The Path to Marketing Optimization.

While small businesses have the advantages of quick solution adoption and implementation when compared with large corporations, they have some constraints too. Our observations of the challenges faced by small business marketing departments led to the development of our pay-as-you-go B2B marketing services solutions.

Below are four typical small business marketing challenges:
(in random order)

#1 – Selecting the right combination of new marketing productivity tools from the vast range of offerings takes time. Time that busy small business people don’t have.

#2 – The perception of marketing as an “art” rather than a “science” can sometimes lead non-marketers to de-value the contribution of marketing to overall business success.

#3 – Management sometimes lacks a holistic perspective or understanding of how marketing activities relate to organizational objectives.

#4 – Inadequate time for planning combined with inefficient processes, causes crisis-responses that strain staff and adversely affect marketing productivity.

Advantages of Pay-As-You-Go Marketing:

On-demand – On-demand services means accessing help when business cycles demand extra help to overcome specific marketing challenges or manage projects.

Flexible – Small businesses need flexible support to implement incremental marketing solutions and move forward along the marketing optimization path.

Temporary - Tapping into temporary outside resources to exploit a business opportunity can avert the potential pain of inaction.

Specialized – A focus on B2B marketing combined with sector- and industry-specific experience, allows for the delivery of highly relevant marketing solutions. One-size-fits-all marketing is dead.

Learn more about how our pay-as-you-go marketing services can address these challenges for your small or mid-sized business >

YouTube and other sites that allow videos to be posted and shared, are becoming an increasingly popular method of business communication. B2B videos can be anything from a very short clip consisting of just a few seconds to full length documentaries.

Although most of us think of YouTube as a place where you’ll find wild animal or crazy cat clips, more and more businesses are taking advantage of sites like YouTube and posting corporate video messages. Take a look at this YouTube video for Battlefield Equipment, an equipment rental company catering to the construction industry.

Here’s a clip from UpNext Media explaining the business advantages of video.

Below are a few examples of corporate messages that can be communicated effectively using video:

• corporate capabilities
• company news & announcements
• maintenance & repair demonstrations for self-service
• equipment & product safety messages
• user training, new employee welcome

Additional Resources & Reference Materials: 

BtoB Online magazine articles:

“2008 Event ROI Study: Research Findings and Implications.” Forty percent of 444 event exhibitors surveyed said booth traffic had decreased over the past year. January 12, 2009, link to more…

“Trade show budgets projected to decline 17% this year” according to a newly released 2009 Exhibit Marketing Survey. March 17, 2009, link to more…

“Automation key to b-to-b marketing, sales success”, New tools focus on external data, prospect development, knowledge management and sales enablement. March 9, 2009, link to more…

“The New Rules Of Outsourcing B2B Marketing”

WHAT MARKETING DIRECTORS NEED IN A B2B MARKETING CONSULTANT TODAY

We think this highly relevant and informative 21-page ebook guide is a must-read for CEO’s and Marketing Directors who are considering outsourcing to a marketing partner. Click on the image for a link to download this new ebook written by Rebekah Donaldson & Cris Rominger.  

Topics covered include:

• 10 questions to ask a prospective B2B marketing consultant
• 5 essential traits your B2B marketer needs and why each is important
• Why B2B marketing differs from B2C
• What B2B buyers are looking for

Some excerpts from the book:

Today, racing to nab prospects through cold calling has questionable ROI. Far from being sitting ducks, B2B buyers are reaching out to service providers who look good. … Today, B2B marketers talk about ‘pull’ or ‘inbound’ marketing – that is, attracting prospects rather than cornering them.”

An experienced marketer builds a foundation for sound decision making before diving into tactics. They help link marketing goals with business goals, and ensure marketing planning is grounded in real client and prospect perceptions.”

… your B2B marketing consultant should be committed to inbound marketing. … they need to guide you in being visible and helpful when prospects are looking for companies and guidance: facilitating comparisons, providing all the elements of a strong business case, and being authentic.” 

Below are 5ways you can use database tools for marketing.

