Selecting the Right Marketing Agency for Your Consulting Firm

Selecting the Right Marketing Agency for Your Consulting Firm

Whether your consulting firm focuses on financial issues, troubleshooting IT problems and HR employment, you need to find new clients for your business.

But for a company with one or more experts that provides professional advice to their clients, is it necessary to seek for a professional help from another expert? I’ll give you 3 reasons why you need a marketing agency for your consulting firm.

  1. You don’t need to hire, train and manage your own people.
  2. You will have a team of experts.
  3. You will save a lot of money

Marketing agencies have employees with knowledge, experience, and skills that can help increase your firm’s productivity by looking for new clients on your behalf. In order for a marketing agency to do their job well, here are 4 things that every marketing agency must know from you.

  • Your goal
  • Your services
  • Your customers
  • Your business

So how do you pick the right marketing agency? Take note of these elements when choosing the best marketing agency for your consulting firm.

Constant Communication

Communication is important because it serves as a foundation for any relationship. When looking for the right marketing agency, constant communication is necessary to make sure every campaign runs smoothly.

So before choosing one, take the time to meet with them and get to know them. Find out what are their priorities and the approach that they’re using in managing their campaigns. Choose someone that will reply to emails, receive calls promptly and will answer questions and concerns.

Related: Ever thought of following up Inbound Leads via Outbound Marketing?

Practice

Marketing is constantly evolving, investing on an agency that understands and shows the best in modern marketing is important to stay on the edge when it comes to your marketing strategies.

Dig in thoroughly and find out if:

  • Is their website mobile responsive?
  • Do they use marketing automation?
  • They create and post quality contents?
  • How often do they post to their blogs?
  • How are they doing in social media?
  • How do they measure their stats?

Related: How To Get More Clients For Your Consulting or Financial Business in Australia

Process

When choosing a marketing agency, check first if they have a proven process. It is important to have a well-documented process that is highly effective.

To figure out if they have a tried and proven process, ask;

  • What kinds of activities are they doing in their marketing campaign?
  • Do they have a timeline when to expect it?
  • What should you expect from them?
  • What reports will you get?

Cost

Stick to your budget and always request a quote before committing with an agency. Before investing your budget, assess whether the services are worth it or not. Only choose the services that are needed for your campaign. Don’t be fooled by any add-on services that are not necessary for your goal.

Related: Generating Software Leads in Australia with a Small Budget

Company Background and Testimonials

It is important to check the customer’s review before choosing a marketing agency for your firm to make sure your money won’t go to waste. Visit their website and check. Below are some of our examples:

Who their clients are

Their case studies

Testimonials

I would like to take a couple of minutes to tell you what a wonderful job your team does for my company. I think we have been working together for over 2 years now, maybe longer. During that time I have been very happy with your service. The value exceeds the cost by a wide margin. Make sure you tell the team “Thank You”

Mario Frezza
Pinnacle Consulting Group

Businesses hire a marketing agency to save time, effort and cost of hiring full-time employees. Before choosing and investing your money on hiring one, make sure to check on the elements mentioned above before choosing a marketing agent to avoid losing money.

Ever thought of following up Inbound Leads via Outbound Marketing?

Ever thought of following up Inbound Leads via Outbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a marketing technique where customers find your product or service through content marketing, natural or paid SEO and other social media marketing. While outbound marketing is a traditional way of marketing wherein the company is the one who initiates the conversation and deliver the message to its target audience through business events (trade shows, seminars, conference, etc.), cold calls and email blasts.

Why most marketers utilize inbound marketing rather than outbound marketing

Nowadays, many marketers think that outbound marketing is less effective because of the advance in technology. More and more people prefer to use the internet when looking for something to buy. Plus, people are always looking for ways to block any marketing efforts of marketers through caller ID and spam filtering.


Almost 60% of prospects already know and have researched a product or service through social media, blog posts and referrals before marketers can even reach out to them.


Why I think you should combine your inbound and outbound marketing efforts;

There’s no need to nurture them further to convert them because most of the time inbound leads are warm. However, not all inbound marketing efforts are converted into sales. For instance, a prospect contacted you to inquire about something. If you fail to respond immediately, chances are prospect might switch to your competitor.

That’s why you should utilize outbound marketing to follow up all of your inbound marketing efforts. Business owners use multi channel marketing to maximize their marketing efforts in order to increase your sales and generate more leads for your business.

