November 2010 Archives

Heading into the Thanksgiving holiday, we thought what better way to whet your appetite than a link round-up.

Here's what we're reading this week:

• Buying and Selling 4.0: Info Commerce Group's interesting take on how companies (like BuyerZone) are bringing creativity to the classic lead generation model of matching buyers and sellers.
  
• Closing the Loop: Brian Carroll highlights an interesting point: maybe we're too reliant on CRM software, especially when sales fails to keep it updated.
• SEO + Social Media: Used together, these 5 tactics can contribute to your ongoing lead generation efforts - cheaply. Is it finally worth your time?
  
• Lessons from Don Draper: What sales advice can we learn from the TV series Mad Men? More than you think.

What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comments below.

With all of the great holiday festivities in the next two months, it is easy to become complacent at work from all of the merriment. Not only is business generally slower, excluding the big holiday B2C contenders like Toys R Us and Best Buy, but there is also a significant level of holiday distraction. It might even be a bit disheartening when you realize that all your important meetings keep getting delayed from people taking time off or calling in "sick". It is easy to get sucked into the festivities and forget about pushing sales. However, you may find that you can make a lot of headway during these holiday doldrums -even if the office more closely represents a ghost town than a working environment.

Let's take a look at a few ways that you can capitalize on the extra time without stressing yourself out:

Out with the old? Maybe not.
Most businesses have tons of sales collateral -some that hasn't been used for years and some in dire need of updating. One way to take advantage of the holiday downtime without breaking the bank is to tweak your sales collateral so you're ready to hit the ground running in January. Do you have blog posts or articles that you never posted or that are lost in the archives? Consider repurposing some of them as new pieces of content to generate leads for your business. The same goes for sales. Focus on pushing more sales from your current clients. If you spend the time focusing on what you do have rather than what you could have -your customers will certainly appreciate the extra attention. But don't forget about past clients, or old prospect lists of people that you never had a chance to connect with. Go back to those and see what sorts of results you get. It is a good way to push more sales even if your brain is daydreaming of turkey and cranberry sauce. And, you never know, the prospect you've been calling on might just be in the office around the holidays - free from normal distractions and ready to take your call.

Here in New England, the air is cooler, the leaves have changed color and we're sipping on pumpkin spice lattes. All of this indicates a certain time of year has arrived...budget time. Like many of you, here at BuyerZone we are knee deep in determining our budget and goals for 2011. One key piece of our marketing budget is determining the amount of resources devoted to "inbound" as well as "outbound" marketing strategies.  Let's break it down...

Outbound marketing
In corner one: The old champ, Outbound marketing, aka "interruption-based" marketing. Outbound marketing focuses on finding customers by pushing its message out to the marketplace. Traditionally, outbound marketing activities absorb the most of the marketing budget. Outbound strategies have been the at the top of the marketing game for years, but is this still the most effective way of generating leads?

Trademark marketing moves: Trade shows, seminar series, cold calls, email campaigns, telemarketing and advertising.

Consumerism is at the heart of the American culture. We thrive on thrills from buying the latest gadgets, seeing the latest movies, and eating out at the hippest restaurants. Some people even go so far as to define themselves with material goods, whether they wish to admit to it or not. A businessman might show his importance by wearing an expensive suit while an angst-ridden teen will show his or her rebellious side by wearing skinny jeans and studded belts. We follow trends even if we don't realize it. And how do companies survive in consumerist America? By appealing to the popular vote.

Sales, marketing, and politics
Sales representatives and marketers connect with buyers much in the same way that politicians connect with voters. They use direct mail, phone, television, the Internet, email, and field work to speak to potential buyers or voters. If certain regions or demographics are "on the fence," marketers might spend more time and resources targeting and pushing those sales. After all, in business or in politics, it's a numbers game.

Expectations
When customers make purchases, how much do they really know about what they are buying? They may read reviews about the newest cell phone models, but it doesn't always prevent them from ending up with a broken phone. The same goes for political races. Voters do their research and vote for the candidate that they think best represents their interests or beliefs. But then, once the candidate is elected, there is still the risk of "what you see" not being "what you get". Delivering on expectations is equally important in business. It's not enough to generate leads and sales and think it ends there. While you might not be voted out of office, you'll certainly not retain the business.

It doesn't matter what industry you're actually in -- to develop inbound leads as a valuable channel, you need to be thinking and acting like a publisher. That was one of the messages from content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi at a Content Strategy New England meetup I attended this week.

I've known Joe online for years, but this was my first chance to see him in person, and he delivered an engaging presentation and discussion on the world of content marketing -- or content strategy, or inbound marketing, or whatever you prefer to call it. A couple of the main points:

• "Your customers don't care about you." Keep that in mind every time you write a blog post that talks about how great your company is, or when you want to use a press release as a way to get attention.

LinkedIn has over 67 million users representing 150 industries around the world. Twitter has 96 million users tweeting daily. Still - nothing compares to Facebook, the site with over 500 million users. That is why it is essential for you to promote your business on the most popular social networking site.

Facebook isn't just about connecting with college friends and high school buddies anymore. It's also used to present a more personable representation of what your business is.

By putting your business on the site, you can do a number of things:

1. Promote your products or services
   
2. Reach out to a larger audience
   
3. Keep visitors updated on new products or deals 
4. Open a new communication channel that can improve retention and engagement
   
   

Start your Facebook page off right

Creating a Facebook page isn't just about what you want your page to offer that your blog or website can't. What about it should visitors "like"?  

For example, BuyerZone's Facebook page announces new posts to the blog and buyer and seller information.

You can also show a friendlier side to your business by uploading photos from conferences or company events.