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 Be Remarkable and Get More Clients

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

A web design firm was having trouble getting more clients. They asked the following question on a marketing forum:

Our local area is full of other web design firms. How can we effectively market ourselves without a price war?

They got several answers to their question, including attending Chamber of Commerce events, using client referrals, and using social media. All good ideas.

If they really want to stand out, they may need a little extra something (just in case other web designers in town are at those same events)!

They’ll need to do something that makes their firm different. Worth talking about.

Four ways to be remarkable

1) Create a progress dashboard so that clients can go to your site and instantly see the status of their project

2) Give each new client a t-shirt with their newly-designed logo on it (this time, make it big!)

3) Hold a design of the week/month contest. Visitors to your site vote designs up or down. The winner gets a donation to their favorite charity.

4) Offer a work with what you have service. Refresh the site, rather than a complete do-over. You can offer this as a cheaper service, without compromising your regular rates.

It doesn’t have to be revolutionary. Remarkable can be small.

What else could they do? And what are you doing in your own businesses to stand out? Share your ideas in the comments.

A Quick Easy Secret Copywriting Tip Anyone Can Use

Posted on January 27, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Go look at your Web site’s home page in a new window. Or, pull out your company brochure.

It’s OK, I’ll wait.

Read the first two or three paragraphs.

Do they pull you in? Make you want to read more? Or, is the best opening sentence buried?

Here’s an example, from the completely fictional Wow Wow Web Design company.

After the initial consultation phase of your project, Wow Wow Web Design will create your web site using professional design tools. There are people who will offer to produce graphics for you at highly discounted rates. However, the quality of their design may be poor.

A badly designed web site can have a negative impact on your site’s effectiveness and the money you earn from it. Whether you need a big web site or a small one, we can provide all your design needs.

Easy copywriting tip

What’s the tip? Look at the paragraph again.

The best sentence is buried at the beginning of the second paragraph. Move that up and see how much better it reads. Now it’s telling you right away how bad website design could hurt your business. Once you recognize a problem, you’ll want to know how to fix it.

A badly designed web site can have a negative impact on your site’s effectiveness and the money you earn from it.

After the initial consultation phase of your project, Wow Wow Web Design will create your web site using professional design tools. There are people who will offer to produce graphics for you at highly discounted rates. However, the quality of their design may be poor.

Whether you need a big web site or a small one, we can provide all your design needs.

There are several other things wrong with this copy. Do you know what they are?

Find out here.

Image: spekulator

Earn More Money by Giving Free Gifts

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Publishers, including The New York Times, Hachette, and Penguin) are panicking over e-books. They’re resisting the Kindle, trying to force DRM, and retain end-to-end control over pricing.

However, according (ironically) to an article published in The Times itself on Jan. 22, 2010, other publishers have decided to embrace e-books – and find ways to make money by actually giving books away.

It’s part of what Seth Godin calls the “gift” culture in his new book, Linchpin (plain old link). Gifts bring us closer, and free can actually earn more money.

How does this work?

HarperCollins and Scholastic, among others, are offering free downloads of books by new or little-known authors for a limited time. The idea is that if the readers like the free book, they’ll want to come back and buy more books by the same writer.

Earn money with free

For example, Samhain publishing offered free digital versions of a romance novel. It was downloading 26,897 times. Meanwhile, sales of the author’s two other books went from 97 and 119 to 2,666 and 3,297 respectively. Not huge numbers, true, but found money for both publisher and author.

You can do it too

This works in other businesses too. Give away the information and posts in your blog for free. Offer e-books, newsletters, free articles, and white papers as downloads. Let them spread. Give readers permission to re-post them and share them (with credit). Spread your ideas.

Then, add paid how-to workbooks, bundle posts with extra information and create paid e-books, add video or audio and you’ve got a workshop. The more specific, personal, and unique the service, the higher the value, and the more it costs.

Are you using free information to make money? Share your stories in the comments.

Image: mydogsighs

When is it Smarter To Have Two Web Sites?

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

Why do you have a web site anyway?

Once, they were somewhat exotic, but now most businesses consider them as necessary as lights and telephones.

Why?

Your web site is your introduction to your customers. Your web site should reflect your niche(s) and appeal to “your people,” (the kinds of clients you want to attract) rather than trying to appeal to everyone.

Are multiple niches OK?

It’s OK if you have more than one business niche, or more than one business, as long as they fit together. You can start with marketing to brides and expand to new moms. Or work with both elementary schools and law firms. Elementary schools and law firms have little in common, but it works if you’re providing the same service to both (say, IT consulting or graphic design work).

However, there are some things that just don’t belong on the same web page (or even the same web site).

Divorce lawyer and bait shop?

Do not offer your services as both divorce lawyer and bait shop on the same web site.

Sauerkraut and ice cream are both great. Just don’t mix them together and expect the result to taste good.

People seeking a divorce have different problems and questions on their minds than people who want to go fishing. One needs to know about separating assets, possibly alimony or child custody. The other is interested in fishing line, rods, reels, and which bait attracts a particular kind of fish.

If you’ve got two wildly different businesses, separate them. Have one site for the bait shop, and another for the legal services. It’s not only confusing to put them together, it’s poor marketing.

Domains are cheap. You can buy one for $10. Hosting is cheap too. Try Hostgator (use this link and I get a reward).

Get an opinion

Think you need two sites? Not sure? Post your niches in the comments and find out. I’ll answer your questions there.

Photo:swanksalot

Secrets of Successful Niche Marketing

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

I’ve been writing quite a few posts about niches, and important it is to concentrate your focus (rather than scattering your efforts and your money). Here are some of the best posts, gathered all in one place.