“Call Me After the Holidays”

“Call Me After the Holidays”

As the cold weather approaches, so does the infamous objection that anyone making prospecting calls dreads to hear: “Call me after the Holidays”.

With Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years and other holidays on the horizon, the excuse that prospects won’t have time to talk until after the New Year is going to pop up often. Many prospects will get lost in the thought of good food and spending time with friends and family. While your mind may drift off into similar thoughts of your own, you can use this time to increase your sales pipeline into the New Year!

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How Companies Can Use Social Media to Increase Sales

How Companies Can Use Social Media to Increase Sales

Now is the perfect time to think about how your company can use social media as a tool to increase sales. Whether your company has been experimenting with social media for years, or is more recently diving in, a few things are for sure – social media can help you reach the prospects you are looking for, drive web traffic and, ultimately, generate more sales. Consider using these tips to improve your social media marketing strategy:   (more…)

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Icons of customers giving five star ratings. Text reads "The Power of Testimonials and Reviews"

The Power of Testimonials and Reviews

It is safe to say that one of the best marketing tools to help seal the deal are testimonials and reviews. People want to hear about the good and the bad and, truthfully, anything you see on a company’s website will always come with some bias. Hearing from past clients or customers is a good way to decide whether the product or service will be the right fit. Ultimately, there are many benefits – for both your prospects and your company – that come with sharing testimonials and reviews. Some of these benefits include: 

Testimonials and reviews can increase trust 

According to Big Commerce, 72% of consumers say positive testimonials and reviews increase their trust in a business. Potential customers may be more willing to use your product or service if they see that your company is being transparent and honest with them. While other tools, like case studies, can also be helpful in attracting customers, they are often written by the company. According to a 2017 survey of 250 B2B Buyers conducted by TrustRadius, “most buyers think both case studies and reviews have their place in the research process, and see the two forms of social proof as serving different purposes.” As seen in the chart below, B2B buyers consider testimonials and reviews to be significantly more authentic and trustworthy than case studies. 

However, in a B2B telemarketing call, a 2 – 4 sentence case study is a fantastic way to verbally demonstrate the Problem-Solution-Outcome that the customer experienced by going with your firm. It adds to the credibility of your presentation and puts the prospect in the shoes of your customer and allows them to visualize the advantages realized.

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They can generate more revenue 

And revenue is the name of the game right? According to Big Commerce, every time a consumer interacts with your review, they generate 62% more revenue per site visitor. Similarly, consumers that interact with reviews are 58% more likely to convert and buy. This is most likely due to the increase in trust that testimonials and reviews also bring. With evidence that testimonials help in increasing revenue, it is almost a “no-brainer” to include them on your website. People are interested in hearing about what others have to say about your company, product, or service. Even if reviews brought in just a few new customers a year, it would be well worth it. 

They can drive web traffic and improve SEO 

Surprisingly enough, testimonials and reviews can drive a lot of new web traffic and improve your SEO. The goal of SEO is to deliver users, not only the information they are looking for, but also the most helpful information possible. Using bots, search engines crawl the internet looking for the most relevant information and then rank webpages based on this information. According to data collected by Yotpo, “websites using testimonials saw a 45% increase in traffic compared to those who didn’t.” So why do testimonials and reviews rank so well? Ultimately, search engine bots are looking for content that is new, interesting, and can’t be found anywhere else. User-generated content, like testimonials, are perfect for this reason. The graph below illustrates how using testimonials and reviews can impact the traffic on your company’s webpage. 

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The benefits that come with sharing testimonials and reviews are undeniable. Your customers will consider your company to be more trustworthy because you are sharing authentic messages, rather than biased ones. With so many people turning to the internet to help them make buying decisions, it is important that they can find information that they can trust online. Convert prospects that may e Once you increase trust, you will likely be able to generate more revenue because people are more likely to convert and buy after reading testimonials and reviews. Lastly, if your company has been struggling to bring traffic to your website, testimonials may be the key. Search engines are looking for unique content and testimonials are the perfect way to include content on your website that does not exist anywhere else on the web. When developing or adjusting your company’s content marketing strategy, adding testimonials and reviews may not be top-of-mind, but given the benefits it can bring to both your customer and your company, you may want to consider it as a part of your future content strategy.

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What’s a Book of Business Got to do with Picking Up the Phone?

What’s a Book of Business Got to do with Picking Up the Phone?

How can calling still drive leads? It’s suprisingly a very effective way of marketing. People always have their phones available, so contact has never been easier. You just need to know how to sell to whoever answers your call.

After speaking with several successful, tenured producers at the Professional Insurance Agents’ (PIA) annual conference in Atlantic City, it was interesting to note that many built key blocks of their book of business through outbound calling.  Evidently picking up the phone has got a lot to do with a book of business.

Some will protest this statement, citing, “But it is 2022 now.  There is no way a producer could profitably or reasonably add new clients to their book of business by pounding the phones, is there?” The answer is, yes. Here’s why.

