B2B Marketing and Strategy Archives

How to Improve your Sales Prospecting on LinkedIn in 3 Simple Steps

September 7, 2021/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by jayden

There are so many social media platforms that you can use to find leads for your business. Data shows that as of July 2021, there are about 4.8 billion social media users worldwide. That’s about 57% of the world’s population which suggests that more than 9 in 10 internet users are actively using social media each month. The use of social media has tremendously grown over the past twelve months with about 520 million new users as of July 2021.

For many decision-makers, digital marketers, or B2B business owners, social media is a great tool to build brand awareness, increase community engagement, and generate leads for higher conversions.

While Facebook is the most popular social media platform, we should not take for granted the many benefits LinkedIn can offer. Whether you are looking for employees to work for your company, or simply trying to expand your professional network, LinkedIn is your social media place to be. But, how many people really use LinkedIn? As a business owner, how would you benefit from it?

LinkedIn User Statistics in 2021

Since LinkedIn was founded in 2002, its members have already passed the half-billion mark with over 722+ million and counting. LinkedIn is the social media platform where Fortune 500 executives and decision-makers like to spend their spare time. This is definitely the kind of market you want to infiltrate if you want to generate leads for your business. These high-ranking professionals are not there to simply browse through wedding photos, answer some Buzzfeed quizzes, or laugh at some memes — they are there actively looking for valuable content that can impact their business, which is very much what B2B marketers love to hear.

Study shows that 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing, as well as for prospecting. Most B2B leads — about 80% come from LinkedIn — compared to only 13% from Twitter and 7% from Facebook. 80% may be considered quite low for some, but if you think about it, the majority of B2B marketers can confidently say that LinkedIn is a great source to generate quality leads.

Source of B2B leads (Social Media) — Data Source: https://neilpatel.com/

When it comes to connecting B2B sellers and buyers, LinkedIn is at the forefront, and one of the most critical sales techniques is to understand how your prospects behave. With 50% of B2B buyers using LinkedIn as the main source for their purchasing decision, sales prospecting on LinkedIn becomes a lot easier and more successful.

So, how are you going to leverage LinkedIn as part of your marketing and sales strategy? How are you going to profile your LinkedIn account to attract prospects that will convert to leads, ultimately generating a higher return on investment?

What is Sales Prospecting

Considered as one of the most important parts of the whole sales process, sales prospecting for some B2B marketers is still considered a big challenge for a lot of salespeople. Sales prospecting is what it sounds like: going through hundreds or even thousands of businesses and individuals to look for quality prospects or leads who are most likely to convert into paying customers. Often likened to mining, sales prospecting like mining for gold takes a lot of time, as well as knowing where to find these prospects.

Gone are the days when sales prospecting only includes cold calling, daily meetings, or networking over a cup of coffee or lunch. In today’s digital world, roughly two-thirds of B2B buyers use online content for their decision-making.

3 Simple Ways for Better Sales Prospecting on LinkedIn

We now know that LinkedIn is a huge market for lead generation and sales prospecting. Here are some ways how you can make your LinkedIn profile stand for prospects to easily find you:

1. Show your prospects what you got and what you can offer

The first step for better sales prospecting is to clearly define the purpose of your business.

What is your unique selling point?
What can you offer?
What can you deliver?
What are your skills?
What sets you apart from your competition?

Think about all those things – what makes you stand out? We are all living in this very lucrative market where competition is fierce. Look back on your previous projects and think about how you were able to help your clients with their respective businesses. Don’t get too overwhelmed, however, and be everything to everybody. Just focus on those prospects to whom you can provide the best solutions — those high-quality prospects who are a perfect fit for your business.

2. Consistency in engagement

Always be connected with your prospects. We all know how crucial networking is when it comes to the success of your sales efforts. More than ever, networking is now absolutely essential if you want to find high-quality prospects and gain access to their buying process.

Most consumers buy from brands they like and trust, which can only be achieved through mutual connections between sellers and buyers. Expanding your network and staying engaged with your LinkedIn connections can help create warm paths to reach prospective buyers and earn referrals for better business opportunities.

3. Reach decision-makers

Go through LinkedIn company pages and identify which of the company’s employees are connected to you on a first-degree level. Finding that person who can help you in that target company, will help create a positive conversation.

You may get the contact information directly from the person you spoke with or from online database platforms, such as Data.com. From there, you can use their LinkedIn to get to know them better before giving them a sales call. Start with giving a formal LinkedIn introduction through InMail, and then call them the following day.

You can also find employees through LinkedIn Groups. Engage and connect with them — strike up a conversation if they have posted.

Ready for Better Sales Prospecting on LinkedIn?

They say, prospect smarter, not harder. Shift your mindset and focus on the right people and companies — it is what separates you from those who prospect smarter. Here are some key points you need to keep in mind:

Keep track of existing relationships and leads
Find the right people and companies efficiently
Always prioritize the right prospects, companies, and sales activities

There is also a useful LinkedIn sales prospecting tools that allow you to prospect smarter:

Real-time Sales Update
Lead Recommendations
TeamLink
InMail
CRM Widget

LinkedIn is every salesperson’s most valuable sales prospecting resource. With these tips and core factors in place, you can naturally ensure long-term success.

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Growing your Business in Asia in 2020

January 16, 2020/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

Asia is a melting pot of cultures and home to some of the greatest and most populated countries in the entire world, and for this exact reason, it makes Asia one of the most important markets for consumers at a global level.

Investors all over the world have sought and grabbed the opportunities made available to them to build their businesses in Asian countries such as China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India and many more.

Not only is Asia an opportune land to do business in, but it also comes with numerous benefits. As investors seek to expand their businesses in Asia, they first look for what their chosen location can offer and how it can be beneficial to their business. Hence, the interest in doing business in Asia continues to grow due to the following factors:

Economically Sound

The advantage of doing business in Asia is that the tax system is much lower and reasonable than it is in Western countries. In addition, there is an abundance of skilled, educated, and professional workforce available for hire.

Key Locations

The beauty of Asia is that countries within it aren’t too far apart from each other. The close proximity allows for easy travels between regions and countries.

Ease of Business

Being a foreign investor planning on establishing a business in Asia, it comes with minimal to no difficulty at all as this comes with the fact that Asia is quite welcoming towards international investments.

These are some of the most fundamental benefits you can gain by investing in a business in Asia. However, the big question still remains: How do you successfully build a business in Asia?

It’s time to address the elephant in the room.

Depending on which business you want to do, they are all different from each other as they should be run differently, but we’ve put together a general guideline of the success-essentials you will need.

