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Tag: inbound marketing

How to do B2B Market Research That Brings the Right Customers

Posted on by teamsstepup

As a B2B company, you understand the importance of doing market research before you enter a new market or create a new product. But have you heard of buyer personas? Building a buyer persona is a vital part of market research that helps you focus on reaching your ideal customers.

buyer_persona

Generally, it’s useful to create multiple personas since your business probably markets to different segments. These personas are created based on a combination of raw data, experience, smart interviews, and educated guesswork and become a sketch of your key audience segments. Here are the steps we take when creating personas as part of B2B market research.

Make Your B2B Market Research Personal

Getting to know a business, inside and out, is always the first step to better understanding how to market to that and similar businesses. While you may be familiar with the part of your lead’s business that is relevant to your own company, take the time to get a clear picture of the whole business, from the products it makes to the research and development it conducts.

Talk to the Sales Team

No one knows who actually buys the product better than the people who work to sell the product every day. They’ll have a good idea of what types of people within an organization are responsible for learning about and purchasing your product and what information they’re generally looking for.

Capture Website Visitors

If your website has forms, you can use those to collect additional useful information about your visitors such as company size or how the leads found your website. If you can’t capture this information on your website, there are databases available that can take a lead and match them with company size, revenue, and more useful information.

Interview Customers

Getting a chance to talk to real, live customers gives you a chance to ask them questions about their entire purchasing process. How did they research options? What attracted them to your company? How did they make a final purchasing decision?

Discuss Challenges and Goals

When you’re interviewing customers, don’t just talk about your company, make a point of getting to know them more broadly as well. What are the challenges their industry faces and the goals they’re trying to meet? Learn as much as you can about how their industry works because those are questions your company can answer in its marketing materials.

Research Your Buyers

Customer researchBe a google sleuth and research buyers from companies you know to get additional information. Do they have a college degree? Where are they in their career? Are they married? You’ll start to notice trends in the type of person who holds a certain type of job and these trends will help inform your buyer personas.

Use Different Sources

Talking to and researching one customer isn’t going to give you a complete picture of the buyers for a certain segment, much less the different segments or types of customers a business has. Make sure to research many different customers. Social media profiles can be a great way to learn about people and reading industry news articles gives more insight into trends and challenges they’re facing.

Build a Composite Picture

A single buyer persona is a composite of all the research, interviews, and information you’ve gathered from your different sources. Your goal is to create a handful of fictional people who represent the main market segments you are targeting.

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Name Your Persona

Buyer personas are more effective if you give them a face. It’s worth putting the extra effort into building not just an outline, but an imaginary person you can think about as an individual instead of just a title. Asking if “Jeff” would find the content appealing leads to more effective content creation than asking if a VP of Purchasing would find it interesting.

Review Your Personas

Run the buyer personas you’ve created by others in the company for feedback. They’ll let you know if they think you’ve accurately captured the regular buyers or if they think you’re missing a key point. Also, remember to think of buyer personas as a work in progress, and update them as you learn more about your target buyers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you have buyer personas, you can use them as reference points for much more than just content creation. They can help you shape your business strategy and even develop new products.

Want to get started with buyer personas? We can help. Get in touch with us at StepUp to see if you are eligible for a marketing strategy review, which will include initial market research and buyer persona development, all for free. Click below to request your custom marketing strategy review.

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5 Unique Challenges of Industrial Marketing – and How to Overcome Them

Posted on by teamsstepup

If you’re responsible for marketing, sales or business development for your B2B company, you have a unique and different set of challenges than businesses looking to market directly to consumers. While B2B marketing uses many of the same techniques as B2C marketing, the application is very different and marketing to other businesses requires a different content strategy focused on different channels. It’s essential to set good metrics and make sure you’re tracking the impact of your efforts. While there are a number of challenges of industrial marketing, here are a few common ones, and how you can overcome them.

Producing Quality Content

Content marketing, as part of a broader inbound marketing system, is an incredibly effective way to draw in an audience of potential leads, showcase your expertise, and get leads reaching out to you. However, producing that content, especially in an industrial setting, can be a challenge. The content has to be technical enough to show a clear understanding of the material without being so complex as to turn off potential leads who come from business backgrounds, like a VP Purchasing or CMO, who aren’t experts in the technical side of your product. The solution is to have content marketers work closely with technical staff to ensure that content produced is both accurate and readable. With the directive from upper management to participate, technical team members often enjoy explaining everything they do.

