One of the 5 Guiding Philosophies of Gravity Marketing is: Every organization has inherent value – give away bits and pieces. And the best way to do that is free of charge. It’s a tactic we use often to help business-to-business companies lead with their expertise instead of a sales pitch. It’s also an excellent tool for identifying and nurturing early prospects.
Unless your business is a start-up, it has inherent value. Your existing customers value your products or services because they help them solve problems, accomplish a goal, etc. The key: clearly articulate what your customers value in order to help thousands like them understand.
A company’s inherent value can be a lot of things – a differentiator, a culture, a vision, a secret weapon to customer retention, and more. Here are three ways you can give bits and pieces of this value away to broaden your sales pipeline.
- Taste Test – Provide a look into what it’s like to be a customer of yours. Demonstrate to prospects what your customers already see. Depending on your business, this could mean providing a free estimate or consultation, publishing a case study, or writing an article about a trend that your company feels strongly about.
- Myth Buster – Do you feel there are common misperceptions about your industry? Barriers to a sale? Misguided pricing assumptions? Create content that proactively shares the truth, even if you need to let people in on some of your secret sauce.
- Plant a Seed – An ideal client might be blissfully oblivious to the issues that your product or service can solve for their business. If you can help them identify a pain point or create awareness to a problem, you can create brand preference by educating them about potential solutions.
Once you create thought leadership content that demonstrates your company’s inherent value, it is time to promote it through channels where you can encourage interaction.
- Short video snippets can be used in social media posts and in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive traffic to your website. Check out this Gravity Marketing tutorial on Understanding Facebook for B2B as a starting point.
- Calculators and how-to guides can target early-stage researchers by providing answers to the questions they are entering in search engines.
- Case studies and white papers are also great for search engine optimization, but can be more valuable when they are hosted on industry websites and promoted through sales teams.
In all cases, require the first name, last name, company, and email address of anyone in exchange for your free expert content. Save contact information in an email database that you nurture with benefit-driven eBlasts, drip campaigns, and ePublications.
Remember, more than 70 percent of B2B buyers fully define their needs before engaging with a sales representative, and almost half identify specific solutions before reaching out (Miller Heiman Group, 2018). Don’t make the same mistake that unfortunately, many successful B2B companies make by waiting for the phone to ring. Instead, guide your target clients’ purchase decisions by educating them with your expertise early on.
Gravity Marketing is celebrating 10 years in the business. That’s 10 years of growing client businesses alongside our own. It’s also 10 years of trial and error, risk and reward, lessons learned, and problems solved. In this series, Gravity Marketing’s president and founder, Mike Kuharske, shares the top insights he’s gained over 10 years as an entrepreneurial marketer.