Understand the Local Society

There are various beliefs, cultures, and traditions shared in Asia which differ from one country to the other. It is important to study and gather enough understanding of the local customs of the country that you choose to do business in. Acquiring the right knowledge of their local customs of what is allowed and what is taboo will earn you the local’s respect which will take you a long way.

Local Collaboration

What gives you an extra edge is having a local partner who has a thorough understanding of running a local business. Having a good business relationship with someone who has already been working locally long-term will be able to help you navigate through local laws and bureaucracy.

Keep a Balance

It’s vital to constantly remember that the way Asian countries run their business is different from how it’s run in the West. It’s of utmost importance to build good business relationships with your partners and your customers. Also, keep in mind that developing open communication with both your partners and customers is the best approach you can go for.

Keep these basic rules-of-thumb as you venture into business in Asia and you won’t go wrong. Once you’ve mastered these, you can now put the rest of the lego blocks together that will fit your specific business.

Asia is a continent full of the most competitive markets in the world which is a great reason why so many foreign investors and business people are attracted to it in pursuits to establish their business presence. There are endless opportunities for business in Asia. All it takes it proper research, the right investments, and sticking to the basics as you build and add your own flair to your business.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Influencer Marketing for B2B: Tips and Tricks [GUEST POST]

September 30, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Contributor

Marketing to business customers can be tricky. You have to target a specific audience group and utilize marketing instruments that suit the intended target audience. Unlike B2C marketing, where you can aim for extensive reach, B2B marketing needs to be highly targeted from the start. That poses a serious challenge to marketers, especially when it comes to the utilization of digital marketing instruments.

One of the digital marketing instruments that aren’t commonly used by B2B brands is influencer marketing. For B2C brands, influencer marketing is a powerful instrument for expanding reach and gaining exposure. For B2B brands, influencer marketing becomes a difficult instrument to fully utilize.

Fortunately, influencer marketing doesn’t have to be a complex digital marketing instrument to incorporate into your B2B marketing strategy. There are a lot of things you can do with influencers, and the tips and tricks we are about to discuss in this article will help you utilize influencer marketing to create a bigger B2B marketing impact.

Targeting Is Still Important

Just because you want to incorporate influencer marketing into your B2B marketing program, it doesn’t mean you have to adopt a B2C strategy. Among the elements that are still very important in your implementation of influencer marketing for B2B purposes is the specific targeting mentioned earlier. However, there is a slight shift in how you should map your target audience.

Instead of targeting business customers directly, there are two main targets to aim for: decision-makers and the potential end-users of your target businesses. These two audience segments can be reached using most B2C marketing instruments, including influencer marketing.

The next task is choosing influencers whose followers include your target audience segments. If the end-users of your business customers are teens who are into fashion, for instance, creating digital marketing activities with fashion influencers can be incredibly effective. You are boosting brand recognition among the end-users of your business customers.

Clarify Your Objectives

With a clear target in mind, the next challenge to tackle is setting objectives. You cannot expect to generate leads when using B2C marketing instruments; at least not immediately. What you’re trying to do is increasing brand exposure for the purpose of increasing the value of your brand. When end-users and decision-makers are familiar with your brand, the value of your brand – and your products – gets elevated as well.

Another objective that you can use as a focus is boosting product awareness. By exposing users to the benefits of your products and services – the indirect benefits they will be able to enjoy when your products and services are implemented by other businesses – you are increasing the possibilities of your products being seen by business customers as a viable solution.

Focus on Experience

Influencer marketing for B2B must always focus on experience. The communications programs that need to be implemented must center around a product- or brand-related experience. Boeing does this brilliantly with the company’s influencer marketing campaign. It takes travel influencers and their tangible experience to bring awareness about Boeing airplanes as products.

Bringing influencers to the company’s flight simulator, for instance, allow influencers to interact with Boeing products directly. Travelers who are used to using Boeing planes when traveling the world can now get their hands on flying one, albeit in a simulation. The campaign was incredibly effective, and a lot of awareness was generated from the experience.

B2B companies can use the same approach to put emphasis on the experience they can bring through the implementation of their products and services. An AI company that offers data analytics to business customers, for instance, can build a genuine relationship with influencers through mini experience hubs and by exposing those influencers to the benefits of using AI.

Integrate with Other Marketing Activities

The most important tip of them all, however, is integrating influencer marketing with other marketing activities, particularly activities that are designed to develop brand value and product awareness. Influencer marketing is the perfect instrument for boosting other marketing activities, including trade shows and offline activities.

This is where good campaign and project management comes in handy. What is agile project management? Well, a lot of marketers now utilize a digital Kanban board to get a visual view of different marketing activities at any given time. Agile tools like Kanbanize make managing multiple (concurrent) marketing activities easy, mainly because each activity is represented by a card or a section of the Kanban board.

Through visualization, message alignment and seamless integration of multiple marketing activities in a campaign can be achieved. At that point, influencer marketing will serve its primary purpose as an amplifier to other B2B marketing tactics, all while boosting brand awareness and value.

So, is influencer marketing a suitable instrument to use in a B2B marketing campaign? The answer still depends on how well you integrate influencer marketing with other activities. With the tips and tricks discussed in this article, however, you have more ways to leverage influencer marketing in a B2B environment.

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Myths About Marketing and Sales Outsourcing in Singapore

September 4, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

Many people achieve better results when working with partners. They draw support and confidence from working with someone whom they can dive in the same depth and speak the same language. Take Batman & Robin, for example, Lennon & McCartney, Pumbaa & Timone, and, you and your outsourced sales and marketing provider.

Statistics show that 78% of businesses feel positive about their relationship with their outsourcing company. Despite the impressive stats, there are still others who remain skeptical about the idea. These are people who choose to keep all business functions secluded on an employer-employee relationship and prefer working on their own because of fears of cost, losing control and getting bad results. But, all these fears are just myths – misconceptions that hold them back from supposedly discovering new tactics to help their business grow.

This article will help you find out the truth behind the seven most common myths about marketing and sales outsourcing.

Business gets out of hand

Since you are hiring a contractor and not an employee, you are left to just assumptions of how your campaign is managed because you do not have a physical oversight of how your outsourced marketing firm works.

Truth is…

Fear not physically overseeing your campaign as your outsourced marketing and sales provider will give you access to a CRM where you can track all campaign activities in realtime. And just like any other companies, they are bound with in-house rules which regulate every workflow in your campaign and align all other aspects of the business that resonate with your standards.

