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In the event your company’s B2B telemarketing program has not been living up to the hype or you really do not have a solid program in place to begin with, what are your options?

With a solid telemarketing plan in place, this sales aspect of your business can be an important piece of the pie to properly executing a successful telemarketing campaign time and time again.

If your B2B telemarketing efforts have fallen on deaf ears as of late or the word has not even gotten out, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Understanding who your audience is – The biggest component of running a successful program is to know who your audience is. Take the time to understand the prospect and what their needs are. If you do not understand who your audience is, you stand to waste valuable time and resources. You cannot use the same pitch for each prospect as each potential customer will have different needs, so being flexible is also important. As you will soon discover, your script needs to be well-designed in pitching and promoting your business;
• Dialing-up the right call list – As you enter into your telemarketing campaign; make sure that you have compiled a quality call list. If you have a bunch of numbers that have the potential to turn out being a waste of time, why would you call them in the first place? Make sure you are able to filter out what is worth your time and what is not so that you have a targeted demographic with which to work with. Keep in mind that there are data companies available that can assist you with call lists;
• Deciding to go outside or stay in-house with your efforts – Decide whether or not to do your telemarketing with sales staff or outside telemarketers. Remember, however, that the first impression to a prospect is everything, so make sure you are putting the telemarketing duties in capable hands. Using a telemarketing firm gives you access to individuals that have experience with a variety of industries. By using outside sources, you also free up your in-house sales team for other duties.
• Making proper scheduling a priority – Another key facet is making sure you correctly schedule your calls. As noted earlier, get as much information as possible on your prospects ahead of time in order to improve your chances for success. Some prospects will be better to reach earlier in the day, while others will be better later. Work with the prospect to adhere to their schedules so they see you are willing to work with them on meeting their needs;
• Don’t come without a goal – Having a goal set aside with each prospect is important. What do you hope to accomplish by talking with this individual? Is this a prospect that has potential for long-term business or shorter-term success? Keep your goals within reason so that you have a better chance of achieving them. Also decide which area the calls will focus in on, including lead generation, direct sales, outbound sales, fund-raising, appointment scheduling and surveys to name a few.

When all is said and done, B2B telemarketing proves to be a cost-effective way to enhance your business opportunities and increase your sales opportunities.

Dave Thomas, who discusses subjects such as B2B telemarketing and SEO marketing companies, writes extensively for San Diego-based Business.com.

It goes without saying that social media can help your business’ online presence to go farther. However, it requires thorough planning—a thing that online marketer wanna-bes and noobs don’t know. Creating an online presence for your business obviously requires a clear idea on how you should use various social media channels to engage your target customers.

Automated Greetings

Using an automated greeting for anyone who follows your online business profile can be a time saver. However, your followers can see this as lame and may tend to flag you as spam. You don’t want that to happen to your business, do you? The trick here is to make your greetings and any of your social media messages personal.

Redundancy

Because redundancy is something that annoys other people, it is something that you wouldn’t want to do in a conversation. It only makes sense why repetitive tweets or status updates is a no-no in social media marketing. If you have multiple social networking accounts that are synched together, make sure that whatever you post on one will not cause you embarrassing redundancies on the other.

 “Ghost” Online Marketers

Hiring “ghost” online marketers to run a business’ social media campaign is another big no-no in social media marketing. The risk here is that they really don’t know how to promote your business online, and this can hurt your brand. If you want to have a successful social media campaign, hire online marketing professionals who know how to cater to your promotional needs accordingly.

Monotony

There are times when a business owner thinks that it’s all right for his or her employees to use a single voice to represent their brand. While it can work most of the time, that doesn’t sound personal at all. Inform your employees about your Internet campaigns’ dos and don’ts, and then let them be themselves. That way, your online customers can sense a human touch with their every interaction with your brand.

Product Broadcasting

Having a social media presence might be helpful when promoting a brand. However, too much broadcasting is not a good idea. You can also share links from other businesses across your industry, post interesting and useful content, or create a contest that will encourage your audience to revisit your page more often. Otherwise, your updates will be predictable, boring and spammy.

When done right, social networking sites can definitely boost your business’ online presence. However, going online just because it’s the “it” thing won’t really do your brand any good

Imagine this scenario: You have a thoroughly planned and well-designed website, an effective search engine marketing campaign, and then your website generates huge traffic. However, your conversion funnel is going down the drain. Don’t fuss! There are various ways on how you can resolve your conversion funnel dilemma.

Take Advantage of Funnel Visualization

It will be a good idea to set up funnel visualization on your Google Analytics, as it will help you know where users are dropping off from your website. Other than knowing when people leave, this feature will give you an insight as to why your visitors go away. If you don’t have funnel visualization on your Google Analytics yet, it’s time that you set up one now.

Study Your Lead Forms

Check out your lead form and analyze which field of it will be unnecessary. You should always bear in mind that submitting to many forms can be annoying for your potential customers. Therefore, check whether you can trim down your forms to make the process simpler.

Test Your Page

Ask your relatives or friends to test your page. Allow them to go through the conversion process, and inform them what you want your visitors to accomplish. Take note how long it takes for them to finish the whole process and listen to their feedback.

You should also take your website’s error logs and load speed into account to make sure that technical issues aren’t the reason your conversion funnel is flunking. That way, you’ll know when your conversion funnel needs a revamp.

Retarget Your Visitors

It’s okay if people are dropping off your website. After all, not every site visitor actually converts and undergoes the purchasing process. However, you have to do something to bring them back. If you collect your visitors’ contact information early on, send them a follow-up message and encourage them to return. Convince them to make a purchase on your website by giving them a discount code or free shipping.

Build Trust with Your Customer

You need an accessible customer service in order to build trust with your customers. Displaying a logo of an online verification service like BBB, Verisign or TRUSTe is another way. The good thing about these providers is that they let you run A/B test on your page, and they also measure your website’s conversion rate. As a result, you’re becoming a trustworthy online merchant while analyzing your website’s return of investment.

 

To sum it up, high website traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that it can increase your business’ revenue. Targeting your potential customers requires an efficient website with a simple user interface and purchasing process. Hence, ruling out all your website’s issues can resolve your conversion funnel dilemma.