B2B Direct Marketing, also known as outbound marketing, is a technique that you can use to bring the message directly to your target audience.
Instead of waiting for your customers to do the research, you deliver the message straight to the source.
Direct marketing in B2B still proves to be relevant in driving qualified leads to your business.
In fact, Demand Gen Report’s 2016 Benchmark Report says that direct marketing still accounts for five out of the top nine channels in generating leads.
So, it’s still necessary to incorporate direct marketing to drive growth for your business.
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B2B Direct Marketing Advantages
To create a good direct marketing campaign, you need to plan carefully. After all, it gives you the chance to promote your products and services directly to clients who need them the most.
Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of direct marketing in the B2B industry.
Target Your Ideal Customers
Direct marketing allows you to target customers specifically by using messages tailored to their needs.
You can use your business’ current data to build a personalized strategy and target your customers more effectively. Since you already have a defined profile of your customers, you can use that to create highly efficient strategies to target only that audience.
Combining a data-driven approach to direct marketing will increase the likelihood of your target audience engaging with your business.
Create New Business
An effective direct marketing strategy can help you source and find new customers. It allows you to quickly respond and adapt to the needs of your target market.
For instance, you can directly follow up on a promotion or boost the sales of a particular product.
Rather than communicating to the mass market, many of whom may not be interested in your product or service, you can implement a strategy that lets you communicate directly to your target audience.
This gives you a better chance of getting new leads that are highly likely to convert.
Boost Your Customer Loyalty
You can build direct relationships with your customers by using direct marketing.
Highly personalized letters, promotions, and offers instantly increase your connection with them.
By combining direct marketing with loyalty marketing, you can improve your customers’ loyalty and bond to your business.
Improve Sales to Current and Lapsed Customers
The majority of your customers are often ready to welcome contact from familiar businesses. You can show your interest by understanding their needs and building a personal relationship with them.
You can use direct marketing to increase your sales from your existing customers by keeping a simple customer record and implementing well-thought-out promotional tactics.
Direct marketing is also helpful in re-establishing connections with customers who haven’t returned to your business in a while.
You can gain an insight into why your customers moved on and how you can rekindle your lapsed relationship.
Market on a Budget
Marketing directly to ideal customers can help you set realistic goals, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
You can implement effective techniques at a fraction of the cost and get the most out of your direct marketing campaign.
Evaluate Product and Sales Performance
You can get direct feedback by implementing a direct approach.
Direct marketing is a good way to evaluate your customers’ inclination for a specific product or service. It allows you to measure whether or not your marketing campaigns are effective, and lets you make the necessary adjustments whenever needed.
You should always monitor the results of your strategies to ensure their success.
Managing B2B Direct Marketing Challenges
Direct marketing is a powerful tool for your business. However, careful planning, good information, and well-established marketing principles must be considered.
It’s important to identify which customers are interested in the product or service that you offer. By creating a database of your potential customers, you can select which ones are most likely to engage with your business.
Do not approach people who aren’t interested in your products as this will cause frustration. It might create an unfavorable perception of your business.
Keep the communication regular, but avoid being invasive and overly persistent.
Be organized with your approach. If you want your direct marketing to be effective, it has to be professional and purposeful.
Avoid poor targeting and confusing offers so that your credibility won’t be affected negatively.
Types of B2B Direct Marketing
There are many ways to implement direct marketing. Depending on your target audience, you just have to select which would give your business the most advantage.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways direct marketing can be done.
Email Marketing
Using email marketing is an affordable, measurable, and easy way to communicate your message directly to your customers.
You can also use email marketing to reward your loyal customers, send a welcome email, or get new leads by giving an incentive in exchange for an email address.
Email marketing yields a high ROI, and is delivered quickly with faster response rates.
Examples of email marketing include e-newsletters, promotional emails, and advertisements that appear on business emails.
One great example of email marketing is from Asana. It encourages their target customers to start a new task on their project management platform.
Display Ads
Online display advertisements have the ability to precisely target your ideal customers. It offers an expansive reach while still providing precision.
You can also use Microsoft Audience Network to target profiles on LinkedIn based on the industry they’re in, their company, or their job description.
Messenger Marketing
Facebook Messenger is being used by almost all businesses and is the most popular chat platform. So, it’s important to take advantage of this and use this to get leads and customers.
While it’s a new marketing trend, it is very effective. Messenger has a 70-80% open rate and 20% click-through rate.
A Messenger plugin like Wp-Chatbot installed on your website can make your business easier to reach. You can always address your visitor’s questions, and let a live chat take over for more important concerns.
Direct Mail
Direct mail works best when you have a highly specific list of customers that you want to target.
It’s a great way to get your message in front of your customer that will leave a valuable impression of your company.
It may come in the form of envelope mailers, postcards, or catalogs.
A great example of this was done by Touch Brand, a branding agency in Prague.
They attached a fake blood bag, along with letters. Touch Brand created a message and supported that with graphics.
In addition to that, they also supported their direct mail campaign with banners on their website and email campaigns.
Conclusion
Direct marketing is a great opportunity for you to communicate directly with your ideal customers. It’s still a relevant tool today to build personal relationships with your target audience.
Combined with other marketing strategies, such as a data-driven approach and loyalty marketing, you can be sure to get the most out of your digital marketing campaigns.
