5 Indications of an Ineffective B2B Email Newsletter

Given the success of email marketing in B2B lead generation and its consistent presence in most businesses’ marketing campaigns, it’s hard to imagine that email newsletters would fail. But it does happen, and the problem is that marketers tend to be in denial of the fact that it’s not working and that they need to do something about it.

Marketers need to identify the signs that tell whether or not an email campaign is successful. Although these indications are pretty obvious, they’re the ones that marketers need to take a look at so they can make the necessary adjustments. These indications are as follows:

1. Low subscription rate; high unsubscribe rate. If your list of subscribers got stuck at 20 and no longer growing, then you obviously have a problem. Also, if people seem to unsubscribe constantly, that’s another problem. To address this, go back to the mechanism that allows them to subscribe – is it a tick box on your landing page? Is it a full-pledged form? You may want to rethink your subscription offers, too. Check whether the frequency and/or content are making them happy.
2. Awful open rates. Your subscribers may not be quitting on you, but if they’re not opening the stuff you send them, it’s pretty much the same thing. It could be your subject line. It could be the timing. Or it could be a previous content piece they so disliked that they've decided not to read anything from you, and they’re just too kind to unsubscribe.
3. Unpromising click-though rates. The industry standard is currently at 4.3%. Is your CTR reaching that target? If no, but intermittently, then you might still be in the game. If no with consistency, then you might as well refocus your energy on something else.
4. Calls-to-action are in oblivion. CTAs measure the very purpose of lead generation. If they are being ignored (or worse, if they are becoming invisible), then you need to check what’s going on. Is it the presentation style of the CTA? Is it being too pushy? Does it make the process too complicated for prospects?
5. Spam rates are unusually high. Being marked as a spammer is the ultimate symptom – it means your would-be readers are just too unengaged and will only generate more spam complaints in the future. If your spam rates are going through the roof, it may be best to pull the plug on email marketing (for a while), rethink the strategy and redeem yourself next time.

Possible reasons why your Lead Generation numbers are not going up

There will always be times when your marketing efforts don’t produce the numbers you've expected. And in those times, it might be hard to shift focus away from failure and instead look at the reasons why it happened. Emotions can get in the way, and that prevents us from seeing things logically. B2B lead generation is one those fields where an element of “chance” is always a part of the game. Sometimes, campaigns fail because of things that are beyond your control, and there’s really nothing you could do about it.

What you can do, though, is to evaluate certainaspects of your efforts and see if they “contribute” to the occurrence of failure.

Below is a checklist that you might want to try for yourself:

Your content may not be generating enough traffic. It might be because of lack of quality or poor search optimization, but whatever it is, it’s the very first thing you need to check. To be able to generate leads, you need a large bulk of traffic, and without that, you can’t expect numbers to go up.

Your calls-to-action are in the wrong places. CTAs are like the pearly gates that lead to conversion heaven. They must be scattered everywhere within the prospect’s decision-making phase, and it should clearly define what’s in it for them. If they couldn't see your CTAs, you wouldn't see them either.

Your social media use may be misguided. A lot of marketers are disillusioned about the number of likes or followers they generate on social media. What you really should be looking at is lead potential, and your social media posts should go hand-in-hand with your other efforts, not as an independent campaign.

Your landing page forms are either too long or too short. Studies show that the optimal number of form fields that lead to conversion is from 5 to 10. If yours doesn't fall within that average, then perhaps you need a re-evaluation.

Your leads are not of high-quality. Again, the battle of quantity versus quality. While campaigns may survive by getting tons of mediocre leads, the ultimate success can only be determined by high-quality leads – meaning, those that rake in large sums of revenue and are more likely to stick.

Your promos are outdated, unoriginal or boring. Prospects may lose interest in offers that keep getting recycled over and over. This lessens the likelihood of sharing and loyalty, thus also affecting conversion rates. Come up with something fresh, although risky, to see if it can put back life into your dying efforts.

The 7 Deadly Sins of B2B Lead Generation

There are only two kinds of things that can bring any business endeavor to its demise: unfortunate circumstances and human errors. Obviously, the former is something that’s out of anyone’s control. It could be anything from a paralyzing economic recession to physical disasters like fires or earthquakes. The latter, however, are the flaws and lapses that key people have in making decisions and performing actions. These things are controllable.

When a business engages in B2B lead generation, it embarks on an elaborate campaign to seek and attract potential clients. The task requires careful planning, patience and cooperation between and among marketers and other functions of the business. The things that could destroy that effort – the ones that are controllable – must not be tolerated. As marketers, it is important to understand why these things can be roadblocks to success. 

These are 7 of the worst things that could happen to your campaign:

1. Lack of strategy – Even the simplest marketing activities require a strategy. It’s the framework that guides marketers to their goals and puts and everything in order for them. Without it, management of time, budget and other resources would be topsy-turvy.

2. Lack of commitment – Lead generation is not the sole obligation of marketing, and that’s true. However, if a marketing team engages in lead generation only to perform it half-heartedly, then goals would be difficult to achieve.

