Lower your costs and "do more with less"

Flights, gas, oil, it’s all the same right now… expensive. With ½ the year behind us, marketing budgets for 2008 seminars are at a turning point, asking the question “Do we spend more than initially budgeted,” or “do we find an alternative method to drive new business.” Because of this, there are many faces looking in the direction for alternative means of marketing; after all… who doesn’t want to save money! So the question remains, what do you do?



Our solution: “Do more with less”

In recent discussions with our business associates, many companies have indicated a turn towards online seminars. Not only is this helping cut the cost for travel, it is also avoiding the cost of food, travel, and venue rates for the host (while still maintaining a high level of interest). Sure, face to face meetings are (and will always remain) the most valued way of building relationships. However, a web seminar can help you reach a higher targeted audience while still cutting costs. You have to ask yourself “what would be the cost if you don’t take the economy into consideration.”

Top 5 reasons trade shows do not provide high ROMI

We have all been there, countless hours deciding on what food options to choose, what signage to hang up, who will be working the registration tables, and most important… how will we fill those seats. So there you are, it is the day of the trade show and not only is attendance phenomenal, but the top companies you would like to prospect into are chatting up with your head of sales. So why then, is the return on marketing investment (ROMI) still seem to be minimal when everything to this point has been seamless in execution?

It is a common misconception that trade shows or seminars will deliver maximum results when the event itself was a success. This can leave you thinking “was all that time, effort, and hours worth this lack of return.” However, the problem should not lie in what was done wrong as it should be based on “what can be done differently.” TSL has put together the top 5 reasons why trade shows do not provide the highest ROMI with hope that our partners will gain success from these not only intrinsic but also crucial marketing tactics.

1. Limited Follow-Through: While most companies have a strong emphasis on filling seats, trade shows tend to loose the most ROI during the aftermath of the event. Before the event takes place, a process should be mapped out in how your company plans to follow up on any leads, attendees, or potential partners that attend the event. Statistics show that after only 24 hours of an events completion, the interest level of any given attendee decreases by more than 50%. That being said, if there is not a process in place to follow up within a prompt and timely manor, the event itself will have been a wasted effort.
   
2. Lack of Knowledge Transfer: Content being presented at trade shows are by far the most important reason for driving attendance and gaining interest from prospecting buyers. Because of this, the knowledge transfer should not only be viable, but should also speak to the needs of the customer. A top reason for limited ROMI after an event takes place is due to the lack of substantial data that speaks directly to the customers pains. Do not focus on trying to sell your product or service, rather than this, you should focus on what the pains in the Industry are and let the product and/or service sell itself.
   
3. Incomplete Quantifiable Data: Many companies will put together the all encompassing “how was your trade show experience” survey. However, collecting these surveys is often incomplete as well as a missed opportunity to generate quantifiable feedback as to how the events success could be measured. A recommendation here would be to present the attendees with a giveaway available to them upon submission of the survey or feedback form. This will help generate further survey responses as well as present your company with an opportunity to determine what parts of the events were successful and which should be overlooked at the next event.
   
4. Partial Attendee Filtering: While attendance is crucial to an events success, often times there will be more people there for the free lunch than the actual content provided. Before sending out invitations, your firm should always go through the list and weed out any contacts that are not suitable for potential future business.
   
5. Obsolete Market: One of the hardest parts to determining when to host a trade show or seminar is to position the event around when the market is in the purchasing or information gathering process of the buying cycle. For example, firms are often short on budgetary means during the end of the 4th quarter, and therefore a purchase regarding new software or hardware technologies may be limited, as well as the decision making process may not be relevant until the latter part of quarter 1. With the holidays in mind and purchases being short, planning an event in late November or December may not be the best option for your firm.

The Downside of Data

In the past few years, TSL Marketing (formerly Technology Sales Leads) has been speaking with a number of people regarding data. What we have found, is that the majority of our clients, partners, or prospects are consistently having a problem with lists. Whether this issue is related to list acquisition, list development, or even list accuracy, the same issue has consistently been brought to our attention: What can I possibly do to make my data more accurate and drive better results?

Before discussing HOW to obtain better data, we first wanted to look at the issue at hand. Why is obtaining the right data so important and what impact does it have when your data is partially flawed.

Take our Survey

Bad data will result in a bad campaign. The term “on time, on budget” tends to be forgotten when new data plays an integral role in campaign delivery. We find more and more individuals who spend the majority of their time getting a campaign out “on time” before they think about how bad data will result in limited results. When a list is purchased from a 3rd party vendor or developed from online sources, the accuracy becomes less tangible than if the data was custom built or continuously updated. For example, the average tenure of a CFO (according to CFO magazine) is no more than 4.3 years. The average tenure of a CIO is only 3.6 years (according to CIO-midmarket.com). Although many of these online sites mention that data is updated “monthly” or “annually” we have found quite the contrary.

