Lead Generation Archives - B2B Lead Generation Singapore

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

July 23, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Using B2B lead generation services are slowly becoming a strategy of choice for a lot of firms, even those with dedicated lead generation teams.

The reasoning behind it is simple.

Third-party B2B lead generation services offer an efficient way of leveraging resources to bring in targeted leads that bring in a lot of revenue.

In this guide, we take a look at how B2B lead generation functions as a service.

What is Third-Party B2B Lead Generation?

A lead generation agency is a company – like Callbox – that you can outsource your entire lead generation and nurturing services to.

For full-service companies, they can handle everything from creating target customer profiles, building lists, doing outreach, nurturing leads, and delivering the prospects to their clients’ companies ready for closing.

Who Is It For?

There is a common misconception that B2B lead generation is only for companies with no lead generation departments, but that’s false.

Over the last decade, even the most established companies with internal lead generation have been hiring the services of third-party firms because of the specialization and industry experience that they bring to the table.

Most third-party B2B lead gen firms have a lot of experience in specific industries, and companies get to benefit from the fresh systems and ideas that they can provide.

For smaller companies who want to specialize in their product or service, hiring a lead gen firm can free up valuable resources and manpower. The companies can focus on creating a great product while a lead gen firm can focus on bringing in customers.

What Will They Do for You?

B2B lead generation firms differ in the way they conduct business, but it usually revolves around these particular steps:

Initial round of client meetings
Intake of necessary documents from the client
Contract signing
Creation of target customer profiles
Campaign building
Testing
Targeted outreach
Monitoring and feedback
Lead nurturing
Transfer of qualified leads to sales team of client for closing
Reporting

This is an oversimplification of what they do per client, but think of it this way: they bring in prospects that are just one-step away from being customers without you having to do anything.

What Channels Do They Use/Specialize In?

No B2B lead generation firm, that is half their worth, uses only one channel to reach out to their client’s potential leads.

They usually adopt a multichannel approach using platforms such as:

Email
Telemarketing
Text Messaging
Voice Messages
Outbound Chat Campaigns
Physical Mail and Letters
Event Marketing
Targeted Ads
SEO and Organic Marketing
Content Marketing
Video Marketing
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
TikTok

Each B2B lead gen firm will have a couple of specializations and will combine other channels to achieve their goals for their clients.

Is it Expensive?

Not necessarily.

The pricing that lead generation firms have depends on the difficulty of the industry that is being targeted for leads.

However, if you take into account savings in training cost, gaining experience, equipment, systems, processes, reporting, staffing, office space, and admin, the costs of hiring a B2B lead gen firm drop from average to cheap.

The reason that firms like these can charge clients lower rates is because of their roster of clients and the specialization that they have in some industries.

While companies will need time to set up new systems or procedures for certain market segments, this is not a problem for B2B lead gen firms.

Can I Hire a Lead Generation Service Even Though I Have an In-House Team?

A lot of larger companies do this if they’re launching a new product or entering a new market segment.

There are many who also hire lead generation services to bolster their current efforts and ensure that their teams succeed.

Having extra hands to help out is never a problem, especially with lead generation.

Some might complain that it might introduce issues or conflicts between in-house and third-party teams but this is rarely the case. Most lead generation firms have key systems in place to prevent this.

They even offer CRM integration!

How’s the Reporting?

One thing that’s guaranteed – apart from leads – is regular reporting. Some lead generation agencies will give clients their own dashboard and even show live leads coming through to your sales teams.

The frequency of these reports can be tweaked and they are integral for testing and monitoring.

A lot of lead generation companies run on a data-backed approach so they need to monitor what they’re doing for your campaign to make sure that they’re efficient.
B2B lead generation services are a way to take your growth to the next level. They can integrate well and can bring you a consistent stream of leads. With competition growing in just about every B2B industry, they might just be the leverage that you need.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Telemarketing in Today’s Digital and Multi-channel World

July 14, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Telemarketing might be dismissed as part of the old ways of doing sales, but it’s still relevant even with the rise of multi-channel marketing and other trendy lead generation tactics today.

However, the telemarketing that people are familiar with is the telemarketing of the past. A lot has changed and there are plenty of innovations with this particular channel.

In today’s article, we take a look at the relevance and the uses of telemarketing in today’s digital and multi-channel world.

Telemarketing is Still Powerful

People who say telemarketing isn’t powerful don’t really understand how it works.

A lot of things have changed and telemarketing isn’t simply calling an entire list of numbers without any purpose.

It’s gotten a little more sophisticated than that.

The reason telemarketing still remains relevant is due to the human connection that it entails. Let’s take for instance email.

Email’s – through testing – can be designed with messages that resonate well with their recipient, but it’s still impersonal, no matter how much you personalize or tweak it.

Telemarketing on the other hand involves a real person reaching out to a prospect to form a human connection.

This personal rapport can’t be replicated by any other technology available to us right now. Even live chat cannot replicate a real conversation with inflections, tone, etc.

It Doesn’t Work Without ABM

The old ways of telemarketing won’t work anymore.

People don’t entertain calls from people that they don’t nor do they appreciate getting calls for a general service.

This is why ABM is becoming an integral part of telemarketing.

Like with all campaigns, it first starts with determining the exact customer profiles that an organization is trying to target. Once this step is done, additional segmenting is done to make sure that targeted lists are made.

These lists are then used to create spiels and scripts that resonate well with these audiences.

Only then can a telemarketing campaign begin its run.

However, it doesn’t just end there, you still need to be able to create flexible campaigns.

It Involves a Lot of Testing and Monitoring

Just like social media content on social networking platforms, there is no guarantee that a campaign that has been greenlighted will be efficient enough to bring in leads.

There’s a lot of testing involved and, naturally, monitoring.

