NEW SURVEY FINDS FREQUENT USE OF
PROMOTIONAL OFFERS IN B-TO-B MARKETING MIRRORS CONSUMER CAMPAIGNS
CHICAGO,
July 9, 2007—A new survey released today reveals that promotional
offers such as gift cards and sweepstakes, common in consumer marketing,
are the most frequently used in business-to-business direct response
(DR) campaigns, even though marketers think that other types of offers
will generate the highest percentage of qualified leads.
Slack
Barshinger and DM2-DecisionMaker, leaders in b-to-b integrated
marketing, partnered to ask b-to-b marketers to reflect on nearly 8,500
recent DR campaigns and relate which were the best and worst performing.
The survey results are contained in a new white paper titled
“Effective Use of Offers to Generate Leads.”
The
white paper explores the effectiveness of four types of direct response
offers typically used to generate or convert leads in b-to-b marketing:
educational, brand/product information, promotional and purchase
incentive. The survey asked b-to-b marketers which type of offer
generated the highest-quality leads. Respondents linked brand/product
information offers, such as case studies, pricing tools and other
materials that explain a company’s product or service, to their most
effective campaign. But they used them in only 16 percent of their
campaigns over the last 18 months, while promotional offers were used in
61 percent.
Promotional
offers are a common tactic in business-to-consumer marketing, but they
may not always be the best offer for b-to-b campaigns, the white paper
concluded. Promotional
offers were used more in marketers’ self-described “worst-performing
campaigns” than in their best, according to the report.
“Increased
usage of online media by b-to-b marketers and the trend there toward
mirroring b-to-c marketing tactics could, in part, explain the reason
b-to-b marketers relied so heavily on promotional offers,” said Joan
Ritter, senior vice president of direct and relationship marketing at
Slack Barshinger. “While marketers acknowledge that other offers may
produce a higher percentage of qualified leads, the temptation to
emulate successful b-to-c tactics like exciting online sweepstakes and
promotions through viral marketing tactics is high.”
Noting
that promotional offers are well known to be great lead generation
engines, Ritter said, “Success in these campaigns hinges even more on
how efficiently the list or direct response media delivers the target
audience without waste. The age-old paradox rings true here: The list is
by far the most important aspect of a direct response campaign and is
typically the smallest line item in the overall campaign budget.”
The
white paper also underscores the idea that successful campaigns use more
than one channel to achieve their goals. In marketers’ best-performing
campaigns, telemarketing, email, e-newsletter sponsorship and Web site
ads were used alone in no more than 29 percent of campaigns, with Web
site ads being the channel most often used in conjunction with other
channels. In the worst-performing campaigns, channels were used alone
much more often. Each channel was used alone in no less than 40 percent
of the campaigns.
“Generating
high-quality leads is a primary goal in b-to-b marketing campaigns,”
said Mary Miller, senior marketing manager at DM2-DecisonMaker, “and
yet many tactics generate quantity over quality because critical
factors, such as the objective, target audience, sales cycle and
measurement metrics, are not all taken into account. The offer has to be
in line with the needs of the target market to achieve the most
effective results.”
The
survey revealed that for b-to-b marketers, executing a successful
campaign requires a close look at the main objective of the campaign,
the target customer and the type of product being sold. While purchase
incentive offers were used in 50 percent of marketers’
“best-performing campaigns,” with the objective of converting sales,
this offer type was used in only 8 percent of campaigns whose objective
was to generate leads.
“As
this report shows, success of a campaign is a successful marriage of
marketing objectives with target access and tactics used,” said Ritter
of Slack Barshinger. “There is no one-size-fits-all direct response
offer that will generate a successful b-to-b marketing campaign; several
platforms and channels can be used successfully, but must be chosen
carefully, depending on the objectives and circumstances of the campaign
at that specific point in time.”
To
learn more about the effective use of direct response offers, the
DM2-DecisionMaker/Slack Barshinger white paper is available for download
at both companies’ Web sites www.dm2decisionmaker.com/WP
and www.slackbarshinger.com/offers/.
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About DM2-DecisionMaker
DM2-DecisionMaker®
(dm2decisionmaker.com) is
a business-to-business marketing services partner that connects
marketers with decision makers in more than 25 industries through
innovative products, including multichannel list rental, qualified lead
generation, expert research panels and custom marketing programs. DM2 is
a division of Reed Business Information (reedbusiness.com/us),
one of the largest business-to-business publishers in the
United States
and a member of the Reed Elsevier
Group plc.
About
Slack Barshinger
Slack
Barshinger is an integrated marketing communications agency that works
exclusively with business-to-business marketers to build strong brands
and efficiently identify, create and grow profitable customers. Founded
in 1988 and based in
Chicago
, the agency’s 80-person staff
works expertly across the entire marketing communications spectrum,
combining deep expertise in demand creation with new marketing
technologies to build solutions-neutral programs that deliver
predictable ROI. In 2006, the agency was named Top Midsize Agency and
national Agency of the Year, respectively, by Crain’s BtoB
magazine and the Business Marketing Association.
Media
Contact
Mary Miller
DM2-DecisionMaker
+1.630.288.8312
mary.miller@dm2decisionmaker.com
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