Is Inbound Marketing Effective for a Start-Up or Should I Start Cold Calling?

Tweet

 

In a recent online post I was asked,” When starting a new business and trying to generate qualified leads, are there any tricks when you are cold calling or is it purely just a numbers game”? This is a common question, especially from start-ups with limited budgets or no history of marketing.

Consider this perspective…  

As a start up you are an unknown entity... and you have little to no track record... and no doubt you have a story to tell but who is going to take the time out of their time impoverished lives to listen to it just because you called?

What You Really Need

You really need a well designed, carefully executed marketing plan and if you don't have the capital to invest in a diverse, sustainable campaign (I'd usually suggest an inbound marketing deployment but didn't yet know his business well enough) then guerrilla tactics and networking are the best and most efficient use of your most precious asset- your time.

Cold calling is frustrating for the parties at both ends of the line. If you are inexperienced at it you'll eventually quit doing it out of anxiety and lack of results.  We published an article a while back that dives into this environment, and you can read it here.

However a properly executed inbound marketing plan can make every call a warm one, can drive leads and prospects to you (instead of the other way around) and doesn't have to break the bank to deploy. It does take time so we would plan to align it alongside some guerrilla and networking tactics as the business scales upward.

For startups with little or no capital is it still possible to create an effective inbound marketing plan? Is the time preparing the inbound marketing resources really more profitable than the older traditional methods of networking, emailing, mailing and phoning?

There is a substantial difference between a properly crafted inbound campaign and more traditional approaches- it is the sustainability of what you are creating.

With an Inbound Marketing campaign you are sharing insightful information, insights, case studies, white papers and people who have an interest in what you are publishing are seeing this. Talk about a win-win! Your story or message aligns with the interest of an audience.

But there’s more! Because it can be used, and re-used, over time the investment you make in developing your inbound marketing content can also prove effective as part of an outbound marketing process as well.

A properly crafted inbound marketing plan doesn’t have to be overly costly. We realize that not every business can justify the robust functionality of a top of the line, integrated inbound marketing platform (we use and recommend Hubspot®). But much of the knowledge and tactics we have learned working through these advanced platforms can be transferred to smaller businesses.

A Great Example

 Every sales professional who has ever been on a sales call, facing a tidy, fastidious, risk-averse introvert quickly realizes it will never be a one-call close. They also know the importance of a quality “leave behind”. So a great looking folder or press kit containing some of the inbound marketing content you’ve created for your website and blog is vital. For our clients we often include a page of testimonials, some advertising or direct mail proofs, maybe even some product information… but always with a few salient articles we have previously posted.

And almost universally we find the prospect then goes to our website to read more of our articles.

LinkedIn® users – this is an especially effective outbound activity when performed in conjunction with LinkedIn® groups. You can build your brand equity, enhance the awareness in your products/services, and drive a lot of new website traffic by sharing your posts on group pages.

Here is a Test

At workshops that I host I often ask this line of questions to the audience -

• Tell me the name of the salesman, product or brand of the last cold call you were too busy to take in the last two weeks?
• Did you (could you?) share that with others in your office or professional network?

For that matter, please tell me -

• When was the last product or service you actually bought as a result of a cold call?
• When was the last product or service you actually bought as the result of a television commercial?
• When was the last product or service you actually bought as the result of a memorable banner ad?

Very seldom do I see a raised hand.

The Best Marketers Know Sales Is Largely About Understanding Behavior

Given the behavior preferences of successful decision makers, and the challenge of managing their time and work load, it is easy to see understand why playing the numbers game of cold calling is losing its effectiveness. Sure cold calling is an expected method in certain industries and there will always be a “sales guy” who swears by its use, but that is an old paradigm in an evolving and ever-changing society.

Sure, Marketing requires an investment in time, talent, and treasure, but there but it is also arguably a better investment over the long haul. It is sustainable, measurable, flexible, and effective.

Our company has helped many start-ups expand their brand awareness and achieve their goals. Perhaps you know a start-up that would be open to speaking sometime?  

But just don't have them call...

The Evolution of Referral Marketing for NJ Attorneys and Architects

Tweet

 

Remember when commercials were only about products for sale on television? There were “new and improved” this and that, “try this new” whatever. That sort of thing constituted the bulk of television advertising.  Websites, content marketing, social media and blogging didn’t exist.  Marketing hadn’t changed in decades; Madison Avenue made certain of that.

There were ads for cars, trucks, cigarettes and booze, but never would one see a lawyer offering money for injuries, or for the hospitals that sent the ambulances for their potential clientele. 

Remember when television ads for medical centers, prescription medicines, personal hygiene and contraceptive products, bankruptcy filing, and personal injury lawyers hawking their services simply did not exist?  While we still see beer commercials, most alcohol and cigarette ads have disappeared from the television ad scene. The remainder has taken over mainstream television advertising, and portions of the late night commercial breaks.

Television Was Looked Down Upon in Professional Services

Television advertising was so crass and of low esteem. Community hospitals would never stoop to such a level, as doing so may damage their reputations. The American Bar Association forbid advertising of any kind but was especially fearful of television. Besides, most lawyers and other professionals seldom, if ever, considered themselves as marketers; they relied on reputation and referral.  Only in the 1990’s when the Bar Association relaxed the rules did the “bottom-feeders and ambulance chasers” begin to the small screen.

Back in those days, it was considered a prudent and proud business that relied on the most traditional business model; word-of-mouth and referral was how business was done. Homogenous industries such as lawyers and accountants, architectural firms, banking, doctors and hospital executives networked in their local associations and the annual or semi-annual industry conferences.  They relied heavily on their retainer clients to refer others.  If one professional did not handle the client’s needs, they were referred to a specialist with whom they had a working relationship.  A referral fee, however frowned upon, was and is the rule of the day even now in many industries.  Referral networks and the reliance of referrals made sense, because it was the accepted marketing formula.

Today it is quite a different story.  Professionals must consider themselves a business, not an island unto themselves.  All manner of professional firms utilize mass media as a means of getting the word out, but costs continue to rise.  With all the clutter of television ads, and consumers tuning them out (TiVo, the DVR,), the conversion rate is nearly impossible to accurately measure and overall effectiveness is often questioned.

Where Are Professional Services Going With Their Marketing Dollars?

Like newspaper advertising, television is a valid form of push marketing. It serves a purpose but today companies are seeing far better results increasing word-of-mouth via the many social media platforms that have become dominant.  The digital world provides solutions to expanding the overall marketing reach of professional services, and a great solution may be closer than you think.

At Zen Marketing, we provide workshops for companies that wish to enter the networking and word-of-mouth arena. These offer an affordable opportunity to apply social media strategies and tactics into a marketing formula and can involve many individuals within an organization. Social media is also a great entry into the use of inbound marketing, the most effective method of this digital age.

A study performed by Marketing Sherpa reflects a drastic shift in expenditures for all business (see Figure 1.)  Please note the “traditional marketing” strategies are at the bottom of the budget expenditure graph.

A good way to get one’s feet wet in the inbound marketing pool is to develop a social media strategy.  By scheduling one of our networking and social media workshops, you can begin to understand the value proposition it presents.

Contact us and begin to grow your business digitally.  Who knows, you might be able to save money and grow your business concurrently.