Even the best telemarketing campaigns run through stringent monitoring to make sure that they’re effective at convincing prospects to take the next step in the funnel.

A/B testing with spiels and scripts are becoming commonplace amongst telemarketing experts.

This system of switching out campaign mechanics or content in favor of better ones allows for more flexibility in a campaign.

Clients don’t have to waste money on campaigns that don’t work and they closely resemble what usually happens with email or social media campaigns.

It Integrates Well with Multi-channel Campaigns

When people think about telemarketing, they usually view it as a standalone campaign. Although it can be run by itself, no lead generation marketer runs a singular campaign and expects to get results. It doesn’t work like that.

In this day and age, multichannel campaigns are the only way to go because audiences are usually reachable on different mediums.

The great thing about telemarketing is it can be easily layered onto existing campaigns as a touchpoint.

For example, if a company started their first touchpoint with ads for custom audiences for brand awareness, they can then schedule calls to be made to these prospects for the first contact instead of email.

Telemarketing can also be used as a lead nurturing channel after the initial batch or prospecting emails are sent out. It can be combined with sales discovery calls to create more personalized campaigns.

Leverage Telemarketing Technology and Services

Telemarketing has also begun to rely heavily on technology with most of its processes leveraging tech to be more efficient.

Lead generation agents now have access to entire calling systems that allow them to look at information about the people that they’re talking to, create notes, lead score, integrate new data into a CRM, and access resources in the middle of a call.

Agents can look at a dashboard and their performance at a glance, and they can easily determine how close they are to hitting certain KPIs.

If you’re not confident about running telemarketing on your own, a lot of lead generation agencies – like Callbox – offer appointment setting and telemarketing as a service.

This allows for automated, DFY campaigns that the client doesn’t even have to handle directly. They are just fed with an automatic supply of leads that are ready to close.

Adding telemarketing to your lead generation toolkit is one of the best things that you can do to your marketing strategy today. If you lack the resources to set it up yourself, consider going with a telemarketing provider such as Callbox.

We provide specialized lead generation and appointment setting.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

July 7, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

B2B tech selling is a hyper competitive market space with many players and sometimes, longer sales cycles.

However, a lot of companies have been finding success with proper ABM and the right sales cadence.

Today, we examine the most effective sales cadence for tech selling, and what marketers can do to improve their conversion rates.

The Three Key Ingredients of Sales Cadence

Personalization

Account-based marketing stresses on the importance of personalization, and it’s helpful in building good sales cadence.

By personalization, rapport can be built quicker and, as a result of that, a more personal connection.

However, personalization requires an initial bout of research and continuous tracking of the prospect’s behavior.

Spacing

The second most critical part of cadence is spacing.

This deals with how long you should send a follow up or a nurturing email.

What’s important is that a salesperson gets to follow up with a prospect without oversaturating their space or pushing for a hard sell.

The worst that could happen is for a prospect to get sick of the constant barrage of reminders and phone calls.

Following up every couple of days is alright, but if negative responses are being recorded all throughout, there should be an option to slow down the follow up rate.

On the flip side, is setting the spacing to wide and causing the prospect to lose interest in the offering.

Options

Sales cadence should always be planned while taking to account the buyer’s journey and mapping out possible objections or actions that they can take.

When sales can predict how a prospect can react and how they can reply to the reaction, it allows for more personalized campaigns that make for more efficient lead generation.

Sales should have different cadence flows depending on prospect reactions at every step of the main sales pipeline.

First Touchpoint (Day 1)

There are several ways to plan out the first touchpoint.

An outreach email
A phone call
A LinkedIn InMail or connection request

Alternatively, you can use brand awareness as the first touchpoint so that you can take advantage of pre-suasion, which essentially means starting the move to persuade the prospect without directly reaching out to them.

The effect of this is that a prospect will already be familiar with what a seller has to offer and make it easier to get one foot through the door.

Second Touchpoint (Day 3)

Now if a prospect responds to the first touchpoint, that’s essentially good news and a sales rep can move onwards to more frequent touchpoints and reminders afterwards.

The goal is to get the prospect into a sales discovery as quick as possible, so they can schedule on the second touchpoint.

If the prospect fails to respond on the first touchpoint, this is a good time to do a follow up using the same medium. Sales teams can also opt to try and follow up using a different medium, e.g. if they started on email, they can now try LinkedIn.

This creates more “spread” in the campaign and allows for an omnipresent experience.

Third Touchpoint (Day 5)

If the first or second touch points were successful in getting the attention of the prospect, then a call should take place on the third touchpoint.

Sales teams can also add a voice message in the afternoon thanking the prospect for the call or send an email within the minutes of their meeting.

In the first week, sending a piece of valuable content along the prospect’s way is a great way to enrich the experience of the prospect. This should create value or help solve a challenge that they are facing.

If the campaign is still a failure, then it’s advised to widen the spacing a little bit more – say a four-day gap – and then hit up the prospect with another reminder or follow-up message.

However, if the sales rep feels that a reminder message is too pushy, they can forego this and go straight to sending out a piece of content.

Fourth Touchpoint (Day 7)

This can be another piece of content or an email.

For prospect’s that still haven’t responded at this point, it would make sense to try and call them up or send them an offer.

Fifth Touchpoint (Day 10)

This is the point where a sales rep has to continue the relationship with the prospect, they can like or engage with their posts on LinkedIn, make a phone call to touch base, or even send a quick voicemail.

Other Touchpoints

There are touchpoints that reach 10-15 different steps with different variations at each stage. This just serves as a general guide at the most effective way to plan out sales cadence, especially for technology companies.

