B2B Messaging – finding the most effective channel

B2B, Business, differentiation, differentiation, ideal customer, Marketing, Marketing Ecosystem, messaging, segmentation, single target market

In consumer items there are a lot of ways to reach a customer – television, print, social media etc. Depending on where your demographic audience is and how the psychographics work out, you could also use good old direct mail and leaflets and tele-callers.

In B2B markets there are unique challenges. There’s a massive fall in print magazine circulation especially the business focused magazines. Not sure how many people watch television to check out the next business strategy.

In the B2B market, mail does not reach the person on the desk, because a lot of times people don’t have a desk and are mobile. So the mail has to be collected by the person by going to the mail room. Since people don’t come to the office so often and with Covid19, even fewer are coming to office so no one visits the mail room and the mail you send does not reach the intended recipients. So if you are targeting professional services companies, financial services etc. I have found direct mail to be a tough ask.

On the other hand if you were looking at companies which were more into manufacturing, utilities etc. I would guess direct mail would work especially for the back office functions and factory / warehouse functions.

Email is a quick, free medium and that’s it very basic problem. In B2B all the people are inundated with mail and you get a fraction of a second on the mobile phone, before the person ignores or deletes your mail. That is if your mail even reaches the person’s mailbox, because the spam filters will block your mail if they even observe a single item in the mail which smells of spam.

Before the pandemic started, webinars was a good way to get people to join you and hear your message, but I am observing a definite sense of exhaustion with webinars. The registration and attendance and company sponsored webinars has fallen dramatically. It may still be possible to get some attendance if the webinar is being run by an industry body or an independent analyst or a reputed media group with some respected industry veterans.

As a B2B marketer I am always looking out for some effective ways to get in front my audience. By ensuring that I target a “single target market”, and try and target only my ideal customer profile, I try to learn from each interaction that we have with a client and see how we can incorporate that learning into our next interaction. Its always a good idea to send a personal email to a person so that the spam filters don’t think you are spamming. You try to use as much knowledge you have of the industry to make this email so that the person reading it finds it useful.

Please let me know in case you have found any other method to reach your prospects in B2B in the comments below.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Database or list versus message

B2B, differentiation, Marketing, messaging, segmentation, single target market

You know I keep talking about identifying a single Target Market to start with, a single niche in the market with a market in the niche.

One of the key reasons for that is because when you look at a small market then identifying the right people in your market to whom you will give the message becomes easier.

There are a lot of people who would bother about the message and spend a lot of time on tuning the message. My belief however has always been on identifying the right list/database/audience. In B2B if you can identify the right set of people to whom you can be messaging on a regular basis, then you have won half the battle.

To these people even if you were to give an average message, you will get a response. However an excellent message to the wrong audience will get you nowhere.

In my team, whenever a campaign doesn’t work, my first emphasis is always on first getting to identify if the database has been audited for the criteria on which we wanted it. Most expensive failures happen because we keep sending a message to the wrong audience. As Mary Ellen Tribby said “you can’t sell lingerie to a lumberjack”.

In B2B messaging there are multiple people in multiple departments, at multiple levels, who need to be covered with your messaging. Get that piece right for a small audience and then scale and you are on your way to success.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

“Where” to meet your B2B buyer -2

B2B, Marketing, persistence, Positioning, Sales, segmentation, single target market

In my last post I wrote about how “intent” data could help you find the buyer or you could set up Marketing Joint Ventures with people who either sell before or after your product or service is needed.

Inspite of this however you need to figure out “when” they will buy, what will be the trigger to buy so that you can meet the buyer at that moment in case you have not been able to identify them in advance.

One of the key triggers in a B2B buying process is when there’s a change at the Executive level. Depending on what you’re selling, the Executive level could vary, sometimes a V.P level, sometimes a CXO level.

Whenever someone new comes in they always have an agenda to achieve in the next 1 year. If what you have to offer is part of the 1 year priorities then you can essentially get a reason to be in touch.

Keeping a track of new joiners at the executive level can help you identify the “where” to meet your targets.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Who’s not your customer – how it helps in messaging

B2B, Business, differentiation, ideal customer, Marketing, messaging, Positioning, segmentation, single target market

Last 2 posts I have been talking about the benefits of identifying who’s not your customer to ensure a better focus.

Once you know whom you don’t want to target consciously, you can actually build your messaging to ensure you make it clear for whom its not applicable and therefore your Ideal Customer recognises that the message is Only for her.

Whether its in the advertisements or in the email messaging that you build you can consciously list out all the people you don’t want to target. A positive way of doing this from the real estate market could be – “where millionaires reside” – which clearly tells people that if you are not a millionaire you can’t afford the homes.

There are clubs which mention the minimum criteria for joining the club. This way they ensure that they don’t waste time with wannabe’s.

In case of technology and B2B companies – you can decide to target companies who don’t use cloud and eliminate all companies who use cloud by doing messaging – “offer for first time cloud users only”.

By identifying “whos not your customer”, you don’t need to have negative connotations to it. Its just a method to ensure you can get your messaging for your specific niche very strongly aligned to the niche.

Try using this for building your messaging and let me know your results in the comments section below.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!