Posted by Tara Robertson on Thu, Sep 09, 2010 @ 07:56 AM
There is no question that marketing is becoming increasingly more complex as the industry continues to grow and more companies continue to go to market aggressively. Though it is interesting to see how many companies continue to market through singular campaign executions that aren't speaking to their end user. In a recent article "Are you boring your prospects," Mike Kelly, managing director for TSL Marketing explains the importance of content marketing.
"Many business-to-business marketers seem to have forgotten that you don’t market to companies, you market to individuals;" says Kelly, "and each has their own specific agenda. Unless you market to them in their language, addressing their specific needs, you will simply bore them."
Take for example a basic email marketing campaign. If you are sending an email out to your prospects, where the target prospect varies from IT director, Finance Director, and Operations, each one of those titles will have a very different pain or need from your solution. If your email is only directed towards the pain of the IT director, you have thus "bored" your other prospects and most likely lost their interest.
"Once the messaging for each constituent has been agreed, this needs to be rolled out across the marketing tactics in an integrated way." Kelly goes on to say, "Any support collateral such as white papers or other downloads should also be customised. In practice, this means that there should be three versions of each tactic, tailored to each constituent (Financial, Operational, IT)"
Read the full article by visiting the button below:
We would also love to hear from you on if you are currently using content marketing and how it has helped.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Wed, Sep 08, 2010 @ 01:16 PM
So what does Rocky have in common with your sales team?
Considering that they both take the punches and keep on rolling, a lot! Well, that is if your sales reps do indeed keep on rolling....
We all know that sales reps face a tough match in the ring daily, what with the constant rejection and persistent call-backs. But we also know that it's all worth it when there is a breakthrough, and an appointment is set that eventually leads to a huge deal for your company. Now that sales rep surely feels like a true champion!
We recently stumbled across an article by Paul Castain that likened the try-and-try-again philosophy of the best sales reps. He points out that while the average sales rep gives up after only 3-4 attempts, the greatest achievements in the world were only accomplished after multiple (hundreds! thousands!) of attempts. His lesson: Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Translated for a sales rep, this means simply don't give up! Pick up the phone and try again, because if you don't you will never know what could have been.
Here are few inspiring tidbits from the article amongst other sources:
- The Rocky script was rejected something like 1300 times
- Chicken Soup For The Soul received over 140 rejections
- Colonel Sanders took 1,009 “No’s” before his first “YES” in launching KFC
- Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He was subsequently defeated in every election for public office until he became Prime Minister at the age of 62. He later wrote, "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never..."
- Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb
- Babe Ruth held the record for strikeouts for decades. He hit 714 home runs and struck out 1,330 times in his career.
- Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Jordan once observed, "I've failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed."
Click here to read the entire article by Paul Castain, or here to read about more famous figures who 'did not give up.'
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Aug 19, 2010 @ 08:45 AM
When you hear the term 'corporate identity' you most likely either wonder what exactly it means, or know that your company has a strong or a weak one. Your corporate identity is vital today because it lets others know what your company stands for. Whether you are in marketing, or any other business, your corporate identity sets you apart from all the rest, and gives everyone in your company something to believe in. It is important because it reflects every aspect of your company. It represents not only customer interaction, but also the role your employees play in your company, and how they feel about it.
Dan Vivian, joint managing director of Design Group, has some great advice for those looking to create or strengthen their corporate identities. “You need to decide what is the core proposition of the company — what you do and what you sell,” he said. “If you don’t know what the company stands for it is difficult to create an identity. If you have no vision or proposition for the company, it will fall apart.”
Here are a few tips from Vivian on working up the most powerful corporate identity possible:
- If you don't know what your company stands for, have a brainstorming session with a few key colleagues from different departments and really hash out your ideas.
- The Goal: Come up with an image and message that will lodge in people's minds.
- Your identity should be as consistent as possible. Imagine it as one loud voice shouting from a rooftop instead of a lot smaller voices, which could get confusing.
- One key goal is to get everyone in your company backing the identity. Make sure your entire company is motivated by the identity, and that no one is confused by it.
- Identify your reasons for change. The reasons could be many or few, and can range from entering a new market to realizing new competition to simply becoming more visible in your sector.
