Marketing Interactions

Who's Status Quo are you dealing with?

As marketers, we're often focused on trying to loosen the status quo of our prospects. After all, if they're happy with the way things are, then they don't want to change, which leaves your products on the shelf.

So we valiantly go out and try to convince them that, with our new improved WizBang 5000, their lives will be better. We try to help them envision the success they can have with our product vs. what they're using today. We reach out and give them industry research and statistics that prove it and show them case stories about advances our clients have made, etc.

But, have you considered who's status quo you're dealing with? Is it part of your customer profile or included in the persona you've created for the decision maker?

I was reading a post over at Seth Godin's blog this morning and something he wrote struck me:

"The spreadsheets and the marketing team and the CFO and the lawyers have no trouble at all defending the status quo, because, it's their status quo. They created it and they like it that way."

He was writing about the fact that Verizon passed up the iPhone, but the insight remains valid for those of us in B2B who often deal with larger companies that have a legacy culture that's rolled forward from the old days. The ones who are slow to adapt to change, until they see how everyone else does with it first. The same ones we're trying to help leap frog ahead of their competition. Which usually is about as successful as banging our heads against the wall.

Have you ever thought about types of status quo?

• Industry status quo
• Company status quo
• Competitor status quo
• Cultural status quo

Industry status quo is centered around common practices for the industry and is often in flux as new innovations come to market. This is the one I usually see paid attention.

Company status quo is sometimes not to difficult to change if they don't have firm reasoning behind how they're doing things. If they've just evolved over the course of time and are now struggling with that evolution, they're often receptive. New companies finding their legs and newly acquired companies with investors who want to move...now.

Competitor status quo is compelling for the simple reason that companies don't like to be left behind or left out. So, if the company's competitor status quo shifts, they will be looking to stem the perceived advantage. Especially if the company wants to get closer to the top of the list. Or to stay there.

Cultural status quo is the tough one. If the execs with the final say are mired in the status quo because they created it, you're in for a tough, maybe unsuccessful, bid for acceptance. Ownership is key here. There are a variety of reasons they dig in their heels, not the least of which is power.

The differences in the first three may be subtle, but they should be addressed. That last one is a doozy.

This is why thought leadership and demonstrating your expertise is so valuable. Whatever you're selling can probably be purchased (in some form) elsewhere. But, providing intelligence, strategic thinking and expertise they don't have can be done in a way that can loosen the various types of status quo.

Iterative projects that can be purchased departmentally are also a way to erode a cultural status quo, a bit at a time. But, if you're eye is on developing that first phase into a larger project, keep your focus on proof points and evidence. The results will need to be overwhelmingly in your favor.

What's your experience with varying types of status quo? Do you have additions to the list?

Last Chance to Participate in the Customer Profile and Personalization Survey

The survey driving July's Marketing Interactions' newsletter theme is winding down. If you'd like to get the insights the survey generates and learn more about how to utilize profiles and personalization in your marketing initiatives, you'll need to participate by this Sunday.

One thing I noticed in a cursory glance at the answer summary is that there are a number of people who would like to use more personalization, but aren't sure how to do it. That's one of the topics I'll take on in the upcoming newsletter.

Take the survey here, by Sunday.

It's only 12 questions. The input has been very interesting so far and I'd love to have more. You're answers will be completely anonymous, but will contribute greatly to the outcome. No personal information is requested.

I'm brainstorming a new survey for next month. I'm thinking about content strategy: how you use it in your marketing campaigns and weave it together to build your story.
If anyone has any suggestions, I'd like to know.

Thanks to everyone who's participated in this month's survey.

Are You in Your Lead's silos?

I recently read an interesting post over on Jack Vinson's blog, When Silos Work. It got my attention because, for the longest time, the big push has been to remove silos and aggregate information into usable, meaningful and accessable knowledge.

But Jack's post refers to a post by Kaye Vivian who's talking about why she had to create a personal silo. It's because there's so much information she can't process it all and needs to choose what she focuses on. So, she's created her own personal silo to interact with the information and people she chooses.

