Demand generation in a noisy world
Demand generation in a noisy world
How to generate new leads for your B2B organisation…
Cutting through the constant noise online and well, almost everywhere, has never been more important - or more complex - for marketers who need to come up with strategic ways to get attention.
At the same time, generating high-quality leads that are embraced by internal sales teams is almost an art form. Loosely described as lead generation, this ‘art-form’ generates interest in your company’s products or services in order to drive sales. Lead generation tactics are varied but will often combine digital channels as well as targeted sales calls.
Core strategies for lead generation:
Inbound Marketing
Marketing strategies that bring the customer to you;
Digital
Clever web content, a logical way for the site visitor to find what they need and a reason for them to come back.
Social Media
Drives traffic to content and sales pages, and stimulates brand centric conversations.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Using keywords and phrases to attract searchers and search engines.
Outbound Marketing
Reaching out to targeted customers.
Data
Building a profiled database is worth its weight in gold.
Telemarketing
Initiating meaningful conversations up to the C-suite.
Content
Blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, eBooks, webinars etc. to drive leads.
Email & Direct Mail
Including brochures, flyers and other informative and promotional digital and print materials.
faceInbound Marketing
Marketing strategies that bring the customer to you;
Digital
Clever web content, a logical way for the site visitor to find what they need and a reason for them to come back.
Social Media
Drives traffic to content and sales pages, and stimulates brand centric conversations.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Using keywords and phrases to attract searchers and search engines.
faceOutbound Marketing
Reaching out to targeted customers.
Data
Building a profiled database is worth its weight in gold.
Telemarketing
Initiating meaningful conversations up to the C-suite.
Content
Blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, eBooks, webinars etc. to drive leads.
Email & Direct Mail
Including brochures, flyers and other informative and promotional digital and print materials.
Back to basics for B2Bs
Back to basics for B2Bs
Build Leads
The way businesses buy has changed significantly in the last 5 years. It is no longer enough to find customers with mass advertising and email blasts, now more than ever marketers need to focus on building ongoing relationships with buyers, and being visible in all the right places.
This becomes more than just a function of marketing via promotional campaigns – ‘set it and forget it’. It’s about how your brand speaks to your customers; how your campaign integrates and inspires internal sales teams; how effective your business development strategy is at guiding prospects to the next step in the customer journey.
Let's explore 5 core tactics
1.Integrating and inspiring sales
Many great marketing initiatives crash and burn because the marketer has forgotten one very important input. What does a good quality lead look like for your sales team? What kind of opportunity will get them ready to jump into action, following up leads? The better the prospect, the better the follow-up. One less-than-ideal-lead and the sales team can run off screaming at how marketing got it wrong… again. Clear definition of the role sales and marketing play including agreement on lead definition; SLAs on lead follow up; timely feedback on lead quality and pre-defined next steps will improve campaign success.
2.Do you capture visitors?
An interested party has landed on your website – now what? In a perfect world they would perhaps read a little and then follow the steps to the contact page, or online store. But as the research increasingly shows, your customers aren’t always visiting to buy.
More than ever, consumers visit your website to learn more about your products pricing, reputation via reviews and testimonials gathering the valuable information they need to make an informed decision. It’s a very good idea to capture their details while they’re in the palm of your hand so to speak.
3.Qualify leads and close the loop
Asking for lead information serves no purpose if the information sits somewhere on a list in the back end. Ensuring that your managed database is updated regularly to include new leads is a must! Sales and marketing teams can design a follow-up process that targets new subscribers to the business could send them a copy of the company’s latest catalogue via email]. A more personalised touch might include a targeted business development sales call. We will go on to explore telemarketing in more detail, however it is always best to ensure you go into any sales call armed with additional information.
With email campaigns, automation software allows marketers to see which links a potential prospect has clicked. Noticing an area of interest is a great starting point for sending further targeted materials, or pick up the phone for a targeted sales call.
4.Business development that makes buzz
Many organisations have a potentially untapped arena of already warm leads sitting directly under their very noses – their existing customer base.
Savvy and skilled sales professionals will go the extra mile in conversations to ask more meaningful questions at the end of a sales calls transaction or completion of a project such as “is there any other way we can help?”
