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 Hook Your Clients

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carved fish hook..

Image via Wikipedia

Do you want more clients?  Having trouble catching them?

Clients are like fish.  To catch them, you have to think like a fisherman,  figure out where to find them and what they like to eat.

Potato chips may be your favorite food, but if you want to catch trout, you’re going to need some flies. Or at least, something that looks like a fly.

Think about what problems they have, and create posts, ads or ebooks that will attract the sort of people (or businesses) that you want to catch.

Use the right hook

Say you’re an expert on digital photography. That’s a pretty broad area of expertise.

See if you can narrow that down a bit. Who is your audience? Do you help grandparents learn how to take photos of their grandkids? Or, do you help experienced photographers take pictures in tricky light conditions?

Since each group has different needs, they’ll need different hooks.  The grandparents might want an ebook on “Digital Photos for Beginners.” The pros will go for “Three Steps to Successful Twilight Photography.”

The right hook gets a response.  The wrong one will be ignored. Like a trout that sees a potato chip float by.

(Attention: Yahoo! Putting photos of cars all over your login page won’t get me to buy one.  Surely, you can tell that I’m in New York City, where only 25% of the population even owns a car).  Wrong hook!

Is Your Brochure Acting Like a Diva?

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Diva Close

Image by Paintitblack22 via Flickr

We all know about divas. Their demands for only red and yellow M&Ms and never, ever any brown ones. How they want exactly three 100 watt bulbs in their dressing rooms.

One or two won’t do. Heaven forbid they’re only 75 watt bulbs.

They’re annoying because they’re only interested in their own needs. They talk only about themselves, they don’t listen to what anyone else says, and they’re frankly exasperating. But what does this have to do with business brochures?  It turns out that brochures (and web sites) can exhibit some of the same behaviors as divas.

Writing better business brochures

Go on, take a look at your brochure (or your website). Is it acting the same way as those divas?   Who does it focus on? You? Or your clients?

Is it talking about what they want? What drives them crazy? That they don’t know where to find a web designer, or that they’re worried that someone will rip them off? Or that their designer will be a diva?

Of course, you’re not really a diva. Here’s how to avoid looking like one and make your brochure more effective.

Explain what you do

Tell a story. Use as much (or as little) text and graphics as you need to tell it properly. Make what your product or service does personal. Remember what you’re really selling. Address their problems (where do I find a designer). Reassure them that you’re there to help (not hurt), and that you listen carefully.

Show the results

Describe how it helped other people (better yet, have them do it). Showcase other clients you’ve helped (and all the great things they say about you). Talk about them (not yourself).  Try the one-minute marketing test. Use their language. Tech stuff for techies, not for not for ma and ma consumer.

Why you

Because you specialize in hot tub installation (and that’s what they need), rather than a general contractor or plumber. Or, you’re the leader in zombie drawings (and they need storyboards for a scary movie).

Why them

In order for your promotional brochure to be effective, it has to go to the right people. The greatest tool ever for cleaning chimneys won’t sell to people without fireplaces.  Focus only on the people who fit your customer profile.  Not everybody, just the blue guys.

Next step

Make it easy to respond. Tell people what you want them to do (call, email, snail mail), and repeat it. The less friction there is, the smoother the transaction. Explain the process, so there are no surprises.

What do Baby Showers Have in Common with Marketing?

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Baby Shower Cupcakes

Image by clevercupcakes via Flickr

What does a baby shower have to do with marketing or identifying your customers’ needs?  Isn’t that just a chance to buy gifts, talk to your friends, and eat?

Not so fast.

A long time ago, I went to a friend’s baby shower. She’d just had a baby girl (who is now an adult).

All of her other friends got her lots of lacy dresses for the baby.  There was a bassinet full of bows.  It was a sea of pink, lacy, frilly, conventionally girly gifts.

Know your customer

I, on the other hand, got her something completely different. It was a sporty outfit from The Gap. I think it may have come with baby-sized sunglasses.

Why? Because I knew my “customer.” My friend just wasn’t a ruffles and lace kinda gal. She hated all those frills.

Her other friends got her what they liked. I got her something she would like.

