Don’t you just love opening those emails with sales pitches and special offers inside? Doesn’t it make you eager to get the next email from the same vendor? No?
Obviously not. Yet many companies use their email newsletter to barrage their customers and prospects with offers and promotions. Maybe if the email is from RueLaLa, addressed at eager fashionistas, it will get a decent open rate. After all, RueLaLa is all about special offers to begin with. If you’re selling complex B2B products, repeated offers and promotions will result in a very high “always ignore” rate. That’s the proportion of subscribers who got sick of your email offers long ago, but don’t want to bother to open one and scroll down and find the fine print to unsubscribe. So they just ignore you. Every time.
Stop sending offers. Resist the urge to add a promotion to every missive. Remember that the call to action does not need to be “buy now,” and not even “try now.” Send them something valuable instead. So valuable, that they’ll be more likely to open the next email. Here are 10 ideas of valuable things to send.
- Short (15-20 minute) webinar by one or more of your clients about how they solved a problem your other customers are likely to face
- Your own webinars that inform about a common topics of interest to your audience (Hint: your product is NOT a common topic of interest)
- Invitation and discount to attend an event where you will be present
- Summary of big takeaways from a conference that someone in your organization attended
- 3rd party articles that are relevant to your prospects
- White papers (your own or 3rd parties) that actually inform rather than advertise
- Video interview with one of your execs sharing their ideas, views, insights (but NOT promoting your company)
- Blog entries by your executives, employees, or 3rd parties that are relevant to your audiences
- Explanation of something happening in the market and about which there may be confusion
- New ideas or best practices gleaned from your customers and other internal and external subject matter experts.
There are countless others, of course. Please share ones you’ve sent or received that have been particularly valuable.
We just sent out a summary to the participants of this year’s Industry Specialization by B2B Vendors Benchmark Study. We had a record 120 B2B companies take part in this year’s study.
Companies see that greater customer focus, in the form of industry-specialized sales, marketing, services, and products will enable them to access more senior decision makers and increase deal sizes. Many are also responding to competitive pressures. The good news is that the investment is paying off.
The full report is due out next month, but meanwhile, a sneak peak at a few tidbits:
- 67% of B2B companies that already have some amount of industry specialization said they plan to further increase their focus on key vertical markets.
- It takes two to three years to begin to realize the full benefits of specialization.
- After 2 years, 70% of companies reported notable or significant impact on revenue from their investments in industry-specialized activity
- Industry alliances have a big impact on brand awareness
- Industry-specific case studies and quantitative ROI analysis were reported to be the most valuable industry-specific marketing tactics. Sales and marketing brochures were least effective.
As a follow-up to the previous post, here are some practical differences to keep in mind when planning for solutions marketing.
Solution marketing differs from traditional product marketing. This is a partial list, of course, but 7 is supposed to be a lucky number, right?
- Solutions marketers understand what motives customers to allocate budget within the broader context for a purchase
- Solutions marketing content is focused on the buyer and their objectives, not the product or its features
- Solutions-oriented value propositions focus in on specific use-cases or situations in which the customer is involved.
- The solutions marketing process and programs provide information or resources that are valuable to the customer
- Thought leadership and value creation are critical components of solutions marketing
- Solutions marketing activity often involves collaboration with other companies (see broader context in #1)
- To ensure that all of the above are truly relevant, current, and valuable to your audience, Solutions Marketing must engage the customer in conversation and dialogue at every available opportunity.
Speaking of dialogues, please add to the list with your comments!
