Lead Generation Archives - B2B Lead Generation Singapore

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

November 11, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

The New Year is just around the corner, and the economy is still reeling from a difficult 2020. Growth might be daunting for everyone, but one thing remains true, there is still a lot of room to drive new business in 2021.

In this guide, we look at the trends that will be the driving force of growth in the year to come and how firms can take advantage of them.

Lead Generation Automation

There has been a lot of talk about automation, and it’s a term that’s been generally thrown around, but specific automation related to lead generation is something that can propel a firm to the next level.

Although lead generation can’t be fully automated in the strictest sense, there’s a lot that firms can employ now to free up valuable human talent. Automating marketing workflows, email sequences, retargeting and remarketing, autoresponders, and cross-platform integration within apps is something that firms should look at.

Also, a lot of lead prospecting tools with features to target highly-specific audiences are increasingly becoming commonplace.

One of the biggest ways to drive new business leads is to make sure that active lead generation efforts are using the latest technology. This free up time and resources and minimizes human error.

Local SEO

Businesses looking to expand their local reach can rely on local search engine optimization to bring in passive leads through search. Local SEO usually consists of optimizing a business’ local listing on Google Maps via Google My Business to appear higher in rankings when a prospect searches for a keyword related to their establishment.

Improving rankings is usually dependent on sending on local signals to Google by updating your Google My Business pages, having great citations, reviews, etc.

Start Rethinking Content

Content has – and will arguably – always be king, but there has been a push towards non-traditional types of content.

A great example would be Hubspot, who’s moved to turn traditional-looking content into responsive pages that seem to look like miniature websites. This move towards responsive content allows firms to engage viewers with the novelty and keep their attention with the array of media on the page.

Firms that compete with content have to start rethinking the way they deliver content to their followers.

Although whitepapers and case studies won’t be extinct anytime soon, the use of gamification within the content, surveys, augmented and virtual reality, infographics, etc. all deserve a little attention as 2021 rolls in.

People have started to demand richer content, and if trends are something marketers go by, they’re going to get it.

Video Marketing

Video-sharing giant YouTube is in a league of its own, with its video search feature turning into one of the world’s biggest search engines. This has opened up a whole new world of marketing using video to reach wider markets.

The beauty of video is not only the fact that it’s engaging but the number of things that firms can create to leverage it.

There are different types of video content, such as:

Webinars
Q&As
Instructionals
Educational content
Product guides
Vlogs

These types can be leveraged in the same way that traditional articles have been used to gain traction for companies in the past.

Leveraging Social Media

Social media is also continuously changing. This year, we saw the rise of examples such as shoppable posts on Instagram and the use of “stories” on Facebook to drive marketing campaigns based on storytelling.

This trend will continue toward 2021 as people start to get used to storytelling instead of just plain deliberate advertising.

Companies that want to drive new leads with social media marketing have to start thinking in terms of stories because it’s one of the best ways to capture attention and create campaigns that resonate with viewers.

LinkedIn is Taking Center Stage

The professional social media platform already has around a quarter of a billion active users monthly, with that number set to grow as more people graduate to the platform.

According to recent statistics, using LinkedIn for lead generation is 277 percent more effective than using Facebook or Twitter.

Running LinkedIn-centered marketing for B2B campaigns is becoming a trend as potential prospects on the network are already there for business, to begin with.

Automated lead generation campaigns and funnels centered on passive lead generation on the market have become prevalent.

It’s important to note that LinkedIn is a great network to develop a multi-channel approach to lead generation and nurturing.

B2B Influencer Marketing

Influencers and thought leaders in the B2B realm are increasingly being tapped to be spokespeople and representatives of brands because of the audiences that they command.

What started as a popular trend in B2C markets is becoming a mainstay in the B2B realm because of what they bring to the table.

B2B influencers that endorse particular products are popular because they bring a notion of trust to the brand that they support. People can see them as modern-day “trust signals.”

Also, B2B influencers bring their followers to the table, allowing brands to tap into hyper-segmented audiences whenever they are brought on board. To a degree, they can be more cost-effective than running traditional online ad campaigns.

There are plenty of ways to drive new business leads for 2021 and get new prospects in your pipeline. What’s important is to stay informed and keep up with the trends your potential prospects are adopting.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

November 5, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

It is undeniable that appointment setting is still one of the most powerful ways to generate a steady stream of verified leads for tech startups and software companies.

However, there are still a lot of ways that marketers can improve their practices.

In this guide, we look at how software companies in Singapore can supercharge their efforts using these simple hacks.

Invest in Research and Data and Employ Advanced Segmentation

No matter how good the offer is, using a basic script will not cut it anymore. Standard scripts don’t solve highly specific problems, sound relational, and don’t have a chance to resonate with a prospect.

One way to create powerful sales scripts is to personalize them, depending on the prospect’s customer profile. This is done through heavy research before even picking up the phone.

Lead generation efforts shouldn’t just be concentrated on pulling up contact details, but rather on hard data and other supplementary information.

The proper way to run a personalized appointment setting campaign is to:

Determine customer profiles
Build contact lists that are supplemented with additional data based on the customer profiles
Segment these lists based on demographics and other information
Integrate customer details such as industry, tool stacks used, pain points, etc. into scripts

By doing this, appointment setters can develop advanced scripts that mention pain points, tools being used, etc., in their scripts and create richer conversations with prospects.

Switch Up The Timings

Decision-making units (DMUs) don’t always follow normal Singaporean office hours. There are often stories and real-life examples of decision-makers working past office hours or clocking in before everyone else.

Switching up timings allow you to catch the prospect at more comfortable times where their normal workloads do not burden them during office hours. It’s also a fresher take on appointment setting.

Multichannel Outreach is the Way to Go!

