Take a look at these two opening paragraphs for a lead-generation letter. Which one do you think got the best results?

Opening A:

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, over half a million American homes are robbed every year. Here’s how to avoid becoming one of them.

Opening B:

I never thought it would happen to us. We came home to find our front door open, snow blowing into the house, many of our prized possessions gone. I felt sick to my stomach. And I couldn’t stop thinking, “What if the children had been home?”

If you guessed “B”, you’re right. It generated far more qualified leads, closes, and sales than the letter with the first opening. It continued to beat test after test in sales of a high-end home security system. In fact, it remained the company’s lead-generation control for twelve years.

If you think about it for a minute, it’s easy to guess why the second approach worked better than the first. It’s emotional. It tells a story. It paints a vivid picture. It’s designed to resonate with the target audience of homeowners with families. While the first opening has important facts, the second implies a burning question—what happened next?—that keeps people reading. And it sparks an additional question — what would I have done? — that can light the fire of action.

(There’s one more detail hidden in that opening paragraph that contributed mightily to our success—an intentional counter to an objection we discovered in focus groups. More on that later.)

What’s less obvious is that a variation of this approach works just as well for B2B lead-generation, including to technical audiences, as it does for homeowners. Because while a very great deal of ad messaging to B2B and tech audiences is couched in no-nonsense business language, and focuses on a straightforward presentation of features and benefits, what’s often forgotten is that the recipients are still people.

They still have fears, concerns, worries, wishes, and hopes. They still have emotions. They can still imagine themselves in scenarios that resonate with them. Most of all, people love stories—and they remember them.

In the Venn diagram of target audiences, it’s even possible that the target of this home security letter could also be the target of your tech B2B lead-generation at work. They have different priorities and concerns at the office. At home, they might be afraid of a break-in. At work, they’re more likely to be afraid of losing their job. But they’re not different human beings.

We tend to think of tech and business decision-makers in terms of their role, and speak to them in a way that’s focused primarily on what we’re selling. But ad copy is much more effective when we remember that they are people, first and foremost.

That’s why a five-step approach to B2B lead-generation creative (“creative” is the collective name for marketing words, images, video, etc.) usually works much better than plain-vanilla business-speak. It’s a thoughtful, methodical process that requires a deeper dive into research, the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and a little time to think about it and develop non-obvious ideas. But it’s a small upfront investment in exchange for greater lead-generation success.

Here are the steps:

1. Understand the pain points of each stakeholder, and speak to them.

It’s not just about knowing what’s different between the pressures on a tech decision-maker, a business decision-maker, and an end-user. It’s also understanding what’s different about each of those roles in their industry.

For instance, the most important benefits of a development platform for a tech decision-maker in the international banking industry may be its ability to offer both scale and speed. For a tech decision-maker choosing a CMS platform, the most important benefits may be that it’s robust and user-friendly, so that they won’t have to spend time on troubleshooting, training, and support. For the marketing, sales, and product teams that need to use the CMS, the idea of getting more done in less time might seem appealing, but in testing, it turns out to be almost three times as effective if you can show them that a product’s features and ease of use mean that overworked people will have less to do.

2. Realize that the tech that makes a product special may not be the first thing that captures attention.

It might be a particular architecture that makes an application revolutionary, but it’s usually the benefit of that innovation that grabs attention.

For example, when a data-optimization application sent out an upgrade notice to users that highlighted its fantastic new algorithm, it got barely a 7% response. When we changed the message to, “If you wouldn’t run your car without a gas gauge, then you shouldn’t run your computer without this”, we got a 42% response. The algorithm was still an important detail to support the claim, but a lot more people got past the envelope with the other message.

Choosing a concept that captures imagination is more important to achieving the first action—getting the reader to keep going is more important than talking about the key attributes of your product.

In consumer marketing, a system that taught children to play the piano is another good example of how this principle works. The magic that made the application innovative included a renowned piano teacher and programming that customized lessons on the fly to suit each child’s skills and progress.

However, that wasn’t what sold it to parents. What sold it to parents was the idea that their child could use the system independently, meaning that parents could let their child play on a device for an hour a day, unsupervised, without guilt, because they were learning something.

Magic that made it work: Renowned teacher, advanced algorithm.
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What parents wanted: Peace and quiet, a guilt-free computer game for their kids.
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What kids wanted: fun on a computer.
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What caught attention: Ducks.

Grab attention, tell a story, captivate both parents and children, sell a lot of piano-teaching systems.

But wait, there’s more…

The parent, in this case, acted as the IT decision-maker of the family. They assessed the value of the piano-training application and determined whether it suited the needs of the end-user, i.e. their child.

But like IT decision-makers everywhere, parents knew that their purchase would be wasted if it wasn’t implemented. What worked to make that argument wasn’t the advanced technology or the award-winning piano teacher. Nor was it the appealing prospect of an hour of blessed peace each day while their child learned.

