B2B marketing Archives - Creative Agency Secrets

LI Search filter, B2B marketing, LinkedIn Marketing,

Build your B2B audience on LinkedIn

14 September, 2022/0 Comments/in B2B, Case Studies, Content Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

Here’s a case study with a difference – it’s repeatable, copy-able and also very do-able. By you.

You’re a B2B organisation and seeking an audience for your products and services. I’m assuming you are interested in content marketing as one part of your marketing strategy – you wouldn’t be reading this article if you weren’t. And if you discovered it through online search, you’ll realise the power of search engine optimisation for B2B marketing.

Either way, welcome. Let’s get started.

Find your B2B audience

I helped several clients build an opted-in email marketing audience of thousands using LinkedIn as the start point. After building an audience and communicating (two-way) with them many became paying clients.

So what’s the step by step process to getting this going?

Define your ideal customer persona
Find individuals within LinkedIn who meet the criteria
Test your messaging by manually connecting with them
Refine messaging (if needed)
Find LinkedIn Groups who serve this audience
Join the group(s)
Once in the group, you can direct message any member of the group without being a connection (you don’t have to pay LI for in-mail).
Start your prospect acquisition campaign methodology using the messaging from 2 – 4 above.
Migrate your audience off LI to a platform you control as soon as possible.

How did this work?

For my first client we built an audience of >800 contacts, assembled an amazing ‘voice of customer’ research database and were able to validate the brand’s go to market strategy as well as identify a core group of global influencers to work with.

For my second client, we tested a range of groups, refined the audience selection criteria and worked on two core messaging texts. The voice of customer research delivered key phrases which copywriters incorporated into campaigns. During this we discovered a missing block of content currently unfulfilled by any other brand – BONZA – a key positioning decision which led to creating in-person and virtual community building on Meetup which hadn’t been in the original plan.

The third used Sales Navigator – LinkedIn’s paid sales tool – to deepen the research phase into a much more targeted set of prospect accounts. This enabled us not to use the Groups tactic described above, and to change the focus of the first filter. This worked because the brand was mature and had a very tight minimum viable audience already defined.

Messaging is key

When you’re ready to work on these tactics, understand that finding the audience is really the easy part. Getting your message noticed, replied to and acted upon is where the ‘magic’ happens.

Having a skilled B2B copywriter on your team is essential – invite me for a scoping discussion here.

Do you demo software?

11 August, 2022/0 Comments/in B2B, Marketing /by Rebecca Caroe

At first glance this may seem a somewhat naïve question – why wouldn’t you want to see how software works before buying?

If you work in B2B marketing for software brands, you will know how few people actually demo software. So is offering a demo still a valid part of the marketing mix?

This article was prompted by a survey I did which asked the question illustrated below. Did you request a demo from sales. And it made me realise that I had not done that for some time.

A survey asking about demos for software

Should marketers stop doing demos?

The quick answer is… it depends.

Your customer journey determines where and how a demonstration of the functionality of the software is appropriate. And if you haven’t reviewed your customer journey recently, I recommend doing this.

Customers change – behaviours alter and marketers need to stay up to date with current trends.

What replaces a demo?

Lots of B2B Marketing collateral is designed to answer questions and showcase software features. Prospective customers may find that they get all the answers they need from your videos, or blog posts. Have you found any recent customers who bought without a demo? Go and interview them about why and how their purchase decision was made.

Listeners to the State of Demand Gen podcast will be no stranger to the concept that forcing customers into a “pipeline” whose course is determined by the brand, rather than the prospect, is a surefire killer of sales leads.

The thesis that you let the prospect push themselves along their discovery pathway at a speed that is appropriate for them, is the best way to close more business. This thesis does depend on you having a strong brand presence in the target audience’s “line of sight”. And for that to happen, your brand needs to have already been active in marketing both above-the-line and below-the-line for some time in all the channels which could be relevant to your audience.

This isn’t an impossibility to achieve within a few months but as we all know, SEO rewards incumbent brands more than newcomers and so sometimes innovative (and manual) approaches are needed to start brand building with a new audience. Contact me for a case study of brand building for a startup.

Talk to me

No, I’m not breaking the rule of letting the customer set the pace by pushing for you to get in touch with me! When you are ready you’ll reach out.

In the meantime, consider the following aspects of B2B software marketing – and if you aren’t fully confident you have got them covered, or know how to produce, manage and measure them, then maybe pick up the phone to me.

Brand positioning – who is this software for?
Why it’s different from competitors
Benefits of using the software
Type of customer who uses or needs the software
Answers to all the frequently asked questions
Examples of happy customers
A range of ways to get in touch with the company
Social media outreach to places customers hang out
Dark social ways to share information with your friends about the software
A diverse range of above the line brand building campaigns
A diverse range of below the line direct marketing campaigns
Ambassadors, influencers and happy customers who talk about using the software

And why did I find writing that list so cathartic? I’m doing a training course on B2B marketing for SMEs and this will form the core of what I’ll be teaching. Sign up for Small Business Marketing 2022 – Foundations and Best Practice if you want to join in September.

