Partnering Sales & Marketing To Avoid Being A Sales Dinosaur

As our behaviour as buyers has evolved over the years, your sale’s team also need to invite change, embrace digital or face going extinct.

Looking beyond the business world and into our personal lives, if we face a problem, we don’t want to bombarded with cold calls, emails or messages. We like to research the solution ourselves. By using search engines, we can find peoples and companies who exhibit credibility within their field and instil a trust that they can solve our problem. The same process is put into place when looking for a solution in business.

Working within marketing we are often asked why on the 50 leads we have generated there is such a low conversion rate by the sales team. Instead of creating a divide between sales and marketing the two should align to bridge the gap and work together to generate revenue.

What areas can both departments improve on to align?

Only Pass The Gold Dust

Sales is often a busy department and will often abandon avenues they feel are not fruitful. For example, if you pass on 50 leads and calling the first 10 provides unsuccessful, they will lose interest in the other 40. As a marketing department, you however recognise the strength of those remaining leads. By only passing on the stronger leads you guarantee a stronger conversion.

Never Forgetting Your Online Reputation.

Many sales reps will forget that everyone exists online, and everything stays online. Their actions when trying to push for a sale can lead to negative feedback on the various platforms on which your businesses exist online. For as many leads you can generate through digital marketing, how many of these will be put off when they Google your company and see one-star reviews?

Embrace A Change in Approach.

Inbound marketing requires a different sales approach. The attitude of needing to pick up the phone to cold call is now considered pre-historic. After a calculated and well thought out marketing strategy, customers are put off straight away with an unscheduled and unwelcome call. An alternative approach would be to send them a follow-up email thanking them for their download with follow up links and contacts for more information.

Creating a Mixed Buyer Persona

Both sales and marketing have a very different understanding of their businesses. Although marketing understands the industry as a whole and who should be targeted, a sales team will know exactly who’s buying your services and what’s motivating them to invest. The insights of both departments should be aligned when creating your ideal buyer personas. A consistent understanding of your potential customers will mean both departments are targeting and connecting with the right people.

Collaborate on Content.

It’s important to recognise the expertise a sales team has of your customer. They can predict what content they are likely to engage with and what resources they might need to follow up and close a deal with the customer. By working together both departments can streamline the sales process, using the time creating and engaging with content more efficiently. Having that feedback from sales could increase the effectiveness of inbound marketing.

KPIs That Support Each Other

The Key Performance Indicators of both your sales and marketing need not exist in separate sectors. Companies that are embracing the change to a new approach are finding they have a higher chance of increasing their return of investment but focusing on the performance of both sectors. For example, instead of focusing on the number of sales, focus on the customer experience of purchasing.

Delivering on Quality not Quantity of Communications

It’s an extremely outdated approach to send a constant stream of emails or phone calls to a potential customer. As we said earlier, no one likes to be cold-called but everyone hates to be cold-called constantly! Instead of constantly following up with potential leads, sales teams should be relying on marketing to generate new demand and leads whilst keeping those not yet committed to buying engaged.

Leaving Cold Leads To Marketing

In the past sales teams have been to know to hard push a borderline deal. This is where a sale’s rep will push too hard to close a sale in which the lead is not 100% committed and will often back out. Due to the pressure placed on them to buy, they will also look for an alternative company when purchasing in the future. A lead that is not 100% committed, a cold lead, should then be nurtured by your marketing department. By building a relationship with them within a structured marketing campaign they can not only keep them engaged in your services but can convince them to purchase down the line.

To find out more about how Predictable Marketing can help you achieve a more coherent approach between sales and marketing.

B2B Lead Generation: Powerful Ways to Attract Leads

With COVID-19 still a threat, more businesses are looking for ways to reach clients online. In fact, digital sales have grown by 18% year-over-year since COVID-19 hit. Meanwhile, traffic growth has increased by 13%.

As more businesses switch to digital marketing strategies, the landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. You need a strategy that will ensure you stand out.

With an online lead generation strategy B2B, you can reach more customers, boost traffic to your website, and increase sales. Without a B2B marketing strategy, however, you could lose sales. Your competitors will attract those clients instead.