Promoting Your Content

Putting out great content is only the first step. Once you’ve written an article that you think will resonate with potential leads, you have to publish it in different channels that will get their attention. Your business needs to have a presence in a number of different content channels and plans to attract leads to your content. It’s key to think about your target market and to understand what channels they use most for industry learning and research. For example, in the US LinkedIn is a primary content channel for serious B2B companies. However, in India, Facebook and Youtube are extremely relevant even for highly technical businesses. Making a good content distribution plan based on your target audience before you start publishing content is a good way to ensure that what you write gets read by the right people.

Setting Expectations

Everyone, including upper management, reads stories about runaway successes with internet marketing, so it’s important before you begin your marketing campaign to research what is typical for your industry and set expectations accordingly. Then, revisit your plan periodically and compare your expectations to actual campaign metrics. Show how many people are viewing your content in different channels and how many are clicking through to your website or reaching out for follow up. If you can, work with your sales team to track how many of these leads convert into sales so you can show, with a dollar amount, the impact of your marketing efforts.

Maintaining Publishing Schedules

Once you’ve started a successful content campaign, you need to continue to develop content so that fresh material containing the correct keywords appears on your website and in your content channels. Someone on the marketing team has to take responsibility for researching and creating content and making sure it gets out on time. If you don’t have an in house marketing team, consider outsourcing your marketing to an external agency that specializes in B2B companies – sticking to a publishing schedule gets challenging if there is no one dedicated to the project. Don’t think you need to publish daily for success. Instead, focus on quality, reliability and applicability so that your articles have the biggest impact.

Trying New Channels

If your organization is having success with one content channel, it may be difficult to get them to consider trying a different or new channel. This is often a place where recycling old content can be useful to establish yourself on the channel or, if you’re looking at something like YouTube where you’d have to create video content, that content can then be used on your existing channels. Shaking up the type of content offered can get the attention of your existing audience and give you a great way to cross-promote your efforts.

While inbound marketing for industrial B2B businesses can be challenging, with good planning and execution, it can be very effective. Bringing in a team like StepUp can help meet this challenge. We take the time to understand your business and brainstorm content ideas that will resonate with your leads. Then we work with your staff to ensure our content is accurate but we take the responsibility for keeping the good content coming. If you’d like to learn more, reach out to us for a free marketing strategy session and learn how to apply inbound marketing principles to your business.

 

Request your free inbound marketing and sales consultation

How To Create an Effective Marketing Plan For B2B and Manufacturing Companies

Posted on by teamsstepup

In today’s B2B landscape, marketing presents an opportunity that is too good for manufacturing companies to ignore. However creating a marketing plan for manufacturing companies is key to achieving success. 

Many B2B and manufacturing companies struggle with finding the right approach for their company. In this article, we’ll provide you with our manufacturing marketing plan template, broken down in five simple steps.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for B2B and Manufacturing Companies

Smart Goal Setting

Time to get specific. The start of any solid marketing plan is setting SMART goals. This well-known acronym for goal setting (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) should be overarching throughout the whole marketing effort. Setting specific and measurable targets helps manufacturers identify the strong and weak points of their plan. This way they can gradually improve upon their marketing strategy and become more effective, pivoting towards actions that are the most effective.

Aligning Marketing & Sales

When working on creating a marketing plan for manufacturers, alignment of marketing and sales goals is required. Oftentimes businesses overlook this factor and marketers end up working towards vague targets such as website traffic and SEO ranking. This is just one example of many activities a marketer can carry out without knowing how it will practically affect the company’s bottom line when there is no alignment with sales. 

A good starting point is to define the required number of sales opportunities per period. Using that number and considering an assumed conversion rate, you will be able to define how many leads you need to capture through marketing. By setting goals in this fashion, marketing efforts will directly benefit the company in a clear and effective way.

