Posts Tagged ‘target audience’

Good lead generation campaigns are much more than a shot in the dark

Monday, March 14th, 2011

By Barbara Bix

I have a friend with a son who is a sophomore in high school.  This morning, she told me that she can’t believe how many money colleges waste precious funds on expensive direct mail communications.  She described the quality of the paper, the outsized packaging, and the heft of the packages they’ve been receiving–all of which she tosses in the waste bin.

Direct marketing mail campaigns are often cost-effective

Inbound marketing starts with deep customer insights

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Kristin Knipp offers great advice in a post previewing Hubspot’s talk at the upcoming meeting on inbound marketing for Medical Device companies. She recommends starting with defining a unique value proposition and then building a content factory to attract humans and search engines.

Value is in the eye of the beholder

Although not stated explicitly, it is essential that marketers define the value proposition with the target audience’s perspective in mind–and that the content directly contributes to the delivery of that value proposition.

How search and social media will shorten the B2B sales cycle.

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers and a leading authority on B2B marketing,  just published a draft of the first chapter of his upcoming book, Social Marketing to the Business Customer on his blog. He had me on the second page when he spelled out what I’ve always seen as the differences between B2B and B2C sales–but have never been able to articulate as clearly.   The points Paul makes –about buyers’ focus on value, group decision-making, and sales cycle length especially resonate with me as someone who focuses on marketing IT products and professional services to corporations.

Will prospective buyers turn to you when they’re ready to move forward?

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Will prospective buyers turn to you when they’re ready to move forward?

Getting the sale depends on affirmatively answering all three of the following questions:

  • Have they heard of your business?
  • Do they know that you can address the problem?
  • Will they remember you when it comes time to buy?

Brand awareness is not sufficient. Think back to your own experience.

Sure, you’ve lost sales because prospective buyers haven’t heard of your business. But, I’ll bet you’ve also lost business because prospective buyers just didn’t realize that you offered a particular product or service.