It occurs to me that we all have personal silos or ways we segment the information we deal with and manage the people we talk with. Take a look at your email structure of folders and how you handle your inbox. What messages do you choose to save? Which ones do you delete without reading? I'm betting it's the ones that share knowledge.

I do it a certain way based on importance and meaningfulness to me, and future value (if I might need to refer to it again). I'll bet if you boil down how you read your email, you do something similar. So, what do you think your leads are doing?

Instead of sending a self-serving email message, try to make the communication truly useful to your leads. Don't save all the good stuff for after they click. Give them something worthwhile that will make them add you to their personal silos.

Try a test for a few days and be really conscious of what you consider meaningful and why. Then put yourself in your lead's shoes and think about what they would find valuable. Many people think that it's all about getting the click throughs. But, with longer buying cycles, it's quite often about getting invited into their personal silos. It may take a number of email messages (think 6 - 10) before they are actually motivated to click.

But, if they're not reading at all, then they won't ever click.

The Bones of a Marketing Story Campaign

I've been in a lot of conversations recently where people have been confused about how to tackle the use of story in marketing. Probably a remnant of the intense product focus so many companies have been using. I acknowledge that it's a hard mindset to break free of. You're used to it. It's worked before. Change is hard.

But, here's the thing. If you don't stop talking about features and bring yourself down to a more personalized level, you're communications are just more meaningless noise. What counts is context. Stories help people internalize things. It's the way your brain works.  Marketing is not about getting people to memorize facts and features so they can recount them on a quiz.

Stories help people gain familiarity with the thought process around why and how they choose to change will improve their situation, get them to a strategic goal, forward their career, get another department off their back, increase revenues, decrease costs, re-align staff, increase their contribution to company achievements, etc. Whew! And you thought you had a lot to think about.

Stories help people generate discussions that forward the initiative. Take a story and a features list and tell me which one helps you more easily talk to your boss or the others in your consensus group about why change should happen. Aside from that, which one would you take the time to consider? A features list you scan. A story that matches your perspective is more compelling.

It's the empathy thing. Empathy inspires trust. Trust helps build relationships.

Think of a story campaign like a TV serial. Sopranos maybe. Notice how each episode leaves you wanting more? The structure gives you a reason to come back each week and tune in. The same concept applies here. Each communication gives them something valuable. Each builds off the last and pushes forward a bit toward the next.

Below are some of the things to think about and ask yourself when you set out to build a serial story campaign:

• What's your customer/prospect's situation today?
• Where can you help them get to in the future? (Help them visualize the outcome's impact)
• Where do they want to be? And why? (Think individual as well as company)

You've got to connect to your customer's and prospect's current situation, before you can engage them. If you have "me too" experience, this is a good time to use it. Showing them you understand what they're dealing with now is engaging. People want to connect with people who can empathize with them.

It's also important to realize that where you think they want to go and where they actually want to go are two different things. You need to be on the same page, so do your homework.  But, it's not only where they want to go, but why they want to get there. Both personally and strategically.

• How big a project is it to get them there? Is iteration with provable milestones an option?
• Why haven't they done it yet? What's the status quo?

Often, people don't even try when they perceive the project to be overwhelming. There's too much risk, both personally and professionally, if they choose incorrectly. Too much exposure. In addition, a complex sale has a lot of angles. The process is not a straight line. If it was, taking it on would be a no brainer.

• How will you help them get there and why will that be compelling to them? (Hint: this is not a features question)
• What can you tell them that will help them envision themselves using your product or services to get to where they want to be?

What happens with complex projects is that your prospects can only see so far before the road curves. It's what's around that corner that's scary. So break the story into chunks that get them to the corner, then around the bend, through the next straight-away. You get the idea.

• What other options do they have?
• Why is choosing your option better or easier?