Not sure where to start? Here are the tips you need to succeed this year! With these marketing tips, you can get the competitive advantage you need.

Don’t let COVID-19 slow you down this year. Develop an effective 2021 B2B marketing strategy with these tips today!

1. UX Web Design

Before you develop a full B2B marketing strategy, review your website. Your company website is one of the most effective tools you have at your disposal. With your website, you can:

• Educate your target audience
• Generate leads
• Make online sales
• Communicate your brand
• Establish your credibility
• Share your content

Without a fast, reliable website, however, you’ll fail to accomplish anything. In fact, a slow, outdated website could scare away customers.

Almost 90% of online shoppers won’t return to a site after a bad user experience. Meanwhile, bad mobile optimisation annoys nearly 50% of customers.

In some cases, your website can make the first impression between your brand and customers. Consumers form about 75% of their judgment regarding your credibility based on your website’s appearance alone.

User experience (UX) design can help you create a sleek, easy-to-use, fast website. By improving the user experience, you can keep people on your site longer. The longer they stay, the better for your clickthrough rate and dwell time.

Improving these metrics can boost your search engine ranking. As your ranking improves, you’ll reach even more potential customers.

You can improve your website by:

• Clearing away clutter
• Using negative space
• Organising the navigation bar simply
• Ensuring your website is fast
• Using mobile-optimisation
• Improving readability

You’ll use your website as a component of your overall  increase B2B lead generation strategy. Make sure your call to actions are easy to click on. Keep your forms short and easy to use.

By adding lead generation opportunities throughout your website, you can generate leads and boost business.

2. SEO Blogging

How are you attracting people to your website? Consider working with a B2B lead generation agency that offers search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO will help your website content rank higher on search engines. A higher ranking will position you ahead of competitors. Meanwhile, clients will see you as a credible resource in your industry.

In order to optimise your website for search engines, you’ll need to complete keyword research. Use tools like:

• SEMRush
• Ahrefs
• Google Trends
• Keyword Planner

What keywords do your clients use when looking for your business? Once you have a list of keywords, you can create content using these keywords.

Develop a content creation strategy to create SEO-optimised content for your website. These can include blogs, videos, ebooks, and more.

As you cover different topics, you’ll appear for more searches. SEO can help boost your digital presence and generate inbound leads. As people comment on your posts, engagement will rise, which can further improve your rankings.

Focus on the value you’re offering your readers. Then, offer downloadable content (eBooks, infographics, and other tools such as a savings calculator or a template for building a business case) in exchange for email sign-ups. Thought Leadership giveaways demonstrate your expertise and generate leads.

3. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing can help you connect with your customers online. It’s also an effective means of sharing your website content.

As part of your 2021 B2B marketing strategy, try dedicating more time to LinkedIn. LinkedIn can help you reach other professionals in your industry.

Social media can help you improve your digital presence. As people like and comment on your posts, you can also boost engagement. Expanding your presence and inspiring engagement can help you attract prospects and leads.

Use social media to direct people to your website. Add a strong call-to-action (CTA) to each post. Then, add links to specific landing pages to your posts.

Use social media to show companies you’re active. Don’t forget to join groups that are relevant to your industry, too. Spark conversations and make connections.

You could find guest blogging opportunities as you connect with other businesses. Guest blogging can help you reach a new audience of clients.

4. Pay-Per-Click Advertising

The global digital advertising market increased from £115 billion in 2019 to £123 in 2020. In light of the COVID-19 outbreak, businesses are relying on methods like pay-per-click (PPC) to reach customers. PPC advertising allows you to create digital ads that will appear on:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Websites on Google’s network
• Google search pages

You can use PPC to direct people to your website landing pages.

Use a strong CTA to compel consumers to complete a specific action. For example, you can direct them to call you, fill out a form, or book a demo.  LinkedIn Ads is particularly helpful in B2B demand generation as it allows you to focus your marketing budget and efforts on a niche audience.

PPC advertising can become costly if you don’t know what you’re doing. Consider working with a B2B marketing London based agency to ensure you save time and money.

5. Automation

Look for B2B lead generation companies that offer automation services. Marketing automation can save you valuable time and help you generate leads.

