Q2 Marketing Blog – Technology Marketing, Public Relations, Brand Consulting

Lead Generation Category

The Quickest Ways to Generate Leads-3 & 4

Thursday, May 21st, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Keeping the pipeline full and opportunities moving through it has gotten increasily difficult for almost everybody. I talk wtih sales people and leaders all the time in industries as diverse as technology, marketing, professional services, advertising, financial, healthcare and more. They’re all pretty much saying the same thing. Chances are, these are the same things being said within your organization.

We may not be able to unilaterally market our hemisphere out of a lingering recession, but we can put some programs in place to begin developing and nurturing leads–today. Let’s explore two more of the five fastest wasy to generate leads. Read about the first two of the fastest ways to generate leads here.

3. Speaking Gigs. Secure speaking engagements for your executives, technical people and other relevant and qualified experts. Large conferences and tradeshows will begin accepting abstracts for presenters at least nine months in advance. Not exactly a quick way to generate leads. But the sooner you start looking for these opportunities, the sooner you will have executives lined up. And stay plugged into good events so your executives can be reached out to for regional events that don’t take as long to plan. Remember, some people come to tradeshows to evaluate and buy.

In addition to major conferences, contact chambers of commerce, relevant associations and other business organizations to see about being added to their calendar for a more imminent event. There are a multitude of such organizations in most metropolitan areas in the United States. If the audience is a fit and includes some well qualified potentials, this can be a powerful initiative. If the topic and content are good, this builds and fosters credibility that will move your organization to the short list of service providers or vendors.

4. White Papers. Do you have valuable, current white papers that fit with the strategic direction of your organization? Even if you don’t have finely polished papers, you probably do have components of good white papers circulating in your proposals, internal documents, client deliverables, etc. We know that nailing down your subject matter experts to develop white papers can be a challenge. But it’s worth it. White papers can be important for promoting to your marketing database, as well as to the rest of the prospect world. And if you use a white paper distribution service, you’ll build valuable credibility and leverage Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your key services and products.

Posted in Advertising, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing, Trade Shows, White paper marketing | No Comments »

The 5 Fastest Ways to Generate Leads

Monday, May 18th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Now is the time to leverage marketing to generate leads. In an economy where it takes considerably more leads and more times to make sales, moving quickly to keep the pipeline full is of the essence. Marketing should be helping you in the endeavor.

This article examines the five fastest ways to leverage marketing to generate and nurture leads. These tactics are designed to work in unison with more long-range marketing activities, and can be executed on an ongoing basis. They’re also meant to fit tightly with and enhance your selling process.

Webinars. Once you’ve figured out what you have to say with your webinar or series of webinars, promotion is the biggest consideration. Any media organization that you team up with to promote your webinar will be able to provide you with the list of registrants. Assuming you have a good topic that people care about, this should represent a healthy list of prospects in a reasonably finite period of time.

But beware, there are many webinar pifalls to avoid.

Seminars. The next step up from webinars is face-to-face seminars. These are more risky because you need to fill a real live room. With webinars, none of your attendees knows if they are one of 50 or one of 5,000. But when you’re in a room together, it’s all transparent. So seminars pose a constant challenge to fill a room. If the topic of your seminar is “Ten Ways Product X Can Improve Your Business Process,” don’t expect much of a turnout. The seminar must be educational in nature. Advertise good content and deliver, and you’ll build a reputation for high quality events.

As with webinars, seminars provide qualified leads. But unlike webinars, you’re team is able to actually engage potential buyers face-to-face during networking time and Q&A. Seminars are much more powerful at building and promoting your brand to attendees than webinars. They also build greater interaction with your brand and more vested prospects.

Check back later this week for more of the 5 fastest ways to generate leads.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing, Webinars | 2 Comments »

Avoid B2G Marketing Pitfalls

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Business-to-government (and business-to-business) marketing is most effective when it communicates value. The best B2G marketing is based on compelling content focused on problems solved and clear solutions offered. Read more about why content-rich marketing materials will reign in 2009.

Government decision makers and the corporate C-suite alike tell us all the time that they read resources that help them and their teams be more effective. Examples of such resources include content-rich newsletters, bylined/contributed articles, case studies, blogs, analyst reports, and white papers. For all of your content-driven materials, ask yourself: how does this help the decision maker do his or her job?

The credibility valuable content builds is paramount for companies selling professional services and products to the government. But remember, this initiative won’t be successful if materials are simply sent off blindly to an overflowing inbox of an unwitting recipient. Rather, these resources will serve as door busters for your business develop teams. And they will serve as incentives to use at different points in the sales cycle.

If you don’t have one already, create a library of powerful, valuable materials for your business development team.

Want to learn more about B2G marketing? Join me at The ASBC’s 5^th Anniversary Conference and Gala April 23, 2009 in Vienna, VA. I’ll be presenting on “11 Essential Steps for Marketing to Government.”

