B2B Marketing & Strategy Archives

How to Make Sure Your Cold Emails Make it to the Inbox [VIDEO]

February 16, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

1 in 5 commercial emails sent never reaches the inbox.

6% end up in the spam folder
14% are blocked by ISPs entirely.

For cold emails, inbox placement becomes even more challenging.

That’s because…

You don’t have a relationship with your recipient yet.
You’re sending unsolicited messages.

But this doesn’t mean cold emails are spam.

That’s why they belong to the inbox, not the junk folder.

Follow these steps to make sure things stay that way…

Step 1: Scrub your list thoroughly

Your cold outreach’s success depends on the quality of your list.

Use list cleaning tools and services to remove bad addresses
Run a double opt-in campaign, especially when using a third-party list

Step 2: Check your copy for spam triggers

Your email’s content and design can set off spam alerts in dozens of ways.

Limit your use of known spam words
Maintain a 60-40 text-to-image ratio
Link exclusively to reputable domains

Step 3: Segment and personalize your campaign

In the eyes of ISPs, there’s a fine line between non-personalized bulk emails and spam.

Add some prospect-specific snippets to your email templates
Segment your list and customize the message for each group

Step 4: Let ISPs know you’re someone they can trust

Sender authentication tools and services can help you improve deliverability.

Setup SPF, DKIM, and DMARC anti-spoofing
Sign up for sender and email certification audits

Step 5: Watch how you use your sending IP

Once your sending IP and domain get blacklisted, your emails no longer reach recipients.

Send emails in small batches each day and gradually increase the volume
Use a dedicated IP for your sending server
Keep hard bounces below 5% and spam reports below 0.1%

Remember, cold emails are not spam unless you make them that way.

5 Easy and Actionable SEO Tips for 2018 [GUEST POST]

February 16, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by admin

Search Engine Optimization is the art of appeasing Google and creating a site that helps them achieve their mission statement, “Organizing the world’s information and make it accessible and useful.”.

Of course, this makes SEO sound easy when in fact it is a complicated beast that can rear its ugly head if done improperly. The truth of the matter, however, is that if you proceed with this statement in mind while performing SEO related tasks, you will be one step closer to great website rankings.

Here are 5 great tips to help you succeed in the land of search. These tips are geared directly towards Google’s mission.

#1 Create Content that is Useful

The trend in content this year revolves around Rank Brain and Voice Search. Rank Brain is an artificial intelligence geared towards figuring out what a user actually wants. In other words, it is designed to examine a user’s intent. For instance, if someone searches the word “ice” do they mean that frozen water or are they talking about diamonds? Rank Brain focuses on a few factors based on a person’s past search history, geodata and what the person might actually mean.

Another purpose of Rank Brain’s AI is to handle never before searched terms. Because of Voice Search, these searches are now in the millions. Think about it for a second, because we have the ability to use a natural language and vernacular when searching using our voices, our searches have become longer and more geared towards a specific topic. In the past, we would shorten our search queries as we typed them into the search box.

What this means is that content for a website should be geared specifically towards the user in a more natural tone of voice. Focusing content in this manner will enhance your rankings dramatically.

Tips for writing good content include:

Identifying who your content is for. Also known as a customer persona, you will want to know things like how old are they, where do they live, what questions do they ask about your business or service. The more questions you can answer about your clientele the better.
Don’t keyword stuff. Rather, keep your content clear and to the point and answer questions geared around your topic in a conversational manner.
Write in the present tense and use words like you and I. Address the customer as if they were sitting in front of you.
Be niche specific. Long-tailed keywords tend to convert better and when you write for a broad audience you are missing out on this tactic.

#2 Site Speed Will Be Huge This Year

It’s official. Google has announced that site speed will be a ranking factor starting in summer 2018. Making improvements to your page load times not only helps with rankings but also the user experience.

A great tool to determine just how fast your site performs is Google’s Page Speed Insights. This tool will not only tell you how fast your page loads, but also gives you tips for improvement.

#3 Optimize Your Page Titles the Correct Way

Title Tags refer to the page titles on your browser tabs. These are the first thing Google sees when crawling your website. Too often than not these are ignored by site owners who don’t understand the importance of these on rankings. Imagine how many websites are out there trying to rank for the word “home”.

