Business Insights

A lot of people think that marketing is all about the long-term. If you need short-term results, you should speak to sales. But while it’s true that marketing often works towards long-term goals, it can drive short-term growth.

Over the past week or so, the UK lockdown seems to have entered a new phase. 

There is no one size fits all when it comes to cost-effective lead generation strategies. The methods you choose to adopt will depend on a number of factors, including your overall marketing strategy, resources, business objectives, and the type of industry you operate within.  However, if you think about inbound lead generation as a way to bring people into your sales funnel, as well as engaging and building trust with prospective customers, there are five cost-effective strategies which could fit the bill.

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.

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.