Welcome to the 2nd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the anatomy of a successful business to business marketing campaign, with specific focus on developing goals and metrics, developing creative and copy by segments, selecting channels and deploying campaigns, and tracking results and following up. We will expand on these topics to provide a framework for planning, organizing and executing an effective B2B marketing campaign.

We hope you enjoy Part 2 of 4 of The Anatomy of a B2B Marketing Campaign!

Developing Creative & Copy by Segments
After the campaign goals are determined, the next step in the process is to develop a creative way to grab and hold the attention of business prospects in the campaign’s target market. The creative aspect of your B2B marketing campaign should stimulate interest in learning more about your organization, which is where the copy provides detailed information.

The copy should complement the creative segment by providing compelling information that excites and further sells potential clients. It communicates the benefits received by businesses that enter into a relationship with your organization. Your persuasive copy should convince your target market that it is a “no-brainer” to respond to the marketing campaign and compel them to contact your organization.

In some cases, market research should be conducted to determine how different marketing segments respond to creative and copy. For instance, some business prospects may respond to creative/copy that is playful or funny; others only to creative that is professional and poignant. Segmenting prospects also gives marketers the opportunity to test different markets to see which types of creative and copy work best.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to capture business prospects, attain their contact information and segment them into narrower channels that will support future marketing efforts.

For more information about B2B marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 1st installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the anatomy of a successful business to business marketing campaign, with specific focus on developing goals and metrics, developing creative and copy by segments, selecting channels and deploying campaigns, and tracking results and following up. We will expand on these topics to provide a framework for planning, organizing and executing an effective B2B marketing campaign.

We hope you enjoy Part 1 of 4 of The Anatomy of a B2B Marketing Campaign!

Developing Goals & Metrics
Before starting a Business-to-Business, or B2B, marketing campaign, it is critical to clearly define the goals and metrics that will end up driving the success of that campaign. Initial goals must be reasonable to achieve and their methods must contain quantifiable factors that can be measured to determine the rate of success. In addition, achievement of the initial goals should serve as a foundation for achieving larger, long-term goals and future desired outcomes.

In most cases, goals can be defined by answering a series of questions that help to identify some of the issues that may arise during the course of the campaign. The following questions are an example of those that may be asked to help develop reasonable goals:

• What kinds of resources are available to help us reach our goal?
• How long do we have to accomplish our goals and achieve our objective?
• What constraints might affect us?
• Is each goal vital to achieving the objective?

By developing and utilizing metrics, marketers give themselves the ability to review data that will help them track progress and improve the likelihood of success in achieving the goals of the B2B marketing campaign. Data collected from the quantifiable factors can also be used to identify effective techniques and improve or remove ineffective processes.

The following scenario presents an example of a B2B marketing campaign objective, complete with goals and metrics:

Sample Objective: To increase brand identity and business relationships among the 131 organizations that match the target market criteria for new client acquisition in the Northeast US region over the next 12 months.

First Quarter Goals: Delegate direct marketing and customer support responsibilities for region to a multi-person team and create sales goals for each member. Initiate contact with all 131 organizations through combined e-marketing, direct mail, business networking and cold-calling. Create interactive files on each organization and develop customized marketing plan based on data acquired.

Metrics: Monthly and quarterly reports on number of target organizations aware of brand and those which have responded to marketing efforts. Number of new clients acquired, tracking of growth in region and participation rate increases (or decreases) from quarter to quarter. Identify common factors among organizations who responded to marketing campaign and those that did not.

For more information about B2B marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 4th installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss non-profit marketing strategies and will provide solutions for non-profit companies looking to improve the frequency and amount of donations and participation. The topics that will be covered include segmenting donors, investing unequally, engaging donors and increasing the average donation of donors.

We hope you enjoy Part 4 of 4 of Non-Profit Marketing Strategies and Solutions!

Increasing the Average Donation
Non-profit organizations are feeling the effects of the current tough economic times. Donors are decreasing their average gift size or limiting the number of organizations they donate to. Non-profits need to focus on increasing the average donation from low-dollar donors and maintaining the donation size of high-end donors. The best way to achieve this goal is to improve the experience of being a donor and by staying relevant to the donor.

One way to ensure that your non-profit remains high on the donor’s priority list is keep donors engaged in a way that works for them. It is important to extend more than a simple “thank you” to your donators. Your non-profit must stay connected with the donor and continue to build their confidence in your organization. Notify them of what their donation is achieving. A great way to achieve this is by staying in touch with you donors in ways and with content that is meaningful to them. This means avoiding the mistake of speaking to all donors with a broad overview. Appeal to different donor segments and their top concerns.