Software companies shouldn’t limit their appointment setting to calls. Companies should always leverage multi channel outreach.

An appointment can be followed up with an email or even a quick check-in message on LinkedIn.

Adopting a multichannel approach allows companies to retarget their prospects, create favorable brand awareness, lead nurture, and connect with their clients on their favorite platforms.

Furthermore, it allows prospects plenty of opportunities to connect and engage with your brand, regardless of the platform they’re on.

Create Options for Appointment Setting in Your Landing Pages

There are many third-party applications such as Calendly that allow marketers to insert a link for prospects to book an appointment on landing pages or even emails.

This serves as a convenient way to turn any web resource into a passive lead generation tool that increases the number of ways a prospect can book an appointment.

Firms shouldn’t miss out on quick and easy hacks, such as this, to take their appointment setting to the next level.

Turn it Into Sales Discovery

Appointment setting doesn’t just have to be about a pitch; it helps if a marketer can use the opportunity to turn it into a sales discovery call.

Asking the right questions allows marketers to learn more about a company and its pain points and it keeps prospects on the phone longer, potentially building rapport for the long run.

The more questions you ask, the higher your chances of success.

The process also allows marketers to qualify the prospects and check out which products are services are the best fit for their needs.

Give Them Options

Always take into account the importance of a prospect’s time. When setting an appointment or booking a call, ensure that the prospect has multiple options during the week and convenient ways to reschedule.

Nobody likes a hard sell, and by providing options, the firm comes off as both respectful and professional.

Don’t Set One Appointment

When done with the first appointment, ensure that another one is lined up for the next sales phase.

Follow-ups are critical in lead generation, and a lot of leads can be lost without a proper system in place.

However, if the feedback was negative, always keep the door open for future business to come through. Marketers can gain new referrals and leave the conversation open if the prospect eventually decides to buy from them.

Reach Out to An Agency

For firms that don’t have specialized appointment setters or startups without a solid marketing division, reaching out to an agency is a more cost-effective way to book leads and get clients through the pipeline.

There is no need to train new staff members, navigate through the process, or spend valuable time and resources. The company can concentrate on developing new technology while the agency brings in the leads.

Agencies provide specialized services, access to trained staff members, and help software companies access high-end resources at only a fraction of the cost.

Traditional appointment setting doesn’t work anymore. Marketing campaigns have to be constantly tweaked to keep with changing interests and differences in customer-behavior.
These quick and easy tips will help propel your company forward and add flair to your current lead generation campaigns. Need help setting up an appointment setting strategy in Singapore? Let us know how we can take you to the next level today.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

October 21, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

B2B business development is all about getting the next client. Having a business but no clients it’s like having a sports car without an engine; it’ll just sit there and look pretty, but you’ll never be able to take it for a ride. However, generating qualified leads isn’t known for being an easy feat either. This rings especially true for marketing in Asia as it is complex, dynamic, and challenging compared to other regions in the world.

If you’re doing or planning on doing B2B lead generation in Asia, specifically as a company based in Hong Kong, here are some great lead generation strategies to follow.

Prioritize leads by scoring

You can implement a Lead Scoring mechanism that gives a score to leads based on their lead source. This is so you can prioritize the lead sources that usually have a higher conversion to revenue. Other scoring criteria include email opens, clicks, and engagement across touchpoints.

The score of each lead changes along with your nurturing process. What’s important here is to strategically plan when and how you’re going to interact with the leads based on their scores.

Nurture Leads with CRM

A large percentage of business buyers in Hong Kong say that they want to enjoy the same experience as they are buying for themselves. They want companies to engage with them as a person rather than treating them as mere numbers in order to make a sale.

Having a proper CRM system is going to allow you to gather, store, analyze, and track lead information. It will help you personalize their customer experience with you and show that you care about them and their business.

Social Media Channels

LinkedIn is by far the most effective B2B social media platform that can be used to generate leads. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and more are also where today’s business buyers are also hanging out. This social group includes many of your customers and prospects. So, this makes it apparent that businesses nowadays cannot afford not having any form of social media presence.

In China, business often takes place completely over the popular WeChat mobile messaging platform. Although companies might not be able to accomplish the same level of automation on WeChat as with the more commonly used ones, by working with third-party agencies, you can gain enhanced functions such as your chatbots, auto-reply, or segmented push messaged which can help you create more customized lead nurturing process.

Engage with Good Content

Compelling content always plays a huge role in generating B2B leads. This also includes the tools that you’re using such as your website, SERP and social platforms. Content marketing presents a great opportunity to create relationships and trust between your brand and your prospects as well as educate them on your services and products.

The key here is in thinking about the type of content that your audience will like and are interested in rather than your own personal gain. If you adopt this mindset to your content marketing strategy in order to create more valuable content will not only boost your lead generation rates but also improve the quality of the leads that you attract.

Conclusion

When reaching out to your Asian customers, it pays to be more empathetic in your marketing approach. Instead of forcing all the latest marketing techniques and contents onto your customers, focus more on how it can enhance their customer journey first. Eventually, it will result in business profitability.

With its complex culture and language barrier, it’s important for businesses to consider working with an experienced business partner who can help you achieve your marketing goals faster and more efficiently.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

How to Generate Leads for your Software Startup

October 15, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

How consumers buy services and products nowadays has drastically changed over the years. Today’s customers aren’t easily swayed by flashy advertisements. Rather, they spend the majority of their time doing online research before they’ll even consider contacting you. This means that you need to direct a lot of focus on developing a strong lead generation strategy that will give them what they want so that you will be their first choice when they start considering who to purchase from.

In this article, I’m going to give you different lead generation strategies for SaaS startups that will help you bring in new leads to your website and convert them into customers.

So let’s jump right into it!