Here’s how we follow up our inbound leads through outbound marketing using multi channel approach.

Calling

As a sales and marketing company, we value our business as much as we value our clients. An increase in leads delivered to our clients means an increase on the productivity of both. In order to generate more leads, Callbox created the following:

Email

Create a customized email and respond to prospects in real time. Follow up them via email.

Our Lead Nurturing Tool allows our clients to manage leads by creating a scheme and defining your next move whether to send a prospect an email, give him a call and alert or remind yourself to perform certain task.

Related: 7 Email Marketing Secrets to Get You More Hot Leads

Social Media

Nowadays, sales process is getting longer and most marketers choose social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to reach out and engage with their prospects. Here are some tips on how to use social media to engage with prospects.

  • Provide advice and informative content. Create or find the right content and share it on your social media account. 

Related: Dummies Guide for Content Marketing

  • Tell and not sell. Social media is not meant to close sales. Social media is about engaging and building relationship with your prospects.
  • Connect. How? Show interest on what they do by following their personal and company account.

Here’s The Secret Ingredient in Turning Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads!

Whether you decide to follow up inbound leads through outbound marketing or vice versa, the important thing is you maximize all of your marketing efforts to generate leads and increase your revenue. Have you ever thought of combining your inbound and outbound marketing efforts? Comment below and share with us your thoughts.

10 Marketing Lessons you can learn from Easter

10 Marketing Lessons you can learn from Easter

Easter in Australia starts on Good Friday and ends on Easter Monday. Eggs hunts are happening in most homes in Australia. Children have decorated Easter eggs, which are made of chocolate as a reward.  What a fun way to celebrate a long weekend with family and friends.

In the business world, Easter is one of the busiest days especially in sales. It offers many business opportunities by developing creative marketing strategies to promote their business and drive traffic to their website. Here are 10 Marketing lessons you can learn from Easter.

Lesson #1: Know your objectives

When hosting an event to promote brand awareness to your audience, it is important to plan what you want, when you need it done and how to accomplish it. During Easter, people, especially parents prepare and hide Easter eggs for children to hunt on Easter morning.

Related: B2B Marketing Trends that will Thrive in Australia this 2017

Lesson #2: Identify the best target market for your business.

By identifying your target audience, you are trying to create the best marketing campaign that speaks to the right people. Every Easter, children are excited for Easter because they get to have Easter eggs made of chocolate as a reward whenever they find one.

Lesson #3:  Multi Channel Marketing

In the game egg hunt, Easter bunny never put all of his eggs into one location. Parents make sure to put Easter eggs on different locations so children can search and find one whenever they are. Same goes with marketing. Don’t just focus all of your marketing efforts and use only one medium to reach out and promote brand awareness.

Lesson #4: Deliver Content Consistently

Easter happens annually. You can always count on the Easter bunny to come back every year. Same goes with your marketing efforts. Be consistent and develop new products, create quality contents to let people aware of your products, regularly.

Give me FREE Ebooks like these generous companies did, check out 10 FREE Digital Marketing Ebooks To Read!

Lesson #5: Connect with your prospects

What a good way to connect with your prospects is through fun activities such as business events and conference. People like to engage with games and they like rewards too. Painting Easter eggs is a fun to get creative not just for kids but for some adults as well. Every kid will sure to love having an Easter egg hunt and having a reward such as chocolates and toys found inside an egg.

Related: Follow Up your Inbound Leads with 5 to 5 Calling Rule (and Generate Over 40% Increase in Sales)

Lesson #6: Utilize word of mouth promotion

Easter don’t need paid advertising. It uses social marketing to promote and have good reputation with their audience. Blogging is important. It is free and effective in spreading brand awareness.

Lesson #7: Think of a more personal campaign

Think of your audience. Create content that are informational and would make them read. Nowadays, more and more people go online to search for products and look for solutions to their problems. Same goes with the message of Easter to its audience. They make it more appealing to kids by using decorated eggs and Easter bunny as a symbol of Easter.

Lesson #8: Create mystery

One of the reasons why people line up in events was surprises. They usually think what they will learn from attending, the souvenirs they will get and the people they will meet. During Easter, children are excited to hunt eggs and they love the idea of suspense whether to get a chocolate or a toy as a reward when they found one.