Takeaways

For a lot of companies, this can be a lot of work, but it does pay off in the long run. By planning out an extensive sales cadence, B2B tech companies will be able to leverage their resources and create more effective campaigns. Alternatively, they can reach out to lead generation specialists with readymade sales cadence steps that they can personalize for their industry. In this way, there is no need for them to stray away from product development while an agency takes care of the sales pipeline.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

How to Market and Sell Your New Tech Product in APAC

June 30, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Selling a new tech product might seem challenging, but it also offers a lot of opportunities for your company.

With the right strategy, any market can easily be penetrated, and with the tools and platforms that we have today, creating a multidimensional campaign is easy.

In this guide, we take a look at the ways you can sell your new tech product and put your company in a position for growth in APAC.

Who’s Your Target Customer?

Your ideal customer profiles are the first step to selling your new tech product.

They determine what messages will be put out, what types of campaigns to run, and how the product will be branded and packaged.

They’re the single most important foundational step in marketing a new product and marketers have to get their profiles right.

An ideal customer profile includes demographics, challenges, opportunities, goals, habits and even past purchases of the target prospect. In addition, you can’t just have one ideal customer profile, there will be plenty of target customer profiles with different customized messages for each target group.

It doesn’t end there, once the new product is test-marketed, the marketing team will have to analyze the results of the initial bout of selling and check if the profiles have to be switched out or segmented.

Crafting Messages

Target customer profiles are critical because they allow marketers to craft messages that resonate with their prospects.

Messages have to be personalized and this doesn’t mean tweaking the first and last names of clients in emails, this also includes putting out messaging that appeals to their industry and the challenges that they face.

Also, there’s this mistake that there sales and marketing should “Always Be Closing” there’s a higher propensity for people to get turned off with a hard-sell.

Make sure that messaging is segmented and personalized for each target group.

Choosing a Medium (Hint: Don’t Pick One)

Don’t pick one medium.

Prospects don’t just linger on one platform, they could be on LinkedIn, Facebook, Email, etc., all at the same time.

Plus, when you’re first starting out with a new product you need some market saturation to get your product in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

You need to be able to build a multidimensional campaign that spans several platforms.

Companies launching new tech products can start with a passive educational campaign and active outreach on email, then they can move their retargeting to Facebook, LinkedIn can be used to start conversation and nurture them with content and posts, and they can finally close the deal with a phone call.

The possibilities for combining different platforms are endless, and one can strategize how to use different platforms depending on the ideal customer profile.

Educational Campaigns

If the product is relatively new or offers a new way of fixing a problem, then an educational campaign is one way to go about marketing the product.

The way to do this is to prepare instructional articles on how to fix the problem that your tech product can fix.

You can also do a series of content that is centered around the industry that it caters to.

When running an educational campaign, make sure your website SEO is on point and that you’re also running a social media campaign to promote your content.

Offer a Free Trial

Tech products must always come with a free trial, and you need to offer a demo.

There’s no getting around it.

With competition in B2B tech and SaaS being fiercer, companies have to let prospective clients experience their products before they make the decision to buy them.

Also, you don’t always need to ask for credit card information when you give out a free trial, sometimes getting their email and other lead information is enough.

Do an Audit or Get on a Consultation Call

Some people need a little more convincing than others, and having the option for a free consultation or an audit is often one of the best ways to get one foot through the door.

Offering a free consultation tells your prospects that you are willing to go over and beyond with your customer service, and that you offer a concierge service.

However, it’s important to note that you can’t do this at scale with low-priced tech items, it can get expensive and time-consuming.

Co-marketing

Don’t be afraid to work with other companies in leveraging their brand and audience, a co-marketing deal allows you to market your new tech product with the sponsorship of another brand and this helps add more trust and appeal.

There are plenty of ways to go about co-marketing and you can even use it with your educational campaigns.

Comarketing also opens the doors to future collaborations and better integration of your product with others.

Using a Lead Generation Agency

There are two ways to use a lead generation agency, you could rely on them to bring in the bulk of the leads or you could use them alongside your current lead generation efforts.

The great thing about using an agency is that you’ll be able to focus on launching the product, development and customer service, while they bring in leads for you to close.

There is no more need to build a lead generation team – which takes time and resources – and you can leverage the specialization that they have already built-up for years.

Selling your new tech product might be challenging, but by investing in the right lead generation strategies earlier on, it can be done. However, the biggest challenge is being able to differentiate not only your product, but also the way you do your marketing.

Get personal, customize your outreach, and connect with your prospects.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Building Brand Awareness Through Email and Social

June 24, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Building your brand awareness is essential in order for your business to succeed. It’s more than just people knowing your name but it’s when people are truly aware of your brand, your logo, your services/products, and your values that your business takes off and sells more.

There are numerous ways to build and establish brand awareness that sometimes it makes it difficult to know where to start exactly. In this post we want to focus on two specific tested and proven ways that you can build your brand awareness: email marketing and social channels.

Email Marketing

With all the technological advances we’re having in just the past few years, you might be thinking, “why email?” The answer is simple. When you have an effective email marketing strategy in place, it builds up your brand awareness.

A common mistake many businesses tend to make is to view email marketing only through the lens of sales. What many fail to realize is that when you build strong relationships with a good email list is one of the best marketing strategies you can have in order to scale up your sales performance and strengthen your company’s presence.

Campaign template

It’s important that you have a specific pattern to your emails that is easily recognized by your clients and prospects. Doing this will set a solid foundation for your brand awareness.

Establish your email campaign with an HTML template that is tailored to your company’s objectives. Take into consideration that everything has to work in harmony such as your fonts and colors call to action layout matching your business, using your logo correctly, company details displayed correctly, and including a personal signature or your company name within the email campaign.

Importance of tone and personality

Personality plays a huge role in your email campaign. Letting your company’s personality shine through your emails should be done with consistency across all your means of communication. When you keep your tone consistent, you easily build up your client’s confidence and trust in you.

