B2B marketers are under constant pressure to generate high-quality, sales ready leads while proving real pipeline impact. Yet many traditional demand generation marketing tactics still rely on static content downloads that capture limited information and offer little insight into buyer intent. As outlined in Why Content Downloads Matter for Modern B2B Lead Generation, capturing a download…
Read MoreMarketing becomes effective when you connect on a personal level; by referencing your prospect’s name, their job, their industry, and their pain. The closer you can get to the individual, the greater chance you’ll have of using the right messaging to strike a nerve and get a response.
Read MoreIn today’s crowded digital landscape, even high-quality content can struggle to find an audience. Simply publishing a white paper, eBook, or report on your website doesn’t guarantee it will reach the decision-makers you want to influence. That’s where content downloads come in, expanding the reach of your top assets by sharing them through trusted third-party…
Read MoreYou may think that a business contact’s direct mail data is accurate, but is it? Like more and more companies today, you may be returning to direct mail to engage your customers and prospects, especially after experiencing the disappointment of declining email response rates. However, finding and maintaining accurate direct mail data for contacts is…
Read MoreABM uses persona creation to help you and your sales team to focus on your ideal audience and what matters to them. An organization doesn’t take actions, make decisions, or engage in conversations – it’s the people within those organizations who do these things. You can count on a buyer to bring their personalities, their perspectives, and their biases to the decision-making process.
Read MoreSavvy B2B marketers understand that they must know their customers’ needs before launching any marketing strategy or advertising campaign. Consumer marketers can disseminate a compelling ad across multiple channels and motivate a substantial number of consumers to purchase the product. However, because B2B marketing is much more specialized than consumer marketing, B2B marketers risk alienating…
Read MoreMarketers today have a tech solution for every day of the week. There are solutions for marketing automation, data, sales ready leads, market research, CRM, analytics, content management, PR, and branding – the list goes on – and with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning well integrated. AI has dramatically impacted the MarTech stack, transforming how…
Read MoreIn a Forbes article, You’re Doing It Wrong: Demand Generation*, Patrick Spenner argues that demand generation marketing focusing on individual decision-maker personas may do more harm than good. The crux of Spenner’s argument is that current content marketing strategies don’t account for the complex and powerful group dynamics of buying committees, which underlie the decision-making process…
Read MoreSavvy business owners know that effective business planning is essential for success. Any business plan should include a robust marketing strategy with its own set of goals, B2B marketing strategies, and tactics. B2B marketing planning needs to be very strategic and should entail more than outlining what you will do to drive customers in your…
Read MoreYour customers are busy and have limited attention spans. So, with everything going on right now with the post-pandemic economy, changing administrations, rapidly-evolving technologies, etc., it’s as challenging as it’s ever been to get in front of your prospects, grab their attention and engage them. How do you get on their radar when they are…
Read MoreWith our proprietary research-based selling methodology, your target audience actually tells you how to sell to them. You can get right to the point without wasting anyone’s time because you know what is important to the prospect and you can easily craft a pitch that demonstrates how your solution would fill their needs.
Read MoreDatabase marketing — you have probably heard the term, but what exactly does it mean? As opposed to the approach of blasting out the same message to everyone, database marketing is the discipline of collecting data about your target audience and crafting a message that resonates specifically with them. There’s an abundance of data available…
Read MoreMarketing typically balances testing new strategies with sticking with what works. There’s always a shiny new object in the form of a marketing channel, buzzword, or trend. An apparent constant, though, is the unspoken rivalry between inbound and outbound marketing. Some marketers swear by inbound for the relationship-building opportunities, while others are loyal outbounders touting…
Read MoreDoes it seem like your sales ready leads fall through the cracks, despite your best efforts at conversion? An effective lead nurturing process is a proven marketing strategy to increase sales productivity. . Lead nurturing focuses on helping your prospects get to know you, trust you, and consider buying from you. If you try to…
Read MoreIs your company’s sales enablement process as effective as it could be? Think about it — how often do you hear about a lead that falls through the cracks, or a sales call that was a waste of time? Maybe more often than you’d like. Frustration is common among marketing teams that feel their sales…
Read MoreIn today’s competitive and highly targeted markets, getting your contact list/database right is more crucial than ever to generate leads. Marketing campaigns are only as good as the foundation they’re built on, which means a robust database created with clarity of purpose, finesse, and a healthy dose of elbow grease. Verifying and validating lists can…
Read MoreHow do most marketers create a database? Do they go off and order a big pull of account based marketing data or purchase a list and hope that yummy target accounts are represented? Simply loading the sales funnel with target accounts is actually an easier task than hoping you’ll get lucky and find them when…
Read MoreWhen marketing campaigns fail and the post-mortem is conducted, companies tend to point to the message, timing, or execution ⎯ everything but what is at the core of every marketing campaign: account-based marketing data. Your customer contact data is the fuel on which your marketing campaigns run and it must be clean fuel. If this…
Read MoreHow many times have you been contacted by a salesperson with a pitch that was robotically delivered without a focus on your business and what it might need? Or received a piece of content from a company that didn’t speak to your business problems? Did they even inquire about what your needs are? Sales and…
Read MoreExcessive meetings. Missed deadlines. Emergency fire drills. Conflicting direction. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? At best, an enterprise marketing department has a lot of moving parts to manage to generate leads. At worst, productivity can suffer to the point of dysfunction. You’re juggling marketing strategy, messaging, content, and metrics for a large number…
Read MoreHow can you find out which companies are interested in you and your solutions before you start your demand generation marketing program, and before you start selling? Consider these clues: Did someone from your target accounts visit your website recently? Did someone from your target accounts consume content on social media? Did someone from your target accounts consume…
Read MoreSometimes I say to myself, “Our work is never done, and that is half the fun!” Those of us in marketing or sales roles must go beyond our immediate responsibilities to qualify more than just sales ready leads. No matter how many previous successes we produce, we must also evaluate our own individual performances. Naturally, the…
Read More“Sales is calling all the shots on marketing strategy.” Does this sound familiar? In the collaborative dynamic between sales and marketing, there should be a balance of power, but sometimes this balance gets a bit off-kilter. No company is perfect, but if this is an ongoing symptom of your M&S team, it’s time to take…
Read MoreIf your company is like most, chances are it expends significant resources on B2B lead generation, and you need to ensure that you are maximizing the value of this effort with great lead follow-up. If you don’t, these leads likely amount to little more than expensive missed opportunities. Proper lead follow-up is vital to achieve successful lead…
Read MoreWe’ve heard this a million times when doing advanced lead generation campaigns: appeal to human instincts. Don’t think of your prospects as monolithic automatons. So even when trying to reach that super senior executive in that big, impenetrable key account, keep in mind that he or she also gets up every morning, spills coffee, gets grunted at by…
Read MoreUsing Customer-Related Content Involving customers in marketing has always been a successful tactic for businesses, particularly those who are B2B. Your prospects want to hear how a business with the same problem used your product to solve that problem and, more importantly, achieve measurable results. That’s why case studies, either as a sales collateral piece…
Read MoreOnline lead generation can be a complex endeavor that consumes your entire sales and marketing force. After all, generating business starts with generating leads and, as we know, there are numerous tactics and techniques for lead generation. The main challenges seem to be where to begin and, once leads are pulled in, how do you…
Read MoreChances are, especially given the current business environment, your marketing plan has changed, or it needs to change. At the very highest level, your company’s marketing plan might be something like “Become the next Google” or “Be like X Company, but with better functionality.” But how does that translate to your day-to-day marketing efforts?…
Read MoreWith so many of our workforce currently laid off or furloughed, are you confident your marketing data is up-to-date? Chances are it’s not, if the list you bought was developed prior to COVID-19? Data is at the core of every outbound marketing campaign. It is the fuel upon which these campaigns depend. If you…
Read MoreWhen you take an account-based marketing (ABM) approach, you’re looking at each individual target account as its own highly specialized marketing opportunity. This might seem like a daunting task and it is for many organizations, which is why they count on us at SimplyDIRECT to support their ABM campaign with one of our research-based surveys.…
Read MoreLeads who are no longer responding to marketing tactics might seem like dead-ends. If they never progress beyond their initial opt-in (when they downloaded a white paper or attended a webinar), do you scrap these names and start over? At SimplyDIRECT, we don’t think so.