#1 – Improve Accuracy of Promotional Campaign Planning
Analyze historical sales data and use the information to make better predictions about campaign outcomes. With repitition of this exercise the accuracy of predictions will improve and lead to more accurate planning.

#2- Provide Sales Reps with Timely, Accurate Data
Provide your sales team with concise sales-tracking reports during a promotion. By pushing snippets of valuable information to your sales team at appropriate intervals during and at the end of a promotion, they are armed with the knowledge they need and focus their efforts on selling.

#3 – Customer Segmentation and Profiling
Because data that resides in the database is relational (multiple tables each containing records of data which are ’related’ to each other), it allows for the extraction of data from multiple source tables using a single query to filter out unwanted records. The ability to extract data based on multiple criteria avoids the problem of multiple listings for a single customer – a typical result if using Excel for this exercise.

Initial segmentation will be limited to the data contained in your customer records, but marketing information can be added to the database to allow more finite filters to be applied. Segmentation data could include; geographic location, business size, industry sector, reseller channel, purchase volume,  industry code SIC/NAICS, group membership (e.g. buying groups, industry associations), program participation (e.g. co-op advertising, rebate, loyalty), etc.

#4 – Profile Profitable Customers
Profile your customers and segment them into groups based on their contribution to your bottom line. Start with 3 groups: not profitable, somewhat profitable, highly profitable. Analyze the characteristics of the two profitable groups and use this information to develop a group profile. Focus your lead generation efforts on attracting companies that match these 2 profiles and reduce or eliminate marketing efforts directed at the unprofitable group.

#5 – Develop Reports for Delivery of Timely, Accurate Information
Start by creating a few standardized reports, once built, these reports can be cloned and popluated with data using a query. To update with new or refreshed data, replace the report record source with a new source query. The new data will flow into the report automatically without the need to re-create the entire report. 

We have been using database tools for marketing since 1996. Building a marketing database does take some time, effort, and skill, but for small businesses that aren’t quite ready for sophisticated marketing automation solutions, marketing effectivenss can be dramatically improved by harnessing the power of a database. Learn more about our database marketing services.

Addional Resources:

Roadmap to Building a Database

Building a database is a process that begins by addressing a business issue and then developing a business case to demonstrate that database implementation will benefit your business. It requires buy-in from senior management and agreement by various departments and stakeholders on firm objectives. There must be agreement on the deliverables and how those deliverables will be measured. By creating a critical path and a detailed plan, you will visualize how processes will work and minimize any development omissions that might occur otherwise.” More  (source: Canadian Marketing Association www.the-cma-org )

The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard “From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. … The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.”

Click play to view a teaser clip about Planned Obsolescence

 To view the entire video go to Story of Stuff website

This excellent video reinforced what we already knew – that green marketing is not only good for the planet, it’s good for the balance sheet too. By transitioning marketing materials like brochures, flyers, price lists, newsletters etc. from printed to digital versions (e.g. PDF), and using electronic delivery methods (email, Internet), we reduce our impact on the environment and save printing and distribution costs. Potential benefits of delivering digital documents electronically include:

Instant 24/7/365 Availability  Information always available to your customers and prospects - no waiting for snail mail to arrive!

Easy Multi-Versioning  Less costly to provide publications in multiple versions (e.g. multi-language, channel-specific, customer-specific, buying group, product group). Customizing your publications can further reduce costs and improve your marketing edge.

Interactive Clickable Content  Leads the reader to take specific actions that can be monitored and measured for continuous improvement of marketing efforts.

Higher Pass-along Readership  Higher potential for pass-along to buying team members using email or links. If the content is really good, could even go viral!

Easily Maintain Content Accuracy  Easy updating of electronic documents ensures information is always accurate and current. Faster time to market with new product introductions.

Improve Searchability Online  Today, nearly all B2B buyers are searching online for new products and vendors. Posting content online helps improve your company and product visibility to the search engines so you can engage prospects early in the buying process.

Lower Distribution Costs  Distribution costs eliminated or dramatically reduced, freeing-up resources for other marketing initatives.