Instead, this is a great place for adding keywords. The recommended length is a maximum of 70 characters so use this real estate wisely. You will want to add keywords that are important to your business and what the overall page topic is about.

This will send a clear signal to Google as to what you wish the page to rank for.

#4 Improving Link Structures

Your permalink structure (How your URL reads) is an important aspect to your websites SEO plan. This also sends signals to Google on what the page is about.

Make URL’s easy to read for search engines and readers
Separate words with hyphens “-“
Stay away from longer than normal URL’s
Use keywords to describe a page but don’t overdo it

Bad Examples:

https://example.com/us/489992.html
https://example.com/allaboutwidgetsandstuff
https://example.com/id=12&sort-action

Good Examples:

https://example.com/denver/seo
https://example.com/denver-seo

Pro Tip: If you change an existing URL be sure to use a 301 redirect to the renamed URL to keep the power of the page.

#5 Link Your Pages Internally

Talking about internal links we are referring to a page that links to another on the same website and not external backlinks. However, think of internal links in the same way you would to an external backlink.

This is an opportunity to push keywords towards a page you wish to rank for using anchor text as keywords. This tells Google what the page the link is going to is all about and sends ranking strength to that page.

Link related content from one blog to another to increase UX and enhance rankings
Ensure the links are useful for both the user and search engines
Avoid terms like click here. Instead, use your keywords but add them naturally.
No need to overdo it. The more you add, the less power or link juice they provide.
Link old posts to new and vice versa

So Now What?

By jumping in and incorporating these strategies you will begin to see an increase in rankings for your website. Of course, these are just a few tips, but important none the less. The strategies above are typically the most neglected when it comes to SEO. If done right, you are more than likely one step ahead of your competition.

4 Ways to Get Past Gatekeepers and Reach Prospects Every Time [VIDEO]

February 13, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by admin

On average, seasoned reps get past gatekeepers only 13% of the time.
For newcomers, that number goes down to 1%.

With the 4 proven sales call best practices in this video,
you’ll be able to reach prospects every time you dial.

But first, let’s understand what gatekeepers really do.

When gatekeepers screen out calls,
they’re really just doing two things:

Keeping the wrong person away from the boss
Letting the right person reach the boss

Clearly, you want to find yourself in the second scenario.

Here are 4 ways to make this happen…

#1 Get yourself referred

The top 2 reasons why executives meet with sales reps are:

Referrals from people in their companies
Referrals from trusted external sources

So, leverage your network and ask for an introduction.

#2 Connect with the prospect before calling

Avoid gatekeepers by making prospects expect your call

Send a short intro email
Ask for industry-specific advice via LinkedIn or Twitter

The point is to build a relationship well before dialing.

#3 Mention something you learned about the prospect

Show gatekeepers you’re someone who knows about the prospect

Point out a recent award, published post, or announcement by the decision-maker
Explain how your call relates to the prospect’s role

The idea is to avoid sounding like you just called out of nowhere.

Keep in mind that the person who asks the questions controls the call

Always redirect with a question
Resist the itch to pitch

Gatekeepers don’t have the authority to approve your offer, so stay firmly in control.

Now, try these 4 ideas out on your next sales call.

Bold Predictions for the Tech Industry in Australia 2018

January 30, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

Grab and go, that’s the latest technology in retail shopping inside Amazon Go. It’s a cashier-free convenience store that lets shoppers pick the items they need without the hassle of waiting on checkout lines and just leave without paying any cash. However, no one leaves without getting charged: customers need to download the app which would serve as their payment and receipt passport for the groceries, while cameras and sensors are spread all over the place to track shoppers’ activities and the items they pick up or put down. Amazon calls it “Just Walk Out” technology.

Amazon Go is just one of the many realized innovations in technology that was previously predicted along with driverless cars. But that’s not all that technology can offer and the path of innovative and creative minds and hands does not stop here. Below are 2018 tech predictions from industry leaders as released by Huffpost.

Mona De Frawi, CEO and Founder of Radvision predicts that:

There will be a surprising growth from more venture-backed companies.

