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How to Build a Successful B2B Lead Generation Pipeline

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

B2B spending on online lead generation is anticipated to grow at 17% through 2012. Though we have more b2b lead generation options today than ever before, online b2b media sites are not doing enough to take advantage of this projected growth in spending. There is not enough innovation in business lead generation products. The media channels are weak, measurement capabilities are frequently lacking and b2b companies do not have the resources to nurture, score and track the performance of the lead generation programs.

Here are the 3 keys to building a successful business lead generation pipeline:

  1. Objectives – When examining the lack of B2B lead generation success using online media, one of the core hurdles I have found is that B2B marketing executives are unsure how to measure, score and nurture their lead generation pipeline. Sure, b2b lead generation strategy is different for every industry and business, but I would argue that every B2B marketer needs to define the objective of their lead generation programs before spending a single dollar on them.
  2. Strategies – Once the overall objectives have been determined the marketer needs to identify the right media strategies and mix. Each industry and each niche will have a set of online media sources,types of programs and tools. You need to first identify the media sources and mix for your business even before allocating the marketing budget to them. Unless you spend the time to identify the media sources and mix that are required to achieve the overall objective, half the money you spend on the online media will be wasted; the trouble is, you won’t know which half…
  3. Measurability – Finally, B2B marketers need to track the performance of their lead generation campaigns based on the objectives. For example, if the marketing objective is to reduce cost of sales, the marketer needs to able to measure the sales conversions by media source to determine the return on investment (ROI). On the other hand, if the objective is to create product or brand awareness. Then, I would argue that there are more effective ways to achieve your marketing objective, including standing up a website, section or portal with videos, webcasts, relevant content etc. and driving traffic to it via pay per click or SEO.
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How To Kill Creativity?

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Gone are the days when businesses relied on newspapers, magazines, radio and television to reach and engage with consumers where the difference between success and failure of an advertising campaign was its creativity. Advances in performance based advertising have caused advertising agencies to abandon the right side of the brain (creative side) for the left side – the analytical side. Recent studies show that businesses are continuing to shift their marketing spend towards direct marketing strategies such as pay per click, direct mail and telemarketing in order to be able to measure the response and get a quick return on investment on their marketing dollars.

The measurability and effectiveness of these aproaches is making them a popular choice among todays Chief Marketing Officers as the marketing roles shift from “creative” to “analytical”. This new analytical marketing function enables businesses to identify, target and measure the customer response for highly targeted search keywords in paid search using pay per click or organic search using search engine opimization (SEO), or through highly targeted placements on relevant content sites. 

However, this has killed the creativity in marketing as it has replaced the engagment element of marketing that invokes the user’s emotion or feelings towards a particular product or service with a transactive element where the consumer has no loyalty towards the product or service. Furthermore, he is likely to change her or his preference with the next click on Google, Yahoo or Micorsoft’s Bing.

But, the pendulum is about to swing back to the creative side. The emergence of online videos and social media will help bring creativity back into marketing as advertisers recreate the consumer passion and feelings for their products and services by engaging with targeted audiences on social media and networking websites such as facebook, myspace, twitter, tradeseam etc. and through viral marketing of creative videos on youtube, hulu etc. This shift back to creativity in marketing will help advertisers re-establish consumer loyalty towards their products and services resulting in high switching costs and repeat purchases.

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Top 5 Return On Investments (ROI) For Your Business In 2010

Friday, January 15th, 2010

The recession is forcing small businesses to slash budgets and re-roganize for the new economy. Relentless focus on return on investment is the objectives for every business in 2010. Two trends that are gaining popularity are more outsourcing and a shift to online marketing and advertising. Five business ideas that will gain momentum in 2010 are:

Social media marketing

Social media has become increasingly popular with the young and the old. Social media marketing companies tap into this pool to market your business to a wide audience and create a buzz through forums and discussions. It is an explosive medium as word of mouth can spread about your business like wild fire. Vigilant businesses can enhance their customer relationships and build a customer-friendly image by monitoring and addressing any negative feedback that is posted on these websites so it does not result in bad PR.

Search engine optimization

Nothing can trump your website ranking on the first page in organic search results on Google, Bing and Yahoo!  for relevant search keywords. White Hat SEO companies  focus on building relevant traffic to your websites by researching on keywords that will convert into sales, effective link building to make sure your website is indexed by tier 1 search engines so your website can be found by users online, link baiting to attract visitors to engage with the content on your site and social bookmarkingof your website on the relevant social networking and media properties.

Pay-per-click marketing

PPC campaigns eliver results that are measurable and can provide a significant Return on Investment (ROI)  for your business if you can identify and bid on the keywords that result in conversion into qualified business leads or credit card merchant sales. Search Marketing companies make sure your ppc campaigns are more effective by placing the right bids so that you can meet your ROI objectives.

