In today’s complex world of B2B marketing, social media, ad words and analytics, it’s easy to get caught up in the details of
marketing and forget the BASICS.
I’m sure you have your hands full every week: keeping up with social media trends, measuring response rates, testing and tweaking new marketing campaigns, tracking Google analytics, identifying new markets, honing your message, and meeting your sales team’s constant requests for MORE quality leads!
But — are you SURE you have the BASICS covered? If you fail to keep several marketing basics in mind…success may elude you.
Let’s review the top 10 marketing tips to lay a foundation for success when marketing to the world of corporate training and HR!
- Keep the message simple – LESS is MORE. (Some marketing folks tend to forget this rule.) Be sure to grab your prospect’s attention quickly and then use a simple, powerful message to clearly state your product/service and the associated BENEFITS. (Note: Don’t confuse product features with client benefits!)
- Offer value at every touch – Bring value to every prospect outreach. Make each communication an instructional, educational experience for the prospect. Provide insights, helpful tips, or industry trends. Offering value builds trust, a critical element necessary to develop leads and close sales.
- Provide a clear call-to-action – Clearly and simply describe what you want your prospect to do within each email outreach or campaign… What is the call to action? Do you want them to email you, call you, visit your website, or attend a webinar? Don’t miss this opportunity to prompt them to take ACTION as a result of your email.
- Identify your customers – Analyze your current customers to build a customer profile. Develop targeted prospecting lists based on those attributes, and be sure to update your prospecting lists regularly. (MTG can help! See actual client example below regarding how to keep up with list change rates and updates…)
- Repeat your message, again and again – This is KEY. Marketing is all about repetition. Use an integrated marketing approach with a combination of phone calls, emails and direct mail pieces to achieve the best results. Reach out multiple times in various ways to improve response rates.
- Test marketing campaigns with a small mailing – Be sure to test any large marketing campaign with a small batch of leads first. Mail out a few hundred pieces before mailing thousands, to determine if the marketing piece, the offer, and the call-to-action are likely to be effective.
- Deliver a strong subject line in your email – This is one of the most critical elements when doing an email marketing campaign. A mediocre or weak subject line will likely yield poor results, so take the time to develop an effective subject line that will prompt your prospects to OPEN your emails! And HERE is a TIP to get people to OPEN your emails: Use a number in the subject line, which the brain responds to positively as “useful” information…causing the recipient to open the email. Examples: 5 Keys to Increasing Website Traffic; Top 10 Tips to Shorten Your Sales Cycle; Learn the 5 Best Ways to X; etc…
- Provide a link to unsubscribe – CAN SPAM laws in the US require that you provide a simple and easy way for prospects to unsubscribe from email campaigns. And once someone has unsubscribed, be sure to remove them from your list!
- Test, analyze, tweak and test again – Marketing is all about trial and error. So test, analyze results, and test again. Be sure to track variables and outcomes to see which emails are being opened and which generate the most revenue. Modify and test different graphics, colors, subject lines, offers and content. Track opens, click-throughs, unsubscribes, conversions, and bounces. Use this information to continuously improve your marketing campaigns!
- Use a high quality prospecting list! – While this may sound like a no-brainer, there are many companies still using archaic ways to find leads in an effort to “save money.” The truth is, we often speak with company leaders who have been asking their sales reps to dig up leads on their own, but they’re not getting the results they need. Or, they have purchased an “inexpensive” (i.e. cheap) list, only to learn that the information on the list is junk. This is just another huge waste of sales people’s valuable time.
- Those approaches simply do not work. Junk in = junk out.
- Both methods (digging for leads, or using a “cheap” list”) involve forcing reps to make labor-intensive efforts to try to find the right people to talk to! Instead of increasing a rep’s “selling” time, these methods only serve to increase their reps “digging” and “sorting” time – NOT exactly productive. SEE the kind of money you are wasting if using an “inexpensive,” poor-quality list.
- The lesson? Be sure to invest in marketing data which will give you the QUALITY prospects you need. That step should be FIRST and FOREMOST in any planned marketing campaign. (See MTG Client Case Studies.)
A little more about #4 and #10 above:
- Do you need a high quality source of leads? MTG provides the highest quality marketing intelligence in the industry.
- How can you keep up with the constant changes in your prospect data? MTG provides updates every four months for FREE. We keep up with the changes, so you don’t have to!
Free* 4 month list updates are included with an MTG list purchase of 1000 or more contacts. You won’t get this with just ANY marketing list company – you ONLY get this with Mentor Tech Group. And the change rate in the corporate training and HR industries is HUGE, averaging more than 30% every four months.
Can your team keep up with that kind of change?
Probably not – but that’s why MTG has a team of Marketing Intelligence Consultants, constantly staying on top of our database information to bring you accurate, up-to-date information you will not find anywhere else.
Contact Mentor Tech Group today to learn more. We’re here to help you find the decision makers you seek – whenever you’re ready!
* Free list updates provided with purchase of 1000 or more contact names.
Call us today at (651) 457-8600, Ext. 3