Michelle Ufford, Manager, Data Engineering of Netflix declared that:

Big data will continue to mature at a blazing pace, and reliability will become an area of focus.

While Lily Chang, Vice President, Strategic Transformation of JV, VMware shared that:

2018 will drive the era of “clouds everywhere”, which will impact every generation, every walk of life, across all society.

Sudha Mahajan, eBay’s Director of Product Management told:

In 2018, the connected internet will see explosive growth (from pure mobile internet) with more devices entering your home. This includes industries like Fintech, Entertainment, Communication, and Gaming.

The predictions are stirring much excitement among tech savvies but are these coherent to the current state of IT? Let’s do a reality check.

Spiceworks reported that:

Most companies will be boosting IT budgets in the next 12 months. 44% expect an increase in their budget while 43% sees no change and only 11% anticipate a decrease. As 60% of the respondents in the survey expect their corporate earnings to increase. Also, more than 60% of companies with more than 500 employees anticipate an increase in IT staff while large businesses with 5000+ employees will hire more IT pros.

Companies’ budget will be distributed as follows: 31% on hardware, 26% on software, 21% on hosted and cloud services while 15% on managed services.

End-of-life growth/additional needs (followed by upgrade/refresh cycles) are the strongest forces that drive IT buyers to spend on new technologies.
GDPR (General Data Regulation Protection) is a program that will protect the privacy and personal data of the EU residents, affecting on May 2018. Most companies allocate GDPR budget on workloads supported by cloud infrastructure: collaborations/communications (42%), backup/disaster recovery (41%) and productivity apps (29%)

The Amazon Go cashierless store may be a milestone in the IT industry but still faces many challenges pertaining to operational glitches. And as to whether they would go full blast this year or not is still to be predicted.

Cutting Marketing Spend: When It Works (and When it Doesn’t) [INFOGRAPHIC]

January 20, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

Gartner says that marketing budgets have started to plateau in 2017, after years of steady growth. That’s one of the main things they found in their 2017 CMO survey, which also reported that only two-thirds of CMOs expect a significant increase in their 2018 budget while a third believe their budgets will be cut.

There’s obviously a lot of reasons why companies slash marketing budgets (including tough economic times, shifting priorities, cost-cutting measures, and scaling down operations). Most of these factors are simply beyond any marketing decision-maker’s control. But marketers still influence how much business impact their marketing activities can have. And that’s through carefully planning how (and how not) to spend their budget. That’s what we’ll feature in today’s post.

Transcript:

When to Cut Spending

#1 The end goals aren’t clear.

Specific goals and objectives all move the revenue needle. If a marketing activity or your overall program doesn’t clearly show this, then it’s a prime candidate for the chopping block.

#2 Marketing isn’t aligned with sales.

There are all sorts of things that can go wrong when marketing and sales are out of whack. That’s why there’s no point in paying for a marketing tactic or project that doesn’t align with sales’ priorities.

#3 You can afford losing out to the competition.

Companies that were quick to cut marketing budgets in past recessions were all outperformed by competitors that maintained or even increased their marketing budgets during the downturn. If you can afford to lose out to the competition, then, by all means, reduce your marketing spend.

When Not to Cut Spending

#1 Decreased marketing spend brings only hard cost savings.

Cost-cutting measures result in two kinds of cost savings – hard cost savings and soft cost savings. If reducing marketing spend only results in hard cost savings, then you’re better off finding ways to maximize the budget you have instead of slashing your expenditures altogether.

#2 Cutting back results in cutting corners.

When cutting marketing spend means scaling down activities to the point where they no longer drive results, you have to wonder if you can really afford cutting corners just to cut costs.

#3 Cutting back is done to fix a misspent budget.

When marketing fails to hit goals, the problem won’t be fixed with budget cuts. The solution is to find new and better ways of using what you already have.

Inside a B2B Marketer’s Arsenal of Productivity Tools

January 11, 2018/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

The year 2018 will see competition in the B2B industry to become bloodier. We’re not saying that there’s going to be literal blood splattered around. But it’s the fact that B2B players big and small will try to come up with more aggressive tactics for their lead generation and appointment setting campaigns.

