If the buying cycle is much longer in B2B markets than it is in B2C markets, we need to find ways to keep the communication and contact going from the first contact point. Birddog’s personal record from initial contact to client conversion is seven years. Yep, seven. So How do you keep your company’s name top of mind so that when the prospect is ready to push the ‘buy now’ button, they buy into your brand?

Finding the right channel to keep in front of your audience

Many B2B marketers still think that sending out direct mail will have an immediate impact on sales. They might, but it’s unlikely for high ticket corporate purchases that often require 18 months to complete. What about email? Will sending a couple of emails to a well targeted list produce sales in B2B markets? Again, probably not if the timing isn’t right.

DM, Email and Search can be used to generate a lead, but don’t even expect that. It takes a long time for a B2B brand to get onto someone’s corporate radar and a couple of contacts a year trying to ‘sell, sell, sell’ really doesn’t cut it. B2B marketing is a lot more about relationships. Who do you know? How do they treat you? How has that relationship evolved?

What do you do when sales people are pushy?

Most of us hate sales people who try to push us into a sale before we are ready. We switch off and anything they say becomes irrelevant because we weren’t ready to buy before they started and having their products pushed down our necks certainly won’t sway our opinion.

If your marketing is all push, ‘buy this’, ‘special offer’ ‘don’t miss’, buy now’ and people aren’t ready to buy yet, what do you do? Keep on bombarding them with similar buy now messages or should you consider trying a different approach?

Direct Marketing Tips

There are many different approaches to achieving success with integrated digital and direct marketing. A couple of quick and easy wins would be:

• Test Offers – If it didn’t work before, why would it work this time? Try something else.
• Mine Data – Tailor your marketing mix and messages to different stages of the buying process.
• Collect and Analyse Data – Find out what your audience want. Use this knowledge in your marketing campaigns
• Use Multiple Channels – Your target market consume business mediain many different ways. Find out where they are online. Become part of those networks.

Now more than ever before we have the chance to combine and integrate traditional marketing practice with digital online technology. For example we can measure the stage in the buying process through the types of search phrases. So now, we have the tools which provide opportunities to develop prospect relationships and improve customers’ brand experiences whilst optimizing our campaigns.

Inbound v Outbound Marketing

Many B2B marketers think that outbound marketing (advertising, PR, press advertising, direct mail, email, trade shows) is enough. Whilst they may have employed some inbound marketing tactics (blogs, white papers, content, SEO, webinars, social networks, RSS feeds), they haven’t quite got the hang of it – it’s an ancillary rather than a core part of the marketing strategy.

To be effective, traditional outbound marketing and inbound digital strategy needs to be integrated from the start. You may feel you need some help with that to achieve greater success with marketing conversion over time. Don’t be afraid to ask.