What made the parents confident that they could overcome the implementation hurdle was a demonstration of a single lesson that had an animated shooting gallery. Every time a child hit a note on the electronic keyboard correctly, a duck quacked and fell over. While it was a lot of fun, the developer considered it relatively unimportant.

If a parent showed that demonstration to the child, and the child wanted to play, the parent could be confident of implementation, justifying the purchase. For some kids, the game was so appealing that they begged their parents for the system. At that point, they weren’t just end-users. The children became influencers or advocates, driving demand.

Now that you know the background, you will not be at all surprised to learn that the best-performing ad for this product lead with the game, made the quality-of-life argument to the parent, and used the tech and the expert as supporting points to inspire trust in the purchase.

That wasn’t the first thing the client was expecting. It wasn’t what they’d done before, or anything like what their competitors did. But it was very effective, because it presented the product’s features and benefits in a way that made it uniquely valuable to the target audience.

You may have noticed that the message that became the lead was actually the last one in the chain. We turned it upside-down to get to the bit that got everyone’s attention. Think about your own product or service and see if there’s a piece at the end of the chain that you should make top-of-mind:

What makes your product or service unique?
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What do primary decision-makers want most?
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What do other stakeholders want most?
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When you demonstrate or talk about your product or service, what captures attention first?

3. Shape your pitch into a story that resonates.

While benefits are important, too often, marketing messages are simply lists of those benefits, presented without context. Marketers assume that target audiences will fill in the blanks about the problems that those benefits solve from their own experience.

We shouldn’t. When we use language that includes cues about prospects’ specific challenges, we’re reducing the audience’s mental load, eliminating barriers to the buying decision, and signaling that we “get” them. Doing that in a story triggers memory, engages experience, and builds trust. Doing that for a development platform doubled their response rate in a single email. When we did it to promote a paid training conference for IT network managers, we cut off a planned six-touch program to three—because after the third touch, the conference was at capacity.

I recently told a 62-word story on the social media platform, Threads, about a simple encounter at a Target store. In 24 hours, it got more than 100k views, over 13,300 likes, and scores of comments and shares. What made it special? Nothing much, except that it was told in a way that resonated with readers and captured their imaginations.

4. Be surprising.

Surprise makes you stand out from the competition, it makes you memorable, partly because human beings love being surprised.

If your competitors are all using the color blue, their tone is serious, straightforward business language, and their stock photos are all of people in meetings, use any other color, try a livelier, conversational tone, and develop more interesting images.

For example, what happens when you need to address an oversaturated audience of IT managers about network products and services? They hear the same messages about your competitors every day, but you want to get, and keep, their attention. For one client, we invented a persona of an IT manager who imagined the schematics of his network as a train map, created some romantic travel images with simple objects on a desk (passport, vintage camera, etc.), and sent out a series of messages offering a sweepstakes prize of a trip on the Orient Express. We tested it against a series that offered a sweepstakes prize of an expensive bundle of network appliances. The train trip beat the network bundle handily.

All it took to make that leap was a little time, some imagination, and thinking differently from industry norms.

Using travel maps as a metaphor for networking systems, to an audience of IT professionals, is not obvious. But a fresh and unusual approach made the offer stand out and get results.

5. Test.

All of the results mentioned above came about through testing—knowing your baseline, trying something new, and refining the process until you get results you can roll out, repeat, and build upon. Your short-term goal is to meet your immediate needs for qualified leads and conversions, of course. But at the same time you’re doing that, you can and should be building a portfolio of ideas and approaches that can make future efforts easier and more efficient.

Now for the hidden detail in the home-security story.

It’s this sentence: “What if the children had been home?” On a surface level, that detail packs an emotional punch just for its content—the idea of children in danger is always going to strike an emotional chord for most adults.

But this one had an additional layer of meaning, and I included it, intentionally, because of something we’d discovered in focus groups.

Where the women in our groups saw a home-security system as a practical, simple way to ensure peace of mind, the men in those same groups saw it as acknowledgement of failure of their own abilities to protect their families, and were very reluctant to consider them.

Further, although many of them were away from home frequently for work, when they thought of their families in general, or their spouses in particular, the men still thought they were the best defense against home invasion or other disaster. But when they thought about their children being home when they (the men) weren’t there, their thinking about a home security system shifted. Then it became something that they were providing to protect their kids from afar, part of a role they very much wanted to play. They went from resistance to acceptance.

We would never have learned that without that research, and would never have applied it had not members of the creative team been in the room when it was done.

Sales reps had been struggling to overcome that objection for years. All it took was one sentence in a story to plant the seed, and giving reps messaging to use during sales calls, to do the trick for a large percentage of their prospects.

