Marketing Interactions

Robotic Email Campaigns Miss the Point

In addition to learning that lead generation is the top marketing priority for tech marketers, IDC's 2012 Tech Marketing Barometer Study asked them about their perceived effectiveness at lead nurturing. In reponse to the 22% who said they use regular nurturing touches geared to buying stages that include more than email and web-based multi-step campaigns, Kathleen Schaub, VP-research, CMO Advisory Service at IDC, said:

“I don't believe this, or people don't understand what nurturing means,” Schaub said. “I talk to a lot of our clients and people in the industry, and I know for sure that people are not nurturing well.”

Based on what I've seen, I agree with her. Kathleen also made the comment,

“A lot of people look at nurturing as, "Now we can program our campaign system to deliver six emails in a row.'"

Hence the need for this post. Yet again.

Lead nurturing is not about sending out emails on a regular schedule just because you can. Or just because you think that constant communication (regardless of relevance) will help you sell something. It won't.

And it's evidence that marketers have missed the point.

Lead nurturing is about providing education, expertise, and evidence that help prospects learn what they know during each stage of the process and build the confidence to make a buying decision in your favor — or to gain the consensus from those involved in the decision to get the deal done. It's about positioning your company as an expert that can bring more value to the project than the product would alone.

Let's face it, perceived value, expertise and credibility are the true differentiators in today's marketplace. Otherwise it would just be a price war.

Stringing together 6 emails as a set-it-and-forget-it program won't do this. Don't misunderstand. It's not about the number 6, but the laziness behind the robotic campaign that sets my teeth on edge. Based on the length of the buy cycle, 6 touches may do the trick — if they're relevant and build the right story.

The problem with robotic email campaigns is that they:

• Lack the consistent provision of relevance and value
• Irritate your prospects (based on the above)
• Don't build your credibility
• Are likely focused on feeds, speeds and products
• Don't take into account buyer behavior during the campaign
• Are a campaign, not a strategy
• Have no progression of story that builds momentum
• Have no cohesive story
• Do not differentiate your company
• Are more about timing than context
• Do nothing to stimulate dialogue
• Create another marketing silo
• Don't integrate with programs in other channels
• Probably push the sale for lack of anything better to do
• Are instantly forgettable
• Train your prospects to achieve speed records in clicking delete
• Are about you, not them
• Let you check the box without achieving objectives
• Put you squarely in the marketing fluff camp
• Usually aren't tied to revenue
• Make your company irrelevant
• Don't provide ideas worth sharing (or even pondering)
• Lack the ability to stimulate curiosity
• Repel engagement

I can probably think of more, but you should get gist.

Please understand that this has nothing to do with marketing automation. I think every marketer should have it. It's what you do with it that counts.

Lead nurturing is a process. It's the unfolding of a story that helps the buyer understand why they need to solve a problem, options for solving it, why they should change and why they should choose you to do so. It's never about buying a product. At least not overtly.

This takes thought, planning and the establishment of a lead management process that's managed to goals and objectives.

And it takes the chops to develop outstanding content designed for buyers.

It also means that you need to think outside the Inbox. Lead nurturing happens with every asset your prospects come in contact with in whatever channel they're using. Whether they see a Tweet and click to read a blog post or receive an email with a link to an article or white paper, or find your infographic using search, the result should be the perception of value and time well spent.

So before you go hook up 6 emails in a row to send out on a schedule, take some time to think about the experience you're creating for your buyers. If you need more motivation, review the list above highlighting the consequences of using robotic emails.

Picture courtesy of Robot Pictures

Can B2B Marketers Become Content Whisperers?

One of the mandates bandied about lately is that B2B marketers need to become listeners. They should set up listening posts and they must listen first, before launching marketing programs. You're told listening is a requisite for establishing 2-way dialogue and sustaining relationships across the buying process. If you've "listened" to all of this, then you know that listening informs (or should) how marketers respond to prospects' online behavior.

Anyone who's married or in a relationship can relate to "listening." Trust me, I've been married to a wonderful Italian man for 16 years and it's not so much what's being said, but what it means, that counts.

This is great and dandy for one-to-one relationships or even amongst small groups of people, family and friends, but what happens when you're a B2B marketer with thousands of contacts in your database? How the heck do you manage listening to that level of volume? In other words, the input of a few will not necessarily correlate to the wishes or intentions of the many.

