To make big B2B marketing strides in 2010 – go lateral.

Since September of 2008 every one of us in B2B marketing, or frankly, in every area of business, has been pressured to cut costs, do more with less, and generate and convert enough new customers to remain profitable and grow.

These days, however, companies are running out of ways to cut costs and have reached the bare bones of personnel. So what’s next? I suggest an exercise in lateral marketing.

Originally coined by Edward de Bono in his 1967 book “New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking in the Generation of New Ideas,” lateral thinking takes planning and strategy beyond the realm of problem-solving and into new ways of looking at things.

What is lateral marketing? It’s simply applying lateral thinking to the marketing arena. It’s the exercise that has marketers looking at their business and seeing if they can discover a new product name, a new approach, a new positioning that will open up a fresh universe of prospects and buyers, or an innovative way to reach existing markets.

Most marketers think in a linear fashion. Ask a linear marketer to promote property management software for real estate agents, and that marketer will (hopefully) follow best practices. In most cases, that approach will be successful. It would include:

• Offering free valuable content to generate leads using email or direct mail.
• Running ads in publications read by realtors, and posting ads on sites visited by realtors.
• Researching keywords and enhancing site SEO so that realtors find the software site when searching for related solutions.
• Putting up a booth at a trade show or conference attended by realtors.
• Establishing the real estate software company as a real estate agent’s thought leader by starting a blog and actively sharing valuable ideas via social media.

Lateral marketers, on the other hand, look at challenges in less obvious ways. They try to see the product and market with fresh eyes. They brainstorm with the company’s staff and other associates. They bring in outsiders with no preconceived understanding of that particular product or market. They look at the marketing of products or services completely outside of the client’s industry and category to see what could be borrowed or adapted. In the case of the property management software, this might include the following:

• Thinking about all the other products and services that realtors use, such as appraisers, lenders, and CPAs, then asking those providers to become trading partners, i.e., “You mention my product to your customers and I’ll mention your services to mine.” If the real estate software company sells nationally and the providers sell locally, partnerships could be established in multiple cities.
• Creating an online contest that invites real estate agents to take a self-quiz to find out whether they could make more money by adding property management to the services they provide. All those who took the self-quiz would be entered into a drawing to receive a valuable prize. This self-quiz would generate a list of email addresses of real estate agents who have shown interest in property management and therefore should be considered prospective buyers.
• Spinning off the product with a new name that would appeal to real estate investors who might want to save money by managing their own properties. This move would open up a whole new market of prospects.

 B2B marketers should not abandon linear marketing, but to make big strides in 2010 and beyond, they should try going lateral.

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.