5.Refer a friend, receive a… ‘Something pretty great
A referral system can also prove effective, especially where B2B organisations are concerned. Don’t underestimate the power of a good incentive. If you are offering a unique or exclusive product, then is becomes easier for someone to perceive the value in sharing a contact - to have the latest/greatest with colleagues. Executives will generally be happier to share information if there is a giveaway of some sort. For example a value-add access to free-trial software, a whitepaper, discounted services or prizes.
Telemarketing Building Leads
Telemarketing Building Leads
Why consider telemarketing? There are lots of reasons
- Building a pipeline of qualified opportunities for your sales team.
- Validating appropriate contacts and gaining insights into their current business landscape.
- Increased awareness of a service/solution within target group of companies.
- Introducing a new product/service to an existing customer base.
- Re-engaging inactive customers.
- Qualifying inbound enquiries (e.g. digital, trade shows).
- Thanking your existing customers for being customers.e customer journey.
Why it works
Let's take a closer look!
Why it works
Immediate Feedback
We can find a lot of reasons to include a prospect in a campaign – they may be in the right role, the right industry or the right size company. They may be a perfect prospect or they may also be very happy with their existing services, product or provider. Managing the feedback on a company and contact level will mean you can include or exclude them down the track. Either way a conversation will qualify where they are at.
People respond to people
Good quality conversations are memorable. In an increasingly digital world having a warm, intelligent conversation with a clever person means something. Not every person is happy to speak to a telemarketer but knowing when to stop talking and say thank you for your time goes a long way.
Measurable
A well-crafted telemarketing campaign will include enough call activity to adequately cover the contacts. Detailed campaign reporting will give you the ROI metrics to validate whether the campaign was a success. It is important to look at the campaign outcomes and assess the value of each. A lead, nurture, email opt-in and new contact are a few that can be measured.
Tangible and intangible benefits
Telemarketing campaigns are outcome orientated. Whether you are looking to build a sales pipeline or maximize RSVPs for an event, you can learn a lot from the conversations your telemarketers have. Thinking broadly about what insights would help you – who influences decisions (internal stakeholders; external thought leaders); established systems and the relationships that support them; pressure coming from the business for change – and you can get much more than you expect from the call.
Activity can be adjusted quickly
Test marketing campaigns are not as prevalent in B2B activities. The pressure to get campaigns executed in as shortest possible time, as cost-effectively as possible, makes testing, assessing and campaign adjustment more a theory than a practicality. With telemarketing support you can assess if the messaging is resonating. If it isn’t connecting you can update it.
Validates your data
Data quality is a huge issue for most companies. Outbound telemarketing activity is often restricted to prospects but as customer contacts change over time don’t underestimate the value of including customers.
There is no hard & fast rule on whether internal, external telemarketing or a combination of both works best for B2B organisations. An experienced B2B lead generation agency can help you expand on resources and organise everything you need to carry out a successful telemarketing campaign.
Producing a B2B Event Builds Leads
Producing a B2B Event Builds Leads
Research indicates that executive events are actually among the highest yield in lead generation strategies (IDG Lead Generation Marketing Report).
Hosting an event of your own gives buyers, executives and interested parties the opportunity to engage with your brand face-to-face rather than from behind a screen.
Read more
It allows your organisation to promote causes that are central to your line of expertise, share insights, information and begin a dialogue with your audience. They also can provide attendees with the added bonus of expanding their professional network.
Plan your
B2B event
What is it that you hope to achieve from holding this specific event?
Plan your B2B event
Starting out | set your intentions
Consider your target audience carefully. Keeping their motivations and drives forefront and centre is a sure way to provide an experience that works – setting your event up for success. It will also help determine the size and scale of your event. Even smaller events such as a short one-hour session in place of a full-scale day conference can reap great rewards if the target hits the mark.
Maximise attendance | a theme to wow them all
Your event theme and content will form the crux of appeal. While the ‘wow’ factor might not have the same pull as a social or leisure event – you still need to offer a strong ‘value add’ to busy executives to validate their time. Inviting a keynote speaker that is an expert in his/her field is a great way to spark interest. Additionally, exploring an issue that is facing your industry such as changing regulations, a skill shortage or tightening market conditions is also likely to generate interest.
Types of B2B events
The scale and size of your B2B event will vary depending on budget; available resources and your target market but here are some of the trialled and tested variants.
1Full Day Seminar
Full Day Seminar
full day with speakers, meals and plenty of networking opportunities.
2Product Launch
Product Launch
invite your customers (and the press) to your next launch.
3Workshops
Workshops
offer a workshop on a particular skill set such as managerial, leadership, or tech up-skill.
