Marketing Interactions

Create a World Wide Rave of Your Own

Yesterday, I sat on the couch and read David Meerman Scott's World Wide Rave while my husband watched O'Hair lose to Tiger on the golf course. Everyone will say Tiger won but, really, O'Hair lost. Okay, back on track...

World Wide Rave is one of those books you just have to finish. In fact, I kept trying to put it down to watch golf, but kept picking it back up again until I finished.

Before we go any further, let's clear something up. Just in case you're tempted to think that you don't have the market to create a World Wide Rave, you've missed the point. "World," as David refers to it, is all about the people who can benefit from what you're selling—whether there are ten or thousands or millions of them.

Raves are not a one-size-fits-all endeavor.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, take a look at the Rules of the Rave:

1. Nobody cares about your products (except you).
2. No coercion required.
3. Lose control.
4. Put down roots.
5. Create triggers that encourage people to share.
6. Point the world to your doorstep.

If you've learned the first rule, the others will make a lot more sense. The first rule is the BIG DEAL rule, in my book. Until and unless you learn that, your content won't help you create a World Wide Rave. It's really that simple.

According to David,

"The best World Wide Raves promote your organization and its products and services by delivering great online information tied directly to your products, services and ideas (that's tied to, not touting). Success comes from the fact that people want to share this content with their friends, colleagues, and family members."

"That buzz is what sells their products."

The book is filled with inspiring examples of individuals and companies that have created their own World Wide Raves, how they did it and what they achieved. David's examples put an end to (or they should) this ongoing argument about whether content should be free or not.

In fact, one of my favorite clarifications on mindset is how he distinguishes the difference between a whitepaper and an e-book for a B2B perspective:

"For most companies, a whitepaper is about generating sales leads. An e-book, however, is about spreading ideas. Improved sales are a byproduct, though obviously an important one."

This should sufficiently whet your appetite to go read this book. Not only will it help you better think about why you really need to know your customers and marketplace, but you'll begin to think about the value of creating great content as something beyond counting identified leads.

Once you realize that sharing valuable ideas actually increases exposure to them and draws people to you, you're on the right track. Even better, they'll be happy to opt in because they're genuinely interested in what you have to say, find your ideas relevant and your expertise valuable.

As your World Wide Rave grows legs, you'll also start to notice that you're spending more time interacting with people who are more likely to become your customers. I'd say there's plenty of ROI in that!

Great book, David! Thanks for writing it.

If Your B2B Emails Could Talk

This is an absolutely hilarious video about how bad emails that fail to engage might sound if they could talk. As you listen from the customer perspective, think about how you're reacting. Is what you're saying to your prospects coming off like this?

The video is one of the best ways I can think of for marketers to actually put themselves in their customer's perspective. So, while you're laughing, don't miss the point. Thanks to EMReports! Truly well done.

What would your marketing emails sound like if they could talk?

Stimulate Prospect Interactions

The purpose of interactive marketing is to stimulate interactions and engagement with prospects and customers that builds or extends an active relationship. But many marketing campaigns employ one-way destinations.

For example: A link from an email to an article that leaves the prospect with no where else to go to learn more. This seems counter-intuitive to me given the interactive nature of today's digital environment — not to mention the goal.

Content strategy is a necessary element for nurturing campaigns. Most marketer's plan for the email message and the content offer, design a landing page and ship out the communication. But, what happens if [gasp] a recipient of that communication takes action? What happens if your content gets spread around online?

Are you ready?

The above list is representational of some of the activities marketing communications can should motivate. The shortfall I see is that many communications only focus on getting the click through. Like that's the whole enchilada.

But, consider that I have clients who actually get replies to their marketing emails. Often it's a thank you for a great article, but sometimes their replies request further information that generates new content development to fill gaps or even inquiries about a demo. Some responses indicate they're forwarding the email to the person who really needs to see it. All of these activities feed into generating Industrial Strength Intelligence.

If you're using an email address to send out communications that you don't monitor other than to clean up bounces, do you know how many interaction opportunities you could be missing?

