Top Marketing tips for b2b small businesses

1. Business to Business
Marketing
Shane Redding, Think Direct

2. A little bit about me
 30 + years in
marketing
 Consult, train and
& lecture
 Own 2 companies
and hold 3 NEDs
 Built and sold 3
marketing led
businesses
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3. In 30 mins!
 Time to think!
 Focus – what is ONE thing that will
make the difference
 Keep it simple
 Shared learnings
 Questions
 Action Plan
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4. Top Tips to grow your
business profitably
 Your brand
 Who are your customers?
 Where are your customers?
 How to reach them?
 Top tips for marketing tactics that
work
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5. Marketing today
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6. Know Your Brand
 The essence? Can you sum up your
difference in one sentence?
 Creative: dare to be different,
surprise, delight - but get it right
 Live, breathe, deliver it
 Every touch point NOT just marketing
 Consistency
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7. The 4 Cs
1. Consistency: people + attention to
detail
2. Content: tell the story, make it
relevant
3. Collateral: engage all the senses
4. Customer Service: where the brand
fails
If you get it right…..
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8. Successful Brands = £££
 Loyal customers (keep coming back
and buying more)
 Customers do your marketing for you
(WOM/social media)
 Have clarity of vision which supports
growth
 Your brand values have a £ value
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9. ACTION PLAN
Your brand?
 What is your compelling proposition
as to why people should buy from
you?
 Is it clear enough?
 Does it leap off your home page?
 Do all your staff understand it?
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10. An example
 4 solicitors
 All different – but does the difference
stand out?
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16. Who are your customers?
 Market segment(s) in your business
plan
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17. Who are your customers?
The basics: Immerse yourself!
Online research – competitors, market
statistics, media, channels to market
(associations), influencers (bloggers)
Offline research – talk to your potential
customers!
Top Tip: “A day in the life of”
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18. Market and Customer
Insight – What is it FOR?
The CRUNCH is to DRIVE sales!
1.Insight + Action = Sales
2.Capture Contact Data at every touchpoint
(legally) (name/address/phone/email/mobile)
3.Build a CRM database (ideally as part of your
transactional system)
4.Track channels by value
5.Look at the data and use it!
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19. Where are your customers?
Focus on your chosen route to market
Local, National, International?
B2B or B2C or both?
Direct or Indirect?
Online and offline
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20. First Find them!
 Geography
 Behaviour
 Media
E.g. Hunts Transport customers include
event and exhibition organisers, their
association is http://www.aeo.org.uk/
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21. 2 Help them find you
nd
 Search – are you there?
 But improve YOUR Website FIRST,
especially content, keywords and links
 Then check rankings
 Links – track which work (Google
analytics)
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22. 2 Help them find you
nd
 External directories (the more listings
the higher your natural search):
 General: freeindex, yell, thomson,
 Local: e.g. This is my kingdom
 Specialist: Often media or trade
association owned
Top tip: Get on all the free listings first
then paid!
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23. Target and cultivate
influencers
 Bloggers BUT the ones that matter!
(see http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank)
 Journalists (what’s the story?)
 Trend setters (product placement)
 Thought leaders in your customers
areas of interest
 Customers!
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24. Customers: Keeping them =
Keep in touch!
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25. Don’t forget to
 Say thank you
 Tell them what else you do
 Ask for testimonials
 Offer rewards for referrals
 Keep in touch (collect their data!)
 Make it personal!
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26. Marketing Tactics that work
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27. 1. Put Data at the heart of
your business
 Choose systems that enable data
driven marketing (cloud/api)
 Easy to access, analyse and use
 Keep data accurate and up to date
by USING it
 Ensure a value exchange
 Data = customers (so treat with
care!)
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28. 2. Target using the 3 R’s
1. Right person
2. Right place
3. Right time
This will give you the best return on
your marketing - more than
anything else!
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29. 3. Free Marketing
= Word of Mouth
 Social media BUT target
 Recommend a friend (reward £) – can
be Facebook likes, email f2f, linked in
endorsement, physical (2f1)
 Make it easy: provide links
 Track your best referrers
 Don’t ignore the negative!
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30. 4 . Copywriting
Attract
Interest
Desire
Action
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31. 4 . Copywriting
 AIDA: apply to all your marcoms
 Personalise – treat customers
differently
 Your headline/subject line are key
messages
 Most powerful words = thank you!
 And always ask for the order
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32. 5. Your Website
Again AIDA
1.Strong clear brand message
2.Clear easy to use navigation
3.Be consistent
4.Action: Keep it simple
5.Make sure it’s compliant
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33. 6. Copy the best
1. If you open an email and buy ask
yourself WHY?
2. 1 - click works
3. Reminder marketing works (use
Google analytics)
4. Recycle, repurpose, reuse content
5. Helping the customer – call them!
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34. 7. Email marketing
1. Collect the email – doh!
2. Make it easy, relevant and compliant
3. Check: links, spam filters, rendering,
spelling!
4. Test SMALL
5. Make Mobile friendly
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35. 7. Email marketing
1. Start small – use a free esp (mailchimp
etc.)
2. You pay for what you get – so expect to
outsource as you grow
3. Integrate – email to social and back
4. Newsletters are great but send them
“regularly” not “monthly” – only send
when you have something to say
5. and what do you want them to do?
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36. 8. Choosing the right media
1. Don’t ignore gut feel!
2. Get under the skin of your target
audience, walk the walk, feel their
pain!
3. Target: less is more!
4. Go to them – flyers, mailers, POS,
package inserts, side of lorry!
5. Only pay if you can measure it!
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37. 9. Partner marketing
1. Powerful, but choose with care!
2. Brand affinity (charity, person)
3. Product affinity (wedding
dress/photography)
4. More important = Customer group
5. What do you have, that the partner
wants/needs?
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38. 9. Measurable marketing
1. ROMI for every £1 you spend you
want to know what profit you made
2. Any marketing that asks for a
response is measurable, so always
ask for a response!
3. Your metrics will change over time
from number of new customers
(CPR), Value of sale (CPO), value of
customer (LTV)
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39. 9. Measurable marketing:
What to measure and Tools
1. Online: Referral sites, page views,
Ad ROI, Google Analytics (free)
2. E commerce: Google Checkout
3. Email: depends on esp but opens,
clicks, hard bounces, soft bounces
4. Offline: Media by Unique code
5. B2b: tools like Lead Forensics
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40. Lead Forensics: Leads to
Sales
 Takes the IP address of your visitors
and matches it to the UK business
universe
 So you know which companies by
size/sector/geo are on your site
 Provides phone number to follow up
 You can link to YOUR database to
score leads and track customers
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43. 10. KISS
1. Focus
2. What do you do well?
3. What do you NOT do well?
4. Outsource for growth
5. Keep doing it better
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44. 4 E’s = trends to exploit
 Product is Experience
 Place is Everywhere
 Price is Exchange
 Promotion is Evangelism
Rory Sutherland: Ogilvy
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45. ACTION PLAN
Marketing Tactics
 What are you going to do differently?
 How are you going to do it?
 Who is going to do it?
 When will it be done?
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46. Thank you!
Shane.Redding@thinkdirect.biz
Slides on Slideshare and linked in
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