Read MoreWhat if you didn’t have to try so hard to explain to an admin (or voicemail system) why you should be put through (or have your call returned)? What if when you actually catch your target prospect on the phone, you didn’t get brushed off quickly
Read More“While most marketing leaders continue to strive for one-to-one personalization, achieving this type of tailored messaging falls short, causing most personalization efforts to fail.” So says Gartner, Inc. in a press release earlier this year, following up its marketing personalization survey. The goal of one-to-one personalization in marketing is to create hyper personalized content that…
Read MoreTo ensure your messages stand out, create timely and relevant content that aligns with stages of the buyer’s journey.
Read MoreWouldn’t it be great if you could get inside the heads of your target audience – to understand their current situation, their motivators, what keeps them up at night? What are their interests? How likely are they to make a buying decision? Are they even the person that makes the buying decision? This is what…
Read MoreCommon approaches to market segmentation include classifying the target audience by industry, geography, company size, or persona. These market segmentation methods don’t set you apart from your competitors, though, because while it might take a little digging or research, almost anyone can figure out how to align their target marketing efforts with demographic, geographic, or…
Read MoreAs a company grows, it must adapt new engagement strategies to fill and sustain a pipeline that grows along with it. As a result of more complex engagement strategies and more diverse tactics, companies must manage an increasing ecosystem of marketing metrics to optimize methods, maintain ROI, and continue to generate new sales leads. Think…
Read MoreAccount-based marketing isn’t a new concept, but it’s being implemented in new ways – especially in the context of digital marketing. Measurement of these tactics can seem more complicated than other forms of marketing because you’re dealing with clusters of contacts for each prospect account. By measuring the metrics below, you’ll be able to develop…
Read MoreMarketing moves at a lightning pace and the metrics we use to measure it seem to evolve just as quickly. It’s easy to fall into the trap and chase the “flavor of the week” acronym based on expert advice – from MQL to CAC and beyond – but you’ll never get a clear picture of…
Read MoreB2B marketing can get pretty robotic. When you adopt the mindset of selling to businesses, it can be easy to de-humanize the process and focus on the entity you’re trying to convert. But generic, scripted marketing campaigns won’t help you create meaningful conversations and relationships. An organization doesn’t take actions, make decisions, or engage in…
Read MoreImagine discovering a pool of prospects just about to click the buy button on a product or service similar to yours. That would be quite a goldmine of new business — especially if you had the ability to drop your marketing content directly in front of them at the perfect moment. A typical sales funnel…
Read MoreIn any business, there are a lot of boxes that need to be checked: processing payroll, paying taxes, hiring staff. These are non-negotiable tasks. A content marketing plan has become almost non-negotiable in business. In 2014, 93% of marketers said they used content marketing. That’s a staggering number — but in order to implement an…
Read MoreContent marketing has become one of the most common ways to generate leads for your business – but is it effective? According to Content Marketing Institute, only 30% of marketers feel confident about the effectiveness of their content marketing strategy. With new ways to produce content constantly emerging, it’s no wonder marketers are feeling uncertain.…
Read More“The Rule of 7” is one of the oldest concepts in Marketing. It says that it takes seven exposures on average for a message to reach a target and for the target to make a purchase. This concept also applies to Sales and in management in general; leadership experts advise us to repeat a concept…
Read MoreAt SimplyDIRECT, our expertise usually flows directly to our clients, as should be the case. However, we recently took an opportunity to step back and reflect upon our wide experience across companies, product solutions, and marketing challenges. We had recognized a trend among our IT clients in particular, and set out to do what we…
Read MoreSome days, working in marketing can feel like drinking from a fire hose. Other days, you’re not sure which fire to put out first. Whichever fire-related metaphor you prefer, this is a complaint we hear consistently from our clients. They tell us it often seems that everything is an uphill battle. Marketers are constantly juggling…
Read MoreWhen trends emerge in marketing, it seems like everybody wants to climb aboard the bandwagon. Typically, a few practitioners excel, while many find out that there is a steep learning curve to new tools and techniques. So it is with Account-Based Marketing (ABM); view it as the holy grail and you’re likely to fall short…
Read MoreA picture may be worth a thousand words, but data can have the opposite effect. We continuously hear that this is the age of Big Data, but the volume of information can be overwhelming — Isabelle Kane and I have discussed this in our last few blog posts. Truly, a skilled data analyst can be worth…
Read MoreThere always seems to be someone selling the latest snake oil online. This past week I came across the term ‘hybrid marketing’ twice. Despite the fact that I read a great deal of marketing blogs and publications, I had never heard this term before. Was this serendipitous, or was it a pocket of marketing that…
Read MoreThe marketing promise of big data is dazzling, but the reality is overwhelming. ‘Big data’ isn’t a nice little feature that we can effortlessly add to our marketing programs. Big Data is a new skill set, representing new technology and a new way of thinking. Most of us do not have the time, resources, skills…
Read MoreYou’ve known it for months – that sneaking suspicion, the voice in the back of your head that is repeatedly drowned out by competing priorities. Let’s cut to the chase: Your target audience is poorly-defined. Or, perhaps it was well-defined at some point, but has most certainly become out of date. While there are many…
Read MoreThe late motivational guru Wayne Dyer left us with the following quote, which was the core of his world-renowned philosophy: “Our intention creates our reality.” As marketers, we must first understand a target customer’s intentions if we want to be part of their reality. Fortunately, the emerging trend of intent data provides us with a…
Read MoreOne of the most exciting and challenging aspects of marketing is the variety of activities that falls within its umbrella. Marketing holds something for everyone, whether it be digital tactics, data analytics, SEO, strategic planning, brand management, PR, or any other number of sub-specialties. Marketing executives are responsible for a broad range of activities within the marketing…
Read MorePersonas play a crucial role in creating targeted content At some point you have probably created a buyer persona – a description or definition of your marketing audience. But, are you among those who feel that creating a “persona” is a time sink when you already know your target audience? Some marketers may believe that…
Read MoreIn Marketing We Trust? It’s the job of the sales rep to close the deal, but that’s a whole lot easier if the marketing team is able to foster a trust relationship between the prospect and the company. We live in an era when everyone shares their opinion on social media, and that alone influences…
Read MoreEmpower sales without burning them out! Wow, is there ever enough time in any marketer’s day to get everything done? Everybody is going to have moments when the requirements of the job seem overwhelming. But if that’s how it feels day-in and day-out, odds are your outcomes are suffering. Maybe it’s time to focus a…
Read MoreAre you reliant on hair-on-fire marketing? If your efforts to gain the attention of prospects relies on over-the-top attention-grabbers, shock graphics or in-your-face claims and warnings, you may risk losing credibility with your audience. That’s what we refer to as “hair on fire marketing.” Relevance. Getting it right. Knowing your audience. Even if your prospects’…
Read MoreGetting beyond talk to closing the sale There’s nothing like a good old fashioned face-to-face meeting with a prospect to close a sale. At least that is what most sales reps believe. In this age of electronic communication, there are many gatekeepers that stand in the way. Here’s what you can do to not blow…
