Marketers today are experiencing a peculiar predicament. The higher the number of marketing channels, the lower the response rates. Cutting through the clutter to reach customers and prospects has never been trickier.
B2B incentive programs are an ideal way to get noticed. Research from Blackhawk Network and Aberdeen shows that companies using reward-based promotions enjoy greater marketing performance and year-over-year growth.
Sounds good, right? Now you just need to get your executive team onboard. If your chief marketing officer isn’t quite convinced that B2B incentive programs will help your team move the needle, you’ll need to show them the value to change their mind.
Here are some impressive stats and real-world success stories to help you persuade your CMO that B2B incentive programs are the way to go.
CMOs — OK, most marketers — like webinars for good reason. They’re a cost-effective marketing channel for building relationships with your target audience.
Minimizing “ghost attendance,” however, can be difficult. Getting your audience involved is the first step in building momentum.
READ MORE: 7 Questions to Ask Before Launching a B2B Referral Rewards Program
Adam Hutchinson, Marketing Manager at social media management company Socedo, faced this dilemma with his webinar program. So Adam tried a new idea to cut through the inboxes — he offered attendees a cup of coffee while they tuned in.
“Sign-ups were through the roof! We more than doubled webinar registrations and increased attendance by 30%,” he reported.
Adam used BHN Rewards to send gourmet coffee e-gift cards via email to webinar attendees. When attendees claimed their gift, BHN Rewards notified Socedo’s marketing platform so that Adam could continue to engage customers with another piece of content or a phone call. Win-win!
Naturally, your CMO is expecting you to focus on lead generation. Strengthening the bond with your best advocates can help you find leads to begin nurturing.
Rewarding your online brand supporters is a simple place to start. Ask your social media followers to retweet to get a digital reward to increase exposure to your brand.
Incentivizing your current customers to pass along referrals is another way B2B incentive programs can help you fill your marketing funnel. This was the case after GTM Payroll Services integrated BHN Rewards with their client referral reward program. The company saw a 29% increase in the number of referrals received, making the program a top source of qualified leads with higher-than-average conversion rates.
If your CMO is concerned about hiring additional staff, tell them automated B2B incentive programs do most of the grunt work for you.
Katie Kyle, Office Operations Manager for TrustRadius, used to spend 60 hours a month processing as many as 2,000 rewards for online reviewers in the U.S, Australia, and Europe.
“BHN Rewards understood every problem we had,” she said. The platform helped make her “dream” a reality — “someone puts up a review and automatically gets a reward.”
Similarly, Ben Sosalla, Digital Marketing Manager for Quincy Bioscience, took advantage of BHN Rewards’ integration with HubSpot to streamline his company’s incentive program.
“Before [HubSpot + BHN Rewards], I was manually uploading to Starbucks one batch at a time. It was a nightmare. I would have to upload each batch group by group and file an expense report for each one,” he said. “It would take well over 30 minutes per batch, and now it takes 30 seconds. I just go into BHN Rewards and check the status of the campaign and who is waiting for a gift, then approve.”
This is the stat you’ll want to be sure to include in your presentation to your CMO: A company with an annual revenue of $100 million can grow its sales pipeline by $1.5 million more by using reward-based promotions over discount-based promotions, according to the Blackhawk/Aberdeen research.
Businesses using reward-based promotions, in fact, enjoy 8.6% greater performance in their marketing ROI than those using discounts (54% vs. 49.7%).
These days, B2B incentive programs are a no-brainer. They help marketers increase customer engagement, find new leads, and improve marketing ROI, all while integrating with the digital tools you already use. What have you got to lose?
When you get the green light from your CMO, take a product tour and contact us to set up a demo!
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
BHN Rewards puts the power of digital rewards to work for marketers, researchers, and HR managers. Don't forget to check out all the great content in our Resources section!
