How Many Touches Does It Take To Make The Sale?
You have to fight for that lead and convert them into sales. For you to best understand your audience you need to understand how many “touches” it takes to finally get them to cross that finishing line from interest to sale!
The days are gone when you could issue a press release on a quarterly basis, dabble in the standard social channels (Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), write a promotional blog post, buy some online and print ads, do a monthly webinar and rely on traditional marketing automation nurture cycles (three to 10 touches).
These disparate actions simply will not work in today’s environment when it comes to catching the attention and sustaining the engagement of your target audience. This is one of the reasons why marketing tools and applications have seen exponential growth in the last five years.
There are many new ways to engage and make the sale.
One effective way is to add new programs, then test and retest your program mix to find the right combination. Then offer them at the appropriate times in the nurture cycle.
B2B Marketing Checklist
Here’s a checklist of some effective programs to up your B2B marketing game:
- Social media: Everyone is on social media. If you are not doing social for B2B marketing, add it now. Even if you are targeting C-level executives in big companies. Figure out where they dwell in the social sphere and start a small program you can grow.
- Influencer programs: We live in a world where third-party influence makes all the difference for buyers. This is a key place to invest.
- Byline contributed articles: Publications are hungry for good thought leadership articles, which help spread your message.
- Podcasts and video: These are easier than ever to produce, even if they have low-production value. They can be used for both social media and in nurture campaigns.
- News (not press) releases: If you are a startup and can’t satisfy the criteria of a serious PR firm for news, consider putting out news releases online. They help SEO and fill in press release gaps.
- Goodwill e-papers: Consider writing short e-papers that provide goodwill to prospects (e.g. “Buyer’s Guide to CRM”). They get something from you that is practical and you get their attention because you are not selling to them.
- Visual content: Visualizing content is the high fructose corn syrup for prospects, and it gets them quickly. They get information they need without having to read a white paper or long-form content.
- Intimate events: Don’t underestimate the power of low-cost, but intimate (four to 10) person events (baseball games, golf, or lunch at a nice restaurant) in a sales person’s region. Of course, these are good for later in the lead-to-revenue cycle, too.
Questions about why marketing strategies that can help grow your business? We’re only an email or phone call away!