For sure, there are trends to watch out for this year, and companies will do themselves a serious disservice by taking these trends in stride. Obviously, generating high-quality leads remains to be the most compelling challenge that B2B marketers will have to face. But unlike the previous, the focus right now is about engaging B2B prospects and emphasizing their needs for specific solutions over your need to go beyond your revenue expectations.

At least 91 percent of B2B marketers have content campaigns that opt to bridge gaps between them and their target audiences. This is according to a Twitter blog post by Heather Eng, who also said that scores of marketers are finding less than stellar successes with their current content marketing campaigns. According to her, 53 percent of content marketers have pointed out moderate successes with their campaigns last year.

Nevertheless, marketers must keep their eyes set on making impactful campaigns that resonate well with their target clients. And as competition in crucial and highly competitive sectors such as IT and financial services continues to grow, effective audience outreach methods should be the main goals for companies wanting to get heard.

This will also compel marketers to go the extra mile when it comes to producing effective content that not only offers something new to the table but also converts site visitors into hot leads. When your main goal is to achieve record sales numbers, you will have to become a productive member of the marketing team. But in order to become one, you need to equip yourself with all the needed tools and apps that will certainly help you in your outputs.

Here are some of these nifty tools you can carry around on your smartphone.

CoSched

To most people, managing a blog doesn’t too much effort. The reason is that not much resources and energy are expended on composing a piece of content and hitting the publish button once you’re through revising the whole thing. But what a lot of people don’t know is that blog management takes a lot of factors into account. One of these factors is time management.

Handling a corps of content writers and graphics artists involves a lot of coordination. This means that everything has to run like clockwork. Deadlines must be met and certain blog posts should be published on dates that matter. This is something that tantamounts to a nightmare for a lot of B2B marketers, which is why some of them use CoSched. This handy little tool can help you manage your team’s workflow on top of scheduling important activities. The app also has an analytics component that will help you measure your projects and give you a clear view of what’s going on. When it comes to keeping strict schedules, CoSched will certainly make life easier for you and your team.

Sococo

Communication is vital to increasing your team’s productivity. But to be able to lead a more successful marketing campaign, it pays to use an application that rightly delivers on your need for effective teamwork. Sococo is more than a messaging application with features such as IM and video calling. It is a platform that emphasizes the high points of active collaboration.

Buffer

If you think developing content that hits the right chords in your audience is difficult, then you’re not alone. Content marketing is actually an area that exhausts you to the bone. And we’re only talking about conceptualizing the next blog post or infographic you will be publishing.

Marketing thrives on new ideas, but sometimes, you could barely find one that will rightly serve as the basis for your next line of content materials. Curation is an important and, more often than not, a complex part of content development. But applications like Buffer can make the task a lot simpler. With Buffer at least, you are provided a platform that lets you share content and schedule your social media activities, all through the power of automation.

Did we miss any important apps? What do you think are the best tools that B2B marketers should use? Share them in the comment section below.

Outback Attack! Introducing Australia’s Top Ten B2B Influencers

December 21, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

Far from being just a hot places populated by kangaroos and emus, Australia is also home to topnotch companies that have a pretty good standing when it comes down to meet demands. Innovation in tech, healthcare, and financial services is what drives growth in the Land Down Under, and major B2B players are doing what they can in order to grow their outreach and get hefty slices out of their respective markets.

It is basically against the backdrop set by digital marketing that both veteran and startup enterprises are investing a great deal of time and resources in improving audience engagement. But besides from setting up a lead generation campaign or knowing which content should they put on their websites, these companies will also need to know a great deal from people who know a lot about making it big in the B2B world.

Here is a list of the top ten Australian influencers that matter right now.

#1 Laurel Papworth

Topping our list is one of Forbes Top 50 Social Media Influencers. Papworth built a name (and the reputation to boot) for herself as a lecturer on all things social media at the University of Sydney. Aside from her impressive experience online during the 1990s, Papworth is certainly your best bet to get started on social media. Her online classes are attended by thousands of students and professionals who are eager to learn more about crafting their presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This makes her an important figure in the Australian B2B community.

