The B2B market’s overall size has diminished. Buyers are more discriminating than ever. There are more brands per inch for just about anything. Some manufacturing companies have even purchased their distribution sales organizations in an effort to beef up their sales leaving fewer people to sell products. This was unheard of years ago!
Today, if you’re a manufacturer looking for the silver bullet to overcome one or more of these scenarios, stronger product marketing could be the answer. Let’s look at four marketing strategies that can build your brand while building your top-line sales.
Marketing Strategy 1: Create a special
When times are tough one of the last things you want to do is lower your everyday pricing. Unfortunately many companies do just that when they feel the pressure to make sales. This approach inevitably diminishes a brand’s value. Rather, consider creating a special product offering that has specific timing, application and/or market dimensions. This strategy will allow you to create something special for a particular timeframe and allow you to push your product’s most attractive attributes. It will also underscore that your special is going to be around for a limited time so immediate buy action is required to take advantage of the offer. And of course, it will preserve your brand’s overall value and pricing.
Hint: It’s much better to promote your top brands that you can count on that sell best, NOT your under-performing brands! Remember, your overall objective is to build sales momentum, not get rid of inventory that hasn’t been selling well.
Marketing Strategy 2: Offer a product and a thing
Another way to generate interest is to offer a ‘thing’ such as a useful promotion item along with a best-selling product. An example might be “Buy this large format ink jet printer and get a work-group color laser printer for free!” Again, the primary objective is to sell something without lowering the primary product’s overall price point.
Marketing Strategy 3: Special edition support
Add value to the sale by offering professional training and support with the purchase of your specific product. This additional service should go beyond setup, installation and the usual training. You could also consider a cross-promotion with a non-competitive company that offers training that might welcome the opportunity to get their foot in the door through your promotion.
Marketing Strategy 4: Promote using an issue
Linking your product to a specific warm and fuzzy issue or charity is a way to drive new interest in your brand over your competitor. An example of this might be if a customer purchases your product this will help your company continue to support a specific cause or charity. This approach does not have to cost your company a great deal of money and has the added benefit of positioning your company as socially conscious.
Using your best brands and some intriguing promotion ideas, smart marketing can be created that leads to more than a softer image. This is a day when every market strategy has to be honed to meet specific buyer’s needs. This approach coupled with some useful and thoughtful ‘specials’ goes a long way to producing new sales. They might even pass your name on to someone else.
