Marketing Interactions

Lead Nurturing Belongs in Your Recession Strategy

I've seen so many posts about how to fight the negative impacts of a recession on  business success that it's making me crazy. Why is it that people wait until it's announced that we're finally in a recession before they start doing what they could've been doing all along?

Customer-focused lead nurturing is one of the best ways to prevent experiencing an adverse impact to customer acquisition during a recession.

Here are a few meaty reasons why lead nurturing is a recession buster:

• You're already growing a relationship with people who've given you their permission to contact them with relevant content.
  • This means you can reach out with proactive dialogue to both learn about what's keeping them up at night due to this economic shift and then ease their concerns by helping them make the best choices during risky times.
  
  
  • You can create marketing content to address these concerns and give them helpful ideas for riding out the storm so they're in a better position when the winds change.
  
  
• Providing continuity of experience during tough times raises your viability as a long-term partner choice.
  • Whatever you do, don't stop now. If you cut and run to save budget you're not only wasting leads, but you're showing them you'll jump ship when the going gets tough.
  
  
  • Do NOT start panicking and use hard-sell tactics. Stick to your story. Your confidence and stability during a downturn does a lot for your company's reputation, not to mention showing people they can trust you to stay focused on what's best for them.

If your leads were interested in your product offerings before the recession, they probably need you now, more than ever. Keep in mind that they'll buy eventually and your goal is to have them buy from your company. Don't be pushy, be helpful. Prove to your leads that you're the trusted advisor they've been looking for.

If nothing else, a recession gives you the perfect venue for proving you're focused on them. Nurturing an audience you already have is much more lucrative than flailing about for short-term sales.

In fact, if you go to the trouble to find out how the economy is conflicting with their decision to buy, you've got the opportunity to show them the pros and cons of putting off a decision that can deliver a business value they can't afford to put off.

Lead nurturing belongs in your marketing strategy mix—recession or not.

B2B Needs Personality to Go Social

There've been a number of posts recently about strategy for social media. Beth Harte wrote a great one about companies who say they can't begin "socializing" until they can figure out how to prove ROI. Jason Baer wrote about the 7 must-haves in your social media strategy. Chris Brogan is prolific about the subject.

For B2B companies, it can be difficult to figure out how to give your brand some personality. To make it more human. That's because B2B tends to be more product focused, which is a tough mindset to shift.

But, shift you must -- if you want to add social to your emarketing strategy.

Something most B2B companies are familiar with is call guides and scripts for inside sales qualifying calls or marketing outreach. Every time I receive a call like that or read a client's call guide, I'm a bit taken aback.

Go get yours. Read it out loud. Can you do this without stumbling, stopping mid-sentence to gasp for breath or, ahem, laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of it?

Now that you've read it out loud, think about what you just said. Does it matter to the person you just said it to? Does it invite a response better than, "not interested" or "I'm not sure this is important to me" or "we've got this handled, thanks."

Most B2B call guides are pulled right out of product value propositions or, even worse, brochures and corporate mission statements. Basically, it doesn't work. It doesn't work because formal, stiff and jargon-filled corporate text about products doesn't exist on the same planet as conversational fodder.

This is why listening has got to be the first thing B2B companies do when they want to go social. It's not about your product's value proposition, it's about your customer's value perspective. If you don't listen first, you won't know what that is.

I read an article a while back (can't remember the source) but it said that by exposing what happens behind the scenes of your company, you humanize it. I suppose this means that instead of a building, people will see people and feel more inclined to engage.

But, that's not enough.

People are basically self-interested. They want to engage about stuff interesting and important to them. Not just with people for the sake of human interaction. So push yourself farther to figure out what their needs are, how you can be responsive and helpful within the context of the ongoing conversation. And then contribute in a conversational voice without all the corporate rhetoric.

Go get Jason's social media strategy worksheet and think about how you can expand it. For example, I'd add that across from Business Description you put Customer Description. And, across from Value Proposition for your business you add Value Perspective for your customers. Refine them until you develop strong correlations that add value for both your company AND the people you want to reach out to.

Go read Beth's post about getting a plan for social media so you can figure out your ROI. Lots of great stuff to think about that will also help you complete Jason's social media strategy worksheet.

As emarketing strategy options expand, your success will depend on your abilty to weave together all your online efforts to tell an ongoing, consistent story about the value you provide to customers. Social media deserves a role in your emarketing strategy design.

By thinking it through, you'll be able to create a sustainable conversation that builds your company's personality and pulls customer engagement.

Just Do IT! Use the marketing data you have now

When I first talk with clients about emarketing strategy I often hear that they don't have access to the data they need to implement a targeted nurturing program. Their eyes get big and glazed and they look like Bambi in the cross hairs.

