In a post at the B2B MarketingSmarts blog, Susan Fantle recalls a negative thought recently expressed by a client—one she's heard countless times. "It occurred to me that it might be time to share a list of bad thoughts so that other B2B marketers might see the possible error of their ways," she notes
Fantle offers these four examples of rotten marketing thoughts that could be limiting your results. Any of them ring a bell?
We tried that and it didn't work. "Regardless of what the it refers to, my response is, 'Give me the details. Tell me the target, the website, the response device, the list, the sample size,'" Fantle says. "I'm likely to find not just one, but dozens of bad marketing practices used in the campaign."
I'm reaching everyone I need to reach with email. Frankly, that's impossible, Fantle states. Email lists "average only 30 percent of the target universe available from direct mail lists," she reports. "B2B marketing only using email is, therefore, missing two-thirds of available prospects."
Our target is IT. They won't respond to direct-mail marketing. They do everything online. "Tell that to SAP, Citrix, VeriSign, Novell, Sage, Epicor, Cisco Systems, Adobe ... Symantec and hundreds of others" that are using direct mail, Fantle responds.
Social media is the only way to go today. "Social media has great value as an extension of any lead generation and nurturing effort ... but no single channel can ever deliver all the elements necessary for an effective B2B marketing program," she argues.
Conclusion: Keep your options open. Don't eliminate a marketing channel or approach based on a failure or two. "The best tool a B2B marketer can have when building a strategy and seeking success is … an open mind," Fantle concludes.
No comments:
Post a Comment