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.

Can Your Marketing Pass This Test?

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Go to your Web site. Print out your home page. Now, take a pen and cross out every mention of your company’s name, products, or services. After you’re finished, substitute the name of one of your competitors instead.

Now, reread the whole page. Does it still make sense?

If it does, your marketing isn’t as effective as it could be. Generic marketing isn’t effective (it’s broken). It won’t lead anyone to choose your product or service over your competitors’.

Saying that you offer “high quality” or “fast response” or “creative design” isn’t enough. You have to differentiate yourself in some way.

How?

Blockbuster is failing, but there are video stores specializing in horror movies or Japanese anime that are thriving. Netflix succeeds by not only stocking movies that Blockbuster never heard of, but by emphasizing local favorites. They also create lists of movies they think you’ll like based on past picks and preferences (for me, they’re currently recommending cerebral TV shows, dark political movies based on real life, and suspenseful crime dramas).

A dry cleaner is a dry cleaner, but a green dry cleaner or one that picks up early in the morning and delivers late at night is different.

A trade show exhibit designer is generic, but one that produces exhibits that can be set up and broken down in 10 minutes is worth remembering (and talking about).

Go, test your site now. Let me know what you found.

Photo: ccarlstead

Freebie Friday: Special Report on Marketing That Works

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freebie fridayEach year, the editors of Marketing Sherpa ask their readers to share stories of what worked (or didn’t) in the past year. Hundreds of marketers send in reports about their campaigns. This year, topics cover the gamut from old school direct mail and advertising to Web 2.0 social networks, paid search, and mobile marketing.

There are tips on personalizing email campaigns, doubling open and click-through rates, whether social networking can really build your business, and when to start a blog.

Plus, real results of campaigns for lead generation, landing page tests, metrics, customer service, and b-to-b marketing.

Get the full Marketing Sherpa Wisdom 2009 report

A Simple Way to Stay in Touch with Your Customers

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Staying at “top of mind” with your customers and prospects can be hard.  They’re busy; you’re busy.  You do want them to remember you (and that project you just bid on), but you don’t want to a pest.

I just read a book by Bob Poole called Listen First, Sell Later which reminded me that I wanted to share an easy way to stay in contact with clients and prospects.  All you have to do is get some note cards and write a handwritten thank you note.  If your handwriting is terrible, you can get a font made that looks like handwriting.  Bob recommended FontGod.

Say thank you to your customers for:

  • continuing to give you their business
  • a suggestion or comment on how to improve your service
  • compliments on how well you did
  • referring business to you

Thank your contacts/prospects:

  • after a trade show, when you send the information they requested
  • when they turn you down (sometimes, this can lead to business down the road).  It stands out, it’s unexpected, and it’s gracious.

And yes, I sent Bob a thank you note.  I’d also like to thank you for reading this blog.

Freebie Friday is tomorrow.

Photo: tracy hunter

Can a Business be Vain?

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Many years ago, Bell Atlantic yellow pages ran a series of ads putting humorous twists on otherwise ordinary businesses and services. The ad for “Civil Engineers” featured burly men in striped overalls and train engineer caps sitting daintily on chintz couches, sipping tea and being elaborately polite to each other.

Another ad for “vanity cases” had a woman chattering on and on about her job, her house, her car and then saying, “enough about me, what do you think of my dress?” It’s funny and memorable, but there’s also an important marketing lesson.

Like the woman in the vanity case ad, many companies fall into the trap of talking about themselves too much. Or, they describe their businesses in ways that are so general that they’re meaningless.

To stand out, you have to well, stand out. Saying that your products are “the highest quality” or that you “offer the most creative ideas on the planet”, won’t do. Instead, say something that makes you different and special.

Frame your pitch in terms that address your customers’ problems (and your solutions). What’s their headache, and what kind of painkiller do you have?

Set aside “what” (trade show exhibits, furniture store, packing and shipping supplies) and focus on “why”. Why you?

Because your customers get 18% more leads; your furniture company guarantees delivery in 5 days; or your specially constructed packing materials are 37% lighter and save customers 15% on shipping costs.

If you build exhibits for trade shows, emphasize the special construction that allows your customers to set up or break down your exhibits in only 10 minutes.

Or, what if you were a publisher who bundled paper and electronic versions of your books together for only $3 more than the hardcover version alone. It’s a good way to get an incremental sale (only $3 extra for two books instead of one), and it adds value (the second book is practically free). Practically free books?! Where do I sign up?

How do you stand out? Share what you’re doing here.

Photo:
not so good photography

What You Ought to Know About Brand Campaigns

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new and improvedWhen advertisers talk about “brand awareness” or “branding” campaigns, they mean ads that don’t sell directly, but instead try to generate interest in their product (or brand). The idea is that more advertising and more repetition will create a stronger recall of the product, and (with luck) eventually generate more sales.

Sometimes, however, this can go terribly wrong. I was watching the baseball game the other day and wanted to scream. My team won, but the broadcast was driving me mad.

There were ads everywhere. The announcers kept telling me about coffee and office supplies. Then, the camera would zoom in on a sign for luxury cars or insurance.

Quiz questions were sponsored by a tea company or another car manufacturer. The crawl at the bottom of the screen (which usually shows out-of-town sports scores) was replaced by more pitches for office supplies. There were pop-ups for other programs and the “regular” commercials too.

Then, I turned on the news and saw that the local news sports scores were sponsored by a phone company (whose logo was everywhere). Later, Lester Holt of NBC was forced to recite what was essentially an ad for a Farrah Fawcett program airing later that night.

ARGGHHH!!!

I don’t drink much coffee. I don’t own a car (sorry car companies), and I prefer other brands of tea.

More interrupting, more advertising, bigger billboards — that’s not promotion that’s aggravation. Give people what they want; not what you want.

If it’s not personal or relevant it’s just clutter and noise. All those companies weren’t really talking to me; they were just jumping up and down, waving their arms, and yelling, hoping somebody would notice them (and calling it a brand awareness campaign). I confess I’ve never had much enthusiasm for brand awareness (being a direct marketer), but if you truly want people to be aware of your brand, do it in a way that interacts with them. Give them something of value (not just yourself). And, don’t try to bribe them either.

A few days after the baseball game, I saw a car ad which seemed to be saying that they would pay new car buyers to text, tweet, and Digg about their product. Buy our car, it said, and we’ll pay you to use social networking to talk about our cars. True viral marketing and social networking work when they’re motivated by genuine enthusiasm for the product, not greed.

scott feldstein