Send emails that convert

You don’t just want to send a bunch of emails out, but more importantly you want to make sure that the email campaigns that you do convert. So, what types of emails will ensure a higher conversion rate?

The number one thing to note is that visuals are by far the best magnet to get anyone’s attention. They always tend to perform way better than just plain text emails. Also make sure that your logo is visible from the get-go because people are more inclined to open messages that are from brands they can easily recognize. Most importantly, don’t forget to incorporate a call-to-action that is easy for the reader to detect so they have a clear guide as to what to do next.

Avoid being too “sales-y”

Look at your email campaigns as a simple and easy way to communicate with your customers and show them that you’re an expert in your field, but if you come off too sales-y, then the chances of them instantly dropping your email is quite high.

As the market nowadays becomes more and more client-centered, we have to realize that what drives your clients to stay loyal is if you offer them help and solutions to their problems instead of just trying to sell them your services and products. By keeping your customers engaged with you, the more inclined they are to await your next email follow-up.

Social Marketing

Traditional marketing only, while it still works, is not enough to push your brand out to a bigger audience nowadays. Social marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business and cement your brand’s name into the minds of your audience.

If you find yourself struggling with how to effectively use your social media channels to build brand awareness, here’s some tips that will help you determine where to start and how to optimize your social channels.

Visuals

You can clearly see a pattern here when it comes to utilizing visuals into your messaging. We already mentioned earlier how visuals are important in your email campaigns and this carries over to your social channels. It is perpetually loud in the social media world, so it’s important that you can catch people’s attention amidst the noise.

Get their attention by having an eye-catching image accompany your updates and announcements. No matter what platform you use, images and video content will always have the upperhand.

Keep up with trends

There’s always a new trend that emerges on social media every single day. Be sure to stay in-the-know with the newest and latest trends that are relevant to your business and industry and use these as opportunities to create and link your own original content. Being one of the first ones to acknowledge a new trend and hopping on to it ensures people remember you better, just make sure that your incorporation to the trend is done seamlessly and your personality is still shining through.

Team up with influencers

Collaborations have proven to be a great way for building brand awareness and for brands to really cement their name in their respective industries. Seek out influencers within the spectrum of your industry who have already built up a solid following of their own and form a partnership with them. Make sure that you let them know how this partnership will benefit the both of you where you can have an exchange of content where they can promote you and your service/products and in return you may do the same for them. At the end of the day it will be a win-win for both parties and better engagement rates.

Engagement and action cocktail

When it comes to social media, having a good mix of engagement and action is crucial. Your engagement posts can be fun and don’t need to have too much thought put into it. They can be a funny or topical post just to get a positive reaction and for people to have a conversation under your post. Those are good posts to have in between your serious business posts. Be sure to post or link articles that will redirect them back to your own blog where a call-to-action is also waiting for them there. Again, there is no cookie-cutter formula to this, so you have to mix and match until you find the perfect ratio of engagement and action posts that will get the best reaction and action from your audience.

Takeaway

The golden key to building a solid brand awareness through email and social media marketing lies with consistency and focusing on providing your clients and audience with solution-focused content, personalized messaging, and optimized campaigns that have been well and carefully designed.

When you employ your email and social media marketing to its fullest potential , that’s when you start seeing great results and a steady solidification of your brand on the market.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Winning Lead Generation Tips for Tech Manufacturers and Resellers

June 17, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

B2B tech sales are a little more difficult because of their complexity and the longer buying cycles, but there are plenty of ways to work around these challenges and bring in a constant stream of leads.

In this article, we take a look at how tech manufacturers and resellers can spice up their campaigns with our tips and supercharge their lead generation.

ABM is the Way to Go

A lot of B2B industries swear on the effectiveness of account-based marketing and B2B tech is no exception.

ABM allows companies to create highly-personalized campaigns to target ideal customer profiles and allows their brands to resonate with their prospects.

Instead of trying to capture the attention of a lot of people, the main focus of ABM is targeting smaller groups with better content and interactions.

With ABM, an organization can create a bespoke experience for potential customers and this can help drive them to a sale.

Use B2B Influencers and Thought Leaders

B2B influencers and industry leaders bring a lot to the table.

When an industry leader endorses a particular brand, the trust that people have for that influencer is now attached to the brand leading to a phenomenon called “trust by association.”

This helps elevate an organization’s brand and attaches new feelings and emotions towards it.

B2B influencers also command their own unique audiences giving companies that hire them access to these potential prospects as well.

This is great for tech manufacturers who want to take advantage of new markets or add more meaning and definition to their brand.

Compared to ad spend, B2B influencers are also generally much more affordable – or free, if you are collaborating with each other.

CoMarketing Works

Collaborating is one of the most effective ways of marketing because it allows two organizations to pool their resources together to achieve better reach and revenue.

Marketers should take note of other brands’ tech products or services that are complements to the ones that they provide, and attempt to work with these brands to create more powerful campaigns.

Special care has to be taken to make sure that there are no conflicts of interest in the products and that there are specific boundaries set before the start of the comarketing campaign.

Improve SEO

Before a buyer even reaches out to a tech manufacturer or reseller with interest, most of the buying process has already been completed.

This is because it’s highly likely that they’ve already completed their research and they’re now considering the brand as a provider.

Having educational content up is only the beginning, it also has to rank in order for DMus who are doing their research to consider the company in the running as a provider.

This is why SEO is critical for any tech manufacturer or reseller.

Even if they don’t rank well for their target keywords, their educational content still has to rank regardless.

Content

Once basic educational content is up, there should be a constant effort to produce content that addresses highly specific problems that different prospects are facing in their respective industries.

These should take into account pain points, challenges, opportunities, and examples of other companies dealing with the same problems.

