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 Secret Identity?

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Do you have a secret identity? You may think your business is straightforward: you may appear to be a mild-mannered animator, but what you’re really selling is memories, laughter, and happiness.

What are you really selling?

Kodak used to sell film and slide carousels – but they were really in the business of selling memories and nostalgia.

The average auto body shop looks like they’re in the car repair business, but they’re not really selling mufflers and tires, they’re selling peace of mind.

Water filter companies think they sell filters and pumps (it’s really safety).

Graphic designers think their business is colors and images (it’s really sales).

Are exhibit designers in the building and design business? No, they’re in the sales business too – to attract more customers, visitors, and attention at trade shows. They’re selling, buzz, excitement, and pizazz.

Video producers sell engagement and attention (not words and pictures).

What business are you really in?

Photo:chanchan222

5 Benefits of Building an Online Community

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online community mapRemember yesterday’s post about the worst marketing email ever? The marketer who framed his pitch in terms of what he’d get (a great vacation) and offered his customers a measly $25 gift card in return for their referrals?

What if he’d built a community instead? According to Marketing Sherpa (7/2/09), creating a place where your customers can interact with each other (as well as with you) can have unexpected benefits.

Benefit #1: Better Customer Support

Depending on your business, you can offer additional documentation, a Q&A forum, or tips on how to use your product. Imagine a design studio that explained ways to save money on logo design costs, or a videographer who offered a checklist of the top ten questions you should ask before you hire her (or anyone else).

Benefit #2: Advance Community Input on New Products

The ability to ask community members to review early-stage new products, essentially building your own set of beta testers. You can match features with needs, and steer clear of offerings that nobody wants.

Benefit #3: Encourage Contributions

Allowing members to share how they use your product. Let members post their own questions (and answer them). You can also step in and offer helpful advice (skip the sales pitch, just solve problems).

Benefit #4: Look Good to Search Engines

Regular updates boost your site’s search engine ranking, and generate keyword-rich content.

Benefit #5: Fill the Sales Pipeline

The interaction allows prospects to learn more about your company and your products in a friendly environment. This will boost trust, increase your credibility, and generate leads.

Build the relationship first, then you can ask for the sale.

Are You Selling to Yourself or Your Customers?

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What do these three companies have in common:

1) An environmental engineering firm that wants to put a cartoon frog on their site because it stands for a religious acronym.

2) A real estate broker who has filled his Web site with his religious beliefs.

3) A car company brochure for a new commuter truck emphasizing the “Duratec 2.0 liter dual overhead cam” and the “split-rear doors [which] open at a standard 180 degrees or an optional 255 degrees”. (The truck sounds great for deliveries, once you translate the features into benefits; more on that at The New York Times business blog)

What’s the connection? They’re all focusing on what THEY like, rather than what’s important to their customers.

The engineering firm’s clients probably aren’t interested in that poor, lost frog. They just want to know that the company can save them from worrying about water contamination, environmental hazards, and lawsuits.

The real estate broker’s customers want to find a home they can fall in love with (and afford), not a sermon or indoctrination in religious beliefs they may not share.

And, car buyers would undoubtedly prefer to be told what that overhead cam will do for them (it gives the truck extra pep, so it goes fast and handles well). The angle on the doors means that they swing out of your way, so its easier to load or unload the vehicle.

That ad for a coal sifter looks pretty silly in the 21st century, but if you click on it, you’ll see that it does have clear benefits to the consumer (save money and keep your clothes clean). Unfortunately, some modern-day companies have forgotten this.

People buy when you show them how your product helps them (not how it helps you).

Photo: Library of Congress

5 Things That Drive People Away from Your Web Site

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fleeing1. Autoplay video.

Let your visitors make the decision whether they want to watch or not. The videos can also slow down your site.

2. Pages that load slowly.

Cut the Flash presentations and the splash pages with “enter” buttons; they slow people down. People want information, not commercials. The exception to this is if you’re a filmmaker, film editor, or web video producer. In that case, you’ll need Flash to show off your skills. Just make it a voluntary click (not an auto play), and put it on a clips page (rather than the home page).

3. Sign in forms.

Don’t make it harder for visitors to find information. If you want to keep paid content separate, or need a user login for accounts, that’s fine, but don’t try to capture information from everyone who visits. You’ll drive people away.

4. Hard to find contact information.

If it looks as if you’re hiding, your trust level will go down. Put your address, email, phone number, etc. where people can find it easily.

5. Poor usability.

If visitors have trouble finding what they want, and broken site search, they’ll leave in frustration.

Photo: orin obtiglot

Are You a Problem Solver or a Pitch Man?

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Peter Tran (on Marketing Professionals Know-how Exchange Forum) wanted to follow up with the leads his company had gathered at a conference. He wrote this email and posted it to the forum for review:

“Hello Mr/Ms. Blank,

I am Peter Tran from _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ . You spoke with one of our representatives at the Sapphire Conference and I would like to follow up with you regarding your SAP Security. As you learned at the conference, our security design strategy and products can help you reduce security administration costs, improve Sarbanes – Oxley compliance, simplifies and streamlines approvals, and stops fraud. Our tools will save you money and make your job 20 times easier.

I will contact you tomorrow just in case this email does not find its way to you. If you have any immediate questions, please do not hesitate to reach me a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . In the mean time you can visit our website at www._ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _.com. Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Respectfully,
Peter Tran”

My first thought was that it sounded more like a phone script than an email.
But the real problem is that it’s a sales pitch, instead of a problem-solving pitch. I don’t know what subject line he was planning to include, but why would a prospect open this?

It’s just another email from a pesky salesman trying to sell something. He hasn’t given a good reason why the recipient would want to talk to him, or even given them a choice about it. He’s going to call tomorrow (convenient or not). Ouch!

Trust First, Pitch Later

It’s not clear what his product does, or why anyone would want to buy it. He’s got some buzzwords that sound vaguely financial (Sarbanes-Oxley, stopping fraud), but they’re buried and there’s no clear benefit.

Give the Prospect Clear Reasons to Talk to You

Pique their interest so they WANT to talk to you. How does it make their jobs 20 times easier? Does it save time? Minimize paperwork? Reduce the stress of complying with complicated financial reporting requirements?

Offer them something they’ll find useful, such as a special (free) report: “Cut Your Sarbanes-Oxley Paperwork by 25%”

Market with Permission

Get consent on the date and time. Tomorrow may be convenient for you, but not for them. Offer a choice. Gauge their interest before wasting their time (and yours).

They have to know, like, and trust you first, before they’ll buy.

Photo: http://http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramus/3249196137/  bramus