Business

Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts

Monday 6 October 2014

Building Targeted B2B Prospect list, How to make it


Targeting is arguably the most important part of Business prospecting. You can have a brilliant product with a great offer and wonderful creative to sell it, but if it goes to someone who is just not going to be interested, none of this matters.

Targeting the right businesses with the right offer at the right time will substantially increase your chances of B2B prospecting success. But as well as maximising your opportunities for making a sale, careful targeting also saves you money by reducing waste, not to mention being good for the environment and for your reputation. Remember, ‘junk mail’ is only badly targeted prospecting.

Follow these simple steps, for the easiest, most cost-effective and profitable way to build a targeted business prospect list:

Step 1: Knowing your customers
First, think about who your existing customers are and build a picture of your best customers by looking at the information you have on them. Look at their business sector, size by turnover and employee number, geographical location and number of locations, ownership of products, purchasing behaviour and so on.

Step 2: Revealing look-a-like prospects
By building a list of new business prospects who most ‘look like’ your existing customers, you can target the people who share similar characteristics… and are therefore more likely to become your customers. It’s important to have a flexible database that allows you to refine the business prospect criteria. Applying selection filters on your data will add real depth and quality to your targeting. Other methods of finding out who your best prospects are include mailing a rented B2B prospect list and analysing the replies. You can also conduct research through a postal or telephone questionnaire.

Step 3: Segmenting your business prospects
Effective B2B prospecting is all about making the right offer to the right person at the right time. That said, your direct mail will still need to grab your reader’s attention, hold their interest, and compel them to the action you want. The way to do this is through an engaging proposition. ‘Segmenting’ means identifying a sub-group (or segment) of your prospects list that has a set of common needs. This will allow you to tailor your message to that need so they are more likely to be interested in your offer.

Step 4: Ensuring quality and accuracy
As well as using your own customer or prospect databases, you can buy or rent business lists to market to. There is a wide range of business lists and profile overlay databases for you to choose from. They are available from a variety of data providers, so you should be certain of the B2B lists’ quality before you use it. By doing this carefully you can save a lot of trouble with poor address quality.

Step 5: Buying B2B prospect data
Before you buy a business prospect list, be sure it gives you all the decision makers’ details, including address, telephone and email, and that these are updated regularly and are safe for you to contact. It means you can contact your new prospects with absolute confidence, improves your response rates and saves you time and money. Using an online B2B Prospect list builder that allows you to check the data before you buy will give you that final peace of mind that you’ve got the right


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B, Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Monday 15 September 2014

Difference in Inbound and Outbound Team To Incoming Lead – See it


Difference in Inbound and outbound team for Lead – see it

Inbound lead come from web form through social, SEO, paid campaign etc. this lead we give to Outbound Team for closure, they are truly close or loose. Let’s discuss...

Suppose inbound lead coming through the web form via social, direct traffic etc. 

Sales Teams have already lots of jobs OR responsibilities like:

  1. Tele-Calling to CMO, CEO, Marketing person for set a meeting for  VP from Data collected by MR.
  2. Make a follow-up email to the targeted Executive person
  3. Sale person or BDM just follow a list by Or gather by  MR and VR
  4. such as inbound lead qualification, outbound prospecting, closing, or account management

Inbound leads mean visitors find us from a search engine, social brands of our products, directly enter our web address etc., this is unique visitor – leads – because we don’t call via sales person, don’t follow-up. Don’t make dare to give this inbound lead to sales executive. They treat like as a normal data, don’t give importance in result we lose it.

Why I suggest you, 
  1. They answer OR they just follow – why we follow this Inbound Leads ( This is not tele-verified, customized ) 
  2. Salespeople had many responsibilities like closers close, prospector’s prospect, etc.  Focus your salespeople to allow them to become experts in own field -- @ inbound qualification, closing, prospecting etc.
  3. The Success rate for this  Leads to closure means Business ROI – 40%



Are you ready for creating Two teams – 

One for Inbound leads – to bear word like “verification, calling, and leading convert to Business ROI”

Another, its daily basis calling from picking database from the Company.

A. Inbound Lead marketing leads coming through the website via sources like marketing campaign, emailing, search engine marketing, or organic word-of-mouth.

B. Outbound marketing is part of cold call & gather meeting for a VP to closure leads. Sales people continuously make a call & they have targeted for monthly leads for commission in some firms. So don’t dare to do this. You loss precious client or promoters.
Best of luck

(This post refer by Pamela Vaughan, hub spot)

Monday 14 July 2014

Learn How To Maximize Lead Generation - Market Leader


Learn How To Maximize Lead Generation - Reachforce


Anyone with a blog can call themselves a thought leader – but how do you find the real deal?


If you’re lucky, you meet Ruth P. Stevens (her incredibly impressive bio is at the end of the article).  And if you’re extra lucky, she agrees to an interview drawn from her new book “Maximizing Lead Generation.”


What are the biggest challenges for marketer to generate the number of leads they need currently? Budget? Technique? Lack of alignment?

Lead Generation Best Practices defined


Learn the key framework from Ruth Stevens to create a lead process and generate more qualified B to B leads.
My view is that the biggest challenge is process.  This is not necessarily the most exciting part of lead generation, but it’s where the most leverage lies.  The company that puts a solid process in place, and executes consistently, is the one that wins.  The most important process areas to focus on are lead qualification and lead nurturing, although most marketers focus on inquiry generation.