For example, you can create an automated email marketing campaign. Automated emails sent based on triggers, such as buying signals can be very effective. Remarketing to people who have visited your website can attract them back and often lead to conversions.

Don’t forget to add a strong, eye-catching CTA button to your emails.

You can use automation to lead clients through the marketing funnel using personalised, targeted messages. Personalisation can help you connect with clients on an emotional level.

As you develop your B2B marketing strategy, make sure to keep your brand consistent. A consistent brand can boost awareness and recognition. Clients are more likely to choose a business that’s familiar.

You can use your brand across your website, email marketing, social media, and PPC ads.

Expand Your Reach: 5 B2B Lead Generation Strategies for 2021 Success

Don’t miss a chance to expand your reach and boost business this year! Instead, give these five B2B online lead generation strategies a try. With help from a B2B lead generation agency, you can get ahead of the competition in 2021 and keep your pipelines well fed.

Set yourself up for success this year with a strong 2021 B2B marketing strategy!

Need help improving your digital visibility and generating leads? Work with an experienced B2B lead generation agency London.

Contact us today to discuss your sales objectives and marketing strategies.

The market for Robotic Process Automation products in the UK

The market for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Software grew by 63.1% in 2018, Gartner reports. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is regarded as one of the fastest emerging technologies and there is a good reason why.

1. Typical ROI on RPA products is within 3-6 months. And this is only that long for large,enterprise-level projects. If RPA products are applied to a small part of the process in a business function, the return is almost instant. For example, if RPA is used for collecting invoice information from an external portal and updating it in SAP, the savings in the time taken to process an invoice are instant.
2. RPA products are less of a burden on IT staff in your business. It is a non-intrusive technology and doesn’t require you to rip-off your existing back-end systems or pay expensive development costs on top of it. RPA products work on the presentation layer and replicate what a human can do. That means IT does not need to custom code API’s to enable end–to–end automation of a process.
3. It is your virtual workforce that works 24×7, 365 days in a year. No sick holidays, no breaks. RPA products are the best choice to automate large volume, highly mature, manual and repetitive workflows.

RPA products are being used heavily to automate compliance reporting for financial processes. However, that is not the only case of RPA products being used for automation in the UK.

Some other use cases include

1. Matching of invoices
2. Gathering information to enable recruiters to find the right candidate for their job
3. Doing Competitive analysis by collecting information from different online portals
4. Conducting KYC (Know your customer) validation by connecting information from various systems

There are RPA product specialists in the UK, who have developed products/solutions/services around specific use cases whereas others operate on a broader spectrum of business problems. How to take RPA products to the market remains a challenge.

Download the guide to

Develop a successful Go-to-Marketing Strategy for RPA and AI Products.

What is the most effective Go-to-Market for RPA products?

What is the most-effective marketing channel for selling RPA products in the UK – Social, website inbound leads, events, micro-events, PR, email, telemarketing, demo events or webinars? Where do you get the best return? Most product vendors also provide support to the resellers given they have marketing and sales resources that can win new business. Talk to us at Predictable Marketing and find out how we have helped several RPA product resellers in the UK to develop and implement an inbound go-to-market strategy.

Re-thinking your marketing strategy as the coronavirus hits businesses

Having already felt the direct impact of the coronavirus outbreak, businesses are having to make big decisions quickly. There are many concerns, mainly around the capital/ or the lack of it, falling sales, decisions put on hold and what could be done to maintain business as usual.

One of the significant concerns business leaders are facing is the re-allocation of budgets for the current and upcoming quarters. No doubt, the biggest chunks of marketing budgets are set aside for trade shows and events. With the realisation that all major trade events will now be cancelled/postponed for at least the next couple of months, shifting gears and marketing tactics is at the forefront of many minds. As we move towards lockdown, sales and marketing efforts will move to the virtual world, wherever possible.

Especially for the B2B sectors, digital marketing strategies will be at the forefront of demand generation.  We strongly believe coronavirus will inevitably pass, and businesses will return to normal working before too long. However, utilising some simple marketing methods during this period of turmoil will only benefit your business in the long term.

So, what should businesses do next?

Review the current marketing strategy.