Read more about our “Global Growth Methodology” here >>>

Setting an Annual Planmanufacturing marketing

Creating a marketing plan for manufacturing companies that is outlined for less than a full year is insufficient. Setting a full-year plan provides a structure that enables companies to move forward with marketing. It is most effective to segment the annual plan into 4 quarters, listing the general content topic and marketing direction for every quarter. This provides consistency and a better focus for the marketing efforts throughout the year.

This kind of annual plan is especially important for manufacturing companies who’s educational content will often involve highly technical industry jargon.

Creating a Detailed Quarterly Plan

Detailing Marketing Actions

The first step is to define the most impactful actions that will help reach our goals. Deciding which persona your company is targeting for each quarter and what content campaign is needed to run for lead generation. Moreover, it is important to have clear content and distribution plans. A content plan should include details beyond just the essence of the copy but also where will the relevant content be published. A checklist should be made for the factors to include for attracting the most qualified traffic to the website.

Creating a Content Plan

A clear content plan allows manufacturers to define exactly the content that will be created about each quarter’s topic. A well-thought-out quarterly content plan is the best way of ensuring systematic, timely publishing of high-quality content.

 

marketing kpi table

Defining KPI’s

Defining the quarter’s KPIs allows manufacturing companies to track marketing results. By working toward a KPI, marketers can focus on creating a funnel and specify which actions were most effective at converting leads to sales opportunities.

Measuring the Results

No amount of marketing effort is complete if it cannot be measured quickly and effectively. The recommended approach is to use a platform to track and analyze your marketing activities. Although many such platforms exist, we prefer using Hubspot because it provides us with tools to monitor and track results for any type of activity all in one place (for example social media, content, analytics, and SEO), all in one place.

Is Your Company In the Loop?

How effective is your company’s marketing plan? Does your strategy provide enough sales leads, separating you from the competition?

At StepUp, we offer marketing services designed specifically for B2B and manufacturing companies like yours. With a diverse team of seasoned inbound marketers and content specialists, we help build authority and create predictability for increased sales.

 

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Why Engineers Should Be Involved in Sales and Marketing

Posted on by teamsstepup

Industrial manufacturing companies typically address highly informed technical and business audiences. Due to the technical nature of their business, an engineer with in-depth knowledge of their products can contribute significantly both to the company’s marketing as well as sales efforts. Using an engineer’s perspective, a company will appear more trustworthy and effective when sales and marketing materials are based on solid technical foundations.

In this article, we’ll showcase the importance of involving an engineer in your marketing & sales processes. We’ll also present practical ways on how to utilize engineers to build trust and establish authority with your audience.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for Industrial Companies

How to Involve Engineers in Sales & Marketing

Content Creationengineer content creation

Technical content is very difficult to compose properly without a solid engineering background. Your audience – being technically versed – will spot errors, out of place information, and beating around the bush, in a heartbeat. These professionals tend to enjoy content that is concise, accurate, and to the point, which requires solid technical know-how.

That’s why for industrial manufacturing companies engaging in inbound marketing, should be involving their engineers in content creation. It is a proven effective way to deliver the type of specialized content required to build trust and resonate with your target audience. This will boost the effectiveness of all marketing materials, from blog posts and website content, to brochure ad copy.

Lead Qualification

Engineers can fully comprehend the technical aspects and details of your products and solutions. This means that they can reliably identify the characteristics of the companies for which your offerings could be a good fit. Engineers provide valuable insight, in setting the right parameters for lead identification and qualification.

Sales & Marketing Strategy

Engineers are not strangers to being involved in company purchasing decisions. This same process transfers to your sales & marketing strategy. Engineers can help with laying down the specifications for potential sales prospects and identifying decision-makers. This way you can address the right people within the right companies, optimizing your marketing efforts and increasing sales leads.

Sales Managementsales and engineer

Once you are in advanced discussions with a lead, the challenge shifts from sales communication to finding the product and service that best fit their needs. Engineers have the technical know-how required to identify the needs of prospect customers, and propose the best solution. For this reason you may even consider turning engineers into sales representatives, providing bonuses for closing clients.

At StepUp we specialize in inbound marketing for industrial manufacturing companies,  always involving specialized engineers and technical writers for all our industrial content. Let’s discuss how we can help you establish trust and authority with your audience, increase sales and prospect conversions.