Michelle LaPointe is an award-winning copywriter, creative director, and video producer who frequently collaborates with the lovely people and clients at Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Graphics and image credits: Michelle LaPointe, Envato Elements

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Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., a full service direct and online marketing agency, is selected by Infoworks to write and design new eGuide content on how to deploy big data projects in weeks, not months with automated data lake creation and management from Infoworks. Beasley will provide the copy concept, full copy, and illustrations for design—plus email copy and the list for promoting the eGuide.

About Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including: content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc., helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com.

About Infoworks

Infoworks agile data engineering platform automates and accelerates analytics projects through the company’s Autonomous Data Engine. Using a code-free environment, Infoworks allows organizations to quickly consolidate enterprise data and create and manage data workflow processes from data ingest to analytics. Infoworks supports cloud, multi-cloud, and premise-based solutions, enabling customers to deploy projects to production within days, dramatically increasing business agility and accelerating time-to-value. The company counts some of the world’s largest financial, retail, technology, healthcare, oil & gas, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies in the Fortune 100 and Global Fortune 500 as its customers. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Palo Alto, the company is funded by NEA, Nexus Venture Partners, Centerview Capital Technology, and Knoll Ventures.

Do you need assistance determining your lead funnel requirements to hit your sales goals? We can help. Request a free Sales Funnel consultation here.

For digital marketing case studies, go here.

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Electronic media is easy to track. However, it’s unforgiveable not to know how your marketing efforts are performing and how hard your dollars are working. This is especially true when it comes to landing page testing and analysis for performance.

As with any medium, you need to track not only how many people clicked to the page but how many registered. Then you need to track how many of those turned into leads and ultimately sales. A low initial response may still pay for itself with high conversions for a high ticket product or service. If you use outbound telemarketing to support your campaigns, that should be factored in as well. Conversions from these calls are typically higher when the prospect remembers seeing the campaign and/or the telesales rep can refer them to it while they’re on the phone.

What to include in Landing Page Testing

Here are some of the landing page components worth testing (see example below):

• First, the Offer (always our top testing recommendation)
• Headline (will benefit win over pain point?)
• Primary graphics (user imagery vs your offer vs your product, perhaps)
• Form fields (both how many and what information is requested)
• Call to action (including the design and text in your button)
• Long vs short copy (short usually wins, but not always)
• Testimonials (whether to use, placement, one quote vs another)
• Guarantees, third party validation through reviews or seals of approval
• Social sharing icons (these can generate additional leads, but they can also cause web visitors to click away from your landing page before registering)

A/B and Multivariate Testing

You can test landing page elements one at a time with A/B testing (50% of your readers see the “A” page, 50% see the “B” page), or use multivariate testing to swap out elements according to an algorithm until the best performing landing page emerges. Then, because audiences and market conditions are constantly changing, continue to test over time.

Ask Us!

Ask us for a FREE critique of the landing pages for your current campaign. We’ll review them against landing page testing best practices, congratulate you for the things you’re doing right, and give you tips if appropriate to make your landing pages work even harder. To get started, fill out our contact form.

The post How to Conduct Landing Page Testing and Analysis for Performance. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

Designing and writing a landing page is like setting a trap for your prospect, in a nice way. You want to entice them in, encourage them to go deeper, and once they’re inside make it virtually impossible to get out without taking the desired action.

Direct the prospect through creative design:

• Match the colors, font and other design elements of the ad that got them here so they know they’ve come to the right place. (This isn’t always relevant; for instance Google AdWords Text Ads are all text, so no formatting.)
• Use eyeflow design to pull the reader to one key image (usually a depiction of the offer) and place call to action copy next to it as soon as they reach the page.
• Repeat the call to action multiple times so it’s easy to respond when they’re ready.

Copy should be brief, but compelling:

• Be BRIEF in describing the offer, especially if they’ve already read about it in an ad or email that caused them to click through. Repeating what they already know will lull them to sleep or, more likely, bore them so they’ll click away.
• If it’s free, say so, multiple times. Repeat the selling proposition that brought them here. If you’re fulfilling Google AdWords ads, consider matching headlines to the keywords in the ad.


The Nomadic Systems landing page copies the design and color palette of the Nomadic website home page. But, omits internal links which would allow a curious prospect to click away without registering.

• Use bullets if you have room to highlight the benefits of the offer they’re about to accept. This is often done in a sidebar so it doesn’t get in the way of core selling content.
• Use benefit/reward language in buttons such as “Get my FREE report” vs just “SUBMIT”.
• Include testimonials and guarantees to reassure that there’s absolutely no negative consequence to taking the desired action.

And about that all-important OFFER:

You absolutely need an offer on your landing page because you’ve agreed to a quid pro quo. You’re going to “reward” people for their time in learning your selling proposition. Landing pages without offers are destined to be very poor conversion vehicles which don’t come close to paying for themselves.

An informational offer is usually the best way to incent people for business-to-business lead generation landing pages. These readers need information to do their jobs properly, so give it to them in the form of white papers, third party analysis, webinars, videos, fact sheets or all the above (since you never know what informational format is most appealing to a given audience). An info offer should actually be informative. Don’t promise a fact kit or industry analysis, and instead load them up with sales material.