Is B2B marketing yielding good returns?

11 December, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B, Data, Lead Generation, Marketing ideas, Public Speaking, Strategy /by Rebecca Caroe

Is the marketing you are doing giving you the yield you seek?

I am asking this question a LOT at the moment. I ask it to myself, for my own businesses, I ask clients, I ask prospects.

One answer came from a professional services marketer. It serves as a good example for in-house marketers to challenge their thinking, to up-skill and to get insight from beyond the internal team in the business.

This is what she wrote to answer

Hmmm… It’s hard to tell. I cannot know if a speaking engagement got someone interested enough to ask their consultant to investigate our solutions and eventually get in touch with us and 2 years later… we have a deal signed. It is a complex process to sell our service.

Is a long sales cycle a B2B marketing problem?

Yes, it certainly is. Tracking and managing a diverse set of marketing tactics and campaigns over time takes discipline and forethought.

But where I felt this marketing manager was failing her business colleagues was around integrating the content creation, the speech-giving with marketing analytics and tracking data.

I challenge the assertion that you “cannot know” if a speaking engagement has any effect.

How to track conference speeches for marketing impact

Let me make some suggestions:

Every conference – offer a free download of something valuable. Create a trackable URL. Cookie the browsers visiting that site.
ALSO offer the visitor something even more valuable (not a sales pitch) if they sign up to your database

Both of these create trackable events which (even if 2 years passes) can enable you to demonstrate results.

Any pass-on of URLs to second parties like consultants or colleagues is tracked too.

I use Google Campaign URL builder and also short link services like Bit.ly for this.

Upskill your internal marketing team

When did you last go and get training and invest in your internal marketing team? I fear many in-house teams do not get the attention they deserve. Hiring an agency or consultant is not necessarily going to improve the team skills – it delegates marketing activity to outsiders.

What could you do to invest better, to improve your team’s ability to run the strategy as well as the execution, to better understand what the agency / consultant is doing for you, so that they can brief better, to guide the marketing plan better, to adapt and adjust the marketing budget for new tech, for new market conditions (recession?) and above all, to stay in front of the competition?

So challenge yourself, is the marketing you are doing giving you the yield you seek?

Make your B2B proposal stand out

29 July, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B, Pitching, Sales /by Rebecca Caroe

One of the joys of being a freelance consultant is that sometimes I get to act on behalf of my client and hire specialists to work on their B2B marketing campaigns.

I recently advertised a job and was stunned by one of the proposal submissions. As a new business specialist I know how hard it is to make your proposal stand out from others. This one hit all the gold stars for me.

Integrate proposals and CRM

I was sent an unique URL to view the proposal. This makes everything trackable – it was on a sub-domain of the B2B marketing agency’s website and so I know they will be able to track:

How many times I opened it
Which sections I browsed (they are distinctly separate)
How long I spent reading each part
Which sections I expanded to read further

All in all it was a pleasure to read and to be “sold” to. I felt engaged in the process and I know my actions on that page enabled the agency to get better insight into me as a prospect.

Screenshots from the marketing proposal web page.

Welcome screen for proposal, personalised
Background about the company
Details of the work team – set expectations
Detail of project processes
Calendar embed to start the conversation
Reasons to work together
The small print

And a final note, there’s a Squarespace service Qwilr which offers this on a 14 day trial.

Who’s your LinkedIn Follower?

6 May, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Sales, Social Media /by Rebecca Caroe

LinkedIn hides some of its best features – deliberately.

So here is my quick tip of the week to help you grow your connection base.

Do you know about your followers and following feed?

Thought not.

Log into your LinkedIn. Then paste this into your browser and take a look at this URL.

It lists everyone who is following you. The image below shows Philip Goffin – he’s following me. But I’m neither connected to him, nor following him.

Woo Hoo – lots of followers, Famous fellow.

Now for the inverse, Following. These are the people you are following.

What’s the use of following on LinkedIn?

Well, many times you want to see the News Feed updates from people, but you don’t actually know them and so connecting isn’t appropriate.

Or you just think you will see their updates for a while before approaching for a connection request.

Or you are hoping to quietly bring yourself to their attention without being too pushy – so follow them in the hope they notice you and send a connection request.

Go forth…. try it for yourself.

P.S. You can no longer export contact information from LinkedIn and so I’m advising clients to build contact lists outside of the platform for every new contact they make.

B2B Podcasting rises

6 April, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B, Podcast /by Rebecca Caroe

The rise of podcasting as a medium to reach and influence audiences, grow brand awareness and promote your business continues.