Telling marketers they need to listen is one thing. Helping them figure out how to do so in a way that produces an effective input to inform marketing programs is entirely another.

A Few Ways Listening Goes Wrong

Listening is defined as making an effort to hear something. Hearing can be defined as paying attention to gain knowledge or insight.

Unfortunately, many people treat listening as the stimulus for their response, rather than an act of learning to inform their response. I call that selfish listening. Much marketing is done in relation to selfish listening. This is when you see the "me, me, and more about me" marketing content based on products and company grandeur rather than what prospects are interested in.

The other thing that can have listening lead your marketing astray is when you allow individuals—rather than the collective that relates to your personas—to influence how you market to a segment of a target market. You see examples of this related to the squeaky-wheel-that-gets-the-grease syndrome.

If one person says so, is it true? How about 10? Or 100?

The Role of Personas in Listening

When trying to determine if what you're hearing from prospects should inform your content marketing strategy, the first thing you need to do is ground the feedback. Is the person (or people) you're listening to representative of the persona the marketing program is designed to engage?

Marketers must make sure that feedback and dialogue is considered in the appropriate context before acting upon it.

Is the input common? How can you be sure?

Assuming you have a content strategy that was used to develop content related to answering your persona's questions, concerns, and informational needs related to solving a specific problem your product addresses, what inputs can be used for "listening?"

For example:

• The average time spent reading the content is 25 seconds when it takes an average person over 2 minutes to read the piece is an indication that the content isn't a relevant part of the persona dialogue.


• A lack of click through—whether from social media or email—indicates that your message isn't resonating with your audience.


• A discussion you start on a LinkedIn group or industry forum where you know your persona hangs out that points to a blog post to back up your premise gets no clicks or comments.


• A blog post written for Persona A gets shared by dozens, receives numerous comments and garners a nice volume of clicks to a landing page you linked to offering a white paper on a related subject.


• An article in your lead nurturing program for Persona B that also offers links to related content is shared by a number of prospects with colleagues they work with at the company.


• A Twitter thread using your hashtag becomes active with numerous people offering comments and perspective.

The list above includes both good and not so good responses to your content marketing efforts. If you're listening in relation to personas, you can likely find some things to improve and determine which may not be relevant based on who is reacting to what content.

The one thing marketers often forget is that just because we design content for one persona, doesn't mean it won't find exposure with others. In other words, all feedback should not be weighted equally.

You will never make everyone happy, so you must choose how and when to allow listening to shift your strategies and your response.

From Listener to Content Whisperer

The trick to listening is to equate what you're "hearing" to creating higher engagement, interest, and momentum with your personas.

Don't get me wrong. If an individual reacts to your content by leaving a comment or saying something on social media or replying to an email, a relevant response is warranted. But that doesn't necessarily mean changing your strategy.

In B2B marketing, often the response is passive viewing. At least during quite a bit of the self-education phase that seems to be growing longer as more and more content fills up what used to be empty space. But marketers cannot sit by passively if we want to achieve their goals. That's a luxury reserved for your prospects.

This is when becoming a content whisperer comes into play.

Nicoholas Evans wrote The Horse Whisperer, inspired by Dan "Buck" Brannaman who is known for the philosophy of natural horsemanship, based on the idea of "...using an understanding of how horses think and communicate to train the horse to accept humans and work confidently and responsively with them. One of Brannaman's stated goals is to make the animal feel safe and secure around humans so that the horse and rider can achieve a true union."

To become a content whisperer, marketers must focus on listening to propect behaviors to help them become credible (safe) resources that buyers trust (secure) and want to do business with (union). (Okay - maybe stretching it, but bear with me)

When prospects are passively engaging, marketers must "listen" to that engagement based on the information prospects are willing to spend time with. If they respond with content related to those topics, then they are helping to create a two-way dialogue that is the goal of listening.

• Prospect expresses interest
• Marketer provides more related content
• Prospect engages again
• And so it goes

If marketers have designed content to answer specific questions that a persona will have to get answered during their buying process to move to next steps, then based on the content they engage with, a marketer should be able to anticipate what might also be of interest. This is the art and science of B2B storytelling at its finest.

It's important to note that content whispering is not only related to your content, but to content produced by others that may get the reaction or dialogue you're looking to establish. Marketers need to consider not just what prospects say, but what they do.

What can you learn from "listening" to the content that engages people represented by your personas?

Perhaps becoming a Content Whisperer is a skill worth developing...if you want to create a 2-way dialogue that builds momentum toward buying.