TSL Marketing has spent the past year researching current 3rd party vendors and online sites to determine the accuracy of their lists. What we have found is that many of these list brokers do not sell what they offer:

1. The bounce rates are always higher than what is guaranteed. With one broker in particular, the contract promised at least 70% of the emails would be accurate… the reality was that only 40% were accurate emails and the other 60% bounced. While they were willing to give a “discount” on the next campaign, this did not help our campaign launch.
   
2. The list, when accurate, includes inaccurate data. When we tested several purchased lists, we found names with titles that had not been updated in over 10 years. For example, contacts who were once in Operations had moved to finance, and were no longer viable prospects for the lists that were purchased. We even had the embarrassing call from time to time where we had to explain why we were calling someone who had been deceased for over 5 – 10 years. Therefore, even when the emails aren’t bouncing, they are still being sent to the wrong person.

What does all this mean?

1. The time to develop a well groomed list can be 2-3 weeks minimum. This time is crucial, however, to receiving the most accurate data that can be effectively used by your sales and marketing team. Be sure to plan accordingly.
   
2. Sometimes the “fastest” turnaround time will produce the worst results. Don’t spend your time trying to be “on time,” rather than this, delay the campaign (regardless of it being an email, Webinar, or even planned seminar) to assure you are reaching the right target market.

Dedicated Data Team

Based on this research, TSL Marketing decided it was time to take this matter into our own hands by building our own dedicated data research team. Our team is comprised of data experts ranging from program managers, research developers, and data specialists all purely focused on building, maintaining, and providing data that is not only accurate, but also beneficial to your companies overall marketing effectiveness.

Contact us to learn more about our data services and learn how less bounces will provide more impact.

B2B Online Marketing Trends for 2008

Recently there has been huge hype around online marketing. With marketing budgets across the board increasingly growing into the online world... what does that really mean? Based on the ever-popular growing online market, TSL did some research to learn what will present the highest ROI in marketing online. Here is what we came up with, the top 5 online marketing trends for 2008:

1.) Optimize what? Everyone is talking about "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) but the more people we spoke with, the more we realized that as large as the SEO industry has become, it is increasingly apparent how many people are still in the dark about it. Plain and simple, 90%+ of the B2B world does all of their research online through search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc.). When you "optimize" your site, your company will most likely be one of the first links that show up under specific key term searches. With a statistic as high as 90% +, businesses really can't afford to not be investing in SEO unless all of your business comes from current customers or referrals. So take our advice, Optimize!

2.) Subject Matters! A recent study found by Jupiter Research indicates that 35% of emails are opened based on what is read in the subject line. Here are a few tips:

• Be Short (if you put too much information in the subject line, the reader no longer needs to open the email to see what is inside)
• Be Mysterious (add in something that entices the reader to want to learn more)
• Be Direct (Don't sugar coat what you are selling, nothing turns off a reader more than a false claim in the subject line)

Another study showed that including your company name (not personal name) in the subject line increases open rates anywhere from 32 - 60% based on company branding. Therefore, as much as it may seem that sending a "personal" email blast to your customers makes sense, listen to the statistics and send it from your company.

3.) Webinar vs. Seminar. By the name of this subject line you have probably already figured out this trend. That's right, the traditional road-show or seminar that B2B companies once saw great numbers and results from are diminishing fast with the rise of online marketing. While attendance rates for seminars are dropping, the rates for webinars are growing at a somewhat unbelievably increasing rate. Companies such as Gotomeeting or Webex have enabled marketers across the world to spread their message globally at minimal costs. One webinar hosted by TSL Marketing last year gained 900+ registrations and over 600+ actual attendees with less than 1 months notice! That's ROI in it's glory!

4.) When business becomes a social event. If you're thinking "how can online marketing become a social event?" you're not alone. The recent hype around social media has left many marketers wondering how you can be social without one-on-one interaction. The answer is easy: Social networking. Just like online dating, business professionals are now connecting through online sites to introduce themselves and share insight through websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Plaxo. These websites give B2B (and sometimes B2C) professionals the opportunity to introduce themselves through the world wide web and join groups of professionals like themselves. While the younger generations are spending countless hours on websites such as Myspace, we are now seeing those same hours being put into online socialization through business networks. Most of these sites are completely free and you will have the opportunity to add contacts that you may have never met in person.

5.) Blog it up! Marketing has become increasingly more difficult to differentiate oneself from the competition. So what more than to position yourself as a thought leader within your industry by incorporating a company blog. Recent trends point to online blogs as another form of social networking, however because it is not a community, the blog itself becomes more of a secondary source to effective marketing through online discussion. Blogs will also give your company a personality and your readers an opportunity to respond with questions/additional insight/etc. The cost for incorporating a blog is extremely lucrative as most blog services are free. Your competition is most likely already blogging themselves, so why not you?