MARKETING CHANNELS - VARStreet · Top marketing channels for VARS to generate leads R The...

Top marketing channels for VARS to generate leads

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TOPMARKETING CHANNELSFOR VARS TO GENERATE LEADS


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A lead generation survey conducted by the B2B Technology Marketing

Community on LinkedIn revealed that increasing lead quality and lead

volume were two major concerns for 68% and 55% B2B professionals

respectively. And, let's admit it. You can't generate leads organically.

Neither can you just leave your business card anywhere or rely on the

website 'Contact Us' page, assuming leads to pop up on their own. You

have to make mammoth efforts to find ways to contact the potential

customer and draw their interest towards your products. Because, it is only

after you have initiated the first communication, that you can nudge them

towards conversion.

Lead generation can be a time and money consuming process if not done

the right way and through the right channels. There are several offline and

online marketing channels you can tune into to build your sales pipeline,

but below are some proven ones.


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The traditional method of print advertisement is still one of the most

effective ways to generate leads. You can publish ads about your products

in your domain related newspapers and magazines. Just make sure the

message reaches the audience as intended. The message should focus on

the benefits, features and application of the product in bold letters and

catchy headlines. You can even offer discounts such as 10% off or a free

add-on product. Instead of putting this discount offer at the bottom of the

ad, try to place it in the center or in the dotted line to grab the maximum

eyeballs. Don't forget to include a call-to-action message, company

website address, contact number, email id and office address.

Offline Channels

1) Print Advertisements


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Did you know that 50% B2B organizations think that referrals are the most

efficient lead generation tool? It’s also quite an inexpensive lead generation

channel! Your

existing clients are your best brand ambassadors. All you have to do is ask

them to put in a word to their contacts about your products, unique

offerings or technical capabilities. A word from a trusted source builds

credibility in the mind of prospects, even before you approach them. To be

able to leverage the power of referrals, your referral program should be

strong – it should advocate the benefits (especially, the rewards) clearly.

You can maximize the leads from referrals by building trust in existing

relationships (relationship marketing); forming partnerships with the right

companies across different locations (for business expansion);

2) Referrals


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and developing strategic alliances with businesses other than your industry

(for cross-referrals).

The tried and tested method of telemarketing to generate leads is not yet

out of fashion. There is a human touch to it – people still love to hear

people instead of machines on the other end of the line. Also, you can

immediately learn about a customer’s interests, whether he can be

converted into a qualified lead or not. You can even use telemarketing to

activate passive customers or introduce a new product to the existing

customers. There are two types of telemarketing methods:

3) Telemarketing


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Outbound telemarketing (also called as cold calling) to make an

unsolicited call to a potential customer.

Inbound telemarketing involves the prospective customer calling

you to inquire about their products or services.

4) Affinity Marketing

Try to find a partner company which doesn't mind sharing its customer

database with you. This approach is called affinity marketing, a way to

collaborate marketing efforts with a brand or a business that complements

your business and shares the similar desirable target audience. A famous

example of affinity marketing is that of Diet Coke and Marc Jacobs, who

partnered with each other to celebrate former's 30th anniversary in

Europe. Both are distinguished brands in their own industry, and such


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collaboration enabled them to reach out to high lifestyle prospective

customers. Before you associate with an affinity partner, it is advisable to

explore the common interests and also, likely benefits you stand to gain.

5) Lead Generation Agency

You can also generate a steady stream of qualified leads for your business

by hiring lead generation agencies or experts. Instead of doing it yourself,

you can outsource the task to a third party and shorten your sales cycle.

They have specialized experience in making cold calls, doing persistent

follow-ups and passing on warm leads to you. Most lead generation

companies can implement a combination of inbound and outbound

marketing tactics such as telemarketing, email marketing, social media,

SEO, print media, landing page optimization and digital advertising to

capture as many as leads possible. They will take away the burden of

finding leads off your sales reps' shoulders and help them focus on their

core tasks such as convincing prospective customers with high purchase

intention.


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6) Word of Mouth Marketing

Businesses have been implementing the word of mouth marketing

strategies much before e-mails and social media arrived. You can generate

leads through this informal channel or grapevine, as it is called, in two

ways: organically and targeted. In the organic way, the customers are so

happy with your products and customer service that they speak about you

to their peers you even without you asking it. In the targeted word of mouth

type, you take a strategic approach:

Find out what the customer is referring about you – the product,

service, process or a sales rep.Identify the audience- what is the

personality and behavior of leads generated through word of mouth

marketing.

Build a customer, social media and influencer community to spread a

word about yourself through interesting story or content.


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7) Host/Attend/Sponsor Events

Events are the best way to grab attention of your target audience and like-

minded people instead of working behind the scenes. The atmosphere is

less formal, you can meet your customers face-to-face and hold their

attention longer. You can talk about your USP, promptly address their

queries and concerns, extract the information you need and gauge their

interest on the spot. You can also become a guest speaker to highlight your

business expertise, walk through demos or share industry insights. If your

budget permits, you can sponsor events where you are likely to get the

maximum face time with customers. In fact, you can not only build sales

pipeline through events, you can even close leads at that moment or faster.

Here are types of B2B events you can host, attend or sponsor for lead

generation:

Seminars and conferences

Workshops

After-hours party

Product launch

Webinars

Charity auction, sports tournaments or entertainment events

Tradeshows

Roadshows


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8) Promotions

This is one method which perhaps would never go wrong and flood you

with leads when in dire need. You can create promotional campaigns

offering discounts, free trials and freebies to attract new customers. You

can run these campaigns via emails, social media or even offline by putting

up a booth at various events.

