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 Find Your Ideal Client

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100_percentDo you have an ideal client? Do you know why you need one? Or how to find your ideal client?

It’s one of the first questions a marketer or copywriter will ask.

Do you know the answer? If not, you should.

Why do you need to find your ideal client anyway?

Because you need to think like a fisherman. Decide what kind of clients you want to catch. Then you’ll know where to go look for them, how to attract their attention and what services to offer them. The closer your prospect is to your ideal client, the better.

What kinds of people do you enjoy working with?

Think about the problems you solve. If you’re a web developer, you solve the problems of people who want web sites, and don’t have them. People at large corporations? Solo entrepreneurs? Musicians? Are they creative risk-takers? Or more conservative?  Fit your prospects to your personality.  If you’re a creative person, full of ideas, and a risk-taker, accountants may not be your best choice.

How much can you spend to reach them?

There’s no sense trying to find clients with a splashy Super Bowl ad campaign if you’re a small business. Think about the resources you do have. There are inexpensive or even free ways to promote your business.

Can they afford you?

It’s no use trying to sell a $10,000 solution to a small business that earns $100,000 a year. They can’t afford it. To attract smaller companies, offer less expensive options, or payment plans.

Why you?

Do you specialize in a particular industry or offer specialized services? Pick a niche . If you design web sites, set yourself apart from every other web designer. Be the designer who specializes in small business web sites or the designer who does sites for independent bookstores.

Do they want what you sell?

Are you offering something people want? Is there a big enough market for it? Think about the kinds of challenges the company faces (outsourcing, increasing market share, learning to use social media) and how your services help them solve those problems.

It doesn’t have to be a multi-million dollar problem; it could be helping someone who is overwhelmed with paperwork and needs a virtual assistant.

Who is the decisionmaker?

Are you talking to the head fish of the family? (OK, so I’m stretching this metaphor until it nearly breaks) Aim your marketing and your discussions at the person who has the authority to buy your product or service.

Need more help figuring this out?  Download this free ideal client worksheet.

Image: Iamwahid

Could Your Customer Service Be a Nightmare?

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frustrationI just escaped from customer service hell. I was on the phone with the bank trying to make a simple transfer of funds from account A to account B.

Should be easy. It wasn’t. They’ve been taken over by another bank, changed their prompts, and added more steps. My pin number was messed up and I couldn’t make the transfer.

So I called the 800 number, and sat on hold, typing as I listened to musak, wondering what happened to the friendly, helpful bank I used to do business with.

I had to wait and wait, but finally got connected to someone who made my transfer for me. Next up, fixing the pin number.

The rep said, you need to talk to the branch (and transferred me). The branch said, you need to call the 800 number. Argghh!!!

It took a couple more rounds, a call back, resetting the passwords to the default, and then calling and resetting each account to straighten it all out.

The lessons for marketing

  • Make it easy for your customers to interact with you.
  • Don’t add extra steps to transactions. The fewer buttons, fewer fields and fewer forms, the better.
  • Double-check your work. Test everything before it goes live.
  • Mistakes do happen. If you make one, admit the error and fix it.
  • Don’t send people round and round from person to person. If you don’t know the answer, offer to find out, and call the customer back.
Photo:basykes

How to Safely Manage a Marketing Crisis

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tigerLet’s face it. We all mess up. Of course, some transgressions are worse than others. For proof, ask a certain famous golfer.

However, whatever your mistake, there’s a right way and a wrong way to handle it.

If you make a mistake, admit it. Do it right away.

Don’t hide – talk about it. Tell your client you understand why they’re upset. Listen to their complaint. Apologize. Then, tell them what you’re going to do to fix it.

The cover-up is always worse than the crime (see ref: Watergate, Union Carbide, Iran-Contra). Hiding makes it worse.

Add something to the original specs to make the client happy.

They’ll understand. They may even become a bigger fan!

Image: digital art

What Do Web Sites Have in Common with Furniture?

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chair

Photo: Kia Abell

Ever have this happen?

You get a new prospect who wants a web site. You send a proposal.

Then you get a call saying they don’t want to pay your rates.  Now you have to justify your freelance fees.

Why?

Because they (or their neighbor’s nephew) made a template site on Yahoo! or Network Solutions in 4 hours. They never made a site before, but it was sooo easy. And they can’t understand why your estimate for making one was 6-8 weeks.

Or, you send them a quote and they call complaining that you’re charging $5,000 for a site when they can get one for $12 a month when they sign up with Yahoo! or any of a hundred other do-it-yourself hosts.

Chairs by Ikea? Or by Frank Lloyd Wright?

Explain to them that a template web site is like an Ikea chair. It’s all pre-cut, sanded, packaged, and polished. It comes with instructions. All you have to do is put the pieces together. Ikea makes thousands of them, all the same. They save costs on volume, and on passing the assembly time and labor on to the consumer. Perfectly fine, if that’s what you want.

One of Many? Or something unique?

A “real” web site, however, is more like a custom-built piece of furniture. The designer starts with the wood, and then creates a site that is unique. Instead of pre-made pieces, you can make the arms bigger, or straighter. You can add claw feet, or change the straight back to a Windsor back. You can pick oak instead of pine. Use a dark stain rather than a light one.

Rearranging the furniture

And, if you decide to move the chair from the living room into the dining room, nobody can stop you. A template site can’t be moved. The design, the colors,, the whole thing is the property of the host.

If you outgrow your house, you can buy a bigger one. If you outgrow Yahoo! small business, have a disagreement, or want features Yahoo! doesn’t have — you’re stuck. They own the design, the images, everything. You don’t.

Explain that your work is customized, special, and unique; they’ll understand why it takes longer to produce and why it’s more valuable.

If they don’t, you probably didn’t want them as clients anyway.

One Thing You Should Never Do When You’re Using Social Media

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shouting

Image: Bashed

Say you walk into a room full of people. It’s an event, or a party of some kind.

What’s the first thing you do?

Would you loudly announce yourself? Start thumping your chest and bellowing, “I sing a song of myself!”

Probably not (well, hopefully not!).

No, instead you listen, smile, maybe try the dip.

Right? Social media etiquette isn’t all that different from face-to-face etiquette. Just because you’re not actually face-to-face doesn’t mean you should completely forget your manners.

Be polite

When you join a forum or a Facebook group, listen for a while. Introduce yourself. Comment on some ongoing discussions and conversations. Offer useful advice to people who are looking for help.

Don’t yell

People didn’t join the group just to hear your thoughts (or to get a sales pitch). Don’t spam. Don’t be “that guy.” You know, the one with the loud voice, who goes on and on about himself.

Nobody wants to hear a monologue, unless it’s Jon Stewart’s. Even comedians stop and listen for feedback (is the audience laughing and smiling or throwing rotten veggies?).

Be helpful

If someone asks a question on their post, and you can answer, help them out.  Share others’ posts, not just your own.  If someone leaves a comment or asks a question on one of your posts, post a response.

Don’t sell all the time

Nobody came to Facebook to hear your new product pitch all day, every day.  Mix it up. Post information that’s useful, valuable, or even just fun.  Show your human side.  Share your original Star Wars action figure collection.  Ask how to make a mean margarita.

Don’t go hashtag happy

Hashtags can be a great way  to find multiple posts on a topic, or a way to see what topics are trending.  Don’t overdo it.  I’ve seen posts with ten or twelve of them. One or two is plenty!