“Freebie” offers include actual merchandise giveaways, either directly or through entrance in a sweepstakes. These are far less prevalent than they were at one time, because they tend to produce many unqualified leads (who responded for the giveaway, not because they are interested in your product). However, there are exceptions to every rule and a high-value offer, carefully targeted, will cause the right prospect to go to considerable lengths to get the reward.

Limited time offers should be used in addition to, not instead of, other offers. Especially if it’s a merchandise offer, the sense of urgency in a temporary discount or a today-only add-on item will give prospects a reason to make a decision. Even if it’s a webinar, you can let people know attendance is limited, first come, first served; if it’s an analyst paper perhaps you have authorization to distribute only a certain number and no more.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. We are a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She also instructs online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Our agency brings the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

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A landing page is the gateway to your site—the first thing a visitor sees after they find you through a search or click on a link you’ve provided. Make a positive impression here, and you’re on your way to a lead, a sale, even a long-term relationship. Fail and you’ve lost an opportunity since it’s all too easy for a disinterested or confused web visitor to click away. This hands-on guide will help you make the right impression, every time.

There are several different scenarios in which a landing page can exist

These scenarios depend on what brought your visitor here and their intent when they arrive at your site:

1. A brand landing page (typically your home page).

Beasley’s home page provides an easy-to-find phone number and a free consultation offer, plus a lineup of informational resources below the fold.

Your prospect has done a search for your company or for the product or service you provide. It is fine to devote your home page to a statement of your unique selling proposition or mission statement, but you should also provide easy-to-find opportunities for engagement. And, since you don’t know where the prospect is in the buyer’s journey, these might include case studies or fact sheets for researchers, or free trials and contact information for more serious buyers.

2. A search marketing landing page.

This is what the prospect sees when they click on a Google, Bing or display ad. The #1 consideration is to echo the promise/offer/benefit statement that brought them here, and make the call to action easy to complete.

The Netflix landing page echoes the key benefits in the lead source copy while Blockbuster’s page makes no mention of “same online service, same price” as promised in the ad. We all know how this competitive struggle played out.

3. A lead conversion landing page.

A typical business-to-business landing page, with the email that brought them here. The target was a list of NetApp prospects who’d given their contact previously and you’ll notice they are not asked it again, since it’s already contained in the marketing automation system.

You’ve marketed to the prospect through direct mail, email, an infomercial or other contact and they’ve nibbled at the bait. Now you need to convince them that it’s worth providing their contact information in order to access a white paper or appropriate offer. (But not always: increasingly, website cookies allow you to track a visitor without asking them for information directly.)

4. An e-commerce or retail landing page.

This conversion page for a wrinkle cream includes a guarantee, third party endorsement, limited time offer and, for those who need more selling, product information below the fold.

As consumers become more confident about buying online, it’s increasingly likely they will arrive at your landing page ready to place an order. The landing page needs to include all the components necessary to facilitate that process including credibility-building, objection-killing testimonials or reviews, a limited time offer, and a link to your shopping cart. It may or may not show price since, if you include the price, that’s the first (and perhaps only) consideration prospects will evaluate in making a buying decision.

TIP: If your business depends heavily on lead generation, you might consider making your home page an actual landing page. This Chase Online page is heavily oriented toward helping consumers choose a credit card; existing customers must sign in through a small link at the top.

Ready to get started optimizing your landing pages?

Here are five steps you can take to make your landing pages more effective and more productive — starting today:

1. Look at a few of your pages on a mobile device. If they look like dollhouse versions of your desktop pages, get the help of a responsive design developer immediately.

2. Make sure your landing pages have a clear call to action. If not, rewrite the copy immediately.

3. Make sure you are testing more than one offer. If not, review your library of white papers and resources and come up with fresh options. You can even combine multiple documents (including sales sheets) to create a “Solutions Kit” with high perceived value.

4. If you use forms on your landing pages, analyze the fields and see if everything is absolutely essential. If these requests came from your sales team or another department, ask them what they’re doing with the information. Then consider testing shorter forms, and tracking the results.

5. Ask Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. for a FREE critique of the landing pages for your current campaign. We’ll review them against best practices, congratulate you for the things you’re doing right, and give you tips if appropriate to make your landing pages work even harder. To get started, fill out our contact form.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. We are a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She also instructs online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Our agency brings the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. We help clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How to Optimize Your Landing Pages for More Sales and More Leads. appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

The ABC Glove Corporation (not the real name) is a leader in the field of industrial gloves. The average value of a new customer account to ABC is high -— around $50,000 per customer per year. The target contact is a decision maker in safety, operations or purchasing within metal manufacturing industries.
ABC’s ambitious goal was to gain $2.5 million in incremental sales. The corporation’s marketing department tried everything: pay-per-click advertising, email, tradeshows and more -—-but could not acquire enough qualified sales leads to hit this target. ABC called us in to help them take a fresh and more productive approach that would result in more appointments for the sales department.

