Nov 14, 2017

Warming Up Cold Calls With Inbound Marketing

Out of all the marketing techniques available cold calling is perhaps the most dreaded. It comes across as intrusive, opening the caller up for rejection and, sometimes, rudeness.

Cold calling is also a time-consuming approach. In fact, it can take up to 18 dials to reach an actual person. And the results are not always promising – callback rates have been shown to be less than 1%.

Unfortunately, cold calling as a marketing strategy is not going anywhere anytime soon. The reason for this? Getting a prospect on the phone is extremely hard, but when successful, a very effective marketing tool.

The good news is that cold calling no longer has to be so cold. By utilizing other B2B inbound marketing strategies, we can turn cold calling into something that’s much easier to do and much more effective. Here is how to use an inbound marketing strategy to really warm up your cold calling.

START BY ATTRACTING WEBSITE VISITORS

Start your cold calling inbound marketing strategy by seeking out target leads. Why blindly call random businesses if you can call businesses that have shown they are already interested in your business?

So where do you find these warm leads? Start by attracting them to your website. This can be done in many ways.

BLOGGING

Blogging, a part of a comprehensive content marketing strategy, has become one of the most widely used B2B inbound marketing strategies … because it works. Well-written content has the ability to attract attention, drive traffic and help build connections. Make sure your content is engaging, and your headlines are interesting enough, to get readers’ attention.

Also, be sure to use target keywords throughout your content, focusing on the words and phrases your audience will likely be searching for. Consider what your business does, and what makes it unique. Use keywords that center around your industry, products, services, benefits, etc. Use tools like Ubersuggest or Seo Book’s Keyword Tool to help find the most popular keywords and phrases for your business.

GUEST BLOGGING

While you should always publish great content on your blog, reserve some of your best content for other blogs. Why would you want to do that? By targeting the right blogs on which to guest post, you can put your content (and by extension – your business) in front of a wider audience, build credible backlinks, showcase your industry authority and increase your traffic. Guest blogging uses the traffic of more popular blogs to benefit your own business.

To get started with guest blogging, look for popular blogs in your own industry. Aim your efforts at blogs that have a decent amount of traffic the goal here is to get your writing seen by as many people as possible. Some blogs state on their websites they accept guest posts, while others make take a little more research. Look through the posts on the site and make note of the authors, introductions and bios. You should be able to tell if an author is a regular or a guest.

SOCIAL MEDIA

With so many people on social media each day, it’s a great place to target your inbound marketing strategy. To effectively use social media in your marketing plan, make sure you:

  • Have sharing buttons on your site, making it easy for readers to share your great content with their followers, exposing your business to a wider audience.
  • Have a Facebook page. So many people are searching Facebook for businesses that this social platform can’t be ignored.
  • Use images. Images, graphics and memes grab attention and get more shares and clicks overall.

WEBINARS

People love to get their information in other ways besides blog posts. Use free webinars to attract those looking for a more visual form of learning. Create a webinar and use your blog and social media accounts to help promote it and bring it attention.

CONVERT THOSE VISITORS INTO WARM LEADS WITH INBOUND MARKETING

Once you get visitors to your site, you want to turn them into warm leads. By enticing your readers to hand over their information, you will have what you need to make your cold calls successful.

How do you get readers to give you the information you need? By offering them something great in return for it, that’s how! This usually comes in the form of something free, or pretty close to it. Some of the most effective ideas are:

  • eBooks. Longer pieces of content like eBooks or advanced guides always work well. Make sure your topic is something your audience is genuinely interested in to ensure they will sign up to get it.
  • Email courses. A course delivered via email is another great free offer. Again, center this around a topic that is a pain point for your audience and use an autoresponder service to help automatically deliver the emails.
  • Resources. People are always interested in something that makes their lives easier. This could mean checklists, toolkits, templates, etc. Anything that is useful and provides value.
  • Coupons or discounts. Do you sell products or services? Entice your audience to sign up by offering a coupon code.

There are a few tactics to use to gather the information you need. Most websites gather email addresses, but for your cold calling purposes you can gather both email and phone numbers. Try:

  • Opt-in forms. These are very popular because they’re effective. Place your form in a prominent place on your site so visitors are sure to see it.
  • Landing pages. If a simple form is effective, a whole page can be even more effective. Set up your landing page to provide information about your business and the offer, and include a form for readers to plug in their information. Share your landing page URL on your social media profiles. You can also use this URL as your site link in your bio when you guest post.
  • Call-to-action links. Use links or buttons to tell your readers exactly what you want them to do! Place links within your content or place buttons on your site that tells readers to download, claim, grab or sign up.

USING YOUR INFORMATION

Once you have your warm leads and some contact information, you can make your phone call, right?

Not so fast!

You could make your call now, but a better strategy is to do a bit more research on your prospect. Check their website and their social media accounts to find out more about the person you will be calling. Look for information like their job title, role at the company, background, products and services the company offers, anything you may have in common. Going into your call with information like this can help make your cold call a bit more friendly, making the receiver much more open to speaking with you.

Cold calling is often an overlooked, or a dreaded, form of marketing. However, if done correctly, it is still every effective. Make sure you succeed in your cold calling efforts by using these B2B inbound marketing strategies to help warm up your prospect.

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