Email marketing has completely transformed the landscape of business communication, and as the trend for online discounting looks set to continue, it growth as retail marketing platform will accelerate even further. But how does this translate to the business to business sector? Where as retail consumers are accustomed to being marketed to in a creative way, on the whole, entrepreneurs and professionals have far simpler needs when it comes to marketing. They are not interested in clever gimmicks and strap lines; they want to know about your product, how it will benefit their company and crucially how much it will cost them. In this post we explore how to apply the principles of a successful retail email campaign to the business to business sector.

The key to a successful email marketing in the b2b sector is to add value. For the point of company formation entrepreneurs and business owners are bombarded with emails offering products and services to their company, for your piece of communication to be heard above the noise, it must offer business intelligence and become a point of reference for all information about your sector.

Here are four tips on how your email can stand out from the crowd:
 
• Go beyond promotion. Remember that most business professionals are excellent sales people; they know all the tricks of the trade. Therefore, instead of using emails marketing merely as a sales platform use your email to inform the reader about what’s going on in your sector as a whole; how its it holding up in the recession? Are you noticing any key market trends? What is coming up in the social diary? Business professionals tend to be interested in areas outside of their sector, so let them know. They may find the inside information you provide relevant to their sector and are much more likely to open the next email, if they found the first relevant and engaging.

• Make them feel part of your business. The demographic profile of a business executive is different to that of an every day retail customer. Obvious, outside of work it may be similar, but while they are working they need to be marketed to differently. One of the best ways of doing this is making the b2b customer feel like they have a voice in your company. Tell them you value their business experience and ask them to take the time to tell you about how they experienced your brand and what can be improved. 

Begin the email by saying ‘You are one of the business executives we have chosen to take part in a business study.” Follow up the email with a summary of the results, explain the significance of the findings for business as a whole, and define how you plan to implement.

 • Be aware of aesthetics. Recent reports have show, that most b2b subscriber look at an email in the preview pane and often do not open it as a result. Try to optimise the preview pane and make it as targeted and relevant to the reader as possible

• Get mobile! A lot of business executives consume marketing on the move, therefore, it is vital that you make sure your email renders correctly for mobiles and that you include a link to the entire communication which they can bookmark and read at their own leisure.

Downloadable vouchers and online discount codes are becoming a major part of the marketing mix, but why? In this post we look at the shift in consmer behaviour that acclearted the growth of this industry and consider what it means to the recent company formation.

The culture of consumerism has changed; gone are the days where WAG’s were worshipped and flashy designer cars and designer handbags were envied. This season and – if recent reports are to be believed – for the many seasons to come ,excessive consumer spending is out and bargain shopping is in. This marked shift, has become so entrenched in our contemporary behaviour, that its is no longer considered unusual and cheap to bargain for discounts, buy from cheaper brands or use a voucher code,  it is considered intelligent and well informed.
Obviously the retail, start up business and company formation sector have been badly effected by the credit crunch, however, many of these brands are using it as a great marketing platform from which  to grow their company . It is these entrepreneurs, that will emerge from the recession profitable and strong.
 

A culture of change

Consumer behaviour evolves throughout time. It is defined by many factors, including popular culture. For example, the characters of the popular television series Sex in the City, not only endorsed, but authorized, spending a ridiculous amount of money on designer clothes and shoes.

However, this established consumer behaviour is now being challenged; online voucher codes have never been more popular, the internet is saturated with sites offering downloadable discounts and are a consequence.In all sectors, businesses and brands have become aggressive in getting their share of the ever declining rate consumer spend. However, while this hostile economic environment undoubtedly offers the business owners a challenge, it also provides them with a golden opportunity to use to discounts and promotions to attract consumers away form the competition.
Vouchers, discount codes and downloads
This shift in consumer behaviour has acted as catalyst to accelerate the rise and popularity of the online promotion industry.