Second-rate results

Although you can directly discuss quality, most outsourcing providers come after quantity. Chances are, they would submit even half-baked leads just to show performance numbers.

Truth is…

Quality Assurance is one significant process in sales and marketing. Leads go through a qualification process which is based on your campaign specification and passes through a lead nurturing scheme to ensure that only the most qualified and high converting leads proceeds to the bottom of the sales funnel.

It’s just a band-aid solution

You can’t really expect a solid and consistent application of solutions.

Truth is…

Outsourced providers are consistently gearing up for the future by incorporating automation and other technological innovations to keep up with market demands. And as the industry continues to grow, leveraging smart marketing technology, you are also ensured that the best tools are used to run your campaign to draw measurable results.

For major players only

Providers would present several apps and processes to use that sum up to an overwhelming proposal which looks too pricey.

Truth is…

There isn’t a one size fits all approach in sales and marketing. Providers tailor-fit solutions based on your business needs and targets, and the tools they use and the processes they do for big-time players are the same set package they can provide for your business. More so, they have a single foresight for all client types and sizes they serve – to help them achieve business growth.

Can get your wires crossed

Communication is one of the major cons of outsourcing which may be caused by several reasons like the provider’s location or time zone, SDR’s language competitiveness, and product knowledge, resulting in misinformation.

Truth is…

The sales and marketing duo have gone a long way and practically evolved into one essential communication tool between you and your customers. It keeps your customers informed of what’s new and what’s the best in the market, while it gives you an idea of what your customers need, their choices and their buying behaviour.

With the help of content marketing tools, automation and nurturing platforms, outsourcing allows you to deliver your message to your target buyer personas through a multi-touch, multi-channel approach via phone, mobile, email, web, chat and social.

It costs a fortune

This is a major play in outsourcing. Providers will promise you a team composed of an account manager, agent, database staff, team leader and quality assurance specialist, who for all you know, also handles several accounts for other clients. This could impact work quality due to split focus which is not worth the cost.

Truth is…

A dedicated team will be assigned to your campaign which if you completely hire in-house, won’t give you the same cost cut that outsourcing does – 59% savings on overhead, infrastructure, hardware, data and technology costs, and shortened time on hiring, training, onboarding and turnover processes.

A cry for help

When your in-house practices are not working anymore, outsourcing comes as the next option, but may not always be the best.

Truth is…

It could be a cause, but business downtime is only one of the many good reasons to outsource and explore options outside your turf. Break into new markets, target a new customer group or launch a new product are much inspiring CTAs that can help you stay ahead in the competition.

So, bid those myths goodbye and see what outsourcing has to offer. A provider who has rich working experience with various industries and who uses smart marketing technology will make a perfect partner and shun all your misconceptions about marketing and sales outsourcing.

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Event Marketing in Singapore: Trends to Expect by 2020

August 14, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

Event marketing is one of the best ways to get your brand out there – especially for B2B marketers and their products. It helps you network and strategically connect with potential customers. In this short article, we examine the growing trends in event marketing in Singapore and how you can properly position yourself for growth!

Let’s check out how Singapore and the APAC region are hacking out event marketing for maximum results.

What Events to Plan For

As long as it’s technology we’re talking about

There is no doubt that the biggest trend in event marketing is and will continue to be technology. We have been making larger strides in what were once concepts and big ideas such as AI. These technologies are becoming more practical that pioneers are constantly finding ways to integrate foundational versions of it in our daily lives.

This is also due to the quick adoption rates and rising levels of disposable income.

The consensus with event marketing not only in Singapore but in the rest of Asia is that technology will continue to sell and sell out.

Cybersecurity

Internet security is a growing concern in a large part of the region – even in developing countries such as the Philippines – where security is constantly being tested and occasionally breached for malice. Given that we are in an ever-growing connected world, cybersecurity is being such a hot topic for everyone.

From privacy protection, legal and ethical debates, to improving security frameworks on corporate and individual levels. Events on security have always amassed a great following and we see it gaining an even bigger following in the future.

AI

Artificial intelligence is still the talk of the region and this is partly because we see it being quickly being implemented on a massive scale. We are now seeing AI being implemented on things such as the camera software of smartphones, that are now priced for more consumers to buy.

Artificial intelligence isn’t what we imagined it to be with fully cognitive talking robots, but the way we’ve been adapting to the advancements and applying technology today brings into light how much of a big deal it is in the future.

Any event with AI will rock the region.

IoT

We love the Internet-of-Things because it brings to our attention the different innovations in the world today, from “smart” contact” lenses to self-healing appliances, there is just so much innovation going on to keep you captivated for hours.

These types of events attract crowds from all types of sectors, whether it’s engineers or scientists, the academe, and even normal people looking to get into the latest things in the market. There is always something for everyone in an IoT event.

Leveraging Ways for Your Visitors to Engage

Goodbye traditional exhibitions and trade fairs where you walk around and are given leaflets and random goodies! And, say hello to immersion.

We are now looking at companies getting even more creative with the way they immerse their prospects in the goods or services that they are providing. Whether it’s AR headsets, sensory interaction, content sharing, and world-class parks.

Streamlined Memorability

A growing trend in event marketing in Singapore is the holistic experience of the attendee. This is why major event organizers have started to customize every part of the attendee’s experience with the event.

This includes, and is not limited to, the very first moment a potential attendee stumbles upon a touchpoint, to hotel choices, to how they are ferried to the venue, up to how the venue smells like.

Here’s what.

Every single touchpoint has to be memorable for your attendee.

There is an increasing number of partnerships being made between transport companies and various other hospitality groups into creating an experience that won’t be easily forgettable.

Psychologically speaking it’s a great way of running things, if you can attach a memory to emotion it makes it harder to forget. They’re definitely on to something!

Shareability and Technology

Lastly, let’s not forget that we live in a connected world and we need to be able to provide anybody that attends our events a way for them to share their experiences with the rest of the world. Whether you have to live stream, provide Wi-Fi or charging docks, you have to position your event in a way that allows your attendees to take advantage of current technology.

Make sure you’re always on the lookout to stretch your imagination while taking advantage of the tech that’s available.

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There are a lot of ways you can harness the power of event marketing, and as you can see from our examples, all it takes is a little creativity and a little finesse. Do not underestimate the power of connecting with your customers in person, it’s one of the best forms of lead nurturing there is!