Go take a look at your landing page. In what ways are you motivating your prospects to extend their engagement with you?

• Can they opt in for a content series on a related topic indicating a higher level of interest in solving a particular problem? Even if they're already on your house list, consider the options you can provide that help you tune your segmentation to achieve higher levels of relevance.


• Do you enable them to Forward the article to a colleague? This could be an influencer involved with the buying committee, or even a peer they know could benefit from your information.


• Are there other options to invite prospects to follow your storyline? Or is your content a one-off offer that doesn't relate to anything else? And I'm not talking about a product page.


• Can they leave a comment about your article or provide some kind of feedback? If they could, what will you do in response?

Based on what actions they take, do you have a plan to stimulate further interactions specific to what they've done? Or do you just let them sit on your house list until the next scheduled send?

What will you do if someone Tweets a link to your article or white paper? Will you even know? How will you respond? Do you have something of value to say beyond "Thanks!" ?

What about if someone writes a blog post about it? What kind of comment will you post? How will you invite that blog's readers to engage with more valuable information? Do you have any?

Over 1 in 5 people posts content online these days. You know that, right?

Think about how you can plan to be more responsive to what people choose to do with your content. When you're thinking about it, make sure you design your content with participation in mind. Think about what types of conversations your content can initiate and forward.Think about flow.

Of course, it goes without saying, [or maybe it needs to be said yet again] the degree to which your content will stimulate interactions is directly dependent upon how well you know your customers and prospects—And, how well you can translate that knowledge into engaging content your audience wants to interact with.

Define Your Target Market

There seems to be some confusion about the definition of a target market. Apparently, some people still think this definition should be based solely on who their company has decided to sell to.

Definitions like these are still commonly heard:

The group of people your company wants to reach.

Companies in X industry with >$50M revenues and 100+ employees.

The people your company wants to buy your product.

CXOs.

You may be nodding your head, but I ask you to consider who each of those statements are about.

All of those statements are about what the company wants. There's no consideration in any of the definitions for the prospective customer. And yet, the top marketing priorities for most companies are finding new audiences and improving the results from lead generation efforts. Interesting, don't you think?

This is mostly because companies haven't yet ceded control of the buying process to the buyers. They seem to have a hard time in flipping their thinking to an outside-in perspective. Well, it's time to get with the program. Especially in this economy. Otherwise you'll waste more resources missing the mark than you'll spend getting results.

Consider that the definition of target market is better served by something like this:

People with priorities your products help them answer.

Here's why:

• People are too busy to solve anything but their highest priorities.
• Budgets are constrained. When a choice has to be made, the urgent issues will get the most attention.
• Even if someone meets your definition of a person/company you'd like to sell to, if they have no pressing reason to buy what you sell, you're done.

A statement like the above puts the prospect front and center in your strategic targeting process. Which is exactly where they should be.

Upon further thought, perhaps the definition needs further refinement. How about:

People with priorities your products and expertise help them answer.

After all, products like yours can likely be purchased from a variety of vendors. Your expertise is what differentiates you from competitors and escalates your value beyond just your product. People are looking for strategic ideas that help them move their companies ahead—especially during a complex purchase process with a lot of moving parts.

Prospects buy products from vendors. They rely on expertise from trusted partners and advisors. Those are the people they build relationships with for the long haul.

Did you notice I'm using people and not companies? I'm doing that for a specific reason. You help a person (usually a number of them) within a company buy from you. You need to know that person, their preferences and perspective. The "company" isn't going to interact with you. The people who bring the company to life are.

In the age of conversation where there's higher levels of trust for peers and colleagues—instead of vendors—you also need to direct efforts toward those who influence their decisions.

So, now we need to expand the target market definition a little farther:

People with priorities your products and expertise help them answer; and the people involved in conversations with them about how to best achieve needed outcomes.

This is a wholly different focus than the old-school target market definitions orchestrated from an inside-out approach.

