If you own a business that provides a product or a service, you already know that customers are your most important asset. Without customers, the utility or features of your product are a secondary concern. Of course, you need to make sure that you are providing real value to your target demographic, but you first need to develop a strong customer base.
Finding new customers is not just a long-term goal, it’s a continuous process. In order to develop and maintain a group of loyal customers, you need to continually seek out new customers while maintaining your relationship with the ones you have already reached.
The key to achieving this goal is direct action. Business-to-business marketing is a tool that you can use to get your marketing materials into the hands of the people who are searching for business solutions. Once you reach that stage, the merits of your product or service can stand on their own. Here are five actionable steps that you can take to locate and contact the customers that your business needs to thrive.
1. Reach Out
There are many people who feel that direct mail is outdated. After all, we have so many new and sleek ways to contact other people that email and traditional mail may seem almost pointless.
The truth is that many people still treat their mailbox and their inbox as primary forms of communication. This is especially true when it comes to business-to-business communications. Sure, social media is fantastic for keeping up with old friends but it’s less well-suited for distributing marketing materials or scheduling conferences.
Email and traditional mail are still tried-and-true methods for contacting new customers for business-to-business products and services.
Business-to-business mail, whether it is digital or traditional, can help widen your customer base. You just need to obtain a mailing list from a reputable provider and then start brainstorming ideas for you next marketing campaign.
2. Diversify
When you’re searching for new customers, resist the temptation to put all of your efforts into one single strategy. For example, your business-to-business mail efforts can catch the attention of potential customers and get them to visit your website or sign up for your newsletter. If they arrive at your website and see that it hasn’t been updated in a decade or that your newsletter only comes once a year, you need to rethink your strategy.
Your email and traditional mail marketing can take you a long way but they shouldn’t be your only marketing tools. You also need a sleek, interactive website that is frequently updated with valuable, action-oriented content. You need a useful, engaging newsletter that delivers substantial information to subscribers like clockwork. You need an active and regularly updated social media presence to provide solutions to your customers at any time, from any location.
Make sure that all of your marketing bases are covered so that one weak area does not hold you back.
3. Attract In
Marketing strategies that are customer-facing are an essential, but not the only, component of a successful outreach plan. You also need to provide ways to drive new customers to your online presence.
These can be included in your current B2B email setup with a few small changes. For example, in a promotional email or in your next newsletter installment you can invite readers to check out your blog or social media profiles for continual updates. The idea is to attract as much attention from potential clients as possible so that their online engagement with your brand creates additional interest.
Also make sure to take charge of your search engine optimization. You need to be creating and posting content and new updates on a regular basis so that search engines will drive more traffic your way.
4. Use A Personal Touch
Even if you have already created a steady stream of useful, actionable content in your B2B email channels, you need to be ready to stand behind that content. At some point, customers are absolutely going to engage with that content in the form of questions or requests for more information. Some customers may be ready to buy or sign up after a single email while others may take a bit longer to convince. You need to be ready to respond in either case.
Responding means more than sending a follow-up email. You need to really connect with your customers to find out how your product or service is working for them and how you can resolve any issues that they might have.
Finding great customers is not just about sending the right business-to-business mail. It’s about creating a support network that helps customers along the way as they interact with your product or service.
5. Establish Your Authority and Expertise
This technique can help you attract new customers through direct contact and through passive attraction. If you are selling a product or service, you need to be an authority about that product or service and its related products. You need to know the competition as well as yourself. You should be prepared to have a useful answer to provide for any question that a customer asks.
Once you have that knowledge, you need to advertise it. In addition to using social media and newsletters, consider starting a blog, hosting a podcast or webcast or creating a channel on a streaming video service. Use these platforms to generate unique content that will provide answers and information while associating your brand with expertise and quality. You’ll help to build your authority and reputation while also directly engaging with customers on a wide scale.
If you’re tired of seeing your marketing efforts slump as you try to find new customers, you need to follow a plan. The steps outlined above are not the only way to success but they will help you get a firm foundation for boosting your business-to-business mail marketing efforts. Thoughtful application of the steps in this article can help you get one step closer to improving your marketing and attracting more customers.
