Welcome to this edition of Core, an industry
newsletter with news, nuggets, and information on best practices in business-to-business
marketing. With it, we hope to share information vital to any organization
looking to generate results and accelerate growth through intelligent
strategy, branding, marketing and public relations.
In this issue: Tips for Improving Demand Generation.
We
are often asked, "What can I do to improve my demand generation rate?
How can I generate more leads?" While there are too many tips to share
in one email, here are four ideas to get you on the road to demand
generation that works.
1 – Know thy list!
Response rates from rented lists are generally lower than in-house lists. If
that is not a current option, and you are purchasing a list through a broker,
you need to ask:
- Where and when were the addresses collected?
- What form of “opt-in” was used?
- Who owns the address?
- Who else sells the address?
2 – Don’t forget to segment
Always segment your prospect and customer lists. In fact, build the
segmentation parameters into your database, and divide your list into
as many segments as your budget will allow. Then, you can direct specific
campaigns, deliverables, messages and offers that will appeal to each
target segment.
3 – What’s in it for me?
Organizations are enamored with their own products and services, but that
should not be the focus of what you are selling in a demand generation
campaign. Here’s one place where you focus on selling the offer
more than selling the product. Direct or email pieces that focus on
the offer have much higher response rates than their product-focused
counterparts.
When developing a call-to-action, create an offer that
attracts buyers earlier in the sales cycle. For B2B marketing, thought
leadership such as educational Web seminars, research surveys and/or
white papers usually generate higher response rates in the early part
of the buying cycle.
4 – Test the campaigns
Test a segment of your list against specific campaign variables including
creative, message, and/or call-to-action. If your database is large
enough, 5,000 names make a good test segment. If your list is smaller,
an early mailing can serve as a test group, letting you adjust the
campaign for subsequent mailings.
These tips are just the beginning
These tips are not the only things to be concerned about in demand creation,
but following them will increase the efficacy of your demand generation
campaigns. And, of course, ask Arketi Group – we are here to help.
We created
Core with the goal of enhancing your marketing practices.
We hope you enjoyed this issue.
Sincerely,
Arketi Group
core@arketi.com
PS. Please visit our website to learn more: www.arketi.com.
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