#2 Jeff Bullas

If it’s internet marketing that you are seeking, Bullas is your guy that’ll get you what you need. Listed as one of 20 Top Influencers of CMOs by Forbes, Bullas started out his career back when Facebook was still in its formative years. But seeing the potential of this social networking platform had somehow animated Bullas to develop a fondness for online engagement. Now, he enjoys an impressive array of followers on both Twitter and Facebook – which is really not bad for an idea of a ten dollar startup.

#3 Darren Rowse

Brushing up on your blogging skills? Businesses couldn’t really separate themselves from blogging since it’s an activity that helps them become more visible online. It’s also an activity that takes a lot of. Just ask blogging guru, author, and speaker Darren Rowse. To him at least, popular blogs start out small and quickly become influential using the right techniques and methods. Here are the 12 Tools to Hack Your Content Creation Workflow [Plus Free Content Calendar]

#4 Stuart Streling

Melbourne native Stuart Sterling is a marketing exec who takes his job seriously. Seeing how marketing can drive revenue and growth, he will never hesitate to share his insights on what needs to be done in order to make a good impression.

#5 Heather Porter

Her name might remind you of that world-famous wizard everyone’s talking about, but Heather Porter will tell you don’t need magic tricks to make marketing easier and more effective. At most times, you also need to craft effective digital strategies to truly make a difference.

#6 Carolyn Hyams

Having 10 years’ experience in the digital marketing world isn’t exactly enough to make you an expert in that arena, right? Well, it worked differently for Carolyn Hyams who has rightly used this duration to absorb everything she could about online branding.

#7 Jenni Beattie

A veteran of the healthcare industry, Jenni Beattie now works to give everyone a heads up on the most effective ways to attract people through content. More importantly, she gives excellent advice on PR and how to attract the right people to your brand.

#8 Neil Walter

As Managing Director of Walter Analytics, you can bet your bottom dollar that Neil Walter will give you the things you want to hear about advertising online. And putting importance on the role of analytics to marketing will eventually drive home the point that B2B is all about the numbers. The higher they are, the better!

#9 Raz Chorev

With a focus on helping other businesses and individuals succeed, Raz Chorev is one entrepreneur you would want to have a cup of coffee with. Having worked with big names in different industries, Chorev is a master in giving sound advice for when you need to look for business opportunities online.

#10 Alister Cameron

As a marketing exec, Alister Cameron has been active in the blogosphere as a consultant. His extensive experience in blog writing, SEO and, of course, social media has ‘made him an authority figure to businesses that want to spread their clout online.

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Fintech Growth Report: Why You Should Invest in Australia in 2018

December 14, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

For the past 5 years, Fintech is one of the fastest growing industry in Australia, with the 3 largest sectors; investment, payment and lending. Over the years, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of Fintech startup companies in Australia, according to KPMG.

As of November 2017, EY FinTech Australia Census found out that Fintech companies in Australia are enjoying a 200 percent annual median revenue jump and increasingly planning to expand overseas, based on the report.

(Image credit: Fintech Australia)

Here’s why they do and why you should too.

The number of Fintech startups in Australia increased from around 100 in 2014 to almost 600 companies at the end of 3rd quarter this year.
Around 24% of Fintech companies (those that are in business for less than 3 years) reported having revenue growth increase of more than 700%.

With the following that is considered to be the most effective initiatives showing industry growth:

Improving the research and development initiative (87%)
Government mandated open data controls (85%)
Capital gains tax relief (85%)
Reduced payroll and other taxes (83%)
New payment platform (82%)
Fintech industry has 512 Australian and 67 offshore companies that are operating locally.

As Fintech industry matures, more and more Fintech companies in Australia are claiming they are ready to go global in the next 12 months. With that being said, more and more entrepreneurs are investing in putting up Fintech companies all over Australia in the upcoming years.

150+ B2B Tech Marketing Stats to Help You Plan for 2018 [Free eBook]

December 7, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by admin

In a few short weeks, we’ll be wrapping up another year. So now’s a good a time as any to look back at where we’ve been with our marketing efforts and, more importantly, to plan where we’re going. To help you refine your 2018 marketing strategy, the Callbox team is releasing an extensive compilation of key software/tech marketing stats as a free eBook.

