound to come up.
If you don’t believe you can successfully sell into vertical markets, consider horizontal markets. These are markets that cross industry lines. To articulate a horizontal-marketing strategy, you could say, for example, "We are the inventory-control experts for small- to medium-sized businesses."
Geographic markets are another possibility. You could combine horizontal and geographic marketing with a statement such as: "We are right here in Akron, Ohio, and we are uniquely qualified to help you with your inventory-control needs."
| To download the complete guide as a PDF, visit B2B Marketing-for-Leads Guide. |
Although theoretically every company in every business may benefit from your solution, you can’t afford to try to be everything to everyone. You must pick the companies with which you are likely to have the best success and the individuals within those companies who are in the best position to recommend or buy your products or services.