What are the best performing lead sources currently? (eg Website organic, website PPC, retargeting ads, Iinkedin sponsored posts, etc).

You’re going to kill me, but the truthful answer is: It depends.  There are just too many variables involved.  So marketers should test all of these, as well as traditional media like telephone and postal mail.

But, I would also add to the list your own website (beyond search), which, if done correctly, can be a source of your cheapest and best leads.

What B2B marketers need to do is add an offer, a call to action and a dedicated landing page to the website, to motivate visitors to leave behind their contact information, for ongoing communications.  Plus, add IP address identification software, to “de-anonymize” the visit, and then consider an outbound call to the visiting company, to discuss their needs.

What activities are falsely classified as lead generation and how does this impact marketing?

To me, the big offender is list vendors, who present their products as “lead lists.”  This is ridiculous, and perpetuates the myth that contact names are leads.

How important is awareness to driving ultimate downstream lead generation or supplier preference?

Awareness is very helpful, of course.  The problem with awareness as a marketing goal is that it’s hard to measure.  I prefer to focus on response-oriented communications, where you generate not only awareness, but also action.  As the great copywriter Bob Bly notes, “In B-to-B, all marketing is direct marketing.”

What new lead generation tactics have you heard of that are gaining traction / performing well; and what previously high performing tactics are on the wane?

Direct mail is undervalued today by lead generation marketers. It is still extremely effective, when used properly.  Part of the reason is the abundance of well-targeted prospecting lists.

Another reason is that business people still read their mail, and their physical inboxes are a whole lot less cluttered than their email inboxes.

What’s the easiest way to waste a significant part of your lead generation budget?
Two glaring points:

  • By not systematically qualifying and nurturing inquiries.
  • By exhibiting at a trade show without a well-considered data capture and inquiry follow-up plan (and training booth staff to engage with passers-by).
  • What percentage of B2B companies these days have true alignment between sales and marketing? Is the percentage growing or stagnant?
I don’t have a number.  In my observation, the best alignment potential comes from the top, when the heads of sales and marketing like, trust and respect each other.

What are the most important factors to rapidly move marketing leads to sales ready prospects – and how much elapsed time / marketing touches are needed to get those leads really ready?

There are no shortcuts, really, because you are dependent on what’s happening at the prospect’s end, and you have limited influence there.  But 45% of inquirers eventually buy in the category.  So a company without a process for lead qualification and nurturing is going to lose that sale to the competition.  I know I sound like a broken record by now, but this is where I see companies fall down on the job.  It’s often the basic blocking and tackling that is missing.

You noted that social channels are delivering less than 5% of leads from all social channels. Will any technique or technology push social out of the 5% box?

Social can be put to good use in lead generation, but its best applications are misunderstood today.  Like PR, social cannot be viewed as a scalable, reliable media channel for lead generation.  You can’t build a quota-fulfilling revenue plan on it.

What you can do is:

Add an irresistibly titled content offer to social media messages, linked to a dedicated landing page where you capture contact information, and then nurture that relationship until it is ready to hand to a sales rep.

Use social media touches as part of your ongoing lead generation and nurturing programs.

If you are just starting to re-build your B2B lead program, what are the first 3 critical steps?

Plan your process, from inquiry-generating campaigns, to lead management, to results analysis and reporting. Invest in data management and hygiene.

Communicate the value of a lead to everyone in your company. This is a real point of opportunity.   The value of a lead can be explained in two ways:

  • The cost per lead, meaning the investment the company makes in generating a lead.
  • The revenue value of a lead, meaning the average order size of a closed lead.  If everyone in the firm is aware of these numbers, they are more likely to treat the lead with the respect it deserves.


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook - Prabhakar


Tips For Promoting Your Business Page On Facebook – B2B Marketing And Sales Tip 


Written by Ellie Mirman, blogger at the HubSpot Internet Marketing Blog and Inbound Marketer at Internet Marketing company HubSpot.



So you’ve got a Facebook Business Page… Now what? Building a Business Page is one of the best ways to increase your presence and engage more potential customers on Facebook, but it’s more than just clicking “Create Page”. As you venture out into the social media world, here are a few tips to help you promote your Page and reach more of the 100 million Facebook users.

Create a Facebook Business Page worth becoming a fan of.

To quote David Meerman Scott, nobody cares about your products and services (except you). People care about how you can help them solve their problems. To extend that thought to Facebook, don’t use your Facebook Page to talk about your products all the time. People aren’t interested. Instead, create some interesting, useful content that people want to receive. This could be blog posts, whitepapers, or simply discussions.

Take advantage of the viral nature of Facebook.

Facebook provides great opportunities for viral marketing. Facebook creates a “News Feed” of your friends’ activities on Facebook, like posting photos, changing statuses, or becoming fans of a Page. What this means is that every time someone interacts with your Page in some way, that action is published across all of their friends’ News Feeds, giving you exposure to that person’s entire network. The best way to take advantage of this is to engage your users and give them more opportunities to interact with your Page, for example, by fostering discussions, inviting them to events, allowing them to post links. Leveraging the power of the News Feed is a critical part of establishing your presence on Facebook and building a fan base for spreading your messages.

Don’t forget to draw on your network.

All promotion does not need to take place within Facebook. Feel free to email your opt-in e-mail list, blog about your Page, and post a link to your Page on your company website. The best people to help you build up your fan base for your Business Page on Facebook are those people already subscribed to your blog or engaged with you in some way.