First, we identified the sales-ready “A” lead criteria based on their selling process and marketplace. Then we did some simple, back-of-the-napkin analysis of the needs of the lead-to-sales funnel. Based on the estimations of the vice president of marketing, we found that achieving an incremental $2.5 million in annual sales at $50,000 per sale meant they would have to close 50 new sales in a year. At a 20% proposal close rate, they needed 250 qualified sales opportunities in the proposal stage. At a 25% conversion rate (qualified sales-ready A leads to proposal rate), ABC needed 1,000 “Qualified A” leads in the sales team pipeline. And the conversion rate of marketing inquiry level (MQL) leads to sales-ready A leads is 10%. The bottom line: ABC Corporation needed 10,000 MQLs in the top of the demand generation funnel process to be able to hit their incremental sales target.

Why Wouldn’t Email Alone Work?

The VP of marketing estimated that on the high end, the available universe of contacts in companies in metal manufacturing was roughly 7,500. If ABC emailed all 7,500 and got a 1% inbound response, that would equal 75. If 50% of those leads filled out a form, that would result in 35 marketing-level MQL leads. ABC would have to email to this list at least 285 times to get the 10,000 marketing-level leads in the pipeline. (But it is unlikely that every email would result in a 1% inbound response as the response rates from this small audience would decline over time.) So email alone could not achieve the sales goals.

Multi-Touch and Multi-Channel Solution

Under the conditions of this small but highly valuable target market, we determined that ABC needed a much higher lead-to-sale conversion process to meet their sales goals. We recommended a multi-touch and multi-channel sequence of email and tele-prospecting. This would result in actual appointments being made for the sales department.

We normally recommend testing different approaches with a small sample of prospects to see which approach stimulates the highest response level. In this case, we tested two offers. A book about physical safety in the metal manufacturing environment versus the offer of a free pair of gloves. The VP of marketing suggested the offer of a free pair of gloves because in his experience, the prospect would request a sample pair in any case, so he felt this would short-circuit the process to some degree. We were less certain, as we have found in the past that a free sample sometimes feels like too much of a commitment early in the relationship. We also tested two lists, an in-house list versus a rental list.

The test showed that the appeal of the offer was about equal between the gloves and the book. (We went with the gloves for the roll out campaign). Both lists performed equally well.

The Multi-Touch Lead Nurturing Process Involved:

Initial email campaign.

• Initial call (left voice message or in some accounts we must be directed to proper contact).
• Call to engage new contact in the value prop and offers.
• Email to the correct contact, and or email content as requested to support our dialog.
• Call to complete the value prop and offer conversation, listen to needs and pain points and gather those critical data points into the lead qualification script-record, and if qualified, close on ABC sales rep appointment.

Marketing collateral for Glove Company campaign.

We often find it takes seven to thirteen touches to deliver a sales-ready lead. In this case, the average number of touches was 4.28. Why did our campaign for ABC require so few touches? The answer is embedded in our multi-touch best practices:

Have a good list (few incorrect contacts).

• Develop creative that captures hearts and minds and have follow up content and dialog to support it.
• Offer something of high perceived value.
• Optimize the value proposition delivery by adding tele-prospecting to the mix. This creates a personal relationship with the prospect. Remember: people buy from people, and prospects don’t share their qualifying pain points on lead forms.

We were able to generate enough qualified sales appointments to help them meet their additional $2.5 million sales goal, and we taught them how to sustain this level of growth year over year.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

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This is a successful meeting maker campaign that includes an appeal to emotions, multiple touches, and a carefully designed offer. The call to action was to set up an appointment for Sales. We were marketing to engineers — always a tough sell because of their skepticism. We sought to persuade them to consider replacing a tried-and-true instrument with something they may not even have heard of. Our team did this not by leading with product features. Instead, we pulled on their heartstrings — reliving a recent event in which engineers were heroes because of the quality of their instruments and their work.

Background:

Anritsu’s VectorStar Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is used to measure microwave and mm-wave frequencies in design, testing and manufacture of electronic components where extreme accuracy is required. A new model leapfrogged the competition in features and performance, providing the opportunity to generate sales leads through a multi-channel marketing campaign.

Electrical engineers (EE) are the primary audience for this campaign. They think in a methodical way and demand proof of product claims. Engineers require detailed specs and technical information to make a buying decision. They are not at all impressed by marketing copy and claims unsubstantiated by statistics.

The Challenge: Marketing to Engineers

Anritsu’s predecessor company, Wiltron, invented the modern VNA tester in the late 1950s. While Anritsu continued to improve VNA high-performance technology, several well-funded companies have entered the market and developed similar versions of Anritsu’s products, taking the lead in sheer sales order volume. We needed to get Anritsu back on our buyer’s “short list”.