I’m delighted to announce that Terry Baucher, a self-confessed “Tax Nerd” has launched his podcast – The Week In Tax with the help of Creative Agency Secrets.

Terry has long been a broadcaster called on by news media to be an expert commentator on tax matters – working with radio and TV stations in New Zealand. This heavily influenced our recommendation that he move on from a written weekly summary of tax news which had been drawn from his twitter feed, to an audio podcast.

Podcast set-up

We chose both an audio and a video medium for this podcast. [Note, this is not suitable for everyone] and SoundCloud is the distribution medium for the RSS.

The client blog hosts embedded audio files (easy for people to listen to who aren’t comfortable using RSS or Podcast apps) and remains the central source of all content. We also chose to add in a transcript for those who prefer reading to listening.

Could you be podcasting?

The medium is growing fast and many people now prefer to customise their listening and viewing to fit times of day they choose. Growing your brand reach through podcasting can be very effective.

Just ask Terry Baucher!

B2B Event Marketing, webinars for business, event marketing

B2B Event Marketing tips

10 October, 2018/0 Comments/in B2B, Public Speaking /by Rebecca Caroe

I got a call this week and asked to advise an event which is for business to business audience how I could help them double their attendees in the last 4-5 weeks before the event happens.

This is my advice.

Last-minute event marketing

Set up a tripwire webinar to drive interest / registration details
Find people with mailing lists and agree a joint venture collaboration with them to promote
Run a competition to win a free ticket (combine with webinar)
Telesales follow up to all webinar attendees (and non-attendees). Best to use GoToWebinar as it tells you who attends.
I do not think affiliate marketing would work in New Zealand for B2B events. But offering a second ticket free if one person buys can add headcount.
I do not think radio advertising will work because which station(s) do all your target audience listen to? But podcasting could. Find business podcasters in your niche.

6 Ways To Successfully Grow Your Business

4 September, 2018/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Sudip Mutt

Growing your business can be challenging if you do not know where or how to start. Your financial survival depends on it, but what are you doing to grow your enterprise?

Photo by Alesia Kazantceva on Unsplash

Growing your customer base is one solution, but how do you attract more customers? What will convince people to purchase products and services from you as opposed to someone else?

Scaling a business is difficult, but the following steps and strategies will help you.

1. Innovate Your Product or Service

The products and services that you are creating should be innovative and unlike anything else that exists on the market. It will take some trial and error, but don’t be afraid to take risks if you are creating a new product.

Ask yourself whether or not this meets a need in society, and how it is different to everything else that exists in that marketplace.

2. Know who your customers are

Outline who your customers are from the start because every product or service you are developing will be targeted at this individual.

Remember to ask for customer feedback, and listen to it. Good customer service will create loyal consumers that will spread the word about your company to their friends and family members.

3. Use social media to your advantage

Social media offers you the possibility to communicate with your customers on a daily basis. You can receive insight into your target audience, and find out more information about their behavior and purchasing habits. There is no easier way to attract new customers than through posting quality content and engaging with them online.

4. Network and build relationships

Attend industry-relevant networking events that will allow you to build relations with key players in your market. This could include customers, clients or investors.

5. Protect your reputation

Your company’s reputation is essential for strong employee relations, for customers to purchase products from you and for clients and investors to trust you.

You should remain transparent and be realistic about the promises you are making to the general public. You should be able to deliver on them, after all.

Do you know what to do if your reputation is brought into question? What if one of your employees makes a fraudulent injury claim, and they are demanding an excessive amount of compensation for it? Look for red flags that would state the injuries are fake; such as exaggerated pain from minor scratches, and contact the legal injury attorneys at Charleston Law to represent you.

6. Research the competition

Know who your competitors are so that you can create products and services that are different. How do they market to their customers? What do they price their products at? Learn from their mistakes to improve your own performance.

Growing a business takes effort and it can be mentally exhausting. No successful enterprise was built overnight, and no one said it was easy, but with strategic oversight and dedication, you will start to notice results. All of your hard work will pay off when you see your business steadily growing and generating more profit as time goes on.

Featured on the 302 Temp Redirect show

20 April, 2018/0 Comments/in B2B, Sales, Strategy /by Rebecca Caroe

Thanks to Glenn Marvin of Konnector who interviewed me on his 302 Temporary Redirect Show (that’s a geek joke – a website has a 302 error code…. ).

5 key activities for B2B Marketing

During the show Glenn asked me what my “always on” fundamental B2B marketing activities are. If you want to listen it’s at 18:25 through to 20:24.

Database of clients, suspects and prospects. Regularly updated.
Regular communications to your database
Trade shows and local in person meetups
LinkedIn to recognise the names of people in your industry – and LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Speaking at conferences, events and being a PR spokesperson for your trade magazine.

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