Optimize your Page for Facebook – and public – search.

Another way to get found and build your fan base is through Facebook’s search. Facebook – like all other search engines (Facebook was noted the most used people search engine) – has an undisclosed algorithm that ranks search results in a way that aims to return relevant and useful results to the searcher. The best think you can do to show up higher in these search results is to build a large following of your existing fans, because entities with a larger network tend to show up higher in search results. Also note that Facebook Business Pages are public and indexable by search engines. This potentially gives you exposure to those searching in broader search engines like Google. To make the most of this, start lots of engaging discussion threads on your Page, so that if someone is searching in Google on that very topic, they can stumble upon your Facebook Page and discussion thread.

Get an extra push with Facebook Ads.

If you want to give your Business Page an extra push at the beginning, you can also buy some advertising slots. Note that Facebook ads are much less effective than the viral marketing options on Facebook, and the click through rate for Facebook ads is notoriously low. Facebook advertisements show up on the sidebar as users browse through their friends’ profiles, groups, and so on. When you set up your ad, be sure to include “social ads” – these draw on a users’ network to see who in their network has already engaged with your Page and shows, for example, “Jim Smith is a fan of Company ABC” next to your ad, potentially improving your click through rate. Also, make sure that you give viewers a relevant reason to click on your ad by inviting them to connect with industry peers or offering a free whitepaper, for example. Also in this vein, note that you can target your ads by age, gender, interests, geography, and other factors, to reach users who may be more interested in your Business Page.

Bonus Tip: Measure your results.

Once you’ve built up your Facebook Page it’s good to measure what you’re actually getting out of your social media program. Some metrics you may want to measure are:  number of fans, page views, and unique users. Facebook’s “Insights” provide some of these metrics, including demographic data. You’ll also want to track actions beyond your Facebook Page, namely, website traffic, leads, and sales that come from Facebook. Hopefully some of these tips will help you get your Facebook Business Page off the ground and build it into a valuable channel for reaching your potential customers.

All this said, social media, including Facebook, is by no means static. It is constantly changing and we, as marketers, are constantly learning the right way to leverage these channels for marketing. If you want to see what we at HubSpot have done, you can become a fan of our Page at http://facebook.hubspot.com. And, if you’re looking to network with other marketers on Facebook, you may be interested in the Facebook Pro Marketers group, a group for marketers passionate about marketing. Perhaps there we can continue discussing ideas for marketing on Facebook.


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Monday 7 July 2014

Dont make tricky campaign in Email Marketing for Business ROI


Don't make tricky campaign in Email Marketing for Business ROI

Email promoting has been around since the Internet was invented. Although some spam filters have been able to remove unwanted messages from going into an individual’s inbox, when marketing via email is done right, it is helpful for the recipient and the sender. The solid advice, below, will show you how to earn more and keep your customers happy, at the same time.

Do not continuously insist that your subscribers “Buy Now.” People can recognize this kind of approach easily. If you do so, your work looks like spam. Trust me, all of them know you are trying to sell a product or service; however, you will realize greater success if you first build a relationship with them and then promote both yourself and what you are offering, professionally. Your customers will appreciate you not doing this, and this will increase the odds of them purchasing one of your products.

Don’t email people that you do not know. Otherwise, you risk being known as a spammer. People will not recognize your brand and will not trust you at all. They will just send your email to their spam folder, and it will be a huge waste of your time.

Any content you intend on emailing out should be proofread and edited. Accuracy is important in all forms of correspondence, including emails and newsletters. Before you ever hit “send,” test your email layout to ensure your satisfaction with the way it looks. If you have put any links in your emails, make sure they are able to be clicked.

Make sure that email formats are tested. Put your important information and any new offers near the beginning of your messages. But you should try different formats to see which one gives you the most responses. When you find one that works, stick to it. When you do this all of your customers know where they need to look for when searching for information they are interested in reading.

Continue learning about email marketing techniques through all the resources available to you. You will find a lot of helpful books or websites. You should also try to attend local email marketing classes and workshops.

Your marketing emails should contain rich content to complement the request for business. Information that is useful to readers and can’t be found on your site is particularly appreciated. Also give your valued subscribers some exclusive offers only available for people on your mailing list. Send greetings for holidays or a personalized message for birthdays for instance.

Test a variety of different formats for your emails. Your email should be like a funnel, with the most important items at the top and the least important items at the bottom. But keep trying new formats and ideas until you discover the one or ones that provide you with the greatest number of responses. When you determine what works, continually use it. This will ensure your customers will know what they are getting from your emails and where to go when they need more information.

In order to ensure that every single customer on your list has given their permission for you to email them, you should have customers opt-in to your list twice before you send the first email. While it may seem like overkill, it is a great way to guarantee that your customers actually want emails from you, which could save you from future trouble.

It’s a great idea that you require people to double opt in if they’re wanting to receive emails from you. This may appear like an unnecessary extra feature, but this can, in fact, ensure that only those who sign up who are genuinely interested and this eliminates trouble for your company.

Branding is something that extends throughout your business, even down to marketing via email. For this reason, you should be careful to develop a well-designed template for your marketing materials. Make sure to include your company logo, with color complimentary backgrounds, and professional fonts that are an accurate reflection of your brand. This will enable your customers to quickly recognize the source of the email.

Keep in mind that major holidays are not the best time to send out important emails. This is because people are usually out of their office and not next to their computers, so they won’t notice your emails. There are always exceptions, though! This may include emails regarding things like Black Friday and other sales or specials that go on.

