Value for Money
The recent economic down turn has made organisations even more conscience than ever before about their budgets. Many organisations today are still being careful about where they spend their money and how they spend it. Most B2B marketers are familiar with the challenges of working with limited budgets yet expected to increase sales and business opportunities. So, how can you get more value from every pound, euro or dollar spent on demand generation activity?
Here are some key guidelines which will help you generate a better return for your money.
Know your Target Market
Before performing any focused and effective sales or marketing activity you have to know your audience. Defining your target market will help you understand which companies you should be selling to and who within the company you need to speak to.
The following factors need to be taken into consideration:
– size of the organisation by turnover and staff
– industry vertical
– impact of economic conditions
– key competitors and other offerings.
Identify your Targets
Ensuring you have accurate and valid data to support your marketing activity is critical. The data you require to support campaigns is dependent on your proposition, the nature of the campaign and the media that you use. For example, direct mail and email are completely dependent on highly accurate and up-to-date contact data, and dependent on contacts responding to your proposition. Telemarketing based campaigns enable you to network and accurately identify decision makers.
Sharpen your Message
As many marketers know it is about getting the right message in front of the customer, therefore you may find you have to refine or sharpen your messaging numerous times. Most organisations want to hear how they can reduce cost whilst retaining productivity. In addition, they want to see clear evidence of ROI to support the development of the business case, such as case studies and tried and tested road maps.
Select the best methods
When considering the various marketing methods available and the likely return, make sure you consider not just the short term, but also long term demand generation and lead nurturing objectives. Integrating a number of different media can often be used to drive highly effective campaigns with your target audience and improve the overall ROI. Here are some options to help you market on a shoe string budget:
- Events – exhibitions and tradeshows which have traditionally been a great favourite with marketers have swiftly lost their appeal as attendances have plummeted. You may feel conspicuous in your absence – but in terms of measurable returns, it is extremely difficult to justify when you look at the cost per enquiry and the conversion rate of the low grade opportunities generated. As an alternative, seminars, webinars and virtual events can prove more cost-effective in building valuable relationships. The subject matter needs to be highly focused and relevant to attract the right audience, and a well qualified target list will increase response and attendance rates of genuine prospects.
- PR – rarely measurable but a necessary and effective mechanism to create invaluable brand awareness if used in conjunction with other media and programmes. PR is not a strategy for short term revenue generation, but it tends to generate useful content that can be used to drive further marketing programmes and increases brand awareness.
- E-marketing – is a more economic alternative to direct mail as a personalised, value-oriented communications medium with tailored messaging. It is significantly cheaper per item, drives significantly higher response rates, and is easily measurable. Though it may lack the gloss, and impact of a really “wow” direct mailer, a well designed e-marketing campaign strategy can achieve the same, if not better results.
- Telephone Based Demand Generation – when executed by skilled and trained operators this can be the most effective route to finding opportunity and engaging in direct conversation. Whether performed by sales, marketing, or outsourced, to be of real value this activity should be focused on identifying well qualified opportunities for your proposition, not fluffy interest in receiving brochures. The proposition has to be interesting in order to engage a valued two way dialogue with the call recipient. In this way, you are more likely to obtain the information required and deliver highly qualified opportunities into sales with clear timescales, responsibilities and business drivers.
- Creative – perhaps considered an unnecessary luxury in a market place of tightened purse strings, the importance of differentiation, brand value and consistency of tone and message should not be underestimated when battling for those precious new customers, and holding on to your existing ones.
Outsourcing and Consolidation
With headcounts tight and limited budgets and resources, outsourcing provides a compelling alternative to internal execution. Outsourcing campaign management and execution minimises the impact of internal management becoming distracted by the day to day campaign execution, and enables them to focus on ROI. Integrating and consolidating campaigns can also provide greater efficiency, and effectiveness, of marketing campaigns. A strategic partnership with a multi-disciplined agency can provide you with a truly integrated approach across campaigns, media, and territories to provide economies of scale as well as consistency of brand and messaging.
Make a difference
Making a difference in a downturn market is an imperative. History shows that organisations that continue to invest in sales and marketing during tough times are best positioned to exploit the upturn when it comes. However, it is not just about marketing; it’s about marketing in the right way.