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, Case studies, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Public Relations, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing, Webinars, White paper marketing | 2 Comments »

Ten tips for choosing the perfect ad agency

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Looking to land a marketing or PR agency? Or maybe you’re considering the options and looking for alternatives to the agency or agencies you already have? Here are some fundamentals for making the best choice.

But first, if you haven’t already, read the four essential ingredients you’ll need before selecting a marketing agency.

And now, for the first 3 tips for securing the perfect marketing agency for you:

1. Commitment to delivery. Agencies sometimes lack structure. Everyone you talk with is going to tell you they hit their clients’ deadlines. To get to the real issue, ask their references about their track record in hitting deadlines.

2. Seeing the big picture. Your account manager should have a firm grasp of your business objectives. The agency methodology should be more about helping you reach your goals than creating award-winning pieces. They must understand how and why you want to impact your audience.

3. What’s the ROI? The agency needs to be able to demonstrate return on projects like yours. If you’re looking at web marketing, what’s the agency done and how has it impacted their clients? If they’re trying to sell you on direct marketing, what’s their track record? How have they measured past success and how will they do it for you? A formal measurement methodology in plain English is a huge plus.

Check back soon for the rest of the ten tips for selecting the perfect marketing agency.

Posted in Advertising, Award opportunities, Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct Mail, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Messaging & Positioning, Online Marketing, Promotional Marketing, Public Relations, Referral marketing, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Trade Shows, Webinars, White paper marketing | 1 Comment »

Communicate consistently with buyers

Friday, April 3rd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

We often recommend that companies looking to better communicate with their client or prospect base consider a direct marketing initiative. One of the most cost effective is a monthly or quarterly newsletter.

It’s often easy for organizations to believe in the value of newsletters. Being top of mind is important. And with some fantastic distribution tools out there, newsletter traffic is eminently measurable.

But the more they consider this tactic, the more some organizations begin to question whether they will be able to consistently generate enough interesting content. This is a fair question, and one that you must absolutely ask before diving into something like a customer or prospect newsletter. After all, starting one only to stop it a few months later doesn’t really advance your cause. Nor is that a very good way to spend your marketing dollars.

Here are some ideas for newsletter topics:

case studies you can use to highlight a successful project or hot trend
new customers or contract wins
new technologies you support that represent trends
company milestones such as growth, partnerships, etc. that could make a difference to your clients
stories highlighting service in the local community and beyond
achievement of industry awards
the addition of new customer-facing personnel

For product companies, announcements of upgrade packages, new products, user groups, special offers and more can easily be used to drive opens and click-throughs. Service companies often have to work a bit harder to generate content, but the point is the same for both: There are exciting things going on in your company that matter to your customers and your prospects.

Newsletters are one consistent way to facilitate constant communications. What aren’t you communicating to your customers (and/or prospects) that you should be?

Posted in Direct marketing, Lead Generation, Online Marketing | 1 Comment »

Five ways to ruin the ROI of your webinars

Thursday, March 26th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

This is the latest in an occasional series on webinar marketing. Why so much focus on webinars? Because they’re relatively inexpensive to produce, particularly when compared to road shows and other live events. Webinars are an increasingly important tool in the lead generation activities of marketing departments of tech companies. But, if they aren’t done right, the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) will be adversely impacted.

Read on for five common pitfalls to avoid in your next webinar or series.

Your customers and prospects receive lots of offers to attend webinars. How many emails and other invitations have you received this week urging you to a product or solution webinar? How many have you received today? The important question: how many have you paid attention to and why? For more on how to put together a great webinar, read Maximize the value of your webinars.

Without further ado, here are the pitfalls:

1. Poor branding.

Read more about how to brand your webinars here. This is a big deal, and often a shortcoming for too many companies. How do you measure up?

2. Lack of content

If your webinar is a thinly-veiled sales pitch or you don’t have important information to communicate to the marketplace, a webinar strategy may not be your best option. Read more about why content comes first.

3. Failing at the follow up

We all know that follow up is where a lot of our best laid marketing plans too often fall apart. Make sure the follow up strategy is in place before you launch the webinar. How many days after the webinar will sales follow up? What will be their approach? How will they further quality leads? And, importantly, what role do you expect the webinar to have in your sales process?

4. Missing the mark

It is critical, of course, to deliver great content in a webinar. Secondly, it’s just as critical to use your webinars to build and reinforce your corporate and/or product brand. But make sure the two are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to distance your topic too far from what your company does. Just because you think prospects will opt into a webinar on a hot topic doesn’t mean hosting it will further the objectives of your organization.

5. Not getting the word out

This is Marketing 101. The marketing database and/or list to attract visitors to your webinars has to be a good one. Consider a distribution strategy that includes ads and sponsorship in influential industry media, through partners and other vehicles. Some media groups saturate their readership with emails for webinars, and a small business can get lost in the shuffle. Others are more targeted to industries, verticals, etc. It usually makes sense to opt for the latter.

For more on how to hold webinars that drive revenue, contact sales@q2marketing.com.

Posted in Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Market to Customer Base – Increase Customer Touch Points

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 - by Pamela Girardin

With the majority of companies watching every penny they spend, sales cycles will be impacted. You may start to notice that your sales are taking longer to close or companies are delaying purchases for indefinite periods of time. You need to start looking for sales elsewhere. Look at your customer base.

