Pipeline Management vs. Web Marketing – When to Use What (Part 2)
Posted by JasonB on May 29, 2009
In a previous posting, we talked about the general appropriateness of Pipeline Management and Web Marketing in B2B applications. The question you may now have, however, is what component of each will provide the best results for my organization?
How you answer the following questions will help you decide which combination will generate new customers for your business:
Does your industry have long or short contracts?
Some industries live and die by long contracts. Others seem to switch vendors at will. If your industry has a long, complex contract cycle, then the prospecting and nurturing components of Pipeline Management, combined with web video, will work best for you. Prospect to identify decision makers and contract-due dates. Once these individuals and dates are found, switch to a less intense nurture program, placing compelling messaging (web video, for example) in front of those prospects at appropriate intervals throughout their contract term. This will help you stay top of mind with the right person.
If your industry has no contracts or vendor turnover is common, Web Marketing, including social media, will allow you cast your net in the right pond to find prospects. In a world without long-term contracts, businesses are in the “search phase” of the buying cycle more often. This means they’re online, searching around, often looking for peer input about a solution. You need to ensure your business is present during this frequent searching phase. You can do that in a few ways. One way is to publish a blog, which should be aimed at dispensing useful, relevant information that benefits your target audience. The buyer wants to be in control of the vendor/prospect conversation and the more you can place them in the driver seat by providing highly relevant information, the greater the chances they will engage with you.
Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click will also work well in the no-contract environment. The frequency in which your audience is looking for a new vendor or solution should directly impact the amount of resources you allocate to being found online. Key word searches and social network monitoring can help you identify how often people search for what you offer.
Do you know your prospects, or still searching for businesses that could buy what you sell?
Simply put, if you know who you’re going after, life is easier and less expensive for B2B companies. The farther you get from the decision maker at a business that could use your service, the more complex things become.
Even with social media, in B2B marketing, the goal is to add targets to your list of qualified prospects.
If you have a list of companies that could use your service or know the profile of a company that could use your services, Pipeline Management is the quickest solution. If your Pitch-to-Close ratio is high enough whereby you can afford a fulltime prospecting resource, go for it. Granted, the better the prospecting resource, the lower your overall cost per sale.
Recognizing that most companies fall somewhere between, I’m going to touch on the other end of the spectrum. Let’s say there are thousands of companies that are a fit for your product/service. Almost every major city could have dozens or hundreds of prospects. If this situation resembles your organization, your first step is to profile your best existing clients. Go after companies like them, using prospecting, in every viable market. Only cherry-pick with prospecting. The rest of your resources should be allocated toward web marketing, as hundreds of decision makers could be entering the buying cycle any given month. It may take you a while to find that person using prospecting, but you can find where that prospect will go to find information online. Identify what industry portals, blogs, forums, and keywords your prospects are using, and place compelling, useful content in their path.
Large vs. Small Value of Client
How much is a new client worth to your company? $10,000 annually? $100,000? Pipeline Management provides direct contact between an organization and a prospect. However, with larger buying decisions, decision makers are searching for peer opinions and input online more than ever. Statistically, peer blogs and industry web sites are used more frequently than corporate websites to gather information about a solution.
If your product or service requires a significant investment from a prospect, then you need to focus more of your resources on web marketing, as again, your prospect will be spending more of their time online, collecting information prior to making a decision. Publishing a corporate blog would be important in this situation, but also participating on other industry blogs and forums will be critical for gaining exposure and credibility. The more industry related sites displaying input from your company, the better.
Web video, the fastest growing social media segment, can be a great tool for companies selling to prospects that have a low annual value. Web video can be paid for once, and then used indefinitely at no charge. It often has no, or very low, delivery cost. It also has a much higher response rate than more traditional marketing pieces. With this tool, companies can present a compelling message to thousands of prospects for very little cost.
Please keep in mind, the scenarios above may not be applicable to all businesses. Every business and industry is unique, and some marketing tools may work better than others in certain situations. That being said, remember this; Step 1 in your decision process of what marketing program to use for your organization should always be to identify your potential buyer, and where they look for information to help assist them in their job. Step 2…put a compelling message in that spot!
Good luck. Comments are always welcome.
