I have now been a BDR for six months and there have been certain trends and tools I have used in 2019 that have helped me book in more meetings.
As we enter 2020, producing genuine, authentic and hyper-personalised outreach to build relationships will hopefully continue this success. I noticed some marketing trends and tools that could help BDRs produce better outreach and wanted to share this with you.
1. Personalization
In 2020 many buyers are going to be looking for a more personalised buying experience. Too many are clued up on automated digital communications and being categorised based on persona, industry, company size, without focusing on a compelling reason.
Spending more time researching the right leads, people who have a problem your solution can solve, and qualifying rather than using spray and pray will help you and your potential customer. Quickly you become the trusted advisor and expert in the relationship and they feel more than another number to hit target.
Finding triggers such as job moves, funding, company growth, hiring and new office locations can be great ways to open the doors. Taking it one step further and give evidence on how your solution has helped competitors, industry leaders, someone in their network or someone they know can help them see value.
2. Content marketing
As important as it is for marketing to write and produce content for sales to share, it is also important for salespeople to write their own content.
Content can help BDR’s show their personality, grow a social presence and stand out from the crowd. Writing blogs, posts, and sharing creative videos/ pictures that resonate with your ideal profile raises brand and personal awareness. You can also break through to new connections in your target account’s network that you might not have seen before.
3. Account-based marketing
Flipping the funnel on its head and focusing on targeted accounts with specific campaigns and messaging can mean engaging with more key decision makers and larger accounts in a meaningful way. For BDR’s setting up their own ABM approach starting by tiering your accounts can help focus your time and keep a good balance of quantity over quality outreach. Building layers into your sales process by targeting a few personas to find a champion, end user and decision maker can mean getting through quicker. Engaging the buyer with a multitude of different touchpoints including email, video, direct mail, social media, phone, events can help cut through the noise.
4. Social media strategy
Planning a weekly social media strategy can help to produce engaging content and open a new channel of social selling. Tagging people who could be interested, being the first to comment on influencers’ posts, offering authentic and genuine advice is crucial to growing a presence.
I have struggled to find a good balance but I am starting to see the rewards now. Prospects who have ignored my emails and calls get in touch out of the blue because something I have written or commented on resonates. This helps start a conversation and can lead to booking a meeting. I also sometimes get people message asking for a demo out of the blue, which is a great feeling.
5. Tools
There are many tools, resources, methods of communication that can help BDR’s stand out and earn the right to a conversation. Finding the communications that your prospect prefers does take time but is far more rewarding. Here is a link to the tech stack I use to help personalise my outreach. Some of my favourite tools I use to help find leads, open doors, nurture customers and produce engaging content are below:
- G2 - See who is looking with an intent to buy
- Leadfeeder - See which companies are looking at our website and viewing content
- Sales Navigator - Save leads and accounts to have clear visibility
- LinkedIn - Follow prospects, engage prospects and grow my network
- Reachdesk - send physical direct mail across the buyer journey for the moments that matter
- Vidyard - Send videos on how I sent direct mail, introduce myself and our solution
- Hubspot - Email tracking, sequences, CRM
- Lusha - Find contact data to react quickly to triggers
I hope this helps kick off your 2020 with some tips I found useful in 2019. Please don’t hesitate to message me about any of them but especially if you are interested in expanding your ABM efforts and creating direct mail campaigns!