4Conference 1+ Days
Conference 1+ Days
often these program offerings require a fee to attend given the cost, and provide a mixture of speakers, seminars
and workshops.
5Presentation / Talk
Presentation / Talk
this is can be a short session offered to targeted people and can take place in your own office, or a paid meeting venue.
6Network Social Evening
Network Social Evening
topical presentation, followed by an hour or two of social drinks and nibbles.
7Breakfast Seminar
Breakfast Seminar
quite popular, features a session and coffee and light refreshments for networking.
Tech shifts events online | leads in
COVID has changed the way we work and has been the catalyst for broad acceptance of online events. While it does take away the personalised 1:1 experience, it is gaining traction as an accepted way to build leads. Pre-recorded videos are also an option for some. While there may the initial investment, they can be used in numerous times so long as the content remains fresh. There are always new ways to get leads!
Keynote speaker that is an expert in his/her field is a great way to spark interest.
Additionally, exploring an issue that is facing your industry such as changing regulations, a skill shortage or tightening market conditions is also likely to generate interest.
Types of B2B events
The scale and size of your B2B event will vary depending on budget; available resources and your target market but here are some of the trialled and tested variants.
Marketing Automation Builds Leads
Marketing Automation Builds Leads
The idea of automating key drivers for lead generation and marketing might make some of you nervous.
How can you trust the streamlined process to deliver a personalised message? But innovation in marketing automation tools has given businesses and marketers just that; the opportunity to streamline key marketing processes whilst maintaining the all-important essence of personalised communication.
What is it?
Marketing automation focuses on the definition, scheduling, segmentation and tracking of marketing campaigns.
Read more
At its core marketing automation is about using technology to build a cohesive campaign that sends relevant content to targets in a timely manner. It allows you to collect data, and then use that knowledge to create a sales journey that gives each step a purpose for lead generation.
How does it work?
How does it work?
Emails
For email marketing campaigns, you need to know more than ‘open rates’ and potential ‘click through traffic’. An automation tool can help by:
- Integrating with your database to personalise each email using your lead’s first name as well as other additional information.
- Scheduling; sending out the email at the optimum time for your buyer’s persona
- Creating tracking codes which allows analysis of the success of the email, gleans the interest areas of your prospect with additional lead information.
Lead Marketing
This is about targeting the right person at the right time, and the right time is when they are ‘sales ready’. A marketing automation tool helps to map out the entire sales process of the would-be buyer or user. It is about generating a digital user experience that caters to each lead no matter where they are in the decision making process. For example, at the initial stages of hearing about your brand, users may connect via social media or your company blog. Later, if they have subscribed you may include tailored landing pages, and targeted emails to target them specifically. Questions here are what information is the user looking for? When? Again, scheduling helps to send out a message that is perfectly timed.
Lead Scoring
It can be difficult to determine when your leads are ‘ready’ to speak with someone, based on where they are on their sales journey. Marketing automation via lead scoring allows all leads to be categorised, thus assigning them to sales reps based on the minimum score threshold. This allows for a more agile sales force, targeting leads that are a good fit for the company, service or product. It also helps sales reps to go into conversations armed with the right information at hand such as testimonials and case studies.
Distribution
For busy marketing teams there can be a range of touch points that need to go out at various times. Social media is where this occurs most, and it’s important with social media that you business has a voice that’s consistent. A good automation tool will help you to link social media profiles such optimised tweets on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, blog content, text messages - you name it! It allows the scheduling of posts, so that they are sent out when your buyers are likely to be online.
Tracking
Tracking is the glue that holds it all together. Majority of automation tools have Google Analytics built in, allowing you to track marketing efforts. You can use the data to develop insights into what works well as well and identify where things could be falling short. Where are your leads clicking? What are they interested in and what is important to them? Focussing on what works and changing what doesn’t, will always improve results for your business.
It can be challenging to determine which automation software is right for your business given the sheer number of offerings out there. Hub Spot, Eloqua and Marketo are the big three currently making waves. All of these are popular platforms, making it easy to start building automated workflows from scratch, or in a structured way based around your buyer personas and goals. Determining which one is right for you will take some research, and will depend on the size of your business, budget and the reach of your goals.
Are you happy with the demand you are generating for the business?
An experienced B2B lead generation agency like MIH can help you to organise everything you need to carry out a successful campaign. We’d love to have a chat and see if we could add value.