It's not about the company, it's about your prospects and customers.

It's not about what you want, it's about what they need.

What you say during their buying process will not be interpreted as high value your prospects MUST have without corroboration from influencers. Obviously that means there's a lot more work involved in defining your target market than choosing the decision maker you want to sell your products to.

How do you define your target market? Would you add something to my definition? Would you do it differently? Why?

Industrial Strength Prospect Intelligence

I was listening to Paul Greenberg giving a webinar yesterday when he used a phrase that really resonated with me: Industrial Strength Intelligence

CRM and marketing automation systems have given us intelligence. Things like a place to record demographic information, email communications and website behavior tied to lead scoring.

He pointed out that a big issue for creating higher engagement is that we never know enough about our prospects. But, that's changing for many of us—especially now that we can gather Industrial Strength Intelligence.

What ramps up intelligence to industrial strength?

The increase in "social behavior."

It's now possible to search the web and find out much more about prospects than we've ever known. And not just facts like their role and surface stuff about their companies. We can actually get to know more about our prospects as individuals.

People are spending time online posting comments and reviews. They're rating and discussing content, products, webinars, videos and slide decks. More and more of them are posting in forums, on Twitter, on blogs and updating their status on LinkedIn.

And the tools they're using are adding more and more widgets that enable the sharing of more and more of what we're doing, what we're interested in, our likes and dislikes.

Let's take a look at a few of the ways you can learn about your prospects:

LinkedIn:

• Look at the questions and answers someone posts on LinkedIn.
• The books they're reading at the bottom of their LinkedIn profiles.
• The blog posts that are pulled through on their LinkedIn profiles.
• What does their status update tell you?
• Even the people they're connected to can provide background.
• What about their past job history? Have they always been in their current career, or have they shifted? What knowledge from their past career could spin the way they look at solving problems in their current position?
• Who else are they connected to at their company? Potential influencers?

Twitter:

• Scanning their Twitter profile to see what they're interested in.
• What kinds of things do they ReTweet? Generally things we ReTweet are things we think are valuable to share.
• Who are they following? Anyone you know - like maybe one of your customers? How about a competitor?

Blogs:

• Comments your prospects leave on blog posts can help you get a feel for their relationship with the topic and/or the blogger.
• What if they have their own blog? Even if it's not related to their company, there's a lot to learn about the person that can give you insights to create better connections.

Personal:

• What if you find a product review for something they bought personally? The way they write the review can reveal a lot about hot buttons as well as features they love.
• Book reviews on Amazon or B&N can also be useful. When did they post it? What about the book or author was most valuable to them? Did they see something lacking they wished the author would've covered more? Can you provide that information, or send them a resource they will find helpful?

These are just a few thoughts about how we can generate the industrial strength intelligence that can guide us to developing content that resonates, conversations that engage and dialogue that moves prospects forward in building a relationship with you/your company.

This type of thinking is critical when you consider something else Paul said. It went something like this: People don't want just a relationship with a salesperson. They want a relationship with the whole company. I agree completely.

We have to start looking farther with our content, marketing and sales strategies than just getting the deal. We need to start extending everything we're doing to embrace the entire relationship lifecycle.

Top Reason for Email Unsubscibes or Delete

If you think your prospects are simply overwhelmed with inbox clutter and that's why they're not reading your lead nurturing emails, you may be suffering from disillusion.

You see, apparently marketers have under estimated their prospect's ability to process information to determine relevance—even amidst the clutter, noise and static in their inboxes.

Straight from the Marketing Sherpa Summit in Miami is this chart that shows the top reasons for defection from email marketing programs: Relevance and Frequency.

And, not just by a small margin.

• 58% say they unsubscribe or stop reading due to lack of relevance.
• 44% say you're bombarding them and they won't take it anymore!

In fact, a lack of attention paid due to inbox overload comes in 3rd at 31%. This means you have a really valid opportunity to build higher prospect engagement with over 2/3 of your opt-in list.