Don’t use images for important information in marketing with email. A lot of email clients do not display images right away. This could possibly make for ugly messages or ones that are unreadable if they rely too much on images. Make sure that the most crucial information is readable and that images have alt tags.

Be certain that every recipient of your email messages has indicated a willingness to accept them. Skipping this step may not only cost you subscribers, but they may talk to others, which can further damage your business’s reputation. Some ISPs and web hosts will also refuse to do business with you, which isn’t exactly good for a business that relies on the internet for survival.

It is a legal requirement to get someone’s permission before adding them to your mailing list. If you do not, your emails will be viewed as spam. You will quickly lose subscribers and be banished to the junk mail pile. If your ISP gets many complaints, they could block you from sending emails because you can be viewed as a spammer.

Your opt-in should have a field for customers’ first names at the very least. This allows you to personalize the message to each subscriber. This will help build customer relationships.

Use email previewers to your advantage when using preheaders. Simply put, a preheader is the highlighted first line of email text. Email providers such as Gmail put this section of text right after the subject of the message, and therefore it is easy attract the attention of your reader.

It is important to only target people who have agreed to be contacted with your email marketing campaign. The people you add will be left angry, leading them to report your email and cause you a headache. Also, it is possible that the host of your e-mail service will remove your account.

Directly Opted

Be certain your email marketing plan has an option for unsubscribing or opting out. There is a cost to sending email, even if it is small. Furthermore, the negative publicity and blowback from being seen as an aggressive spammer is not only bad for business, but can result in blocks and black listings online.

Stay away from including emails on your emailing database that have not been directly opted-in by the specific subscriber. Padding your list with subscribers who have not directly opted into receiving your marketing via email can build ill will towards you by both the email owner and your potential clients. Additionally, ISPs and web hosts won’t hesitate to cancel spammers’ accounts.

To increase the size of your mailing list, include simple ways for potential customers to opt in to receiving your emails. This can be done on your website by making a link that subscribes to your newsletter.

Try testing the layouts of your messages on various platforms. Once you have perfected your materials, test them using all major browsers, various email clients and different operating systems, including Linux. A message in Hotmail may look entirely different from a message opened in Gmail.

Grabbing the reader’s attention is key in a successful email marketing campaign. You might have to tweak things a bit before everything falls into place. Changing components that aren’t working is key. Test out new techniques continuously so you can stay on top of marketing.

In order for your subscribers to feel special, try to personalize the emails you send them any way you possibly can. If it feels more like a form letter to them, they are more likely to just delete it or block it from receiving any more. Adding in their first name is very easy, but take it step further. For instance, you should have information that tells you when and where a reader subscribed, as well as why they did so. This information can be used in your emails.

Your marketing emails should be reasonably short. Your language should be as direct as possible. This will demonstrate your respect for the value of your readers’ time. This will also prompt most readers to take in the full message. Remember the importance of this, as your important links and content will probably be near the end of the email.

If you are doing it properly, your marketing with email efforts won’t even seem like a sales pitch to your readers. If you make your emails interesting and informative, a reader might actually look foward to seeing them in their inbox. This is beneficial to more than just your brand. It also might bring you customers who are more than willing to purchase your products and offerings. Use these tips to take your email promoting campaign to the next level.

Use social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to help expand your email marketing efforts. These networks make it easier for customers to share your information with others, and you can grow your mailing list organically by interacting with visitors at your social networking sites, drumming up interest for your content.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Thursday 3 July 2014

Metrics for E-commerce Retailer with Content Marketing


Online retail marketers spend a significant amount of time and money attracting visitors to their stores, converting these visitors to customers and retaining them as customers over time. Content marketing helps at each stage of the marketing funnel.

Right at the top of the funnel, content marketing in the form of blogging, visuals, videos, guides, articles and media engagement all work to drive relevant traffic through to a store as well as kick off brand awareness. When visitors start to browse through products in your store, content marketing in the form of product videos, quality reviews (user generated content), FAQs, product description and images come to play with converting traffic to sales. Finally, customer loyalty efforts geared to generating more repeat customers are largely fueled by an email marketing strategy that imperatively connects with your brands overarching content marketing strategy.

It is vital to measure the effectiveness of these measures as a guide to future efforts. 

The word “metrics” is on everyone’s lips in the content marketing world, as metrics are a gauge on the effectiveness of marketing spend. There is, however, a slew of different metrics available to marketers. Which ones merit scrutiny?

1. Returning visitors

This is an important metric from a content marketing viewpoint because visitors who return to your site directly — who aren’t funnelled there by other marketing channels — are a guide to how useful people found content from your site the last time they came.  In other words, it’s a measure of how good your content is!

The quality of your content matters because it increases the “stickiness” of your site, and because it increases the likelihood of turning visitors into customers. Furthermore, high quality content that delivers return visitors is one of the means by which you can build relationships with your “top 1 percent” customers.

Ideally, what you want is your top 1 percent customers returning often, rather than many “bottom 90 percent” customers returning once or twice. That’s about targeted content and fragmented phased-out content that stimulates audience suspense similar to TV sitcoms.

2. Pages per visit

The average number of pages a visitor looks at during a browsing session. This figure provides some indication of site engagement in broad terms. If visitors read only one page, it indicates they aren’t finding the site very useful. If they stay and read 10 pages, they’re obviously seeing value in what your site has to offer. In e-commerce, this is a vital metric because visitors are most likely “window-shopping” on your site. The longer a visitor spends on your site, the more engaged they are and more likely they are to buying.

