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.

What’s Your Manifesto?

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I was just reading a guest post on Problogger called “How to Use a Manifesto to Spread Your Blog’s Message.”  She said she wrote hers and made it a poster.  When I read that, I reflexively turned to look at my wall.  There’s a poster hanging on it.  I didn’t write the words, but it is a small business brand manifesto, and one I believe in.

Here it is:

We tend to think of branding and company manifestos as something more suited to large companies than small businesses.  But while you may not need a huge team of brand specialists to keep your colors, message, and logos in line you do need to know what your company stands for (and what it doesn’t).

Why have a small business company manifesto

It’s not just a way to spread the word, it’s a way to clarify your own thinking.  What do you stand for?  Stand against?  What will you do to get new business? What crosses the line?  Who is your “tribe”?

What are your company values?  Are you known for guaranteed super-speedy service? Or the company that gives back to the community?  Or are you known for personalized attention? Maybe you stand for super-luxury and exclusivity.  Or, maybe you’re egalitarian (the boss can’t make more than X percent of what employees earn).

Here’s the longer version (with cake!) – wrote that one myself.

That’s my thinking.  What’s yours?

Are You Making Bad Business Decisions Based on Assumptions?

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A potential pitfall of using limits to as the ...

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Are you making bad business decisions based on assumptions?  Thinking you know the answer to a problem without verifying or checking your thinking?

I was a temp many years ago.  This meant I went around to different offices and companies, mostly doing word processing, sometimes page layout, or even help desk (during the great DOS to Windows transition).

I had to be able to adjust to lots of different software, working conditions, and, of course, bosses. And do it quickly.

The document from hell

One day, I was called in to work on a big document which the agency described as “the document from hell.”  It more than lived up to its name – many, many pages of information, set up in columns rather than a table – every time you added new data, the whole document had to be reformatted – by hand – a mess!).

Hard worker? Or slacker?

Anyway, at one point, my “boss du jour” saw me with a book. She came over, rather angry, and asked, “Are you finished with the document?”  No, I said.  “Then  WHY are you READING?”  I held up the book, which was called something like “WordPerfect Reference Guide,” and said, “It’s this, lots of characters, not much plot.” Then, not only appeased, but impressed, she asked if I would come back the next day.  I declined.

The danger of assuming

The point of the story is that she saw a book, and decided that I was wasting her time and her money.  The truth was, knowing the document was a nightmare, I had brought a reference book to help me work through it. I wasn’t a slacker, I was prepared. If you assume that everyone thinks what you think, or take action without investigating, your marketing is likely to fail.

Test your assumptions before you act

That’s why direct marketers test so much – to see if their assumptions are true. Does the blue call to action button work better? Or the orange one?  Which offer gets more sales – the buy one and get one for half price offer, or the buy one, get one free?

Don’t assume.  Test.

Why Email Lists are Like Rodney Dangerfield

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Rodney Dangerfield's tombstone at Pierce Broth...

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Email marketing lists get no respect. They’re the Rodney Dangerfield’s of marketing. Rodney’s signature “tag line” was “I don’t get no respect.”

Lists are a bit like that too, they’re a bit dull, and they have row after row of names and @ signs. None of it very interesting or flashy. Certainly not as fun as graphics (oooh pretty colors) or web design (buttons, clicking, interactive) or social media (more buttons – likes, dislikes, tweets).

Why you need a targeted email list

The truth is, your email list is the most important part of your marketing.  A bad list equals bad results. If your list is performing poorly (and remember your house list is your best source of sales), it may be time for a bit of spring cleaning (or fall cleaning, depending on where you live).

Buying a list can be expensive, so the best thing to do is to build your own.  Here are some tips to keep in mind when building (and maintaining) your email marketing list.

Size doesn’t matter

People get attached to the size of things, lists included. The size doesn’t matter. The quality, cleanliness (meaning it’s up to date and old addresses have been removed) and the responsiveness do. A big list won’t help if the data is old, the information is irrelevant, and nobody opens your mail.

Big can be bad

Don’t just take my word for it.  Here’s the results of an actual case study from Marketing Sherpa (Nov. 9, 2010).   The article describes what happened when The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra decided to revamp its email marketing completely (samples and the full article here). The existing database had tens of thousands of names, but the marketing was hit-and-miss, irregular, and unfocused. The list was big, but it had a lot of old, outdated information – which meant that their mailings were getting a poor response.