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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The Little Red Dot with a Big Mark in the Global Market

August 7, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by jayden

Singapore’s rapid growth rates and global market reach made it as one of the four “tigers” of Asia, along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Its economic prowess emanates from being keen on exports, an educated populace and high savings rate, which makes it the center of trade and financial business in the Asian region. Although these economic potentialities were not inherent to the people, a leadership so motivated to rise from the aftermath of colonization and recession brought Singapore to its global stature.

From a poor fishing town, Singapore opened its doors to industrialization in the 70s which paved the way for economic, cultural and political globalization. The government’s thrust on economic growth, support on business and limitations on democracy, transformed the city-state into a core nation that is safe, free of corruption and low taxes, and the main attraction to foreign investors.

As it started to embrace technology innovations in the 2000s, the city state’s business sector boomed. It was a breakthrough which drew giant players like Facebook, Alibaba and Google, and many other big-time players to open regional offices in the lion city. On the other hand, local brands found their way to take a leap across continents in a wide range of industries including food and beverages, retail, financial, hospitality, tourism, healthcare, and business professional services.

Out of the waves and vacant lands, Singapore now cradles beautiful skyscrapers and grandiose architectures that are mostly headquarters to many global industries.

Marina Bay, then and now.

Benefits of Expanding Your SG Business in the US

Singapore was recognized by The World Bank as the second easiest place to do business in the world in 2018. Such high standing enticed first world countries, like the United States, to consider the lion city as a strategic partner. The following attributes are the main reasons why they welcome Singapore brands in their respective markets:

Open and corrupt-free business environment
Prudent monetary and fiscal policies
Transparent legal framework
Active industrial policy that targets fiscal incentives, increase public investment, promotes the development of skill sets attractive to foreign investors.
Focuses on economic diversification
Well-secured property rights
A good trading post

Singapore’s keen economic freedom score of 89.4 is the second-highest among 43 countries in the APAC region in the 2019 index, which sums up its financial success.

Katrina suggests: Expanding Business in Asia – How Do Multinational Companies Do It?

Tapping into the US Market

Expanding business operations in foreign markets is invaluable. It lets you create a direct relationship with your target customers, efficiently provide after-sales support, control pricing, and distribution, and gain accurate market insights. On the contrary, direct exposure to the market’s rules, profit repatriation restrictions and corruption may impact expected results.

But for the fearless and more creative, having the right tools and strategies are weapons that can battle the torments of business expansion in foreign markets. VeganBurg, CreAtive, Grab, Omni and Millenium Hotel and Resorts are just a few of the Singaporean companies that made America great again.

Callbox, one of Singapore’s top telemarketing firms, is also a trusted B2B lead generation company in the United States and has a wide range of database in Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and the Middle East.

If you’re targeting the US to market your SG business like Hyflux, Raoul, TWG and all other locals who made it big in America, here are some steps:

Figure out the reason why you want to become a global brand by developing a literal “playbook” of ideas of what you are trying to achieve and what expectations do you have for the future.
Come up with a strategic plan on how to achieve real results which may be done in five different approaches. One is Local or Concentric, a process which starts with thinking within 100 miles radius around your home base, and widens 100 more times eventually.
Develop a precise timetable for necessary approvals, meeting the distributors, complying with legal and federal regulations and getting all the paperwork done.
Put together a portfolio of products you can offer.
Pick the right distributor by doing a market survey of who does the job well. Look into their portfolios, what are their national accounts, and familiarize yourself with the language that they use
Choose your accounts by taking into consideration your on-premise and off-premise strategies. Know your business partners and what business will you be doing with them.
Tell your story via roll-out events, social media, local press and at the point of sale

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The road to success was not easy for the lion city to trek, but perseverance, respect, and compassion drove Singapore to survive the inequities of life, gain economic repute and become a global brand.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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The Greatest Challenges Facing B2B Sales in Singapore

July 24, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

The B2B industry is one of the biggest markets available in the world today, but no matter how big the profits and the products are, there are still plenty of challenges that are always knocking on the door of B2B sales. We will examine what Singapore companies have to overcome in order to meet the challenges of the B2B world in Asia today.

The Length of the Transaction

Let’s admit it, the prices at which products and services are sold in B2B transactions are much higher than those in B2C ones, and this is one of the most significant factors that really drag the sales process longer than usual. There are a lot of people to talk to, there are a lot of technicalities, and there are customized options as well.

Although you only need a few sales to reach your goals with B2B compared with other businesses, the length of the transactions can make things complicated. There are a lot of instances where deals have gone down the drain because of the extended sales process.

The Gatekeepers

It might be funny to some but this is still a major issue. If it wasn’t for services such as LinkedIn it would still be absolutely difficult to locate the proper decision makers in a business. Some people have tried to make friends with gatekeepers in order to get through and some don’t even make it the first volley of employees. However, without the decision maker the sale is next to nothing.

There are a lot of ways to get around a gatekeeper and some companies have even decided to create unique ways of reaching out to them and bringing the sale home. Consider doing this if your pain point is the gatekeeper issue.

The Forecast

Forecasting is already difficult as it is with B2C industries but combining that with longer sales cycles and sometimes even custom requirements can really make B2B forecasting such an incredible headache. There are reports that companies are now even factoring the accuracy of the sales forecasts of their own salesmen when it comes to B2B sales.

It is often hard to play the soothsayer in determining which sales lead to fruition but is harder when you are at a scale where there are too many factors involved in the process.

The “Limited” Number of Potential Customers

The major difference between B2B and B2C is the number of available customers, there are more consumers than businesses and being that it is this way, your lead pool and the numbers of potential qualified leads that you have is limited.

The leads are defined by what you can offer and the specific needs of any particular company. Due to this, defining your own business’ specific value proposition has become integral into overcoming this particular hump in B2B sales.

However, it does not just end there, it is also matching your value proposition with the ideal customer profile that you are trying to target. It now becomes a much more technical game because the approach becomes bespoke and you really have to communicate your company’s intentions clearly.

A lot of B2B companies, often fail to take into account the shrinking number of potential customers that they have if they do not know how to communicate their intentions clearly. The shotgun approach rarely works in B2B sales settings.

The Background Check On You

We live in the communications age where everyone can do a quick background check on you and find out pertinent details on the way you and your business transact. However, this comes with the caveat that regardless if you do good business or not, you can still be put in a bad light if your exposure is not being managed well.

Let’s say you’ve been constantly focusing on research and development, but the issue is that you haven’t been able to provide pertinent updates on what you have been doing online. This becomes a negative point on your end if your potential clients don’t know about this.

A lot of B2B companies have been focusing on their exposure and how to properly show the world what they are capable of. In turn, some have used this as pivots in order to create multiple channels of acquisition in their business lead generation and capture model.

