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It doesn’t take a big-budget campaign to attract new clients or close new deals. Small dollars can have a big impact on a business’ bottom line. That’s exactly what we saw during the course of the past year as we researched and wrote the case studies in the RainToday series called What’s Working in Marketing & Selling Professional Services.
Despite the down economy and limited resources, we found plenty of B2B business owners and sales and marketing professionals who maintained pipelines and closed new deals using a variety of affordable lead generation and business development tactics.
As it turns out, the tactics they used ranged from traditional to new, from outbound marketing to inbound marketing. Some efforts were handled entirely in-house, others were partially or mostly outsourced.
But, a common thread ran through these stories: connection.
Each firm made a strong connection with their clients and prospects. Some did it with an edgy, fun, or controversial campaign. Others did it by presenting content their clients and prospects really cared about. All took one-on-one follow up seriously.
Here are six insights these B2B professionals shared with us that you can use too:
- Think outside the box. Be open to new ideas—both proven and new—because thinking outside the box in these economic times is going to be what keeps you in front of your target audience.
- Provide genuine help, not a sales pitch. If your thought leadership is really a thinly disguised sales pitch, it will fall flat and you’ll do yourself and your brand more harm than good.
- Integrate your marketing. Shotgun approaches to marketing aren’t effective. No matter how many marketing activities you undertake, they will be more effective if you structure them to work together.
- Use content marketing to keep in touch. Develop useful content for readers—whether in a newsletter or periodic mailings—to keep in touch with your prospects in an unobtrusive way. Deliver content clients and prospects want to receive.
- A strong message and strong creative will make phone follow up easier. It gives you confidence—so you’re not only selling these services, you really believe in them.
- Stay on top of new networks. New social networks are continually cropping up. Keep studying existing networks and social media sites to learn about new opportunities to find audience.
What have you done to connect with your clients and prospects to maintain your pipeline and drive new business?