Permission matters

Cleaning your list (and drastically reducing its size) can seem frightening. However, it also means that the only people on it want to be there. And, you’ll have fewer bounces, and less strain on your email server.

The Symphony sent a fresh email asking everyone on the list to confirm that they still wanted to receive emails. Anyone who didn’t answer was removed. Here’s the scary part. This cut the database by 95%!

Relevance matters

The next step was to ask people exactly what kinds of emails they wanted (or didn’t). So, those most interested in classical music would receive one newsletter, while people interested in events for children/families got another. The only content subscribers would get would be the content that they wanted to read.

Anticipated messages matter

The list was a lot smaller, but a lot better. I bet their open rates went way up too. Finally they started to build a new email list – adding an opt-in for ticket buyers, free ticket giveaways (opt-in option), and other outreach efforts. Instead of hit-or-miss, the emails were now welcome, relevant, and anticipated.

Responsiveness matters

The list has since grown by 500% and sales have doubled.  Permission (check).  Relevant (check). Anticipated (check)… even some respect.

(If you’re wondering, the tombstone reads, “There goes the neighborhood”)

6 Budget Friendly Business Marketing Tips

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Trying to get attention without a big budget? It can be hard to stand out in a crowd with all the big agencies making big splashes with multi-million dollar budgets.  Luckily, here in the 21st century, you don’t need a big media budget to get noticed. You just need some time and some patience.

You can get attention, raise awareness, and promote your products without spending lots of money. We like that!

Here are some of my favorite tips:

Offer free information

Start a blog and build an email newsletter. Don’t oversell and don’t try to sell right away.  They’ve just met you; they don’t know if they like or trust you yet.  Space out the offers, rather than holding your hand out right away. Make it free, free, free, sell.

Build relationships

Be helpful. No hard-sell, sometimes even no real “selling” at all. Listen. Put yourself automatically at the top of the list when they need what you do. Getting hired without RFPs, cold calls, and sales meetings is a beautiful thing.

Partner with people who offer complementary services

I’m a copywriter and marketer. I partner with business coaches, web developers, graphic designers, etc. If you are a developer, partner with a coder or a graphic designer.  Recommend each other.  Bring them in on projects (and have them do the same for you).

Be visible online (and offline too)

Find out which social networking tools, online forums, or real-life business forums your audience likes and uses.  Create accounts, attend networking meetings, and build relationships.  Share helpful tips, respond to questions, and share other businesses’ posts and information, as well as your own.

Build your email list the right way

Make sure it’s clear what you’re offering and what sign-ups will receive. Get permission. Don’t just add people because they attended a meeting where you spoke.

Follow up – in a friendly way – not a spammy way.

By that I mean that if you do talk to someone at an event, follow up with something relevant. Send them an email telling them you enjoyed the conversation. Point out an article you thought they would find interesting. If you discussed classic cars, tell them about the car show in town next week.

What are yours?

A Powerful Way to Get Attention

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Hello my name is...

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I’m not Lisa, my name is Jodi.  One of my spammers doesn’t seem to know that though.  He just left a comment saying, “Lisa, this is a nice video.”

This is not a post about complaining though.  It’s not even a post about spammers or how to fight  trolls.

It is a post about using personalization the right way.

Get personal

You see, the spammer is using a technique that would work really well if done properly.  Talking to people by name is a good way to get attention.  Everyone likes to see their name (even if you don’t particularly like your name; my parents got mine out of the newspaper; if only they’d seen the name Katharine or Elizabeth instead… sigh.. but I digress).  The idea is that people react to the sound of their own name.  I once worked in an office with another Jodi, and every time I heard “my” name, I’d turn around, even if it was her boss calling and not mine.

Use it Wisely

Inserting someone’s name in an email or a letter can work wonders.  I once got a mailing that had my name inserted in several places – including photos of t-shirts and other merchandise with my name on them.  Pretty clever.

Just don’t overdo it.  Using names in email subject lines used to work really well, I think now the effect has lessened, since only marketers do that.
UPDATE: Paul Cunningham just pointed out this statistic from a recent Mailer Mailer email marketing report:

Personalization in subject lines dramatically reduces both open rates and click through rates — with open rates of 6.7% (compared to 11.2% overall) and click through rate of 1.2% (compared to 1.6%). -MailerMailer “Email Marketing Metrics Report” (July 2010)

Next time you do a promotion, try a little name-dropping.  See what happens.