How Data, Relevance and Contentare transforming B2B marketing

Data, Relevance and Content“ ”

How will data drive B2B marketing campaigns in the future?

What’s the impact of relevance based marketing?

Why content is essential in lead nurture and long sales cycles.

””It no longer makes economic sense It no longer makes economic sense

to send an advertising message to the many to send an advertising message to the many in the hope of persuading the fewin the hope of persuading the few““ M. Lawrence Light,M. Lawrence Light,Chief Marketing Officer, McDonaldsChief Marketing Officer, McDonalds

Data“ ”

Data enables you to target individual customers who have the highest propensity to consume your product or service.

Better targeting is achieved through a ‘single customer view’ or SCV.

Every day companies gather information on customers and store it in different databases, different departments and even different buildings.An SCV seeks to merge all that data into one point that is accessible by all.

But there has been an explosion in the volume of data (partly due to the increase in digital marketing) and ‘Big Data’ has an impact on SCV.

According to Bryan Eisenberg, Founder of the Digital Analytics Association, the world is now generating more data in 2 days than in all the days before 2003.

Data“ ”

Duncan Stuart, Director at Deloitte Canada, confirms there are compelling reasons for companies to pursue Big Data...

With SCV companies have a platform that can profile, segment and enhance data to make the most of the intelligence a unified view provides – and with Big Data they can do it in real-time.

Big Data and SCV require accurate customer data in order to maximise their potential and return on investment. Bad data makes the whole system redundant.

“Instead of looking at my customer’s behaviour once a month, I can look at it every minute of every day. That kind of insight is very, very powerful. It allows me to serve my customer better.”

Data“ ”The impact of bad data on a telemarketing campaign can be seen in the chart opposite. As the volume of bad data increases so the response rate can drop by as much as 28.57%.

The solution is to ensure your B2B customer data is accurate, and the best tool for data cleansing is telemarketing.

Telemarketing can be more revealing. Interviewers can elicit more complete and substantive answers, as well as ask for clarification and elaboration on responses. Something that is not possible with email, direct mail or a web page.

Bad data is an excluded call, i.e. the sales agent made contact and was able to establish the company did not meet the target criteria (wrong industry sector, wrong size, etc.)

Source: SCi Sales Group, 2011 n = 53,400

Data“ ”

EU Data RegulationThe EU are currently discussing a new Regulation that will provide uniform data protection across Europe. It impacts all forms of direct marketing and includes...

An ‘opt-in’ only regimeThe Regulation would prohibit any use of personal data for commercial direct marketing purposes without consent. Both B2B and B2C.

The introduction of a new ‘right to be forgotten’Which means individuals can request their data is deleted and not even used for the purpose of suppression.

Limits on profilingThe Regulation would limit any type of profiling of individuals that has a significant effect for the individual.

SCi Sales Group has a campaign asking the government to excludeB2B data from the Regulation. Please sign our official online petitionby visiting www.Not4B2B.com

”If it’s not relevant to your customers

you don’t just lose a sale, you damage your brand“

Big Data and SCV enable you to send more relevant messages... and relevance is important.

A recent study* looked at the relationship between customers and companies who already held some of their personal information. The customers stated:

would shift their business to a competitor if a company kept sending them irrelevant offers and communications.80

%86%88%

would withdraw permission for a company to contact them in future if it continued to send irrelevant communication.

would refuse to hand over further details on themselves if a company kept sending offers they found to be irrelevant.

* Source: Transactis, 2012

Relevance“ ”

Relevance“ ”

As well as improving brand relationships, relevance also increases response on all forms of B2B marketing. The more relevant the message, the more likely a customer will engage.

Relevance can lift open rates on email by 400% and click rates by 300%.

Source: SCi Sales Group, 2011 n = 8,096

Relevance“ ”

Unmatched dataOnly partially matches profile

Matched dataFully matches profile

Relevant associationRelevant trade association data

Relevance also impacts telemarketing. The chart below shows the result of using relevant data that matches a target profile.

Source: SCi Sales Group, 2011 n = 3,253

Relevance“ ”Even the most basic information can be used to add relevance. Here’s an example of a company targeting car dealers.

During a sales call to a car dealer in St. Albans you might mention the number of dealers you have nationwide. But it may be more relevant to highlight how many you have in St. Albans because dealers tend to compete locally.

Segmenting the list also adds relevance. For example, Rolls Royce dealers will have different sales objections to Fiat 500 dealers. So grouping dealers by car brand will help maximise objection handling during a telemarketing campaign.

”The secret of content marketing is to tell, not sellThe secret of content marketing is to tell, not sell“

Content“ ”

Content marketing is the delivery of knowledge and opinion to your customers, helping them to make informed decisions and positioning your company as experts.

It is a useful tool for lead generation, but exceptionally good on long sales cycles and lead nurturing (where keeping the customer engaged is paramount).

Content delivered at the Prospect and Lead stage is very effective, as this is when Buyers are considering the ‘What’ and ‘Who’ questions.

Content“ ”Executives and buyers are bombarded by marketing messages every day. They are increasingly selective in which messages they act upon.

Content marketing has higher engagement rates as it provides useful information that can help buyers and executives in their decision-making.

On email campaigns it can double open rates and improve clicks by almost 500%.

Source: SCi Sales Group, 2011 n = 28,082

Content“ ”Research* shows that 80% of leads are not followed-up by sales teams. Content helps to keep leads engaged during long sales cycles, until they are BANT qualified and sales ready.

Nurture programmes such as LeadNurturePlus are delivering outstanding results. The chart below shows the effects of nurture and content on a monthly email campaign.

Source: SCi Sales Group, 2011

* Source: Sirius Decisions, 2011** BANT = Budget, Authority, Need, Timescale.

Content contains advice, information, research and facts that can position your company as experts.

For a company that targets car dealers, content can generate leads but it can also be used post-Sales as part of a customer relationship programme.

So email newsletters and blogs could be produced containing...

1. Research on what attracts customer to a car dealer

2. Help on how to read buying signals from customers

3. Advice on positioning point of sale material for maximum effect

Content“ ”

Content“ ”How will data drive B2B marketing campaigns in the future?The volume of customer data is increasing rapidly. Big Data and a single customer view will become a standard requirement. The EU Data Regulation will have a dramatic effect on B2B direct marketing – visit www.Not4B2B.com to see how.

Why content is essential in lead nurture and long sales cycles.Content-marketing is already improving response on email campaigns. As executives are bombarded by marketing they are increasingly selective about engaging with companies. Delivering useful content will become the only way to maintain contact on long sales cycles and during lead nurture programmes.

What’s the impact of relevance-based marketing?Relevant data alone can increase response by as much as 8 times, and relevant messages can deliver response rates over 25%. Adding relevance into the mix alsoimproves brand relationships.

Established in 2002, SCi Sales Group began life as a B2B telemarketing agency and has grown to become a leading sales acceleration specialist within EMEA.

We have added other offline/online marketing tools to our portfolio, and can act as an outsourced extension of your sales force or a supplier of insourced sales talent.

www.scisalesgroup.com

For further information, please visit our website or sign-up to our newsletter – www.scisalesgroup.com/contact