Category Archives: Business to Business Marketing Strategies

Tips for improving your business to business marketing strategies and campaigns. Learn how to find a market niche, and why having a niche is so important. There are also posts about finding your ideal client (and why you need that too). Trying to market to everyone only leaves you “spraying and praying” without actually hitting anything.

These pages also cover common business to business marketing mistakes (made by companies both large and small). If you’ve made one of these, you’ll learn how you can fix the errors you’ve made (and avoid future gaffes).

Need more clients? Or better clients? Check out the posts on lead generation, how to set and negotiate higher fees, and what red flags to look for when prospecting for new work.

Finally, there are posts on creating your brand and your company’s “story.” What you are selling isn’t necessarily what you think. The way you present your products and services can make a big difference in your results.

Get the Freelance Fees You Deserve

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by seanmcmenemy via Flickr

A recent post by Jennifer Mattern got me thinking about money. In it she said that “nonprofit should not equal non-paying.” In the comments, I mentioned the story of a would-be prospect of mine. They wanted someone to write b2b marketing copy (hey, I can do that). So far, so good.

Then, they asked for two spec writing samples (two marketing emails). I wrote back saying I was happy to share prior examples of my work, but how much would I be paid for the custom stuff?

I think I completely flummoxed them. The woman went to her boss for help – and sent me the email by mistake! It seems I was the first person to ask such questions and she had no idea what to do.

When she did reach her boss, the answer was that they wanted to see if my writing was “compatible” before they hired me. I offered (and sent) pre-existing samples instead. Funny, I didn’t get the gig – but I bet there were some freelancers who fell for that trick. Voila, the freelancers get screwed and the company gets free copy.

Know your own worth

If you don’t think you’re worth a respectable rate, neither will your prospects or clients. Your work is worth something. Charge for it. The only exception is if you are doing something for a cause you believe in, or if you’re just starting out and need to build up a portfolio. Even then, make sure you get public recognition and testimonials for your efforts.

Offer great value for your work

Make your deal so amazingly great, they’d be crazy not to take it. For example, offer a training package that includes a how-to ebook, a step-by-step video, a transcript, and free graphic files for $150. It sounds good, doesn’t it? And you don’t even know what it is!

Compare and frame your prices

Compare your price to the price of something your prospect already buys regularly (less than a tank of gas, or less than dinner out with the kids).

Or, frame the price. “I charge $300 an hour for personal consultations, but you can buy a training package for $150.” The package seems cheap compared to the expensive consultation.

Have you had clients or prospects try to get you to write for free? Or try to nickel and dime you for extra revisions or extra work? What did you do? Share your tips and stories in the comments.

15 Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Ever start reading a web page or a tutorial and wonder what the heck the writer was talking about? Wish you had a marketing terms glossary?

Words and phrases such as lightweight code (what, is it made out of feathers?), or nixie (related to pixies maybe?) can be awfully confusing. Here’s a guide to busting some of that jargon.

A/B split: dividing your list (or your web page views) in two pieces. You change one variable at a time (like button color) and test to see which performs better.

AIDA: The four steps to successful marketing: Attention, interest, desire, action

B to B: business to business (companies selling to other companies)

B to C: companies selling to individual consumers

B to G: companies that sell to the government

Call to action: A request to do something (such as “click here”).

Click through rate: The percentage of readers who click on an ad or email link

Copywriting 4 Ps: promise, picture, proof, and push (essentially, the same principle as AIDA) – this means making a big promise about your product, painting a picture of who and how it will help, showing proof it works, and then asking for the sale. Don’t confuse this with sales 4 Ps (which are price, product, placement, and promotion).

ESP: email service provider. A company, such as AWeber, that will manage your email marketing lists and subscriptions for you.

Landing page: a dedicated web page designed to solicit a specific action (such as buying something or subscribing)

Niche market: a specific slice of the entire business pie – focusing one small segment of a market, rather than trying to market to everyone.

Nixie: nothing to do with pixies; a nixie is a postcard or mailing that’s returned because the address is no good.

RFM: recency, frequency, money. A way to rank your clients (or subscribers) based on how new they are (recency), how often they buy (frequency), and how much they spend (money).

SEM: search engine marketing; the equally arcane art of using Google to drive traffic – while this includes SEO, it can also be paid ads (those sponsored ads you see on the right side of Google searches)

SEO: search engine optimization, or the arcane and mysterious art of getting more people to come to your website. The idea is to find keywords with lots of searches (and not a lot of competition)

Got any to add? Or one you found and don’t understand? Add it in the comments.