Chances are that you aren't the only one selling a solution your prospects could choose. How compelling your story is and the emotional pull you add by creating a conversational interaction with story will help your offering stand out. Capitalize on your uniqueness. What's your expertise? No, this is not about the product. It's what you bring to the project that others will not. A value they won't receive if they choose another option. Note: this is subtle, not an in-your-face kind of thing.

• What evidence do you have to back you up? (Note: customer case stories, quotes, analyst reports)

It goes without saying that the evidence is also based on engaging stories, right? Not dry engineering verbiage or product-focused communications.

• How do they take that first step? And after that?

If you've told your story well, they'll propel the story to the end for you because staying with the status quo is now ridiculous and more risky than taking that step with you. Delivering what you promise will take care of what's next. Keep taking them around that next curve.

What other questions would you add to this list?

The Cost of Doing Nothing

A recent report from CSO Insights shows that only 10% of surveyed firms are providing their salespeople with sales intelligence. That 10% is able to get leads to conversion at a 20% higher  rate than the companies doing nothing. So, while doing nothing may mean the CFO doesn't write any new checks, the cost of doing nothing to facilitate the knowledge salespeople need to move a deal forward is very real.

Consider that reports also show that salespeople are spending over 50% of their time doing research and administrative tasks. Not only that, many of them reinvent the wheel every time they sell to a new prospect. Regardless of that prospect's similarities to other deals or existing customers.

The advance of on-demand marketing has increased lead pools and even agreements to initial discussions, which is great! But, salespeople are finding they aren't well prepared to move the prospects further downstream in the sales process and get follow-on meetings for presentations.

The change in access to information means that your prospects probably know a whole lot more about your products than they used to. The buy cycle actually starts way before the sell cycle. When prospects finally agree to a sales conversation, they're looking for a lot more than a product. They're looking for expertise, what you'll bring to them down the line as the marketplace shifts. They also want someone who's done their homework, a vendor they don't have to educate about them and their company.

Marketing roles have expanded, or are in the process of evolving. Educational thought leadership is the new baseline for getting  attention and gaining consideration at the beginning of the buy cycle. Product information is readily available, but strategic thinking is not. If marketing is providing proactive educational communications, they are also developing many of the insights that sales needs to carry their end of the sales conversation. If your salespeople walk into the conversation the way they always have, they are going backwards.

Leveraging marketing information, communications and research and re-purposing it for use by salespeople is critical. And, don't just give them the information, show them how to use it. Only 10% of the 1,400 companies CSO interviewed for the study are doing this work. Imagine the advantage your company can gain.

The following are some of the things your salespeople need to both know and be able to speak to:

• Marketplace insights: Look at each industry you sell into. If marketing is segmenting communications based on industry vertical, then they've got research. Compile what's known about each industry into a primer for your sales reps. Look at related case studies and speak with other customers to keep abreast of what they see coming down the pike and anticipate what value you can add to help them deal with those issues and how your foresight can be presented to your prospects. The market changes quickly and companies are looking for vendors who will help them anticipate and deal with those changes before they cause unwanted issues.


• Expertise: This can play off the above. It's strategic thinking. Often, the prospect you are dealing with is focused mostly on the issue at hand. Depending on the reason for the purchase, they may not be looking across the enterprise to the ramifications caused by how they solve the problem. They may also not be thinking long-term. And, let's face it, long term will happen. If the solution you present is only for the short-term, you've lost a huge opportunity to create a loyal and lasting relationship. Your salespeople need to know how to speak about and share your company's expertise in meaningful ways.


• Justifying the Purchase: In a B2B complex sale, the choice to buy is likely done by consensus. Have you armed your salespeople with the information needed to address the concerns of the various players in the group? Do they know how to talk ROI and TCO in ways that make sense to each of them? Have you given them evidence to use in these conversations? Do they know why your product is the better choice over your competitors?

Arming salespeople with intelligence takes a lot of work, but it shouldn't necessarily mean reinventing the wheel across the board. If your marketing department has reorganized around customer centric principles, chances are much of the information exists to provide sales story support. It's the repackaging of that information, and presenting it in a way that preps salespeople with the knowledge they need, that will take effort.

