The Alternative Shift in B2B Marketing

The rapid rise of smartphones is changing the face of B2B marketing. No longer do businesses market to other businesses – instead they market to individuals, as the mix of work and social life coincides.

This change has made personalisation in business key, and knowledge of potential customers essential to winning new business. So how do companies develop this knowledge and is it difficult?

With more potential customers now online, you need to interact with them and nurture them from the start to help win their business - and this is where the latest lead generation technology can really help. Incorporating social media tagging and tracking solutions, together with powerful insights into customer reaction and behaviour over time, you can now build understanding of individuals and communicate far more effectively through email, Twitter, blogs and more, responding quickly to potential interest.

It’s a shift in approach that can work wonders. Tell us your experiences of the changing B2B market…

An Irritating Advert? Surely not…

Marketing magazine’s poll of the most irritating adverts of 2010 is out. Revealed as the most annoying is the GoCompare advert, with other companies in the top 20 including Webuyanycar and Injurylawyers4U.

Depending on the different marketing strategies, companies may see this as a positive - they’ve achieved the brand awareness they crave. It’s all about tailoring the communication to achieve ROI – but be wary of turning off potential customers.

While advertising can be a very effective tool, there are now many different channels to reach your customer in both B2C and B2B marketing – depending on what you want to achieve, and most importantly your budget.

Knowing your customer and what they are interested in is paramount to sales success, having that knowledge will ultimately win companies more business. A marketing automation technology will be able to identify, track and nurture customers, building stronger relationships and strengthening the brand.

Why not tell us which is your most annoying advert?

Positive Signs for Stock Market

With the stock market showing positive signs coming into the New Year, how are companies to excel in the competitive yet still recovering economy?

Maintaining the customers you have is as essential as bringing in new business, and to achieve both you need to really understand those you are selling to and communicate more effectively with them.

For marketing and sales this means using customer knowledge to target the right people, at the right time, to win new business and keep existing clients. This is where demand generation technology comes in; delivering a valuable insight into what motivates your customers, when and how. Building a more in-depth understanding of each customer is key – from their response to e-letters, social media activity and more you can develop a digital fingerprint that enables you to tailor your communication and focus on hot prospects.

Why not find out more about how lead generation technology can help grow your business?

It may be cold outside, but don’t rest on your laurels…

In today’s Telegraph the Centre for Economics and Business Research has suggested that the snow disruption will cost Britain's economy £1 billion for every day that the icy conditions disrupt travel and business operations such as retail.

With the cold weather continuing, many have decided to write off this period and look ahead to the New Year, but in terms of sales it’s worth being proactive. Despite the impact the snow has had on business operations, many people are still in the office planning and budgeting for 2011, so take advantage of what may be a quiet time to follow up warm leads and start building opportunities for the new year.

The leads are out there, and marketing automation software through Profunnel can help you nurture them for the future, so don’t rest on your laurels while the cold continues to bite – make the most of this time so you’re in a prime position for 2011.

2011 – Make It A Year of Growth

According to a survey by Deloitte more than 90% of businesses in the UK have predicted growth in revenue in the New Year.

Deloitte’s annual Entrepreneurship UK report revealed that over 50% of business leaders that were surveyed forecast that there will be at least 10% revenue growth in 2011. This figure highlights the positive shift in UK business compared with 2009, when 20% of entrepreneurs predicted declining revenues in the oncoming year.

With more companies predicting growth this is a great opportunity for businesses to boost their sales effort and increase revenue. There are many different ways to achieve this, from implementing new approaches to lead generation, more effective online strategies, next generation email marketing and social media campaigns, to strengthening customer relationships through more targeted communications.

With the business outlook for 2011 looking more positive, why not find out more about how new approaches to lead generation can help grow your business and increase your revenue?

How will the ‘digital hub’ affect business?

As the Government unveils its plans to create a ‘digital hub’ in every community in the country, as part of an £830 million strategy to make sure the UK has the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, the new plans are set to have a huge impact on business.

Faster broadband will mean increased Internet usage for both consumers and business, enabling people to more easily research their options, make an informed choice and buy online. As a result, it is even more important for businesses in both the B2B and B2C sectors to build their customer understanding and use online marketing to maximum effect.

With more potential customers surfing the web, you need to interact with them and nurture them from the start to help win their business - and this is where the latest marketing technology can really help such as marketing automation. The boost in broadband is set to help us all, but as a business you need to capitalise early on the opportunities out there.

Visit the BBC article for more information on the Government’s broadband plans.

SEO is Only the Beginning

Web activity and maximising online visibility through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) has become a critical component in lead generation for businesses in all sectors. But strong SEO is only the beginning for companies.

While SEO is an important marketing tool, it cannot be solely relied upon to increase sales. Attracting visitors to your website is the first step of the new business chain – but once they are there, how do you make sure they keep on returning and ultimately purchase your product or service? The key to this is building understanding of these visitors – where they have come from, what they are interested in on your website, where they are in the buying cycle and more.

So how can you achieve this? Next generation web forensics (tagging & tracking individual activity) enables companies to really understand potential business, nurture it, communicate more effectively with individuals, and manage those relationships. Not all web forensics offers this ability, so now’s the time to get ahead of the competition, find out more about improving your Lead Generation