Read MoreCase Study: How Genwi gained market traction with prospect surveys The market for marketing technology is hot, expected to generate $32 billion in 2016 for companies providing solutions. But with almost 1,900 marketing technology companies across 43 different product categories, getting noticed by the right buyers is a challenge. Determined to stand out quickly, Genwi…
Read MoreContent Marketing: Seeing What Sticks? There’s plenty of commentary about content marketing available these days. That’s probably due in part to the fact that many marketers are nervous about whether they’re creating the right content. When you don’t have a strategy behind the effort, there’s good cause to be sweating the details. According to one…
Read MoreAd Blocking impact on B2B marketing Advertisers may just about have hit the limit on what consumers are willing to tolerate in web and mobile marketing experiences. Apple’s decision to allow ad-blocking on it’s mobile platforms is a sure sign that consumers are looking for more control over what is put before their eyes. But…
Read MoreWhat’s your company’s tolerance level for experimentation and learning through failure? If you’re a client of VaynerMedia, it must be really high, based on a recent video for AdAge’s Digital Crash Course featuring company’s founder, Gary Vaynerchuk. When it comes to pushing clients onto social media platforms, according to the accompanying article, “His methodology is…
Read MoreAnalytics investments need a little analysis Raise your hand if you haven’t felt any pressure regarding marketing analytics. With so much money being invested in digital marketing tools and techniques, there’s growing pressure from the top to justify those investments with hard data that you’re getting some bang for the buck. One survey indicates 80%…
Read MoreBreaking the Middle Market out of SMB The term SMB is easy to visualize, easy to talk about, but not so easy to market to. Representing a small to medium-size market of up to 25 million entities – depending on how you set your filters, the SMB segment is often irresistible to technology companies that…
Read MoreBlind faith in social media marketing? It seems as though everybody in marketing intuitively knows that social media is where it’s at if you want to be on the leading edge of the digital economy. But as an AdAge analysis of the latest CMO Survey shows, while they’re increasing the percentage of budget allocated to…
Read MoreRealigning sales funnel assumptions Is it time to discard the traditional sales funnel? A newly published Harvard Business Review article, “What Salespeople Need to Know About the New B2B Landscape,[i]” by Harvard lecturer Frank V. Cespedes and Gartner research VP Tiffani Bova provides some good fodder to those who think it’s time to shake up…
Read MoreSurvey says: Customer surveys top marketer list The August 2015 CMO survey report finds that online customer surveys are the top technique used by marketers to learn how to acquire, engage and retain customers online. Asked to check off all the approaches they use in that endeavor, 40.1% selected online surveys, while the second highest…
Read MoreHow prospect surveys aided Apperian in refining target market Gaining a deeper understanding of customer characteristics is critical in order to effectively drive future marketing campaigns. Many marketing programs today are focused on content development, but if marketing professionals aren’t able to connect the dots to those customer characteristics, they’re just slinging out a ceaseless…
Read MoreRecharging Dormant Leads What do you do with dead-end leads? I’m talking about those leads who go dormant after the initial “opt in” engagement. At SimplyDIRECT, we view this challenge as a golden opportunity. According to Marketo, on average between 25 to 50 percent of all contacts fall into the “inactive” category – people who…
Read MoreYour digital assets aren’t generating worthwhile inquiries and purchased lists aren’t proving their value. What’s going on? Let’s review some common problems. I’ve fashioned this as a list of top 10 mistakes that doom lead generation efforts, captured from a rich pool of resources around the web. Overloading landing pages with so many links that…
Read MoreCan You Predict the Buyer’s Intent? When you look through your lists of prospects do you sometimes wish for a magical net to capture those that will be productive and flush those that won’t? There is a lot of effort and money being poured into the area of “intent marketing” to try and provide such…
Read MoreEven though marketers collect copious amounts of first-party data, most find they need more in order to optimize their digital marketing strategies. In fact, in a recent survey, 6 out of 10 rely moderately or extensively on third-party data[i]. In such cases, they often do so without really knowing where that data has been! First…
Read MoreAre You Cultivating Lookalike Targets You may be sitting on a finely tuned, high value prospect database that with care and attention delivers on marketing goals time and again. But rather than rest on your laurels, you could be maximizing its value by utilizing the characteristics of that resource to go after “lookalike” targets. …
Read MoreWill digital content lose the human touch? The forces of automation and the non-stop demand for more and more content may be leading us in a direction where the robot writers take over. That would be a sad day for the humans they put out of work, so let’s hope it’s not so. “In practice,…
Read MoreJust who is making the purchasing decisions these days may surprise you. If your business is focusing on grabbing the attention of the CEO and top managers, you may be missing the workers you most need to impress. According to Google research, 81% of non-C-suite influencers have a say in purchase decisions and 24% have…
Read MoreWhat Makes Infographics Compelling In today’s world, most of the people we want to deliver our messages to are overwhelmed by content and often using mobile devices to get their news, information and entertainment. How do you attract their attention with a clear message they will understand and remember? Many marketers are using infographics. The…
Read MoreIs Video Content Topping B2B Marketing Priorities? Some say video content is by far the most effective way to connect with B2B buyers at all levels, from millennials to top executives. But should video dominate content marketing and replace other forms that are the basis of so many well-researched and successful B2B campaigns. One report…
Read MoreForget about customer relationship management; these days it’s all about the customer experience, some say. No, forget about experience, it’s all about customer engagement, others argue. Whatever you call your customer marketing management effort, you can be sure somebody has a technology platform that is certain to be the magic elixir for maximum sales enablement.…
Read MoreSimplyDIRECT Cited as a Top ABM Resource It’s always nice to be recognized for doing your job, particularly when you weren’t seeking any particular accolade. So it was a pleasure to hear from Docurated that they have included SimplyDIRECT in its list of “Top Account-Based Marketing Resources: The Best Articles, Webinars, Tutorials, and More on…
Read MoreTransforming from Cost Center to Revenue Generator Marketing is viewed almost equally today as both a cost center and a revenue driver according to a 2015 survey of 478 CMOs and senior marketing executives worldwide by the Economist[i], sponsored by Marketo. Going forward, it will be more often viewed as a revenue driver, less as…
Read MoreWhat’s a lead worth to you? Cost-per-lead (CPL) is a time-honored metric for evaluating generation of sales prospects. But it doesn’t measure the value of a lead. With more digital marketing channels available to generate greater sources of leads, it’s all too easy to focus on driving down the CPL. But does that really help…
Read MoreChannel flipping Choosing marketing channels is increasingly like clicking the cable TV remote in hopes you’ll land on the best offering amongst a proliferation of choices. The number of choices is only going to grow as buyers increasingly rely on multiple devices and more sources of information, and content providers deploy a growing number and…
Read MoreAccount Based Marketing- the Next Big Thing (again)? There’s a lot of buzz about Account Based Marketing (ABM) being one of the biggest revenue drivers for B2B business. While the concept of ABM has been around for the past decade[i], new technology is accelerating the market shift[ii]. What has the industry buzzing now is the…
Read MoreResearch from Forrester last year reveals that B2B buyers are frustrated by what they perceive from vendors as an utter lack of understanding regarding their business context.[i] Instead, buyers lament that vendor communications are too narrowly focused on their own solution, without first gaining an understanding and appreciation of buyer needs and challenges. Clearly, in…
