B to B advertising and B to C advertising  are very different, and knowing these differences can help you more effectively reach your target market and ultimately increase sales and profits. Here are facts to keep in mind about these different channels when creating your next advertising campaign:

When businesses are selling to other businesses (B2B), they often have a smaller and more focused niche market. The sales team should understand that the buyers want to establish a relationship with the company before they invest in their products or services, so they should be reaching out on a number of different levels to help develop that relationship and make their company the go-to resource in the industry they serve. As such, marketing collateral such as white papers, webinars, press releases, email, direct mail and more should be used to reach out to and educate their prospects.

This relationship will help the buyers develop their impression of the brand and form an identity about them. Unlike a B2C sale, the B2B sales cycle is much more lengthy as a result of all of this nurturing and relationship building, but it is often worth the effort when a sale is finally closed. The sales team should also know that the business buyers are making their purchase decisions on a basis of business value, not necessarily based on status or brand recognition, making lead generation essential in the B2B market.

When businesses are selling directly to consumers (B2C), there is a much larger and open target market, and there is more of an indirect relationship between the seller and the buyer. Most consumers are driven to purchase by the status, their desire, or the price of a product, and they do not put as much time into the decision process as with B2B. Here, purchase decisions can be made on-the-fly or with little research on the part of the consumer, and this makes it important for the seller to capture the attention of the buyer almost immediately.

A consumer may choose to buy based on the number of times they have seen the logo or heard about the  brand from their friends, and not so much from the amount of information they have received about the company or the product being sold. Many B2C companies rely on their brand-loyal customers to drive most of their sales and profits while continuing to reach out to new customers.

No matter what channel your business operates in, there is one thing that is common between these two segments: customer service is always important. Whether a customer is an individual consumer or a large corporation, both markets expect superior customer service in return for their investment and purchase with your company. For B2B companies, customer service begins at the moment you contact them during the prospecting process, and continues through until well after the sale is closed. This important nurturing process will help bring them back time and time again as a repeat customer. For B2C companies, customer service usually begins when the customer shows intent to purchase and continues on after they have made the decision to buy.

Keeping all of these details in mind when you are looking to increase sales or generate more leads will definitely help target the right customers as well as better understand the market you are selling to and their needs throughout the sales process.

In today’s ever-connected world, businesses are facing off against global competition, competitive pricing and top-notch expertise in order to find their way to the top. With new techniques and articles being published daily about the hot new trends in the business world, it is hard to keep up and even more difficult to make a decision on where to invest corporate dollars for a strong return on investment. We want to eliminate those “buzz word” duds, keep you from wasting your money on old tactics that just don’t work anymore, and introduce you to new techniques that can make a difference in your business. After all, we do want you to be a Savvy Manager. Here are some of the best techniques for today’s most popular forms of online B to B advertising .

Email Marketing: Besides having a solid website for your customers to visit, you should also have a substantial email list of all of your contacts and reach out to them regularly via email. In B to B advertising, this is especially important, but you must tailor each new email blast to your recipients. Know your audience and send a message that can relate to them. For creative clients, you can get away with loose language and many images, but for very professional customers like law offices or physicians, you may want to use corporate language, limit graphics, and send only the “must know” information.

No matter who your target email audience is, keep your message short and sweet. No one likes to read long emails, especially when they are a “sales” email. Which brings us to our next point: Don’t oversell. Be careful not to load your message with links, sales pitches, “amazing” customer testimonials and marketing hype. Instead, give your message some though and include the value that your products or services can bring to your customer. Relay that carefully in the message, and you will be in good shape!

Finally, make sure to try to integrate mobile reading capabilities within your message. This may take some time and work with your IT department, but you would be surprised to learn how many business people now read their emails on-the-go and on their smart phones. Don’t let yours go in the trash because it can only be opened and viewed on a computer.