Clear Buyer Persona

Your software startup buyer persona is an integral part of your lead generation strategy in order to successfully reel in leads. By having a buyer persona, it gives you a better insight into your customer’s pain points, interests, aspirations, and most importantly, buying behaviors. In turn, these will allow you to reach out to your clients and pique their interest enough that they’re willing to give you their contact information to find out what you have to offer.

Something to keep in mind is that you don’t have to limit yourself to just one buyer persona. In fact, it’s actually common for SaaS startups and other businesses to have multiple buyer personas, depending on the product or service that they offer as long as you make sure that they’re related to each other in a way that they share at least one trait in order to ensure that they all fit your brand.

Quality Blog Posts

Having a blog on your website is another powerful way to generate leads for your software startup. Having a blog gives you a platform to establish your business as an authority in your niche by sharing your expertise as well as providing your customers with solutions to their most pressing problems.

The key here lies in being consistent in order to make your blog an effective lead generation tool. When you’re using blog posts to generate leads, make sure that you strategically incorporate call-to-action links within your content.

Gated Content

Staying on the topic of content, another great way to generate leads is by creating gated content for your premium content offers.

Basically, what gated content is, it’s any premium content on your blog or website that your visitors can only access by providing their contact information such as:

White paper
Video tutorials
In-depth articles

In order for this strategy to become successful, it’s important that your visitors know what it is that they’ll be getting.

Offer Free Trials

By offering your customers complete access to your product for a limited time in exchange for their contact information is another powerful lead generation strategy for software startups. When you offer free trials, it gives your visitors the opportunity to test the full potential of your services themselves which will help them make their purchase decision.

Webinars

Webinars have been revolutionizing the world of marketing. Marketers are now using webinars as part of their inbound marketing campaigns.

The reason for webinars soaring in popularity is because they’re able to gain access to a tutorial, workshop, or course that will give them actionable insights on how to solve a problem without having to pay for it. Many marketers find it effective since one webinar can quickly convert almost half of their attendees into qualified leads for their product or service because it gives them the chance to both demonstrate how their product/service works in real-life scenarios, but also the opportunity to dispel any objections and questions that your viewers may have.

The biggest challenge when it comes to hosting webinars is the attendance rate and keeping your attendees’ attention until the end of the webinar. So in order to increase the effectiveness of your webinar, be sure to practice the following:

Inform them of a Q&A segment at the end of the webinar. It makes them stick around throughout the webinar because they know that their questions will be answered by the end of it.
Reserve your offers for the end of the webinar. Most of the time, if you give away your offer in the very beginning, some attendees tend to leave right after. So, it’s best to reserve it for the end. Besides, your attendees came to learn something first and foremost, not to be sold something to.
Use scarcity. Let your attendees know that there are only limited slots available that will increase the chances of showing up and staying until the end of the webinar.

Lead Nurturing

Equally as important as generating leads is actually nurturing them by building relationships with your leads in every stage of both the buyer’s journey and sales funnel through constant communication using content that’s relevant.

This is a powerful lead generation strategy as it gives you the opportunity to build trust and credibility with them by showing that you’re an expert in your niche by keeping in constant communication with them.

The Takeaway

There you go! These are our personal best strategies to boost your lead generation for your software startup business. Of course, these strategies are great to deliver results all on their own, but it’s always great if you can modify and personalize to fit your brand and company specifically. So, don’t hesitate to combine some of these strategies with your own, doing some testing and trial rounds until you come up with a strategy that works perfectly for your business.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

2021 Growth Strategies for B2B FinTech Companies

October 6, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Combining B2B marketing with FinTech services provides us with a field of marketing that is both challenging and labor-intensive. For example, when a company needs to buy 1,000 delivery vans, they will contact a vehicle manufacturing company that can deliver 1,000 vans within a stipulated time with the specifications. This is exactly where one company is selling its product/service to another company.

Now, the moment this product becomes a finance service, like say a debt relief plan or loan management program, the equations change. It now becomes almost impossible to sell a fully functioning business plan to potential buyers. Most companies require finances in order to be able to expand and start new projects, and most of them turn to banks and credit unions for loans. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. However, the challenge for these companies lies elsewhere.

It’s apparent that the lack of communication platforms is becoming the biggest hindering factor. FinTech services have to abide by numerous marketing laws all while being able to sell their plans. Schemes, and services.

By now we all know that online adverts are not enough to educate your potential customers of a company’s services or products. The secret lies in building valuable relationships with your potential customers. There are no shortcuts to this success, but there sure are ways to expand and ensure your growth success.

Here are a few ways to make sure that your growth strategies are on point:

Consistence is key

All customers look for one thing: Consistency. In the eyes of your customers and potential clients, it is consistency in the quality of your service that will solidify reliability in their eyes. As with most business service and product buys, they’re often not impulsive buys. So, your approach cannot be the same when you’re selling to another business. It changes with each business you’re trying to sell to. In light of this, you always have to think about establishing trust and company value with your branding efforts.

Email marketing

This strategy enables you to keep yourself visible to all your target companies. Email marketing is a time-tested way to make sure that you can convey everything there is to know about your company’s policies and brand values to your clients.

Multi-channel approach and content

Step one is finding out where your potential clients hang out online and the next step is establishing your online presence there. A good rule to follow with using a multichannel approach is not to spam your potential customers. Your goal is for them to notice you, yes, but that is not the best way to do so. Tailor your content such as your videos and blog posts are all relevant to your brand and tailor to your audience’s needs, educating them, and offering plausible solutions to their pain points.

Relationship building

This is always the trickiest part because, for B2B companies, a lot is at stake here. Being able to build relationships warrants more regarding business investment and innovation. Not only do you want to gain new leads, but you also want them to stay. Therefore, it’s important that you keep on nurturing your customers even after they’ve converted into sales. This ensures the growth of your customer base and your reputation as a business.

