Business Insights

Many B2B businesses place more emphasis on lead generation than customer retention. This is often a mistake. Not only is it cheaper to retain customers than attempt to win new ones, it also takes less time and effort. In fact, it can cost 5 times more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one. Furthermore, as loyal customers repeatedly purchase your products and services they offer greater lifetime value, which in turn boosts revenue.

A lot of people think that marketing is solely concerned with long-term growth. If you need short-term financial fixes, they say, you need to turn to sales. While it’s true that marketers have the big picture in mind, it’s simply false that they can’t help businesses in the here and now. A PPC push, an email re-engagement campaign, a promotional offer - each of these is designed to work in the space of days or weeks, not months. And each can add considerable value to your sales pipeline. Even these short-term campaigns require strategic marketing thought, however. While sales might hammer a (GDPR-approved) list with cold calls to try and make immediate financial gains, we think there are better ways to go about it. Here are 5 steps to grow your sales pipeline by 5x in 3 months:

When the time comes to sell your business, you’re selling a lot more than tangible assets like premises and product. You’re selling potential, in the form of return on the business’ current activities. You’re selling plans for new product development and new routes to market. And you’re also selling brand - both the employer brand you’ve developed among your talent pool, and the audience-facing brand that exists in your consumers’ perceptions. Consciously building your brand is, of course, something you should be doing anyway. It’s good practice whether you’re selling your business or not - strong brand values mean a more valuable and thus more profitable brand.

You may have heard a thing or seventeen million about the UK’s impending exit from the European Union. For those that haven’t, please pick up a newspaper. We’re not getting into the good, the bad or the ugly of Brexit here, but it will undoubtedly herald changes, economically, socially and politically. The trouble is, at the moment, there are no definitives. That doesn’t mean you can’t prepare, though - ‘wait and see’ is not a strategy. With that in mind, here are our 8 marketing tips for getting your business Brexit ready (Bready?). Read on.

Brian Hardie leads The Marketing Centre’s team across the Home Counties as Regional Director. His extensive marketing career takes in media, logistics, security, fleet management and outsourcing; based on work experience with LWT, Parcelforce, TNT, Capita and Royal Mail. Today he’s talking us through the changes, challenges and opportunities in the home delivery services sector - one that has a particular eye on Brexit, and a particular need to clearly differentiate from rivals.