With the unfortunate events of Coronaviruss outbreak, the world has been in a dark place throughout 2020. As the number of cases is still on the rise, businesses are attempting to breathe again, and start working with the new situation.
Video calls have increased. Meetings which could have been an email, now are emails. Companies and people are adopting.
As every business is announcing downsizing, it’s hard to say if the B2B market still has the same buying power it did pre-pandemic. However, this is not stopping the best of sales and marketing teams.
Understanding the situation and the time it would require to “get back to normal” companies are switching from “selling” to “building long term relationships”
Outbound Strategies
The probability of inbound sales working out is less than usual. So we have to focus more on the outbound strategies. Instead of selling services or product straight-up, focus more on starting a conversation with an audience. Here are a few ideas.
- Newsletter
- Webinars
- Social media community
1. Newsletter
Sending a well-researched piece directly to the prospect’s inbox is one of the best ways to initiate conversation. The concept behind an email newsletter is to start a conversation. Usually, the topics are deliberately selected which are known to be on the mind of your average client.
A major pitfall of the newsletter is talking about yourself.
Newsletters work best when they are addressing the reader’s issues. When you talk about things which are in everyone’s mind they think of you when they need the product you offer.
A few topics of discussion which are on everyone’s mind:
- Managing a new remote team
- Mental health and ways to avoid loneliness
- Common industry sentiment about pandemic
2. Webinar
Record it once. Invite every week.
Easy to set up with less technical knowledge and quickly replicable, webinars when conducted with thorough research, can establish your brand as trustworthy and reliable.
Here are a few things you need to know. There are two parts of a webinar which can sum up the entire event. The Contents, and the Call to action. Depending on your call to action, the contents of your webinar changes.
For instance, free webinars usually end with a CTA to buy a product or service. The content of such a webinar is “Problem awareness” with CTA serving as “solution at hand”.
The other format is “Topic Discussion” as content, which leads to more “Topic Discussion” as CTA. This format has a loop which brings in more people, since people forward such webinar more often than the former
I suggest, call to action to either join your weekly newsletter. Or start a meaningful conversation.
3. Social media community
Social media consumption is increasing daily as professionals are working from home. With more time to self, and sell social interaction, people are turning to social media sites to find like-minded people.
Be it a hobby or a profession, talking to people who know what you now brings a child-like joy in everyone’s life. A community can start by gathering a bunch of prospecting clients and setting-up weekly or monthly discussion session.
Conclusion
Outbound sales have seen a significant increase in the post-COVID era. Every organisation can start with this, but the difference would be the conversion rate.
If you feel your conversion rate is low, you need to change your call to action. Build a community of interested people today, so you could have help when you need it tomorrow.