It really pays to pay attention to the way you show the world what your company is really doing.

A problem is only a problem if there isn’t any solution, and as you can see, there are still plenty of ways that you can pivot around the challenges of B2B sales. Simple examination and awareness of the challenges allow you to be able to start making moves in improving what you’re doing in your business today.

It always helps to keep your sales pipelines full by proper strategizing and right outlook moving forward.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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Your Event Marketing Checklist for CommunicAsia 2019

May 21, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy, Call-To-Invite /by Katrina Chua

When planning corporate events, organizers are most concerned about finding innovative ideas (81%), good venues (65%), and marketing their event effectively (48%). (EVENTMB)

Online resources however eased event planners’ pains by providing tools that enable them to come up with hundreds of innovative format event ideas and find stylish comfortable venues. One thing that remains critical for them though is implementing the right event marketing strategy, which may be caused by lack of resources, staff and budget.

Do you worry about marketing your CommunicAsia event effectively?

The good news is, you can now free yourself from the torment of resources, budget and manpower constraints, as event marketing solutions are not anymore limited to just researched tools and ideas online, but can be employed as a service, with event telemarketing.

Event telemarketing can boost registrations and scale up revenue for your live events. With the use of multi-touch, multi-channel marketing, you will be able to engage attendees and opportunities throughout the event cycle, ensure quality of invitees and prospects at every step of the event process, leverage phone, email and social media to maximize conversions and collect critical event and prospect information for sharper marketing insights.

These event marketing to-dos will definitely stack attendees for your CommunicAsia booth:

Employ a service provider that can tailor an end-to-end event marketing program to any event type and size: trade shows, webinars, seminars, product launches, industry meet-ups and masterclasses like Sales Prospecting Workshop for ICT in SG on 21st June 2019, which you may drop by after CommunicAsia, and other live event initiatives.
The pre-event is the most effortful phase in the process so work closely with your provider. Leverage on a multi-touch, multi-channel marketing that will sync all media to help you reach the right prospect at the right time.
Create content that will fully promote awareness and build interest among your prospects via email blasts, sms notifications and banner ads display.
Set up a 24/7 chat support
Connect with your prospects in different social media sites
Call.

80% of trade show exhibitors don’t follow up with their show leads. (BIZZABO)

No worries, your event marketing partner will take care of the next steps after the first move by sending event triggered emails and sms, tracking website visits and profiling each visitor, creating landing pages with contact form, tracking qualified leads from chat, replying to messages in social media sites, and calling warm leads.

91% measure the success of their events on attendee satisfaction (survey), 61% measure according to their specific event objectives, 60% determine results based on staying in the budget and 51% based on the number of registrations. (EVENTMB)

Organizers gauge event success and ROI depending on their goals, but both are achieved if you do in-depth profiling and targeting to invite the right attendees, consistent pre-show touches to increase RSVPs, timely confirmation and reminders to ensure high event turnouts, use key promotional channels to increase booth traffic, personalized outreach to score more on one-on-one meet-ups and post-event nurture paths to turn event leads to opportunities.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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7 Lessons B2B Marketers Can (and Should) Learn from Retailers

April 17, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

The retail industry went through a rollercoaster of disruption in 2018 like high-profile bankruptcies and global trade and economic tensions. However, consumer (buying) power has easily lifted it back on track; substantiated by strong labor market, growth in disposable personal income and elevated consumer confidence, the year 2018 was able to accomplish a strong retail sales. (Deloitte)

Here are 7 important sales and marketing lessons B2B can learn from the retail industry.

#1 Prioritize

Recognize the value in scheduling what is necessary to do and eliminating what is not to help you focus and on schedule.

#2 Let Go

Analyze and turn tough situations into opportunities by leaning on data like incorporating a POS system, using social media monitoring software and tracking customer loyalty.

#3 Know Your Competitors

Know who they are, where they are and how they fare in the industry. Get in their circles and analyze their product assortment, customer service experiences, in-store displays, online shopping opportunities, events, packaging, and just about anything that makes them at par or behind in the competition.

#4 Shift Store Inventory If You Need To

Do not hesitate to eliminate a product line or introduce a new product. Use data like customer feedback and trends, work with vendors to effectively buy inventory for your store. This will help you sell more.

#5 Look Good To Customers

Give customers high- quality customer experience through attractive window displays for a certain market group, informative website, and social media blogs.

#6 Engage Your Customers

Teaching your staff to use courtesy statements with a smile and greetings will give your customer a positive lasting impression, but constantly refreshing them on operational procedures, customer service updates, product specifics training and staff meetings, will make them best represent your business and engage customers – a good conversation, answer their questions and suggest the best options. This will take your business to the next higher level of success.

#7 Show Your Customers You Care

Customers do business with you, increase sales and generate revenue, so put them first all the time. Great service, special events and offers are good stuff to show customers you care, but doing an extra mile for them like offering to customize or personalize a pair of jeans they bought to best fit their size and style, will add value to your business.

Finally, design an innovative multi-channel marketing strategy that will not only bolster awareness for your business both offline and online but will build a database of loyal customers for your business.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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25 Must-Track Tradeshow KPIs to Make your Events Count [INFOGRAPHIC]

March 28, 2019/1 Comment/in B2B Marketing and Strategy, Call-To-Invite /by Katrina Chua

There’s this old saying (which everybody incorrectly credits to Albert Einstein) that goes “Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted, counts.”

Someone named William Bruce Cameron actually came up with the quote in 1963, and people have been misattributing it to Einstein ever since.

Anyway, this adage does ring true for us marketers trying to navigate an entire ocean of data. And among the marketing tactics we use, there’s one that a lot of us struggle to measure: tradeshows.

I’ve worked with tradeshow exhibitors and organizers for years now. A common problem I keep hearing from them is that it can be difficult to measure how these events impact their overall marketing and sales results.

That’s a little surprising since tradeshows tend to take up the biggest chunk of a typical marketing budget. For such a key spending item, we need to make each dollar count.

My team and I put together this infographic showing the top 25 tradeshow KPIs to keep track of. These numbers cover crucial metrics to monitor at each stage of the event lifecycle and can help both tradeshow exhibitors and organizers better manage their end-to-end event marketing campaigns.

Let’s get into more detail about these 25 KPIs, plus look at ways for you to improve your event’s performance under each metric.

Before the Event

Of course, the main goal of the pre-event phase is to generate as many registrations and drive as much attendance as possible. But there’s more to the pre-event stage than monitoring registrations alone.

