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.

Five Ways to Increase Web Response Rates

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

1. People Will Click Everywhere

Web visitors are like Chicago voters, they click early and often. People will click on buttons, graphics, logos, anything that might be a button. Give them lots of places to click, and track the clicks you get so you can tell which ones are the “hot” spots.

2. Ask for the Sale Repeatedly

Make it as easy to order as possible. You’ll probably get the most clicks from the top few buttons, but add more (especially if you’re using long copy that requires readers to scroll down several times to read all of it). People may be ready to buy 1/4 of the way down, or 3/4 of the way down the page. Don’t make them work to find an order button.

3. Test the Wording on Your Buttons

Submit or Subscribe sound too impersonal and machine-like. Instead, try something that more clearly tells readers what they’re getting: Get Your Marketing Tips.

4. Keep Your Forms Short

Only ask for the information you absolutely need. It should be clear why you need it (such as an e-mail address and a name to send a newsletter, or a shipping address for a product). If you need to qualify leads to pass on to your sales staff, ask questions they’ll need to know. You don’t want them wasting time following up leads that aren’t worth the trouble.

5. Use Big Buttons

Don’t hide the order form or the product photo. Make them clear and obvious. A white paper or newsletter offer in tiny 9 point type won’t get clicked on.

Photo: cheesepicklescheese

Why Paper is Better Than E-mail

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Chris Brogan recently pointed out a marketing tool that will make your customers smile. He bought a book and inside was a card thanking him for his purchase, telling him what other kinds of books the publisher produced, and inviting him to get updates on future titles as they are published.

As Chris pointed out, it’s a thank you, gives helpful information about the publisher, and includes a call to action.

Since it’s in your new book, you’re likely to look at it and read it. Asking for his email address might have seemed intrusive (a way to send more marketing material). However, a card (or better yet, a bookmark) is an extra gift. People delete unwanted emails without thinking twice. Paper seems more important and personal, and people tend to save it. You can only see email, but you can see, touch, and sometimes (if it’s fresh from the printer) smell paper and ink.

Old cataloger’s trick: make your catalog slightly smaller than your competitors’. People tend to keep them, and stack them. Guess which goes on top?

Photo:shaun

Are You Networking or Spamming?

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

I got an email from LinkedIn Requests yesterday. Thinking someone wanted to connect with me, or wanted advice, I opened it. Turned out to be essentially a commercial. Someone I didn’t know, and had no contact with, sent me three paragraphs describing his business, how wonderful it was, and telling me to contact him. He went on and on about his shipping and logistics company – telling me how I could save money and all about his innovative ideas.

Trouble is, I rarely ship packages, particularly large ones. Nearly everything I do is electronic: web copy, brochures, letters are all uploaded via FTP or emailed. No shipping.

The email was impersonal, irrelevant, and unanticipated. I have no need for this person’s services, and frankly, I was annoyed.

So, before you hit send on LinkedIn or “friend” someone, think about it from their point of view. Is this for me? Or for the other person? Who gets helped by this?

Photo: the fang monster

The Truth About Internet Marketing

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Someone on LinkedIn said that Internet Marketing is “new”, “there’s never been anything like it.” It’s true that there are lots of new tools, such as SEO, pay per click, social networking, e-mail, or even e-bay that weren’t available 20 years ago.

However, the basic principles of marketing haven’t changed, only the means and the speed. Regardless of whether you’re using print or pixels, you still need to reach the right people. If you sell custom car parts for racing enthusiasts, you have to reach out to people in that particular tribe.

You must then establish a conversation with them. Talk to them about their interests, their problems, and their enthusiasm for racing. Show that you share that enthusiasm. Gain their trust.

Then offer them something of interest (free newsletter with sources for custom paint jobs, new parts or tools on the market), a discount coupon, etc.

Finally, ask for action (join here, call this number).

Photo: web success diva