“I was brain dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed…”
Reaching your intended prospects in this modern digital world becomes increasingly more difficult. The recipients of your messages are now multifold and multifarious. Gartner estimate that almost 65% of shortlist decisions are usually made before contact with a supplier is instigated. Even more challenging is that there are at least 8-12 decision makers that are part of your decision making unit for that high value corporate purchase. There is a huge correlation between being networked with your customers and prospects and success.
So, the “Pointless” winning question is, “how do you engage with them?”. It’s unlikely to be email. You might have the best copy writer outside of Bartle, Bogel, Hogerty but the chances are nobody is going to read it. The reality is that if they were any good they would be working for Fosters Lager or Specsavers anyway. However, in B2B marketing, the first rule is that you must write in cliche speak and speak to a non existent audience.
Second thing is, even if you have discovered the “Keats” of marketing content, sending it to 35,000 reluctant recipients is unlikely to stir them into action either. Think about that “special proposal” that you periodically receive in your gmail account: the one where some unknown contact has stumbled upon untold riches that they are desperate to share with you, if only they had a “safe” bank account. Yep, you delete it in exactly the same way most of the recipients of a mail shot sent by a well done software reseller painstakingly sent out recently do. (Obviously I can’t name either, but the software supplier has a universally adopted email app that most of us use).
No surprise then that they achieved zero leads. Still, the pdf looked good if you are a fan of 90s kitsch.
Of course there is a whole industry out there offering paid events. Slick, sharp (ish) suited sales people offer the elixir in terms of meetings with real decision makers. From my experience, you pay a considerable amount of money and you have “forced speed dating” with people one rung down (at best) from the real movers and shakers. If you are really lucky you get to have dinner with them too. Usually when they really would like to be anywhere else than with you and your colleagues from other organisations.
Events do work, but they have to be small, tailored, focused with relevant speakers. Attendees come because they want to not because somebody has effectively “bribed” them to.
What about pay per click or PPC? It is a necessary and honourable trade apparently. There is a direct correlation between how much you pay google and how far up the search results you appear. Its especially true if you manage to secure the correct search terms. It does work. Leads do get generated, but eventually the uncertainty of how effective it really is kicks in. “Could I generate more opportunity from organic search?” You may ask. Moot point.
Organic lead generation does work. However, you have to be all in. You need to “industrialise” it, make it a factory so to speak. But picture this:
If you have 250 people in your organisation and you mobilise just 20% of them; 50 people write 4 blogs a year (it really ought to be more btw), lets assume they get a minimal 10 likes or comments. The result is 2,000 mentions. Use the right search words and you really start to maximise your exposure. Organically. Increase the social activity across the organisation and organic SEO multiplies by orders of magnitude.
Finally the “cold call” debate rages on here unabated. Nothing wrong with telephone as a means of communication as I have previously suggested, arguably its starting to become quite novel in this digital world. However, if it’s “cold” it will be less effective. Think how much an unsolicited call offering you PPI irritates you and you will get the measure of how your organisation will be perceived when somebody makes the same unsolicited call on your behalf. We all like to have relevance if we are to engage in a business context. Blogging, Tweeting, Linkedin articles even Facebook posts (depending upon your markets) all help create resonance. It will is easy to stand out in a sea of blandness that currently prevails from most of the profiles on here. If you grab attention in a constructive way, you are more likely to have further success with the telephone.
In the Digital age there are many purveyors trying to grab our attention. How you use the channels available to you will have a direct correlation upon how successful you are likely to be.
“I never understood the frequency…”