Engaging your donors in order to increase their average donation is essential to the success of non-profit organizations. Non-profit marketing materials should have messages that are targeted to specific donors and should be should be delivered using numerous marketing channels. Once you create and deliver a message that resonates with a donor it is much more likely that they will increase the amount of their donation.

For more information about non-profit marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 3rd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss non-profit marketing strategies and will provide solutions for non-profit companies looking to improve the frequency and amount of donations and participation. The topics that will be covered include segmenting donors, investing unequally, engaging donors and increasing the average donation of donors.

We hope you enjoy Part 3 of 4 of Non-Profit Marketing Strategies and Solutions!

Engaging Donors
Engaging donors is the most effective way to ensure that your donors will continue to support your non-profit financially. The most effective way to figure out how to engage donors is ask current donors why they donate. You may be surprised at the reasons your donors have for donating. Once you determine why your donors are engaged in your non-profit you will have a stronger understanding of what motivates them and how you can use this information to motivate other potential donors.

The next step is determining how to properly engage this target audience to drill deeper into the group of able and willing donors. If you can engage this group properly then you can put together a list of characteristics that can then be used to develop strategic marketing methods to connect with new prospects that exhibit these same characteristics.

If non-profit marketers are able to redirect some energy to accomplish their goals by following these steps they will waste less time and effort and their return on investment should increase significantly. Ultimately, getting more for less in the long run. In tough economic times this is exactly what a non-profit needs to achieve success, they must increase funding while keeping a lid on spending.

Start thinking about how you can use marketing materials to engage individuals and keep them actively involved in your non-profit. Employ social media, mailing campaigns and E-mail blasts to keep potential donors aware of your organizations and its activities. Think of ways you can allow individuals the opportunity to invest in your organization while instilling them with a sense of meaning and achievement. The best way to engage donors is to keep them aware of your organizations latest news and allowing them to be active in you non-profit.

For more information about non-profit marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 2nd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss non-profit marketing strategies and will provide solutions for non-profit companies looking to improve the frequency and amount of donations and participation. The topics that will be covered include segmenting donors, investing unequally, engaging donors and increasing the average donation of donors.

We hope you enjoy Part 2 of 4 of Non-Profit Marketing Strategies and Solutions!

Investing Unequally
Investing unequally in your donors is based on the core principle that not all donors are created equal. There is a large difference between a donor who donates thousands of dollars a year and a donor who buys a handful of raffle tickets. Many non-profits feel that any previous donor has the potential to be a large donor and they invest a significant amount of time and money.  Recognizing that this is the exception and not the rule can help make your non-profit marketing more effective.  Non-profits should consider investing more in those donors who are most likely to donate rather than diluting their marketing budget to market to all possible donors.

Non-profit marketers should target their mid-range to high-end donors with a full court press of marketing materials. You do not want to ignore individuals who are not regular donors but it makes sense to increase your marketing efforts to those individuals who are more involved financially in the non-profit. You most likely want to send everyone on your donor list a monthly E-mail regarding the non-profit but you may also want to send out direct mail information to your mid-range and high-end donors to keep them actively engaged in the non-profit.

It is also important to craft messages that resonate with your most desirable donor base because this is the segment that is generating the most income for your non-profit. Keeping donors actively engaged in a non-profit is the most effective way to guarantee that they will continue to donate. Investing more in a message that will resonate with these donors makes sense from a business standpoint because these individuals are the most important to the non-profits success.

For more information about non-profit marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 1st installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss non-profit marketing strategies and will provide solutions for non-profit companies looking to improve the frequency and amount of donations and participation. The topics that will be covered include segmenting donors, investing unequally, engaging donors and increasing the average donation of donors.

We hope you enjoy Part 1 of 4 of Non-Profit Marketing Strategies and Solutions!

Segmenting Donors
Segmenting donors is a good tool to implement if your non-profit marketing wants to focus on specific segment or sector of your target audience when providing them with information about your non-profit organization. Segmenting donors refers to creating groups or segments by placing individuals who share similar characteristics into groups.

Segmenting allows your organization to divide your database into smaller segments and treat each group as a separate audience and provide them information that directly resonates with them. By creating a more relevant message your marketing efforts will engage both current and potential donors at a deeper level.  There are numerous ways to segment donors the most common of which include the following:

• Segmentation according to the size of donation
• Segmentation according to the frequency of donation or last donation made

However, more sophisticated methods are becoming more common.  Other things to consider when segmenting donors include:

• Demographic segmentation: donor’s age, gender, occupation and nationality.  Based on their demographics will they value different aspects of your cause?
• Psychographic segmentation: donor’s personal values, interests, hobbies and the like.
• Interest/Identity segmentation: Is there one particular area of your cause that a particular donor is passionate about?  Often these areas will have deep personal meaning to the recipient.

