Marketing - How do you do yours?
Discussion
Am B2B selling low value goods to independant high street shops and just wanted to see what people are doing in terms of marketing.
We have around 3000 prospects that we contact via mailshots / emailshots(only started that recently) and via phone.
How often should one target these people? We have 3 people on the phones selling, contacting on average 40-50 people per day however I want to target everyone more often.
I was think about a bi monthly mailshot with news, offers etc in it followed up with as much calling as possible?
Advertising we have tried many many times and is always no good.
SEO on the website is going well and we are nearly top for the keywords.
PR is no good as there is no real good publications that cover our whole market.
Is there anything I'm missing? Is bi monthly newsletter to often?
I was thinking about starting a small brochure and contacting a few other companies to see if they want to advertise in it but it would take more time away from what we do.
Anyone like to share they marketing ideas?
We have around 3000 prospects that we contact via mailshots / emailshots(only started that recently) and via phone.
How often should one target these people? We have 3 people on the phones selling, contacting on average 40-50 people per day however I want to target everyone more often.
I was think about a bi monthly mailshot with news, offers etc in it followed up with as much calling as possible?
Advertising we have tried many many times and is always no good.
SEO on the website is going well and we are nearly top for the keywords.
PR is no good as there is no real good publications that cover our whole market.
Is there anything I'm missing? Is bi monthly newsletter to often?
I was thinking about starting a small brochure and contacting a few other companies to see if they want to advertise in it but it would take more time away from what we do.
Anyone like to share they marketing ideas?
sam.r said:
How often should one target these people?
Such an open ended question and the answer will depend on many factors. It will differ for each business. One of my clients (finance company) sends a quarterly newsletter through the post with industry and company news and sends a monthly email with the latest rates. They also have a schedule in place that automatically sends a letter to people just before renewal time. This is sufficint to keep them in business despite the credit crunch putting competitors into liquidation. Another client sends one letter a year and this is enough.In regards to newsletters I would say only send them as often as you can fill them with good info. If they start to lack news or interesting topics then they won't be valuable any more. This can be said for most marketing material actually, one or two really targetted promotions will provide a better return than ten sent for the sake of keeping in touch.
Can you split your 3000 up into groups who need different things and one month send group A a relevant offer, the next send group B an offer that would be of particular interest, etc.?
If you are sending a newsletter then I wouldn't give a follow-up sales call if you are also doing this for postal and email sales promotions as newsletters are all about information and not selling.
sam.r said:
Advertising we have tried many many times and is always no good.
SEO on the website is going well and we are nearly top for the keywords.
Does that include Pay Per Click advertising? I have found it works well for a number of B2B clients. May not be relevant if you are ranking well in the SERPs but can often bring in a different, more buying focused, kind of visitor.SEO on the website is going well and we are nearly top for the keywords.
What is your business?
Sam,
Far too many variables to give an exact answer but from what you’ve described and having a rough idea of what you’re selling, something you may want to look at is the marketing strategy rather than the tactics.
Assuming you are selling to the shops in bulk and they then sell to their customers, you are using a “push” strategy. In other words, you’re pushing the product through the supply chain.
Rather than target the shops, you may want to look at wholesalers/distributors. Although you loose some of your margin your costs go down because;
a) You are targeting a smaller number of customers
b) Those customers buy more per order
c) Your packing and transport costs are less
Alternatively, you could consider a “pull” strategy where you create demand amongst the market who ask for the product at the stores, who then request the product from either you or the wholesaler. In other words, the product is being pulled through the supply chain.
The costs are a lot higher as you’ll need to deploy advertising/PR/etc but your margins will be higher as there the demand for the product is already there.
The direct selling method you’ve described is basically a numbers game. You can (and should) be clever in segmentation and targeting to make sure those you call are appropriate but it still boils down to the more you call, the more you get.
I’d need to know more about your advertising to pass judgement but if done right, it can work very well. It’s not rocket science. Good advertising is about copy, content, creative, position, timing and integration with other marketing tactics.
Hope that helps.
Far too many variables to give an exact answer but from what you’ve described and having a rough idea of what you’re selling, something you may want to look at is the marketing strategy rather than the tactics.
Assuming you are selling to the shops in bulk and they then sell to their customers, you are using a “push” strategy. In other words, you’re pushing the product through the supply chain.
Rather than target the shops, you may want to look at wholesalers/distributors. Although you loose some of your margin your costs go down because;
a) You are targeting a smaller number of customers
b) Those customers buy more per order
c) Your packing and transport costs are less
Alternatively, you could consider a “pull” strategy where you create demand amongst the market who ask for the product at the stores, who then request the product from either you or the wholesaler. In other words, the product is being pulled through the supply chain.
The costs are a lot higher as you’ll need to deploy advertising/PR/etc but your margins will be higher as there the demand for the product is already there.
The direct selling method you’ve described is basically a numbers game. You can (and should) be clever in segmentation and targeting to make sure those you call are appropriate but it still boils down to the more you call, the more you get.
I’d need to know more about your advertising to pass judgement but if done right, it can work very well. It’s not rocket science. Good advertising is about copy, content, creative, position, timing and integration with other marketing tactics.
Hope that helps.
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