Industry News and Insights

It's hard to see where you're going when you're focused on short term priorities and tasks.  That's why creating the right growth framework for your business means you need to take a step back, assess the competitive landscape and develop the right strategy based on what you see. The same is true when creating a B2B digital marketing strategy framework for next year. This blog will present simple process steps that allow you to do a quick online analysis of your digital presence relative to your competition.   

It's common practice in today's society for people to solve problems or questions with a quick internet search. We have all in a moment of uncertainty dashed to a search engine. We have come to trust Google, Bing, or Yahoo, to quickly answer our burning questions, find directions, or look for that news article we keep hearing of throughout our day.

If you’re a company which has sustained success in a certain region only to start losing existing customers as well as having difficulty finding new leads, it’s highly likely your digital presence is the culprit. Companies still operating with the same sales tactics used ten years ago will not receive the same lead generation they are accustomed to. Vast differences exist between B2B lead generation a decade ago and today. 

Manufacturing and other Industrial based companies have historically focused primarily on marketing their products through manufacturers reps and dealers. Recent data forecasts a major shift in how industrial companies plan to implement their B2B business development strategy over the next five years. 

 I was meeting with a new client recently. The question I asked was, “What % of your B2B leads converted into sales for your company?” The answer was that after spending the time to research, capture the lead and quote, only around 10% of their leads converted to new business. We both agreed that a 90% failure rate was dragging down the sales team and was a major factor in missed growth opportunities.

We all know what a bad sales lead feels like after 20 seconds of conversation. You have interrupted someone’s busy day, they don’t want to talk to you and simply want you to go away. Truth told, now that you are in this uncomfortable situation, you don’t enjoy talking to them either. Data shows that your sales team spends 25% of their time getting ready for this call with a 90% rejection rate to cold outreach. 

As a co-founder of Open Path Digital, I enjoy fascinating conversations with business owners and C-level marketing/sales professionals. Almost universally, those conversations evolve into focusing on boosting B2B lead generation for profitable growth.

In digital marketing services, the goal is to always be tracking, analyzing, and refining the B2B marketing strategy in place. No matter how polished a marketing system may be, there is always room for improvement. It is important to be able to notice and react to changes that will occur for the better or for the worse in the digital environment. Whether through an in-house marketing department or a digital marketing agency, here are three areas to monitor that will make the most of your marketing resources. 

Customer satisfaction sits at the core of key concepts in marketing, and yet many marketers still don’t give it enough attention. Digital marketing provides a cost efficient modern marketing approach that nurtures customer satisfaction, is easily tracked, and unprecedented opportunities to measure ROI. Here are six reasons your digital marketing agency should be working to help YOU maximize customers' satisfaction.

Many manufacturing companies find that bringing on an experienced manufacturers representative can stimulate sales rapidly in a new territory. Sales reps spend years building trust and relationships with companies that you would like to work with. With the fresh contacts and relationships that the new manufacturer representative brings to your sales team, their value is obvious.