Lead generation challenges for small IT B2B businesses – Part 2

In the last post I spoke about how, by identifying a Single Target Market, Small B2B technology businesses can become better at generating leads. I even spoke about how marketing and sales have to incorporate psychology more than plain analysis to attract the desired audiences.

So in this part, we will look at how we can help get our message better addressed to our audience , so that they connect with us, respond to us etc.

There are typically two methods for getting leads – the “pull” method or the “push” method. By its very nature, the word push means that you are pushing something against a resistance. While in the pull method, the person is being “pulled’ or “attracted” with what you say or do and wants to interact with you and therefore responds to you. There is now right or wrong method. Both have to be used to get leads. However with the “pull” method or also called the marketing driven leads, the advantage is that the prospect has shown interest in what you offer and therefore has reached out to you.

For marketing however, the biggest challenge is to be able to convince someone, with the messaging, so that they can comprehend the message and then respond back with an inquiry.

But even before you can convince someone, you have to be able to reach that person. This is where by targeting a “Single Target Market” ,at a time (which we covered in our earlier posts, can be seen here), you reach a focused audience.

The analytical aspects of reaching out and convincing are related to the number of people being targeted, the number of mails that reached, the CTR, etc.

Now come to the psychological aspect of marketing and how you can utilise this aspect.

Humans have 5 senses – smell, see, feel, hear and taste. If you use one medium – say email with text, then the other side will only read it. So they will only use one of their senses – viz “see”. On a podcast, they can only “hear”. In a video or film , they can hear and see. By utilising the 2 senses together, your message can have a better impact.

As per Cisco, by the year 2022, more than 82% of all Internet traffic would account for with video. People recognise the power of audio+visual since ages. Films have impacted us so much – whether it was Ben-Hur or Star Wars . This does not mean that there won’t be people who would like to read or would like to listen. Different people have different preferences, but as a marketer, when you are trying to make an impact video/films have a larger impact because they utilise the power of the human brain.

Watch the video here

When you use videos to showcase how you have helped others, how you have solved problems for others, similar to themselves, then it creates more trust. Since the brain comprehends better with the use of two senses, if the customer is facing a problem, similar to what you have solved, then they are able to immediately apply it to their scenario and think – “we should check them out”. That gets them to reach out to you – a “pull” lead. The more “pain” in the problem that you show in the video and it is relatable to others in the same industry, the higher the chance that you will be able to get someone to say “tell me more”. This is where the psychology comes into play.

Even though the customer has replied back to you of his own volition, it doesn’t mean that he is ready to buy from you. In most B2B scenarios, there is an elongated buying cycle which starts with someone being told to first do the research on different options, then figure the budget etc. This cycle doesn’t apply in case there is a disaster and someone needs something “right now”. As an example, if you have had your roof destroyed in a cyclone or tornado, you need to figure out a solution now and will not go through your usual buying process. Similarly in organisations if say there is flooding in a data centre, then they need to figure out, how to keep the systems running, NOW.

Other than the disaster scenarios, B2B buying is process driven and you need to nurture the lead over the process. We will take this up in the coming posts.

Till then .

Carpe Diem!!!

Technology hypes – and fundamentals of marketing

digital, Marketing, media

I have been through multiple technology hypes through the years. About 30 years back when the Unix platform first came out , it was said that Mainframes will be dead soon. They are still going strong.

When the public Cloud became prevalent, there was a talk that people will no longer have their own servers. That’s way away from the truth. People are still buying servers and actually building hybrid clouds.

With the advent of mobile phones, it was predicted that landlines will no longer be needed. Your broadband connection is still via the landline.

In all these cases was that the overall market grew, with multiple technologies running in parallel. The old technologies evolved to keep pace with the new dynamics, but did not lose their inherent characteristics.

All marketers of technology based products or services need to be fleet footed to quickly adapt their offerings to the changing technology landscape .

Even the media choices keep changing – there was a time when there was Yahoo and Altavista and then there wasn’t, there was Orcutt and then there wasn’t. In social media today you have Facebook, Instagram etc. While in search engines you have Google. If your marketing plan is dependent on one specific platform then losing that platform can hurt. But if your marketing is based on strong fundamentals then you can adapt your message to different media.

Print advertising and advertising on television is still going on eventhough everyone only keeps talking about digital marketing. The fundamentals of marketing will stay irrespective of the technological hype which people create from time to time.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Lead Generation for B2B – 5

B2B, campaign, lead generation, Marketing, media

Not all social media platforms are created equal. So while I have been talking about using social media over the last 3 posts, you have to choose which of those is appropriate for you. You figure that also through testing.

Each social media platform has certain specialities. For example LinkedIn is very good with professional networks. On the other hand Facebook may have the largest set of general population. YouTube gives you the ability to hold long form videos with an algorithm which recommends videos (much like Netflix) , which means your content could be valuable for years to come. Most other platforms to my knowledge don’t have this kind of facility.

So based on the market you want to focus on, you figure out , which platform will have the best traffic for your requirements, that converts, and at what cost.

Selecting the wrong medium can make your campaigns fail.

There’s however another way of looking at this. How can you repurpose content for different media such that you can exploit the best features of all networks.

There was a time when Facebook was considered good for consumer facing businesses. It still is, I believe. But today you will also see a lot of B2B companies utilizing this media. So you will need to test different media, to see if your audience exists there.

Don’t think that if you’re a B2B company, you should only look at LinkedIn.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

P.S: If you are interested in getting a free copy of my “7 point checklist for B2B markets”, you can ask for it, by filling in your details below.

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Lead generation in B2B – 4

B2B, budget, campaign, lead generation, Marketing, niche, segmentation, single target market

While we are on using social media for testing the campaigns, for the last 2 posts, one more thing you need to keep in mind is geography.

Different social media platforms and other PPC search engine platforms like Google have different pricing mechanisms for local, national and international markets. If you will start your testing from a broad geography, then you could end up paying a much larger amount for doing your testing.

One major challenge with social media is that costs can go out of control very fast. This is where starting with a Single Target Market helps. You can choose a very small segment of the market and then niche it further to ensure that you can do changes quickly and then roll out on a national or international scale.

With PPC advertising on social media the second challenge for B2B marketers is to get official emails. As I have mentioned in my posts in this series, earlier, until you have the emails, of people, you don’t own the information. But when people, raise their hand or subscribe to whatever lead magnet you have chosen, they generally end up giving you their personal emails.

So while you have got the information about the person and you can start sending information to her, you won’t know her company details and her designation.

That’s where you will need to figure out a way for her to give you information. This will make it a multi step process. While there are a lot of coaches who talk about social media advertising, very few talk about B2B related successes because of this challenge.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!