Call Centers

While businesses have been compelled to lay off staff to slash their expense budgets for 2010, work still needs to be done. By outsourcing call center services, businesses ensure trained l center professionals handle customer service calls, interact with suppliers, take orders, qualify sales leads, provide technical support and also act as an answering service, all at significantly lower overhead costs.

Medical Billing

Outsourcing Medical billing can alleviate the workload on healthcare practitioners and medical centers by solving the time consuming task of filing claims, keeping track of medical billing and code changes, collecting revenues on difficult claims so healthcare professionals can focus on their primary focus ie providing for healthcare to patients and consumers.

As more small businesses rely on outsourcing services and permanent temporary staffing to keep expenses low, we can expect the US economy to recover from the deepest recession since the great depression.

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Qualifed Sales Leads – A Lifeline of Every Business

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

The volume and the quality of sales leads  are critical for every business to keep the “lights on” in any type of economy. If you can’t generate a sufficient volume of business leads you won’t be able to stay in business for very long. However, if you comproise on the quality of leads you will spend more to generate these leads than you will make in sales. It is very important that you always have a consistent and reliable source to generate qualified sales leads as it is the only lifeline of a sustainable business. Today every business owner realizes the importance of business leads and it is important for you to continously allocate monthly budget to new sources to establish a reliable source for quality sales leads. There are many ways of acquiring business leads today and not all methods work equally well for all businesses even if you are in the same industry. Therefore, you need to test different programs and identify the cheapest sources for qualified sales leads for your business.

With web 2.0 and new online networking platforms such as blogging, social networking sites, marketing your products and services including b2b lead generation has become easier and more cost effective for small businesses. If you want to generate sales leads from your website, you must promote your website via pay per click, SEO or in online blogs, social networking and community oriented websites. Many small businesses have started to use blogging as one of the best approaches for driving traffic to their sites with the goal of generating business leads. With the social media traffic growth, it has become easier to drive more traffic to your websites via social networks than blog posts. Although you cannot engage in aggressively selling your products or services on social networking websites, you can certainly promote your brand name by including it in your online profile and social communications with your network. For your social media marketing efforts to be successful, you must select the right social networking platform. For example, if you sell consumer products or services you should focus on promoting your website on facebook and myspace. For businesses networking, you should focus on linkedin and tradeseam. Twitter can be used for both b2b and b2c businesses.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Tradeseam. Don’t miss out on this business opportunity! Lead generation has never been easier and more effective for businesses, both large and small. With Tradeseam, you can acquire new customers while sitting on your couch, without having to do any work at all. You don’t need to manage  pay per click campaigns, write content for blogs, build your network on social networking sites, nuturing the leads from lead brokers etc. Acquiring a consistent and reliable flow of high quality sales leads has never been easier. Tradeseam generates not just sales leads but real business opportunities, these are real buyers and customers looking for your products and services online. More importantly, Tradeseam will always be the cheapest lead generation provider for your business because you get to set your own lead price that you can get the return on investment you need for your business.

You can now build your business on Tradeseam and rest assured that you’ll never have to worry about when or where your next customer will come from….

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Pay Per Click vs. Banner Advertising

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

Both  paid search (also known as pay per click) and banner advertising (also known as display advertising)  are effective in increasing in-store and online revenues by reaching customers at different points in the buying cycle. However, banner advertising helps create brand awareness while pay per click has shown better direct response results as it can be targeted based on the users interests. But, when these marketing strategies are used in combination the results improve substantially.

Display advertising is used to promote business products and services and expose more people to the brand name. Surveys show that people who are exposed to the name of the business and products search for the brand and segment terms more often than people who have not viewed the banner advertisement. Searches on the business name have been proven to increase by almost 123%, when the name has been highlighted in the display advertisement.

Surveys also show that people exposed to display ads are more likely to click on organic and paid search results linked to that business’ website. Display advertising is also effective in keeping a business name in surfers’ minds when they are looking for a product or service that was promoted by that business. A whopping 52% of internet users respond to banner advertising and 27% search for a product by brand.

Pay per click is more effective for direct marketing campaigns where the marketer’s objective is to get a response from the user. Pay per click advertising can be targeted by selecting the keywords for which advertisers would like their ads to appear in search results, including their website in the ad copy with a compelling call to action. Search engine optimization and pay-per-click search engine marketing are performance based marketing strategies for advertisers that are looking for a Return On Investment  from their advertising spend.

To conclude, both banner advertising and pay per click advertising are extremely effective. However, display ads serve brand advertiser’s needs better than paid search while pay per click search marketing addresses direct marketer’s response needs better than display advertising. But, both these online marketing strategies can be implemented together to maximize the efficacy of your marketing objectives such as increasing web traffic to your website, improving sales conversions and getting qualified business leads. And small businesses should look to work with search engine marketing companies to shift their marketing budgets online in 2010.

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