Read more about our “Global Growth Methodology” here >>>

 

 

7 Best Strategic Marketing Ideas For Engineers and Industrial Professionals

Posted on by teamsstepup

Nowadays, strategic marketing for engineers and industrial professionals has changed dramatically. Engineers mostly use the internet for seeking information about technologies, products, or services, which is why industrial marketers increasingly turn to online and content marketing. And as GlobalSpec’s 2019 Smart Marketing for Engineers Survey demonstrates, the importance of digital marketing cannot be overstated. In this article, we take a look at the survey’s most effective strategies, show you exactly how engineers prefer to consume your marketing, and how to gain a competitive edge using this information.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for Industrial Companies

Best Ideas: Strategic Marketing for Engineers

1. Embrace Content Marketing

It is clear that engineers regularly seek to consume content, most of it in digital form. This runs the gamut from vendor websites to trade publications, newsletters and so much more. That’s why content marketing is an integral part of any successful industrial marketing strategy.

2. Use Alternative forms of Content

Datasheets, cast studies, product demos, and how-to videos are the most preferred content types for engineers. And it makes sense, knowing how engineers are bottom-line thinkers, always looking for informative, dense, to-the-point content.

3. Use Newsletters

When it comes to newsletters, the statistics are hard to argue with. Across all age groups, 86% of engineers are subscribed to 2 or more newsletters, 87% of which they browse through or fully read. So maintaining a regular newsletter and inviting engineers to subscribe, is an opportunity that is too good to pass up.

4. Keep an Up-to-date Website

The survey shows that engineers find supplier/vendor websites the most valuable source of information, outranking even search engines and technical trade publications. This is why companies must have a website with a professional look and feel, coupled with informative and original content. These factors are important in building trust with engineers and can highly influence their decision-making.

5. Strive for Brand Awareness

Maintaining a uniform brand presence throughout all media is very important. For uniform visuals, invest in your brand’s logo & visual guidelines. Equally important is to invest in having a content marketing style guide, to ensure uniformity of content as well. With those two combined, you are guaranteed to keep your message consistent. This will ultimately breed brand trust and familiarity with engineers and industrial professionals, to your benefit.

6. Reach Out to Prospects Fast

Engineers are constantly dealing with challenges requiring immediate solutions. Once an engineer shows interest in your product or service, reach out to him as soon as possible. The ideal response time is immediate and up to 8 hours, although not always possible in our connected world of different time zones. However, as a rule of thumb, it’s best to reply within 24 hours.

7. Engage With Them Regularly

A large portion of engineers are either decision makers themselves or influence the purchasing decisions of industrial companies, mainly influenced by online content. That’s why it’s important to regularly engage with engineers through valuable and informative content, mainly achieved through inbound marketing and publishing material such as articles, newsletters, blog posts and white papers.

Gain a Competitive Edge

Research clearly shows that targeting engineers and industrial professionals is a very effective strategic marketing method for b2b companies. However, companies are often hesitant to take a deeper dive into this area. After all, targeting highly technical audiences requires specialization and skill, which can be challenging to master.

Now is your chance to act on this information. Today more than ever, getting the attention of engineers from all over the world can be achieved easily and quickly, using customized inbound marketing methods. But at the same time, you need to act fast, while the market is still new to inbound marketing targeted to technical audiences. This will ensure you stay ahead of the competition, giving you a competitive edge.

Do you want to create a proven industrial marketing strategy?

Read more about our “Global Growth Methodology” here >>>

 

 

 

 

What Is The Role of Advertising in Industrial Marketing in 2019?

Posted on by teamsstepup

Advertising was never about just increasing sales. Increasing brand awareness, reaching a larger audience, and establishing trust, are just a few of the reasons organizations are traditionally advertising for.

In the context of modern industrial marketing, advertising occupies a similar space. But this is where the similarities end. The advent of technology makes a big difference in if, why, and how industries advertise today.

Should industrial companies consider advertising in their marketing budget? We think so. Read along to find out what we believe is the modern role of advertising in industrial marketing.

