How to infuse numbers?
In the field I operate in the professional world, only numbers matter to most. Very rarely something beautiful, something well-designed, or something with a great user flow sparks interest in my contemporaries at work. Yes, I am speaking of B2B marketing in India. My customer is rarely on the platforms I tend to reach out to, even if they are there they may not make a purchase decision based on a meme that I posted, or a blog that exuberates about his peer doing well with our solution. The selling cycle as on the physical selling is long and arduous. So do we not do it? Absolutely not, the first 100 customers could be achieved by using One-on-one selling, after that it has to be majorly, influencer — a customer turning our ambassador selling or digital selling majorly based on the solution-led branding that needs to be achieved.
The above is a profound marketing knowledge of the sector in which we operate, which was gained over a week when the efforts of the month were bashed up and questioned for the numbers created after all of those sincere efforts. From the start we started slow, certain posts organically, the team was small and the skill set wasn’t that strong. A spark of vision of the above “profound marketing B2B knowledge” was there about brand building, lead generation, and but none on customer retention. Often we rely on other departments for fulfillment of tasks, like say lead fulfillment. Here with these market-facing rugged friends of ours, we are considered softies, sitting in front of the devices and assessing the market or doing something that is background. So coming to the point after the profiles are elaborated a bit, being friends with them is important, far more important is their belief in the quality of the leads generated, so that they would chase them and close. Skepticism is ever prevailing, so when we start with that feeling, the lead even otherwise a nurturable one, would never be pursued the way it needs to be. Once you ask for the statuses, start the ping-ponging, if not tracked the money spent on lead is wasted. Somehow money spent on lead generation on the ground, by fueling for the fancy stays of the sales person, and his travels is always ok, but when you spend some hundred on a lead through a digital channel, it is considered as being spent on ghosts or even considered as a scam.
All in all, in the parlance of Digital marketing, lead generation, and brand communication need to be in congruence, but somehow the former is considered more important, as it rings in cash is the assumption, just as it demands cash as well for results. As my understanding goes, or quick knowledge gained after concentrating on brand communication maybe 65% of the time with the existing products, striking a balance to make both of them work would be a winner. At the end of the day — “ Where is the monies?” is inevitable question, so it starts from that basis point.
