The Ultimate B2B Cold Calling Guide – Tips on How to Do It Right

For many businesses, 2020 called for innovation to stay afloat. It also breathed new life into strategies that seemed to have faded. 

Strategies like cold calling.

This ancient art refuses to go away for good reason.

It opens the door for human connections, introduces your business to prospects, and allows you to nurture leads to convert.

We’ll cover top cold calling tips along with other digital marketing strategies for growing your business.

1. Cold Calling

Cold calling has always felt awkward and intrusive. I mean, you’re calling a stranger to tell them about your company’s offerings, hoping to get buy-in.

Thankfully, this strategy has evolved into one that allows marketers to place themselves as people who understand needs and can help prospects achieve their goals.

Here are some tips to help you with that.

• Know why you are calling. Do your homework. Research companies you feel may profit from your services and identify general (and where possible) specific needs. 
• Know who you are calling. Many of us are guilty of pitching to non-decision makers and they may not be interested in what you offer. By the time you’re getting to the decision-maker, you are out of steam. 
• Keep conversations natural. A script may help with the introduction but you can also add some flare. How about starting the conversation with a “how are you doing?”
• Pitch then listen. Listen to what they are saying and what they are not saying. It will help you decipher their needs, pain points, and reasons they can or can’t buy from you.
• Practice, practice, practice. Cold calling is a skill mastered by repeated action. The more your practice, the more refined your pitch will be.

2. Use Content to Show Your Authenticity and Authority

According to research by Forrester in 2015, up to 74% of B2B buyers carry out online research before making a purchase. 

Six years later and the story hasn’t changed. B2B buyers are savvier investigators who will dig up information from various sources before putting their money down.

How’s content marketing useful again?

• B2Bs are looking for information before buying. If you don’t provide it, your competitor will, and you’ll be losing business.
• Commitment to providing fresh content regularly increases your exposure and allows you to build loyal followers who can be nurtured to convert.
• Content helps you communicate industry trends, your technical know-how, and success stories. White papers, ebooks, and case studies are perfect for this.
• Posting content on social platforms creates avenues to link up and collaborate with social influencers who can help improve your image and revenue.
• Content marketing enables you to connect with audiences. You can leverage their questions to provide solutions or as content ideas.

What’s the best content for B2Bs?

You can use blog posts including social media posts, white papers, ebooks, webinars, case studies, videos, podcasts.

3. Prioritize Local Marketing

Your business is competing against other businesses and without a local marketing strategy, you’re missing opportunities to create a steady flow of clients and income.

If you want to be found by local businesses in your area or region, you must leverage local marketing. 

Local marketing allows you to reach new audiences and boosts search rankings, establishing dominance in your area.

Here are some local marketing practices to consider:

• Set up a mobile-friendly website. Prospective B2Bs clients are likely to be receptive to a local company whose website is responsive.
• Localize your site by creating content that applies to local audiences. Use location pages and location-based terms on your website. You’ll rank higher on local search results.
• List your business on online directories such as Google My Business or Yelp. These listings create online credibility and improve search rankings which then increase traffic to your site.
• Go for local paid advertising. In doing so, you’ll be targeting specific B2Bs that can benefit from your offerings. Add the names of your area or region in the ad to ensure you reach your target audience.
• Localize your social platforms. Most platforms come with localization options that let you set up locations on your profile or tag the location of your post.

4. Use Video Marketing

Most marketers know how effective video is for digital marketing.

It allows companies to showcase their expertise, telling compelling stories, educate their audiences, and boost conversion.

The main barrier comes when they think about the quality of the video, the time it’s going to take, and its cost. 

But then increasing traffic and revenue are key metrics for marketers and video marketing can help reach those goals.

How can you use online videos to achieve your goals?

• Create videos that answer relevant questions. Understanding your target audience’s pain points gives you the ammunition to create video content that speaks to those issues and provides solutions.
• Come up with videos that cover industry news around your audience’s industries. It’s a fantastic way to set yourself as a thought leader in that space.
• Know where your audience hangs out socially and post your videos there. It will increase the video’s chances of being watched and shared.
• Convert long-form content into bite-size videos to enable your audience to digest crucial information more easily.

5. Automate Email Marketing Campaigns

Automating your email marketing campaigns takes the mundane out of digital marketing and allows you to focus on more important tasks.

With email marketing automation, marketers develop integrated campaigns to be sent to leads and customers.   

Email marketing automation carries several benefits, including:

• Improving efficiency. It improves reply rates and allows marketers to schedule and execute email campaigns ahead of time.
• Attracting and converting qualified leads. With timely communication, marketers can cultivate relationships and convert leads to customers without spending too much time on it. Email automation can be combined with lead scoring to gain better insight into your pipeline.
• Increasing ROI. Email automation segments audiences depending on their actions and allows you to communicate effectively with them. These specific conversations provide better value and convince the audiences to make purchases.
• Aligning your sales and marketing goal. With email automation marketers can provide qualified leads for the sales teams to work on. This cooperation enhances your company’s ability to achieve its financial goals.
  

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   Interesting Related Article: “3 Top Tips for a Successful Cold Calling Operation“