"THE GROWTH BLOG" - A RESOURCE FOR B2B LEADERS, MARKETERS, SALES & SERVICE PROFESSIONALS

You might be forgiven for believing that somewhere buried in the avalanche of publicity surrounding social media that there has to be value in building up a loyal following on Twitter. I mean good old fashioned "value", otherwise known as MONEY! And there is. Its just not very high, due in the most part to the volume, brevity and simplicity of the message. Various studies have been conducted that suggest a Twitter follower is "worth" less than $5. Conversely a recent study conducted by IBM and MIT suggested that an email contact was worth slightly under $1,000 to an IBM consultant! As an ex industry analyst and researcher, I have learnt to be sceptical of sponsored research but even allowing for a 2,3 or 4x error factor the point remains valid. Email contacts are exponentially more valuable than Twitter followers.

I get frustrated when I hear folks talk about inbound and outbound marketing, or more popularly in recent time, inbound VS outbound marketing as if they are mutually exclusive. Why you may ask? Because marketers should know better!

The notion of building an inbound or an outbound strategy ignores the one single most important factor in setting go to market strategy and that is the prospect, the lead, the customer, call them what you will. Do you think your prospect sits at his/her desk and says "Hmmmm, I think I am going to consume some outbound marketing content today or, actually I am feeling particularly daring, today I am going to experiment with some inbound marketing?

My point is, of course, that the words "inbound" and "outbound" are describing an entirely internal view of marketing tactics and ignores the way the customer thinks. This is a dangerous mindset to adopt.

As B2B marketers, we have to figure out how to create value, whatever that may be, with potential buyers of our product or service, at precisely the "right time". If we do that, our chances of real lead generation for the complex sale, suddenly increase dramatically.

It is simply impossible to read a marketing article these days without someone expressing an opinion about social media. I have actively avoided blogging about this phenomenon up to this point because, well, I didn't want to be part of the Twitterati (with the emphasis firmly on the "Twit" in too many cases!)

In my recent blog, "The role of inbound marketing in understanding your buyers", I talked about the importance of developing an inbound marketing strategy that positions you in the minds of your buyer and specifically at the places they chose to educate themselves about solutions to their business problems.

A recent Marketing Sherpa survey found that, when in purchasing mode, 80% of customers felt they had found their supplier rather than their supplier finding them.

A question. What should you do with prospects who have leaked from your sales funnel? That is, those folks who have expressed and interest in your products or services and yet, for one reason or another, have chosen not to proceed.

So has your buyer really got a problem? More importantly do they know they have a problem? If the answer to either of these questions is "No", then you should be thinking VERY carefully about whether you should be wasting precious sales resources on meeting the prospect.