This is a form of personalization that allows content to resonate even more with the target because it is highly personalized and relevant to the challenges that they face. This can be taken a step further by integrating it with account-based marketing and creating content for the prospect at each stage of the buying cycle.

And lastly, there should also be content for the non-technical DMU who wants to be informed about your product, but doesn’t want to have to sift through technical jargon and specifications that are not related to their field.

Use LinkedIn

After Microsoft acquired LinkedIn a couple of years ago, marketers have noticed that it’s switched its focus from being job search-focused to becoming the premier professional social networking platform to date.

Truth is, marketers that are still not tapping into LinkedIn’s vast network of leads are missing out on a potential gold mine of prospects.

Another great thing about LinkedIn is that selling and marketing is a norm given that everyone on the platform is there in a professional capacity.

Although we won’t recommend hard selling tech products or services on the first message, it’s a venue to network, collaborate, and grow revenue.

Tech manufacturers and resellers who are looking to supercharge their LinkedIn campaign should invest in tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator to help them with their prospecting on the platform.

Takeaways

Regardless of what tip – or tips – you use, you still need to be able to track your progress to ensure that your lead generation is running efficiently. Alternatively lead generation services that are professionally run by agencies can help automate the entire process while your brand takes care of the actual closing.

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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Event and Webinar Marketing Trends for 2021

June 10, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

There is a big contrast between what events used to look like in 2019 versus today. Many adjustments have to be made considering that face-to-face events are very much out of the question right now. However, we have technology to thank that we are still able to hold events – just in different ways.

With the many changes also come new trends that we can look into using and adapting as our own. Just this year many new marketing trends are on the rise and are worth checking out for your next event in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Here are all the top event and webinar marketing trends you need to know for 2021:

The importance of virtual meetings

Probably one of the biggest challenges for virtual meetings and attendee experience is not having enough knowledge and experience to run one well.

Your equipment is essential to making your virtual meetings work. If you have great equipment available, all the better, but even if you don’t have the best equipment at hand, just make sure that everything can run smoothly. The same goes with everyone in charge of hosting your virtual meeting. Ensure that everyone is familiar and knows how to operate it. Above all else, since face-to-face meetings are not an option currently, you have to make sure that you deliver with just as much enthusiasm as you would in a physical event.

Make use of mini polls, break-out, sessions, even mini giveaways in between to keep your audience interested and invested in stayin throughout the whole event. Organizing virtual events and meetings is definitely not as easy as it sounds, but when done right, you’ll see great results.

Combined events

When you think about the current state of marketing in this and the past year, hybrid or combined events are now considered more of a necessity. That is not to say that face-to-face meetings are going to become completely absolute, but that for the meantime we all have to adjust. Once face-to-face meetings are safe to return, we should also be able to slip right back into it as well.

With that being said, be ready to work with select partners you know to have a great deal of experience in this area.

Education is key

We live in an age where there are a myriad of places we can drop our content onto. Not just that, but also the type of content is not limited to articles and blog posts only. Make sure that your content is going to be focused on your clients and prospects’ needs rather than your own goal of selling your product. Businesses make the most of social media platforms nowadays such as Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to post on every single platform. Determine where your audience hangs out online and based on that, create content that will present them with help, solutions, and educate them on your products and services.

Collaborative development

Collaboration bridges the gap between marketing and engagement at events. It’s one of the greatest motivators in order to get your attendees to create content at events.

Especially in corporate environments we often complain that attendees are bored. In order to raise the level of engagement of these stakeholders is to get them involved in the event well before the event starts.

Meaningful networking and matchmaking are the tools that will secure effective marketing and incredibly high satisfaction rates.

Live streaming

Social media is turning into live and video. The way you use it with your performers and stakeholders is essential to market your event properly. The aforementioned is an invaluable marketing trend but also a powerful engagement one. Attendees are increasingly reaching out for their phones and they don’t take pictures anymore, they hit the ‘live’ button on platforms such as Facebook Live or Periscope and start streaming.

They do it to connect their network and audience to the event. This can be a valid option even when an event has sensible content or is not open to the public. Many, many tools offer private live streaming channels to involve remote attendees in a secure way.

Takeaway

As we reflect on the changes made in the last year, the event industry is ready to move into 2021 with more knowledge and experience of how to operate during these times. Make the most out of every opportunity by following the event trends above to make our events special and memorable for us and our attendees.

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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Outbound Sales Tips to Identify and Qualify B2B Leads

May 20, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Sales qualification is a critical stage in outbound sales.

Just because a prospect has the financial capability or willingness to buy doesn’t mean that they’re a good fit for your company.

In this guide, we take a look at outbound sales tips that you can use to identify and qualify the right prospects in any marketing campaign.

Define Your Ideal Customer Profile First

A lot of great lead generation campaigns could have been better if only they had defined their ideal customer profile before they got on the phone to call up their leads.

Defining your different customer profiles allows you to:

Prioritize which leads you should focus on
Create different lead generation campaigns for different segments of leads
And, be efficient with your marketing resources.

When you create an ideal customer profile, you shouldn’t just stop with sociodemographic profiles and industry. There are a lot more things you should be looking at such as pain points, preserved solutions, prospect history, prospect knowledge on your product, etc.

By drilling down your customer profile, you initially go at lead qualification when you are outbound should save you a lot of time dealing with prospects that don’t fit the bill.

Ask Them What Their Pain Points Are

This might be an obvious tip, but it works wonders.

You might guess where their pain point is at, but they might think otherwise.

During sales discovery calls, you need to ask them where they’re feeling the pain. This allows you to check if your product or service can really alleviate that particular pain point.

What we like about this line of questioning is that it shows real concern for the prospect as well. B2B sales is already competitive as it is and it helps if you’re relational.

