Marketing in hard times calls for thinking “inside” the box.

Many marketing information sources would have you believe that successful marketing in tough times requires innovation and thinking outside the box.

Frankly, the tools you need for B2B marketing success right now have been inside that box for a long time. You just need to rummage through it and drag them out. What needs to be hauled out right now?

Here are five proven but often forgotten truths from “inside” the box you should put into play right now:

• Focus your marketing dollars on existing customers: Business can be generated from existing customers at one-fifth the cost of acquiring a new ones. These days, focusing a larger portion of marketing dollars on upselling and cross-selling customers is far more productive for generating revenue and ROI.

• Pay attention to the leads you generate: 45% of new leads generated will buy from someone in your industry category within 12 months. Nurturing leads through the buying cycle by continuing to offer them educational materials and other free offers will measurably boosts sales.

• Market to everyone involved in the decision: There are, on average, 9.8 people involved in making a business technology purchase decision. Although the number of people may change, there are decision-makers and influencers in every B2B decision. Marketing to all of them will boost response and increase the number of leads generated. For more on this subject, download the white paper “Reaching Purchase Influencers.”

• Follow up on every lead quickly: 88% of people are happy to hear from a vendor after download within 24 hours. Waiting 96 hours drops that number by half.

• Shift dollars from brand advertising to direct marketing: Be true to your brand image in the process, but, to maximize marketing effectiveness, make sure all your marketing contains these four essentials:

1. Accurately targeted list or channel

2. Offer chosen to match your target’s position in the buying cycle (more about this in future posts)

3. Strong reason to accept the offer

4. Clear call to action

In this challenging economy, you’re allowed to crawl back inside the box. Just make sure you use what you find there.

Geckos, attorneys and satisfied customers.

On my very first project as a direct marketing copywriter I ran up against a little barrier — company attorneys. The client was GEFCO (Government Employees Financial Corporation), known these days by their cute green gecko as GEICO.

The direct mail letter I wrote was for selling CDs (I don’t want to date myself, but they were paying 14% at the time) and it opened with the line “pay yourself first.” GEFCO’s attorney took one look at the copy and said “you can’t do that.” I’ve never figured out why you can’t pay yourself first, but it got me started on cringing every time a client said their attorney had to look over the marketing copy I had written.

These days I’m a bit more sympathetic. With endless news stories about greedy business people and the threat of lawsuits, companies have become very cautious about everything they do. This fear can seep into marketing decisions and, often, companies are terrified of over-promising what their product or service can do.

Marketing shouldn’t lie about what a product can do, but research shows that the greater a prospect’s expectations, the greater their level of satisfaction.

What does that mean to marketers? That you shouldn’t underplay the strengths of your product or service. Don’t lie. But be sure to create a strong image of how much better the prospect’s life will be once they are using your product or service.

You’ll sell more and get more satisfied customers in the process.

Not a creative bone in your body? That’s good news.

In today’s world, being creative is considered a very desirable trait. Writing clever jingles, funny ads, copy that makes readers smile, eye-catching banners or memorable tag lines is a talent possessed by only the best of the best. If you’re looking for work at BBDO, Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, DDB or any one of the world’s top advertising agencies, you need to be creative.

But if you’re doing B2B marketing and you don’t have a creative bone in your body – no problema.

That’s because B2B marketing is about communication, not entertainment. Effectively communicating the benefits of what you offer is your goal. Just like a sales person sitting across the desk from a prospective customer, your marketing communication needs to be targeted, consistent, honest, enthusiastic and confident. But it doesn’t have to be creative.

Is your B2B marketing approach right for this down economy?: Take this 2-minute quiz and find out.

Reading a number of excellent articles in the April 09 issue of Target Marketing magazine got me thinking about how much I love direct marketing. Unlike advertising that is designed to change a person’s attitude, direct marketing is designed to make a person do something: call a phone number, visit a location, accept an invitation, register for a trade show or event, request a free white paper or other offer, or best of all, buy a product or service.

So why do I love it? Because when my clients are doing direct marketing, and doing it right, the writing and consulting that I provide shows up as a positive on their bottom line in figures that tell them their cost-per-lead, cost-per-sale and return on investment. In this economy, being able to link every penny of your marketing investment to leads and sales is the only way to go.