Here are nine metrics that help you build a fuller picture of your event before opening day:

Total Registrations
Confirmed Attendees
Attendee Demographics
Event Page Engagement
Email Engagement
Number of Pre-Event Reach Outs
Scheduled Event Meetups
Press and Media Coverage
Sponsor Partnerships

Total Registrations

Everyone who exhibits or organizes a tradeshow puts the number of registrations as their top priority throughout the months and weeks before the event. It’s a metric that tells you a lot about the potential success of your conference.

This KPI, however, needs to be drilled down further to uncover sharper pre-event insights:

Compare weekly and monthly registration numbers
Consider past event registrations
Take possible seasonal factors into account
Track the impact of different promotion channels on registrations

Having a multi-touch, multi-channel approach at promoting your tradeshow is a proven way to increase registrations. We’ll learn how it works later in this post.

Confirmed Attendees

This is the number of registered attendees who categorically say they’ll be coming to your event. It indicates potential turnout at your tradeshow.

We’ve already learned that engaging with potential attendees via various channels and at different points prior to event kickoff is an effective way to boost registrations. This strategy also helps you maximize attendance rates by leveraging the following:

Start with a carefully-vetted attendee list
Follow up immediately after each signup with a welcome/verification email
Engage registered attendees on relevant online and social communities
Use event telemarketing to assist potential attendees with registration
Remind registered attendees via personalized emails and one-on-one phone calls at various points leading up to the event

Attendee Demographics

It’s good practice to segment attendees and to personalize your event outreach based on these groupings. This allows you to tailor your message according to relevant factors and generate higher response rates.

That’s why you need to gather different demographic and firmographic data on your target audience including:

Job title
Vertical
Size (total assets, revenues, or employees)
Technographics (technology in use and tech maturity)

These data points are best gathered piecemeal throughout the pre-event stage, which helps avoid overwhelming your attendees. That’s why event promotions need to be carried out via different channels and at multiple touches.

Event Page Engagement

The event page or website serves as the hub of your tradeshow’s online presence. It’s the ideal place to make schedules, profiles, news, and announcements available to your target attendees.

That’s why how much engagement your event page generates is a good indicator of pre-event performance. These are the best metrics to gauge event page engagement:

Traffic
Click-through rates
Bounce rates
Average time spent
Conversion rates

An effective event page requires the right balance between design, content, and SEO. It needs careful planning and preparation. That’s why for tradeshows with tight schedules, it’s highly recommended to partner with a reputable company that provides web design and SEO services.

Email Engagement

Around 76% of marketers say email is their most effective channel for promoting live events. Emails drive registrations and attendance rates. They provide a targeted and personalized approach at connecting with attendees at each step of the pre-event process—fulfilling different roles such as invitation, confirmation, and notification.

Email engagement metrics are also good indicators of your tradeshow’s pre-event performance. KPIs such as delivery rates, inbox placement rates, open rates, CTRs, reply rates, and conversion rates shed some light into the potential turnout and level of interest from your attendees.

To boost registrations with pre-event emails, you need to:

Build anticipation and exclusivity with your announcement email
Choose an influencer or key decision maker as the email sender
Showcase your exhibition and your speakers
Encourage participation and feedback
Use automated but personalized confirmation emails to handle RSVPs
Schedule daily email reminders starting at least three days from event date

Number of Pre-Event Reach Outs

The average B2B marketer uses 5 marketing channels to promote a live event. These typically include emails, social media, online, phone calls, and direct mail (yes, direct mail).

All these channels need to provide a coherent conversion path that an attendee will follow from registration, all the way to check-in.

The number of pre-event reach outs counts the touches made with the different channels for each attendee. It shows how deep your pre-event engagement activities run.

Getting the most impact from a multi-touch, multi-channel pre-event program means being able to:

Define and implement a robust pre-event nurture cadence that attracts and converts attendees
Build an event marketing technology stack that covers registration management and contact management
Integrate your event tech stack with your marketing automation platform
Track and analyze critical analytics

Scheduled Event Meetups

More than 83% of B2B marketers cite increasing sales as their primary reason for participating in tradeshows. Tradeshows offer excellent opportunities to meet with potential customers in a suitable setting.

That’s why, going into the event, your tradeshow team needs to have a set number of scheduled meetups with attendees, especially those who are already showing a high level of fit and interest.

Knowing the number of scheduled event meetups will help you gauge the potential pipeline value you can generate from your event.

Compare your ideal buyer profiles with attendee demographics
Assign preliminary lead scores and update the values throughout the pre-event phase
Tailor your pre-event cadence to maximize scheduled meetups with highly interested attendees

Press and Media Coverage

For live events which are geared more towards branding, the amount of media coverage is a good indicator of how successful you’re able to promote the tradeshow. This is especially true for coverage received from sources related to your industry.

Media coverage can include paid and earned channels, and this is typically measured using the following metrics.

Volume of attention: How many sources mention your event, product, brand, or company
Audience reach: How many people have the chance to consume the sources that feature your brand
Share of voice: How your media mentions compare to those of your competitors
Message resonance: How well your key message penetrates media coverage

Sponsor Partnerships

Some live events involve a great deal of sponsorship and idea pitching activities. Knowing your events’ performance in terms of its ability to attract sponsors is also a key indicator to keep track of. That’s why the number of outside partners that grabbed your sponsorship opportunities is a crucial pre-event KPI.

During the event

Once the event gets underway, the priority shifts from the quantity of registrations to the quality of engagement. These eight KPIs best measure how well you meet this goal.

Event Check-ins
Attendee Engagement
Speaker/Presenter/Exhibition Engagement
Completed Meetups
Social Media Engagement
Networking Results
Opportunity in the Room (OITR)
Repeat Attendees

Event Check-ins

The number of event check-ins represents how many registered attendees actually showed up. But there’s more to this metric than simply the crowd size or the number of badges you scan. Event check-ins are best evaluated when:

Expressed as a percentage of registered attendees and confirmed attendees
Compared across different attendee demographics
Plotted against your previous events and tradeshows
Adjusted for late RSVPs or unregistered attendees

Attendee Engagement

Attendee engagement covers a broad set of metrics, which can include a number of specific actions that show attendees’ interest such as:

Event page views
In-app activity
Forum/community participation
Session attendance

Speaker/Presenter/Exhibition Engagement

Although this is technically part of attendee engagement, there are some special KPIs you should monitor that directly relate to how your event audience interacts with your guest speakers and reps at your booth.

