Tactics

8 tips for writing the best cold sales email [video]

In a perfect world, sales would only be following up leads that marketing had generated. In an even more perfect world, it would only be Inside Sales, not Sales, making that first human approach. But if, in the real world you need to make cold sales emails, how do you do it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOX54T-9Ajc The first thing we need to remember is that we're interrupting them. That means that we have to be brief, we have to cut through, and we have to move them. But who's them, and how and to where do we move them? 5 READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

How to generate leads through LinkedIn [video]

LinkedIn’s core proposition remains: get found and get recruited. Keep your CV up to date on LinkedIn. Make it look pretty. Recruiters find you. Job offers come. That’s essentially their proposition. If that’s the case, LinkedIn surely is the most up to date database on the planet for accurate contact information about prospects. How do we tap that rich, up to date database to generate great B2B leads through LinkedIn? https://youtu.be/OjotgxKxOs8 Watch the video above where I show you step by step how to use Lead Builder to get your list. Start with your target market The READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

How to generate leads in B2B [video]

Ever wondered how to generate more leads for B2B? Of course you have. We all do. I'm not going to give you that one killer tactic that you've never heard of, because you've heard of them all. What I will give you is the best way to build ALL the leads you'll ever need. And how do I know? We've got 2000 go-to-market plans in our database, 500 of which we hand built with our clients. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxpDN5D6-g 5 Steps to generate leads in B2B Load up your Funnel Plan with tactics to move buyers from 'gap READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

B2B marketing tactics [video]

What are the best B2B marketing tactics? To answer that question, I've looked at 5 really excellent articles and the data from over 1,000 B2B marketing plans. The essence of this is not particularly surprising, but what we don't want to prioritize might surprise you. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kpSYxUiEeU Four things you really need to have in place are: Basic inbound. Accelerated inbound. Targeted outbound. Tools for your sales people. Let me unpack this a little bit and give you the 14 tactics that really make sense for you to focus on, and those that you might want to READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

5 Reasons Why Events are a Must-Do B2B Marketing Tactic

At align.me, we run a lot of B2B marketing events – for ourselves and for our Marketing Services clients These range from small, boardroom discussions with just a handful of prospects in a room; to larger, forum-style events with various decision makers and companies in attendance. Regardless of the size or format, the objective is always the same: to get a bunch of targeted individuals together, and have them acknowledge the problems they face in their business – problems that we, surprise surprise, happen to be well-equipped to solve. Although events require a lot of preparation READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

4x engagement from good customer onboarding for SaaS

Woo hoo! A hundred new trial users signed up to your application. Do you celebrate? Not yet. I want to explain the benefits of customer onboarding for SaaS (software as a service). Signing up for a trial is obviously a long way short of the finish line. Converting these trial users to paid subscribers is a clear next focus. But even paid users aren't over the line yet, either. The moment of purchase or trial is just the start of a mini journey. We need to get the user to the next incremental value as READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics, Velocity|

Why simplification is hard [video]

I’ve always liked the idea that to get from simplistic to simple you have to wade through complex. In other words, simplification is not about dumbing something down, but rather it is about paring it back. To achieve this, you firstly need all the glorious detail to be able to hunt and find the bare essence. There's more to this, as we’ve found in one of our experiments. Let me show you a lesson we learnt about simplification from our customers. This may help you to simplify your own business. I’ll also share 6 steps to simplification READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

B2B marketing tactics [video]

What are the best B2B marketing tactics? To answer that question, I've looked at 5 really excellent articles and the data from over 1,000 B2B marketing plans. The essence of this is not particularly surprising, but what we don't want to prioritize might surprise you. https://www.youtube.com/embed/-kpSYxUiEeU Four things you really need to have in place are: Basic inbound. Accelerated inbound. Targeted outbound. Tools for your sales people. Let me unpack this a little bit and give you the 14 tactics that really make sense for you to focus on, and those that you might want to READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

B2B marketing campaigns – great examples and a 7-step plan [video]

B2B campaigns built around a single tactic that either flies or flops make 1 hero for every 99 zeroes. A B2B marketing campaign should be complete, that is end-to-end, and it should be optimised over time. I'll show you 5 great articles that between them reveal about 20 B2B marketing campaigns. Then I’ll outline 7 steps to building your B2B campaigns https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bxu75Xk3l4A First, I'll summarise key learnings from those 5 articles, and then I'll argue why I think we're looking at this completely the wrong way around. What they say Article 1 Our first article is READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|

Buyer’s journey: A framework for tactics [video]

It doesn't matter what you do to the buyer, what matters is where they get to, as a result of what you do. The buyer's journey is a simple concept to help us to shape tactics that progress buyers, and that's what I want to share with you. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_mDXmg3pQcw When I coined the phrase ‘buyer’s journey’ in 2003, in the Leakey Funnel, I didn't think for a moment that I was inventing anything, and I wasn't. The buyer’s journey existed as a concept, however not yet as a phrase. I coined the phrase to express the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Tactics|