Lyndsay Cook, director, marketing operations EMEA, Premiere Global Services
With lower budgets marketers must find smart ways to maintain dialogue with customers that optimise spend and impact.
It’s no good spending money on communications that miss their target, so firstly it’s important to put in place basic processes that yield clean, appropriately segmented data and effective analysis.
It’s also important to communicate in a range of cost-effective ways. For example, incorporate automated SMS, email and voice into your strategy to help get the messages across, whilst satisfying customers’ channel preferences.
Try web collaboration tools to test ideas and gain customer buy-in through online focus groups and e-surveys. This can improve campaign quality and accelerate the time to both market and revenue. Or to faciliate key background processes, how about using on-demand virtual meeting environments to gather teams for virtual idea creation sessions and facilitate the speedy delivery of collateral?
Amanda Alexander, MD, Whichmedia, B2B media planning specialist
Firstly, whether you plan your advertising yourself or use a media planning agency, it’s vital to continually monitor the campaign and scrutinise what’s working and what isn’t.
Secondly, too many brands plan the same campaign every year at the same rates and in these trying economic times, there are opportunities for deals. So you or your agency must push publishers to get the best value. Don’t be afraid to negotiate and take advantage of volume buying you may be buying exhibition space, a print campaign and online marketing products from the same publisher, so use this as leverage.
Using audited publications guarantees readers have requested the title or conform to its terms of control and your message is more likely to be seen. If you use unaudited titles, be cautious about their claims and obtain postal dockets as proof of postage.
If responses to an ad in a title or website drop, renegotiate so the title remains effective at an acceptable cost per response.
James Clifton, MD, Balloon Dog, agency
There are four challenges in B2B; multiple targets, limited data, long purchase cycles and weak measurement – these only get accentuated in a slow climate. So work through these challenges as you develop your marketing plan – establish what, who, why, how – and you will have an effective direct marketing strategy.
For example, your target firms will have complex, matrixed decision-making processes, so a beautifully crafted direct mail piece to the wrong person is a waste. Invest time in aligning the message to the individual – relevance is key. If you model customers and prospects, and develop segment-specific messages you will maximise ROI.
A recent report by Forrester Research proved this by showing the biggest impact on direct marketing results was from audience selection, value proposition, contact strategy and creative – in that order.
We should take our steer from Abraham Lincoln who said, “Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Adi Heinhorn, consultant, Wolff Olins
During a recession, firms with weak brands shrink, whilst strong brands can get ahead. They take a long-term view because they have a vision for the future. They innovate to fulfill their brand promise, and stand out as a partner you can trust to deliver. For B2B brands these are invaluable assets ones that may justify firms choosing you over the cheaper alternative in an increasingly commoditized market.
Brand-led marketing is simple and delivers a unique message. You don’t need to spend precious resources on blanket advertising. Use the downturn as a time to reinforce your brand proposition in everything you do: who you hire (and fire), like Jack Rivkin during the takeover of EF Hutton; what alliances you make (or break), like Banco Santander or Capita; and what you innovate (or divest), like GE Capital. This is your chance to craft your niche in a less cluttered marketplace and come through ready to hit the next boom running.
And if your brand is not so strong? Start working. Now.
Jean Wyllie, UK MD, Porter Novelli
When times are tough, it may be tempting to rein in the communications budget and weather the storm. My advice is simple: don’t.
The implications of not continuing a dialogue with audiences who are interested in or rely on you is counter-productive. If you’re transparent and sincere you will engender trust. In return your stakeholders will respect and stick by you.
Start by mapping the audiences that are likely to be most concerned about the slowdown’s impact on your business. Then put yourself in their shoes and think what their individual concerns and questions will be. If you have a close relationship with, for example, a supplier, make sure you use it to get insights. Don’t gloss over the questions you dread most – if they are asked and you stall, you may appear insincere.
For answers, reach into the business and dig out proof-points for every statement that you make. Remember that your corporate audiences are worried about their own companies or investments, so tailor messages to show them what you’re doing to secure their interests.
Importantly, ensure you communicate from the top. This shows the CEO recognises the importance of the issues to the audience. Create a mechanism allowing them to ask questions in return. This shows transparency and also lets you gauge sentiment and adapt messages accordingly.
Fred Nichols, management supervisor, RHEA & Kaiser Marketing Communications
Measuring the effectiveness of your marketing strategies can be a useful step in becoming more efficient and targeted in your approach particularly important during an economic slowdown. I suggest doing your research and taking advantage of any free tools on the market that measure communication effectiveness.
One excellent tool I can recommend is Ad Readership Studies, where B2B publications contract with independent research firms to poll their readers on ads they recall seeing and reading.
I strongly advise that our clients appear in these issues and actively seek out publications and issue dates where the studies are conducted. This not only provides a free measurement tool, but enables you to use the studies to establish a proven track record to help sell senior management on future work.
In analysing readership scores in the construction trades over a number of years, we’ve learned that on average, only 45 per cent of readers recall seeing a typical ad. We’ve been able to essentially double these scores in our ads through research, strategic and creative efforts, and our average readership scores have approached 90 per cent recall.
Not only are the ads getting noticed, but we are making sure our clients’ media pounds work harder. Just the thing during an economic slowdown.
Stuart Wheldon, director, customer services, EMEA, Eloqua
In a Web 2.0 environment dictated by a slowing economy it’s harder to judge the mood of your prospect and know when you’re pushing too hard to close the deal or when you’re not pushing hard enough. In tough times, some brands take a scatter gun approach to sales and marketing to close deals, rather than interpreting online activities such as website visits, white paper downloads and email responses.
Firms should integrate marketing channels on a single marketing platform to build comprehensive prospect profiles and integrate into CRM or SFA systems for clear communications. Users should use sales lead scoring systems to accelerate the sales process with real-time alerts and notifications of prospect Web activity. At this point marketers can cultivate prospects with personalised lead-nurturing campaigns that will result in more sales or leads.
The rewards for companies that track their customers’ digital body language include increased sales, faster growth rates and shorter sales cycles. By being the first respondent when prospects begin to research a purchase, companies are able to gain competitive advantage and improve sales effectiveness. By aligning their marketing department more closely with sales and measuring the results of campaigns, these organisations increase the effectiveness of their marketing investment.
Tony Pullen, MD, Experian Business Information
Marketers need to make sure they retain and gain, rather than churn and burn during a recession. The old adage about it being cheaper to retain existing customers than obtain new ones has never rung more true than now.
This means undertaking strategies to hold on to customers when rivals are tenaciously fighting to tempt them away at a cheaper price and finding new customers in a more targeted way.
Businesses need to lead on service and ensure they develop an ongoing real customer experience with various touchpoints throughout the year using email to keep customers up to date with news and updates, as opposed to ‘cramming at crunch times’ when they think they’re about to lose a customer.
While the e-channel is the most effective way of retaining customers and targeting new prospects, make sure you’re careful when email marketing. The best email databases have between half a million and 1.3 million contacts, but beware of those with a high volume of generic addresses. Marketers should focus on contact names and then segment on this basis for a more targeted approach. Failure to do this will simply result in churning through customers and burning through prospects which is precisely the way not to behave in a downturn.
