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.

7 Reasons Why People Buy: The Emotional Triggers that Drive Sales

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hand holding canadian money

Image:  rick

Why do people buy things?  Or choose one product over another?  Is it logic? Or is it emotional triggers marketing?

Denny Hatch said (in Target Marketing 4/10/10) that the best way to get people to buy something is to offer exclusivity (an emotional trigger).

It’s true that if you offer something that can’t be duplicated, because it’s so personal, or remarkable, then you don’t have to worry as much about price, service, or competition.

Someone can always undercut you on price or beat you on quality.  Service is a bit harder to copy.  Not every company is willing to go as far as Zappo’s or Lands’ End in making sure the customer is happy.

However, he missed quite a few other emotional reasons that people buy.  Here are seven more.

1) Safety and peace of mind

If price were the primary issue when buying a car, then the cheapest car would do.  Car buyers want more than just price.  They want safety and reliability.

2) Convenience

Buy online, without leaving home, driving, getting on a bus, or using any gas.  Or, stopping at the quick-mart instead of going out of your way to the supermarket to pick up a quart of milk.

3) To look better

Women buy lipstick to look better and to feel better (it’s a relatively inexpensive indulgence).  Nobody needs lipstick. Whiter teeth won’t improve your health or your teeth – they will make you look and feel more attractive.

4) Stories

Tell a story about your business or your product that connects with the people reading your post or your sales page.   Paris Hilton in Beverly Hills isn’t that interesting; we expect her to be there, doing whatever it is she does.  Hillbillies who struck oil and moved to Beverly Hills? That stands out!

5) Social proof

Testimonials, case studies, and endorsements increase trust.  If other people recommend something, especially people you know, or have heard of, you’re more likely to buy it.

6) Events

Two words:  Mothers Day.  Some more words: birthdays, anniversaries, end of the year, beginning of the year.

7) Statistical proof

Results from other people who have used the product, statistics showing an improvement in sales or income.

What other reasons can you think of?  What was the last big purchase you made?  How did you make a decision?

Powerful Business to Business Marketing Strategies from All My Children

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bar of soap image

Image thanks to morguefile

If you’re not familiar with “All My Children,” it’s a long-running American soap opera. It’s not normally associated with business to business marketing strategies.

Most posts with a title like this one would compare characters in the show, and how they behave, to some aspect of marketing.

This isn’t one of those posts.

The relationship between soap operas and business to business marketing

Instead, I’m going to talk about how soap operas work, how they keep their audience for years and years, and how you can apply those same marketing strategies to your small business.

Soap operas started with closer ties to marketing than you may realize. The program was incidental. The real reason for the show wasn’t entertainment at all. It was so that the sponsors and producers could sell.. soap!

So, it was important (for the sponsors) that viewers returned every day to watch the next episode. In order to do that, they needed a way to end each day’s story without really ending it.

Use a cliffhanger

The soaps often used cliffhangers, ending a day’s episode at a shocking or scandalous point. You had to tune in the next day to find out what happened. Each show would move the story forward, but only a little bit, so you had to keep coming back for more.

They also used overlapping stories. One day an affair, the next day, a terrible illness. To find out if the character recovered, you had to tune in again. Same thing if you had to know whether the cheating spouse would be discovered.

Make your own ongoing story

For example, set up a series of blog posts. This can be a five-part series on getting funding. Or, a ten part series on launching a new software app.

Or, create an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a message that’s sent automatically from your email box. It could be a reply to an inquiry (we got your message, we’ll get back to you!), a confirmation of an order, or a series of lessons (an e-course) delivered over the course of several days or weeks.

The continuing story (or series of posts, or classes) keep your readers loyal. They come back to find out what happens next or to get the rest of the lessons.

(I’ll talk more about using autoresponders effectively tomorrow – see, it’s a cliffhanger! You have to come back to find out the details).

Stir up controversy

Soap operas are infamous for creating controversial characters who commit adultery, disappear, come back from the dead (seemingly) or suddenly gain a secret twin. What if you did something that seemed outrageous?  (Be careful with this, as  it can backfire!).

What other aspects of soap operas can be adapted to marketing? Scandals?  Outrageous stunts? Have you tried any of them?  How well did they work?

What Every Small and Medium Size Business Ought to Know About Niches

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large niche image

What is your niche market? What does it look like? Can you see a picture of it in your mind?

Is it grand and glorious, with padded couches, like the one in the photo?

Is it plainer, simpler and very narrowly focused? Or somewhere in-between?

Here’s more on what a niche is, why it’s important, and how to find one.

How to Narrow Your Marketing and Improve Your Results

Is Your Niche Too Big?

Does Your Business Have a Niche?

When is it Smarter to Have Two Web Sites?

Image thanks to: hamed

Remarkable Can Be Small (Part 3)

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bouquet of flowers imageThis is the third in a continuing series on how small differences can make you stand out from your competition in a big way.

The first two posts are here and here and the final two are here and here.

There was a big storm in the northeast last weekend. Bob Poole had major damage to his house; he said he felt like he was in The Wizard of Oz. He called several companies to come over and assess the damage. The first one arrived with a bouquet of flowers. He said, “Nobody else brought flowers. I bet they spend over $1,000 a year on flowers. They will more than recover that on this one job.”

Here’s another example. I recently wrote a guest post about writing great headlines. I suggested using magazines to get ideas for headlines, and gave a few examples of how to change the headlines so they worked for your business.

A small thing, but it made a big difference to Kiesha, who said she’d read many, many articles on writing headlines, but “this is the first that actually takes the time to do a brief, yet highly effective comparison to demonstrate how to actually make those magazine headlines apply to blogging! Awesome!”

What small steps could you take to be remarkable? Or, are you already doing something that makes you stand out? Tell us in the comments.

Flowers compliments of hello-julie

What Can Birthday Cakes Tell Us About Marketing?

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Why all the cakes?

They’re not there to make you hungry.

They’re there to make a point about marketing personalization strategies.

Three friends, three cakes

My invisible (that’s invisible, not imaginary!) friend Megan had a birthday in January. I couldn’t be there in person, since she’s in Austin and I’m in New York City, so I got her some cyber cupcakes.

Two weeks ago, Jill, another faraway friend had a birthday too, so I sent her chocolate cake.

This Monday, it was my friend Bronwyn’s turn. Her cake was elegant and decorated with flowers.

A funky, creative friend got cupcakes that matched her personality, an extra-chocolatey cake for my chocolate-loving friend, and an elegant cake for the one who’s a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Give them what they want

Aside from wishing my friends happy birthday, I made choices based on my friend’s preferences, not my own.

Do the same with your potential customers. Create an image in your mind of what they like, need, or want. You can even create a series of biographies. Name them. Draw up a profile of what they’re like and the kinds of information they’re looking for.

To each, her own cake

For example, if you’re a blog consultant, you might have some prospects who are complete beginners and don’t quite know the difference between a blog and a blog post.

Other readers may already have blogs, but want some tips on how to improve them (attract more traffic, get more comments).

A third group might be more interested in technical information – like tips for using PHP (blog programming language) or developing plugins.

This is especially important if you have more than one niche. Create content, products, and services that meet what your specific audience wants, needs, and can pay for.

Do you think this is important? Do you have buyer bios? Or, have you asked your readers for their opinions? Tell me what you think.  And, which cake is your favorite?

Cake images, in order, thanks to:
morguefile, morguefile, and tim parkinson

OK: Confession. Bronwyn, if you’re reading this, you probably noticed that’s a different cake. When I went back to the cake I sent you, I found that it was OK to share, but not OK to use commercially. So, I had to improvise. Hope you like this one too.