Read MoreResearch from Forrester last year reveals that B2B buyers are frustrated by what they perceive from vendors as an utter lack of understanding regarding their business context. Instead, buyers lament that vendor communications are too narrowly focused on their own solution, without first gaining an understanding and appreciation of buyer needs and challenges. Clearly, in…
Read MoreResearch from Forrester last year reveals that B2B buyers are frustrated by what they perceive from vendors as an utter lack of understanding regarding their business context. Instead, buyers lament that vendor communications are too narrowly focused on their own solution, without first gaining an understanding and appreciation of buyer needs and challenges. In light of…
Read MoreGatepoint Research has published a new brief for marketers of big data solutions, based on insights from aggregated survey results of target buyers. The findings are clear; big data’s time is now. But the challenges are complex. McKinsey has written recently on the trouble organizations are having scaling their data-analytics efforts. Achieving the full potential…
Read MoreSimon Sinek’s hugely popular TED Talk, How great leaders inspire action (over 21 million views to date), has considerable implications for marketers who want to craft content that entices loyal buyers. Central to Sinek’s approach, is the knowing and communicating of purpose – the ‘why’ of what you do and why your company exists. Sinek…
Read MoreThis two-part series is focused on how to best leverage the power that a thoughtfully-designed survey has to communicate with a target audience. To recap, the purpose of a prospect survey (survey-based lead generation) – as distinguished from a market/industry survey – is two-fold: to reach, engage, and qualify prospects, while both gaining and communicating…
Read MoreHere at SimplyDIRECT we appreciate the power that a thoughtfully-designed survey has to communicate with a target audience. The purpose of a prospect survey (survey-based lead generation) – as distinguished from a market/industry survey – is two-fold: to reach, engage, and qualify prospects, while both gaining and communicating insights in one efficient process. The sometimes…
Read MoreWith the possibilities enabled by technology, today’s world is inherently more complex than even a few decades ago. In this digital business context, organizations are likewise increasing in complexity. Consequently, argues international marketer Avi Dan, someone needs to cut across this organizational complexity and “think holistically about the company’s overall value proposition”[i] in order to…
Read MoreGartner’s recent survey[i] of Tech buyers asked them about their willingness to share contact details with vendors via landing pages and the like. Survey results were clear: frustrated buyers want vendors to “respect their process,” by not being sold to when they are exploring new ideas. Here are two representative comments of buyer sentiment: “We…
Read MoreOne of the most visible and highest-risk issues organizations face today is that of IT security– a point dramatically underscored recently by the Sony Pictures data breach. Organizations are faced with addressing a heady mix of needs and challenges. On the one hand, meeting customer expectations demands business processes become increasingly digitized, while apps…
Read MoreThe internet has fundamentally changed how buyers buy and, subsequently, how marketers market. Today’s buyers are firmly in charge of their own buying journey, completing between 60% and 90% of their process before reaching out to their already honed, short list of favorable vendors. Additionally, a survey last year by DemandGen Report, noted that 77%…
Read MoreAt SimplyDIRECT we love efficiency, but only when it’s paired with, effectiveness. Consequently, we’re all about creating a B2B marketing process that returns value in multiple ways. Today’s post shares our 4 secrets about how a prospect survey can be used as the core content for an entire marketing campaign. To illustrate the content aspect,…
Read MoreOne thing becomes clear when reading across the multitude of prognostications for 2015 marketing trends: 2015 is set to be the year of ‘humanized’ marketing. It’s about marketing efforts that are more accessible, personable, genuine, and sharable – that is, simplifying complex messaging and humanizing the brand through individualized and inherently more authentic content primed…
Read MoreBeing a company that (among other things) develops prospect surveys, we’re in the business of asking questions. And so it stands to reason that we’re in a perpetual quest to help our clients form better questions. Today’s B2B marketers are uniquely challenged in a noisy digital context to craft insightful, relevant, and valuable content that…
Read MoreFaced with too much information and too many choices, customers and prospects can be easily overwhelmed, even to the point of decision paralysis. The job of B2B marketers is to demystify the complex and help buyers make sense of the issues and buying choices available. This is especially true if you are promoting complicated and…
Read More“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Herbert Simon, Social Scientist No matter which trends or statistics you read regarding content marketing, the signals are clear – everybody’s doing it and we’re all looking to do more of it. But I question, is this content marketing trend sustainable or are we being inundated…
Read MoreListening skills are critical in business, as in life, yet are rarely taught. And it seems that with all of today’s digital distractions, we may be getting worse than ever at listening to what others have to say. Case in point: studies indicate that we hear only about 25% of what is said to us…
Read MoreGetting to the point where our marketing teams can empower the sales conversation with uniquely insightful content and perspectives first requires building a buyer context that has depth and breadth, in both the generic and specific senses. The generic context informs our knowledge of the language and issues pertaining to our target buyers’ industry, market(s),…
Read MoreMobilization of the enterprise is rapidly creating several challenges for businesses, which savvy marketers of mobile solutions can turn into key opportunities. Mobile solutions are rapidly upending conventional approaches to how and where we work, facilitating organizational flexibility and agility, and enhancing operational efficiencies. Likewise, mobile apps create value for customers and change how customers…
Read MoreTechnology has shifted from a business enabler to an integral component of business operations. As a result, a majority share of the technology budget has moved to business buyers (functional and Lines of Business (LOB) heads). These business buyers look for solutions that prioritize business concerns and simplify technology environments.[i] For marketers, developing commercial insights,…
Read MoreHow well do you really know your C-suite audience, and how prepared are you to engage the conversations they want to have? In search of a winning formula for engaging just this audience, the people at Corporate Visions (a leading B2B marketing and sales messaging company) have published a great eBook entitled, “’We’ve identified the…
Read MoreThis month, the Strategyzer team[i] provides us with an elegantly simple approach to create actionable customer profiles. The team, widely known as the authors of the international bestseller Business Model Generation[ii], have complemented their growing toolkit with the release of their new book, Value Proposition Design (a free 100-page preview is available here). This fresh…
Read MoreCurious how your lead generation programs stack up against other B2B marketers? A recent Gatepoint Research survey (Trends in Salesforce Marketing, Sept 2014) explored just this topic with marketers attending Dreamforce. Turns out, there’s considerable room for improvement. Among the marketers who responded, websites were overwhelmingly identified as the primary source of leads, yet alarmingly…
Read MoreWhile the definition of ‘sales enablement’ is in a state of flux as the concept continues to evolve, IDC’s definition cuts directly to the core – delivering “the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and at the right place.”[i] But regardless of which stage of sales enablement’s…
Read MoreWhat? Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a highly-targeted approach that focuses on strategically selected accounts as markets-of-one. Simply put, ABM focuses on those key accounts most likely to generate revenue and meet strategic goals. Why? Many companies have a few very large accounts, which individually buy as much as a small market segment. ABM…
Read MorePart 2: Gen X, Boomers, and Traditionalists Generation gap: n. a lack of communication between one generation and another. . .brought about by differences in tastes, values, outlooks, etc. Our last post focused on Millennials, looking at their primary defining characteristics and considering how marketers can leverage these for more effective content marketing. This post looks…
