Inbound Marketing is the “Cinderella” of B2B marketing. On the one hand it is not understood, it is not valued and it is not applied and measured correctly; on the other hand it is the “must-do” marketing for B2B if you need to make it BIG!

Many confuse it with just inbound lead generation but it is more… or with automated marketing campaigns, it is definitely not it.

So what is Inbound Marketing then? To describe it, think of everything that you need to do to get the prospects to be interested in you before you get to go after them.

• Create programs that drive active prospect participation and enrolment.
• Understand your B2B buyer persona and build tactics to approach it.
• Monitor your brand and increase your B2B brand exposure.
• Have an active market presence.
• Identify, follow and participate in all relevant B2B social media platforms.
• Drive traffic to your website monitor and analyze traffic that gets in.
• Develop effective strategies for media outreach.
• Generate opportunities for press and analyst interviews, moderate advisory groups, and find speaking opportunities.
• Build interest for your solutions with your target audience.
• Run regular market analysis and benchmarks to know your market, competition and keep an eye on what’s going on.

This translates into traffic to your website, enrolments and subscriptions, better communications with your market and a positive general impact on your business development activities.

On the long run, inbound marketing is much more effective than outbound for B2B.  The price of an inbound generated lead is 3 times or even less expensive than the price of an outbound generated lead. The problem  is that SMBs in particular don’t allow themselves the time to build-up to it, they don’t constantly optimize and improve on these tactics and they abandon it just before it could take off.

My advice is that you should test different tactics, experiment and always improve. On a tight budget or limited resources you can always outsource this role.  You might be surprised with the economies you can perform by outsourcing this role and how many things you could do with a very good return. Check out the table here to see the numbers on B2B Inbound Marketing Employed vs Outsourced and how you can save about 60% on your inbound marketing projects.

Any company can become very popular on short term, but the real challenge is to remain on top of the market after more than three years. This can be achieved by providing real value added to your buyers! Consider this when you develop a SaaS application.

Differentiation is the ultimate competitive advantage, so use the differentiation strategy to win your customers over. Prove them you understand their business and offer them personalized products. Provide unique products with maximum functionality and you will gain the clients’ loyalty.

Differentiation is not something easy to achieve, but try to take into account the following:

1. Transform your SaaS application into a real Internet business
Through your SaaS application you create connections: first between the company and its customers, partners and vendors, then another connection is made between each of your customers with their business partners. A big network suddenly builds up and you’ll gain competitive advantage because of the Internet. This way, you can directly reach out to your customers and receive remote monitoring.

Differentiate yourself by taking advantages of the opportunities the online environment offers and by starting ahead of your competition through constant innovations. Create real value and measure its effects (it’s easy to see how many people actually clicked on an online ad). The really interesting thing about SaaS companies is that they can monetize the value created inside their network (besides the one brought by their application). This happens because a SaaS application allows you to track usage and to access data across the entire network, while a software application measures its impact only by the number of licenses sold.

2. Deliver more than just core products
Go beyond the lines. Create different products for each industry – each one has its own challenges and needs. There might be a “general solution” that fits them all, but will that solution make all the companies happy? No! Make your clients feel special. Go beyond current market boundaries and develop something different from what your competitors offer.

3. Provide exceptional customer service
Show your business partners that you really value the relation you have with them. Be open to communication and offer them support throughout the entire implementing process. Ask your customers to give you feedback and listen to them carefully. Are they really satisfied? Do they want more? And then, think about how you’ll manage to give them those extra features.

Take advantage of the network you’re creating and communicate with your customers and let them communicate with one another. Create vertical and horizontal structures.

In this journey, don’t forget about your company’s core values. You can’t ask your customers to trust a model that you are not convinced of yourself. Be different! Success is not something you can achieve overnight, but by paying attention to details and following a coherent marketing strategy for your SaaS application, your business will grow stronger and will become very powerful.

What is the best strategy when you own a start-up that is trying to sell a SaaS solution? What are the best ways to monetize such a platform? Many times, in such a business model, it is difficult to separate sales form marketing, as these two happen to overlap.  The most important thing you must keep in mind is that this type of business operates online, so you should focus on the online strategies.

A possible action plan for such a business can look like this:

1. Expect that the majority of your SaaS solution leads will come through the online channels.  To achieve this:

• Your website needs to be engaging

-You should present on the website the various persona (fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product) as part of the lead qualification process.

-The call-to-action needs to be very clear

• Offer multiple ways for visitors/prospects to reach you from your website. Telephone or chats deliver an automated process to contact the prospect in a timely manner.

2. Generate online demand. You need to generate incoming, high quality links from sources that are relevant to your SaaS solution and the persona addressed. This includes online paid advertising, as SEO/SEM is cheap and effective on the long term.

3. Establish thought leadership with blogs, webinars. Since you are a start-up, you do not have the case studies for webinars just yet, so you need to use blog marketing to educate the audience. (eg. Send a demo to the expert industry bloggers and get them to write independent opinions about your SaaS solution, articles on your community blog etc).

• Find leaders – use them to get the word out for your SaaS solution. For example, try pushing it for adoption with a few leaders in consulting industry and than use this as a case study for webinars.

4. Research on customers: online customer communities, their industry news, their key competitive points etc. What customer media you need to address?
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newAD continues to grow! This time, we are looking for a B2B Telesales Specialist.

This person will be responsible for executing and managing the telesales activities for B2B IT&C customers. The job is opened to an ambitious professional who is on the lookout for opportunities of fast career progression and its substantial rewards.

If you have more than 2 years experience in telesales, pre-sales and/or business development activities in selling complex solutions like: IT, professional services, outsourcing, software products, ISP services, telephony, etc and great English skills, then you are the right person for us!

You can find more details here: http://www.ejobs.ro/user/locuri-de-munca/b2b-telesales-specialist/396515/sqi and send your application to daniela.toader@newad.ro.

We offer flexible working conditions, a professional environment and a young dynamic team willing to support you all the way.

“If you live your life on Facebook or Twitter, then you are the right person for us”.  As I am a true Internet addict, this tweet caught my attention and eventually led to my joining the newAD team.

It has been now more than one week since I started working here.  As expected, on the first day I was full of emotion and excitement. Getting to know my new colleagues proved to be a difficult task, as I forget their names in the instant they introduced themselves.  Also, getting accustomed to the software and to the new programs I was going to use was sometimes quite challenging. However, at the end of the first day, I felt I had absorbed a lot of information and that the second day would be better.

A week has past since, and now I am proud to say that I know the names of all my colleagues. I am involved in a lot of projects and I can see now that my instincts were not wrong, as I really enjoy my tasks. At newAD, there is a lot of energy and enthusiasm, exactly what I was hoping for in a work place. Now I am looking forward to improving my  skills and to prove myself a valuable asset for newAD.