Here’s one from us, a FREE Marketing Ebook to you start with.

Lesson #9: Think different

Being different is important to separate you from your competitors. As what Steve Jobs mentioned, “Innovate or die”. Think outside the box and be different when trying to improve your products and service to meet your prospect’s needs. Having an Easter bunny and egg hunts to represent Easter makes the children feel more excited to celebrate Easter.

Related: Rethinking Telemarketing and Its Spammy Reputation

Lesson #10: A Movable Feast

Although it is an annual event, Easter is a movable feast. It is consistent but the date is changing every year. Same goes with marketing, you don’t need to have only one marketing strategy. You need to be consistent in improving your products and services but you need to be flexible and adjust your marketing strategy depending on the season.

Easter only comes once a year, yet the lessons that can be applied on your marketing efforts is remarkable. Applying these lessons from Easter could help increase your sales and conversions not only on one season but all throughout the entire year.

Overcoming Marketing Challenges for Digital Advertising Agencies

Overcoming Marketing Challenges for Digital Advertising Agencies

Digital marketing is a process of promoting products or services using digital technologies such as internet, mobile phones and other digital medium. Many advertising agencies offer digital marketing techniques such as SEO, SEM and Content Marketing and Automation to promote their brand.

Despite new opportunities brought by new marketing technologies and strategies to every businesses, advertising agencies are facing different challenges, big and small.

Here are some of the challenges that digital marketing agencies are facing today and some tips on how to overcome them.

Social media marketing can promote and break your business.

Promoting a new product or service can be time consuming. Thanks to the evolution of the technology, it only takes few minutes to promote and spread good news about your company. However, it also takes few minutes for people to spread bad words about your business.

What to do:

Have a 24/7 customer support for customer interactions. Having someone to address customer’s concerns and issues can help prevent negative feedback online. Here’s how to Turn Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads!

Identifying what channel works best for your industry and your business.

We all know that every company has a fixed marketing budget for the whole year. And despite the advantages of every channels, business owners must be wise to maximize them especially that each channels cost a lot.

What to do:

Know your own business model and identify your objectives and be proactive when choosing which channels to use for your business. Don’t just choose a channel because other companies within your industry are doing so. It pays to check the B2B Marketing trends that will thrive even more in Australia. Find out here.


Every Ad Agency in Australia Needs a Good Telemarketing Strategy. Here’s Why!

The evolving and the advanced technology.

Your marketing strategies 1, 2 or 5 years ago is already out of date.

What to do:

Invest on your chosen channels and maximize its benefits before it fades and newer technology emerges. Also, be smart and abandon ineffective channels. Maintaining them can kill the revenue of your business. Learn to adapt to new marketing opportunities.

Related: Growth Hacking Lead Generation Tips for Businesses

 With the right marketing medium,  your organization will overcome all of these challenges.

We help our clients promote their advertising services. Check out their successful stories

Or Learn more about our Lead Generation Services for Advertising Firms

7 Email Marketing Secrets to Get You More Hot Leads

7 Email Marketing Secrets to Get You More Hot Leads

From having an interesting subject to creating unique and informative content for your subscribers, email marketing is very crucial for the success of your business.

There are different ways to become effective in your email marketing strategies  and eventually convert leads into sales. Here are the 7 email marketing strategy that help us get more leads and sales.

#1. Less is More

Some email marketers are still hoping for people to read the entire message. The truth is, they don’t – they scan. They only look for something interesting in the email. So design your email for clicking and not for reading. When it comes to email, less scrolling is better.

#2. Make simple and easy to signup forms

Email signup forms can be a bit confusing to some customers. CTAs, too many to fill up forms and images of your product with many options can lead to lower click through rate and fewer sales.

A good sign up form must have:

  • A working email
  • Name of username
  • 1 CTA (Call to Action)

#3. Understand Your Target Market

Knowing who your audiences are will help you gather more subscribers that will help you achieve your goals.

There are 3 types of customers:

  • The regular customers are loyal and long term customers.
  • The new customers are first time customers of your business.
  • The readers are blog subscribers. They’re not considered customers yet but shows interest in your product or service.

Related: Better Leads? Two Words: Customer Segmentation

#4. Make Short and Catchy Subject Line

People nowadays open and read their emails on mobile. They decide to open an email based on the subject line alone and those that are too long are usually cut off.