Electrical engineers are process-oriented. Consequently, if they are comfortable with a tool and that tool satisfies their requirements, it’s difficult to get them to switch. VNA testers start at $100K and have a long sales cycle because they are considered a capital equipment investment.

Campaign Objective:

Our goal with the campaign was to bring Anritsu to the table with new customers that the sales force had not yet penetrated, creating awareness of the Anritsu VectorStar solution and ultimately generating face-to-face consultation meetings with qualified firms. A consultation requester who met key budget, purchase authority, need and timeframe-to-purchase criteria was considered an “A” category sales lead. In addition, the “B”-rated leads are prospect contacts with proven interest that opted in to future communications, but were not yet qualified.

Creative and Marketing Strategy:

The creative focused on the Mars Curiosity Rover, which had made a spectacularly successful landing on Mars about the time this project began. Engineers are inherently interested in the accomplishments of other engineers and how they solved tough problems. The Mars Curiosity Rover landing was one of the toughest, with thousands of measurements and calculations that had to be coded into the landing and could not be altered during the “seven minutes of terror” during which the Curiosity Rover descended to the planet’s surface. To quote from our letter to prospects:

Marketing creative focused on the Mars Curiosity Rover.

As it descended through the atmosphere of Mars, the spacecraft carrying the Curiosity Rover fired its rockets 79 times, went through five configuration changes, and slowed from 13,000 mph to a standstill. In the final operation, a “sky crane” was used to gently deposit the Curiosity on the surface since retro rockets would stir up too much dust.

We pointed out the extreme precision this required, and then made the transition to the reader: we think of the NASA and JPL engineers as heroes, but you are required to make equally exacting measurements every day. That’s why you deserve an instrument like the VectorStar.

The Campaign’s Focus

The centerpiece of the campaign was a direct mailing in a transparent tube containing a poster. An artist’s rendering as a constant reminder of the Curiosity Rover’s descent sequence was on one side (NASA has done renderings but the client did not want to violate any potential copyrights so we commissioned our own) with Anritsu product specs at the bottom. Our hopes were that engineers would mount these in their cubicles, thus providing a constant reminder of the VectorStar, complete with a call-to-action. In addition, we followed this up with an email on the same theme, and then began the telemarketing campaign.

Personalized direct mail envelope with Mars Curiosity Rover.

Twenty-four to forty-eight hours after the email delivery, the calling team began to engage email and direct mail recipients. As a result, this multi-touch process had the effect of increasing the number of contact presentations and shortening the lead generation cycle. And, most contacts recalled receiving the direct mail piece or email. Many were familiar with the offering and willing to engage. Program metrics are indicative of the effectiveness of this process with the high volume of completed call scripts as partial evidence.

Call-to-Action

The call-to-action was a free gift when a prospect completed a VectorStar sales presentation. We tested two offers: an Anritsu-branded backpack (appealing because our target likes to carry lots of gadgets around) versus a VNA technical manual valued at $50. Because of concerns about accepting gifts, government and government contractors were offered only the book.

Additionally, all prospects that registered their contact information were immediately provided a free download link for a relevant white paper.

Because the price of the VectorStar VNA is $51,000 and up, we knew that repeated contacts—and often multiple contacts—within the same company would be necessary to close the sale. The goal of the multi-touch approach was to start the process by gathering as much information as possible. At the same time we gained initial commitment to enter the lead pipeline.

Results:

Overall, the campaign was highly successful. Based on the sales CRM reports, the program generated over $2.8 million dollars in the sales pipeline during the three-month campaign window. Furthermore, many high sales potential leads are still being nurtured.

The campaign had a specific goal of developing 69 “A” leads that were considered opportunities in the CRM system. Through direct response and follow-up calling we developed 115 leads, which put us at 167% of the goal. In addition, the Calling Team gathered 426 opt-in contacts for continued nurturing and development.

Personalized email for Anritsu VectorStar with Mars Curiosity Rover.

In conclusion, the VectorStar campaign shows best practices for an effective multi-part B-to-B nurturing campaign: start with a memorable contact sequence, then follow up with multiple touches that develop the prospect into a sales-ready lead. Because so many recipients remembered and engaged with the mailing and follow-up email, it was easier to get them on the phone and easier to complete an initial sales conversation. Because of this effective warm up approach, calls were completed faster, allowing more contacts to be made within the allotted time and budget. The result: more leads and sales opportunities.

Marketing collateral for Anritsu VectorStar campaign.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

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Anritsu is a leader in electronic instruments used by the wireless industry. The instruments are used to test and troubleshoot cellular tower transmission lines and base station transmitters. However, BTS Master Base Station Analyzer market penetration lagged other Anritsu products. And, Anritsu had been unable to penetrate the executive suite at top cell phone companies because competitors were strongly entrenched.

We had to convince decision makers our instrument was so much faster, more accurate and more compact that they would buy it the next time they needed a base station analyzer. But, before we could do this, we had to get their undivided attention with a multi touch marketing door-opener campaign.

