When it comes to B2B marketing, think things through carefully before you act.
I recommend that B2B marketers pay special attention to what I call the Domino Effect, where one thing leads to another.
For example, if you make an offer on your website, do you have the requested information or materials ready to go? Or, if you invite someone to a webinar, what will your follow up activities be? (All the brand marketing in the world doesn’t matter if the experience the prospect has with your company is disappointing.)
Keep B-to-B marketing strategies and tactics tightly focused on driving leads
In my view, the primary objective of B-to-B marketing is to drive leads and sales.
In other words, branding is a secondary objective. Especially for marketers with limited budgets (and today that’s just about everybody).
Recommendation: Let your brand come along for the ride while you focus your marketing on convincing potential buyers to raise their hands and express interest in your products or services.
When it comes to using B2B marketing to generate leads, Nike’s right.
A B2B lead generation campaign that’s sitting on the drawing board has zero ROI.
I have to admit that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I could easily find myself fiddling with my marketing communications plans, campaigns or materials for months. Instead, I’ve had to teach myself, and my clients, to aim for the best results possible by a pre-determined deadline… and launch.
I've learned that you can continue to tweak things, often without gaining any real improvement as a result.
In my Marketing for Leads and Sales™ seminars and workshops, I like to quote Nike’s slogan: “Just do it”. In other words, stop thinking about it. Get it done and get it on its way to prospects.
How about you? Do you think I’m right in recommending that you “Just do it”? I’m interested to hear your opinions… for or against.
In British Columbia? Consider attending a live, half-day workshop about driving more leads and sales with marketing
If you are near Kelowna, Victoria or Vancouver, consider attending one of this series of live, half-day workshops:
Marketing for Leads and Sales: What’s Working Best for Technology companies Today
8:30 am to 12:30 pm
February 22 - Kelowna, BC
February 23 - Victoria, BC
February 24 - Vancouver, BC
Specific topics to be addressed include:
- How to save time and money while prospecting for new business, and virtually eliminate the need for making cold-calls.
- Which lead generation tactics are working best today, and which should you avoid.
- How to use low-cost marketing to handle the early stages of the sales process, allowing your salespeople or channel partners to be up to 70 percent more efficient at closing sales.
- How to nurture or “date” your longer-term prospects until they are ready to buy—leveraging marketing to help them move from awareness to inquiry to consideration and purchase.
By attending, you will:
- Learn proven business development strategies, marketing tactics, tips and resources that you can put to work immediately.
- Fill your sales pipeline with sales-ready opportunities that you can turn into new business sales and revenue.
- Receive a comprehensive book of reference materials and templates.
Who should attend:
If you responsible for sales or business development at your technology company – CEO, President, Vice President, Director or Manager - You can’t afford to miss this half-day seminar.
Here's what a past attendee had to say:
“I just finished the marketing boot camp this afternoon. All I can say is it was AWESOME!!! And an excellent use of our time." - Michael Noel - Creative 2000 Computer Solutions - Coquitlam, British Columbia
For more information or to register use this link. Or cut and paste this URL into your browser:
http://www.bctia.org/Connections/Events/
These workshops are sponsored by
In partnership with Accelerate Okanagan, ACETECH, Agile Vancouver, BCIC, Bootup Entrepreneurial Society, Discovery Parks Vancouver, HR Tech Group, LifeSciences BC, NewVentures BC, Vancouver Island Technology Park, Victoria Advanced Technology Council and Wavefront.
How to maximize your online lead-generation conversion rate – a complimentary webinar
Interested in getting some expert advice about how to optimize the lead-generation conversion rates of your web pages?
If so, be sure to attend this complimentary, how-to webinar for B2B marketers:
HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR ONLINE LEAD-GEN CONVERSION RATE
A complimentary, 50-minute Webinar
This Thursday - February 17, 2011
11:00am PST - 2:00pm EST
Two experts on online lead generation will share proven techniques for generate more leads and sales from you web pages, email and PPC landing pages.
Your host will be me, M. H. (Mac) McIntosh, a B2B sales lead and marketing automation consultant who I'm honored to say was recently voted #1 of SLMA's Top 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management.
My expert guest will be Raquel Hirsch, president and co-founder of WiderFunnel Marketing, the web page optimization experts.
By attending you'll:
- Learn about small changes you can test on your web pages and landing pages that will cause big increases in the leads and sales that results
- See before-and-after examples of weak web pages that have been turned into real winners
- Understand why following "conventional online wisdom" often isn't wise, and how to determine what really works best
- Witness a live web page evaluation of an attendee's web page (See the bonus offer below!)
We invite you to be our guest at this information-packed webinar.
Click here to register or cut and paste the following link into your browser:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/624332067
Please note: There are only 100 seats available on first-come, first-served basis, and more than half of them are already reserved. So you must register right away if you want to attend.
***Bonus! Get a live evaluation of one of your landing pages***
When you register, be sure to enter your web page URL for a chance to have that web page evaluated live during the webinar!
Are you marketing to the federal, state or local government in the USA? Then you need to read this new book
If you are a business marketer looking for leads and sales from the federal, state or local government, this book is "must read."
The author, Mark Amtower, is the business-to-government (B2B) specialist that I turn to again and again when my clients need help with marketing and selling to the government.
Selling to the Government is Mark's third book and it's chock-full of strategies, tactics, tips and examples of how to generate more business from the US federal, state and local government which collectively is the largest buyer of products and services in the world.
You can buy it or order it from your favorite bookstore or online bookseller.