Online promotion not only provides business and brands with the opportunity of growing their market share, it also presents marketeers with an interesting platform and quick route to market. Vouchers and discount codes can be used as a part of an integrated marketing plan, their effectiveness can be used to measure a campaign’s effectiveness and the results can be used to strategically inform future activity

From the point of company formation, every business owner’s main objective is generating incremental income. Marketing is vital to the success of every business. It enables you to communicate your message to existing customers and also appeal to new ones. Many small businesses ask the question ‘how do you assess the success of a marketing campaign’ and our answer is simple; does it produce business? If the answer is yes, then it is working. If the answer is no, then there is still some work to be done. In today’s post we look at the three most common marketing mistakes many small businesses make.
1. Unproductive Advertising
Many entrepreneurs define marketing as advertising and vice versa. However, there is a fundamental difference between the two disciplines and knowing could help to progress your company to profitable growth. First of all, advertising can be defined as a paid piece of promotion or communication, while marketing is the strategic planning and implementation of a range of promotional activity.
When planned and executed well, advertising can be an effective way of expanding your existing customer base. However, for many small businesses advertising is not informed by marketing insight and therefore ineffective.  Once you define the difference, it is easy to see how the two disciplines are mutually dependant and why executing advertising campaign without any marketing insight is fundamentally flawed.
2. Not understanding branding
For most customers if they want to listen to music on the move, they will buy an i-pod. But what are they actually purchasing? Is it the actual hardware or is it a brand experience and positive perception having that product will reflect on you?

Failing to understand the importance of branding is on of the fundamental marketing mistakes many small businesses make. Taking the time to define your brand value, personality and identity will revolutionise your existing marketing strategy as it will ensure you approach it in a different and more strategic way.
3. Failing to use the platforms available to you
Many entrepreneurs still have not embraced the power of online as an effective marketing tool. Not only do they prefer to concentrate their advertising around traditional – though declining – medias such as print radio, they also fail to effectively use one of the most powerful tools at their disposal – email marketing.
When used in a targeted and strategic way, email marketing can be one of the most important forms of marketing communication for your business. From market research to increasing customer loyalty, email marketing, can be used as part of your entire mix and add real value to your customer’s experience of your brand.

These are the top three mistakes a lot of small businesses make which prevents them from realising their potential and growth. While they are relatively simple, stopping doing them and concentrating on your marketing in a more strategic way will help you gain competitive advantage and sustainable growth.

The objective of any form of marketing activity is relatively simple; to communicate your company’s product or service to people and encourage them to buy from you rather than your competitors. However, as we have said on this blog, marketing is a costly endeavour and if it planned incorrectly or executed poorly, it can be at best non- productive and at worst brand damaging. The fact that Marketing can be so expensive has posed a significant challenge to the small business and company formation sector. As a result for many small businesses, their marketing efforts have been costly mistakes. In this post we show you two simple strategies that will make a significant difference to the effectiveness of your marketing.
Understanding customer retention
For most small businesses, the fundamental objective of any sort of promotional activity is to generate incremental revenue. As a consequence, small business owners, concentrate all their marketing efforts around gaining new customers. However, while this seems perfectly reasonable, it is a potentially short sighted strategy.
The best source of incremental revenue is your existing consumer base. These are the people who have developed a relationship with your brand and you have already directed significant resource into attracting them. On the whole, it is normally ten times easier to market to someone who has already bought from you than someone who is a complete stranger to the brand and proposition.
One of the key areas most small businesses overlook is customer retention. To find out if you are currently making this mistake, ask yourself the following questions;
-How often do you communicate with them?
- Do you offer any loyalty incentive?
- What would be the result, if you tripled the amount of communication you currently have with them?

While this may sound relatively simple, you would be surprised by the number of companies who overlook this basic revenue stream.
 

Explore new communication platforms
When we ask businesses, what forms of marketing they currently use, they mostly say that they use two different platforms. This could be events, public relations, newspapers, radio, direct mail or point of sale activity.

However, as the objective of all marketing activity is incremental income, why are you limiting the number of people you communicate with by only using two mediums? This is a common mistake of most small businesses and entrepreneurs who have recently entered the company formation sector; the fail to see the bigger picture.
As always, the most important element of marketing is establishing a return on investment. So why not become more integrated in your approach; if you are planning a large direct mail campaign support is it with some online activity. Similarly, if you are beginning to do some direct email encourage your existing consumers to engage with your social media activity.  After each campaign, review the activity and look at what it has contributed to the profitability of your business.