What to do? When creating a subject line, think about the words that matter and eliminate those that matter less.

Here’s How to Get Your Email List Geared Up for 2017

#5. Create a Sense of Urgency

In email marketing, creating a sense of urgency is powerful because it provoke readers to respond and act quickly to CTAs (Call to Action). This will help make increase your conversion rate.

For example, you can create a limited offer wherein users were given a limited time to take advantage of your offer and purchase quicker.

#6. Follow up triggers

Persistence pays off. Instead of just sending one email, send subsequent emails depending on the response of the customer.

  • Customers who opened and replied to the email
  • Customers who failed to open the email
  • Customers who opened but didn’t respond to the email
  • Customers who wishes to unsubscribe

TIP: Make email more personal based on the audience’s response. Also, make sure to send few days after the previous email.

Related: Re-engage with Warm Prospects Who Have Gone Cold

#7. Utilize popup email forms

Popups can be annoying but it can help grow your list by up to 70-80%. Twitter icon

Visitors can be converted to subscribers once they’ve landed on your website. Just make sure your popup form is simple with strong CTA (Call to Action) to capture the attention of your visitors quickly.

If you’re looking to close more sales, learn to make your email marketing smarter. Use these proven email marketing secrets for your business.

Book Challenge 2017: 10 FREE Digital Marketing Ebooks To Read

Book Challenge 2017: 10 FREE Digital Marketing Ebooks To Read

Have you read a book and changed the way think about work?

Below are 10 FREE Digital Marketing ebooks that will help digital marketers get better in their marketing strategies. These ebooks include planning, managing and some of the best practices in digital marketing that you can successfully implement in your business locally and internationally.

#1) Digital Marketing – An Introductory Guide

An Introduction Guide to Digital Marketing

This eBook introduces you to the basics of online marketing every professional ought to know. It includes:

  1. Introduction to Digital Marketing
  2. Career benefits & job opportunities
  3. Introduction to SEO, PPC, Content Marketing, Mobile, Web Analytics

Download your free ebook here.

#2) Beginner’s Guide to Digital Marketing

Beginner's Guide to Digital Marketing

This ebook includes the basic starter tips to form a digital marketing strategy and get it up and running. It covers:

  • The importance of a user-friendly web design and mobile optimisation
  • Where to start with your SEO and search engine marketing strategies
  • How to use social media to connect with customers

Download your free ebook here.

Related: How to Get Your Email List Geared Up for 2017

#3) International Digital Marketing

International Digital Marketing

This eBook provides practical tips and steps to planning and executing a successful international digital marketing strategy.

It includes:

  • How to successfully plan your marketing strategy
  • How to localise your social media presence
  • Where to start with your multilingual PPC and SEO strategy
  • How to engage foreign audiences with your message
  • How to deal with enquiries from abroad

As a bonus, your eBook comes with a free downloadable Excel Toolkit which will help you plan your digital strategy and budget. Download your free ebook here.

#4) Digital Marketing: All The Tools You Need

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This eBook will empower you with the knowledge and tools you need to begin independently, including:

  • Determining Your Audience
  • Locating Your Clients
  • Making Sure Your Clients Can Locate You (Content Marketing and SEO Basics)
  • The Whats, Whens and Hows of Social Media
  • Why You Need an Initial Free Offering
  • Managing an Email Marketing Campaign

Download your free ebook here.

#5) Digital Marketing Secrets Revealed

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A 60-page eBook that tackles digital marketing secrets that will help you built a brand, get traffic and sell products or services using:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  • Email Marketing
  • Content Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Ecommerce

Download your free ebook here.

#6) Maximize Your Digital Marketing Strategy

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A 14-page abook with tips, resources and best practices that can help you get started maximizing your digital marketing strategy.

Get insights into the following digital marketing elements and how you can use them to grow your business.

  • Content Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Email Marketing
  • Digital Advertising

Read full post here.

Related: The Secret Ingredient in Turning Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads

#7) 8 Free Digital Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business in 2016

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This ebook includes free tools to use for your marketing strategy:

  • SEO Tools
  • Competitor Analysis Tools
  • Keyword Analysis
  • Analysis Tools
  • Social Media Marketing Tools
Most Meaningful Digital Marketing

This ebook includes 7 essential trends for 2017 of best practices and tips from industry experts on how to build engaging relationships with your customers and prospects:

  1. Conquer Micro-Moments
  2. Go Visual
  3. Hide in Plain Sight with Native Ads
  4. Get Personal
  5. Build a Team of Influencers
  6. Invest in Content Creators
  7. Transform with the Right Data

Download your free ebook here.