What do you think?

Content Marketing: Theory vs. Practice

Sometimes I think content marketing can be made so convoluted and complex that it's nearly impossible to execute. I've seen spreadsheets and diagrams and lists of things you must do that make my head hurt. And, yes, I know I do this for a living. I'm a B2B content strategist - and dang proud of the work I do.

But reality is what we have to work with and a phased approach can be a beautiful thing. After all, if you can't execute the strategy it's not delivering a service to your company—or your customers.

Here are a few things I find true in practice:

• Marketers must be able to wrap their heads around the why, what, when, where and how.


• Content theories abound and if you try to kluge it all together, you will become as immobilized as a deer in the headlights of a rapidly approaching semi.


• Theory is great, but often difficult to put into practice in a reasonable way.


• Expectations need to be appropriate based on your resources, capabilities and limitations.


• Content marketing never ends, so quit trying to get it perfect before you launch.


• Until you launch, you have no real-world feedback to judge your strategy or programs. It's not about what you think, but what your buyers think and how they respond.


• Once launched, you can tune on the fly and add layers as you gain proficiency.

What I find with most projects is that the marketers taking on content marketing already have a full plate. This means that we need to figure out how to incorporate what they're already doing within the content strategy rather than approaching it as a standalone effort - which a content strategy should never be.

First, marketers need to build buyer insights and identify personas or market segments. It is only through gaining a clear understanding of each persona's orientation, objectives and obstacles that marketers can begin to design a relevant content strategy.

Without knowing your buyers, where's your focus? On your products and company, of course. Because that's what you know. This is why there's so much crappy content floating around in the ether.

Once you know your buyers, choose a segment, step into their shoes and figure out what are all the questions they need to answer based on their specific situation. Open a document and type the problem statement at the top of the page (or get a group together and use a white board to brainstorm).

Persona problem statement: I need to do X in order to get Y.

Start tossing up questions this persona would have about solving that problem.

For example:

• What are the different ways I can do X?
• How much of Y do I need?
• How are our competitors solving X?
• What competitive advantages could we gain if we solve X?
• Who else will be impacted in the company if we solve X?
• How will I convince them that Y is worth the effort to change the status quo?

Keep going until you can't think of another question this persona would ask in order to gather all the information they need to build confidence, gain consensus and make an informed purchase decision.

Now, given what you know about your persona/segment, how would you answer each question? The answers are the premise statements for your content development. And the answers should not be all about your product, but focused on what it enables that your prospect couldn't do before. The why, what and how that will get them Y. If possible, identify several different ways to answer each question.

Assess your existing content to see what questions it answers, or if it needs to be reinvented or retired. Identify your gaps for new content development.

How do your current and planned campaigns and events, etc. fit in with your content flow for this persona? Match them up and insert them into the flow.

Consider your marketing mix and where you've determined your persona goes to find information and create a distribution program. Based on the modes you use this can include website, email, blogs, social, etc. This is when formats come in. Not before. Your focus should be on the information first. Make sure you have the resources to execute and know what the timing looks like to get it done.

Don't forget to consider calls to action. What do you want them to do after engaging with the content? Be reasonable about what makes sense as a next step given the information they just viewed. It's not generally "have sales contact me." And, based on the technology you have, determine the best ways to measure and monitor outcomes.

Get it out the door and tune on the fly as you go. Even if you only start with one persona, just get it going. Evolve and add layers as you learn what works and what doesn't.

Content marketing in practice can be as easy or difficult as you make it. Focus on learning what your buyers need to know to reach objectives and give it to them in digestible ways they will value. That's really what's at the crux of content marketing.

Theory is great. All marketers should understand it. But practice is about execution.

Lost the Key to Your B2B Database?

A database is a beautiful thing — especially if it's built from contacts who've opted in rather than purchased lists. But, the problem I see repeatedly is that once a contact goes in, the database doors swing shut like a steel trap, with B2B marketers never exercising their visitation rights. With the rate of change in the business environment, this can be a risky practice.

When is the last time you actually looked at the contacts in your database? And when I say looked at them, I don't mean scanned the list, but actually took the time to look into and validate the contacts?

I dare you to go pull 50 leads from a segment of your database and do the following:

• Look up the contact in LinkedIn.
• Google the contact's name in relation to the company.
• Look at any social media accounts the contact uses (often listed in LinkedIn)
• View the company's website.

What you find could surprise you.