Online Banner Ads: Website banner ads are extremely popular for all types of businesses and are quite effective for b to b advertising campaigns. The important thing to remember here is that you must must must design your graphics with your target audience in mind and display them on relevant websites. (Yes, this is true of all advertising, but especially true for B to B.) Target the websites that are trusted and reputable resources for other businesses. You want your company’s ad to be front and center with the businesses you want to target most, so it is worth it to spend a big portion of you ad money on a few websites with many subscribers in your target industry.

While measuring clicks is important is gauging how effective your ad is, it is also important to measure how many leads you generate from this method and also how many sales come directly from your banner ads. This can help you determine which campaigns in particular are working and which graphics yield the best results.

Search Engine Advertising: Marketing has changed and evolved as quickly as the Internet has, and it continues to develop as new methods of reaching out to consumers become popular. One method of advertising on the web is through search engine optimization and paid search marketing.

With SEO, you want to make search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing like your website and your content so they display them at the top of the page when people search terms related to your business. There are number of ways to optimize your web pages, including altering the HTML code and building up quality backlinks over time. This can be a long process, but working to increase your search rankings is something that can definitely pay off. Do you research to find relevant keywords in your industry and fill your website with relevant and helpful articles using these words. You can also check how many backlinks your webpage has out there by going to websites like backlinkwatch.com.

For paid search advertisements, it is essential that you do quality keyword research to make sure that your ads are displayed only for the most relevant of searches. It is one thing for your ad to come up, but another for it to come up as a perfect match for a search term, a user to click on it, and for that user to become a customer.

Social Media Advertising: A lot of B to B companies believe that social media cannot relay any direct increase in sales to their company, and that users are on sites like Facebook, Twitter and the like just to talk to their friends. Well, they are wrong.

B to B social media advertising is a huge market and can definitely be a great avenue to take if you are looking to revamp your ad campaigns. Just as individuals are on these sites to interact with friends, research has shown that they are also on these sites to interact with businesses, and with so many other companies jumping on to be “social”, this provides a great opportunity to get in some quality B to B advertising.

LinkedIn, the most professional of the social networks, is a hotbed for the B to B industry. If you are looking to attract new talent, new customers or simply brand your company, this social network should be your next ad platform. LinkedIn’s DirectAds program is a simple advertising solution that gives marketers unique targeting potential within a niche group of business professionals. Aside from LinkedIn, Facebook is also pulling in the money for a lot of B to B companies who make meaningful connections with other businesses. Remember, though, that “social networking” is supposed to be “social”, so be sure to engage in conversation and develop relationships in addition to putting your display ad up on these sites.

Contests

Is your sales team dragging a little today? Interns looking like their night out didn’t end until a few hours ago? A small bonus for the day could make all the difference in the world. Offer to take whichever intern finishes stuffing envelopes fastest out to lunch, or maybe $50 to the sales rep who makes the most calls in an hour. By setting an attainable goal and a valuable prize, the incentive to compete is created and you’ll find your employees suddenly waking up and being much more productive.

If you’re looking for more long-term motivation, a vacation or bonus can be a very attractive incentive for your employees. While they certainly should be working hard for the compensation they’re already receiving, upping the ante can really push your employees to another level of productivity.

Set goals

Having goals for your company, department, and even individual employees can drive productivity and give employees a reason to work efficiently and to their best ability. These goals must be attainable and specific, so that your employees know exactly what they are striving to accomplish.

A great way to keep these goals relevant and significant to your office is to type them up and print them out. For example, print out the number of sales you want your sales rep to make this week, and have him/her put it on their desk.

Promotion opportunities

It’s a very simple concept, but employees who are aware of available opportunities to advance in the company will definitely be more motivated than those who know they will be stuck in the same position no matter how well they perform.

As the manager, it falls on you to make sure your employees know that upper management takes notice of what they do and that quality performance will lead to promotion.

Recognition

Along the same lines as promotion opportunities, recognizing outstanding employees is another way to provide them with incentive to strive for their best effort. Having an Employee of the Week, Month, and/or Year award is a good start, especially if that type of award can be parlayed into a promotion or addition recognition by the employee(s). Other employees will take notice that success is being recognized in the office, and this can create some friendly competition and a more productive office environment.