3.  Lack of quality content – If lead generation is a restaurant business, then content is the menu list. It’s what draws people into engagement. If the type of content is not compelling enough to spark interest, lead generation would be stagnated into a dead campaign.

4. Lack of collaboration with sales – Marketing should not work independently from sales, especially in walking prospects through the entire sales process. Both departments should have a shared vision as to how a prospect’s experience would be enhanced.

5.  Lack of nurturing – The responsibility of marketers do not end when prospects are turned into leads. There must be a thorough follow-up system to maximize the potential of doing business and establishing a long-term relationship.

6.   Lack of fun – B2B doesn’t have to be a boring enterprise. Even within an industry composed of professionals and executives, the element of fun and camaraderie could still be encouraged. No one wants their business to come out as a square to the public eye.

7. Lack of risk-taking – Eventually, the things that the B2B industry practices now would become obsolete in the future. That may still be a long time from now, but for a business that doesn’t have the guts to take risks even today, tomorrow would be a quandary.

Leadership Traits That Inspire Loyalty In Your B2B Telemarketing Team

Loyalty – the one quality that many business owners and managers want to develop in their employees. This is also the quality that compels marketers to stick to their bosses through difficult times, convincing them to look for viable answer to many B2B telemarketing concerns. Well, you have to admit that generating qualified sales leads through this medium could be a pain. And not many people will stay working for you, what with all the pressure and challenges that they will have to face here. It is your job, as the leader, to inspire loyalty in your people. Mind you, doing that is no walk in the park, but if you know what to do exactly, then you will be on your way to a productive appointment setting campaign.

Let as look at the following, for starters:

1. Be honest – nothing can be more inspiring than being honest with your people. I know, this may sound cliché, but you have to admit that leaders who can remove ambiguities and promote accuracy and openness in the office are the ones who are most likely to succeed in fostering respect and loyalty from their employees. So try to keep that in mind as well

2. Stick to the job description – when you hired someone, you hired them specifically for the job you have in mind. Making them do things that go beyond their job description not only results in poor results (if that employee lacks the proper skill for the new job) but also resentment from your employees. Think of what would happen if you put your researchers in a big-time telemarketing job. They would not like that.

3. Get real – basically, you remove the barriers that keep people from interacting and working together. You know you have something good if people collaborate and contribute towards a better lead generation process. I mean, you can only get that if all the inputs from other members of your company share their thoughts to the one making the marketing plans. Some might even get the courage to go straight to you and share their marketing ideas.

4. Show fairness and openness to everyone – simply put, you want to be transparent, whether it is about that needed to be done or the problems that your company is experiencing. You have to show them that you are someone who appreciates good work and is not reserved with the praise, or critical analysis and advice in case things go wrong.

5. Do not tell them, show them – action speaks louder than words, so to speak. That is how you teach employees how things are done in the office, and in the way you prefer. Sure, you can let them do things their way, but you have to make sure that everyone is heading to the direction you desire.

Having loyal employees is very important in your B2B telemarketing campaign. Try following these tips and you will be able to keep your employees working for you. This is a good investment.

Who Is Better At B2B Lead Generation? An Expert Or A Consultant?

You know that marketing is no easy job. Customer trends and tastes change all the time. And it is up to you to make sure that your B2B lead generation campaign becomes successful. Now, as a marketer, approaching potential sales leads requires that you know how to deal with them best. Basically, you have to assume one of the two common roles that appointment setters make: an expert or a consultant? But here is an interesting part, which of these two roles will fit you? Understanding whether you are an expert or a consultant can affect your marketing style. So, which is which?

  

1.    An expert will tell you what to do, while a consultant asks what you might do – Some business prospects do not like being told straight to their faces of what they should or should not do. Consultants, on the other hand, may not be able to get much, especially if the B2B leads prospects they are talking to are not exactly sure of what they should be doing in the first place.

2.    An expert starts a trend, a consultant follows it – honestly, there is nothing wrong about being a trend-setter. What makes it a problem is when it backfires on you, especially if the trend you want to create actually messed up your lead generation campaign. You might as well observe the trends and deal with what you see.

3.    Experts explain the facts, consultants learn facts – business prospects find it harder and harder to analyze the facts and get things straight, so most of them would love to have someone who could make things easier for them. Experts can do that. But consultants are pretty good as well. They just spend more time studying the market and getting the facts straight. Now that would take a lot of time, but it is worth it.

4.    Experts bring a lot of things in, consultants do not bring much – since experts are pretty much knowledgeable of how the market works, it is only natural that you would be telling them everything they should know about. In the case of consultants, they would want to know more about your business first before they can give a concrete answer. There are a lot of problems and issues that may not be seen by experts that consultants might be able to point out. But still, it may work the other way, depending on the business you have.

5.    Experts talk, consultants ask – knowledge is power, so to speak, and in a B2B telemarketing campaign, you need to know how your prospects prefer to be talked into business with. Do they want to hear what you have in mind, or do they prefer someone who listens to their concerns?

Think about it. This might affect your decision on what exactly is the kind of b2b lead generation specialist you are going to be. You can bet that your approach to sales leads prospects will be influenced by the way you deal with them.