A vital part of this is bounce rate – how many visitors simply bounce right off the site after viewing only one page? Factors known to increase bounce rate include page load times, as well as a poor connection between content marketing and site content. If your content marketing attracts visitors who are basically uninterested in what you do, they’ll bounce. This is worth looking at in isolation as well as part of the whole picture provided by pages per visit metrics.

3. Time on site

Time on site indicates the amount of time a visitor spent doing anything at all on your site. As such, it indicates interest, engagement and likely purchase. As a general indicator of site performance, this is key. It’s also important because more engaged customers are usually better customers. Comparatively high time on site is an indicator of commitment to your brand – a feature of the “top 1 percent” customer. You can break down the time on site figures to see which people are spending more time with you, allowing you to optimize your content for the customers who make the biggest difference to your company.

4. Increased traffic

Increased traffic is the basic aim of content marketers. From social media to your blog to your sales pages, good content marketing should increase your traffic.

For e-commerce, more people coming in through the door means more sales and more revenue. Again though, it’s wise to differentiate between more traffic and more useful traffic. More visitors who display lower secondary conversion, lower pages per visit and so on, are not necessarily what you should be looking for. Boosting traffic should be seen as a way to increase the number of potential top 1 percent and top 10 percent customers coming to your e-commerce store. That’s about targeted content.

Engagement Metrics

5. Sharing content

How much of your content gets shared across social networks? That’s a key metric for content marketers in any sphere: it’s a measurement of how many people think your material is good enough to show their friends or pass on to professional contacts. It also feeds into your social marketing strategy: knowing which channels your content is shared on lets you know which channels to concentrate on, and which to optimize your content for.

From an e-commerce standpoint, sharing content is another indicator of the engagement of your top 1 percent customers. Higher engagement from this group is disproportionately rewarding in terms of sales and per-sale revenue. called “comments per post,” and it measures the number of times visitors post responses, feedback, reviews or any other form of commentary. This is a key metric for content marketing because it’s a measurement of engagement. This can provide insight into the topics that customers want to engage with.

Specifically for e-commerce, a reviews section provides an important guide for future customers. Customers and prospective customers take reviews extremely seriously, and they make a major difference to sales. From personal experience buying running shoes online, I value reviews from customers in specialist running online stores against reviews from behemoths such as Amazon or eBay because my inclination is that specialist store customers would be more discerning and knowledgeable. Online retailers should create a stimulating experience that encourages reviews and user-generated content in general — there is so much value to be had here.

7. Time

Most social media management tools offer metrics that let you find out what time of day and which days your posts see the most engagement. Obviously, you’d expect different demographics to have different engagement profiles – if you sell products aimed at middle-aged fishermen you’d expect to see a lot less action at 2 a.m. than if you sold concert tickets to youth-oriented events, for instance. Checking out when your audience is active lets you build your posting schedule around those times. You can take that information and measure it against your conversions at your store.

Suppose you get the most social media engagement at 9 a.m. on Thursdays, and most of your sales are at 9:30 on Thursdays. A link that fast seems unlikely to be causal. But what about secondary conversions? A spike in social engagement, followed by a spike in traffic, followed by a spike in sign-ups, all suggests that your social and other content marketing is working extremely effectively.

Business Metrics

8. Conversion rate

In online retail, sales are primary conversion metrics. Drawing a direct link between content that you create at each stage of the marketing funnel and your sales can be tricky, but multi-attribution modeling helps establish a link to sales conversions more easily. Also consider measuring “secondary conversions” such as email list subscriptions, buyer guide downloads and any form of engagement that requires commitment on the part of the visitor. Growing an email list is a vital conversion metric to measure.

It is a vital metric because it indicates a wider spread of visitors who might not be buying yet, but they’re interested enough to download material, to sign up or to otherwise indicate their interest. Additionally, higher engagement is a characteristic of the top 1 percent of your customers – the ones who actually contribute the most to your success.

9. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer lifetime value is a measure of how much a customer is worth to your company overall, across the time of their association with your company. The average customer is going to make around two purchases throughout their association with you. The top 1 percent of your customers will, measured across their CLV, be worth around 30 times more than the average – reason enough to concentrate on these high-value customers.

Analyzing customer lifetime value lets you see whether you’re getting the customers you want. It’s actually more efficient to appeal strongly to a smaller number of customers than to appeal weakly to a larger number of less engaged, less interested customers who will, ultimately, spend far less with you. If you’re appealing to high value customers, your content marketing strategy is working!

10. Revenue

Finally, what it’s all about. Revenue is the most important metric, for obvious reasons: you can’t pay your employees with click-through, or make a house payment with secondary conversions. But how do we look at revenue from a content marketing perspective?

One way is to track purchases through the whole process, and see what content they viewed prior to the purchase decision. If a visitor viewed three pieces of content on your website and then made a €90 purchase, each piece of content is worth €30, right? Sort of. But that’s too simplistic for such a complex picture. It doesn’t take into account social marketing, or repeat customers – in their case, you’d need to factor in the content they looked at last time too. Use purchase value/pieces of content viewed as a rule of thumb, but remember how vague it is. It will give you an average at best.

Another way of looking at revenue is to measure conversion value. It’s a broader approach that looks at all the costs involved against the sales value and it usually means looking at the mass of sales.

