This is a quick guide for senior executives such as CEOs, MDs, New Business Directors, Sales Directors about how to create ace new business marketing. Our brief overview outlines the Pros and Cons of four proven new business marketing approaches to creating sales calls and meetings. They’re presented in order of increasing effectiveness, including indications of the manpower and budget needed.
DIY Social Selling:
when a slow burn is fast enough
DIY Social Selling:Social selling is defined as salespeople using social media to interact directly with their prospects and educate them by sharing valuable content.
With the right skills in-house social selling can be bedded down as a core part of sales lead generation. These would include having a good understanding of: social media; of which channels and content are most suited to your business; and of how prospects use them.
Pros: This new business marketing approach can be done without external support. Plus it’s a chance to lay good foundations when salespeople have natural down time (i.e. holidays, long sales cycles…). To work best, the marketing function should take care of aspects such as content creation and social media training, whilst salespeople should take charge of their own profiles and social selling activity.
Cons: There is a balance to strike between the time spent on social selling versus time spent talking to prospects. Social selling can be time-consuming for salespeople if not managed correctly (i.e. with SMART goals). Typically this approach is a slower burn compared to other outbound options making this another factor to weigh up against other new business marketing options.
Benchmarks: Research sources on the whole point to greater revenue growth when comparing businesses that do social selling compared to businesses that don’t. Leading social sellers create 45% more opportunities while 77% attain greater sales than those using traditional prospecting techniques (₁) .
Caution: Take care that salespeople don’t become distracted by social selling activity over and above other core sales activities. Measuring time investment versus results will keep you on track.
Get Outbound Email help:
increase speed and reach
Well executed email outreach using relevant messaging and valuable content can be very effective to create sales calls and meetings. In terms of investment, it can be one of the more cost-effective options offering opportunities to test subject lines, calls-to-action, messaging and more.
Pros: Outsourced email marketing can significantly increase your reach and speed to market. With the right supplier and approach your lead generation resources can be notably amplified.
Cons: Any outsourced lead generation campaign is only as good as the brief behind it. Outsourcing to suppliers can be time-consuming. Briefing, onboarding and ongoing management should be factored in. Outbound email help comes with a pricetag too. In our experience we’ve found this still lower than the equivalent cost of a salesperson’s time cold calling for the same end result.
Benchmarks: We strongly recommend factoring email marketing into your new business marketing strategy with 71% of B2B marketers calling email marketing critical (₂). Working with a quality supplier we’ve seen the above approach generate conversion rates of 5% and upwards (email to response).
Caution:
- A rigorous selection process to secure yourself a quality outsourcing partner is essential. After all they’re acting on your behalf putting your name out there in the market.
- By email outreach we’re not referring to email blasts which hit cold, purchased email lists. Far greater care and planning needs to happen for this new business marketing approach to prove successful.
Targeted 3D Direct Mail:
reach the hard to reach
Some people simply can’t be reached by email or through social media. That’s where high-impact 3-dimensional direct marketing can prove an effective alternative lead generation channel. By sending a memorable “lumpy” piece of mail you are upping your chances of being seen by your hard-to-reach contacts. In addition, the skilled telemarketer has a great conversation starter on their follow-up call.
Pros: This is a great way to get past the gatekeepers, convey your message and reach top tier prospects,
Con: Sending 3D mail comes at an increased cost per contact in comparison to the options explained above but can be as quick as outbound email and quicker than social selling.
Benchmarks: When executed well, we’ve seen mail-to-meeting conversion rates in the 20% region. What’s more, with 79% of professionals considering direct mail to be “effective” or “very effective”(₃), this is one to consider adding to your marketing mix.
Caution:
- There is great skill in selecting a direct marketing item which conveys meaning and strikes the right chord with a C-level audience. Choose carefully and tie in a strong sales message.
- Navigating through receptions and gatekeepers to reach these people on the phone calls for serious expertise, as does managing such conversations. Confidence your telemarketing is very professional is therefore key.
Targeted Online Marketing:
retarget and educate
The previous approaches are outbound initiatives to help you find prospects considering a service like yours. In business to business selling the bigger part of your target market is not going to be ready to buy when you reach out to them.
- 70% of internet users want to learn about products through content vs. through traditional advertisements. (4)
- LinkedIn sponsored updates can achieve an average of 3% click-through-rate (text ads a 0.025% to 0.08% CTR on average). (5)
- Compared to standard display advertising where CTR’s are usually between 0.05 – 0.1% retargeting campaigns are double with an average of 0.2%. (6)
- 70% of website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are more likely to convert on your website. (7)
Caution: To succeed here content needs to be high quality, provide real value, represent your brand well and feature rich media and a compelling call-to-action. Ongoing optimisation is necessary to ensure you get the best out of your investment. (More tips on generating leads through SEO here.)
Finding the right mix for your business
Whether you’re leading a business, sales or marketing team, key to new business marketing success is combining the right channel mix with valuable content.
The four approaches explained in this Quick Guide to Ace New Business Marketing are not all encompassing. They represent very effective approaches to creating new business and filling the sales funnel.
If you’d like to know where to best start optimising your new business marketing have a look at our New Business Marketing Review.