Read MorePart 1: The Millennials generation gap: n. a lack of communication between one generation and another. . . brought about by differences of tastes, values, outlooks, etc. For those of us who have experienced the joys (and frustrations) of raising, mentoring, or working with young adults, the concept of a gap in communication between generations…
Read MoreNo two ways about it, content marketing is hard. It’s a long, on-going effort to build a cohesive body of work that is compelling, engaging, and ever-relevant to your market. But that description is the organizational view of content marketing. From your audience’s perspective, they just want content that is of value to them; i.e.…
Read MoreToo often the problem with the marketing of a complex solution is that it tends to be, well… too complex. To this point, a recent CEB study found that 68% of corporate communication is just that – “too complex”.[i] B2B buyers shouldn’t have to have to work hard to understand the message. In fact, the…
Read MoreThe science behind “a picture is worth a thousand words” is of prime relevance to B2B marketers. Pictures and other visual stimuli dramatically affect how we absorb, process, and retain information. Vision is our dominant sense: Expediting information processing Visual information increases our ability to effectively and efficiently process information that we…
Read MoreSituation: Your marketing/content team has developed an intriguing message which resonates with your B2B audience as insightful, differentiated, and relevant. You’ve produced content to nurture prospects along the various stages of their buyer’s journeys. Your case studies are rich with data, testimonials, and heartfelt stories of success. Now what? Challenge: As marketers, your challenge is…
Read MoreIn today’s competitive and highly-targeted markets, getting your contact list/database right is more crucial than ever. Marketing campaigns are only as good as the foundation they’re built on. Creating a robust database requires a combination of clarity of purpose, finesse, and a healthy dose of elbow grease – verifying and validating lists can be tedious,…
Read More“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” – Anais Nin We each see the world through the lenses ground by the sum of our individual life experiences, coupled with our ideological views. It’s how we make sense of the world; by filtering information through the beliefs and assumptions informing…
Read MoreOften we get stuck in old mindsets – things that have worked well for us in the past. But if the present context has changed from how things worked in the past, then adhering to older, albeit previously successful methods may do more harm than good. A recent post on LinkedIn by Hubspot’s Mark Roberge…
Read MoreDon’t be a lemming. Last fall McKinsey published an article entitled, “How B2B companies talk past their customers.” The piece focused on new research indicating a significant disconnect between brand messages and actual customer needs. There, was also a “surprising similarity” among themes emphasized by leading B2B companies, “suggesting a tendency to follow the herd…
Read MoreCrafting great content – and ensuring its continued relevance – requires an adaptive process. Here are five steps to optimize the effectiveness and efficiency of your process: Define the project & audience – Begin by ensuring you have clarity regarding the goal(s) driving your content creation. What’s its purpose? What outcomes are you…
Read MoreWith unprecedented expediency, the internet has enhanced our ability to communicate, while altering how we find and consume that information. This ease of communication has profoundly affected B2B marketers in two ways. It has enhanced our reach for target audiences, while rendering it more challenging to be heard above the resulting barrage of information. Consequently,…
Read MoreIn the age of data, it’s easy to get swept away by metrics, KPIs, and the bottom line. After all, these numbers are often fundamental to how we gauge our success. Yet among these data points, many B2B marketers have lost sight of the emotional, human component that can really drive those numbers. Great marketing…
Read MoreThe CEB’s research on buyer behavior in the digital age has led them to form a new maxim: “Given the choice, customers will generally engage a supplier as late as they possibly can.” [i] While there are several reasons as to why this is, the simplest explanation is that buyers largely see vendors as…
Read MoreWe wondered about the key characteristics and requirements of IT security solution buyers – what they’re thinking and what’s driving their behaviors – so we conducted a survey with Gatepoint Research. While the survey touched on a number of pressing issues, and the resulting market brief is deep with insight, for this post we’re exploring…
Read MoreIf your prospects don’t buy your product or service, getting them to read your collateral doesn’t do much good. The key is changing behavior, and changing behavior is the value of commercial insight and “insight selling.”Rather than basing content strategies on features and benefits, insight selling seeks to redefine your prospect’s purchase criteria in favor…
Read MoreThe game has changed – with the advent of Big Data, the cloud, and all of the information-rich capabilities these have created; buyers today expect more sophistication from B2B marketing and sales. Specifically, buyers expect vendors to understand their business needs and challenges before reaching out to them. In this technologically enabled context, the traditional…
Read More“[L]ess than 40% of executive buyers say that meetings with salespeople meet their expectations…”[i] Depending on your perspective, this recent statistic from Forrester Research is either depressing or a great area of opportunity for your focus. Incidentally, the numbers are even worse for IT buyers, where only 33% are somewhat satisfied with sales meetings. …
Read More“Strategy 101 is about choices: You can’t be all things to all people.” – Michael Porter Today’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings enable companies to address the particular needs of highly-targeted customer segments with cost-effective, tailored solutions. To deliver on superior value, many SaaS companies are tuning their products and go-to-market strategies towards specific vertical markets. …
Read More“Make me care.” It’s the greatest story commandment and the ultimate goal of all B2B content creators. Yet, for all of our best efforts to engage target audiences around our commercial insights, CEB is reporting that many of their CEB Communications members are finding it “increasingly hard to get audiences to pay attention or effectively…
Read MoreTop 4 survey findings on the marketing and selling of IT Security solutions A recent survey of IT security professionals undertaken by Gatepoint Research investigated key characteristics and requirements of IT security solution buyers. The corresponding Market Brief is designed to aid IT security solution marketers and sellers to better understand the current nature, attitudes…
Read MoreHere’s a frightening statistic for B2B marketers: 90% of the content produced by marketing is NOT used by sales.[i] For all of our focus on carefully crafted messaging, we have largely missed the mark. Forrester’s Laura Ramos recently blogged about this startling statistic from the AMA, noting that as marketers, we need to do…
Read MoreWhat are commercial insights? The internet today is awash with mediocre content, creating a significant challenge for B2B marketers – to rise above this noise. Best practices now call for marketers to craft uniquely insightful, relevant, and valuable content that resonates profoundly with buyers on both a rational and emotional level. To this end, messaging…
Read MoreThe accelerating rate of technological change in today’s digital context has transformed the B2B technology buying process, while creating unique challenges for marketers of complex solutions. Below we consider the most salient aspects of the different buying-process components. Buyer Behavior Not surprisingly, buyers seek help in navigating today’s information-rich (and implication-rich) environment. A recent…
Read MoreThe logic of alignment A critical component to any organization’s success is its ability to continuously equip its client-facing team members with the capabilities, opportunities, and knowledge necessary to engage buyers in the right conversations at the right time. We call this developing commercial insights and it’s important that both sales and marketing work together. …