During these unexpected periods of doubt, it is wise for business owners to take a step back and assess how the business is functioning. Revisit sales targets taking into account changing customer situations, and align how marketing can support these goals. By assessing the current strategies in place, businesses can spend this time making improvements that may have previously been overlooked.  For example, keeping your brand up to date with regular content and marketing material is essential to maintaining that sales pipeline as the focus can understandably drift from your brand when working for paying clients. Also, if your marketing investment is heavy on events and exhibitions, it is time to rethink and reallocate budgets to online marketing initiatives.

Consider the immediate needs of your customer .. and let them know you are there to help.

We always advocate putting needs of your customers first. Especially in these exceptional circumstances, we recommend engaging with existing customers, understanding their situations and needs and provide services that would help them through this crisis. Communicate clearly via digital media. How you can help – relook at your website messaging, email campaigns and especially social channels. There is a lot on everyone’s mind if you can give them one thing less to worry about, let them know how you can help.

Power up your Digital Marketing Channels.

Digital marketing becomes crucial as it’s the only way you can reach out to your customers. Do you have an inbound digital marketing program? If yes, it’s time to power it up, if not it’s not too late to start. Admittedly some of these methods do take time to bed in, hence why it is sensible to set these up now while your business has the chance. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the clearest example of this. Building up SEO content over time ensures your customer can find you when they are looking for a solution. Being prominent in your target market search areas is key to building a strong inbound sales pipeline.

In B2B marketing 80% of sales decisions are already made before the first sales touch via online research and review.  Social media, online PR, webinars, google ads and email campaigns all channels have their place in a digital marketing strategy. We recommend choosing which channels you would get the best returns from wisely.

Further your marketing presence.

The best option to start this process is to extend and enhance your digital marketing arm. There are clear reasons why it is a sensible option in this climate. Firstly, digital marketing never stops. Whether working in an office or working from home, marketeers can deliver results continuously. The lack of need for face-to-face interaction means operations can be put into motion very quickly. The pressure on businesses to keep things moving during these unsettled periods means decisions must be made promptly. Digital marketing campaigns can be spelt out and put into immediate action, supporting sales teams in keeping communication channels open with existing and new customers.

 Additionally, digital marketing is measurable. You can quickly obtain and provide clear breakdowns of statistics, see how your marketing is performing and optimise tactics for good ROI. Having this metric to validate businesses costs during such crises can boost support from investors and prove that the business is still moving forward.

We will all get through this

The bottom line is that this is an unprecedented event that has no timescale. Despite this uncertainty, it is not the time to retreat and back away from these challenges. It is time to reflect on your business and make changes to areas that have been neglected in the past.  It is time to focus on keeping communication channels open with existing customers and prospects.

Marketing never stops and is key to keeping the business wheels turning. Adding or extending your businesses marketing arm now is essential to show your visibility in the industry you operate in and reassure your investors that you are reacting rather than retracting.  We wish you the best and we hope you get through these tough times and come out at the other end with a bang!

How to keep your website on top of Google Search?

There is enough awareness today about the factors that affect website search rankings. In addition, tools like SEMRush, MOZ that are helpful in identifying technical issues such as page load speed, broken links and missing titles that might be negatively affecting your website ranking. B2B technology marketing has technical skills available within the organization to fix these issues. Also, technology marketing managers understand these factors enough to get external help to get these issues resolved.

Why SEO should be your A Game?

Search Engine Optimization is not a one-off task. Fixing technical SEO issues gives marketing managers a solid stage and then build upon and create content for their target audience. All technical SEO efforts ensure that your content and marketing assets are not wasted because of poor searchability and are visible to the intended audience. For all gym goers, the analogy is easy. You must put in extra effort initially to get your body in shape, but a regular exercise regime is important to sustain fitness.

Add value to your business by regularly maintaining Search Engine Ranking!

In the context of websites, this means creating valuable content. Regurgitating content with corporate wordage doesn’t count. You can manage to stuff keywords into a piece of content inspired by some other article or blog, and it might even pass the Google test, but it will fail miserably when your intended customer reads it. On the other hand, content written simply to provide insight into a common problem that your customers face will lead to dialogue between you and your prospects.