I did this recently during a client project and discovered a few things:

• A number of people had changed roles or employers rendering them useless for the program we were implementing—or any program for that matter.


• Real-life titles and job descriptions were often quite different than what the drop down fields allowed them to choose — for example if the choices include engineer or product development but the contact is actually a project manager, whichever field he chooses will mislabel him to some degree. Depending on the program, this type of distinction can make the difference between your content being relevant or ignored.


• Company websites that indicated that although they looked good on the surface, based on their website content, they will never become our buyer. This type of thing can be caused by a 3rd party expertise report the contact may have opted in to get, regardless of what you sell.


• Industry classifications that were not optimal because the umbrella category was selected, but not the sub-category that enables relevance. Think about the idea that you may sell a product into Financial Services (umbrella category) but it's aimed at regional bank (sub-category) line of business managers. If you were to execute the program by segmenting based on Financial Services and a specific title, how many of the contacts on your list would not find the content relevant? Credit card companies, investment services, national banks and others come to mind.

I'm not saying that database nirvana is a must-have, but I am saying that I'm seeing the need for companies to reconsider the fields they put on forms based on the goals they have for their marketing programs. Many of our forms were created prior to persona creation or segmented marketing program development. Perhaps your database is due for a review with the aim of creating better segmentation with what exists today as well as for future opt ins.

And don't just think about registration forms. Also consider how what you learn might change the way you think about progressive profiling.

Consider it this way. If you launch a lead nurturing program to a segment of 2,000 leads and only 500 of them may find the content relevant, what are the chances that the program will be considered successful, even when based on the best possible metrics? Fifty clicks is either 2.5% or 10%. Which is a truer gauge of effectiveness? And, which would you rather report to your executive team? Just saying.

Sometimes we need to back up and do our homework first. If we want marketing to be accountable for producing results, we've got to aim for precision — or as close as we can reasonably get.

What does your database tell you?

What Purpose Do Your Buyer Personas Serve?

In every project I work on, some version of buyer personas are involved. Sometimes I'm given personas (usually "profiles") to work with and sometimes developing them is the first step in the project. Let me tell you that I've seen a lot of personas - or what passes for them.

What I have noticed is that there seems to be two types of personas: those suited for marketing and those better suited for salespeople.

For example, I recently saw a collection of personas that were labled with titles such as The Forward-Leaning Buyer, The Risk-Averse Buyer, and The Jock Buyer (yes, I'm making these up for demonstration). The kicker is that each of these personas could be representative of the same title, roles, and responsibilitites as the others.

These personas went on to detail the personal lives and attributes of the personas including marital status, number of kids and even the breed of the family dog. And let's not overlook sports and entertainment preferences. (Yes, I'm still talking about B2B personas)

There were some useful details for marketers, but my first thought is how the heck would marketers begin to figure out which one of these personas were representative of their prospects in order to segment their databases appropriately?

Perhaps these personas are indicative of the need to develop content about how to train your Australian Shepherd to play frisbee or how to improve the efficiency of shuttling your kids to after-school activities. Then we could postulate that anyone responding to the content is related to the corresponding persona.

Okay - all joking aside - Buyer personas must serve the purpose they are designed to address.

From a B2B marketing perspective, this means that a buyer persona should:

• Serve as a tool that can be referenced easily to help guide the development of relevant marketing programs for the market segment represented by that persona.


• Point to specific topics of content as related to priorities defined as important to the persona.


• Reveal the circumstances of what could derail the deal (or the championing of the deal)


• Be unique from all other personas to indicate a truly definable market segment.

The purpose for a B2B marketing persona is to have a tool that defines and guides the marketing programs developed to engage a specific market segment. Never forget that a persona is similar to a composite sketch. It must help you to get close enough to the business interests of the actual humans involved in the process to create the opportunity for marketing programs to reach the goals set for them.

Personas that are based on personality traits or personal situations will not help as there are just too many variables to address to roll them up into a useful set of guidelines that have any traction with a market segment. This being said, these personality-driven profiles may be useful conversational tools for sales reps who are in conversations with a Director of Customer Service who they learn has an Aussie who won't return the frisbee.

Do you see the difference?

BTW - the picture is my girl, Bella, who absolutely LOVES to play frisbee.

 

Why Marketing Content Needs a Point of View

B2B marketing content is most useful when it serves as proof that you understand your target markets and actually know how to do what your company promises via it's products and services. Essentially, marketing content — and the experiences it creates — serves as a test drive of what it could be like to be your customer.