The following is a list of ideas to get you started looking beyond the flat data (name, address, company, revenues, employees, etc):

• Make sure sales knows current marketing communications and collateral offerings.
• If you're giving away white papers or webinar broadcasts, make sure you give them to sales with talking points and conversational scenarios.
• Take marketing research about problem/solutions (you did this before you decided on and wrote your marketing communications, right?) and re-purpose it into educational briefs for salespeople, by industry or target market.
• Incorporate case study information that demonstrates value add beyond what your product delivers. Make sure sales knows how your company was instrumental in helping customers achieve their outstanding successes.
• Solicit sales success story input. Have marketing debrief sales and write up success stories that show examples, scenarios, competitor challenges, objections and how they were handled, etc.
• Create scenarios for the lost deals too.
• Use Value propositions - but don't just give them a sentence and leave it at that. Show them how to use them to best advantage. Create differentiation through showing them why the value propositions are important to prospects and which ones apply to which industries and which markets. Give them conversational scenarios and supporting evidence.
• Provide interest profiles and interaction history collected during marketing initiatives with the prospect so sales can step seamlessly into the conversation.

Depending on your technology and internal portal solutions, much of this can be automated. But, if you can't pull that off, you still need to get sales this information. Marketing has a tremendous opportunity to be positioned as the "go-to" department for insights and research. In order to maintain consistency of brand with each interaction, you need to establish a strategic knowledge base utilized by both marketing and sales with a closed feedback loop for continuous improvement.

And, just creating the knowledge base isn't enough. It has to be kept updated and stretch into the future to create answers to problems your prospects haven't encountered yet.

So, yes, there's cost involved. But, doing nothing can cost a whole lot more. Up to $300K in revenues per sales person, in the CSO report scenario. Can you afford that?

If you'd like to read the CSO report, Proactive Sales Intelligence; The New Requirement for Getting Into the Game, you can download it here. (minimal registration required)

Do Your Leads Want to Know You?

Today, I'm more likely to meet someone through a blog post, an email, or as a result of my online behavior than I am by talking to them on the phone, or meeting them at a networking event.

As I continuously work to help my clients connect with their prospects and engage with them through written communications, content and messaging, I do this by extending stories that create meaning through relevance. Often as a result of behavior in response to a communication.

It bothers me when companies really blow it with their messaging, although it makes it easier to eliminate them from consideration. Today, I received and email that thanks me for my interest, then spends three sentences about their products and then goes to a second paragraph that begins:

"I'm not sure what sparked your interest in us, but please let me know a good time for us to briefly chat ..."

This immediately tells me I'm not very important to him.  And, here's the saddest part, I know this company has marketing automation. Why? Because they sell it. So my expectations were reasonably high.

See, here's the interesting thing. You can buy all the technology you want, but if you don't use the intelligence you gather to direct your content and messaging, you're not going to get your leads to want to know you. If you don't show that you care about them, why should they want to?

This is also what happens when your salespeople write their own messaging. And, I'm guessing here, but I'll bet marketing would faint if they saw this type of thing going out.  Is it consistent with their brand? No. Does it ruin all the work they've done so far? (for me, the recipient of this communication) Pretty much. Let's just say, I'm not impressed.

This is how the disconnect between the buying process and the sales process happens.

In regards to the company above, I downloaded a white paper, ...I think, so I'm not ready for a sales call. What would've made a difference to me is something along these lines:

"Hi Ardath,

I see you've recently downloaded our white paper on XYZ and how it impacts the status quo.[remind me of how I should know you] Since you may be considering how to impact the status quo in your own organization, I thought you might find this paper interesting too. It explores how to get buy-in for change at the executive level, which is always a challenge.[Give me more of what you think I'm interested in and tell me why] (with a link to the paper)

If you have any further questions about how to initiate change and what the proof points for XYZ are, I'd be happy to help you understand the difference changing the status quo can make by sharing some relevant case studies. Please let me know..." [Tell me how you can provide value beyond this message]

***

This is what I mean by utilizing insights to behavior and turning them into communications that build a story. What was communicated to me was something I might be interested in learning more about, given my viewing history with the company. That kind of message tells me the company is paying attention, trying to be helpful and not stingy with their expertise. It goes a long way toward showing me they care. And, it gives me access to information I might not otherwise have.