Have a party!

Yes, while it is certainly important to make your office environment as productive as possible, sometimes things just get far too monotonous. Take a page from Michael Scott and his Dunder Mifflin crew and have an office party. Getting a break from the day-to-day and getting to discuss subjects other than sales reports and online marketing with your co-workers can help with office morale and refresh your office.

Know your audience
This should go without saying, but who you’re talking to is perhaps the most important determinant of how you choose to communicate. For example, you tend to be more understanding and patient with a new employee, and as a result you will probably be much more likely to praise them publicly to build their confidence and let them know they’re on the right track. Conversely, a longtime employee who tends to achieve above-average sales numbers will certainly get praise, but it may be less, considering that is the standard they’ve set. And always remember, you want to praise your employees publicly and discuss issues or criticisms privately.

Don’t forget about non-verbal communication
Communication doesn’t begin and end with what is actually said. Body language is a extremely important when it comes to communicating with your employees, and you as the manager should be cognizant of it at all times. Your body position, facial expression, and hand motions are all very critical aspects of how you express your true feelings, and paying attention to them can help you strengthen your message in the office. For instance, even if you’re having a brutally stressful day, you need to maintain an energetic and upbeat presence around your employees so as not to transfer those feelings of stress to your employees.

CC’ing: Not too much, not too little, but just right.
Nothing is better than effective communication stemming from copying in the right people on an e-mail, and nothing is worse than being consistently copied in on e-mails that are not at all relevant to your job. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but while CC’ing has plenty of benefits, it also has drawbacks when not used properly. If you’re unsure whether someone should be copied in on an e-mail, consider what impact (if any) they could have on the deal or information at hand. If it is minimal, there is no sense in cluttering their inbox. Similarly, once an e-mail conversation has gone past the crucial information for those CC’ed in, do not continue to CC them during the “thank you” stage of the conversation.

Take the time to improve these areas of your own communication skills and encourage those in your office to do the same. You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Growing up, sports taught many of us lessons about leadership, teamwork, and other essential life skills. These skills are also essential in the workplace, so why not use sports to reinforce them with your employees? There are plenty of office leagues varying in skill level, location, and the sport itself that you can get your company involved in, and the benefits are very evident.

One of the unique ways that sports brings your employees together is that it requires different skill sets than those that dictate the chain of command in the office. For example, your best starting pitcher in softball could be the entry-level employee that started three months ago, while the a regional vice president could be designated to a harmless position somewhere in the outfield. Or, in football, the quarterback and leader of the team could be the summer intern, a former high school quarterback. This can “level the playing field” amongst your employees and allow the “new guys” in the office to make a name for themselves in ways they otherwise would not be able to.

There are numerous ways you can make your office “team” a fun experience no matter how good or bad the team performs. Get company “jerseys” made up, and encourage employees to put a nickname on the back of their “jersey”. Get a water bottle for everyone with the company (“team”) logo on it. Encourage your employees to invite their friends and family to come watch the game. Small stuff like this can make a big impact in your employees feeling like they’re “representing” the company on the gridiron or diamond, which is a feeling they will carry with them into the office.

Along the same lines, sports also offers a great bonding experience for your employees, which can lead to increased productivity and positivity in the office. It’s a little easier to walk into work when you’re able to joke about the previous night’s game while pouring your coffee, and you may find the synergy in the office reaching previously unseen levels as your employees get to know each other more away from the work environment. And, often times, you can extend the evening and go out for dinner or drinks after the game, again giving your employees more time to bond together.

Finally, participating in an office sports league can help you and your company make connections within the community and with other businesses. Especially in the less competitive leagues, you can probably invite the other team out for dinner or drinks after the game as well, and this provides an opportunity to meet a possible future client or business partner. The essence of all business is networking, and experiences like this can help you and your company expand your existing network.