Point of view is the perspective through which readers will experience your content (or story). For B2B content, the best way to explain this is that if your content is company focused, the perspective they experience will be you talking about yourself. And that's boring.

If your content is focused on their roles and the issues they deal with, they'll experience it much more personally. But they'll also experience your brand's orientation in regards to the issue the content addresses.

Marketers must always consider how the content they publish reflects upon the brand. Great marketing content will consistently provide a perspective prospects want to spend their attention on and be truly representative of the brand behind it.

The following checklist can help marketers determine whether or not the point of view of their content is hitting the mark every time.

Is your content generous?

Evaluate your content and identify what takeaway(s) it's giving to the reader. Giving should be more heavily weighted than getting.

Is your content helpful?

Is the content providing clarity about something that will be useful to your reader in how they address the issue they're dealing with?

Is your expertise showing?

Do you share information that's representative of the knowledge, methodologies and experience your company has in dealing with the issue? You need to do this. And, no, it will not keep people from buying your services. If it did, I'd be on the corner with a cup and a sign.

Does your content demonstrate flexibility?

There's one thing to be said about sharing expertise. It's another thing if your content comes off as so authoritative that there's no room for compromise. Every customer is different — or likes to think they are. You can be firm, but not dictatorial. It is never your way or the highway. Face it — business evolves too fast to take a hard and fast position you may have to swallow later.

Does your content provide attention to detail?

Make sure your content delivers on its promise. There's nothing worse than seeing a title and first few sentences that focus on just what you want to know only to read it and wonder why you bothered because there was no substance. If you read content that has no follow-through in the delivery, how confident will you bet that the vendor will treat you any better as a customer?

Is your content responsive?

Based on what is being said on the web (social media, forums, industry portals), is your content in tune? Or is it based on some internal agenda that has no evident and timely resonance with your target markets? This is why you always want to leave room for shifts in topics during the rollout of your content strategy. Interests can shift quickly. Priorities can change in response to regulations or in response to quarterly results, for example.

Is your content definitive?

Contagious marketing content defines its topic in context with prospect needs. It's never wishy washy or repetitive of what other content says. It showcases your brand's unique perspective as aligned with your audience. If this is true, your content will never reflect anyone else's content — unless, of course, they used yours as a template.

Does your content minimize effort?

There's a tendency to want demonstrative payback for sharing content, most often represented by putting it behind a form. But, in addition to thinking hard about how much effort you want to require from prospects for access to your content, think about how hard it will be for them to ingest and understand. Simplicity trumps convoluted complexity every time. Getting your content found by your prospects is only the first step. Getting them to stay and engage with it can be much more difficult.

If you evaluate your marketing content for point of view in relation to these points, you'll find that response to it will begin to increase and engagement will become more consistent resulting in an increase in momentum toward purchase.

Finally, remember that everything included in your content should have a purpose. This point gains importance when you consider the limited attention spans of today's buyer. Get rid of the fluff. Get rid of the jargon and buzzwords. Eliminate the extraneous stuff that serves as filler. Do not pussyfoot around in getting to the point.

Choosing the right point of view for your content can transform the results gained from content marketing programs. The reason is that it helps prospects feel like they "know" you well enough to want to get to know you better — which means they'll take the next step to engage in conversation.

What techniques are you using to develop the point of view for your marketing content?

Expectations and Experience are the New Competition

For years, B2B marketers have been worried about competitors' products and solutions. They spent a considerable amount of effort trying to differentiate their features and prove their offering is better than another company's version of something similar.

As technology continues to shorten product time-to-market and allow for rapid updates and improvements, it's also enabled marketers to become publishers, applying even more pressure to move faster to produce more information than competing vendors. Online publishing is the new version of one-upping. (Competitor A just published a cool infographic, we need one, too!)

The issue is that not much has changed in the way messaging is designed. Just today, I saw a template for a client to complete that was based on the premise of a persona message map. However, the columns requested information all about the products, unique product value proposition and product differentiators. Although there was an attempt to align these messages with the persona's goal, it was so high-level that the only real choice left is to talk about the products rather than what the persona really wants and needs.

Due to the ease of accessing information online, a big part of what's changed in the buying process are your customers' expectations about the experience they'll have along the way.

Because buyers can self-educate rapidly and much easier than the were able to in the past, they know more. In return for this education, they've raised the bar. They expect to continue to receive value each step along the way. And they expect it on their terms.