Dive Deeper: The Global Growth Methodology for Industrial Companies

5 Reasons to Advertise in Industrial Marketing

1. Increase Brand Awareness

advertising for industrial

Very few things guarantee brand persistence like remarketing campaigns. These are the repeatable ads you see following you around the web after you visit a certain page. They are a great tool to make your brand look big. A word of caution though: don’t overdo it with remarketing campaigns. They can sometimes be perceived as a pressing tactic and make it backfire.

2. Expand Audience Reach

Promoting your content on social media is a great tactic to enter a new market or expand your audience. And since it only requires to know how – and a bit of planning – it is a very cost effective method as well. Platforms like LinkedIn have made reaching out to new and targeted audiences easier than ever. You just need a solid social media strategy and great content that gets your message across.

3. Accelerate Sales

We’ve all been there. Standing on the fence, needing just a little push to help us make a purchasing decision. It’s the same with industrial companies decision makers. And strategic use of ads can greatly accelerate their buying decisions. To achieve just that, you must follow both new leads and existing sales opportunities. Showing them targeted case studies and branded content will greatly affect their purchasing decisions to your benefit.

4. Generate Hot Leads

It’s no accident that Google Ads have become the new advertising standard. Tools like AdWords and Analytics allow advertisers to target audiences with pinpoint accuracy. Coupled with the appropriate keywords for your field, these ads can generate hot and relevant leads. However, as simple as it may sound, defining the most appropriate keywords requires advertising to know how.

5. Test New Marketing

ads for manufacturers

Marketing and advertising can drain your budget as fast as you allow them to. You should direct resources only to marketing that is effective for your case. That’s why it’s important to be able to test before deploying a new marketing strategy. And this is a significant advantage of online advertising: it offers fast testing and measurable results. These are your tools to check which advertising strategy works and direct your resources to the one that yields the best results.

Targeting the Right Audience

In marketing, it is often said that “if you’re talking to everybody, you’re reaching nobody”. Meaning that a targeted approach is always effective. After all, advertising is yet another tactic to accelerate marketing results; and targeting the right audience is the best way to achieve just that.

But it can only work if you know who your audience is. So the first thing to do is define your customer persona. Following that you need to tailor a solid marketing strategy. Only based on this strategy can you lay down actionable marketing and advertising plan. This will be your guide to delivering content that creates value for both you and your potential customers; which is what will truly accelerate your business.

Do you want to create a solid industrial marketing strategy?

Read more about our “Global Growth Methodology” here >>>

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can Social Media Marketing Work for Your B2B Company?

Posted on by teamsstepup

Social media is not just for consumer-oriented companies targeting millennial customers. As a B2B company, you can use social media marketing to position your company as a thought leader, generate leads, and attract high-quality talent.

In fact, according to research, 79% of B2B marketing specialists rated social media as their most effective marketing channel, while 38% said that if they had extra budget for next year, they would spend it on social media.

If you think that your industry isn’t suited to social media marketing, then take a look at pharmaceutical company Novartis. Instagram might not seem like a natural channel for this type of business, but the company has built up a large following by sharing pictures of the humane side of their work.

In this article, we discuss the key ways that social media marketing benefits B2B companies and best practices for creating a strategy that wins customers.

Think quality, not quantity

If you have 10,000 followers on Twitter, you may think you’re doing social media marketing right, but who are those followers and how much are they interacting with your company? It’s important to build a following of potential customers, as well as attract attention from your customers’ customers. From there, you can start to build relationships with these companies by engaging with them in a more direct way. The more useful and relevant content they see, the more likely they are to reach out to you, or visit your website, and the better you’ll be able to generate leads.

Share content your customers care about

What works for B2C companies, and across social media in general, won’t necessarily work for your B2B organization. That’s why you need to work out exactly what your followers are looking for, and what matters to them. If you share content that isn’t relevant to your customers and followers then they will either unfollow or just not engage with your content. When you’re starting out, you may not know what kind of content this is, which is why you need to test posts, and measure your success. Make sure you’re tracking metrics beyond simple likes; it’s also important to track click through rate, shares, and engagement.  

Pick the right platform

Before you rule out Instagram and solely concentrate on LinkedIn, it’s important to take into account social media usage at a local, rather than global, level. For example, while most US B2B companies focus their marketing efforts on LinkedIn and Twitter, and leave Facebook for B2C companies, Facebook and YouTube are used professionally in countries such as India. Then take China, where Facebook and Twitter are blocked or use is limited but WeChat dominates. Make sure you research your markets first to ensure you’re using the right channel for your customer base.