On another occasion, I bought a then-colleague a baby outfit with an abstract purple and orange print. I hated it. She knew it too (my dislike of purple is legendary).  However, she loved it (and I knew she would).  She also appreciated that I got her something I knew she would like (even though I didn’t like it at all).

Appeal to them (not yourself)

It’s OK to do what you like if your audience is just like you (for example, you’re a geek marketing to other geeks). However, if you’re a geek marketing to lawyers, you’ll need to understand what lawyers want and need. You’ll have to learn to speak a bit of legalese, and watch your use of tech speak.

You may be excited about new server software. The lawyer just wants to know that her network will stop crashing. Sell the software as a solution to the crashing, not as super-cool new software with redundant backups and offsite mirroring.

See the difference?

How to identify customer needs and wants

In the case of my friend and colleague, I simply paid attention and listened.  For clients, your approach has to be a bit different.

First, start listening to their questions.  What comes up over and over about your product? Are there particular features that they like? What do they have trouble using?  Is there a new feature they’d like to see?

  • Try sending out a brief survey and ask them what they want.
  • Review the tech support questions you get and develop new features (or change old ones).
  • If you have a sign up process, go through it yourself. Identify any speed bumps your customers may be experiencing.
  • Use an ideal customer profile, to guide your decisions.  If you don’t have one, make one.  This will help focus your marketing too.

Know what they want, and give it to them. They’ll love you for it. They’ll stay longer too.

What Every Creative Should Know About Marketing

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Paint brushes

Image via Wikipedia

Starting a creative business is exciting. You’re full of ideas and energy. You want to make money. You’re passionate about what you’re doing. However, that’s not enough. Marketing your creative business requires a plan.

I just read something (sorry, can’t share details) by someone who set up his business without thinking through his marketing.

If you want your creative business to succeed, there are six key tips you should know about marketing before you open your doors, set up your web site, or start printing business cards.

What have you got?

What is it you’re selling? Illustrations? Web sites? Training programs? Be very clear and very specific about what it is you do. The kinds of illustrations, what sort of training you provide.

Who wants it?

This is your tribe. Your people. The group (large or small) that will buy your products.  For example, they might be startups with small budgets who need a simple website (or blog) set up quickly. Or, people who need an ebook designed and don’t have a graphics department. Know exactly who your “fish” are, and the problem of theirs (not yours) that you solve.

Why you?

The why is more important than the what. Why buy from you? People buy from Zappo’s because their service is ridiculously good. They don’t really deliver shoes. They deliver happiness.

Why them?

What connection do you have with your tribe? Are you passionate about what they do? Is there a problem they have that nobody else is addressing? (Jonathan Fields tells the story of a woman who loved yoga, but found that all the mats got slippery. She invented one that didn’t slide around and started selling it).

Where are they?

How do you find them? Once you know who your market is, how do you find your ideal client? Are they reading Wired or reading National Geographic ? And where are they physically located?

How do they get your product?

Buy it online? Pick it up in a store? Click on a link? Respond to an email message?

Figure all of this out before you spend one minute on social media or one cent on marketing.

What’s Your Edge?

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sharp knife imageIf you’re looking at a razor or a kitchen knife, an edge is important. A sharp edge will remove a beard or cut carrots. A dull one will cut you (because you push harder).

Having a sharp, clear edge is important in business too. It’s what makes you different, worth talking about. The knife in the picture is memorable because of the shape and the handle – it LOOKS sharp.

For example, the Shake Shack in New York City (expanding soon nationwide) is “fast food” with a difference. The beef is ground daily. the lettuce and tomatoes are local, and the beer is brewed just for them. Their edge: local and handmade.

Henry Ford’s edge was to use an assembly line to make cars quickly. They still do. Rolls Royce, on the other hand makes cars very slowly. A Ford takes hours to assemble. A Rolls requires about three months.

An edge can be faster, slower, much safer (Volvo’s edge), the most dangerous, special treatment, great service (Zappos), terrible service (the No-Name restaurant in Boston – where they make you wait a long time, crowd you in with strangers, and tell you what to eat).

What’s your edge?

Image thanks to: brenda starr
(i) by Seth Godin

Tomorrow:  cool tools!