The First Touch: life-size box, letter, brochure and response card with invitation to a custom microsite for an in-person demo and iPod shuffle.

The First Touch:

The life-size box showed off how compact the new instrument is in comparison to competitor’s large and heavy products. Inside were a letter, brochure and response card. We invited prospects to come to a custom microsite where they could sign up for an in-person demo. Additionally, demo participants would receive an iPod Shuffle preloaded with BTS Master technical material. All components were personalized. Not only with the recipient’s name but also with technical benefits which differ from carrier to carrier.

As a second touch point, we executed an email to the same lists with the same offer including personalization. Finally, in the third touch point, we followed up with outbound telemarketing setting up appointments with responders. And, to increase conversion from prospects who had not responded we contacted them.

The Second Touch: an email to the same lists with the same offer including personalization.

Goals:

We had two goals for this multi touch marketing campaign:

• Firstly, meet or exceed a projected initial response rate of 2-5% (people who received the mail or email and went to the landing page).
• Secondly, of these, prequalify 10% to meet the internal criteria of “sales ready leads”—i.e., a prospect who is ready to sign a purchase order if the product meets their needs. (This goal equates to 0.2%-0.5% of the initial mail/email quantity.)

Actual Results:

• 7% of total target contacts visited the landing page.
• 4% of total targets filled out the contact form.
• Of these, 49% were qualified as “sales ready leads” during the follow-up call to set up their in-person demo appointment.
• Through additional telemarketing, a total of 8% of ALL contacts were qualified as “sales ready leads”— a result 1,000%-4,000% better than the original projection.
• Over $3,000,000 of potential sales have been added to the pipeline and more are anticipated as the leads were being followed up.

Best of all, we won an International ECHO^TM Award for this campaign.

We won an ECHO Award!

The ECHO Awards honor the world’s best marketing campaigns, that have raised the bar in terms of strategy, creativity and results.

Laurie B. Beasley

Laurie B. Beasley is co-founder and president of Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. Beasley Direct is a Silicon Valley direct marketing agency that has managed search, email, online, and demand generation campaigns for nearly 100 companies. Ms. Beasley serves as President of the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California. Laurie manages the eMarketing Roundtable for the BMA Northern California. She is also an instructor of online marketing at UC Berkeley Extension and teaches for the Online Marketing Institute. Ms. Beasley frequently speaks on online marketing and demand generation topics for marketing organizations, including the DMA, BMA, AMA, Tech Council, and the Online Marketing Summit.

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. The company provides services in email marketing, search engine optimization, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb, Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

The post How We Beat Goals by 1,000% and Won an Award for Anritsu with a Meeting Maker Campaign appeared first on Beasley Direct and Online Marketing.

News Facts:

Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) of Northern California has been appointed by Freed Associates as their content marketing agency of record.  The initial work will focus on coordinating content for case studies and blog articles, maintaining the Freed Associates website and managing a bi-monthly e-newsletter.

About us:
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. (www.BeasleyDirect.com) is known for bringing the latest marketing strategies to online and direct marketing. Beasley provides services in inbound and outbound marketing including:  content creation, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), print advertising, social media advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, website design, media planning/public relations, direct mail marketing, lead generation and nurture campaigns, and database management. Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc. helps clients in both B2B and B2C marketing and is privately held and headquartered in the Silicon Valley suburb of Morgan Hill, California. For more information, go to www.BeasleyDirect.com or call Laurie Beasley, President, at 408-782-0046 x21 or email lbeasley@beasleydirect.com.

Freed Associates (www.FreedAssociates.com) Freed Associates consults with healthcare organizations on strategic and tactical initiatives. Freed consultants provide specialized knowledge in healthcare management, operations, and IT for provider, payer, pharmaceutical, and life sciences industry segments. The Freed Associates working style is highly collaborative, with an emphasis on listening to clients to truly understand their business, their challenges, and their environment,  and then set about working with them to drive solutions. Freed is known for their ability to seamlessly integrate into clients’ teams, complementing existing skill sets, and help clients to navigate both foreseen and unforeseen challenges. For more information, contact Julie A. Richards jar@freedassociates.com.

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Content Marketing Tips

In our first blog about content marketing, we mentioned that sharing original content is important. The whole purpose of content marketing is predicated on having original content, because it is intended to demonstrate expertise, insight and knowledge in your particular field to customers and potential customers. “Curating” other people’s content does not accomplish this objective. Publishing someone else’s content occasionally is fine as long as it underscores your own messaging, but the bulk of your content should be original and unique.

Why Does My Content Have To Be Original?

“Author authority” is a concept Google developed to assign value to sites and social media streams that feature original content, content that is developed by you and is unique to your site, blog, etc. Author authority is more valued by Google and other search engines than content that you share from another source. So you get SEO brownie points for original content.