Position yourself as a thought leader

Your company is unique, so you have unique and useful insight to share with your followers. Through social media marketing, you can harness this insight to position yourself as a thought leader. By posting on LinkedIn, you can give your customers actionable insight and information that helps them improve their business while showing off your expertise in your industry.

Attract high-quality talent

If you want to attract and recruit the best possible applicants, then it’s important to create a social media presence that portrays a positive company culture. To do this, you need to be sharing content that represents who you are, what your values are, and how this impacts your workers.

Let’s take the example of Novartis again. The company shares photos of the core values of its company, and the kind of activities their employees–who share these values–do. This makes it easier to attract the kind of people who would work best in their business.

Do you need help creating a social media strategy? Get in touch with us, and we can help tailor a plan for your business.

Request your free inbound marketing and sales consultation

Our top 5 tips for last minute trade show ROI

Posted on by teamsstepup

Choosing to exhibit at or attend a trade show such as Biomed or Agritech Israel means you’re making a big investment in marketing. Just bringing your team in to walk the floor and meet people represents time and expense. Putting together a booth and bringing in your sales team is an even larger outlay in expense for your company. So as you prepare for the Agritech or Biomed trade show this month, consider these five tips for getting the best ROI.

Download our guide to email follow up after a trade show.

#1 Know Your Target Buyer

Identifying and understanding your target buyer will help you prepare for the trade show. You’ll have the right literature on hand and your sales team will be prepared to answer their most pressing questions. Even if your business is in the early stages of gaining FDA or other regulatory approval, if you’re going to a trade show you need to start thinking about who you want to talk to and why they should be interested in you.

#2 Get Social With Your Customers

If you can find your target buyer online, connect with the socially and take the time to actually talk with them. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your product and the fact that you’re attending a big trade show, but it’s also a good forum where you can actually listen to your customer’s thoughts and concerns. LinkedIn is ideal for companies with a global focus, while Facebook can be effective for the local market here in Israel.

#3 Spread Information About the Show

When you’re attending a major trade show, you want to get the most mileage possible out of the event. A series of focused blog posts before a major show like Agritech or BioMed can help raise awareness among your customers of your attendance and bring in new customers looking for information. Similarly, during the show, you can share what you’re learning at the event on your website and social media. This is a great way to further engage with the audiences you’ve built and to remind your target customers that you are just an arms-reach away.

#4 Prepare Your Event Follow-up

If you’ve caught someone’s interest during the event and collected their information, then they’re expecting you to follow up with some additional information. Prepare these marketing materials beforehand so your sales team can tell customers what to expect. Catalogs of the products you offer, detailed specifications, or white papers about your products are great follow-up materials.

#5 Get Some Marketing Support

Especially when dealing with complex and regulated industries such as agtech, biotech and medtech, it’s vital to build a marketing system that addresses your unique needs, challenges and goals. Consider working with experts in complex marketing – you want a team that understands the challenges you face, the timeline driving your products, and the unique specifications of your product and market.


The experienced marketing team at StepUp Media Group is here to help you build your agtech, biotech or medtech marketing system. Get a taste of the work we do by downloading our Best Follow-Up Email Templates for use after a trade show, and get a head start on planning your trade show follow-up for maximum ROI.

Best Follow-up Email Templates

 

If You are Planning for Agritech Israel (or Another B2B Trade Show), Remember 3 Key Tips for Maximum ROI

Posted on by teamsstepup

Attending a tradeshow like Agritech Israel (or any major B2B show in your industry) is a serious commitment of time, money, and other resources. In the past, trade shows used to be the main source of lead generation for B2B companies. While they are still vital to any B2B marketing plan, in order to achieve maximum ROI it’s vital to approach trade shows differently than you did 5, 10, or 15 years ago.

To get the most out of your trade show investment, think of it as a complete marketing campaign rather than just an event. You’ll need to actively market your presence both before and during the trade show to ensure potential leads walk your way. Then you’ll want to follow up after the event to nurture your leads once the event is over. Done correctly, a trade show can be a great chance for you to talk with new potential customers, spend time with existing clients, and build your brand. Here are just three tips to maximize your ROI.