Read MoreNot all lists are created equal, but focusing on roles vs. titles gives marketers of complex solutions a great advantage over their competition. Generally identifying contacts by title is a far easier and simpler undertaking – for example, a quick search on LinkedIn will provide a range of possibilities. The danger in relying on titles,…
Read More“The ‘Human Element’ can sometimes be lost in our zeal to maximize the advantages of the latest technologies. In the end it’s people that we need to make connections to.” I recently began a discussion* in a LinkedIn group with the following question: “How do you incorporate the human element into your B2B marketing and…
Read MoreNow that everyone in the blogosphere has had a chance to chime in on what the biggest B2B marketing trends and recommendations are for 2014, we thought we’d provide a tidy summation of those top ideas – a “best of the best,” as it were. As we’ve often discussed, the digital revolution has reshaped buyer…
Read MoreHere’s the logic: customer engagement is predicated on establishing connections, which in turn are predicated on effective communication, and effective communication begins with listening. As the influential psychologist Carl Rogers famously said, inability to communicate is a result of a failure to listen effectively. Surveys are a great way to both listen to individual prospects and…
Read MoreThis past year has seen a considerable increase in the trend towards account-based marketing (ABM). As a recent blog post by Sirius Decisions* notes, 2013 saw the term’s first appearance on Google Trends due to its uptick in global searches – and there’s a reason for that. B2B buyer trends are driving changes in marketing’s…
Read MoreIn our zeal to maximize the advantages of the latest marketing technologies, we sometimes do so at the expense of the human element. It’s people, with all of their definition-defying emotions, personalities, and quirks that we need to make connections with. So a key goal of B2B online marketing for the more complex sales should…
Read MoreRecent research by CEB and Google (“From Promotion to Emotion,” October 2013*) on the role emotion plays in the B2B marketing process has returned some surprising and insightful results. Counter to conventional B2B marketing wisdom, where branding and the communication of business value are vital to engaging prospects, study results strongly demonstrate that these components…
Read MoreA recent Forbes article* examines the current hot trend of content marketing in light of historic shifts between hard- and soft-sell cycles. The articles notes that marketers’ needs for concrete ROI metrics has periodically swung the pendulum back to hard-sell approaches, concluding that content marketing – without a similar and strong ROI – could quickly…
Read MoreCustomer insights are vital for creating differentiated and focused messaging that resonates uniquely with your target audience in today’s crowded marketing channels. All too often, we adopt a seemingly rational content approach, only to wonder where the logic failed when the messaging doesn’t connect as intended. One key to developing useful customer insights of real…
Read MoreThe largest hurdle to improving the quality of the lead-gen process is ensuring marketing and sales are on the same page. Traditionally, these two entities have been wholly separate organizations, seemingly working towards the same goal. However, in reality the metrics detailing each organization’s success can incentivize behaviors counterproductive to the business as a whole. …
Read MoreThe shift in buyer behavior resulting from the ubiquitous availability of digital information requires continuous adaption of B2B marketing strategies to keep them working effectively and efficiently. Key factors affecting marketing approaches, especially for the sales of complex solutions, include: The overwhelming and exponentially growing volume of information available. The corresponding reduction in…
Read MoreWhat are commercial insights? Today’s B2B buyers, empowered by a 24/7 information-rich digital medium, have upended the traditional sales and marketing model for success. With this dramatic shift in buyer behavior, you have to make a correspondingly radical shift in your marketing and sales approach to buyer engagement. Rather than basing content strategies on features…
Read MoreThe advent of cloud-based services and solutions, in particular software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), are heralding a new age of technology purchasing. The shift from capital to operational funding together with the growing volume of applications targeted directly at business users (e.g. salesforce.com, marketing automation, mobile apps) is moving the center of purchase decision making from…
Read MoreMarketers and sales teams recognize how profoundly times have changed in this age of digital, mobile, and cloud. This holds especially true for providers of complex tech solutions, where the industry is shifting from traditionally licensed software packages, to selling software as a service (SaaS) through cloud-based subscriptions. Traditional marketing and sales models have encouraged…
Read MoreWe often find that our customers have been previously disappointed by companies selling contact lists or appointment-setting services that simply don’t deliver the goods. Generally speaking, the culprit tends to be poor-quality lists. The subsequent appointments are with ill-qualified prospects and correspondingly, the yields – in terms of closed deals or sales dollars – are…
Read MoreA recent McKinsey article* discusses new research indicating that a significant disconnects exists between brand messaging and what customers value most. Global B2B enterprise companies promote the following themes most prominently regarding their businesses: Role-model of corporate social responsibility Sustainability best practice Global reach Ability to shape the direction of the market Innovator…
Read MoreWhile communicating with a wide audience is easier than ever before, somewhat paradoxically, actually connecting with them in meaningful ways is becoming ever more difficult amidst the growing morass of online content. Unfortunately, quantity of information in no way equates with quality, leaving both buyer and seller alike challenged – the buyer to sort the…
Read MoreA successful B2B content marketing strategy isn’t just about generating great content – although that’s key. It’s also about deploying focused and targeted content in a comprehensive and deliberate manner where your audience can find it when they need it. Getting your strategy right requires a two-step approach: first, create some blockbuster content; and secondly,…
Read MoreIn previous posts I’ve discussed the pressing need for marketers to adopt a comprehensive digital strategy. This post provides a tried and tested set of steps on precisely how to do that. To quickly recap, the challenges marketers now face derive from the following trends: Digital media has revolutionized the sales process, primarily…
Read MoreThe Internet has revolutionized much of life as we know it. Sharing information and engaging in critical conversations has become more direct, immediate, and yet infinitely more complex. Consider the more sophisticated B2B purchases, for example. The purchase process has actually lengthened now that buyers must do much of their own product research and due…
Read MoreAs year-end approaches, it’s time for B2B marketers to take stock of your lead gen efforts. Fortunately, early signs point towards a growing confidence among marketers that budgets will either remain the same or increase*. Regardless, whether you’re flush with cash or operating on a shoestring, the pressure to produce a strong ROI is constant. …
Read MoreA recent Korn/Ferry survey* of senior marketers found that, overwhelmingly, customer engagement is their top concern. Given the changes in buyer behavior brought on by the proliferation of the internet and mobile technologies, this is not surprising. The sheer volume of easily accessible, readily available information has empowered buyers to educate themselves, significantly diminishing the…
Read MoreConsider this: you’re a B2B buyer in need of a complex technology solution. Your inbox has several emailed offers from various vendors, only some of which you’ve scanned over with a healthy dose of scepticism regarding their product or service claims. But then your inbox pings with a forward from a colleague you recently chatted…
Read MoreKeeping up with prospective customer challenges and needs has become both easier and more difficult at the same time. The mining of information online today, provides decided advantages as compared to just a decade ago. Yet sorting through the sheer volume of available data can prove rather overwhelming. Fortunately, numerous time-saving resources now exist to…
Read MoreAdmittedly, I don’t get a lot of the new world of communication. I notice my brother putting a post on Facebook about the status of his bathroom renovation, and instantly there are 31 “likes.” Huh? What are they liking? Why does he care to share this information? Why do those in his network even care…