This is a big adjustment for marketers who are used to working on internal timelines and still believe they control the information flow. Or that what they want to say is what buyers want to hear.

What's important to note is that all this technology evolution and speed to market has also increased the complexity of solving problems. It's just not as simple as buying a product anymore. Education is the resulting mainstay. It will always be needed. Expertise is necessary beyond the product to help deliver on the promise made. Preparing for the future is no longer a next step down the road, it's an ongoing effort that needs to be incorporated as part of every purchase decision.

What marketers choose to publish online can no longer be "good enough" content. Instead, content has to play an integral role in facilitating the buyer's experience. And that's not best served by feeds-and-speeds content.

You know this, but it bears repeating: according to Selling Power, “Today, up to 70% of a customer’s buying decision is now made based on information he or she finds online well before a salesperson has a chance to get involved.”

What Buyers Expect:

• Educational information. 23% say there's not enough - IDG Connect


• Expertise. 48% said if the quality of thought leadership improved, it would influence their purchase decision - ITSMA and PAC


• Relevance. 39% say this key element is missing - IDG Connect


• Consistent Value. 43% of marketers say customers view their content as disjointed or hit and miss - Forrester Research

I read a lot of research that delves into the opinions and thoughts of B2B buyers. Not once have I ever read a statistic saying that they want more product or solution information.

What buyers are saying is that their expectations have changed. Their online behavior and engagement levels are barometers reflective of the experience provided to them by your content, web properties and social media dialogues.

Let's face it. The only true differentiators left are your expertise and the experience your company provides to help buyers achieve their goals. If it was just about products, it would be a hat toss.

You're no longer competing against the vendor with a similar product down the street. It's the ability to exceed buyer expectations and provide a valuable buying experience that will determine the winner when the time comes to make a purchase decision.

Marketing Cloud Computing to Non-Believer CIOs

Cloud computing is a pretty big deal. It's one of the top priorities for many CIOs. So, it should be a pretty easy process to build a B2B content strategy that helps CIOs make a purchasing decision.

Or is it?

I subscribe to a lot of newsletters and have a ton of Google Alerts to help me mine for information I use to learn more about the buyers my clients sell to. In my Inbox today was a bonanza of a resource. SearchCIO sent me a link to: Quick take: Why iRobot's CIO doesn't like enterprise cloud computing

This resource is a quick interview with Jay Leader, CIO of iRobot, in which he clearly distills exactly why he's not sold on cloud computing. He shares the questions he has and the obstacles he'd need to overcome to change his mind. This kind of stuff is uber helpful to constructing nurturing programs, as topics for blog posts and providing seed ideas for all types of content.

Take a look at all the great nuggets from this interview:

IT Projects Completed and Planned:

• Completed: Integration of ERP and Product Lifecycle Management systems to shorten product time to market
• Completed: A major upgrade to their collaboration portal
• Planned: enterprise architecture and business intelligence

Culture:

• The CEO has a degree in computer science from MIT
• The company's legal counsel has a degree in engineering from MIT
• The company is filled with engineers - according to Leader, "It's like having 700 CIOs"
• Actually, the company was a brainchild of MIT

Now, if you were pursuing this company as a named-account, you can do a lot with the above information.

But take a look at the questions Leader raises that can be applied to a campaign directed at CIOs in companies with similar characteristics, such as: High Tech Manufacturing, $500M revenues, 700+ employees

Objections and Obstacles:

• Show me an economic model that proves cloud computing is cheaper than how I manage my storage today.


• How do I get out of a cloud provider if I'm unhappy?


• What change in competency do I need to manage disconnected enterprises?


• I understand the potential, but how do I actually reap the value promised?


• Why would I pay to store documents somewhere else?


• If it isn't more secure, cost-effective and functional that what I have, why would I do this?


• I don't have an environment that needs burst resources, so the ability to scale quickly doesn't make a big impression on me.


• How do I integrate the data that is out in the cloud?


• I have a data center and staff, don't plan on getting rid of either.


• How will I really know where my data is being stored?

Leader also mentions a colleague who implemented Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) who has a staff of sysadmins when what he now needs are project managers and coordinators.

If you're selling cloud computing, how many of these questions and obstacles have you addressed in your content strategy?

Even if you're not selling cloud computing, the glimpse into the questions that come to mind for a CIO considering a technology purchase can help you dig deeper into your own content strategy to ensure that you're addressing the issues that come up for non-believers.