There are also a lot of questions that you can ask about pain points. This drives the conversation further.

Ask Them What Solutions They Think They Need?

What you think they need and what they think they need are two different things.

This question allows you to put both you and your prospect on the same page, and manage each other’s expectations.

Managing expectations is critical during the lead qualification stage because you want a client that isn’t too heavy on your after sales and support teams.

If the prospects are too taxing on these teams, it means that they might eventually not be a good fit after all.

Focus on the BANT Framework

The BANT framework is one of the most popular methods for lead qualification because it covers the four most important aspects of determining if a prospect is a good fit to sell to.

B – Budget

Budget refers to the financial capability of a buying partner to purchase from the provider. In lead generation, this should already be covered by the initial research you’ve done about the prospect and the company.

However, the first round of research might not always be accurate and there are many instances where prospective buyers “claim” that they cannot afford a particular solution, when in reality they can.

A – Authority

The organization might be a good fit, but are you talking to the right person?

Although a specific DMU (decision-making unit) is usually in charge of the purchasing or making the decision to buy, you still can’t ignore the assistant units that bring forward the proposal to their bosses.

Make sure that you have the right material for the different people you’ll be talking to in an organization.

For example, you want to convince the technical unit about your product’s specs before you can provide a pitch to the CEO that relates the product to the company vision.

N – Need

A lot of successful salespeople can sell anything to anyone, but that doesn’t mean you should be selling to someone who doesn’t need it.

This causes problems for your organization’s support staff down the line and might leave you with a bad rep.

T – Timing

B2B sales cycles are especially notorious for their lead nurturing length, and that’s within reason, they make major financial decisions during specific seasons in their company and it’s usually big commitments.

You have time it right.

Make sure that you know where you are in the sales cycle before you deliver your winning pitch. You might be trying to pitch, when you should have been lead nurturing.

Take the Rejection but Create a Cold Lead List

You’re bound to get a couple of rejections in lead generation, and although we could write an entire article regarding this, here’s what you should keep in mind.

“Take it gracefully, but don’t burn your bridges.”

You want to be able to keep an open line of communication should you wish to contact this prospect in the future. This could be if they change their mind, have new requirements, or if you want to contact them regarding something else that is mutually beneficial.

Keeping a cold email list ensures that the leads that you have are not wasted.

Lead qualification is a difficult job, but it’s what ensures repeat sales and satisfied customers. By being able to weed out your leads earlier on, you become more efficient with the marketing resources you have, and you get a longer roster of happy clients.So, how’s your lead qualification lately? Have you been engaging in data cleansing and verification? If you haven’t you can start with Callbox 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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

Marketing and Selling Software Subscriptions and Services in APAC

May 13, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

The subscription model is a great revenue stream because it offers recurring income with a high potential for growth.

However, since it technically costs more, selling subscriptions come with their own unique challenges.

In this guide, let’s take a look at how you can effectively sell software subscription services and products effectively, and position your organization for growth!

Target. Target. Target

There’s a reason why we prioritize ABM, and that’s because it can provide you with a targeted outline on how to go after your ideal customer.

Spending thousands of dollars in outreach, ads, and marketing won’t mean much if you’re not targeting the right people.

Targeting the right people first relies on you defining who your ideal customer is, after that it’s a matter of looking for those customers and building data that paint a picture of who they are, then creating messaging that resonates with them.

The other great benefit of targeting is that it helps you identify niche markets that you can take advantage of.

If you don’t get your targeting right, you won’t be able to find the right people to subscribe to your solution.

Focus on the Customer Care

Subscriptions are a long term engagement and this means you’ll be dealing with your customers for more than a year since you’re essentially reselling them the same product again and again.

Software subscriptions that have a good track record of customer service usually stand out because prospects want to know if you’re willing to go the extra mile to take care of their needs.

Options such as 24/7 customer support across multiple platforms, good warranties, and even knowledge bases are all a great start.

They tell a prospect that you are with them for the long haul.

Offer a Free Trial

A free trial is one of the best ways that you can encourage people to try out your SaaS solution. Everyone claims to be the best, what better way of proving it to your customers than by letting them check it out?

Marketing and product teams like the free trial approach because it helps them provide actual proof that the product works as intended.

Here’s what you have to keep in mind with free trials.

Make sure that you give your subscribers an ultimatum. Keep the trial set to somewhere between two to four weeks so that they can thoroughly explore its features and make sure that you tell them when time is nearly up.

Also, you don’t always have to collect their credit card information earlier on. Companies that offer a free trial with no strings attached do better because they remove barriers to entry and they show customers that they’re after providing solutions more than increasing revenues.

Special Offers

We all know that special offers work, but you need to strategize the way you use them.

Firstly, don’t offer special offers all the time, it cheapens the product. There will be no incentive for a customer to act on a CTA to buy a product at a discounted price today when they know there will be another offer right around the corner.

Next, create personalized offers.

Personalized offers take advantage of account-based marketing to determine what type of offer would work for who. These specialized offers have a greater chance of working because they are tailored to their audience.

And, lastly, get creative. You can create bundles, group buys, team accounts, personal accounts, annual offers, and use a little FOMO.

Take Advantage of B2B Influencers

B2B influencers are market or industry leaders that have built up a reputation in their chosen field. Just like B2C influencers, they command their own audiences, have their own networks, and have a “voice” that prospects pay attention to.

Getting B2B influencers and industry leaders to both promote and endorse your product allows you to build social proof. These are people that have spent years building trust in their industry, and that image is immediately associated with your brand.

Don’t forget that most B2B influencers also control very specific niche markets so getting support from an influencer allows you access to whatever unique market they have. This expands your product’s surface area and allows you new markets to experience growth.

From a resource standpoint, it’s sometimes more affordable to get a B2B influencer than pay for ads on social networks.