The more SEO brownie points you have (not a Google term; blame it on Beasley Direct Marketing), the greater your visibility on the Internet. Visibility combined with demonstration of your expertise leads to several very good things:

• Increased traffic to your site from sites on which your content is posted
• Increased reputation on the Web for your person-to-person communications (sales team, marcom team, etc.)
• Increased visibility within search engines, resulting in higher ranking and more search traffic
• Increased visibility and authority within social media
• Increased trust
• Increased revenue

Above all, your content must be targeted to your audience, relevant to their needs, and accessible.

Elements of Good Content

Can you tell your audience something that no one else is telling them? Good content is quality information with unique insights—which is not quite as easy as it sounds. It means you need to know what other people in the field are saying, and avoid merely repeating it. It means you need to know what your customers are thinking and feeling; what problems are they trying to solve? What issues have they faced trying to solve those problems—can you tell them how to avoid these issues? In particular, do you know what difficulties or issues people face when dealing with your competitors? Can you show them that you are different? Can you “make it stop hurting”?

Timeliness

Timeliness is also important. Are there changes in your industry that customers need to know about? Keep abreast of industry news and news in general. Is there something going on in the world that directly affects your business and its customers? For example, let’s say you sell automotive parts used by long-haul trucking firms. A strike by Malaysian port workers will adversely affect deliveries of palm oil, which is used to make biodiesel. A shortage of palm oil will lead to decreased production of biodiesel, followed by an increase in the price of conventional diesel fuel. You are not affected by the palm oil shortage, but your customers certainly will be, and they will be grateful to you for calling their attention to the issue. If you happen to sell a fuel system that increases miles per gallon, so much the better!

Language

Use language with which your intended audience will resonate. If you are selling cosmetics, language such as “fresh and flirty!” works. This would not be as well received by an audience seeking financial advisory services. Know when to use informal language and when to stick to more sedate prose.

The importance of good headlines cannot be over-emphasized. Headlines must serve two purposes: SEO and getting your audience to read the content. For SEO purposes, you must have at least one keyword in the title, and more is better. More is better, that is, unless it forces you to write a boring headline. If the headline is uninteresting, your audience will go on to the next thing, assuming that the content will be as stultifying as the headline. Let’s say you have written a blog piece on the cost of biodiesel in the U.S. You might have written a headline such as “An Analysis of the Cost of Biodiesel in the United States.” This has the right keywords, but it also could be used to aid someone coping with insomnia. How about “10 Reasons Biodiesel Costs Too Much”? It still has good keywords for SEO purposes, but sounds like a more interesting read.

Keep Content Short and Sweet

For the purpose of content marketing, content should tend towards the short and sweet end of the spectrum. Keep your articles focused and if the content needs more detail, write a second article. Some experts advocate 2000 words, or about 4 to 5 pages of content., as your target.. Remember though that this is a rule of thumb and well written content is your goal, not an arbitrary number of words.

Content must be easy to share. Make sure you have social media buttons on all your social media feeds that allow people to instantly post the location of your content to their own followers. If you are promoting a longer piece such as a white paper, use short-form urls to make it easy for people to click and share. Short-form urls can be generated at no cost at https://bitly.com/. Hootsuite users can use Hootsuite’s built-in url shrinker when posting.

Ensure that every piece you publish is identified with the author or the organization to establish author authority. Have the author’s name and bio with links to the website and other social media streams. Don’t forget to point to the content from the author’s profiles on Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and other locations. Anything and everything that points back to the author/authority will add to your luster as an expert and authority in your field.

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About the Author

This post was authored by John Thyfault, Vice President of Search & Social Strategy, of Beasley Direct Marketing. Contact John at jthyfault@beasleydirect.com.

John has more than 18 years of marketing, sales and product development experience, and he brings a proven track record of successful campaign, program and product development expertise. His knowledge of search engine optimization and marketing, combined with an in-depth understanding of customer identification, market analysis and segmentation, allows him to deliver high returns on our client’s marketing investment for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Prior to working with Beasley Direct, John was Senior Client Services Project Director at ThirdAge.com, a first wave baby boomer lifestyle and community website. At ThirdAge he successfully led major client sponsorships for Fortune 100 companies in healthcare (Tylenol), financial services (American Century), technology (Intel & IBM) and consumer products areas (Revlon & Viactive). He was responsible for strategic and tactical goal setting, project management, new product creation and web site production. John previously worked in Channel Marketing and National Account Sales for IDG Books Worldwide, the publishers of the immensely popular “…For Dummies” book series. Additionally, he managed the wholesale distributor sales channel for Tor/Forge Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

John is active in local marketing associations, including the Direct Marketing Association, the Business Marketing Association and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association.

John has taught search engine marketing fundamentals extensively. He has led workshops for the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association, Northern California Direct Marketing Association (DMAnc.org) and the Business Marketing Association. He also teaches Search Engine Marketing at UCSC’s Extension in Silicon Valley.

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