SEO

The key to B2B success is, as we’ve already stressed enough, human communication. However, you also need to optimize your website in order to rank on SERPs. Having an SEO friendly website equals higher CTRs, high dwell time, and increased ROI. FinTech is not excluded from this.

Conclusion

Your target groups play the most crucial role in your marketing success, and you can’t approach a growth strategy without understanding your market first and foremost. With this list, we hope that we were able to help you set you on the right track for your business’ growth.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

Winning Sales Tips for Phone, Email and Social

October 1, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Buyer behavior is always changing, and because of that, salespeople also have to constantly adapt their sales outreach best practices accordingly. It’s not enough to rely on the traditional sales outreach methods that we are used to anymore. In today’s world, B2B decision-makers are flooded with messaging from all channels, and it has become even more difficult to break through the noise and reach out to customers.

It certainly does make successful sales outreach harder to achieve, but that doesn’t mean that outbound strategies don’t work anymore as it is still an integral part of your sales strategy. All you have to do is learn how to use them correctly. So, if you want to drive in results from your B2B prospecting, you will have to build a consistent and personalized outreach strategy.

Working in sales, we all know that our main outreach channels are:

Phone
Email
Social

In order to close successful sales, you have to improve how you utilize these channels in order to drive in more sales. Here are some helpful sales tips that have proven themselves effective time and time again.

Phone Calls

The telephone is still one of the most effective selling tools that we have on the market today. Utilizing this tool takes more than merely getting your prospects on the line. You have to be able to grab their attention and earn their trust. Here are some tips to help you along.

Proactiveness

Instead of focusing on saying what your prospects may want to hear, focus more on being proactive in order to really grab their attention. When opening your next call, try to open it instead by describing some of the challenges you’ve seen in their respective marketplace. This is the best way of finding out if they are struggling with the same frustrations. Also, talk about a problem you’ve either seen them or one of their competitors face.

By doing this, you show them that what you offer is something that is valuable to them in a matter of just a few seconds into the call. Don’t be afraid to take risks by changing up your approach and asking more probing questions. The more you do this, the more your prospects will see you as someone they come back talking to for their own benefit which in turn will increase the chances of you helping them move forward in their buying journey.

No-No to Callbacks

Salespeople often hear their prospects say that they’ll call you back if you give them your contact details. However, don’t expect to get one. Making a callback will require extra effort on their end and it’s too big of a barrier between you and your prospect.
The best way to go about this is for you to follow up on them in a way that will make them respond even when they’re busy. This will be where your Email comes in (which we will discuss in more depth in the next point). Remember, your goal is for them to get back in touch with you, and the easiest way to do that is to follow them up with an email because they are most likely to open it and read.

Email

Email is still proving itself as effective as ever despite the many new sales strategies popping up. The way sales emails have evolved over the years has certainly changed the game, but to ensure that you have a successful sales email it takes a little more than just a well put together email. At the end of the day, we have to realize that our prospects are people as well. As humans, we are hard-wired to respond more positively to certain types of messaging and especially certain words.

Here are some simple yet very effective ways to improve your way of messaging which will enhance your connection with your prospects.

Be cautious of your words

Little adjustments to how you word your emails will make the biggest difference. Instead of making them feel taken aback by saying that they’re going to have a lot of responsibilities in your partnership, provide them with a sense of freedom instead of saying that they’ll have a lot of control over the project. Both sentences essentially mean the same thing, but they each evoke a different feeling by how they are worded. This way, they’ll actually look forward to working with you.

Short and simple

No one, not even sales people themselves, wants to read a multi-paragraph sales pitch that is littered with complicated jargon and abbreviations, and yet many salespeople still use big words over and over in their emails. This will only lead you to lose people instead.

It’s important to keep things readable in order for your prospects to be able to easily digest the information and take action faster. Make sure that your key points and preferred CTAs are clear, even better when you highlight them in bold.

Social

Social media has provided brands and businesses with a platform to engage their customers for years and years to come. But instead of merely nurturing your relationships with only existing customers, you can also use your social media platforms to find and convert valuable leads.

Track results of your existing social selling efforts

The best way to better sell is by learning your existing sales efforts. It’s best to collect insights from your current efforts and see what is effective and at the same time what is not effective. Then, based on your collected data, ask yourself what you should be doing differently and what you can do better.

For example, you may be tracking the activity of your social media referrals and found that a majority of them leave within seconds. This might be a sign that there might be something wrong with your landing page, and you should take a closer look to see how you can improve it.

Success Stories

When your company is providing exceptional services to your customers, you don’t just want to highlight some impressive features of your products and services yourself. Your prospects will trust your product/services more when they are backed up by powerful testimonies from your existing customers themselves.

So, use your social media platform to showcase their success stories which will be proof that you can back up your claims. Do this by sharing links to their success stories that you have published on your site, or you can create graphics and videos of your customers giving their testimonies and post them. Be creative with it!

The Takeaway

Landing winning sales using these three channels isn’t and shouldn’t be complicated. As you can see, these tips are quite simple but are tested and proven to give you better results and close more sales. We hope that these tips will serve as a guide, but of course, it’s always best if you can put your own twist to them and customize/personalize them however you want.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

Expanding Your Business Across APAC (and USA) Through Lead Generation

September 24, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

So, you’re thinking of bringing your brand overseas. Taking your brand overseas is definitely appealing, and it attracts many entrepreneurs who are more than willing to jump at the chance. However, you also have to understand that going global, especially in APAC and the US, comes with its set of challenges.