I'd also bet that even if your prospect is a believer, there are a few non-believers that must be brought around in order for the deal to move forward. The interesting thing is that cloud computing is being discussed all over the place. It's hard to go to any IT community or portal and not hear about it.

Don't let the hype about a solution serve as blinders. There are always objections to change that must be addressed. Interviews with people like your prospects can be terrific sources of insight for generating relevant ideas to weave into your content strategy.

NOTE: This is only one perspective, so don't base an entire strategy on Leader, but use it to assess your strategy and possibly fill any gaps that exist. Go talk to your salespeople to see if they're experiencing any of these objections and obstacles. Ask customers with similar characteristics if they had to answer any of these questions during their buying experience and how much importance was placed on those they did have to sort through.

6 Tips for B2B Vendors Becoming Publishers

Judging by the amount of online noise being generated, the idea of publishing content is no longer considered to be an "edgy" proposition for many vendors. But noise isn't going to help you meet your goals.

The thing about noise is that we've all become adept at tuning it out. There's just so much of it that we've had to develop the survival skill of discernment. We've become very swift judges of what's useful and what's wasting our time. Time we have precious little of with all the social media interaction, email, meetings and job responsibilities. Our lists are long and our patience is waning.

To break through the noise and gain the attention of B2B prospects, our content must be better than good. It needs to be exceptional. And that's hard to do when you need so much of it to maintain a dialogue with your prospects until they're ready to talk to your salespeople.

Due to this shift in buying, vendors have had to become publishers or risk obscurity.

Consider how the following tips can help your company adapt more easily to publishing content that becomes sought out and a preference for your prospects.

Tip 1: Dump the Damn Style Guides!
Or at least slim them down to make them more appropriate for today's audience. Examples include:

• Spelling out the word "percent" when the "%" symbol is easier to pick out during a quick scan for relevance just makes more sense.


• Stop using trademarks, service marks and registered marks every time you mention your product, brand and services. Is it really necessary to put your company name before your product name throughout an entire article? In fact, if you have so many mentions of your product in an article that they stick out, your focus needs to shift.


• If your brand is only allowed to capitalize the first word in a headline, rethink that practice. You've got 3 seconds to get attention. Sometimes emphasizing a word or phrase can help with that.


• Use contractions. They won't bite, and reading becomes so much easier. Less effort is a good thing when trying to build engagement.

Tip 2: Quit Talking About Yourself!

• Nobody cares. Seriously, they don't. They care about themselves, not you.


• If you're sending an email with your company in the sig line, publishing a blog post or an article on your website - your company is already obvious. There's no need to mention it repeatedly like we can't see the branding it's wrapped in.


• If you think of putting "the leading provider of..." in anything, step away from the keyboard. No one believes that, yet it's surprising how many companies still think if they say it, it will matter. Well, it doesn't. It's what others say about you that matters.


• Try putting out a press release that focuses first on how your customers will benefit rather than talking about your company and products and see what happens. 

Tip 3: Sharing Valuable Expertise Will Actually Make You Money

• Some companies think that sharing expertise will cost them in services. The exact opposite is true. Prospects now require proof that you bring value they don't have or they won't escalate you to their short lists.


• Exposing expertise actually shows people how difficult it can be to do what you do, encouraging them to hire you and get that task off their list. Not to mention getting the job done right the first time.


• Helping them understand the expertise it takes to do what you do allows them to understand the value they're paying for and diminishes the "haggling over price" issue.


• If your content is valuable, more people will be drawn to it, link to it and share it, thereby increasing your reach, market awareness and credibility. Sharing useless, surface stuff without any meat won't do that.

Tip 4: Become a Resource by Sharing the Spotlight

• Showcasing others who have great content reflects back on you. Plus, you don't have all the answers. Help people connect the dots.


• Your ability to look beyond yourself and recognize greatness in others draws your audience in and may just generate conversations you wouldn't otherwise have.


• Those you promote will promote you in return. Choose wisely and build a network of experts with complimentary expertise and business will follow in the form of referrals, which are truly one of the best ways into new customer relationships. Don't forget to return the favor.

Tip 5: Get Your Staff the Appropriate Tools & Tech

• The day of putting content in a queue and waiting for IT to publish it are over.


• From blogs to websites to video and just about anything else now has easy-to-use software that business people can learn to use. Today's world moves fast. Get the tools to keep up.