We dug into more than 60 reputable published sources and pulled out over 150 data points every data-driven tech marketer should include in their planning assumptions. But we didn’t stop at simply listing the numbers out. We’ve also grouped the stats into 35 actionable insights gleaned from the data.

Let’s take a sneak peek.

Insights on Overall Strategy

Forrester expects digital disruption to shake things up in 2018 and become the new normal for B2B marketing. Most other research into B2B software/tech marketing seem to bear this out. Among the essential overall marketing insights the numbers point to are:

Tech buyers are evolving along with the purchase cycle. Millennials now comprise a significant chunk of the tech buying committee, while baby boomers and Gen Xers are starting to take a backseat.
A growing number of marketers in complex-sale B2B products (especially tech marketers) now embrace account-based marketing (ABM). Case studies and industry reports show that ABM strategies outperform other traditional methods in several key criteria.
MarTech and marketing automation platforms remain a critical component of tech marketers’ toolkit, although several studies point to both opportunities and challenges for marketers in this space.
For a number of tech marketers, AI has evolved from a shiny new thing to something they can’t do without. More and more marketers plan to invest in AI for various practical applications, from predictive lead scoring to big data mining.
While MarTech continues to improve, data quality still bothers a huge percentage of tech marketers. In fact, they point to data as a major obstacle that’s keeping them from getting the most out of their tech stacks and campaigns. Up to the present time, tech marketers encounter difficulty gauging performance and returns.

Almost 9 in 10 tech marketers rank improving the ability to measure and analyze marketing impact as a top priority.

This is why a majority of marketers still think their budgets won’t be enough to hit their marketing objectives, even though most of them will see a bigger budget next year.
From the top three campaign priorities of B2B marketers (reaching audiences at the right time, matching strategy to audience behavior, and identifying the best channels to use), tech marketers encounter the most difficulty in connecting with prospects at the right time.

Channel-Specific Insights

The eBook also delves into current and future trends shaping content marketing, email marketing, social media, organic/paid search, and other tech marketing channels. Some highlights include:

Content retains its throne as king of the software/tech marketing world. IDG explains that tech marketers are now seeing the benefits of pioneering “brand as publisher” strategies. The next priorities revolve around precise measurement and diversifying the content portfolio.
Email remains very much alive. That’s because study after study reveals tech buyers prefer emails both for business communications and for sourcing information. No other channel comes close to the spectacular ROI emails offer, especially if emails are used to reinforce engagement and conversion in other channels. Read The Rundown on Email Marketing vs Social Media, if you’re not convinced yet.
Almost all software/tech marketers use some form of social media marketing. That’s despite a huge number of tech marketers claiming social media is their least effective lead generation channel, and only 1 in 4 tech buyers turn to social media to learn about new products.
Software/Tech marketers are big fans of SEO and PPC. That’s because an overwhelming portion of their target audience relies on online search when evaluating potential solutions.
Traditional initiatives like tradeshows and free trials still occupy an important place in the tech marketing mix, while newer strategies such as cross-border marketing are gaining traction among tech marketers.

The Takeaway

It’s an exciting time to be a tech marketer today, and things are bound to get even more interesting next year. This post only scratches the surface of what you’ll learn from the eBook, so get your free copy right now.

Top Thanksgiving Day Values to Add to Your Marketing

November 23, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

Aside from being a holiday that’s mostly about turkey and pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving is an opportunity for the family to come together and appreciate the things we have right now.

Of course, there is a reason why the word “thanks” is in the name, and we could hardly ignore its historical context. Apparently, Thanksgiving goes beyond the feast that saw Native Americans having dinner with English pilgrims. Rightly so, it is for the fact that the holiday itself includes values that are essential not only to American society but to Australian society as well.

And despite the cultural and geographic barriers, Australians can also look at Thanksgiving as a source of important values that can shape personalities and, more importantly, help us in everyday life.

For the B2B crowd, Thanksgiving offers a lot in almost every aspect of running a business.

From business strategy to implementing an effective B2B lead generation and appointment setting campaign, the Holiday can essential knowledge on how to make your business standout like your Grandma’s special pumpkin pie.

The essence of Thanksgiving is anchored on appreciating the good things that other people have done for you. Of course, no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without the customary toast where each member of the household announces the things they are thankful for.