Use Case Studies

Case studies are another great way to build social proof because it shows real companies that have real experience with your solution.

This is highly appealing, especially for more complex and expensive solutions because companies and DMUs that are inclined to buy want a proof of concept.

By being able to get case studies from previous users of your products, you get to explain how your solution has helped people grow and use data to back up your complaints.

Going down this road can be difficult in the beginning, but a couple of case studies are all you need.

If you’re working with several industries, try to get a case study per industry.

Once you get the customer targeting right in the beginning, you should be at a position to grow your subscription model. Don’t forget to nurture the leads that you have and guide them through your funnel so that you’re more efficient with your campaigns.

Also “subscribe” to our newsletter for more great guides like this one!

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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

The Top Marketing Channels B2B Companies Should Focus On

May 5, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

There is no shortage of potential leads for your organization.

The only challenge that we have as marketers is looking in the right places.

In this guide, we take a look at some of the marketing channels you could miss out on, and others that have prospects that are ripe for the picking.

Multichannel Email Campaigns

Email has been a top medium of choice for many marketers because people are familiar with it. However, using email alone to run a campaign won’t get you very far.

The technique with email is to ensure that it’s a part of a grander multichannel strategy that uses a mixture of social networks and other touchpoints to get to your prospect.

Be warned.

Email is a highly profitable channel but it’s also competitive. You need to stand out from the rest and make sure that each piece of communication is personalized and that your messaging resonates with your clients.

B2B Influencers

Do you want to gain traction within a particular niche quickly?

Then, B2B influencers are the way to go.

B2B influencers or thought leaders are people that have a large following because of the value that they provide their audience.

You can collaborate with them, hire them, and even get them to endorse your product or services, and immediately have access to the entirety of their viewer base.

They’re growing in popularity because they provide another layer of social proof that your product or service works well.

The B2B influencers that you want on your team should be popular on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

If you’re not doing any lead generation on LinkedIn, you’re missing out on a huge slice of your potential market.

LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform in the world. It has 740 million active users!

The reason we like LinkedIn so much is the fact that people who use the platform are already there in a professional capacity, so they’re already expecting to be pitched or marketed to.

Now the way you strategize your approach is up to you, we’ve seen active campaigns that have gotten startups off the ground and passive campaigns that have been set up to bring in leads while you sleep.

Another reason why LinkedIn is so powerful is because of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Recruiter, these powerful sub-platforms of LinkedIn allow you to take advantage of filters to use when you’re prospecting.

Facebook

LinkedIn might be the largest social network for professionals, but when it comes to social networks in general, Facebook still holds the crown.

Now a lot – if not most – of your prospects are already on Facebook so it makes for a very viable channel to market in.

However, it’s not for every B2B industry.

We like Facebook for B2B because you can still use it as a channel to improve your brand recognition, remarket to your prospects via custom audience, and post content to.

If you know you can’t directly use it as a channel for lead generation, consider using it for lead nurturing and for content dissemination.

It’s such a powerful channel to go to waste.

Google My Business

If you’re running a business that services local clients within an area, then you’ve got to be on Google My Business (GMB). A GMB result appears under the ads area on a Google search results page, and it comes with a map to the establishment along with a phone number.

Optimizing GMBs has become a whole new niche in the SEO world for good reason. It does wonders for your visibility and allows you to connect with local clients quickly.

The one thing that’s great about people who click on these listings is that they already have buyer intent. This means that they’re already convinced and just want to know if you’re the company for the job.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is still a critical factor in bringing in passive leads through your website. As long as people use search engines, getting your website optimized to appear first is still going to be a priority for a lot of organizations.

However, SEO is still a specialist field.

You need to have the right people in place to help you achieve results.

Retargeting

Don’t miss out on the people that have visited your site.

Retargeting allows you to be efficient with your marketing resources by increasing brand awareness and reminding people that you have a great offer for them.

We like it because it subtly reminds people you’re there.

Combine Phone, Email, Social, Web, Chat and more

These involve specialist lead generation firms – like Callbox – to help you generate and nurture leads to your pipeline.

The beauty of this channel is that most of the lead generation is DFY or Done For You, so you can focus on closing sales and innovating with your products. This method is advisable for companies who want to scale quickly or don’t have the resources to maintain a lead generation team. Identifying proper channels and qualifying your leads is one of the most critical parts of the lead generation process. If you’re experiencing a decline in the number of people that you can market to, it could be because you’re looking in the wrong places.

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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

The Importance of Data in Every Lead Gen Campaign

April 29, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Data is a critical part of every lead generation campaign because it allows you to properly understand your customers properly.

However, not all data is created equal, and sadly some lead generation experts do not stress on the amount of data you need to run successful campaigns.

In this guide, we take a look at the importance of data in lead generation campaigns and what we can do to make sure that we’re leveraging data to maximize our sales.

Data Makes Campaigns Efficient

Most lead generation experts will agree that the lack of data with their leads renders their leads useless.

And, we’ll agree with them.

Leads without any qualified data are essentially unusable given the amount of customization that you have to pour in to every single lead generation campaign.

Your potential clients won’t enjoy the fact that their pitches aren’t customized to them and to make matters worse there’s an extremely high possibility that leads might be wasted at the same time.

Having complete (and accurate data) helps minimize the amount of time you have to spend verifying data and building complete profiles of your clients.

In fact, data integrity is one of the highlights of a good lead generation campaign.

We’ve gotten to a point that even ecommerce and B2C is reliant on complete data profiles to pitch prospects properly.

Having access to good data not only makes campaigns more efficient on marketing resources, but it also saves you a lot of time in the process of lead generation.

But, it doesn’t just stop there.

The data analytics that you collect during – or after – a campaign is also critical. It helps ensure that you are targeting the right people, and if the efforts and messaging you’re using are converting people to your cause.