The majority of companies sell to clients and then forget about them. Unless they sold them maintenance contracts, which means they will touch base with the client…once the maintenance is up for renewal. If you recognize yourself in the previous sentence, break the mold. Put together an effective campaign to start communicating to your customer base. Aim to hit the customer base once a quarter with a variety of programs. If you are communicating quarterly, increase your program to monthly. Offer incentives specifically to the base for upgrades, additional services, etc. Review your product/service offerings and segment the customer base appropriately.

You will be surprised with the results. We all know that it is easier to sell to companies who know your company. Who knows you better than your customers?

Posted in Lead Generation, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Content to dominate marketing in 2009

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Look for businesses to focus marketing efforts on creating and promoting content in 2009, according to a new study from Junta42, as reported in Michael Stelzner’s white paper blog.

According to Junta42, “More than half (56%) of marketing- and publishing-decision makers plan to increase their content marketing spending for 2009.” Of those, 31% plan to increase significantly, and 25% plan to increase slightly. Only 13% plan on decreasing their content marketing spending, ranging from slightly to significantly.

Here are the top content types marketers will target in 2009:

Social media, other than blogs—68%
Enewsletters/email—60%
Blogs—56%
Case studies—55%
Online video—51%
White papers—46%
Microsites—43%

Any surprises? On which ones are you spending your marketing dollars in 2009?

Working with B2B and B2G marketers, it is clear to Q2 Marketing that the primary content challenge for marketers will continue to be twofold:

1. generate the content and/or prod subject matter experts to supply the content

2. promote the content through marketing databases and syndication outlets

Think carefully about how you will distribute these materials before dedicating many hours to creating them. Will such content be part of lead generation efforts or will it appear deeper in the sales process? Know what role each item will play and make sure your sales and marketing efforts maintain the consistency of your strategy.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Research and studies, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

SEO Secrets: How Tech Buyers Use Search to Purchase

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

The new Google/TechTarget Research Project delivers exciting SEO insight into how technology purchasers use search terms to find products and services like yours. If you’re serious about your SEO strategies and you want to outshine competitors, even the ones that outspend you, keep reading….

We’re examining the Google/TechTarget Research Project because it deserves some quality time. Serious B2B and B2G marketers should really download this free report. They then should come back here for more quick highlights and observations.

How many keywords are buyers using to find you?

Conventional wisdom in search, across industries, is that buyers are using two to three keywords to find information on solutions like yours. But this report sheds new light on this critical topic. In the early stages of research, technology buyers tend to type in two or three keywords. No surprise to search pros. But later in the buying cycle, they will use brief four- or five-word phrases. Why is this?

In later stages of buying, tech purchases use search terms like “compare” and “review” in an effort to distinguish between products and solutions. Specifically, they are looking for reviews and resources that compare technology solutions.

(As an aside, also from this report, 24% of buyers surveyed “frequently” find industry analyst web sites useful in the buying and evaluating process, but this resource is not even in the top five. Click back later to find where analyst sites rank and which resources rank higher.)

What does this mean for IT marketers? The first observation, taken from the report, but a clear conclusion, is that any and all favorable comparisons of your solutions to your competitors should be on your web site in whatever formats available.

If these resources don’t exist, you need to put a strategy in place to have reviews and comparisons created, preferably by reputable third parties like industry analyst firms, magazines, online editorial sources, etc.

You can also take the lead in generating a discussion around your technology, comparing it to your competitors. Maybe a social media program is in order.

From the report: “An analysis of TechTarget online campaigns demonstrates that many of the superior performing white papers are ones in which the author compares the solution or blueprint of one provider to that of another.” That is a very valuable piece in information.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Google/TechTarget Report Reveals Tech Buyers’ Search Patterns

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

A new joint study from Google and Tech Target, examines the search habits of technology professionals when making purchasing decisions. The purpose of the The Google/TechTarget Research Project:

Reveal the mindset of the IT buyer in context of their purchase process and search mode
Put marketers in a better position to make keyword buys, choose content to syndicate
Determine optimal selection and scheduling of content and website media to attract the IT buyer

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Here is a recap of some important findings:

Different search terms are used by buyers at various stages of the IT buying process
There is a concrete relationship between search and branding, as well as lead generation and ROI implications
Surprises were found regarding buyer utilization of new media including mobile devices, video and RSS feeds
Information source preferences were established

Here are some more important findings on the brand impact of search:

53% of IT purchasers use search to discover vendor solutions they are not previously aware of
86% of searchers look for a familiar brand or manufacturer before clicking on a search result
67% willing to click on the link of a manufacturer with which they are not familiar
Over 40% of searchers will click on search ads that are contextual to content on IT Publisher sites, and 46% willing to read those ads.

There is some good stuff in this report, and we will be examining it in greater detail throughout the week. Thanks to Michael Stelzner’s “Writing White Papers” blog for bringing it to my attention.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

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