#9) 15 Reasons You Should Be Using Digital Marketing Automation

15 Reason You Should Be using Digital Marketing Automation

This ebook will give you 15 reasons why you should implement digital marketing automation in your business. Learn how to use technology to scale and measure your tactics and campaigns, to beat your competitors, understand your customers and increase sales.

#10) Fearless Forecast for 2017: Why You Should Bet Your Money on Digital Marketing (and Win)

Why you should bet your money on digital marketing (AND WIN)

This eBook will show you;

  • Where to put your money in Digital Marketing
  • How to best take advantage of social media
  • Why infotainment and bite-size videos are vital
  • Why you should step up your Influencer Marketing game
  • Why you’re in the wrong job if you’re not big on Mobile Marketing

New ebooks were featured and published every 2 months. Download your free ebook here.

2017 is a start of a new beginning. So if you are one of those who are struggling to understand digital marketing and would want to implement it in your marketing strategy, take these free digital marketing downloadable ebooks and share them with your team.

Learn more about our Lead Generation Services

Take a Peek of Callbox Australia's Top Blog Posts in 2016

Take a Peek of Callbox Australia’s Top Blog Posts in 2016

In 2016, blogging has become even more popular not only as a means of communication and self expression but as a reliable source of information for a particular niche – Telemarketing, Lead Generation, B2B Marketing, etc.

We’ve been doing this long enough for us to think and ask, What keeps us motivated to provide such informative articles? The answer is, you!

So let’s take a look back at our top 5 most viewed, shared and read for 2016.

Most Viewed Blogs in 2016

#1: Lessons Learned from a Robot Telemarketer: Samantha West

#2: Cost-Effective Ways to Acquire Quality B2B Sales Leads in Australia

#3: How To Get More Clients For Your Consulting or Financial Business in Australia

#4: Improve Your Telemarketing For Australian Business Leads

#5: The 4Ws & 1H of a Qualified Lead in Australia

Most Shared Blogs in 2016

#1: Lead Generation Statistics in Australia You Wish You Knew Before

#2: How To Get More Clients For Your Consulting or Financial Business in Australia

#3: The Secret Ingredient in Turning Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads

#4: Lessons Learned From A Robot Telemarketer: Samantha West

#5: Facing Marketing Challenges in Australia’s Software Industry Head-on

Most Read by Decision Makers Blogs in 2016

#1: Cost-Effective Ways to Acquire Quality B2B Sales Leads in Australia

#3: Consistency: Key To Effective B2B Lead Generation

#4: Callbox Integrates With Salesforce: A Better, More Efficient Client Experience in Australia

#5: Lead Generation Statistics for Singapore That You Should Never Ignore

This 2017, we are even more motivated to come up with fresh, exciting and informative ideas – thanks to you. So feel free to share them so others can benefit from it, same as you do.

B2B Marketing Trends that will Thrive in Australia this 2017

B2B Marketing Trends that will Thrive in Australia this 2017

There has been a rise on some B2B strategies, techniques and tools that have become even more popular over the years. From digital, mobile, social, marketing technology and content marketing. These trends will continue to develop together with the new trends that are probably going to be known in 2017.

2017 is finally here, so what trends will continue to spur in the world of marketing in 2017? Here’s a list of some B2B marketing trends to watch out for this year.

A customer-focused way to deal with everything

In today’s B2B world, buyers are more influenced by other customer’s experience and are expecting similar experience upon using our product or service.

According to Walker Information’s Customers 2020, buyers who considers customer experience will continue to increase in 3 years. Companies must adapt to customer’s expectations in order not to fail.

B2B Marketing Trends that will Continue to Thrive in Australia this 2017

More and more customers put emphasis on the quality of experience a company delivers and provide than the product itself. Buyers think about the price of a product to be the least priority when looking to purchase a product.

Social Marketing – More Videos and Live Streaming

Video will continue to play an important role in B2B marketing in 2017 and in the coming years. With social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube having live streaming features provide B2B marketers an opportunity to create and deliver a message to their prospective customers. At the same time engaging with them will help buyers in their decision to purchase a product or service.