These metrics measure a deeper level of interest which can be hard to pin down with just generic attendee engagement KPIs.

A few examples of speaker/exhibition engagement metrics include:

Speaker profile page traffic and conversions
Direct messages to speakers or members of your tradeshow team
Inquiries and hand-raisers
Booth traffic
Community members and activity

Completed Meetups

This is the number of scheduled meetups that actually take place. This KPI is very useful for tradeshows with sales as the primary goal.

Completed meetups should be compared to the total number of scheduled event meetings you determined prior to the event. A wide gap between the two figures can indicate poor engagement and low conversion potential.

Social Media Engagement

Closely related to attendee and speaker interaction, social media engagement involves an entire set of KPIs to track. These numbers include:

Likes, comments, and shares
Mentions
Hashtags
Reach
Followers
Audience growth rate

Social media forms a core component of attendee engagement during the event. It provides a convenient way to communicate with attendees on the topics and communities that revolve around your exhibition or show.

Networking Results

Exhibitors and organizers often plan B2B matchmaking opportunities for their attendees. Networking opportunities add more value to your event, and the results of these networking activities help you gauge how well your event enables attendees to interact with each other.

Some of the ways to boost networking results include:

Encouraging an active online community
Making it easier for attendees to mingle (through name badges and session activities)
Matching attendees based on relevant factors
Organizing group-based tasks

Opportunity in the Room (OITR)

This is an event KPI introduced by events planning software SocialTables. It represents the anticipated total sales pipeline value of your tradeshow attendees.

There are two ways to calculate OITR:

Raw OITR: The total number of RSVPs multiplied by the average deal size
Projected OITR: The raw OITR adjusted for conversion rates (attendees to qualified leads, leads to proposals, proposal to closes)

The OITR gives you an early feel for your event ROI. This is especially useful for marketers who follow a long and complex sales cycle (where event ROI can take a while to realize).

Repeat Attendees

If you’re organizing a recurrent (monthly, quarterly, or annual) event, then you also need to track the number of repeat attendees your tradeshow generates. This metric indicates how well your events resonate with your core audience.

A high or increasing number of repeat attendees can mean that your main audience is getting genuine value from your events. Otherwise, you may need to reconsider your tradeshow strategy.

After the event

As you know all too well, event marketing activities continue long after you pack up and head home. During the post-event phase, the primary goal changes from engagement to conversion. The following KPIs are the most suitable yardsticks for measuring post-event marketing performance:

Qualified Leads
Customers Acquired
Cost per Lead/Customer
Speed and Depth of Follow-up
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Brand Impact
Gross Ticket Sales
Cost to Revenue Ratio

Qualified Leads

Going into your tradeshow, you already have a clear idea about who your most promising attendees are (based on attendee demographics, firmographics, etc.). During the event itself, you narrow down this group further using the level of interest they show and additional information they provide.

Now that you’ve learned everything you can about your most promising attendees, it’s time to find out which ones have a good chance of actually turning into customers:

Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs): Attendees who meet your definition of an ideal lead but still need further nurturing
Sales-qualified leads (SQLs): Attendees who represent your ideal buyers and are ready to face your sales reps

Customers Acquired

This is the number of tradeshow-generated leads who actually turn into customers. Of course, depending on the length and complexity of your sales cycle, it can take you a while to find this out.

In order to maximize the value of leads you acquire from your event, it’s often a good practice to focus on nurturing and closing opportunities, instead of following up each attendee.

That’s why I highly recommend outsourcing part of your post-event conversion process to an agency that specializes in handling B2B event promotion and follow-ups.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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Dial +65 3159 1112

Grab a copy of our FREE EBOOK, By the Numbers: Marketing Stats that Drive Top B2B Industries in 2019! Get an in-depth look at marketing trends in nine (9) key B2B industries.

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Asia’s Top Digital Marketing Events in 2019

February 13, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

What’s 2019 got to offer to the tech industry? Let’s find out what’s hot and new in the digital world by peeping through the list of the upcoming top digital marketing events in Asia this 2019.

Cybersecurity

A cybersecurity summit was held in Bangkok Thailand last January 21-23, 2019, which is called CPX360. The summit featured up to date intelligence on global threats by leading cybersecurity experts.

While Cybersecurity Xchange 2019 on February 17 to March 1, 2019, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is a 3-day event that will showcase the latest cybersecurity trends, like effective cyber resilience and leverage on the efficiency of AI, machine learning and blockchain.
Further ahead this year, on December 6-8, 2019, ‘Cyber Security Indonesia’ will hold discussions on the world’s largest source of cyber attacks in Jakarta.

Emerging Technologies

Just a week after Valentine, February 19-22, 2019, the 2nd Annual Intelligent Automation Asia conference will gather Asia’s leading innovators and technology disruptors in Singapore, to share upcoming initiatives and challenges they have encountered on their intelligent automation journeys.
A summit in Jakarta Indonesia called Big Data & AI Leaders Summit on March 5-6, 2019 will feature technology experts like scientists, IT leaders, AI and machine learning innovators who are redesigning the technology and business landscapes.

Fintech

The week of November 12-16, 2019 will hold Singapore Fintech Festival, the world’s largest Fintech festival and global platform for the Fintech community in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Indonesia Fintech Show on November 6-8, 2019 will give attention to engaging the Indonesian financial service community, forging partnerships with companies offering complementary technology and services, generating new and targeted leads launching new products to community, investors, and media, meeting key decision makers from startups to multinationals, promoting and raising brand awareness, seizing new business opportunities, and sourcing new funds and investments.

IoT

IOT Asia, a dedicated business platform at the forefront of creating collaboration and knowledge sharing opportunities for professionals in the IOT value chain, will be holding its 6th edition event on March 27-28, 2019 in Singapore

Digital Transformation

While stakeholders in operations, HR, finance, marketing, and technology will come to a forum to the 7th Annual Enterprise Innovation CXO Forum, to understand and collectively strategize for a sustainable enterprise transformation, on February 28, 2019, in Singapore.

(IDG Connect)

Conclusion: Digital marketing has changed business landscapes by leveling the playing field in a competitive marketplace, with data collection and analysis as key to success, social media as a crucial tool for communication and reducing costs, but what these upcoming events have in store for marketers, brands and consumers this 2019 is yet to be seen.

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Drive your sales with more leads, meetings and data

BOOK A CONSULTATION

Dial +65 3159 1112

Grab a copy of our FREE EBOOK, By the Numbers: Marketing Stats that Drive Top B2B Industries in 2019! Get an in-depth look at marketing trends in nine (9) key B2B industries.

