Instinctive and Structural Frameworks for Marketing

One of the biggest changes to B2B marketing is the evolution of skills needed to engage today's buyers of complex products and services. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be strategically integrated to produce results. Everything from technology to myriad content types to storytelling to nurturing to sales transitions and enablement, and more must work together with the lead generation and awareness that comprised the marketing goals of the past.

There are two frameworks for marketing that are often applied separately (or not at all) but should be integrated to deliver on marketing objectives in step with the buying process—Instinctive and Structural Marketing. In their definitions below, you'll see natural points of integration. Using one without the other will not produce the results B2B marketers are tasked to produce.

Structural marketing is all about process.

Structural marketing is the framework marketers apply to the entirety of the buyer experience. From where your prospects are sitting today, to wherever they can get with the value your company adds determine the parameters of your structural marketing framework.

Some of the processes that must be included in structural marketing include:

• Lead definition and persona development for each target market
• Buyer experience maps - including overlays with all channels in your marketing mix
• Lead management - including sales transitions and enablement
• Lead nurturing
• Customer nurturing and lifecycle management
• Metrics and measurement definition

Instinctive marketing is based on relationship building over the long term.

Instinctive marketing applies content strategy to the structural framework to produce the desired results. I define this as "instinctual" because marketers are applying the insights learned via persona development to craft engaging and relevant content strategies designed to build momentum over the long term complex buying process. Instinct is defined as a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency. This is exactly how you want your buyers to respond to your content — as if it's the most relevant information available to them.

Some of the components that must be included in instinctual marketing include:

• Storyboard development based on personas, customers and problem-to-solution scenarios
• Content definition and linkages based on buyer experience maps
• Identification of momentum drivers for lead management
• Editorial calendars
• Content development and governance
• Conversation simulations and social guides
• Sales enablement content and collateral

With all the moving parts B2B marketers are responsible for managing, developing frameworks that help us excel is becoming critical for our success. Dividing the components into structural plus instinctive frameworks helps to align these parts and help them work together - one in support of the others.

What am I missing? What would you add?

Comments

[Michael Cannon]

Edith,

Great post as usual. Thanks for the frameworks.

I 'd like to chime in on your question about “what can be added?”

I'd say it's very difficult to create great content without creating highly persuasive messaging, a.k.a. sales messaging, first.

Below is a short blog post that explains the difference between messaging and content, and the different types of customer messaging required for market success.

Thoughts about the customer messaging map? Principles?

MC

Is Messaging the Secret Element to Create More Relevant Content?
Spear Marketing’s Interview with Michael Cannon

(HS) [Howard Sewell, President, Spear Marketing] What defines great marketing content? Now that most marketing departments are tasked with also being content publishers, is it too much to ask that marketing content enable the customer’s buying process?

To answer these questions, I sat down recently with messaging expert Michael Cannon to get his insight on how companies can improve results from programs like inbound marketing, demand generation, and lead nurturing by creating more effective marketing content.

Michael is founder and CEO of the Silver Bullet Group, a firm that helps companies improve sales/marketing performance by increasing the effectiveness of messaging and deliverables such as marketing content, sales tools, collateral, and sales/channel training. He is coauthor with Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, et al., of the best-seller, “Create the Business Breakthrough You Want.”

(HS) In the agency business, we see first-hand the struggles that clients face to create a steady stream of compelling content. However, as much as a lack of content can bring programs like demand generation and lead nurturing to a halt, worse yet is content that simply isn’t relevant to the target audience. Besides the issue of sheer demand, what do you think is the main reason for the lack of relevant content?

(MC) The primary reason content is not relevant is because highly persuasive messaging is not created first, and then integrated into the content via the copyrighting/creative process. What this means is that messaging and content are two separate deliverables. Very few people make this distinction and create great messaging first.

(HS) How is messaging different from content?

Messaging is a summary or outline of the key points the content must communicate in order to persuade a person to take the desired action/buy. Content is the words, both written and oral, along with the supporting visuals, you use to persuade a person to do business with your firm. Content can be delivered in the form of documents, audio, and video. When you define messaging and content in this way, it enables the creation of much more relevant content.

(HS) How should a company’s marketing message and their sales message be different, if at all?

A better framework is to think about how both represent different categories of customer messaging. With this approach, what you discover is that customer messaging breaks down into categories such as company, solution, product, and sales messaging.

Most messaging created by Marketing is in the company, solution, and product categories. These messaging categories are typically descriptive. It’s the “what” and “how” content. For example, most product messaging is a description of what the product does, how it works, and a listing of undifferentiated features and benefits.

Sales messaging, on the other hand, is persuasive. It’s the “why” content. It answers the buyer’s most important buying questions, like:

1. Why should I meet with you?
2. Why should I change-out my current solution for a new solution?
3. Why should I buy this solution from your company rather than from the competition?

These are the big money questions that are at the heart of every sales conversation. When Marketing creates both descriptive and persuasive customer messaging, it enables both Marketing and Sales to have an integrated, highly relevant, and highly persuasive conversation with the customer. The impact is higher conversion and win rates.

(HS) What are the biggest mistakes B2B marketers make when developing their messaging?

I’d say the big ones are:

1) Not defining the types of customer messaging needed to align with and enable the customer’s buying process
2) Not segmenting and tuning the messaging for the most important audiences, market segments, and buyer types
3) Not creating messaging that clearly communicates how the company/product is a better solution to the customer’s business challenges

The reason I think these mistakes are made is because the marketing profession has not yet adopted a formal process for how to develop highly relevant messaging nor a set of objective criteria to determine if the messaging is good, prior to market testing and launch. That’s where firms like ours can help.

[Ardath Albee]

Hi Michael,

I'm assuming your comment is directed to me (Ardath). I don't think we're saying different things - what you call "sales messaging" I recommend should be defined during the development of buyer personas. I'd also argue that it's not just for sales anymore. If marketers want to get the attention of prospects and prolong engagement over the long term they need to use "why" persuasive messaging.

I agree this needs to be determined prior to developing content - hence the need for content strategy.

This is the major issue - as you've identified it: "Most messaging created by Marketing is in the company, solution, and product categories."

Thanks for sharing your post, although in the future, a link to the interview would suffice and drive traffic for Howard. :)

Thanks,
Ardath