Conclusion

The most useful metric for tracking success overall is customer lifetime value measured against the aggregate cost of customer acquisition. Customer acquisition costs include all marketing costs, not just content marketing. But content marketing costs will be significantly reduced per customer if those customers have high lifetime value, because high lifetime value customers are interested in more of your content, so less of it “misses.”

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Marketing Strategies for Developed And Developing Markets - Prabhakar


Interest in developing markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia has increased rapidly over the past ten years, meaning that market research and intelligence agencies are exploring a wider variety of geographies than ever before. This presents numerous challenges throughout the market research process, for fieldworkers, managers and analysts alike. This article discusses perhaps the most important issue of all – the different insights that tend to arise in different geographies. In particular, how do the critical marketing success factors in the developing and developed worlds differ from each other?

Developed And Developing Markets Product

In most business-to-business markets, customers regard product quality and durability as a ‘hygiene’ requirement; performance must be high in order for the supplier of that product to even be considered. Companies with low quality are not in business for long, leaving serious market players to differentiate on the extended offer – service, brand and the like. In developing markets, good quality is often not even a hygiene requirement, let alone a differentiator. 80%-90% of buyers of pump and instrumentation products in Russia or China are happy to buy products that last 18-24 months whereas their Western counterparts demand a lifespan of 6-7 years or more. This results in a preponderance of low-quality buyers in the developing market, and quality becomes a key differentiating factor for the small group of customers that demand it.

To the Western company with a high cost-base and high-quality product, the best strategy in a developing market is to cream-skim the market by targeting the 10%-20% of quality-focused buyers. In developed markets, suppliers are best advised to focus on service quality, knowledge and people, while of course maintaining high quality standards. -- Recommended Marketing Strategies In Developed And Developing Markets

Developed And Developing Markets Price

Value-added pricing is common in developed markets – that is to say buyers are willing to pay more for a superior offer, usually based around service, brand, consultancy and other benefits beyond the product itself. In developing economies, the willingness to pay extra for a superior offer is far less prevalent, with most b2b buyers relating price primarily to quantity.
Developing markets 2
Developing markets 2 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Western clients tend to premium-price in developing markets, communicating high quality to a small part of the market and receiving high margins in return. Even companies that are relatively undifferentiated in their home markets frequently succeed when premium-pricing in developing countries. Consumer brands such as Pizza Hut have experienced huge success with this strategy.

In developed markets, the picture is far less clear, with customers generally more demanding and high-quality competition more prevalent. This is where specialist pricing research comes into its own, be that competitive pricing intelligence or more model-based techniques such as SIMALTO and conjoint analysis.

Developed And Developing Markets Place

Western businesses frequently underestimate the difficulties associated with routes to market in developing economies. Whereas market channels in the company’s home market may be long-established and familiar, channels in a developing market may be unrecognisable, fragmented, ephemeral and highly dependent on local knowledge and relationships. Many Western consumer-facing companies are experiencing real success in developing markets in this respect, with shampoo and cosmetic providers, for example, making huge profits in rural cities via local distributors and retailers. Industrial companies have been slower to build up their knowledge, many still relying on generic import-export agents and a low-quality, poorly trained salesforce. Underestimating the importance of a permanent on-the-ground presence and even local-language capability is another common mistake.

Developed And Developing Markets Promotion

In any b2b market, promotional messages should focus on customers’ ‘hot buttons’: product quality or price in developing markets; and in developed markets, service, brand, consultancy and other value-added messages. Promotional routes will also differ. While direct mail is increasing in prevalence in most developing b2b markets, it is still a scarcely used and ineffective marketing channel in these countries. Relationship-focused promotion, such as trade shows and site visits, is key, since trust in brands is in short supply.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

Make smooth and fastest Distributor Network, How


Increasingly distributors are replacing direct salesforces in industrial marketing. They cost less, they absolve the manufacturer from the burdens of credit control and they provide a wide geographical spread of stocking points. But in appointing distributors the manufacturer loses control of the sharp end where the sale takes place. How can the principal identify weaknesses in a distribution network and what can be done about them?

The first indication of a weak distributor could be a fall in his sales performance. The manufacturer has the advantage of being able to compare the sales of each distributor and plot all their performances over time. A weak distributor can be spotted as one whose sales performance is out shone by others.Sharpening The Distributor Network

Of course relative sales performance may not tell the whole story. Distributors live in a competitive environment and some may suffer exceptional competition from other firms in their area. Nevertheless the warning bells will be sounded, and the principal will be able to discuss the problem with the distributor in good time.

World of Industrial Distribution changing with B2B Revolutions
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A second indicator of a weak distributor could be the growth of complaints which find their way back to the principal from customers. The nature of the complaints could be significant. Are they concerned with lack of stock, difficulty in obtaining sales service, poor back up, high prices, etc? The complaints can be logged and become an important discussion point for resolving with the distributor.

A third means of assessing the strengths and weaknesses of distributors is to pose as a customer. The Market Research Society sanctions mystery shopping as long as it is carried out within its code of conduct. The depth of investigation which can be undertaken as a supposed buyer can vary from the odd simple telephone call to a nationwide programme of organised visits.

Certainly the principal should telephone distributors from time to time to see how they react to a general enquiry. Things to look for are the speed and efficiency with which the telephone is answered and the ability of the receptionist to direct the call to someone who can handle it. However, if a larger study is to be undertaken, it must be coordinated and carried out in a professional and unbiased way. It will therefore require the services of a team of interviewers who can measure the response of the distributor at each stage of the buying process. The important things to look out for are italicised below.