You have to consider building a new customer base, educating yourself on new laws and regulations, partnering with the right people, and so much more. Back then in order to be able to establish a global reach, you’d have to physically open a shop and navigate your way around foreign soil. Now, any business is able to claim to have a worldwide presence without even setting foot in the places where their customers are.

In order to achieve a strong reach over to APAC (Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, etc.) and the US, you have to develop a sound brand expansion strategy first as this allows you to clearly define the image you want your potential customers to equate with your company and services, as well as also set your products apart from the ones your competitors offer.

Let’s look at the ways lead generation helps you expand your business further into APAC and the US.

Modern Lead Generation

A great way to expand your business in other countries is through lead generation. The lead generation process now looks nothing like it used to 30 or 20 years ago. Thanks to the rise of the internet, the way brands can reach out to potential customers has greatly changed for the better. So, that alone is a great leap into your journey to expanding to foreign lands.

The Power of SEO

There is a shift from finding to being found due to the abundant information available on our fingertips which makes our buyer quite self-directed. They invest their time doing their own research, actively looking for brands that offer them the right solutions. So, when you work on your SEO, make sure that you use all the right keywords that your potential customers might type on their search bars.

Maximized Online Presence and Outreach

When utilizing your different social channels, do your prior research as to which specific channels are predominantly used by your target prospects in the specific countries you want to market to. Thanks to digital transformation, businesses can use everything from blogs and Facebook posts to SEO and even pay-per-click advertising to capture target audiences’ attention.

LDR

Expanding and setting up your brand globally is pretty much akin to a long distance relationship. Lead generation used to be about initiating interest for ultimately closing a sale, but now, customers expect engagement with brands. A two-way communication and meaningful interaction is crucial to expanding your brand, and that’s exactly how lead generation and nurturing help you not just sustain your client relationships in other countries but also widen your scope of influence.

The Takeaway

Doing business abroad without physically setting camp there can be quite challenging. However, by having the right strategies and tools, and most especially integrating proper lead generation, you’ll definitely see your brand flourish. By putting a heightened focus on your overseas relationships and making sure that you nourish them, your growth is very much ensured.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

How Do You Generate Leads in Singapore

September 16, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

It goes without saying that different businesses require different sets of customers, and there are various different ways of generating leads in Singapore. You can drive people through blog posts or have several platforms where you can collect prospects’ information. Then again, there is no cookie-cutter way of going about it. So, let’s look at different ways that you can effectively generate leads in Singapore.

Lead Channels

There is an abundance of lead channels, but that doesn’t mean that each channel fits your business. The challenge lies in finding the right lead channel that’s specific to your business.

For example, Facebook is a great medium with which you can give a lead magnet for free and get people to sign-up. You can give out case studies, E-books, and free courses are some great lead generation strategies you can use here.

For sales leads, most companies will go to LinkedIn and start a group where they get people in their industry, gather them together, and provide them with solutions to their problems all while promoting their product.

Many third-party companies use funnels in order to understand the flow and behavior of the user in order to acquire the best conversion. What they usually do is set up landing pages in order to run drip campaigns to convert the user and make them an appropriate lead for a business.

In the Insurance industry, on the other hand, aggregators get really good at SEO and drive people to their website where they collect the user’s data and sell that information to Insurance providers. Others invest time and effort in putting out high-quality content regularly across all their platforms.

Embrace new technology

Singapore is far advanced when it comes to technology. So, it’s important that you are ready to keep up and embrace new technology. This means that you also upgrade your existing digital marketing tools. New technology will help you match the current digital market trends and do B2B lead generation.

Make content… and optimize ’em

Great content has always proven itself as foolproof. It will increase organic web traffic and help you generate more business leads.

It goes without saying that your content should have quality, images, infographics, and video to increase engagement and share counts. By utilizing all the right tools, this will make high in the ranks on search results and bring in more traffic to the website.

Inbound and outbound marketing

Even though outbound marketing is more effective, inbound marketing shouldn’t be ignored either. We actually recommend that you use both approaches for a balanced and effective lead generation.

Stay active in your online communities by providing solutions for your customer’s issues and sharing informative content.

Automate your marketing

Use your marketing automation to nurture the prospects you’ve collected over email. This will get more data for your business leads.

Remember the drip application we mentioned earlier? This can also provide marketing automation through email marketing, a properly designed pop up and more. Social media is another area that you want to automate. There are numerous management tools that you can use to automate your different social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

Conclusion

Lead generation is not a one-time fix-all process. It’s continuous and long term. If you have all the efficient tools in your arsenal, it will be easier for you to streamline your processes and increase opportunities for your business to grow.

You can’t depend on just one source to get your maximum outcomes. You need multiple sources in order to help you acquire all the qualified leads more efficiently. But once you find the right strategies and tools for your approach, you are sure to increase your conversion rates.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

Drive Sales Growth with Lead Generation and Webinars

September 9, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Webinars are an excellent lead generation platform for many B2B companies, and this is especially true for firms that specialize in IT solutions.

They can generate new leads, nurture ones that are already in the pipeline, and create buzz for the brand.

This article explores a real-life example of how an Asian IT firm we collaborated with used the webinar approach to create new markets of opportunity and supercharge their marketing.

The Objective

The firm had four campaign goals:

Hosting the event
Running the post-event campaign
Profiling the database
Engaging new prospects

All of these objectives were riding on one critical component: getting people to attend the event in the first place. This is where we were able to collaborate actively.

Customer Profiling

The first step was to analyze the company’s ideal customer profile.

All campaigns ride or die by customer profiling, and this is why account-based marketing (ABM) has gained major strides against more traditional marketing methods.

It doesn’t matter if there is an existing database of possible leads or if a firm has to build one from the onset, there has to be an active attempt to qualify and screen the leads before the first touchpoint. This allows marketers to create personalized solutions and methods that resonate well with the prospect.

