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.

Why Following the Rules Can Be a Bad Idea

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My dad owns several small apartment buildings.  With the price of energy rising, he decided to replace the incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs (CFB).  It cut the electric bill in half and he was delighted…until the fire marshal came.

The marshal insisted that there had to be two bulbs (in case the first one burned out). Dad pointed out that CFB bulbs last much longer than the standard kind, and are less likely to burn out.  It didn’t matter.  The rules said two bulbs.  So, he had to replace the bulbs (again).. and the electric bill is back up.  A waste of time, effort, money, and energy.

What does this have to do with marketing?  Ask yourself, are you doing something because “it’s the rules” or because it’s what you’ve always done? Or, are you doing it because it brings in more money, gets more traffic, or helps your clients?

A Quick Way to Get More Sales

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In April 2007, B to B magazine reported the results of a study showing that 91% of advertisers fall to include a call to action in their ads. So, if nobody is using them, why do you need one? And what is a call to action anyway?

A call to action is just asking someone to do something. It tells people what to do in order to get your product or more information. It can be as simple as, “call me”, “click on a link” or “mail this card.”

If you don’t ask, you won’t receive! And, you’ll stand out even more from those other 91% of businesses who don’t have one.

Without a call to action, your prospects will flounder around trying to figure out how to contact you (and get what they want). It’s a bit like going rowing with only one oar. There’s lots of effort and circling, but not much progress.