Reception. This is most important since it is the first contact with the potential buyer. It is an area which tends to be handled badly, with inefficient receptionists who garble the name of the company and show conspicuous indifference to satisfying what may be an enquiry from a customer.

The sales person's initial approach. The prospective buyer is eventually routed to a sales person who should attempt to establish needs. In a recent mystery shop we carried out, the interviewers were told to enter the distributors and record the way in which they were approached by sales people. In one instance it became clear that even after three-quarters of an hour, the sales staff were not going to turn the conversation to business. The potential buyer might be there still if he hadn't finally taken the initiative and stated the nature of his enquiry.

Describing the product. Sales people are most at home when they can describe their products to a customer. However, it is not unusual for them to concentrate on product features at the expense of customer benefits.

Handling the competition. In most markets a customer can be expected to shop around. It is revealing, therefore, in mystery shop to ask the sales person to justify the company’s products. In a commercial vehicle dealer study where interviewers posed as potential buyers, one salesman was so flummoxed by the question, "Why should I buy your vehicle rather than a competitor's?" that he confessed he could not think of an answer!

Getting hold of the product. When a customer decides on the product, quite probably it will be wanted straightaway. Availability is therefore important. If the distributor does not have products in stock or cannot get hold of them quickly, the sale may be lost.

Providing a demonstration. Just as distributors' sales staff can give an acceptable description of their products, so too they are quite good at demonstrations. In the case of office equipment distributors, a demonstration is nearly always part of the standard sales routine. However, in the vehicle research referred to earlier, one-third of the distributors had to be prompted to offer a demonstration.

Offering discounts. Distributors frequently conflict with their principals about the high price of the products they sell. Yet in a recent survey on office equipment a quarter of all distributors offered a discount without being asked. A further half made the same offer after being asked. It seemed that distributors were all too eager to use price as the main sales weapon.

Following up the sale. Once the potential customer has left the distributor's premises, it is important that the enquiry is followed up either personally or in writing with a quotation. In the vehicle dealer study only a half of the "customers" were sent a written quotation even though all had asked for one.

Mystery shopping can expose weaknesses in the many stages of the distributors' selling procedure. It may be a valuable lesson for the principal to extend the research to include some distributors outside the company's network.

Making Correcting Weaknesses for Best ROI

The golden rule for helping a distributor improve its operation is "explain and train". Before raising criticisms of the distributor's business, however, the principal should attempt to understand the nuances of each locality. There may well be causes which are temporary or peculiar to a distributor, and these must be taken into account in any recommended changes.

A common weakness among distributors' sales staff is their failure to discover a customer's needs and relate the benefits of products to them. The sales person may fail to probe to find what the customer wants; may concentrate only on selling what the company has to offer. It may be thought easier to sell on price rather than push the benefits. The sales person needs training but this may not be within the facility of a small distributor. The principal should therefore assume the responsibility for both the sales product training and showing how to approach and convert prospects.

The principal may wish to manipulate the performance of the distributors' sales people by offering them sales incentives. Distributors have mixed views on principals' incentives. On the one hand they provide a boost to the sales staff's salary and so allow the distributor to recruit a higher class of personnel. On the other the distributor who allows a principal to make a payment to sales staff must concede a loss of control.

The installation of systems and procedures at dealers can help eliminate some of the weaknesses. For example, if it is important that a follow up takes place after the initial sales call or demonstration, it would not be difficult to set up a system which reminds the sales of this next step.

Systems can be devised for every part of the sales sequence. For example, a rule could be made that the telephone is answered before it rings more than three times; another might ensure that a customer is not kept waiting for more than five minutes in the showroom. Restrictions could be placed on the offering of discounts.

Of course all procedures and rules need policing if they are to be continuously observed. Further, it must be recognized that within a small distributor, overt bureaucracy is unacceptable and often unnecessary. So any procedures suggested to the distributors should be simple. They should be sold-in as ways of helping the distributor improve performance. A heavy hand is unlikely to work.

{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}

World of Industrial Distribution changing with B2B Revolutions


Using distributors as an alternative to selling direct is very far from being a soft option, though it may be inevitable. Here we consider the manufacturer distributor relationship and look at its three commonest problems.

Industrial distribution has grown apace over the last 30 years. It has been driven by pressures of ever increasing selling costs and the demands from users for rapid service. Industrial companies which previously managed their own direct salesforces are having to learn how to pick distributors; and they are finding out the difficulties of training and guiding distributors' selling efforts. The skills which the industrial marketer needs today are not those of motivating reps to seek inquiries and stimulate sales but in pulling the demand through the distributor chain.

The term "distributor" is used loosely to cover a wide range of middlemen. In its strictest sense a distributor should:
  1. Purchase goods from his supplier for stock;
  2. Actively promote and sell this stock to users;
  3. Provide advice and service as appropriate for the product he sells;
  4. Invoice and collect money from his customers.

Usually a distributor is appointed by a manufacturer and may well operate a franchise for just one type of product. Kango hammer distributors could not sell Hilti or Bosch hammers but there is nothing to stop them selling a whole range of compressors and air tools which make a sympathetic product line up. Thus a distributor is very different to a wholly owned company depot, as independence allows it to stock a range of different products to suit customers' demands.