No wonder more and more B2B firms produce more videos because of its strong positive impact in the decision making of a potential buyer.

Hubspot conducted a study about The Future of Content Marketing: How people are changing the way they read, interact and engage with content and found out that most people pay close attention to videos than a simple text. In fact, 45% of their survey respondents watch an hour or more of video content on Facebook and YouTube a week. Here’s a great article to Turn Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads.


 45% of their survey respondents watch an hour or more of video content on Facebook and YouTube a week tweet!

Mature and Evolving Content Marketing Scheme

Based on the latest B2B content marketing trends, statistics and insights by circlestudio.com, 88% of marketers mentioned that content marketing is still important in a marketing program. And 70% of B2B marketers are planning to deliver more quality content this year compared to last year regardless of the size of the company and the level of it’s effectiveness. Here’s the Dummies Guide for Content Marketing


70% of B2B marketers are planning to deliver more quality content this year compared to last year tweet!

Account-based Marketing

This year, Account-based marketing (ABM) will still continue to be a hot topic. More B2B companies with long sales cycle would consider ABM as a more effective way to generate new business for them because it is focused on targeting specific decision makers and prospects.

Research shows that utilizing ABM will result into 285% higher close rate for targeted Enterprise accounts, and 166% higher close rate for mid-market accounts. Proving more firms to consider ABM strategic approach this year.

Multi-touch Marketing

Many B2B companies used to believe that marketing is just a support service when it comes to sales. However, for the past few years, multi-touch marketing has been considered a good source of leads for every business. Knowing where your prospects are and letting them know of your company through multi channel approach such as voice, email, social, web and mobile are proven ways to increases sales and continues to become a revenue generator of many B2B firms.

Case Sttudy: Multi-Channel Marketing & Marketing Automation: Partnering for 33% Sales Increase in Sydney IP Services

Mobile Marketing

Most consumers nowadays use smartphones not just when searching for products but with almost everything. And many business owners rely on their mobile devices to check their emails and research for solutions on the go. So B2B marketers must make sure the contents on their website is mobile optimized for all mobile devices.

There are lots of other B2B marketing trends that will surely become even more popular in 2017 and a bundle of crazy fads as well. Whatever marketing trends you may use for your business, never hesitate to evolve on what’s new and learn the next “best practices” that can help improve your business endeavors.

Why Is Product Knowledge Necessary in Closing the Deal with Software and IT Companies?

IT and Software: Mastering Product Knowledge Before your First Sales Pitch

Consumers today are socially networked, digitally connected, and favor detailed information regarding the product they want to purchase. And most of them conduct research before even speaking to a sales team. However, smart buyers usually approach sales representatives when faced with questions they need accurate answers for. These questions are those which cannot be answered by social media posts, web articles, white paper, and even the website itself. Hence, having extensive product knowledge is important in effectively handling customers’ concerns for successful sales.

Significance of Knowing the Product Being Sold

Since tech products are higher form of commodities that require thorough explanation before customers completely understand how they are used, product knowledge is necessary in closing deals. With that, sales staff gains respect, trust, and loyalty from the customers while they eventually make positive buying decisions. However, it’s better to expect difficult questions from customers in order to be ready in providing them the exact answer they need. Software and other IT products are not easy to sell, so sales representatives really have to be alert in addressing concerns.


Here’s How to Face Marketing Challenges in Australia’s Software Industry

How Software and IT Companies Make Sales

Establishing personal connection with customers is an essential strategy in making sales. Sales staff should possess the exact product knowledge needed in providing dependable service for potential customers. On the other hand, once a salesperson failed to provide clear explanations on how the product works, it can push customers away. Below are some tips to help create positive customer experience:

Answer all questions

Chances are customers will throw the most difficult questions before purchasing a product. Therefore, product knowledge training is essential in equipping the sales staff when it comes to handling potential customers. In addition, confidence and composure despite challenging questions help build connection with customer.

Related: Is Technical Jargon Necessary in Communicating with IT Leads?

Meet expectations

In order to gain trust, sales reps need to meet customer expectations and needs. And during interaction, customers are observing how trustworthy the salesperson is in the information they provide. If they are impressed, they will likely buy the product or service.