Non-profit marketing segments should be big enough to allow for cost-effective non-profit marketing solutions. They should also have key differences relative to other segments, if segments are overly similar, segmentation will be a waste of time and money. Segments should also be able to be evaluated, targeted and stable in order to properly be marketed to.

For more information about non-profit marketing solutions, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

In the last few years, customized, personalized marketing campaigns have been posting strong results compared with traditional, static campaign styles. Regardless of industry well-designed and well-executed personalized integrated marketing campaigns clearly demonstrate their ability to outpace the competition. This report provides a look at some of the data and conclusions that support that claim.   Learn how integrating email, variable data direct mail and personalized URL’s (pURL) can significantly impact results.  This FREE Response Rate Study is available for download.

Welcome to the 4th installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 4 of 4 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Communication Channels
The final element of a successful marketing plan is determining your method of distribution or communication channels. Any marketing plan, no matter how well it is developed, will fail unless it is distributed along effective communication channels to the market segmentation or target market.

Selecting effective communication channels is a major element of a business’ marketing mix. Businesses must properly use direct marketing, sales promotion advertising, personal selling and public relations to communicate the existence and value of a product or service to the target audience.

In order to properly select effective communication channels or distribution methods, business must focus on getting their message, product or service to the target audience at the right time with consideration for profit and effectiveness. Successful marketing does not end when an individual or business has developed a successful service or product and has found its ideal client or target audience. Marketers must then decide how they are going to distribute this message, product or service to their target audience.

Businesses that successfully identify an ideal client or target audience, differentiate their business from their competitors, properly segment their target audience and create a message that is distributed through the proper channels to reach their target audience will ultimately be successful. By following these steps you will be reaching potential customers with an effective message and will ultimately see an increase in sales and profit.

For more information about marketing solutions for B2B companies, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 3rd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 3 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Segmentation and Messaging
The next element of a successful marketing plan is segmenting your target audience and tailoring a specific message that will address their wants and needs. At its most basic level, market segmentation refers to dividing a market in terms of commonalities or similarities. Meaning that the members of a specific market segment have something in common.

The major purpose of market segmentation is the concentration of marketing energy or marketing solutions to a specific subdivision or market segment to gain an advantage over the competition within this specific subdivision. Concentration of marketing energy or solutions is the key component of all marketing plans, and market segmentation is the marketing solution or tool that allows us to help achieve this focus.

There are numerous ways to segment a market for business-to-business marketing, the most common of which is firmographics. Firmographics refers to the characteristics of a specific organization. Much like demographics to an individual, firmographics paint a portrait of an organization based on factors such as industry, number of employees, revenue size, number of locations and the location of the company.

Marketing segmentation is important because it is a great way to apply marketing solutions or energy to a subset of a specific market. However, crafting a message that resonates with that specific subset is equally important. If you choose to segment the market by focusing on firmographics make sure to target your brand or message to the largest segment that fits your niche. Segmentation’s greatest value lies in targeting a subset of businesses and allowing your business to craft a specific message that is tailored to the needs and wants of that specific subset.

For more information about marketing solutions for B2B companies, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!

Welcome to the 2nd installment of the Marketing Monday “Lunch & Learn” Series by Allegra Marketing. Each Monday, we share a post from a 4-part series of marketing information and ideas. This series will discuss the basics of marketing and will provide marketing solutions for enterprises looking to improve their business-to-business marketing. The topics that will be covered include defining the ideal client, differentiating your business, segmentation and messaging and communication channels.

We hope you enjoy Part 2 of Marketing Solutions 101 for Business to Business!

Differentiating Your Business
The next element of a successful marketing plan is differentiating your business from your competitors or positioning yourself properly to your target audience. Positioning can be defined as how your product or service is perceived by your target audience relative to your competition. Your goal is to create the perception, or an image, that is differentiated, unique and definable in the mind of your target audience. To successfully position your service or product, try the following:

• Define and create a list of your business’ competitive advantages
  These advantages might include lower costs, better customer service, higher quality, etc.

• Choose the competitive advantage that differentiates your business
  What you choose, or which benefits of your business you select, will depend on what positions your competitors have chosen and how you wish to position yourself amongst these competitors. However, some competitive advantages may be inconsistent with other products or services, too costly to develop or simply not strong enough to differentiate yourself in the marketplace.

It is essential that your marketing solutions and materials support the image or position you are trying to create. It is also essential for your business to know your potential and present competitors, both direct and indirect. You should examine your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses relative to those of your business. This will help you select marketing solutions and a market position that provides your business a competitive advantage.

Your market position should emphasize the factors that your customers or clients value most and those which differentiate or set yourself apart from your competition.

For more information about marketing solutions for B2B companies, contact Allegra Marketing. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!