Playing sports together can provide your business with an invaluable bonding experience that can translate into more success in the office. Strap on the cleats, break out the old glove or football, and get out on the field with your (sales) team!

Leadership is an asset that is valuable in many situations, even outside of the corporate world, but it is an absolutely essential skill to have as a manager. Many say that is the manager’s job to organize, plan and coordinate and that is is a leader’s job to inspire and motivate. To be an effective manager, those attributes have to be combined into one role. So how is it that one person can organize and coordinate employees while also inspiring and motivating them to do their best?

Here are some keys to leadership every manager should practice:

• Clearly define goals. Let everyone know what the “big picture” is, what is expected of everyone in order to get there, and how everyone can make a positive impact in getting there. This shows organization and planning and also inspires idea generation for the goal that is within reach.
• Acknowledge a job well done, even if it’s a small one. Being supportive of your team is important because it shows that you (and the company) care about what is happening around the office. This will also help you keep tabs on what everyone is working on and will be of benefit to you when you plan ahead and move forward to reach your goal.
• Communicate effectively. This is an extremely important component in any situation, but especially in the corporate world. Open lines of communication keeps everyone on the same page and well-organized so you can keep every one’s eyes on the prize.
• Take action. Goals cannot be met without action, and when your team sees that you are taking an active part in the development of the goal, they will be inspired and motivated to do the same, bringing you closer and closer to the finish line.
• Take charge and lead by example. Show your team that you are in charge by efficiently facilitating meetings, managing conflict, encouraging positive work environments, and inspiring colleagues to do their best work.
• Instill trust and confidence in your team. Let them know that you and the other team members are available to chat, bounce ideas off one another, or to support them with research or an extra hand with a certain part of the project. It is also important to make everyone feel confident about the work they are doing and the goal that they are working towards.

No matter what industry a person works in or what type of team they support, it is important for managers to understand the role they play in the success of their company. The lines between manager and leader are combined  by combining strong skills in planning and organizing and inspiring colleagues to reach their goals.

Teenagers are conditioned with an “us against them” attitude. They believe that adults are interfering in their life that could otherwise be just as they wanted. Likewise, employees are used to not trusting and not liking their managers. Most of them would rather work on their own. So how do you be a manager to people that don’t want to be managed? Teenagers are old enough to theoretically care for themselves, but they may not have all the skills to do it well. The way a good parent treats a teenager craving independence is a great resource for how a manager can approach his role.

You want your employees to be able to function on their own so the work can get done well and on time just like a parent wants their child to stand on their own so they don’t live at home forever. This means that you can’t do everything for them and you can’t always tell them what to do. They have to have the knowledge to function even when you are not there. Your job is to guide. If you let go of the reigns a bit and let your employees succeed on their own, you may be pleased with the results. Or you could find out where there needs to be more training and instruction.

You must make the employees feel like it is ok to try and to fail. Everyone will make some mistakes in their lifetime, including you, so you have to create an environment where your team will feel comfortable pushing themselves without fear of it not going as planned. Parents always say that they wish their child would talk to them. However, children avoid talking to parents often because they are afraid of their reaction. Make sure to keep your reactions realistic and appropriate to the situation so your employees can feel safe coming to talk to you.

Your biggest hurdle will be that of any parent. You must always be thinking about others and the unit as a whole. You got a promotion but you can’t let it go to your head and make those below you miserable. That being said, your team may not always understand or agree with what you do. You will even have to be accountable for many of their mistakes. You can just do the best you can to think in their best interest because you have the ability to make a positive impact on their life and their career. You may not be acknowledged for it, but like a parent, seeing your child excel will be its own reward.

One thing companies never seem to realize is that time management is actually more of a hassle than it needs to be. When it comes to requests for overtime, recording lateness and absence, or tracking hours, companies have a lot to deal with. Without a specific system in place, it’s easy for employees to take advantage. Employees have an easier time committing time falsification if they aren’t being monitored closely.