- Once your identity is in place, commit to maintaining it and check in on it regularly to be sure that everything is still relevant and 'working.'
Click here to read the full article by the Times Online.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Aug 05, 2010 @ 09:19 AM
Have you ever wondered what exactly is a multi-touch marketing campaign? For those not in the know, a multi-touch marketing campaign utilizes multiple methods of reaching out to prospects in order to maximize the effectiveness of a campaign. An example would be a campaign that combines calling efforts with direct mail, email, and a webinar.
Though it may seem overwhelming, a multi-touch marketing campagin may be more simple to deploy than you think. We wanted to share some of our first-hand knowledge with you, so here are a few steps and tips to get you moving forward with your first (or 100th) multi-touch campaign.
- Brainstorm and research the best ways to connect with your prospects. Would a webinar be useful to them and present you as thought leader, or perhaps a direct mail campaign would allow you to advertise a special deal or upcoming event.
- Determine your budget beforehand so that you do not get sidetracked by ideas that you can't afford to implement.
- Have a follow up procedure in place if you are intending to use direct mail or email of some sort. Calls placed to the recipients of direct mail and email can tell you if your tactics are being recieved, and if so what the response to them may be.
- Think outside the box. A good brainstorming session with some colleagues may produce some interesting ideas for unique campaigns that may prove more effective than the same messaging you have used in the past.
- Be Consistent. If you are utilizing multiple tactics such as email and direct mail, be sure the recipient will know they are part of the same campaign simply by looking at them.
- Be flexible. If you are finding that the response to one of your tactics isn't as good as you had hoped, focus on the parts of your campaign that are doing well and put more time and energy into those. You may even consider doing away with the part of your campaign that is less effective altogether.
Multi-touch marketing is becoming more and more popular as companies strive to increase awareness. You may very well find that your most effective campaigns involve a multi-touch approach, but you will never know unless you try!
Posted by David English on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 @ 07:32 AM
Dave Brown, principle consultant for Ridge Consulting (a sister company of TSL Marketing) recently wrote an article published in ConsultingMag.com on the importance of catching your prospects attention and finding a way to create an uncontested value proposition for your company.
Here is an excerpt from this article:
The Problem
"In all aspects of our work, we constantly switch between heuristic and analytical problem solving techniques: the gut feel and the data gathering. And so do our sales prospects and clients. Yet, in many interactions in the sales process, the tendency is to dwell almost completely in the analytical realm. Most sales presentations, webinars and seminars are data-fueled pitches that fill the audience with all kinds of facts and stats. They start with the “features,” move on to the “benefits,” and end with a crescendo of “advantages.” There’s talk about time to benefit, TCO and ROI.
There are graphs, pie charts and magic quadrants. The analytical input is overwhelming. The audience is seen as passive pawns. Give them the right information, show them how your products or services are faster, better, cheaper and bigger than your competition, and they’ll buy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Chances are that your clients don’t have the time or interest to wade through the information that is being thrown their way. While you’re delivering that well-crafted pitch, your prospects’ attention is probably wandering, fading in and out, depending on their level of interest or concern. This happens to even the best presenters and best-prepared presentations. Why?
You’re hitting your audience at an analytical level, while they’re operating heuristically. While you’re explaining some well researched statistics, they’re thinking: “I get it already! But will it solve my problem? How much will it cost? How fast can I deploy? What are the risks?”"
The Solution
Learn more about how Dave Brown offers solutions through getting into the mind of your prospect. You can read the full article by clicking here.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Fri, Jul 09, 2010 @ 12:52 PM
When creating collateral for your company, be it a one page newsletter or a multi-page document describing your top offerings, it is important to keep design aesthetic in mind. While the content is surely the most important part of your documents, you will experience much greater readability if you follow a few simple 'rules' when it comes to collateral layout and design.
- Utilize White Space! This is one of the best things you can do to create professional looking marketing collateral. Less is more, so don't cram all of what you have to say close together. Use more pages if necessary, or make your body text more concise.
- Be consistent in the Font that you choose. Use up to 2 different fonts per piece - remember that you can choose different variations of those fonts like Bold and Italic, or use different font sizes to increase interest.
- Choose a font other than the default. When you consciously decide to be more creative in your font choice, it conveys to your reader that you put thought and intention into your work (just be sure the font you choose is easily readable).
