Number 1 – Prioritise Your Marketing
In a time of despair due to a pandemic, it’s no secret that businesses need to advertise more than ever.
Covid has affected us all, especially those in the B2B space.
- Contracts have dried up
- No new leads to pass over to your sales team
- Phones aren’t ringing like they used to
- Old opportunities have gone stale, unable to be recovered
We understand if marketing isn’t #1 on your priority list coming out of COVID. You might have stopped marketing altogether, using that extra budget in other places of your business.
We don’t blame you.
But let me tell you that marketing shouldn’t be seen as an expense, rather an investment to the recovery of your Industrial business out of COVID.
Henry Ford once said – “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time “
He’s right.
He and many other great businessmen all share the same thought and here’s why.
1. It stops your competition from gaining momentum within your marketplace.
2. You’re being proactive rather than waiting for the market to recover. Which may never happen. Then you will be in a much worse position than you are now
3. You can instil trust within your audience to reignite your buyers confidence, making them feel comfortable enough to start spending money again.
You might be saying…
“Hey Seb and Nik, that’s great but it’s very easy to tell someone to prioritise their marketing when you don’t have to worry about the thousands of dollars needing to be spent on something that may or may not work.
Not to mention the time wasted on testing new messages to market, new verticals and new platforms.”
We get it, however…
The only way in which can avoid these problems is by knowing exactly who your target market is.
This is why we have put together a Template named “The B2B Discovery Exercise” that will help help you identify who your ideal customer is so that you can have the confidence in prioritising your marketing in a time like today.
Our Industrial Discovery exercise (B2B Businesses) will help you
- Minimise the initial outlay of cost you need to spend when getting started
- Shorten the testing phase, so you can achieve results faster
- Nail the platform you advertise on, helping you find quality leads
- Get a strong message to market
- Generate leads to fill your pipeline
The Exercise contains templates that will help you
A. Laser in on who your ideal customer is – Create mini avatars of the ones who will bring you the most value even in these current times
B. Uncover the most relevant, agitating problems they are struggling with – the reasons why they may be looking for a solution like yours
C. The best ways in which you can get your message to the market – which platforms are best suited for finding your ideal customers and are the most cost-effective for your business
Just so you know, this template is a more condensed version of an exercise we use here at MarketingLab, during a one-day workshop that is only offered to clients of ours.
You can grab it at the bottom of this post.
Number 2 – Create Your Own Tradeshows & Networking Events
Tradeshows & networking events took a massive hit in 2020/21 due to COVID.
For many Industrial businesses, these events were heavily relied upon for several reasons
1. To generate new leads
2. To educate their market
3. Staff to be educated by leaders in the market
4. Spy on competition
5. To get a good feel of what’s currently available and what’s to come within the industry
Those that relied entirely on this type of marketing are now looking for new ways to fill their pipeline full of leads without the help of these events.
There’s no doubt that Industrial businesses are still going to NEED to network moving forward.
But the way in which your business networks will be completely different.
Here’s how you can utilise that Tradeshow budget and network in 2021.
Industrial businesses should be aiming to host more of their own trade show events either virtually or live within their business premises.
Virtual events require you to pre-record the event or live stream it on YouTube or Facebook through your business page.
Live events require you to invite important guests out to your business premises and showcase your products or services in a private, learning environment.
Here’s why you should consider hosting events like these.
- Build strong, valuable relationships with your existing audience and new audiences within your market
- Showcase your product by demonstrating how it can solve X, Y, Z
- Network without the competition that you would normally get at trade shows and events
- Build a private network of valuable prospects that you continuously host events for
We are well aware that hosting events is a lot easier said than done. I know because Nikolas’ mum is a marketing events manager.
He’s seen her extremely stressed out when planning events like these, and she’s a professional in her field.
So I can imagine why you might feel reserved when considering hosting one for your business.
Don’t make any decisions just yet, we might be able to settle your nerves.
In the past, we’ve helped many clients build a framework that they now regularly use to host events throughout the year.
Here’s a framework we built for a 3D printing company.
This 3D printing company offers members from its private network, the opportunity to come in and experience their 3D Printing technology first hand within their warehouse.
This type of networking strategy has proven to be very successful for this company, selling more of their high-end 3D printers that range from $20,000 to $500,000.
So now you can see just how powerful these types of events are.
What I just showed you above is a complete framework for a live event, which would take you quite some time to implement.
A much less time-consuming and more cost-effective solution for your business would be to host a virtual event.
To get you up and running as soon as possible, we’ve created a virtual event template that is completely done for you.
This template breaks down how to host a virtual event, frame by frame, and instructs you on what you need to do, how long you need to do it for and what sequence it should be filmed in.
There’s no thinking required, we’ve literally done it all for you.
All that is required from you is to populate it with your material and you’ve created a powerful, evergreen asset that is geared to sell your products or services.
Here’s what you can expect from our Virtual Event Template
- Frame by frame guide on how to create & run a virtual event (start to finish)
- Winning Format you can follow that will increase your chances of closing sales by 30%
- Clear steps on when to teach, sell, educate and motivate your audience so they are engaged throughout your entire event.