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5 Biggest Roadblocks to B2B Marketing Prosperity this Year of the Pig

February 4, 2019/0 Comments/in B2B Marketing and Strategy /by Katrina Chua

In a few days, we’ll be celebrating the Lunar New Year and ushering in the Year of the Pig. Just as how the Chinese New Year is a time for wishing family and friends good fortune for the coming year, it also marks new opportunities for us to achieve our goals.

This is especially true in the Year of the Pig. In the cycle of 12 Chinese animal zodiac signs, the pig arrives last and is believed to bring wealth and good fortune. This year, all zodiac signs get to experience better chances at achieving business success.

For B2B marketers, the Year of the Pig means more opportunities to contribute to revenues and move the sales needle—that is, if they can overcome the biggest roadblocks to marketing prosperity that stand in their way.

In today’s post, we’ll dissect these challenges one by one and try to determine how each obstacle impacts marketing success.

1. Working with poor quality marketing data

As marketers, we’re all keenly aware that data is the lifeblood of our campaigns. That’s why we want this vital fluid to be as clean and healthy as possible.

But despite the clear importance of working with high-quality marketing data, a lot of marketers still continue to struggle with data quality issues:

Only 38% of businesses trust their own data. (KPMG)
60% of companies have an unreliable overall data health. (Sirius Decisions)
25% of records in a marketing database contain bad data. (Sirius Decisions)
20% of revenues are lost due to bad data. (Kissmetrics)
41% of marketers say that inconsistent data across different platforms is their biggest challenge. (Marketingprofs)

Having a robust data management plan will spell the difference between a banner year and another missed sales target. Here’s a 5-step plan to free yourself from the influence of bad data:

Keep records as complete as possible
Have a regular update schedule
Manage and merge duplicate records
Standardize data and keep things consistent
Develop a thorough data cleansing program

2. Underinvesting/Overinvesting in marketing technology

It’s easy to see how rapidly the tools and technologies we use as marketers are evolving. In 2015, there were around 2,000 different marketing technology (MarTech) solutions available. In 2018, this number has tripled to over 6,000 tools.

With such an overabundance of choices, it’s understandable that technology ranks as a top challenge for a great number of marketers this year. In fact, there are two ways that marketers struggle when it comes to MarTech.

First, MarTech is changing so fast that more than half of marketers admit they’re having a hard time keeping up. As Walker-Sands notes, even though more marketers are becoming early MarTech adopters, a majority still get hopelessly lost in the maze of tools they have to choose from.

At the other end of the spectrum, a significant number of marketers now run the risk of contracting the so-called shiny new toy syndrome. Instead of investing in technologies that they really need, marketers that suffer from shiny new toy syndrome buy MarTech solutions based on hype.

Gartner estimates that marketers earmark around a third of their budgets for MarTech, and more than 16% of the marketing budget gets spent on innovation. The problem with this is that CMOs also prioritize new capabilities at the expense of ROI, customer acquisition, and customer retention.

3. Getting stuck in past campaigns

There’s an old adage in military circles that says generals always tend to fight the last war. Military planners apply the lessons learned from past conflicts in the hopes of winning the present one, even though every new war presents a unique set of challenges that are far different than in the last conflict.

The same can be said of marketers. While it’s important to study what’s working and what isn’t, marketers also have a tendency to get stuck carrying out the last campaign.

According to research from AdRoll, as much as 81% of organizations now use some kind of marketing attribution model. In an increasingly-complex marketing process, attribution helps marketers identify how much each component contributes to results and to plan their next campaigns accordingly.

Attribution is clearly a critical part of modern marketing, and every marketer needs to adopt this into their process. The problem happens when marketers focus exclusively on past results to guide future campaigns. The marketing landscape changes so fast that best-in-class tools and tactics can quickly become obsolete.

Marketers who manage to flexibly adapt are the ones that thrive and prosper. Again, it’s important to learn from past campaigns, but it’s even more important to strive to be better and better.

4. Confusing targeting precision for accuracy

Modern marketing more closely resembles a typical episode of HBO’s Silicon Valley than an episode of AMC’s Mad Men. Marketers now heavily use data and algorithms to help them do what they do, instead of purely relying on their gut.

But being “data-driven” doesn’t always translate to being “data savvy.” One key reason for this is that marketers tend to confuse “precision” and “accuracy” in several key situations: accuracy refers to how close you get to the true value, while precision is how well you can repeat the same results.

Stats from Adobe/CMO indicate that 67% of marketers rank targeting accuracy as the main benefit of having a data-driven marketing culture. Yet only less than 10% of businesses are confident in their personalization capabilities, while another 33% claim to have limited or non-existent support for personalization.

When marketers fail to narrow down their target prospects and then settle for a broader pool of potential customers instead, they’re sacrificing accuracy for reach. It’s entirely possible to be extremely precise while completely missing the mark. As the great economist John Maynard Keynes once said: “It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.”

5. Not asking for help

More than 67% of B2B organizations outsource some or all of their marketing activities to a third-party agency. The key drivers of this outsourcing trend include:

Marketing activities now require more specialized, technical expertise.
The demand for marketing talent has outpaced supply.
Marketers now fulfill an expanded set of roles and responsibilities.

Despite these developments, a huge number of marketers still choose to keep marketing operations in-house, citing reasons such as:

Fear of losing operational control over a marketing activity
Risk of damaging brand and reputation
Possibility of hiring the wrong agency
Lack of management oversight

These are all valid concerns when it comes to deciding whether or not to ask for outside marketing help, but having a solid outsourced marketing plan solves most of these issues.

If there’s an area in your marketing process you’re having difficulties with, sometimes the only way to do something about it is to ask for help.

Conclusion: These are five of the biggest obstacles to marketing prosperity and good fortune this year. Once again, the Year of the Pig brings tremendous opportunities for all marketers to deliver solid results—provided we overcome the stumbling blocks that stand in our way.

Wishing you great happiness and prosperity…

Author Bio:

Callbox Singapore Marketing Manager - Katrina Chua

Katrina works as the Marketing Manager at Callbox Singapore. She helps companies in Asia Pacific countries increase their business revenue through lead generation and appointment setting services. Follow Katrina on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

Drive your sales with more leads, meetings and data

BOOK A CONSULTATION

Dial +65 3159 1112

Grab a copy of our FREE EBOOK, By the Numbers: Marketing Stats that Drive Top B2B Industries in 2019! Get an in-depth look at marketing trends in nine (9) key B2B industries.