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.

How to Turn Problems Into Cash

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why I walk
Image by tauntingpanda via Flickr

You may have heard that New York has gotten a lot of snow this year.

Heck, we’ve had more snow this season than Winnipeg, Canada (and there’s more coming).

It’s getting hard to find places to put all of it.

If you have to go out, or if you have a car, you’ll have to face huge piles of dirty snow, and trying to figure out exactly which vaguely car-shaped lump is yours.

A big problem

Yesterday, I went out to run some errands and saw a woman starting to shovel her car out.  I came back over an hour later, and she was still working on it (now with someone helping her).

Some of the more enterprising among us have turned this problem into an opportunity.  I passed another car with a little flag-like sign stuck on the roof.  It said, “If you want to free your car, call 212———.”  Bet that guy is cleaning up (sorry, couldn’t resist).

What can you fix?

When  you’re thinking about a new product or service, look around.  See what other people are complaining about.  Or struggling with.  What frustrates them?  Is there a way to profit from those frustrations?

Someone decided to use a big snowstorm to make money.  I saw people asking for website critiques over and over – and making the same mistakes repeatedly.  So, I created a website review ebook.  I also offer a personal website review service.

Have you done this?  What services do you offer based on common problems?

The Three Building Blocks of a Successful Marketing Campaign

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Yesterday’s post talked about a dumb marketing mistake.  Today’s post will turn around and focus on the three building blocks of a successful marketing campaign.

building blocks

Image by nerissa’s ring via Flickr

Every campaign and every business is different.

However, every successful marketing strategy has these basic ideas in common, no matter what your business, who your audience is, or what you are trying to sell.

First, you must know who your audience is.  The more detail you have (in your head, or on paper) the better.

Next, you need to know what they are thinking: what are they worried about, what are their goals?

Finally, you have to know why they should choose you (instead of anyone else) to help them with those problems.

Who is your audience?

Who are the specific group(s) of people you want to reach? Be able to describe your ideal client, whether they are new moms who want to lose weight or owners of crossfit training centers. Give them personalities and names if you like. If you offer services to two different kinds of people or companies (say both brides who want help choosing lingerie or men who want help buying a gift), then separate them. Don’t write the same stuff for both.

What are they thinking?

Taking the example above, the brides will have different concerns than the men. The brides will want to know: will it fit? will it show under my dress? how hard is it to put on? is it pretty?

The men want to know if she’ll like it, if it’s too sleazy, is it the right size?

Two completely different sets of concerns.

Why you?

Be clear about how you’ll help and what problems of theirs (not yours) you solve. Spell out why your approach is special or different, and show your personality when you do – be the person who offers overwhelming value or insanely great service or personal advice on selecting exactly the right lingerie for brides-to-be. Detail the reasons they should hire you, rather than someone else. Pile on the value. Make buying a “no-brainer.”

So, what’s your strategy?  Are you focusing on a particular audience? Not sure? Want an opinion (I have lots!)?  Just ask.

Have You Made This Dumb Marketing Mistake?

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Ford Edsel

Image by Supermac1961 via Flickr

Long ago (OK, it wasn’t the first, or the last, time) I made a dumb marketing mistake.  I was reminded of it recently, and thought I’d share.

I had just gotten promoted to a brand-new job (yay!).  We were doing a direct marketing campaign for some training products (a video and training manual).  I don’t remember how much it cost, but let’s call it $200. While we were putting the package together, my boss (also new), said, “Hey, we’ve also got a book (which cost $14) about that, let’s throw that in too.”  So I did.

A casual suggestion leads to a big problem

At first, we thought we were doing well. The list was good and the copy was convincing. Our sales started streaming in.  It should have been a great success.  There was only one problem. And, it was a big one.

People went straight for the $14 book and virtually ignored the $200 training video.  We sold plenty of books, but almost no videos.  Oops.

Unfortunately, I had (in a way) done my job both too well and not well at all.  I successfully sold the material, but didn’t do enough to differentiate the book from the video.  Since they both seemed like equally good choices, people bought the book because it cost less.

If there’s a cheaper option, or too many options, it will confuse people, dilute the value of your higher-priced product, and reduce your earnings.

One thing at a time

Don’t try to sell several things at once.  Ever watch an infomercial or direct TV ad (think sham-wow or slap-chopper), or even QVC?  They sell one thing at a time. They give reasons to buy it. They tell you the price.  And ask for the sale.  They never try to sell the $10 sham-wow and the $15 chopper in the same ad.

One good thing though – at least I wasn’t trying to sell an Edsel.


What Your Clients Really Want

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Magic wand

Magic wand (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What’s your clients’ secret desire? What do they really want you to do for them?

If you could wave a magic wand and give them something, what would it be? Do you know?  Are you giving it to them?

They may say upfront that they want “a web site,” but what they really want is something that works, that they don’t have to fuss with, and that they can afford.  A designed from scratch standard web site for $300 is impractical, but a wordpress site with a pre-built theme might not be.  The template is fixed price, custom coding is extra.

Finding out what they want can make a big difference in how you present  yourself and how you approach prospects.

Do they want to learn how to get published?

Would they like to spend less time writing web copy and more time creating new recipes?

To compete against the “big guys” and win?

A set it and forget marketing system?

Share yours here. Or, write a post on your own blog about what your clients really, really want and how you help them get it. If you need help getting started, try this:

“I was reading a post on Fix Your Broken Marketing and Jodi challenged us to figure out our clients’ secret desires (for work stuff – hey get your minds out of the gutter!).  It was a little scary, but I thought I’d try it.  Deep breath… here I go”

(inspired by Naomi Dunford)

 

Limited Editions: Good or Evil?

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Black Friday line

Image by tshein via Flickr

Yesterday’s post touched on the idea of using a limited offer or quantity to spur sales.

In the comments, John wanted to know if “people really believe it. How can they trust that there really is a scarcity and not just a another marketing ploy?”

So, is marketing with limited editions really a good idea? Or is it an underhanded marketing trick?

Limited can be artificial

Well, it can be a ploy, like Black Friday deals, or the limited edition car. It can make something seem more exclusive or important than it really is. (Long ago, I was working at a cosmetics company and someone wrote in asking if his “limited edition” cologne set was valuable).

Limited can be real

Or, limited can be very real. An original copy of John Audubon’s book of bird illustrations just sold for $11.5 million dollars. It’s truly limited. There aren’t any more.  I happen to own a reproduction of the book, but that’s not the same. The original Apple computer cost $666.66 (hmmmm).  One of the rare surviving examples just sold for $210,000. You can get a brand new Mac mini starting at around $700 (and it’s faster), but they make lots of them — they’re not unique.

It can also be fun

For example, each day “woot” puts up a different daily deal. One day, one product, and then it’s gone. (today’s, by the way is a two-pack of smoke alarms). Will there be more smoke alarms in a real store? Yes. Is it a good price (decent, I had to pay $25 for mine and this is two for $40). They write funny copy, and it pulls you in.

“So just to make it easy, if you DON’T want to buy these smoke alarms, just check the box marked “I don’t value the safety of my home and worldly possessions or the lives of my loved ones.” Go ahead. Blame it on the holidays. IF YOU DARE.”

Same with Groupon. More funny copy, and participating is part of the fun (as well as part of the deal) (If you don’t know, Groupon offers discounts – but only if enough people sign up for it – so there’s an incentive to pass it on and tell your friends).

Share your thoughts

So, is making something limited a good idea? Or a bad one?