What Your Clients Really Want: Why You Need a Marketing Persona

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by wwarby via Flickr

Have you gotten up close with your people? Not your family, or your friends, but your people — the people who read your blog, buy your services, or spread your posts around the internet.

If you’re going to successfully market your services, it’s a good idea to create marketing personas. A persona is just a fancy marketing term for mini-profiles of the people who are your ideal customers.

Who is your ideal client?

Ostriches? (hmm, ostriches, they like to put their heads in the sand and hide from problems). Or tigers? (they glare at you and they can rip your arm off if they want).

But, since you’re probably not marketing to animals (I don’t think they have credit cards, so probably a good thing), you’ll have to think about the people you want to reach. SEO whizzes? Electrical supply companies? Green tech companies?

Look at your client/prospect files. Is there a pattern? Do you have a specific niche market? Maybe you have a lot of law firms as clients. Or, you might find that many of your clients are medium-size marketing agencies. What do they have in common?

Are you offering something that nobody else is doing? If so, you could eliminate your competition.

Create a detailed profile for your marketing persona(s)

Build up as detailed a biography as possible. You may find you need more than one. You might have a persona for first-time users of your product and another for people who are more experienced.

You can even give them names (either real names or names that reflect their stage in business or life). The idea is to use those personas as a mental shortcut in your marketing. If you tell yourself you are marketing to Newbie Joe, you know exactly what that means.

What do they worry about?

Do they want to set up a blog? Does it seem like a huge obstacle to them? Are they unhappy with their web sites, but hesitate to act because they’re afraid they’ll get ripped off, or it will cost buckets of money, or take forever? Maybe they just don’t know who to call, or who to ask.

Can you help them solve that problem?

Remember the salad dressing rule. Focus your energies on people who have a problem you can fix (and how much better they will feel when you do). You could have the world’s greatest baby food formula, but trying to sell it to people without small children is a waste of time. They won’t care.

And, keep your head out of the sand (it’s really hard to get it out of your hair).

5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Marketing

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by Uwe Hermann via Flickr

There are a lot of complicated and time-consuming things you can do with your marketing. But, sometimes, the simple, easy things can make a really big difference.

Here are five simple tips for marketing without a lot of stress.

1. Don’t keep reinventing the wheel

Turn blog posts into reports, videos, or webinars. Add a recording or a transcript. Voila, new products!

2. Be nice

You’d be amazed how this can make a difference. Take the time to thank people for their business, or a compliment. Send an email to a client because you saw something you thought they’d like (a silly photo, or an article on the newest rose hybrids for avid gardeners).

3. Post funny or memorable quotes or sayings

People remember them and pass them on. If you don’t have a copy of Bartlett’s Quotations handy, there’s an online version at bartleby.com. Bonus points if you know why it’s called that.

4. Write for people, not for search engines

Yes, you want to get found, but putting your keyword (in bold) in every third sentence will scare real people away. As will awkward phrasing that matches a search term, but ignores all known rules of grammar. (Sure, SEO types sneer at buttons that say “click here”, but people click on them).

5. Use an autoresponder

Put your email marketing on automatic pilot. Send regular messages, which readers can sign up for at any time. This can be part of your regular newsletter, or a separate course.

Quote for the day

“I never met a search engine spider with a credit card” – Sonia Simone (of Copyblogger)

Image: mzacha

Can You Answer These Four Questions?

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image via Wikipedia

Every year, people all over the world gather to remember the events of Exodus and to ask four questions.

Escaping slavery may not seem to have much in common with marketing, and these aren’t those questions.

But thinking about them did inspire me to write this post.

1. Why is your business different from all other businesses?

All other businesses fail to differentiate themselves, but your business is run by a Hasidic rabbi, hands out free ice cream, only sells $100 blue t-shirts, or has some “edge” that makes you different. Your business stands out.

2. Why is your marketing more targeted than your competitors’ marketing?

Because you’ve been reading this blog. And, instead of trying to sell to everybody, you have a specific kind of client in mind. You only sell to them. They’re your fish.

3. Why do you use internet/direct marketing rather than branding campaigns?

A direct mail campaign can cost as little as $260 to print and mail 250 postcards. Adsense can be pennies per click. A full out TV campaign – millions. I’ve done successful marketing campaigns for $100. I once heard an ad exec say, “The budget for this project was really small, only $5,000,000.” Glurk.

4. Why does remarkable content/marketing spread?

Something remarkable or special will spread much faster than something average and ordinary. Remember all those electric sheep videos? They were entertaining and funny. They spread much faster (and got far more views) than an ordinary ad would have, because they were fun. People like to share things that are fun and unusual. Nobody would share an ordinary ad for a TV.
Happy Passover everyone. Easy on the horseradish.