• Publishing must deliver business value, so make sure you also have the tools to measure what it's doing for you. From web analytics to social monitoring to SEO, marketers need to be accountable for the outcomes of what they publish. Just putting content out there doesn't cut it.

Tip 6: Only Copycat if You Can Improve Upon The Concept

• Infographics are a great example of this tip. When they first came out, they were fascinating. Then everyone jumped on the bandwagon and started producing them because they were "cool." Many I see today don't have any story to tell.


• If you see a great concept executed, use it as inspiration, not a cookie cutter. Find some unique way of showcasing your material that has you stand out, not just show up as more of the same.


• Are you a leader or a follower?

These are only a few tips, but should get you thinking about how to adapt the old world of orchestrated corporate content to the new world of authentic expression. Posturing is out, expertise is in. You've got it, so you may as well flaunt it. Just remember that it's not about your products.

The Myth of the Magic Bullet for Content Marketing

I'll just come right out and say it. There is no such thing as a magic bullet for B2B content marketing. This was a question brought up recently during a B2B Year in Review roundtable where I was one of the panelists over on Focus.com. I've been thinking quite a bit about it since then.

Carlos Hidalgo (@cahidalgo) posed the question:

Why are so many vendors & consultants making it sound as if B2B Marketing (technology, content development, etc.) is simple & should be done in weeks?

The simple truth is that none of this is, well, simple.

I know this is probably not what you wanted to hear, but as you head into the New Year you need to set the appropriate expectations for the evolution of your B2B marketing programs. For the purpose of this post, I'm only taking on the content marketing challenge.

Content marketing is a practice that it takes time to learn and, face it now, you'll never master it because it changes along with technology, tools, channels, buyers, preferences, trends, the economy, markets, industry evolution, and more. Heck, I've been a practitioner of content marketing for a few decades and I learn something new every single day.

But that's what makes it so vibrant, exciting and worthwhile. When you've put in the effort and you get it working well, it's about the best thing, ever. Yes, I'm a content wonk.

Here's the thing about content marketing. Where you start is important.

If there's a chance that I'm wrong and there is a magic bullet for content marketing, this first step is the closest to magic you're going to get.

Start Here >> Build Buyer Insights

That's right. What you don't know about your buyers will tank your content marketing programs before they even begin to roll down the runway.

When I work on projects, this step sometimes takes the most effort (depending on how many segments, profiles, personas — whatever you want to call them — are identified) And, in B2B marketing, there is always more than one. Research shows that most companies average at least three. I'm working on several projects right now that each have five.

What gets really interesting is when you dig deep enough to start seeing the real differences between them. Priorities shift, orientations are different, social behaviors vary and even career paths follow different patterns.

Why You Must Build Buyer Insights

Without buyer insights, you have no idea who you're developing content for. Remember that last high-level white paper that you read? The one where the focus was so broad that it was basically useless to you. The writer had no clue who the readers were. This is also usually when content devolves back into solution speak, because that's what IS known. Oh, sure, the writer may have been told to target the content to IT executives in global manufacturing companies with revenues of one billion or more.

What the heck does that mean?

Compare that to this instruction:

Target the content to "Ed," the Director of IT in a global manufacturing company. His latest challenge is to help distributed product development teams collaborate seamlessly to shorten time to market.

He not only needs to address allowing personally owned mobile devices, tablets and laptops on the network, but to make sure that the company's data stays secure. But his legacy infrastructure is giving him fits and starts as the complexity of managing it increases with each new service his team must deliver.

Ed craves simplicity, but he can't get approval from the CIO and the CFO for the hefty price tag a "rip and replace" would cost, nor can he afford any disruption to end users while he straightens out the mess — not if he wants that promotion he's in line for when his boss retires next year.

Would the content you write for Ed be positioned differently than the content you write for an IT executive in a company with one billion or more in revenues?

You bet it would.

Where do you get this information?

• LinkedIn profiles of people like Ed (don't forget to review the groups they've joined)
• Interviews with customers
• Interviews with salespeople
• Job boards
• Annual reports from companies with similar firmographics
• Twitter streams for specific #hashtags
• Blogs written by or for people like Ed

Building buyer insights takes a bit of time, but it's worth the effort. It's not a magic bullet, but it is the first pill you should swallow if you want to form a solid foundation upon which you can create contagious content that your prospects want to read and use to take next steps.

And that's the whole point, isn't it?