After analyzing the target customer persona, we were then able to start crafting a list and marketing collaterals to go along with the lead generation.

Marketing Collaterals

We used a combination of email, appointment setting, landing pages, and social media marketing to generate the attendee list for the webinar.

Email Campaign

Four distinct email templates were used in the campaign.

The General Invitation Email

The general invitation tells your prospect about the event and provides necessary details about what to expect. It also contains the pertinent CTA to get your prospects to sign up.

As an incentive – and everyone should do this – we offered special coupons to the first 50 registrants to the webinar. This allows people to have a sense of urgency and adds to FOMO to speed up the process.

The VIP Email

This particular email was sent to a more select group of people who needed that “special touch.” In many ways, it’s akin to the general invitation email, but it differs in a sense because it actually refers to the prospect as a VIP, making them feel a little more special.

In a way, we told these prospects that they had been preselected to join the event because of their status and reputation.

This is a good way of providing prospects a more bespoke approach to invitations.

The Referral

A referral email was sent to people who weren’t replying or seemed disinterested in the webinar.

It serves to have the initial invitation forwarded to other people in a prospect’s contact list so that a firm doesn’t waste the leads they have.

The Follow-up

Not everyone checks their mail regularly, and there is a chance that a prospect has your email buried in their inbox.

A follow-up email is necessary to remind people of the event again and reconnect with prospects that haven’t been replying.

You can send the follow-up email a couple of days after the initial email.

Telemarketing Campaign

While the email campaign was ongoing, we implemented a telemarketing campaign to serve as another medium for webinar lead generation.

We used a brief and concise script that covered the following:

A brief introduction
A quick check to determine if we’ve contacted the right person
Concise invitation along with other details of the event

However, just as with email and other marketing campaigns, we made sure that they had follow-ups if the response was one that we did not anticipate.
If they weren’t able to go, we asked if there was someone else in the department who could make it. We also made sure that we checked on how their IT was implemented to update our profile on the company.

An important thing to keep in mind is that you need to target people in an IT department in higher positions before moving on to the juniors.

If there’s no one available, you could ask who else you could forward the information to.

Social Media Campaign

LinkedIn is a critical part of your B2B lead generation strategy because it is the largest professional social networking platform. Also, it is one of the most practical channels for generating webinar leads.

Social Media Profile

To use LinkedIn, we created and optimized the profile of one of the officers-in-charge of the event and crafted quick invite messages that we could send out to people on the network.

After sending the quick invites, we threw in a message asking them if they would be interested in the webinar; this included a freebie – just like in the email and a good CTA for them to register.

To keep the conversation running if they weren’t able to attend the event, we asked if they would be interested the next time around.

Landing Page

Lastly, we built a custom landing page that was able to take in registrations and provide pertinent information depending on which location the participant would like to join.

The technique with landing pages is to keep it as short possible with a clear call-to-action. Forms should be pre-filled and concise as well; the goal is to convert the viewer quickly and efficiently.

Tools

We ran with the Callbox Pipeline along with HubSpot for form fills. The two are a great combination for lead generation. We also had lead generation professionals and a team of other specialists to support the project.

The Results

We had 1,450 accounts to work with, which totaled to 2,157 contacts since we aimed to reach about two people or active accounts per firm.

Out of the 1,392 accounts that were touched, we averaged 2.71 touchpoints for each, an indicator of how engaging our campaigns were.

We had a total of 227 MQLs with 125 coming in from calls and the rest from LinkedIn (102). LinkedIn was so powerful that we were making 36.1 percent of our connections on the platform.

Needless to say, the webinars that were held and hosted for different parts of Asia were extremely successful.

This particular case study is enough proof that with proper systems in place, you can actively leverage webinars to create new marketing campaigns that generate leads for your pipeline.

Marketers also have a choice to set them up in-house or partner with a lead generation agency such as Callbox to make things easier and more efficient.

Whichever option you pick, what’s critical is to keep lead generation ongoing to guarantee your company’s growth, even in these times.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

Adapting Your Appointment Setting Strategy to the New Normal

September 2, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

COVID-19 is reshaping the way companies go about lead generation, but the new normal doesn’t have to be daunting.

Lead generation, nurturing campaigns, and appointment setting strategies can all be modified to adapt to changes in our world. And, there are still plenty of new opportunities for growth that marketers can take advantage of.

From moving physical meetings to digital ones, to leveraging different advancement in technology, there is still a lot of growth that companies can attain.

Goodbye Physical, Hello Virtual

The reality of the situation is that traditional physical meetings might not be back for a long time. There are physical restrictions on movement, and the public has been in a heightened state of caution for the majority of the year.

With this, companies have no choice but to adapt to the new normal by embracing the digital world and leveraging what it has to offer.

Supercharging your starts with ensuring that you have the proper equipment in place to hold an appointment. A simple checklist would be:

A clean and quiet area to hold calls or video conferencing
Stable internet access at least 1 Mbps or higher, although around 4 Mbps can be recommended for higher video streams and virtual events
Proper A/V setup for video conferencing – consider getting a professional quality headset at least and a high-quality camera
A snappy computer
Appointment setting software

There are a lot more pieces that you could get, but these are vital to ensuring a smooth transition to the new normal.

Automate Appointment Setting

Getting a steady stream of appointments coming in is critical in a company’s quest for growth, and automating the process is a great way of doing just that.

One of the biggest roadblocks in appointment setting is tracking last-minute changes to appointment schedules and keeping track of the numerous back-and-forths that a marketer can have with their clients.

Using an automated appointment setting software, marketers can leverage technology to have their calendars automatically booked and updated once a prospect’s books, modifies, or reschedules an appointment.

