In today’s world people are using the Internet to research and get smart even before they are willing to see a sales rep.
It is therefore of the utmost importance that a B2B marketer is using all tools at his/her disposal to educate the market in the early stages of the buying cycle. Doing so, should enable you to influence your target market based on your strengths. The prospect should seek your leadership by the time they’re willing to see a sales rep.
Being top of mind and perceived as being ‘different’ requires lead nurturing in which the Internet plays an important role.
Your website needs to combine the following:
- of course the traditional features and benefits but also deliver pain-based an educational content
- explain the impact of your solution and the capabilities it will enable for the customer
- explain the problem and capabilities looked from the different impacted roles in a organization. Have a look at the Protime (HR solution) website to see an example of role-based information
- the ‘about us’ should include the value proposition to your specific targeted market
- use compelling personalized landing pages in combination with email marketing in order to attract traffic to your website.
People will stay longer on your website, visit more pages and support your queeste to be perceived as a thought leader.
2 final notes:
- Use search engine optimization in order for prospects to find your content via search engines
- Make sure you balance the goal of capturing contact information and the risk of capturing up to 75% less registrations. So ask only the ‘really’ necessary information. You should also give the basic information without registration in order to allow search engines to find your content.
More than ever, this generation experiences the world as a rafting trip rather than a rowing-contest. This makes it impossible to tackle problems one at a time. A holistic approach, adapted to the specific environment, is the best way to a lasting solution. The marketing field is no different.
I see more and more companies seeking salvation in isolated short term plan of actions. Unfortunately these will only keep them out of the danger zone for a short while. Typical examples are: searching new target markets, one-off lead generation efforts hoping to find prospects that are ready to buy. This last one is a typical returning strategy in an attempt to find the famous needle in the hay-stack (lead generation).
Furthermore, today, more than ever, we have a multitude of tools and -techniques at hand. Numerous studies, amongst others the study delivered by the Aberdeen Group , have shown that optimal ROI can only be reached by using the correct mix of tools at all times.
Let me drill down on this new method of influencing your target market based on your own strengths (LEAD-NURTURING) rather than using lead-generation as a means of attracting new business. Lead nurturing means entering into a 1:1 conversation, on a continuous basis, with decision makers in your target market. This means communicating about the pains and the possible solutions your products and services can offer to solve these pains looked at it from the viewpoint of each decision-maker. The most common channels to market for lead nurturing are: email, website, blogs, whitepapers, documentation, speeches, 3rd party articles, follow-up by phone, webinars, podcasts.
Let me emphasize the most important advantages:
- The number of qualified leads will be at least doubled
- Cost of sales will be lower because your prospects will specifically seek your strengths
- Average revenue per order will be 57% higher (see Aberdeen study)
- Salespeople will succeed in winning more deals
- Next to your product-differentiation, your sales approach will also differentiate you
- A higher ROI of your marketing investments.
- Furthermore, these methods are cheaper than traditional promotional and advertizing campaigns.
Important to note is that the ROI is directly linked to the level in which you succeed to be perceived different. In order words: be different from your competitors instead of trying to be better.
Find more info on the Perpetos website:
To close off, some practical tips:
- Adapt the content of your message to the buying mindset of your prospect (meaning: Being interested, probably needing your solution or in the process of evaluating different suppliers)
- Define your product/market combinations directly linked to your your product-differentiation
- Make sure your website is optimized with the correct web key words (Search Engine Optimization – SEO). The website content must use language for all three mental stages
- Make use of Search Engine Advertising (SEA) to attract more traffic to your website
- Initiate a company blog. This is the ideal way to communicate with your customers and prospects. Don’t communicate about your products and services
- Use personalized landing pages to your website in emails. These will allow you to get more information about the click-behavior and the interests of each individual person
A step by step implementation of the above combined with follow-up by phone and email will guarantee your ROI.
Good Luck!