- Add Pictures! To avoid the 'yawn factor', add relevant and tasteful photos or imagery into your work to break up the text. Images can also be useful for creating sections in your work, allowing you to highlight different ideas or topics. Stock photos are a good choice because you will own the rights to use the images. Stock Imagery can easily be purchased online where you can browse through thousands of choices.
- Choose a color palette and stick with it. It is best not to use every color of the rainbow in your collateral - instead, choose a main color to use for your headlines and highlights, and then choose another color to use as a compliment if you wish. Muted colors often go well in marketing collateral, and using your company colors is a good option as well.
Creating an eye-catching collateral piece doesn't have to be overwhelming. Just keep your style consistent, keep it simple, and when in doubt, leave it out.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Jul 02, 2010 @ 03:15 PM
This October, Marketing Sherpa will be hosting their annual B2B Summit and TSL Marketing is proud to announce our sponsorship of this event. At this event, learn how to:
- Architect a successful social media strategy
- Use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to drive leads
- Accurately score, nurture and measure leads
- Align marketing and sales strategies
- Optimize PPC, SEO, email and landing pages
- Develop strategies to grow your list
- Generate B2B content your audiences will value
- Manage multichannel campaigns
- Market effectively to Fortune 500 companies
- Accelerate leads through the funnel
What makes this event unique:
You'll listen, learn and interact with B2B marketing experts over two days through an intriguing blend of instructional formats, custom tailored to provide value to marketers of all skill levels. Whether you're looking for intensive how-to training, interactive audience-led panel discussions or real-life case studies to add to your arsenal, B2B Marketing Summit '10 has it all. To receive a $700 discount,
More about the event:
The dual coast event dates and locations are:
- Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA - October 4-5
- Westin Waltham, Boston, MA - October 25-26
Click Here to download the event agenda
Join us! We would love to see your there and share some of the top insights for B2B marketing in 2010.
Posted by Norma Shepardson on Thu, Apr 29, 2010 @ 04:06 PM
This coming week TSL Marketing will be sponsoring the MarketingProfs B2B Forum. We are excited for the event, and if you are planning on being there stop by booth 17 to say hello.
These are a few event highlights...
- Get a comprehensive B2B marketing education
- Sharpen your B2B skills overnight
- Use social media to grab more attention
- Learn from your peers in the interactive discussions
If you want to view full agenda for the Forum, click here.
We definitely are looking forward to hosting the Wii station at the Forum, it should be a fun way to see everyone between sessions, seminars, and speakers. If you are planning on attending, stop by and enter the raffle for a chance to win the Wii at the end of the day on Wednesday.
If you are unable to attend the forum, check back in the coming weeks and we will be sure to share some of the new information, marketing trends, and sales advice we will learn about while we are there.
Event details can be found by logging on to the MarketingProfs website, or by clicking here.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Fri, Apr 23, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
TSL Marketing recently presented a FREE webinar highlighting the top statistics found in "B2B TELESERVICES: THE 2009 BUYER’S GUIDE" whitepaper by Aberdeen Group.
You can now download this webinar to learn how best in class companies achieve:
- 90% of overall sales team quota
- 10% YOY increase in revenue per sales rep
- 7% year-over-year improvement of bid-to-win ratio
- 22% annual increase in revenue per sales rep
We are also offering a free copy of this whitepaper. If you are interested in the whitepaper, please click here.
Posted by Tara Robertson on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 @ 01:58 PM
This week we would like to share with you our newest white paper on the IT Predictions for 2010 at no cost (we can call it our valentine to you)! In this paper, you will see a comprehensive picture of the landscape for IT buying and how it will evolve in 2010.
Through this white paper, you will learn:
- Technology trends - the five biggest winners
- Which technologies and sectors will grow, and by how much?
- Which geographies will see growth or contraction?
- How will purchasing patterns change?
- What will CIO priorities be in 2010?
Here is a highlight from the white paper:
"Of the many organizations putting forth predictions for IT purchasing in 2010, the majority of the outlooks are positive. Gartner is predicting that growth in the industry will return, with IT spending looking to rise about 3.3 percent over 2009 levels to about $3.3 trillion."