One of the things we forget as marketers is that our own status quo gets in our way as much as the status quo stance of our prospects. It's time for marketers to turn the focus to themselves for a moment and consider how they can free themselves to "just do it."

Information overload is pervasive. Not just for prospects and customers, but for marketers. Our customer data may be in silos we can't access—spread across the enterprise. But, unless you've been marketing in a vacuum, you've got access to enough data to stick your toe into producing a targeted campaign.

In a white paper written by Elana Anderson and Scott Olrich of Responsys, Marketing Beyond Status Quo, they measured a range of marketing campaigns and found a huge difference in the results of targeted email communications vs. broadcast.

"Based on this data, targeting resulted in 15% lift in unique open rate, 64% lift in unique click through rate, and 43% lift in clicks per open."

But what's also clear is that waiting to get all your data perfect means you're missing opportunities. The problem with working for perfection in today's fast-paced environment is that it isn't likely to happen. By the time your idea of perfection is created, the measuring stick will have shifted.

Instead, take a look at what you have available now. If you've been using email campaigns and tracking clicks and opens for a while, chances are you have enough to get started.

Evaluate your data and see if you can segment your database by any of these factors:

• Topic: If you've sent a number of emails on a variety of topics, can you cull a list of the prospects who clicked through on a specific topic and generate several campaigns focused on giving each group more information about the subject that interested them enough to respond?


• Industry: Just targeting by industry and focusing content on issues related to the industry they work in can gain higher response rates.


• Roles and Titles: The types of issues that concern an executive level prospect differ greatly from those that interest a line of business manager. Even if you target that executive as a decision maker, don't overlook creating campaigns that address the needs of those who influence the way that decision is made.

If you don't have even this rudimentary level of insight at hand, don't panic. Here's one way to get started:

1. Take a look at your most recent customers and learn what problems they were solving when they selected your product. Make sure it's from their perspective.


2. Pick two or three issues and create an email newsletter with a link to an article about each problem-to-solution scenario. Assign the click throughs based on topic selection into groups and send each group 3 - 5 communications targeted to that subject and monitor the results.


3. Continue to expand your groups and interest segments as you can develop the content to address them. Continually evaluate results, discarding topics that don't work and trying new ones. Keep asking sales for insights about what issues they're hearing about on the street. Don't give up too soon.

When you have to choose a minimum to get started, always lean toward choosing what you think has the best chance of providing insights that will help you determine topical interest around problem-to-solution scenarios. A VP is a VP. A guy interested in how to solve an issue your product addresses has a higher propensity to respond—VP or not. And, you have a higher chance of being relevant if you know what that interest is.

There are a lot of other things you can do, but the point is to pick something you can get started with today. Add more elements as you move forward. Refine and tweak continuously. Think iteratively. You'll make measurable progress.

Based on the lift data for targeted campaigns, can you afford not to figure out how to Just Do It?

When Reactionary Content Marketing is a Good Thing

I just read a great post over at the Servant of Chaos, The Importance of Content Marketing. At the bottom of the post is a video interview with David Alston of Radian6.

During the interview, David was asked how he prioritized what he does every day. One of the things he said struck me as key to marketing in today's fast-paced world.

(I'm paraphrasing) David said it was fine and great to have a list of things to accomplish, but often the list was displaced by his perception about where he could provide the most value. This could be because he felt it important to get an idea exposed, or to add his voice to a conversation, interact with a customer providing feedback, or a multitude of other things.

The point is that the ideas and conversations fly fast and furious online, so you have to be ready to give up your ToDo list and participate where you can deliver the most value, based on what people are engaged with at the time.

In order to do this well, you've got to know your company's value story. You can't just jump in and say one thing here and something different there. Online participation has a cumulative effect. If you're not consistent, it will show up and confuse people, even possibly diminishing their level of engagement with you and your company.

But, when you have a relevant and consistent story you're passionate about - the one you live every day - not one you make up to suit circumstances, then you have the capability to react as situations invite and add value each and every time.

In Gavin's post, The Importance of Content Marketing, he leads off by saying:

"I always find it interesting that a great deal of thought will be put into the strategic planning of a campaign – but very little time will be devoted to creating a content strategy. After all, it is the content that will bring your campaign to life. And perhaps, more importantly, it is content that will feed your social media efforts."

And this is where I think a company's story can be in jeopardy. Consistency in content, whether through eBooks, web site articles, blog posts or Tweets must deliver and reflect the value your company helps customers leverage to be successful.

So, spend some time planning your content strategy. Remember that your story expands over time—and in different situations—and think about how all of your marketing content impacts your overall value story.

Once you know that, then reacting appropriately and adding value to the conversations you participate in will come naturally and, with that consistency, your engagement levels will increase along with your credibility.