Read MoreAs B2B marketers, we know that truly connecting with prospects in a meaningful way requires connecting with them on an emotional level. Content based marketing employs just this strategy by creating messaging which resonates, identifying timely and relevant issues that address such things as challenges, needs, and values. A thought leadership strategy takes this approach…
Read MoreA recent Marketing Profs post* provides a new perspective on an old problem: communicating differentiated value through “unconsidered needs.” In this post, we’re going to add another layer to that discussion with a slightly different distinction between those “unconsidered needs” and what we’re calling “undiscovered needs.” The background story is becoming a familiar one. …
Read MoreThe volume of information available to buyers via the Internet is increasing exponentially. To gain visibility for their products and services marketers must produce ever more relevant and valuable content. But today’s relevance and value has a short shelf life. Once a topic has been raised and discussed, its attraction value diminishes quickly. In addition,…
Read MoreA recent McKinsey* article touted the coming age of “on demand” marketing, and while it focused on the B2C market, the evolution of digital technology and customer expectations has implications for B2B marketers as well. Already, the ubiquitous nature of dynamic information today, made easy and accessible by mobile computing, cloud technologies, and Big Data,…
Read MoreWhen attempting to sell a technology solution to a targeted account it’s clearly imperative to know who has responsibility for the system, process or application that you are trying to support or replace. Spending sales time to investigate the right contacts can work if you have an existing relationship with someone in each of your…
Read MoreOur recent survey of senior marketing executives asked what their greatest challenge was in developing compelling content. Predictably, two reasons stood out: time and budget constraints – see chart below: What constrains you from being able to create compelling online/marketing content? Here are six ideas on how to overcome this challenge…
Read MoreAs part of our latest B2B survey of senior enterprise marketers, we asked, “How has social media changed the buyer’s journey?” Overwhelmingly (65%), respondents answered that social media has accelerated the sales cycle – see chart below. How has social media changed the buyer’s journey? Naturally we pondered precisely how social media can be…
Read MorenA recent SimplyDIRECT-sponsored survey of senior enterprise marketers from major technology companies themed Facilitating the Sales Process asked, “To what extent do you feel online content facilitates the sales process?” The following chart indicates their combined response. You may be surprised that the average score isn’t higher but the decision to invest in online content…
Read MoreOur latest survey of senior B2B marketers reveals that lead generation is still high on their list of priorities. However, of more importance is gaining tighter alignment between sales and marketing. As buyers increasingly turn to the internet to find information on products and solutions before engaging with sales, marketing’s lead generation role is becoming…
Read MoreToday’s cloud solutions and the related customer needs are changing the service mix, affecting how such services are being sold and, who they’re being sold to. Before software-as-a service (Saas) and cloud computing started to have a major impact, most technology sales teams were organized geographically. It was less expensive in terms of coverage, and…
Read MoreAccording to the latest B2B customer purchase decision-making survey by the CEB*, the average customer is already 57% of the way through their purchase process before they consider calling in their chosen vendor’s sales reps. Commenting on this in the July 2012 Harvard Business Review**, the authors quoted one CSO as saying, ‘Our customers are…
Read MoreAs buyers increasingly engage in self-guided online buyer’s journeys, marketers must find ways to engage with prospects via websites, blog posts and other social media. Adding to the complexity of the challenge is the need to break through the barrage of information competing for each person’s attention. Ultimately that means finding ways of addressing each…
Read MoreOne of the most ubiquitous challenges in today’s business context, crossing departments and industries alike, is the lack of both time and resources – organizations across the board have “gone lean.” Budgets are tight, staff is scarce, but organizational goals are high. Consequently, marketing departments are faced with the question of how to do more…
Read MoreWith today’s ultra-competitive markets and even tighter marketing budgets, it’s of critical importance to maximize the effectiveness of both marketing and sales organizations. The idea that Marketing cannot provide an acceptable stream of qualified leads to sales or that sales has the luxury of rejecting (or maybe just ignoring) the leads generated by the company’s…
Read MoreFinding and getting traction with new customers in today’s highly competitive B2B market remains a major and costly challenge. If you have hot new technology, you might be able to rely on excitement and interest to drive the spread of your message. But if you’re rolling out version 3 or 4 of your solution with…
Read MoreCrafting a robust list or database requires a combination of clarity of purpose, finesse, and a healthy dose of elbow grease – verifying and validating lists can be tedious, hard work, but a well-built database can prove invaluable. In fact, an accurate target database is really your most important marketing asset. Fresh names and email…
Read MoreThe old adage “change is the only constant” seems to become ever more accurate as time goes on. Meaning that the pace of change is accelerating. Try to think of a business sector that hasn’t been impacted by any of the myriad changes that surround us and the phrase “relic of the past” comes quickly…
Read MoreOur recent survey of 150 senior enterprise marketers from major technology companies offers some interesting insights. Respondents overwhelmingly felt that, “people doing too many tasks; no room to think,” was the “most disturbing trend they had noticed in the last year.” Not surprisingly this is the same top response as last year’s survey, given that…
Read MoreThe faster the rate of change, the more buyers will continue to value thought leadership as a means to understand the possibilities that technology might create for their companies. It also helps in avoiding poor or limiting purchase decisions. Yet for marketers, developing “thought leadership” content is not a simple task. Creating B2B marketing content…
Read MoreWith today’s ever-increasing number of channels and platforms for reaching prospects, developing a solid content marketing strategy is now a vital component of any successful marketing program. A big challenge though is creating content which sufficiently engages your target audience. Great content demonstrates thought leadership, promotes brand awareness, maximizes search engine optimization, and garners you…
Read MoreA quick trip around the web illustrates how B2b businesses are leveraging the polling/survey capabilities of various social media platforms, in addition to the more traditional services. But before you go to LinkedIn or Survey Monkey to launch your new poll, you should first assess your needs to determine what form of survey you may…
Read MoreSelling complex solutions typically requires that account managers engage with a whole range of influencers in addition to the key decision makers. This can be challenging enough, but when the influencers and decision makers on your target account list are located in many different geographies the task becomes that much harder. What can you do…
Read MoreLisa Vitale Appointment MakingAppointment-making third-party services – while an attractive proposition – may be losing their luster for the B2B market, at least for companies selling more complex solutions. At first glance, outsourcing your B2B appointment making seems a perfect solution. After all, you can save your valuable sales staff the frustrations of cold calling,…
Read MoreLisa Vitale on Benefits of Psychographic Segmentation. While there are many ways to segment your target audience, B2C marketers are successfully using psychographic segmentation as a competitive advantage – but is there any value in this technique for the B2B marketer? According to Miriam-Webster, psychographics is “market research or statistics classifying population groups according to…