Related: Twitter Marketing Lessons for IT and Software Marketers

Make lasting impressions

With the fierce competition in the IT industry today, creating lasting impressions is important. In fact, consumers look for reputable brands that they know they can depend on in the long run. But the most important aspect to focus on is the buying experience. If customers find it convenient and enjoyable to shop with a particular brand, they will surely choose it again for future purchases.

Related: Sales Tips: Interesting Facts About How to Gain Prospect’s Trust

Advantages of Having Broad Product Knowledge

To empower the sales force, developing knowledge about the products and services offered is crucial. For increased sales, customers should be handled efficiently while giving them the benefits they are promised. So the main advantages of product knowledge include stronger communication skills, increased enthusiasm, higher confidence, and effectively overcoming objections. And to ensure well delivered customer experience, product training can be done to help sales staff acquire the exact knowledge they need in managing customer expectations. By understanding the ins and outs of the business, it’s easier to close deals with customers.

A laptop with emails on its back

How to Get Your Email List Geared Up for 2017

If you’re wondering how and where to get a clean list for your email marketing requirements in 2017, there are a few proven tips to help you out. In fact, successful marketers claim that growing your email subscribers is not that difficult as it seems. You can even prep up your email list by only doing several moves for a more profitable email marketing plan next year.

Perhaps your site is getting enough traffic, but there is low conversion rate. Or maybe, you are not receiving web traffic at all. If that’s the case, applying the successful strategies used by big companies around the world will certainly move up the notch. So pertaining to the mostly applied techniques by online marketers are endorsed traffic and paid traffic. Be sure to consider time, effort, and money when involving yourself into these methods.

Boosting Your Email List before 2017 Starts

Through Facebook Ads, you can easily get subscribers. However, you need to put a little more effort in producing traffic-generating campaigns if you really want to get them on your list this 2017. For instance, you can get up to 500+ subscribers within a month or so by using a Facebook ad for a minimum cost per subscriber. This is what paid traffic means. On the other hand, if you don’t have enough money to drive traffic, you can rely on endorsed traffic approach.

Through social proof, internet marketers obtain endorsed traffic effectively. This is done with an “A-list influencer” that will be promoting your brand online. That A-lister will be sharing your content on their websites, blogs, or even on their social media accounts. Another way is to write for them via their publication. So if you’re currently facing a tight spot regarding your email list, these main methods can be easily applied on your marketing strategies. Find out who are these social influencers that you should be following.


Check out! The Secret Ingredient in Turning Your Social Followers Into Qualified Leads


Quick Tips in Creating a 2017-Ready Email List

  • Optimize content for increased opt-in rates in as fast as two days.
  • Research on admired blogs to discover what your target audience exactly needs.
  • Pitch targeted blogs with interesting and relevant headlines that no one can resist to read.
  • Integrate well-researched information for the creation of an appealing landing page.
  • Create out of the ordinary guest posts to grab potential subscribers easily.
  • Ask help for B2B lead generation company who offers quality marketing list

There are actually more ways to grow your email list in 2017. All you need to do is make more time and effort in order to achieve what you really want. When we say clean list, it refers to healthy, well engaged, and active email list that consistently take in stable increase in click rates and open rates, including solid engagement.

However if you have your own marketing list, take note that 35% of data becomes obsolete every year. You don’t want to waste your time sending to bounce emails or to dead leads. Below are just some tips on how to clean your marketing data.

Hence, getting a clean list is easier through the given tips and insights above. The leading source is the blog sites as well as social media channels. Just be more vigilant in what specific trends your audience is currently interested in. That way, you can quickly draft your next email marketing strategy for a successful email list to kick off year 2017!

Is Technical Jargon Necessary in Communicating with IT Leads?

Is Technical Jargon Necessary in Communicating with IT Leads?

Wanna have some techy fun? Test yourself.

Which IT architecture processes data as close to the originating source as possible?

  • edge computing
  • contextual computing

Click the Answer

Technology seems to have shrunk the world to its smallest size as internet access, mobile phones, computers and gadgets speeded the ways the world bands and runs business via global communications. However, competitiveness between technology and users may sometimes diverge: technology advancements evolve like a bullet train, while users toddle in learning new processes and understanding technical jargons. Such challenge may defy focus to users in acquiring new skills and knowledge, more so, for marketers communicating with IT leads.