This makes keeping track of appointments easier and allows a marketer to focus on high-level tasks.

Another added benefit of this is its integration to CRM software; some systems will allow you to throw in other tools in the mix. This helps you track progress and keeps you organized.

Offer Flexibility

Work from home routines have given people plenty of time, but it has made schedules a little lopsided. Be prepared to give prospects several flexible dates and times that they can book. One can even add an unconventional time slot just to vary things.

Send Email Confirmations

Once an appointment is set, ensure that the prospect receives an email confirmation with a few details on discussion points and how to reschedule the meeting if they have to.

Reach Them With Other Channels

Don’t just limit the communication channel to a phone or video call. Create campaigns that reach out to them either directly through other platforms like social media or indirectly with carefully placed retargeting ads.

The only caveat is not to overdo it and create an oversaturated landscape for your prospect.

Provide Custom Solutions While Being Sensitive About the Current Climate

The pandemic has thrown many companies off-balance, and a lot of people are still trying to navigate their way through the chaos. Marketers should consider the pandemic while providing custom solutions for their prospects

While it’s a given that marketers should be selling custom and unique solutions to their prospects, it will also help highlight how their solutions will work, especially given the pandemic effects.

This allows a company to be more sensitive to the potential and current needs of their markets.

Video Calls are Better Than Audio

Appointments can either be physical meetups or phone calls, but the former isn’t something that we’ll have for a while.

If given the option, ask your prospect if they want to have a video call instead. Video calls allow both parties to express their emotions, and it’s easier to have a conversation when you can detect visual cues.

It takes the normal audio call to the next level, and it becomes a more personal conversation.

However, never force a prospect to opt for video, make sure that you simply offer the option.

Invite Them to Virtual Events That Double as Appointments

Looking to spice it up or frustrated with a client that can’t seem to book an appointment with you? Then, invite them to a virtual event or presentation, you’ll be able to chat with them casually, and it’s less sales-y than booking a one-on-one meeting.

Don’t Discard Cold Leads

Given COVID-19, there will be many who won’t have the budget or the need for your product or services at this point, but this is not enough reason to knock them off your list.

Make sure that you keep colder leads on a separate list to remarket to them when times get better. Keep nurturing them, and they could prove to be great referrals or customers down the line.

Appointment setting is still a great way to guarantee meetings – albeit virtual – for your sales teams. Alternatively, companies can also employ expert appointment setting agencies to further boost their sales capabilities.

There are still many tweaks that many can do for their campaigns, but the most important step is to keep improving the process.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

8 Marketing Strategies CMOs Should Consider in 2021

August 20, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

2020 has been a defining year for many businesses in Asia. The state of the world economy coupled with a pandemic, have left businesses with no choice to adapt.

However, there is no stopping growth. 2021 will be another defining year in the strategic year in marketing as companies work toward increasing momentum.

In this article, we explore the different marketing strategies that your firm should consider this coming year.

Digitalization

The biggest lesson in 2020 is the importance of digitalization. As the pandemic impeded our ability to travel, we’ve found a new way of being present with digitalization.

More and more prospects are now working from the comfort of their homes, and a looming digital transformation has been given the fuel to become more common.

Companies that have relied on traditional face-to-face meetings and physical methods of communicating with their prospects have had to radically adapt overnight.

The trend towards digitalizing more aspects of a company’s marketing plan must spill over to 2021. Even if physical movement becomes laxer in the coming year, a lot of people have already gotten used to transacting digitally.

This means that:

Creating omnichannel digital experiences have to be part of the buyer journey.
Having meetings and setting appointments should be further facilitated through teleconferencing.
Automating lead generation and nurturing has to be the norm for marketing teams to be more efficient.
Virtual events are still going to be popular.
Companies have to look at every aspect of their business and find ways to transform it digitally.

Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms have become integral to everyday lives, and it still poses to increase the size of the lead generation net.

There are several things that you can do to harness the power of social media and use it to supplement and lead generation or nurturing pipeline.

Here are a few examples:

The use of email retargeting to help with lead nurturing and getting brand messages across.
Connecting with leads on other platforms other than email like LinkedIn to elicit varied responses.
Automating messaging to reach more prospects.
The use of social media platforms to cast a larger net over prospects that meet a company’s criteria for an ideal customer.
A/B tested ad campaigns to boost impressions.

ABM (Account-based Marketing)

More and more B2B companies are making the switch to account-based marketing because of how effective it is. As prospects demand more customized service, it’s no surprise that companies that can personalize their marketing are getting their fair share of leads.

ABM is more effective because it combines highly targeted prospecting with personalized marketing.

There has to be an effort to switch to ABM in 2021 because lead generation is becoming more competitive.

Companies should focus on targeting their prospects with messages that resonate with them. This results in higher response rates and more efficient usage of marketing resources.
In fact, ABM is reported to increase sales win rates by 38 percent and increase customer retention rates, too.

Focus on Branding

Branding has been the cornerstone of almost every successful marketing department. A good brand evokes trust and loyalty. Trust converts the customer, while loyalty keeps them coming back for more.

Dependable brands tend to survive a crisis, as prospects look for solutions; they are more likely to pick a brand that has a proven track record.

This is why it is critical to keep brand development a constant objective in any situation.

There are several ways to improve the firm’s brand image. Deploying visual assets, being involved in the community, and launching PR campaigns are all great ways of developing a brand that people can rely on.

Public Relations

Having a solid public relations campaign can help augment your marketing and branding campaigns because it shows stakeholders that you are concerned about their issues as well.

2020 has been a good year for companies that have shown compassion despite the pandemic, and 2021 is another good year to continue good public relations campaigns.

Influencer Marketing

We’ve established that building trust and brand image is essential in the coming year, and influencers are around to help push for that goal.