Know your Customers’ Search Patterns (Keyword Research)

It’s important to do your keyword research before you start spending time, effort and money on content. How does your intended audience search for? Ask your customers, search for questions they ask in meetings and see if the search results are relevant. Use keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner or paid tools such as WordStream to get insights into search terms that are most relevant for your business. Incorporate these keywords into your content strategy. This will ensure that the content you create is searchable.

Businesses often mistake keyword research as a onetime exercise. I would be recommending verifying your search terms every three months for B2B/technology marketing and even quicker for local businesses. Some trades are specific and may not need to revisit keywords for a year such as “locally certified electrician”. A very few chances we will search that differently. On the other hand “business process automation use cases” was replaced by “intelligent process automation examples” in a short space of time.

Create valuable & effective content regularly (Create a content calendar)

It is easier said than done. I often get asked questions like how much content should I write, how many words should be in the blog, what should we write about? I have answered these questions below. However, the length and frequency of content might vary by industry. For example, for technology marketing, one insightful article a month, marketing new technology solution, could be effective whereas for a beauty therapist business or any impulse purchase category a post a day with latest offers would be a minimum requirement.

There is no escape – Content Writing!

I know content creation is not easy. You wouldn’t have time to write blogs and content writers might not necessarily understand your customer base to understand the problems they are facing and create valuable content. I have come around this problem by providing my customers a “scribble template” which they use when they are on a train or when an idea strikes on the golf course or a kid’s football practice session. It takes a couple of minutes for them to register their thought and share it with me. I receive all sorts of notes – a conversation they had with their customer, an idea discussed in a meeting, something they have read, something that they saw. Inspiration is all around us! This makes it possible for a content writer to create valuable content for prospects.

How much content should you write?

Google gives very high weightage to websites being updated regularly. So, the more content you create, the better. The cost and time to create is often a consideration but try out the model I have described above. Your content writer is like a therapist/counselor, essential for your business success. They keep the spirits high! Therefore, the length varies. Google measures the intent of the content and its effectiveness in answering your prospects search query. If you can answer that in 500 words that’s good but usually, explained content pieces like this one easily exceed 1500 words. Please don’t take this as a prescription. It is the quality that wins over quantity here!

What should be your content publishing platform?

Your own website and blog are the first place to start. But don’t stop there. Use your social media platforms to syndicate this content and identify all media channels your customers will be active on. You want to get your thought leadership in front of your prospective customers.

Monitor Website Performance monthly

You cannot improve what you cannot measure. Monitor the performance of your website using google analytics or any other tool you prefer. Understand where the traffic is coming from and which content is bringing them to your website. Your marketing strategy should be guided by the numbers you see here. For example – if you are creating campaigns around “Intelligence Process Automation” but your customer is searching for “how to automate claims processing using robotics” you might need to change the marketing message that appeals to your audience. As I said at the beginning of this blog, search engine optimization cannot be a one-off effort. Use insights like the above to create more relevant marketing content. You need to keep testing and changing course in line with customer behavior.

Publicize your Credentials (PR is important)

Link building is a dirty word in marketing. I believe in genuinely promoting the good work you have done in platforms where your intended audience is present. That will give your website the much talked about link juice without adopting any black hat activities. I have always stayed away from agencies who claim they can create twenty authority back links and improve your search ranks in a month and for technology marketing, even three months is a stretch.

Having said that any opportunity to promote your thought leadership, technical expertise, the good work you have done should not be missed.

Google ADS: a necessary evil

If you have recently noticed, the Google search results page has changed. Above the fold space (premium web real estate) is occupies by sponsored content. If this is going to continue, unfortunately, Google ads will become a necessary evil for monetizing your online presence. Especially for technology marketing, it is recommended that some percentage of your marketing budget is set aside for paid ads.

Local SEO for local businesses

If you are a local business, optimizing your local searchability might be all you need. Optimizing local search is topic for another discussion but in short, your local business page should be a mini reflection of your website with reviews from your customers and links to other local directories. I have also seen local search optimization work beautifully for technology marketing as well. If a technology company can offer localized offers it is easy to maintain a global presence and local appeal at the same time.