For IT experts, proficient practitioners or those adequately knowledgeable, usage and understanding of technical jargons is just like breathing air, but marketers may find it challenging like gasping for air.

Words like Security, Networking, Data Storage, Debugging etc. are a few familiar tech slangs to a vast of people but how would a marketer understand jargons like hybrid flash array, Converged infrastructure and ScaleIO?

Let’s first get to know some definition of terms to help us out.

Jargon is the language used for a particular activity or by a particular group of people (Merriam-Webster). The definition per se is simple and does not connote any complication at all, so why worry?

Marketing is the process or technique of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service. That means you may either follow a process or use a certain technique to market a product.

Alright, so let’s check out some techniques and helpful tips on understanding technical jargon when communicating with IT leads:

MSPblog says big words won’t make you sound smart all the time but being able to intelligibly express knowledge to others does.

  • Speak at an appropriate pace so that you’ll be well understood by the prospect
  • Pronounce words clearly
  • Simplify the words you use especially jargons so that the prospect would do the same

Related: Don’t be Annoying: 3 Sales Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb

MSPblog added that most decision makers are focused on doing business and are more interested to know how you can help them instead of hearing you techno-speak.

  • Your introduction speech about the product should be short and simple, remember decision makers are busy most of the time and can only spend around 5 minutes for a discussion.
  • Let the prospect speak and answer their question to your best capability; probe to discover the prospect’s needs
  • Position the benefits of your product for the prospect

Related: Why You Shouldn’t Ask, “Is this a bad time to talk?”

But how do you deal with prospects who speak technical jargons that sound strange to you?

  • Simply excuse yourself and politely ask for further clarification of the word or statement
  • Or you may verify the meaning by rephrasing
  • Take note of the jargons spoken by the prospect and double check using references like retailtoolbox.com.au  or whatis.techtarget.com

Enhance comprehensive communication between you and IT prospects by intelligibly expressing knowledge, focusing on how you can help them and verifying word meanings that you hardly understand. This will ensure quality on your IT leads and Deep learning about understanding technical jargon to improve your marketing sales pitches and tactics.

Why You Shouldn't Ask, "Is this a bad time to talk?"

Why You Shouldn’t Ask, “Is this a bad time to talk?”

Most decision makers are busy. So you have to know when is the best time to call them. Just because they answer the phone doesn’t mean they’re available to talk to you. This is why most sales reps asks, Is this a bad time to talk?

Salesperson asks this question to show respect for their prospect’s time.  However, starting off your introduction with “is this a bad time?” indicates a negative thought that you are about to ask for a longer time to pitch in your product. To them,  it may also mean you are about to waste their time by selling something they don’t need.

Here are the 5 reasons why sales reps should never ask this question.

You’re stating the obvious.

Calling a prospect means you are about to interrupt them from what they’re doing. So it’s like asking the prospect, “Is this the best time to interrupt you?”

Related: Don’t be Annoying: 3 Sales Mistakes that Make You Look Dumb

You’re making the prospect realize about their workload.

When a salesperson asks, is this a bad time means you’re reminding the prospect how annoying you are for calling them when they have a lot of things to do. Leaving them wanting to answer you, “Yes, it is.” or “I’m actually busy right now.”

You’re losing the opportunity.

When prospects are too busy and is not expecting an important call, they won’t answer the phone. But the fact that he picked up the phone means they are available to talk for a short period of time. However, if they felt like they’re being interrupted by a nonsense salesperson asking if it’s a bad time, they are more likely to say “no” and brush you off.

Related:  How Many Call Attempts Should You do Before You Surrender a Lead?

You’re placing your prospects on the defensive mode.

Asking the prospect “Is this a bad time to talk?” shows respect by allowing your prospect to decline your call if they’re not available. At the same time implying that you want some of their time. However, you’re encouraging the prospect to be defensive and protect their limited hours by rejecting your call and hang up on you immediately.

Prospects expect it.

If you start your call with a traditional “salesy” pitch such as “How are you doing today?” and  “Is this a bad time to talk?” you’ll find the call to end before it even begins. Skip the sales questions part that the prospects usually hear from sales reps. Here’s how to gain prospect’s trust

When calling a prospect, you’re trying to earn a minute of their time. And in sales call, time is precious. So always make it short and brief. Be direct to the point and provide prospects with something valuable.

What have you missed: Lead Generation Statistics in Australia You Wish You Knew Before

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