However, B2C companies aren’t the only ones that benefit from an influencer campaign. Many B2B companies are now utilizing influencers as well to promote their brand message more clearly.

There is no shortage of industry captains and thought leaders in different sectors that command audiences that a company can tap into.

Furthermore, influencer marketing can be considered a more affordable and targeted method of advertising given current influencer rates and highly-specific audiences that follow them.

Flexibility

The biggest consideration to any marketing strategy that CMOs have to consider is optimum flexibility.

There are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered in 2020 and 2021 might not be everyone’s year; so it pays off to be adaptable.

Marketing campaigns and teams have to remain flexible no matter the circumstances:

The ability to scale and cutback has to be a priority in marketing campaigns.
Budgets have to be flexible to keep up with demanding finances.
A push towards proactive monitoring and reactive A/B testing for more efficient campaigns.

Outsourcing

Flexibility leads us to consider outsourcing as another strategy to consider in 2021. As budgets can contract overnight and lead generation becomes more competitive, it makes sense to consider outsourcing other marketing activities to make companies more efficient.

Not only does outsourcing mean more affordable marketing campaigns, but it also allows smaller companies to leverage professional services and access to expert solutions.
It makes for efficient lead generation and effective marketing operations.

There is a lot to be learned in 2020, but 2021 presents itself an opportunity to test new concepts and continue towards a trajectory for growth.

CMOs are at the helm of ensuring their companies’ sustained growth. Through proper strategy, they can navigate whatever the new year has to offer.

Author Bio:

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+.

How to Drive New Business Leads and Grow Your Business in 2021

How to Generate Software Sales Appointments in Singapore (and APAC)

Ways Hong Kong Companies Can Generate Sales Leads in Asia

Why Outsourced Telemarketing is More Effective Than In-House Options

August 14, 2020/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Telemarketing is still one of the leading lead generation tools that any firm can have at their disposal; it’s cost-effective, adds a personal touch, and delivers great results.

Some companies often consider building their telemarketing teams in-house to personalize their campaigns and save on costs but end up spending more than they anticipated.

In this article, we take a closer look at why outsourcing telemarketing is more affordable than building a team from scratch.

Training Costs

An argument for in-house telemarketing is the degree of control that a firm can get with their telemarketing operations because they can customize campaigns at will and train their staff in a certain way, but this can soon become pricey.

Training materials and the time spent on training can stress a startup’s finances, and even medium-sized companies will find the expenses to be a little heavy.

Outsourced telemarketing agencies already have a roster of trained professionals that can be assigned to your company. Most of these agencies will also allow you to customize your campaign to a client’s specific needs.

In-house Requires Management

A department will need some form of management to make sure things run smoothly, and this can soon take up resources. In-house telemarketing departments can requisition admins from other departments, promote from the team itself, or take on someone new.

However, these options aren’t exactly feasible because it costs money to hire managerial talent, and moving officers in a company can cause operational issues.

Outsourced telemarketing agencies come with management in-built to the packages that they provide to their clients.

Deploying Infrastructure

One of the biggest challenges in setting up an in-house telemarketing department is getting the infrastructure set up.

This is more than just getting the chairs, tables, headsets and computers to run calls from; it’s also getting the right can of software and VOIP platform that’s right for your needs.

The software has to be licensed out and usually comes at steep subscription prices, multiply this by how many lead telemarketing professionals you have, and the bills start stacking up.

Once the software and equipment are bought, there is the challenge of looking for a good space to have calls. Larger companies will need a larger lead generation team, and larger teams need larger spaces. Also, the area has to be adequately quiet to facilitate calls.

The physical set up including the software can quickly rack up thousands of dollars in costs, not to mention regular subscriptions and space usage.

Allows for Maximum Flexibility

Companies need to be flexible and adapt to the changes in their industry landscape.

Outsourcing telemarketing operations allows companies to be flexible with their campaigns. They can easily scale up operations without having to purchase any infrastructure and scale down should the need arise.

This minimizes the risk that goes with buying into new infrastructure and hiring new staff members only to have to realign if things go south.

It’s not just startups who need this type of flexibility; it also applies to larger institutions that need to adapt depending on their ever-changing needs. 57 percent of companies outsource so that they can focus on their core businesses. Outsourcing allows complements to the business to be added flexibly, without disrupting the focus.

Quick Deployment

Every venture has a deployment time that involves planning, hiring, purchasing, and the like, and the same applies to setting up an in-house telemarketing arm. The time it takes to set up represents sunk costs that can only be recovered over time.

On the other hand, outsourcing operations gives companies the option to quickly deploy campaigns because agencies will have teams that are readily available to start the project.

Creating something from scratch will mean forgoing the leads that could have been made if the campaign was deployed faster.

Access to Professional Help

Setting up a telemarketing campaign can be tricky, especially if it is integrated with other processes in a company’s lead generation campaign.

The great thing about outsourcing the process is it gives a company access to the latest technologies and strategies without having to look too far. Professional help coming from specialized lead generation agencies can prove vital to a campaign’s success.

Besides, the outsourcing agency always tries to make campaigns better for their client’s because it’s part of the service that they sell.

When a client is winning at getting conversions via their telemarketing services, it also signifies a win for them and continued business.

Bonus: Risk Management

Should there be a costly change in industry practice or technology, having a partner helps lessen the risk.

Both parties share the burden of adapting to the market, and this also applies to the costs involved.

This makes it practical to outsource telemarketing, especially for companies who are new to this particular method of lead generation.

Having an in-house telemarketing department might not be the most feasible idea for most businesses because of the high setup costs and the intricacies involved. Outsourced telemarketing still provides one of the most viable options for companies who want to get great leads today.

Author Bio:

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+.