This can be solved by using simple charts or specific software programs. Software programs are the easiest way to monitor time management among employees because everything is automated. Some programs have a feature that allows you to track trends among employee behaviors. For example, if an employee always calls out the day after or before a holiday, the software recognizes this and alerts you. Each employee can be watched much closer, without you having to do the work.

Besides reducing your workload, there are simple ways to chop down your budget as well. Until recently, companies all over the world were paying ridiculously high rates to make long distance calls to colleagues in other locations. Also, when you’re trying to do business overseas, the costs can be huge. Finding an effective way to reduce long distance calling can save companies thousands.

Luckily, today’s technology allows a simple solution. With Voice over Internet Protocol, also referred to as VoIP, companies can now make calls over the internet without using phone lines. This completely eliminates long distance costs. Voicemail can be checked via e-mail with VoIP, conference calls can be made, and one VoIP phone can be set up with multiple phone numbers. The software saves companies tons of money on calling costs, and the benefits are paramount compared to landlines, cell phones, and e-mail.

Another, more creative, way to make things easier things in your business is to look into starting an internship program. Interns can assist in the tedious, time consuming tasks that need to be done. The best part about hiring interns is that you create a win-win situation. The student is gaining necessary knowledge for a possible career in your field, while your company is benefiting from the unpaid work. If there is a position that isn’t worth hiring an entirely new employee for, an internship program may be just the thing you need.

While these are just a few simple suggestions to simplify your business, there are tons of ways lessen your workload AND the amount of money your putting out. All it takes is a little research to find out exactly what you could be doing differently. You might even find a new technology or way of doing things that will revolutionize your business.

An easy way to gain respect from employees is to listen when they talk. If you spend most of the time talking without ever listening to what anyone else has to say, pretty soon they are going to stop listening to you all together. Even if you do not intend on taking suggestions from employees, allowing them to feel that their opinions are valued makes a big difference. Also, an employee may have a great idea that could change the company, but if you won’t hear them out, you might be passing up a valuable opportunity.

A good manager always follows through with things. If you say one thing and then do another, pretty soon no one is going to take you seriously. It’s important to be consistent so your employees know what to expect from you. Keeping everyone on the same page promotes a team-like environment, and it’s easier for employees to get things done quickly and efficiently if you’re clear about your goals. Changing deadlines or giving unclear assignments is just going to frustrate people. Also, when you give employees assignments or task lists, be sure to follow up. If you don’t, they’re likely to start blowing them off and treat you like a pushover.

It’s OK to be vulnerable. At the same time that you want your employees to see you as their superior, letting them know you’re a real person just like everyone else might be beneficial. If you’re having a bad day, try opening up about it instead of shutting everyone out. Odds are, they’ll appreciate your honesty and even help you out a little. Treating your staff like you care and respect them is going to make them do the same. It all goes back to “The Golden Rule”: Do unto others as they would do unto you.

Give employees incentives or rewards for their outstanding performance. If one of your team members busted their butt last month and you’ve done nothing to show your appreciation, watch how often they put in that kind of effort in the future. Recognizing when someone is doing a good job is the only way to ensure continuance of that behavior. You could go about this by giving gifts, such as promotional products or gift certificates. Even simply acknowledging the employee’s hard work in front of other team members really goes a long way.

On the flip side, don’t ever reprimand an employee in front of other team members. This is just flat out embarrassing, and does the opposite for your image that you would like. Instead of appearing authoritative, you just look like a jerk. There are simple and more respectful ways about pointing out faults. Always confront the employee alone, and never have an accusing or reprimanding tone. Mention something that was done well in addition, so they do not feel like their hard work is unappreciated. For example, try, “You did a really great job on this project. Could you just change around this one thing? I’d appreciate it.” Now that wasn’t so bad.

Gaining the respect of your employees isn’t rocket science, but it may be tricky to get the hang of. Always be gracious and courteous, while remaining firm and direct. If you can master this, you’ll be coasting into manager heaven.