Improve Visual Appeal  By hiring design experts to produce high quality visually stimulating collateral materials you can set your company apart without the associated cost of high-end printing.

Printable by User  User decides whether hard copy is required.

Reduces Physical Clutter  Electronic documents don’t require physical sorting or take up filing space, round file or otherwise!

Savings to the environment:

• fewer trees turned into paper
• less use of paper-making chemicals
• less use of fuel to transport raw materials and finished goods
• less printed material waste

Consider whether transitioning document production and distribution from hard copy to digital delivery makes sense for your business. We did. Click here to view an ePortfolio of our marketing services in PDF format (750 KB PDF).

HubSpot specializes in inbound internet marketing using SEO, blogging and social media tools for B2B companies. Play the video clip to hear Brian Halligan, HubSpot CEO & Founder, describe how traditional “interruptive” B2B marketing is being replaced with more effective methods utilizing the power of the Internet.

HubSpot’s free resources include: website redesign kit, search engine optimization for lead generation, marketing reports, how-to videos, webinars, and more. Click here to visit HubSpot.

For advice on how you can improve your website from a marketing perspective try Website Grader. Website Grader is a free website scanning service offered by HubSpot.

The grader is easy to use. Just type in a website URL and email address and the grader scans the site to measure its marketing effectiveness. A report of the finding are sent to you by email so you can either fix the problems yourself or hire someone to do the work.

Recently, we ran Website Grader on our site and we plan to run it regularly in the future to monitor our online presence.

Sage, the company that makes Simply Accounting – a popular small business accounting software program, has created Billing Boss a free online invoicing tool for small businesses.

We tried out the beta version today and were quite impressed. In just a few minutes we had created our business profile, customized an invoice template with our logo and other information (taxes, currencies, types of payments accepted, etc.). Then we created a ficticious customer, generated an invoice, and were able to begin sending invoices in minutes (it will even generate a PDF on the fly) – view our test invoice here.

Billing Boss had more features than we were expecting from a free software program.  We also liked the interface which was intuitive, uncomplicated and easy to navigate.

If you need a program that will let you create, send, and track invoices for your small business, home-based business, or start-up, this is a great option. Why spend money if you don’t have to, especially if you are bootstrapping! Check out the video below, or go to  www.BillingBoss.com

MarketingProfs – this site offers valuable free content about every imaginable aspect of marketing including popular topics like; web marketing, blogging, marketing strategy, Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing, social media marketing.  They also have market research reports, numerous “How-to” instruction guides, marketing forums, webinars…the list is endless.  Basic membership is free and subscription provides access to premium content. We love this site!

What is Marketing Automation?

A subset of customer relationship management, marketing automation provides a framework for continuously collecting, testing, and refining data to improve marketing accuracy. Marketing automation allows market needs to be addressed with precision through the activation of pre-set triggers to communicate more effectively with existing customers and to convert more prospects.

Marketing automation software gives marketers the ability to pre-define rules for triggering automatic responses like an email or phone call, delivery of a specific piece of collateral material, the sending of an invitation, and other typical marketing communications. Marketing automation systems track responses and facililate data analysis that leads to improved marketing precision. The key is establishing parameters for when, what, and how communications are triggered so they can be timed to have maximum impact.

Why Don’t More Small Businesses Use Marketing Automation Software?

Perhaps it is because in the past most marketing automation software was designed for larger enterprise systems, putting it beyond the needs and price range of small businesses. Recently, we went exploring for small business marketing automation software to see what features and benefits were offered. 

Below are some of the features:

• Contact Management
• Marketing Automation
• Email Marketing
• List Management & Segmentation
• Multi-media Broadcast Marketing (fax, voice, letters, email, direct mail, etc.)
• Automated Follow-up Marketing (Nurture/Drip Marketing)
• Website Integration
• Campaign Planning
• Workflow Automation
• Reports
• Preloaded Templates, & sample communications plans

Next, other resources that marketers can use to automate specific marketing tasks. Feel free to leave a comment on marketing automation or other small business marketing issues.