You can grab this Virtual Event Template along with the Industrial Discovery Exercise at the bottom of this post.
Number 3 – Instilling Trust Within Your Audience To Reignite Buyers Confidence
Not only did COVID have major effects on Industrial businesses, it completely changed the way their consumers shopped.
Your customers experienced a major shift during COVID. Here’s an image to help explain what I mean.
Prior to COVID, your consumers would have been spread within the top 3 tiers of the pyramid.
They are:
- Self-actualisation
- Self-esteem
- Social belonging.
When consumers are in these three stages they are actively spending money.
Spending money on themselves, their business, new investments etc.
When COVID hit, consumers instantly dropped into survival mode.
Those who were sitting at the top jumped down into the psychological and safety needs tiers.
With reference to the image, you can clearly see what these consumers were willing to spend their money on when dropping into these 2 tiers.
Emotional Security
Housing
Health and Finance
Food
Water etc.
Any other purchasing decision that didn’t fit into one of these categories (AKA your goods and services), would simply be forgotten about.
Why?
The only things they would consider spending money on is what they NEEDED rather than what they WANTED.
So how do you get your prospects to think and feel that your product or service is a NEED rather than a WANT, even in these current times?
TRUST!
Building trust with a consumer online can be a tricky process.
It’s like trying to establish a friendship and never actually meeting the person.
Trust is the way in which you can help your prospect regain their buyer’s confidence.
So how do you do that?
By serving your prospect relevant information to their situation so they feel comfortable enough to move down through each stage of their buyer’s journey, closer to making a purchasing decision.
So what is a Buyers Journey?
In a nutshell, a Buyers Journey is a virtual path your prospect follows when in the market for a product or service.
The Buyers Journey consists of 5 key stages your typical customer will go through when making a purchasing decision
- Awareness – your prospect is realising they have some kind of problem or opportunity
- Interest – your prospect has given name to their discovery and is on the hunt for information
- Consideration – your prospect has collected all available brands, products, people and solutions within the market and is now comparing them.
- Purchase – your prospect is at the pivotal point where they will turn into a paying customer
- Post Purchase -your prospect now has the opportunity to become an on-going customer of your business
Prior to COVID, your entire market would have been split within these 5 stages.
Now, your entire audience is back to Stage 1. The Awareness stage.
They have forgotten you, your business, your products/service and more importantly what problems or opportunities you can help them with.
Here’s how you can build trust with your audience again.
You simply need to remind your prospect about what problems or opportunities they have (possibly changed due to COVID) and how you help them achieve the desired outcome.
So what’s the quickest and most cost-effective way to do this?
You can do this by creating assets, disguised in the form of Blogs, Guides, Reports, Whitepapers, Videos & Brochures that provide your prospect with relevant and valuable information to help them make a better purchasing decision.
The information serve must do two things
1. Be relevant to where they are in their buying cycle – In this case, it’s the Awareness Stage. You are helping them discover a new problem or opportunity.
2. Educate them – on how you can help them achieve a desired outcome by using your product or services.
When this is done correctly, you instill trust within your prospect, giving them the confidence to move into the next stage of their buyer’s journey, until they become a paying customer.
To help you instill trust within your audience, we’ve created a template that will allow you to build Blog Articles that serve valuable information to prospects who are in the Awareness Stage.
All you need to do is simply fill in the blanks.
This template will help you build instant trust with your audience, allowing them to move into Stage 2 of their buying cycle, closer to becoming a paying customer.
Here’s a great tip for when you are using this Blog Template –
To make your blog post really powerful, include the problems or opportunities you discover from the Industrial Discovery Exercise.
Grab this template, along with the other two at the bottom of this post.
Quick Recap
To quickly recap, here are the 3 things your Industrial business needs to be doing to recover, restore and fill its pipeline full of quality leads post-COVID.
1. Prioritise Your Marketing
- It stops your competition from gaining momentum within your marketplace.
- You’re being proactive rather than waiting for the market to recover, which may never happen. If so you will be in a much worse position than you are now
- You can instill trust within your audience to reignite your buyer’s confidence, making them feel comfortable enough to start spending money again.
2. Create Your Own Tradeshows & Networking Events
- Build strong, valuable relationships with your existing audience and new audiences within your market
- Showcase your product by demonstrating how it can solve X, Y, Z
- Network without the competition that you would normally get at trade shows and events
- Build a private network of valuable prospects that you continuously host events for
3. Instilling Trust Within Your Marketing Place To Reignite Buyers Confidence
- It shaves off half the time it would take your prospect to make a purchasing decision
- They will only consider purchasing from your business when they are ready to buy
- You arm them with the information they need to make a better purchasing decision so they can achieve their desired outcome
How To Get Your Hands On These Templates + Video Series?
All you need to do is fill out the form below and you will receive the following
- Industrial Discovery Exercise
- Virtual Event Template
- Blog Post Template
- Video Training Series
If you have any troubles with viewing the material or have any further questions please drop it into our inbox.
Have a great day.