Pre-Show Marketing

Identify who you want to connect with at Agritech Israel and prepare a marketing campaign to reach out to them before the event. You may have an existing client or lead list that is your primary target or you may want to build a list. Your goal is to create a buzz around your company through email, press, and social media. You can promote promotional giveaways, an event you’re hosting, or new technology you’ll be showcasing to get people’s interest and make sure attendees see your brand name a few times before they arrive.

Be Different at the Show – Inside and Outside Your Booth

The location, size, and setup of your booth play a large part in whether people walking by notice your booth and feel invited to stop and chat for a few minutes. You want your booth to grab the attention of people passing by and encourage them to look closer. Don’t be afraid to do something different, bold, or wacky – a trade show is a great temporary environment to test out a new marketing strategy.

Don’t forget that the trade show itself is not just about the booth. Attendees often steal breaks to drink a coffee and check their Facebook and LinkedIn. Catch them online with focused paid campaigns and turn digital traffic into foot traffic with compelling offers related to the trade show – a demonstration, giveaway or personal consultation are all valuable offers. 

Follow Up Strategy

Once Agritech Israel (or your industry’s main trade show) is over, you want to make sure you continue to maximize the effort you spent at the trade show by promptly reaching out to leads. Your sales team should reach out to promising leads promptly and everyone should receive either an email or a letter from your company, or both, shortly after the event. You can continue to follow up with information they might find helpful such as white papers, company catalogs, and other educational content.

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Attending a trade show is a huge investment, so you want to ensure your strategy encompasses both pre- and post-show outreach in order to maximize the number of times a lead interacts with your brand and the ROI of the event. If you’re interested in working with an experienced industrial marketing agency that can help you design and implement a high-quality strategy and metrics to track its success, reach out to StepUp for a free marketing and sales strategy consultation.

 

Request your free inbound marketing and sales consultation

An Inside Look at Successful B2B PPC Campaigns – And What Makes Them Work

Posted on by teamsstepup

Setting up a pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaign can be a huge investment, so it’s important to look at what strategies actually work. One advantage of building marketing systems for numerous B2B businesses is that we work on many different types of campaigns simultaneously and when we find something that is working well for one client, we can apply it to others.

Setting Expectations

First, it’s important to note that the process of generating a lead is more complicated than it seems. Leads rarely do a search, see an ad, click on it, and make a purchasing decision, especially in a B2B marketing setting. It takes more time and generally several interactions with the same lead before they’re even ready to start the quoting process.

B2B PPC campaigns can also be very expensive. In an effort to not only cut costs but to have a more effective marketing program, it’s important to pair your PPC campaign with a remarketing campaign. Once a lead visits your website, you can place a cookie on that lead’s device. This cookie then allows you to target them as they visit other websites that display advertising including social media.

It generally takes a lead several times seeing your ads before your presence really begins to sink in and remarketing is the best way to continue to target the same leads without hoping they stumble onto your more expensive PPC ads regularly. It’s important to set expectations accordingly. While PPC allows you to sit front and center before a desired lead, simply serving up ads for a day is unlikely to result in increased sales.

Educate and Raise Awareness

The process to go from the first click on a PPC ad to buying decision can be a long one, so it’s important during that time to help educate and raise awareness of your brand for the potential lead. This means you may create and promote educational content that is connected to awareness keywords to help your leads better understand what your business does, the value you offer, and most importantly, how you can help them solve problems.

As you remarket to a lead, creating value for them even when they are not ready to buy means they will associate your brand with that information and value. Spend time thinking of the common questions your leads ask and answer those using blogs, infographics, or white papers. A blog post that gives an overview of an answer to the question can then link to a detailed white paper that a lead can download in return for their email address. Once you’ve captured an email address, you now have the ability to reach your lead directly with educational content or be even more personalized and have a member of your sales team reach out and see what their needs and concerns might be.

Setting up a PPC campaign can be an integral part of your overall digital marketing strategy, but it’s important to understand that it’s only one piece. To learn more, reach out to the team at StepUp to learn what components your business needs to build a successful marketing strategy that brings in the right leads.

 

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