Let’s face it, economic times are hard for everyone these days, and the challenges we are confronting have just begun.
It’s never easy to do more with less and yet every B2B software marketer is up against a wall: continue to generate leads despite reductions in the budget. So, what are some guaranteed ways to do just that without breaking the bank?
Here are our top tips to help you get started…
Find a Reliable Outsourcer
The market for good resources these days is insane. Not only is it super difficult to find good people, but they all come with a hefty price tag. When you need to expand your sales and marketing team and you don’t have 6- or 7-figure budgets to invest in hiring new people in-house, finding a reliable outsourcer can absolutely do the trick to help you do more with less. The key is to find a firm with the right skill set that has a pay-per-lead business model and guaranteed lead delivery. That way ROI becomes more of a sure-fire thing than the rent-a-resource model, which gives you very little predictability over the output you are going to get for your investment. Ask for customer references or success stories during the vetting process to make sure that the firm you choose is the best fit for your business.
Pick the Channel that is Most Effective
Many marketers want to be cross and omnichannel and that’s great. However, spreading your resources thin by being present on too many channels instead of focusing on the few that bring the biggest return is a waste. Chances are your prospects are not on TikTok or doing business on Instagram. So, forget them. Focus on the ones that bring you the most followers, not on the ones that don’t. You can pick the right channels by measuring the ones you are using right now and the number of inbound inquiries you get because of them. Not sure? See what your reactivity rate is when you post something there. If you are only getting a couple of likes here and there from the same people, chances are this is not the most effective channel for your business.
Make Sure Your Data is Up-to-Date
At the foundation of any good lead generation campaign is good data. When was your data cleaned for the last time? What are the click-through rates of your email marketing campaigns? Are you seeing a lot of hard email bounces? Do you have a lot of whitespaces within your data (i.e., missing job titles that you would like to fill)? Having a good look at the current state of your database is essential to make sure that your efforts are not lost on low-quality data. It can be less expensive to run a thorough data cleanse effort on your own database (which guarantees the validity and pertinence of your prospect lists) than to purchase new data (which we NEVER recommend because of GDPR compliance issues). You can outsource this initiative or even hire interns for the summer whose job it is to call into the data you have in an effort to update it.
Adapt Your Messaging to Stay Relevant
Revising your outreach pitches (emails, LinkedIn InMails, telemarketing scripts, landing pages…) punctually to stay relevant to the times is important because messaging can quickly become outdated. I looked at some messages I wrote a year ago (when the economic context was different) and they were not at all what I would write today. Tailoring messages to your prospects mean that you understand your buyer personas inside and out and you are following trends relevant to them. Social listening is a great way to keep up on such changes; you can do that by monitoring forums and groups, as well as by looking at what your prospects are posting on social media platforms. This will give you an idea of how you can make your messages even more relevant because you are focusing on what is important to your target audience.
Conclusion
Maximizing your marketing budget means focusing on the underlying goals of your strategy while getting creative about leveraging internal resources and external help. It is absolutely possible to get more bang for less buck when you take these considerations into account.