Mostly distributors are not formally appointed and sell whatever brands they like. Electrical wholesalers usually sell three or four brands of cable, and their allegiance to their supplier may stop with the price. The purist distinguishes between this wholesaling activity and the appointed distributor. From the manufacturer's point of view, selling trucks through distributors or lubricants via engineers' merchants pose similar problems of pulling demand through a sales outlet which they do not own.

To understand the motivations of the distributor and the manufacturer it is necessary to consider the driving force which brings them together. First let us consider how distributors begin. Often they start life as sales agencies - someone who has worked in an industry for a period sets up on their own selling a product he/she understands to customers he knows. Usually the product is a consumable or standard equipment costing tens to hundreds of pounds. It is a short step for the agent to add new and complementary products, get a small unit on a trading estate and buy and sell stock rather than take a commission.

The origins of the distributor require characteristics of local specialization and an entrepreneurial culture. The key to everything is stock turn and margins. A fast moving consumable may have a 25 per cent margin (i.e. a 33 per cent mark up) while a piece of kit which turns over at a slower rate may command a 40/50 per cent margin (i.e. a 66 per cent to 100 per cent mark up). - The Changing World of Industrial Distribution

The entrepreneurial distributor, originally the salesman, soon becomes desk bound and spends time on the important function of buying. A sales team is employed and being entrepreneurial the salaries are modest in the hope that commission will provide the incentive to sell.

Counter staff are paid peanuts. The whole essence of the distributorship has become a pipeline with buying and selling as the principal functions.

The manufacturer or principal on the other hand is moving away from being sales orientated. The manufacturer wants to cut back directly employed sales staff and focus on niches of demand. The manufacturer wants to concentrate on creating awareness and demand for the product through advertising. A system is needed for ensuring customers can easily obtain products anywhere in the country. A wholly owned depot is usually expensive and so the move to distribution. Distributors have a deep knowledge of local markets. They buy in bulk and save the manufacturer the trouble of sending out hundreds of invoices (which the law of averages says will have a fair peppering of bad debts). The distributor's stock saves the manufacturer space and money.

Of course, not all industrial products are suited to the distribution route. In general standard products pitched at a large and diverse target market and requiring a low level of technical competence in the salesforce are most readily suited to distributors.

The three most common sources of problems between manufacturers and distributors relate to excessive discounting, territorial disputes and arguments over the lack of distributors’ promotional efforts.

Disputes over excessive discounting by distributors.

Distributors work to a list price set by their principals and offer discounts to their own customers. Sometimes fierce local competition causes these discounts to get out of hand.

For example, since 1980 electrical wholesalers have been forced to offer larger discounts to stop their customers (the electrical contractors) buying from DIY superstores. The pressure on prices spirals backwards to the manufacturers who periodically try to tame the distribution network. Disputes are frequent where products are of high value (or bought in volume) and an extra one per cent is worth a fight. Office equipment, commercial vehicles and compressors have become battlegrounds with discounts the main weapon. Peace is restored if demand rises and the availability of products become restricted.

There is, however, much that manufacturers themselves can do. If Mita promote their copiers as being of a higher quality than others, their distributors do not need to cut prices as fiercely. Volvo trucks with a reputation for reliability and high residual values will not be discounted to the same extent as Renault or Ford.

Disputes About Geographical Areas

Distributors quite naturally want exclusivity in the territory where they sell. Manufacturers may be insensitive to this issue, preferring a multiplicity of distributors in a region - in the hope that the wider spread of sales outlets will ensure more product will hit the target.

If the product is a high turnover consumable such as abrasive discs, plumbers' requisites, cable, cutting tools and the like, the distributor cannot hope to be granted exclusivity. In any case the buyer of the consumable seldom specifies a brand for this type of product, and the distributor wins business by offering a wide range, a high level of availability, excellent service and good prices.

However, where makes or brands are specified, geographical disputes between competing distributors can occur. If buyers buy locally, as in the case of shot blasting equipment, the principal can afford to carve the country into regions. If buyers buy nationally, as in the case of trucks, truck bodies and associated gear, there cannot be any geographical boundaries, and each distributor must accept competition with others. In practice, the franchise of a truck distributor is one of around only 20 to 30 spread across the UK, and in any area a distributor has the advantage of a local following which gives a lead over his fellow franchisees in other regions.

Disputes About Distributors' Selling Efforts And Promotion

Manufacturers soon find out that they have little or no control over their distributors' sales efforts. In fact if a manufacturer tries to encourage a distributor's salesforce with training or incentives, it may well suffer a rebuff. The distributor doesn't want its salesforce locked in to one product. Furthermore a day out on a manufacturer's training course is a day ('off the road") and has to be paid for.

The manufacturer recognising these limitations of the distributor is tempted to adopt a hybrid approach, using its own salesforce to cherry pick the largest and most worthwhile accounts and leave the distributor to sweep up the rest. Distrust arises and the distributor starts to ignore the franchise guidelines and even double deal, offering alternative products even though a franchise agreement may prohibit this.

The manufacturer must be quite clear about the trading arrangements from the start. Amicable solutions can be worked out based on the purchasing power of customers (over a certain size could be handled direct) or by end use (military customers may be handled direct). Introduction fees can be given to distributors to maintain their interest and keep them happy. - B2B-Internet


{{ The Guest Post Blogger organization was not involved in the creation of this content. - Dalvi Prabhakar B., Founder & Digital Manager (SEO,SEM,SMO) }}