Stealing B2C Black Friday Tactics for the Sales Development World with Jenell Riesner

What can B2B sales reps learn from B2C marketing? Looking to consumer-based marketing can provide fresh insight into understanding your buyers, optimizing your funnel, and crafting customized campaigns. 

Jenell Riesner is the CMO at iLoveKickboxing, a fitness franchise specializing in HIIT workouts and kickboxing. She joined the Predictable Revenue podcast to discuss applying B2C marketing tactics to the B2B sales development world.

Black Friday tactics for B2C sales

Jennell’s marketing team took a unique approach to Black Friday this year. Instead of running ads to their sale in November, which is one of the most expensive times of year to advertise, they focused on building their audience in October–then used the month leading up to Black Friday to focus on retargeting.

Lead costs were much lower in October, there was less competition, and they were able to grow their email list and social media audience before the promotional period in November. The result was more sales at a lower acquisition cost.

Planning B2C sales campaigns

Paid ads are a great strategy to fill your top-of-funnel with leads, but there are some considerations to keep in mind. The first is to plan your promotional events around when consumers are already looking for deals (ie., the holidays, Black Friday). 

Depending on your industry, there may be other seasonal changes as well. For example, in the fitness industry, people are already motivated to start a new fitness regimen in the new year so there’s no need for a big promotional push in January. 

The key thing to keep in mind is that you can’t change buying behavior. Focus on the way your ideal customer likes to buy, and remove as many barriers to their purchase as possible. 

At iLoveKickboxing, one of the barriers for their target audience is that prospects don’t feel “fit” enough to join a gym. So Jennell and her team focus on making their marketing as approachable and inclusive as possible, with images of people at every level of fitness. 

Using ads to fill your sales funnel

Paid media is a great way to capture B2B and B2C leads. Before running ads, however, make sure you have a proven offer and are clear on your targeting. Aside from attention-grabbing copy and images, testimonials and user-generated content also work well in advertising. 

To determine the success of your ad campaigns, keep an eye on your cost per lead and customer acquisition cost (CAC). Continue to test and optimize to lower those costs.

After you’ve captured a lead’s information, you’ll need to follow up on another platform. Email and SMS are the most popular for B2C sales, but according to Crunchbase, 57% of B2B buyers prefer to be contacted over the phone.

Example of a successful B2C funnel

Jannell walked us through iLoveKickboxing’s marketing and sales funnel, starting with Facebook ads. From there, leads are sent to a landing page, where they opt-in to email and/or SMS marketing, then to the checkout page.

Email and SMS are critically important for iLoveKickboxing, which operates on a recurring membership model. After a new lead opts in to attend a class, they receive a welcome series on what to expect at their first class, and from there they get regular nurture emails.

Although some emails upsell members to buy merchandise or lock in a longer membership, the primary focus is on providing value that helps customers along their fitness journey. It’s a strategy that’s paid off; their click-to-membership conversion rate averages around 6-7%, with some campaigns reaching as high as 30%.

Tips for nurturing leads over email

Email is one area where sales development reps could learn from their marketing counterparts. The marketing team at iLoveKickboxing makes an effort to nurture their entire audience, regardless of whether or not a subscriber buys from them. 

Instead of pushing for the sale, Jennell and her team focus on what’s preventing people from taking that next step, then create campaigns around those barriers. 

For example, to overcome the objection of prospects not feeling ready to join a gym, the marketing team created a free at-home workout challenge. These types of campaigns create value for prospective customers and allow the company to stay top of mind. 

If you need help managing prospects or designing follow-up sequences, reach out here to book a free discovery call. Our outbound sales coaches can help with everything from social selling to customer research, creating email campaigns, and more.

How and when to use SMS

SMS marketing can be controversial. Unlike calls and email, texting is usually reserved for friends and family, so if a lead gives you their personal phone number, it’s important to be respectful of that.

Don’t send unsolicited messages. Wait until a prospect opts in to receive SMS communication, and use it to send value-driven content, not just sales messages. iLoveKickboxing has seen success with this, sending their text list members motivational tips and reminders.

If you’re not sure SMS is the best way to reach your audience, you can let people self-segment. On your landing page, simply ask if they would prefer to be contacted via email, text, or a phone call. Likewise, you can also ask why they chose to opt in and what type of content they’d prefer to receive.

Some users may raise their hand and tell you they’re interested in hearing about future sales and promotions, providing you with a warm list of leads to target in your next campaign.

Making the most of your budget 

When it comes to ROI, email marketing is unmatched, with an average return of $36 for every $1 spent.

Not only is email a great sales tool, but it also allows you to develop long-term relationships with your audience. At any given time, the majority of your audience won’t be ready to buy, so it’s important to continue to nurture those people until they enter a buying mode.

Sales and marketing need to work together to nurture leads long-term. Sales development reps can share what objections they’re hearing from prospects, and those objections can become the basis for a new marketing campaign. 

B2C tactics for B2B sales

There are a number of strategies B2B sales reps can steal from B2C marketing, including pre-empting seasonal buying windows, understanding the barriers to the sale, and customizing campaigns based on buyer communication preferences.

If you want to connect with Jenell to learn more about B2C marketing tactics and how they apply to B2B sales, reach out via LinkedIn.

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