Yes, it's still focused on their product, but it's a helpful focus, not a sales pitch. And, if the information is useful, then they've built some trust with me because they've shown they understand what I might be going through and that they want to help.

Generating this type of marketing communications requires that you have a content strategy, a plan for what follows. Just throwing one-off marketing communications out there and following up with lame messaging can not only hurt your chances of getting any further with that lead, but it may make them not want to know you at all, damaging the work marketing has done up to now.

What you can learn by watching interactions form and evolve into engagement will help you discern patterns that can then help drive your content strategy for consistency and best practices. But the tools won't do you any good if your messaging and content doesn't build trust and empathy. It doesn't happen overnight, but in this age of deleting more than we can read each day, taking on the challenge will pay off.

Credibility As A Core Company Initiative

How much confidence, belief and trust do you get from the marketplace?

With trust at an all-time low, it's critical to be credible. It's up to marketing to set the precedent for your company's believability level. This does not mean amping up your batch & blast marketing campaign schedule. Yelling at people will not make them believe in you.

It means taking the time to show people why you're valuable. The most effective way to do this is to help them. Help them think, learn, understand and solve problems. It means adding thought leadership as a component of your marketing strategy.

I was speaking with a VP of marketing a few weeks ago and she said that thought leadership was low on her priority list because it didn't have an immediate impact on revenues. She's charged with delivering quantifiable results and doesn't have any room to spare for stuff that doesn't deliver in the near term.

The problem with only focusing on the near term is that when it runs out, what have you got left? This type of limited marketing focus is making the choice to be the hamster on the never-ending wheel. You have to keep running faster and faster to keep up. There's nothing brewing in the pipeline to filter in down the line. And, you're leaving untold opportunities by the wayside. You're actually driving them to your competitors because you've in essence told people that unless they are interested in buying now, you're not interested in them.

To build credibility, every B2B company that's in the game for the long-term should focus on thought leadership as one of their initiatives. Relationship marketing is a focus of many marketing initiatives these days, but without credibility, how strong a relationship can you build? It's kind of a cart and horse thing.

So what does "become a thought leader" mean?

Steven Van Yoder, author of Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort, was the guest speaker today on Jill Konrath's monthly Selling To Big Companies teleseminar (which I highly recommend).

Steven defines thought leadership as:

"...positioning yourself [or your company] as an industry resource for your customers and prospects."

This means you provide information that's useful to your prospects and customers -- and here's the kicker -- whether or not they opt in or buy anything. You provide the information in a non-subjective way and make sure it's not overly self-promotional. In essence, you help people become educated and knowledgeable about issues that are important to them.

If the information is meaningful to them, they will opt in to learn more.

That said, thought leadership requires dedication. It requires:

• knowing who's influencing your industry
• staying up-to-date on related trends and issues
• being willing to dispense expertise without strings attached
• distinguishing yourself from the status quo

Which sounds like what marketers are challenged to do, anyway. The most difficult part about thought leadership is planting that proverbial stake in the ground and choosing your niche.

It's helpful to ask yourself/your company the following:

• What do we want to be known for?
• What do we want prospects and customers to think about when they think of us?
• What can we do to loosen the status quo?
• Where are our customers and prospects stuck?
• What issues are looming on the horizon for our customers that we can pro-actively provide insights and information about to help them BEFORE there's an adverse impact?
• What do our prospects and customers need that they aren't getting? (Hint: probably access to strategic thinking about an issue they aren't experts in dealing with)

The interesting thing about thought leadership is that, done well, it can pre-sell you. This means you need to make it part of your marketing strategy. Sharing information and insights is good for business. It builds credibility. Providing something valuable with no strings raises your trustworthiness in the eyes of the prospect. Positioning yourself to be the one they reach out and call when they are ready is a circumstance we all want to have.