In the same way, businesses should also consider appreciating not just its staff, but also the clients that have made success possible. In this case, a verbal “thank you” is just not enough. There are other things you can consider that will greatly express just how much you appreciate the partnership you and your client share. Here are some ideas for that:

#1. Express your gratitude

Top Thanksgiving Day Values to add to your Marketing - Expressing gratitude

Nothing beats discounts as a way to give back to your clients. Discounts are in fact effective in terms of strengthening the bridges that have led prospects towards you in the first place. Giving this discounts can also greatly influence how a prospect perceives your brand. In particular, they will see it as a company that really does put customers above everything else. So, whenever you celebrate an increase in your monthly revenues, make an announcement and offer something that would make your clients like you even more. More ideas on how to make your Australian feel special.

#2. Provide freebies

What could possibly outmatch discounts? Well, freebies of course! The fact remains that giving out free offers can actually help in keeping your client interested in your offers. The best way to go about this is to give coupons for special offers or codes that will enable your clients to acquire a prize.

The most important thing is that you give your clients something to remember you by. It’s only a matter of knowing the type of gift you want to give and it makes, even more, sense to consider your clients’ interests. With that being said, here are a few of our free downloadables:

#3. Express your gratitude personally

An even better way to express just how thankful you are towards your clients. For this, you have to personally thank them. Intimacy is still an important ingredient in business outreach and you can always secure better client relations through various means of expressing intimacy.

For good measure, you can always rely on a good email marketing campaign to send newsletters to your clients and provide them more reasons to keep in touch.

Still, the best way you can enrich your relationship with your clients involves talking to them directly. You can do this by giving your clients a call through telemarketing. For this, you need to rely on the right people that have the right skills in translating your appreciation.

#4. Grow your network

LIke what the Native Americans did to the pilgrims, business should always consider making friends and growing their professional networks.

Despite increased competitiveness in sectors such as IT and financial services, it is still essential for companies to reach out towards other enterprises and build rapport.

#5. Go out and socialize

Thanksgiving is also about socialization. Not only is it a time for family members to come together, it is also an opportunity to share stories and build strong relationships with your client base. Industry events are aptly suited for this, and companies should make it a priority to attend important functions such as trade shows and seminars where they can share in a cornucopia of knowledge.

Top 10 Proof that Outbound Efforts Help Close Deals in Australia

November 21, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by Dara Lin

Cold calling, lead generation, appointment setting, email marketing and event marketing.

In fact, there are a lot of outbound lead generation efforts that can help you create brand awareness, build a relationship and nurture your prospects.

Let’s face it, outbound sales leads nowadays has a longer process and are often hard to close. But that doesn’t change the fact that outbound lead generation is still considered the best way to generate more leads for your business. Here are 10 proofs that outbound efforts can really help close deals.

Emails

Emails are sales rep’s best friend. Here are some stats that show that emails are considered a powerful tool when done right.

Marketers who use personalization in their subject lines see 26% more opens. (Source: Campaign Monitor)
Email marketing has 2x higher ROI than cold calling. —MarketingSherpa
Subject lines with the recipient’s name are 2.6% more likely to be opened. — Retention Science
Adding video to an email can increase click rates by 300%. (Source: Emma)

Voice

Telemarketing is still considered the fastest way to generate leads. Contacting prospects and getting “yes” or “no” answer lets you focus more on good prospects that are really interested to do business with you.

Here are some stats that outbound B2B telemarketing is still your best option for lead generation and appointment setting campaigns according to 72 Solutions.

Telemarketing is the most effective lead nurturing technique. At least 60% of Marketing Managers claim that telemarketing is ‘very effective’ for lead nurturing. Learn The Four P’s Of Sales Leads Nurturing.

Telemarketing delivers far better quality leads than social media. Although social media is more popular, telemarketing delivers higher and better quality leads.

B2B Telemarketing is NOT annoying. In fact, Managers expect to receive sales calls. According to SCi Sales Group, B2B telemarketing is not annoying – especially in B2B. Managers expect to receive sales calls, it is part of their job and a way to find better and reliable suppliers.

There is more to social media than just simply staying connected with friends and families. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. are also used for business to generate sales. In fact, here are some of the stats from Triblio.com that shows social media channels can be used to increase sales and profits.