This is why a lot of lead generation experts use A/B testing methodologies in every marketing channel they’re in. The data that they collect is used to create effective campaigns.

Data Allows for More Personalized Outreach

The average decision-maker is bombarded with a ton of pitches on a regular basis. At some point, everything starts to sound the same for them, and this is where it becomes more difficult for marketers to set themselves apart from the competition.

However, when you have data, you can create personalized campaigns.

This is why account-based marketing has risen in prominence.

Its personalized approach allows you to stand out from the competition and provide your prospects with material that resonates with them. This in turn increases the likelihood that they’ll sign up with you.

Data Lets You Understand Your Customer

One of the common complaints that we’ve heard from prospects is that sales teams don’t understand them at all.

This leads to frustrations on both ends with customers getting annoyed that they are being pitched the wrong solutions and sales teams facing dwindling leads.

With data you can avoid these issues because you already have a basis to work from.

From the sales end, you get to understand what the customer is really looking for and how you’ll tailor-fit your products or services to meet their needs.

That’s not all.

You also get to paint a picture of the prospect’s personality and what makes them tick. This is critical in ensuring better success rates in negotiations and determining how you’ll pitch them.

Good data gives you access to their socio demographic profile, the people that they’ve transacted with in the past, their history, pain points, and solutions that they might be into.

It equips sales teams with the knowledge that they need to create effective messaging that resonates well with their prospects.

Data Gives You Talking Points

Imagine a sales discovery call with a lead generation expert just reciting a script.

Sounds boring doesn’t it?

Enter data.

Data allows a sales representative to have talking points during the first meeting, they can ask questions about particular points, have a stronger basis for their questions, and have topics that they can talk about.

In addition to this, your prospect will feel that you’ve done your research and that you actually care about their business.

This leads to deeper and more meaningful interactions with prospects, and that leads to better conversion rates.

Data is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to take your growth to the next level. It allows you to analyze your prospects before and after a pitch has been sent, and this lets you create campaigns that save you time, money, and a lot of frustration.
Lead generation from a data-first perspective might be a difficult task in the beginning, but it’s one of the best things that you can do for your organization today. So, the question is, how can you leverage data to create better lead generation systems 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+.

What Is B2B Lead Generation as a Service?

Telemarketing in Today's Digital and Multi-channel World

The Most Effective Sales Cadence for Technology Companies in APAC

How to Avoid Common Lead Gen Mistakes in APAC

April 15, 2021/in Lead Generation /by Katrina Chua

Marketers often find themselves at the forefront of a company’s global expansion. The marketing team is usually responsible for carrying out the market research that will determine where a company should expand, and it’s usually charged with creating a plan for attracting customers.

Operating in the lead generation sphere for over a decade now, we’ve seen our fair share of mistakes companies have made when expanding their business globally, specifically in Asia. So, today we’ve singled out the most common mistakes that you should avoid when you plan on expanding into the vast APAC region.

Pay attention to internal data

Developing a global market entry strategy requires more complex and specialized market research. In the vast universe of data that can help you figure out which markets are best for you, the most important data points are 1) how much-estimated opportunity is available in that market, 2) how easy it will be for your company to do business in that market, and 3) how much success you’ve already had with that market.

Many companies rely heavily on external data sources to guide this decision-making. However, analyzing your own data will help you answer the latter two questions and determine whether you have a strong product-market fit. Are you seeing a surge in leads from a particular market, in spite of not investing heavily there? Do you see a shorter sales cycle or a higher win rate in some countries? Is the average purchase price higher in a given market? Third-party data sources don’t know your customer or understand your brand – only you can answer these types of questions. Marketers can do a better job of utilizing their own data to prioritize their global marketing decisions.

Adapt to their sales and marketing channels

Many companies (especially Western ones) believe they can enter new markets by following the same playbook that brought them domestic success. While brand consistency is important, different markets favor different sales and marketing approaches. For example, in countries where relationships have a higher cultural value, such as Singapore, selling products and services through local partners, such as resellers or channel partners, achieve faster success than direct sales models.

Similarly, marketers need to change up their own channels according to the behaviors of each market, and this can vary across countries within the same region.

Let your local teams take the lead

One of the most disappointing mistakes that companies commit is that they hire highly competent, intelligent local people to serve their overseas markets, but then fail to consider their input when making strategic decisions.

It’s extremely important that you let them take the lead because these individuals not only know the country in question, they know your business. The biggest challenge companies face with incorporating local insight tends to be communication. The marketing team must therefore put a system in place to help ensure that local views are captured and disseminated frequently enough. Don’t bring your company into a country the hard way. Leverage your existing relationships, and make sure to give their feedback extra weight. They are by far your most credible advisors.

Specify the country

Customers identify at the national level, and marketers need to remember that every country has its own local laws, cultural norms, forms of currency and payment, and unique business practices.

It’s essential to break up broader geographic “markets” into individual countries with distinct revenue and lead generation goals—and to conduct adequate local market research. Being more specific from the beginning helps tremendously with prioritizing one market over another, creating a staffing plan, and budget allocation—all of which are necessary for helping a company achieve its desired global goals. Research into local markets has to be aimed at understanding the market size, the challenges customers face, the solutions they currently have, and where your product can fit in. Many companies fail to think about these basics of product positioning at the country level and overlook things like strong local competitors.

Conclusion

As business continues to become more global, companies can gain a competitive advantage by focusing their marketing efforts on targeting the right international markets and adapting their products and strategies to appeal to local customers. They’d be wise to avoid these pitfalls.

We hope that this simple guide proves itself helpful in your quest of expanding into the APAC region. Should you have any inquiries or are looking for a lead generation partner, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. Callbox would love to help you out!

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+.