Online Channels

1) Social Media

Social media isn't a super powerful lead generation channel for only B2C

companies. Statistics have indicated that about 50% of B2B marketers now

using social media to generate leads! You can find your target prospects on

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social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and

Instagram. However, in order to channelize leads through social media, you

have to first determine the best platform for your business.

LinkedIn is considered the most effective lead generation platform

for B2B companies. You can connect with other professionals or

initiate forum discussions which should attract prospects looking for

solutions similar to the ones offered by you.

Facebook and Twitter are good to run paid ads exclusively for the

desired target market.

If you want to post demo videos which end with a call-to-action

message, YouTube would be more effective.



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According to a B2B Content Marketing survey, 70% of B2B marketers say

they will produce more content in 2017 than they did in 2016 and 37% of

B2B marketers reported they have a documented content strategy. The

primary reason for doing so is because it can amplify the leads. You can

feed your prospects with useful content and solutions they are seeking

(and, you want to sell!) in the form of ebooks, blogs, white papers and

newsletters. You can offer them your content at a premium – for example,

they can access or comment only after leaving their contact information.

An infographic compiled by Digital Marketing Philippines indicates that B2B

companies will allocate 29% of the average proportion of the total

marketing budget to content marketing and 39% are planning to increase

the spending this year. About 83% B2B marketers admit that their content

2) Content Marketing


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strategy has been very effective in lead generation. Here is a step-by-step

process to design an effective content marketing strategy to generate

maximum leads:

Check out these B2B companies which have created successful content

marketing examples.

Identify your target audience based on their demographic profile,

interest and preferences.

Choose the medium of content marketing – blogs, ebooks, white

paper or newsletters. You can also more than one medium,

depending on the target audience.

Design creative topics, useful text and attractive visuals to generate

readers’ interest and increase readership.

Enrich the content with SEO keywords.

Promote your content on all social media channels, online industry

forums and influencer community groups.


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Today, an astonishing 93% of B2B buying decisions start with online

research. Now, let’s say, you have a website up and running. But, it’s of no

use if your customers can’t find it during their internet search. How do you

then expect to generate leads? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can

improve your website or landing page’s ranking and visibility. When you

combine SEO with Search Engine Marketing (SEM), you can drive more

traffic through paid advertising like Yahoo ads and Google Adwords. When

leads click on these ads, you can easily capture their details on the web

page.

3) SEO & SEM


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It has been almost 40 years that the emails were first used for a marketing

campaign. Though, email campaigns are now infamous for spamming,

surprisingly, they still remain a valuable channel for VARs to generate leads

while promoting products & services and building long-term relationships

at the same time. According to a Chief Marketer survey, 87% of B2B

companies use email marketing to generate new leads. Automation and

personalization are the latest trends in email marketing to yield more

effective results in terms of quality of leads. Automation can help to deliver

personalized messages to the most receptive target audience, drive higher

traffic to the website and gather intelligence to track the behavior of the

email user.

This is comparatively a lesser explored and new channel of generating

leads, but nevertheless something you should definitely consider. In this

form of marketing, you take the help of affiliates to get customers for your

business. You have to share your website URL on the affiliate's website or

social media profile. The affiliates will be compensated only if the traffic

coming through affiliates translates into sales. However, before joining

hands with an affiliate, you need to ensure implementation of reliable

technology to track the effectiveness of this channel.

4) Email Marketing

5) Affiliate Marketing


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Display marketing is a type of internet marketing wherein you place display

ads in the form of banner images/videos/text/infographic advertisements

on websites that are related to your business type. The purpose of display

marketing is to show your ads to customers visiting that website. By doing

so, the said website will be able to monetize their website traffic while

enabling you to access their visitors, thereby generating new leads for you.

Display marketing also offers you an opportunity to advertise to prospects

who have failed to convert. Google Display Network (GDN) is the largest ad

display network, however, there are plenty others such as Yahoo, AOL,

ShareThis, AdBrite, etc.

6) Display Marketing


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You can generate leads from worldwide by exporting your product catalog

to popular marketplaces such as Amazon, Alibaba, IndiaMART, EC21,

ThomasNet.com, TradeKey.com and the likes. You can create a homepage

and showcase your products, which will initiate buying inquiries from the

potential customers and enable you to make direct transactions with them.

These marketplaces will connect you to suppliers, manufacturers, retailers,

buyers, wholesalers, VARs and other B2B stakeholders without limiting

geographical distances.

7) Catalog Export to Online Marketplaces


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8) Influencers

Influencers can be industry experts, thought leaders and decision makers

whose opinions, ideas and insights create an impact. They can promote

your brand by introducing your content or product to their readers and

followers, and can help you connect with customers who are either passive

or difficult to reach. Influencer marketing is the fastest growing and most

cost-effective online lead generation channel. In fact, 2017 is touted as the

year of mainstream influencer marketing. This is because today’s B2B

buyers are self-directed and believe in taking expert opinions more than

trusting the brands. The followers and traffic that influencers drive could be

your leads. An effective lead generation strategy is the one that integrates

your inbound and outbound campaigns. Try to work your way around

different channels, mix and match hese channels, if required, based on

your target audience.


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Thank You!

VARStreet [email protected]

781-262-0609

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