Credibility grows with a solid reputation. So don't hide your thought leadership under a rock or bury it on your website. Don't put up a form that asks for the prospect's first child before you share, either. Many of them will leave without filling it out. At least until they decide you're credible.

With the improvement in metrics and data collection, marketing should be able to track the pipeline movement of the longer-term leads and demonstrate quantifiable impact on revenues.

Like all good things, it will take some time.

What thought leadership activities are you pursuing?

Your Prospects Don't Believe You

I just attended a webinar about Integrated Marketing.  Elana Anderson from Forrester was the speaker. She's great to listen to, very knowledgeable. A few things she said got me thinking. Thanks to Omniture for hosting.

• Only 6% of consumers think companies tell the truth in their ads
• 93% think ads are not a valid way to learn about products

Okay, so this was about consumers, not necessarily B2B prospects, but they're consumers too. If that's what they think about the products they'd consider buying for themselves, what makes you think they don't think the same thing in their professional lives, as well?

The interesting thing Elana talked about was how marketers are not changing. How we're just "yelling" louder, sending out more messaging  in an effort to attract attention. But people aren't listening. Not to product-focused messaging.

More than ever, there's a need to regain and build trust. In order to do that, consider the combination of emotion and experience. That's the blend that will get you to relationships.

This means you need a comprehensive marketing strategy that combines outbound efforts with inbound-responsive interactions focused on relevancy. One-size-fits-all product focused messaging won't work. Marketing needs to align their strategy with the way customers buy and focus on communicating interactively with core segments by utilizing customized/personalized messaging.

Another interesting statistic from the webinar is that 82% of database marketers surveyed by Forrester said the biggest missing piece for them is the lack of quality web data. I agree that this will hinder efforts for relevant responses triggered by customer behavior. I mean, if you don't know what your prospects are doing at your website, or in response to your messaging, how can you respond appropriately? Since 82% of these folks are stumbling around in the dark, is it any wonder that prospects don't believe what company's tell them?

Messaging and experience need to evolve through contacts.

Note the "evolution" component. Using story is a great way to evolve a relationship. If each communication builds off the last one, with proof points along the way, your messaging creates forward movement. This requires that you think strategically about how each message fits and what it leads to in relation to the prospect's stage in the buying cycle.

Complex B2B sales have a couple of huge hurdles to tackle. The first is loosening the status quo to the point that the prospect is willing to consider alternatives to their current situation. The second is the education element necessary to move your prospect to the confidence level that they are competent to tackle the change, and that doing so with your company's product is the right choice for them.

That's a lot of movement. It takes a concerted effort and a contextual content strategy to pull it off. But here's an upside. Of the marketing executives Forrester interviewed, 43%  now play an integral part in developing company strategy.

Drive interactions with effective marketing stories

Digital and Email communications are a great way to drive interactions with your customers and prospects. Yet, all too often these communications go unread. Usually that’s because they aren’t compelling. Let’s look at your emails campaigns more closely.   

Which one of these is closest to the type of emails you send?

1. a product focused email with a link to product information
2. a more problem focused communication that helps people understand why and how your product facilitates a solution, with a link to an article or landing page on the topic?

    A is focused on you. B is focused on the prospect.    

The story you can tell in A is probably focused on you. The story you tell in B is pretty much going to be focused on them. Option B will be much more powerful and compelling to the prospect, unless you hit them at the exact right moment and they’ve already done their homework and concluded your product is on their final options list. Hitting that moment is pure luck, and you can’t depend on that to drive interactions and resulting revenue.   

Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, people make decisions based on the stories they tell themselves about their complex lives. That foundation is used to evaluate and make decisions in their business life as well. It helps them rationalize, justify and understand the choices they make, or their particular decisions under certain sets of circumstances.   

In marketing for the B2B complex sale, there’s usually a lot of knowledge transfer or education that happens before you get to the purchase decision. How well your marketing communications resonate with prospects will determine if they choose to buy your product or your competitors’, or to not buy at all.   