If this is your goal, then I ask, “Are you really doing direct marketing, and are you doing it right?” Here’s a quick 7-question self-quiz that will help you find out:

1. Are you using the lists and online and offline media that target the industries, titles, and company sizes that are the best prospects for your product or service?
2. Are you offering complimentary educational materials that will be of value to your target titles so that, if they ask for your offer, you know they are likely to be qualified buyers?
3. If you are conducting lead generation, does your message sell your offer, not your product?
4. If you are selling your product, are you giving prospects a reason to respond now and not later?
5. Are you accurately tracking responses — whether they are phone calls, landing page visits, faxes or reply cards that are mailed back?
6. Do you track those responders all the way through the buying cycle?
7. Do you test subject lines, offers, and other marketing elements to measure which approach is the most productive and cost-effective?

There are many more proven techniques in successful B2B direct marketing, but these are the basics. They represent the smartest marketing you can do for your company in this economy.

Where will your company be when the economy recovers?

Most companies these days are cutting costs and it’s pretty tough to choose the right place to make those cuts. Depending on what’s necessary for your operation, your options may be very limited. So marketing is likely to be one of the areas you scrutinize.

Because of that, I feel obligated to share with you the one proven truth I tell my clients whenever we experience an economic slow down. It’s something you should keep in mind when making your decisions.

“Companies that continue to market during a down economy

recover faster — and come out of the downturn with

a larger market share — than those who don’t.”

Here’s an abstract for an iMedia Connection article by Mike Simon that appeared in the May 8, 2009 issue of MultiBrief from MultiView that supports my point nicely:

“On the most basic level, recessions are perfect times for marketing overall — particularly because they’re an ideal time for capturing market share. While your competition is slashing its marketing budget, you can take the opportunity to snap up the customers that your competition ignores. The strategy will be particularly rewarding once the economy bounces back, and your brand equity is suddenly head-and-shoulders above the competition’s.”

Great B2B marketing demands you do your prospects’ thinking for them.

It has been said, “Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes.” In my world of B2B direct marketing, this phrase evolves into: “Before you market to someone, step into his shoes.”

It’s always been essential to present the benefits of your product or service in addition to the features it provides. But in today’s “glad to still have a job” environment you need to realize what life is really like for your target customers now.

Picture this:

• Over-the-top busy — stressed to the limit
• Under pressure to reduce costs and be more productive
• Challenged to accomplish more with fewer resources

Marketing messages that tell this prospect about a product that “requires no special training” (or any other feature) is no longer enough. That’s because you are asking your prospect to stop and think about what a product requiring “no special training” will do for him or her.

Who’s got time to think? The job of your marketing must be to do their thinking for them.

• TELL them how much faster workers can be doing what they were hired to do.
• TELL them how much sooner the company can be cutting costs.
• TELL them how you can free workers conducting training to focus on more direct revenue-generating tasks.
• TELL them there will be no gaps in new employees being productive.
• TELL them how your easy-to-use product can reduce the risk of costly errors.

When you spell out the benefits for your prospects, they don’t have to stop and do the mental gymnastics necessary to turn your product features into benefits. Your message gets communicated instantly, you get more marketing response, and you make more sales.

If you’re still unclear on the differences between a feature and a benefit, contact The Copy Works and find out.

Powerful lead generating alternatives to white papers

In the world of B2B lead generation, far be it from me to knock the value of White Papers. IT professionals looking for information on any technical issue search for and find just what they want to know in White Papers posted on content syndication sites including TechTarget, WebBuyers Guide, IDG Connect, Network World, TradePub — the options are too many to list.

Posting White Papers on those sites puts your insight right where it needs to be — where your prospects are looking for solutions.

White Papers also make great lead-generation offers. A letter, email, or search engine marketing (SEM) ad offering a White Paper on a topic pertinent to your product or service does a great job of filling the pipeline with qualified leads.

But for those of you who are saying “Oh no, not another White Paper,” there are alternatives. Consider these two:

Self-Assessment Checklist

A one-page checklist that prospects can use to

measure their practices against best practices. The

topic, of course, relates to the product or service you

sell.

Guide

Rather than communicate the industry knowledge you want to share in a White Paper, turn it into a “how-to” guide. Include checklists and steps on issues related to the problem your product or service can solve and you’ll have a winner. Print this one out in a bound booklet and it becomes a great hand-out for trade shows.

So don’t reject the White Paper for lead generation. But do look to these other tools to deliver a fresh boost to your B2B lead generation marketing efforts.

Afterthoughts:

Whereas the above post covered some excellent tools for lead generation, Michele Linn at Savvy B2B Marketing does a beautiful job of covering ALL the major options that businesses have for providing content in “Need Content? 20 Formats to Consider.”

In the world of direct marketing, we call these “offers” that can be used to get prospects to interact with a company at the lead generation stage and throughout the nurturing process. It’s a very handy list. Thanks Michele.