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8 Essential B2B Demand Generation Best Practices for 2023

8 Essential B2B Demand Generation Best Practices for 2024
Image result for integrate logo

Written by William Anthony
For Integrate.com

Key Takeaways

  • Demand Gen is a marketing tactic that helps bring your ideal clients to you by generating interest in your product or service.
  • You can generate demand by building better relationships with businesses, enhancing operational efficiency, and focusing on your top-of-funnel process as well as implementing account-based marketing tactics.
  • Consistent communication with your clients, as well as your sales and customer service teams, will help you get the best information about how to generate demand.

When you have a product or service that is in high demand, you’ll see in increase in profits and the lead generation practically comes to you.

Demand generation is a B2B marketing discipline designed to create interest in products and services that results in greater sales pipeline opportunities and revenue. A comprehensive, effective demand generation strategy will also result in happier customers and better sales-marketing alignment.

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The Prospect List

The Prospect List

Even the idea of creating a solid prospect list can be daunting. Your prospecting activity in your list reflects your entire sales pipeline. The more activity against your target market (e.g., phone outreach, email, LinkedIn or direct mail), the better the likelihood of building trust and sales activity that leads to closed deals and more referrals.

To create a steady pipeline, you must rely on the paramount foundation of sales activity, which is best kept as a running log of emails, phone calls and other marketing techniques to get attention, and then acquire sales. Here are some small steps to make the process less overwhelming.

Identify Your Sales Targets

To identify your sales targets properly, start by mapping out your core niche industries and geographic radius. Commission opportunities based on staff size and industry will dictate how best to spend your marketing dollars. If you’re going after property/casualty insurance or workers’ compensation—those groups in which staff size is more important than class of business—determine the staff size minimums that still can justify a marketing-spend in targeting them. (more…)

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The Power of Testimonials and Reviews in the Vending Industry

The Power of Testimonials and Reviews in the Vending Industry

It is safe to say that there are no better marketing tools than testimonials and reviews. People want to hear about the good and the bad and, truthfully, anything you see on a company’s website will always come with some bias. For vending and micro-markets, hearing from past customers is good way to decide whether the product or service will be the right fit. There are many benefits – for both your prospects and your company – that come with sharing testimonials and reviews. Some of these benefits include:   (more…)

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Reallocate Your Trade Show Marketing Dollars

Reallocate Your Trade Show Marketing Dollars

If you haven’t reviewed your company’s cost savings as a result of trade show cancelations, look now! Even though your total investment depends on the size of your booth and frequency of events, it’s safe to say you’ve saved thousands of dollars. If trade shows have traditionally been a positive investment for your organization, your sales pipeline might be missing some new prospects. Here are some budgeting tips for the end of 2020 now that we are knee–deep in budget season. 

Are you using this money to grow your pipeline? If so, how? 

The unfortunate cancelation of all in-person trade shows and conferences have none-the-less opened countless opportunities for other marketing tactics to be utilized. Now more than ever, marketing and sales are working hard to ramp up business development. How is your company supporting them? Is your company pursuing B2B phone outreach tactics, email marketing, direct mailers or other lead generation techniques? On the digital side, do you allocate funds to paid advertising, for example Google Ads, LinkedIn Sponsored Ads, or Facebook Ads? What accounts for your biggest marketing costs? From a ROI perspective, if you’ve tracked results, which are most successful?  (more…)

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REDIRECTED – Adapting Your Value Proposition During a Pandemic

As we slowly come out of the economic crisis that the pandemic has created, it will become increasingly important to emphasize the value your company brings to the table. Decision makers may not be ready to make buying decisions the same way they did six months ago, but then again, rarely are we making one-call-closes anyway, right?  However, in the months to come, it will ever-more important to show your prospects why they need what you offer so that when the time is right, they think of you. Undoubtedly, this has always been important, but since priorities have shifted (for example, getting staff in an effective work-from-home model), a strong focus on your value proposition should help redirect their attention. MarketReach can help script a new value proposition and deliver it your best prospects.  (more…)

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Adapting your Agency’s Value Proposition

Adapting your Agency’s Value Proposition

As we slowly come out of the economic crisis, it will become increasingly important to emphasize your agency’s value during your prospect calls. Decision–makers may be slow to switch their brokers today or next month, but insurance is one of those buying decisions that MUST be made. Come renewal time, they will either shop their policy and switch, or they will stick with what they have, which is still a buying decision.   

In the months to come, show your prospects why they need your expertise so that when the time is right, they think of you. Undoubtedly, this has always been important, but since priorities have shifted, such as getting staff in an effective work-from-home model, Producers must consider their value prop even more to get attention, while we are still knee-deep into this pandemic. MarketReach can help script a new value proposition and deliver it to your prospect list through skilled phone outreach.  (more…)

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