Many marketing messages try to accomplish the whole enchilada with one communication. They try to get the prospect to take action prior to establishing familiarity and trust between the company and the prospect. They also tend to be so enamored with their products that they forget about, or ignore, the problem the prospect is trying to solve. They forget to speak from the prospect’s perspective, exploring the alternative solutions and pros and cons. And they forget to acknowledge that change is sometimes more difficult than staying with the status quo.   

As a marketer, you are trying to reduce their comfort with the status quo while simultaneously showing people why its safe to take a  new course of action, try a new solution. To get the prospect to this point, they need to know why they should change, they need hard evidence of the benefits they’ll derive. They need to be able to envision themselves both using the product successfully and enjoying those benefits for themselves, and for their company.   

This is why case studies and white papers and eBooks are so powerful. A good case study will show the problem faced, before your solution, which is also faced by the prospect you’re speaking to. The case study will show prospects the results they can achieve if they use your product, and how they can go about doing just that. All based on the successful experiences of another prospect, just like them.   

The more a prospect identifies with the story, the more compelling your product will be for them. An eBook or a white paper gives you the extra space you need to further build the case for change, with quantitative examples. These are compelling educational vehicles that can drive conversation with your prospect, since they learn enough to feel confident to have a meaningful discussion about the possibilities you offer.

Stories consist of a beginning, middle and end. There are characters, motivation and conflicts before the characters triumph at the end. [It’s helpful if you only think about happily-ever-after stories when applying them to marketing.] The scenario of the case study above has a beginning, the situation before using the product. There is motivation because the prospect has to improve or change to reach a business goal. The conflict is whatever is currently stopping them from achieving that goal. Your product is what helps them overcome the obstacle and get to that goal.   

All marketing communications won’t have a complete story every time. But, done strategically, a series of inter-related communications can drive interactions as you pass on enough knowledge to demonstrate why your product solves their problem better than the status quo, or alternative choices. Your communications can also help them envision meeting the business goal they cannot achieve, on their own, today. You’ve shown them some expert approaches or solutions they hadn’t thought about. If they had, they would have made the change already.   

By using story concepts in your marketing communications, you have the opportunity to build a relationship gradually.   

• The contextual nature of the story provides proof that the status quo is a      problem and that there is a solution.
• You’ve used incremental communications to create belief the prospect can achieve a beneficial end result by trusting your expertise.
• You’ve made them comfortable with new knowledge to the point they can convince others in the consensus group that changing the status quo is worthwhile.

Note: My June Newsletter went out last week. This is the lead article. If you'd like to sign up, just go to my homepage and subscribe.

Customer Profiling & Personalization Survey

Now that I'm in business for myself, I get to do all kinds of fun things. One of them is spending a lot more time doing consulting, research and writing about contextual communications for marketing, and other topics I'm passionate about. In addition to the blog, Marketing Interactions has a website and newsletter.

I'm sending out June's newsletter, about using story in marketing communications, this afternoon.

As I was thinking through my editorial calendar, I realized that what I'd really like to do is collect some insights about a topic via survey and use the results in a light research effort to provide more relevant information and impact for my newsletter subscribers.

The first survey is about Customer Profiling & Personalization.

The survey will attempt to answer the following questions:

• Are customer profiles effective?
• What is the difference between customer profiles and personas?
• How well is personalization understood?
• Are people using these tools to build stronger relationships?
• Is everyone operating from the same insights or is this another disconnect between marketing and sales?
• And more...

It's up now and will run through the end of the month and is only 12 questions. Should take you less than five minutes. The July newsletter will come out mid-month with that theme in the articles and the anonymous survey results will be used to drive the further research.

You're all invited to participate. The more the merrier. Just make sure to subscribe to the newsletter, so you get the results next month.

I'd like to do this each month, but we'll see what happens. If you have themes or topics you'd like to see a survey about, let me know by posting a comment here or send me an email.

Has anyone else tried something like this? Comments?