Read MoreLisa Vitale Marketing Maven A recent study found that events are the most effective marketing method for generating demand. But have you ever had to deal with the challenges of putting together a successful event? The biggest problem: how do you get enough of the right people to attend? Nowadays, everyone’s calendar is so chock-full…
Read MoreLisa Vitale Sales Process ExpertHere’s a sobering thought for B2B sales people and their marketing counterparts: “…today’s buyers might be anywhere from 60% to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to the vendor*.” The Internet and broadband access have permanently altered the buying process. If you’re still using the same…
Read MoreThe first of this two part series, Step 1 – Define Your Prospects Better, focused on defining the B2B decision maker. This post will focus on evolving your sales process to better align with buyer behavior in today’s digital world. As part of our previous discussion, we broached the topic of personas and their importance…
Read MoreThe first challenge you face when marketing more complex solutions is to define exactly who is the prospect. If your solution doesn’t fall neatly within the responsibility of a specific job title then you need to investigate who has responsibility (i.e. who has the role) for managing and purchasing your kind of solution. For smaller…
Read MoreAccording to Jeff Ernst of Forrester Research, addressing “the B2B buying process isn’t about selling a product or service – it’s about demonstrating your ability to solve a customer’s problems1.” Let’s face it, we are all in the business of problem solving – if your business isn’t providing a solution for your key accounts, chances…
Read MoreTwitter’s new partnership with Nielsen to provide Twitter Surveys – a service which will allow Twitter clients to tweet mini-polls, giving recipients the ability to respond within the tweet itself – begs the question where the value lies for B2B marketers between these quick polls and more in-depth surveys. As MarketingVOX1 pointed out recently, research…
Read MoreRecently Twitter announced a new partnership with Nielsen and unveiled a new feature called Twitter Surveys1. Twitter Surveys will essentially allow Twitter clients to create mini polls sent out through the “Twitter-sphere” where respondents fill out the survey right in the Tweet itself1. The thought is that advertisers can use Twitter to gauge brand awareness,…
Read MoreA recent study found that events are the most effective marketing method for generating demand with target accounts1. But if you ever have to deal with the challenges of putting together a successful event, you’ll know that the biggest problem is how do you get enough of the right people to attend? Nowadays, everyone’s calendar…
Read MoreMarketing is often given mixed messages about what’s expected. Demand generation – creating a flow of leads – is not the same as the goal of reaching decision-makers, but it is often spoken synonymously. When you’re tasked with reaching someone it really means getting that person to take your call, to react to your…
Read MoreWhat is a decision maker? We all make decisions. Thousands and thousands every day. What clothes to wear. Pick up the toothbrush first or the hairbrush? Former President Bill Clinton recently said that George W. Bush had it right: the President, ultimately, is The Decider. (Too bad he hadn’t just picked up a hair brush…
Read MoreAccount penetration is often the first step in the long, long process of making a B2B sale. Where would you prefer to start? Your own network, of course, your eponymous “Rolodex.” Better still, your friends, your relatives, your buds. Remember those things you had to sell for school (magazine subscriptions, wrapping paper) or Scouts (popcorn,…
Read MoreProspect surveys may be easier to do than you think, and leveraging the results in a timely fashion can have a major impact on campaign success. In a recent blog post – “Proof That It Never Hurts To Ask”1, Tom Schwab of Goodbye Crutches, points out the strong benefits of asking potential customers for…
Read MoreNowadays, you must deliver the right message at just the right time, in order to get a prospect’s attention. If you deliver a solution message before the need is established, it’s ignored. Deliver it late and, at best, you’re in a pricing competition – or told that they’ve already made the decision, but thanks. How…
Read MoreI have a confession to make. When I was in high school I was a total nerd, devoid of social skills. It was just my dad and I living in a big house, and no women to counsel us on dressing, hygiene, nothing. Dating was merely a concept to me. But I didn’t succumb to…
Read MoreLet me guess: your job requires you to come up with a string of ideas to “grab” IT decision makers, and you’ve run out of zingers. Running a survey can provide a cornucopia of ideas. Let me see if we can recharge your muse with these suggestions. First, let’s review the well worn phrase,…
Read MoreOften the best answers are found from within. This is particularly true with mature organizations. Somewhere, someone has faced the same challenges you have, has built that prospect list before, and has some very usable answers. Let me begin with a tale. I cannot name the company, or even make direct reference to their…
Read MoreA recent contact discovery and account penetration survey of Marketing Directors, VPs and CMOs found that almost 40% called their marketing efforts “Mission Impossible.” The survey also identified several reasons for this difficulty. Marketing Database Problems: 73% said their contact database needs work. Of these lack of contact emails was the most commonly cited flaw.…
Read MoreRunning a web survey can provide a cornucopia of ideas to “grab” IT decision maker’s attention. Let me see if we can recharge your muse with these suggestions. First, let’s review the well worn phrase, “IT decision makers are humans”, which means that they will react to the most basic of life’s issues: issues about…
Read MoreSimplyDIRECT recently surveyed marketing professionals within large software firms, and we learned a lot about the assumptions, desires and anxieties of this group. No question, this is a smart bunch. We often come back from meetings with clients not only liking the marketers we meet, but impressed with how creative and thoughtful they are. Unfortunately,…
Read MoreTraditionally, marketing has been tasked with producing BANT quality leads for key accounts. The individual identified is confirmed to have Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe. Good Lord! What sales team wouldn’t spec their wished-for leads that way? Why not add that they’re also willing to provide coffee for every meeting and promise to be a…
Read MoreWeb surveys offer marketers a multi-tool that can help their budgets go far, very far. You think you know them – the SurveyMonkey style surveys that often pose as a legitimate survey but are as transparent as televangelist asking for your credit card. They ask questions that are instantly seen as a gimmick: “Who do…
Read MoreGiven that most marketing departments are under significant cost pressures, how can you make that process more efficient? Making a ton of calls, or sending out a lot of high-cost mailers or polluting the Internet with thousands of emails carries with it a lot of costs, many of them hidden but all of them a…
Read MoreThe most common misconception about lists, or marketing databases, is that they can be transformed into being clean and fresh… in a one-shot effort. In truth, all data is flawed. In the results of a recent account penetration survey* 73% of marketers said their contact database needs work. Even the largest lists companies in the…
Read MoreDo you remember the line from Rudyard Kipling’s epic poem, “If”? “… if you can keep your head when all around you people are losing theirs and blaming you for it?” In one of our recent surveys we asked, “What is the most disturbing trend you’ve noticed in the past year?” And the top answer? …
Read MoreEvery marketer or marketing organization has a list of target accounts they’d like to penetrate. You’re likely to have heard these Holy Grail accounts described, often by the head of your marketing organization. “Our system would be perfect for an e-Commerce company with over 1,000 accounts, or a company that processes a lot of credit…
Read MoreI heard it again last night. I was attending a marketing meeting, but this time it was a meeting of volunteers whose mission was to recruit physicians for a local free medical clinic. “Let’s try social media!” was the theme of the meeting, to be led by a consultant/expert/good-hearted soul. Nevermind that half of the…
Read MoreI’ve been guilty of doing way too much spearfishing in my career. But, my God, does it work! You draw up a list of the tastiest accounts you’d like to have, the ones that have it all: marquee value, deep pockets, they align with what you know makes a happy, long-term, reference account, etc… and…
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