A company with the highest social media activity increased their sales by 18% +.

Letting sales reps handle the social media campaign has is the best idea. Why? 72.6% of salespeople who uses social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their sales peers and exceeded their quota 23% more often.”

Multi-channel

In order to get higher close ratio, it is important to become visible. Reaching out to your prospects through various channels – emails, voice, chat, web, social media and mobile is the best technique for lead generation.

Here’s 1 proof that an outbound effort using multiple channels is considered the best way to close deals in Australia.

Multi-channel marketing program and marketing automation platform show sales growth by 33%. (Source – Callbox Australia)

These 10 proofs show that up to this date, outbound lead generation is still relevant. Many marketers still use outbound marketing to reach out, nurture and build relationships with their prospects. Because they know, one day, they can convert these prospects into actual customers.

Get our FREE sample telemarketing scripts for All Industry types. This includes scripts for appointment setting, event telemarketing, and data profiling:

Why Rapid Growth Plans are Important to a Small Company

November 15, 2017/in B2B Marketing & Strategy /by admin

Cash flowing and higher profit mean all of your hard work is paying off. Business is growing fast and you may want to take advantage of the opportunities that are out there. You decide to hire new employees, transfer to a bigger location or open up another branch to cater to the increase in demand of your consumers.

Rapid growth can be overwhelming sometimes, but as a small business owner, you should take risks and must always be thirsty for expansion.

There are 3 stages of small business growth.

Stage 1. Existence.

In this stage, you try to get more customers and make sure to deliver the product or services that they need.

Stage 2. Survival.

You have enough customers and you make sure to satisfy them with your product and service in order to keep them.

What can you do? Ask for suggestions from your customers and use their feedback to continue to improve your product and services.

Many small businesses stay longer on this stage in order to earn a higher ROI and capital to move to the next stage.

Stage 3. Success.

Business is doing well. Now, you’re in a dilemma where you have to decide whether to expand or just keep the company stable and profitable.

This is the part where most of your business growth is happening. During this stage, you may need to delegate some of the responsibilities to your staff. Most successful business owners usually divide their staff into two – sales and production.

However, despite the success of your business, whether you decide to expand or just keep it as it is, you have to make sure you have a steady cash flow and a backup plan to cover up all of the expenses needed for expansion.

According to rba.gov.au, small businesses make an important contribution to the Australian economy. But for a small business to keep up with rapid growth and avoid future disasters, you should plan, plan, plan!

It is essential for every business owner to research and plan on how they want their business to be. Sad to say, despite all of the planning and hard work, you will still encounter common problems caused by the rapid growth of your business. Problems such as;

You can’t afford to get a bigger place yet so you don’t have enough space for everyone to work efficiently.
If you consider moving to a bigger location, you might not have enough cash to meet the expansion costs.
In order to generate more income, your staff needs to take additional workload and pressure.
A decrease in productivity because employees cannot cope up with extra work.
Because employees are under pressure, they tend to operate reactively rather than proactively.
Under pressure employees develop low-quality products resulting to an increase in customer complaints.
You’ll lose your customers to your competitors.
Higher employee turnover. You may need to hire and train new staff because employees are leaving.

Responding to rapid growth

Refusing to grow because you’re scared to come out of your comfort zone won’t do you and your business any good. How you respond to the rapid growth of your business is important for your business to grow and overcome problems along the way. But the success of your business depends on how well you can execute your growth strategy.

According to Chron, here are some common growth strategies every small companies must use in their business.

Product Expansion

When a product is popular, you need to develop or add new ones in order to keep up with the demand. For a small company, in order to grow and increase its sales, you can either expand your product lines and stay ahead of your competitors.

Market Penetration

Market penetration focuses on selling existing products or services into existing markets. You can either lower the price of your product or service to increase your sales volume. Here’s how to do negotiate in sales like a pro.

Market Expansion

Also known as market development. If you think there is no room for growth within your current market, it’s best to consider a new market for your product to increase its sales and profit. Here are some growth hacking lead generation tips to help you start with.

So start planning which path you want your business will lead into and make sure to execute it well for your business to grow successfully.