More than ever, it's important to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. And to segment. You've got to pinpoint relevance as closely as possible. I mean, 58% is pathetic, don't you think? We can do better than that.

Yes, I know. I can hear you groaning at the thought of all that extra work to construct more than one message and just blast and be done.

Here's the kicker...

You see that second reason? You're sending too many. So, if you segment you can focus on one group at a time. For example, if you have 4 segments, work on one each week. Reducing your communications to once a month won't hurt anything. In fact, with higher relevance and a more relaxed pace, you may just find your prospects are happier to hear from you.

Consider the wild idea that if you're producing really valuable content, your prospects may just seek you out when they have a need to know more. That means you're also gaining increased validity about interest levels.

It's one thing to have them click, look and leave because you initiated that activity during their busy day. It's quite another if they proactively come out to your website to see what's new and pull your content to them because they trust it to be relevant to them. Can you feel the difference?

In a complex B2B sale, it's a long cycle. Getting longer in this economy. Keeping in touch so they remember who you are is better when it's enjoyable and memorable for them.

That's a much better scenario that the one where you've trained them to learn your name so they can delete your message without consideration because they know it's going to be all about you, not them.

Before you continue to fatigue your audience, think about the upside of being the guest everyone wants to invite into their inbox—it's one of those do unto others things...you've got to put the relationship ahead of the message.

The 60 second marketing website challenge

We all like to think of our websites as destinations that serve to engage our prospects and customers. But this article from eMarketer — Has the Internet Made You More Productive — delivers a clear challenge to your website content.

The article quotes a Nielsen Online survey from January 2009, showing that respondents visit 131 domains per month and spend 60 seconds on a web page. Their November 2008 report showed that people visited 1,594 web pages per month, averaging 43 pages per web session.

This means your content has to be on target. Obviously people are not satisfied with limited information. Since the eMarketer article began by referencing a survey about productivity — and yes, 71% thought the Internet improved their productivity — it would probably be prudent to believe that if they're on a mission to find specific information when they launch a session, they'll be looking at a variety of sources.

The 60-second challenge requires that your web pages deliver something interesting enough to keep website visitors engaged. It also means you need to provide a clear path for them to continue to click deeper into your website. You want as many of those 43 pages as you can get, right?

It might be interesting to evaluate your website based on the 60-second challenge to learn if it's delivering the right level of engagement. Looking at your website analytics alone, without evaluating your content simultaneously, may not tell you what you need to know.

Here are some ideas for your website content assessment:

Read each page at normal speed and see how far you get in 60 seconds.

• Compare highly visited pages to those that sit idle. See any differences?

Consider that people may not dive in immediately, but look around first to see what's there before they start reading your main content.

• How long does it take to ingest all the surrounding content options? How much remains of your 60 seconds for the main content? Is it enough?

Now scan and scroll through your web pages and see what catches your eye.

• Take a look at which search terms are pulling people to the page. Is what's catching your eye related to those terms, and the expectations they set?

If you look at your website's navigational paths, which links are visitors clicking on? The ones above the fold? The ones in the sidebars? The formal navigation? Or the hyperlinks within your main text?

• The key question is, are they going where you want them to? Or are they wandering around, clearly not engaged in answer to the need that brought them?
  

Chances are that if the average web session includes 43 pages, yours aren't the only ones your website visitors are reading. This is one reason why it's important to spread your content around online—well, once you've made sure it's engaging.

And, consider that if the norm is 60 seconds you should consider a test by displaying a track/storyline of your content in one-minute chunks with clear paths to continue the storyline. Monitor behavior to determine if engagement with your content improves.

I'm wondering if anyone's done a study that shows the impression made by the number of relevant web pages visited? Seems to me that if each click (and they're obviously not afraid to click) delivers value, that should make a lasting impression—as well as a reason to return for more. [If you've got a data source for this, I'd love to see it.]

How's your website handling the 60-second challenge? Or, do you think this doesn't apply to your situation? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Marketing Mismatch on Data Needs

Over coffee this morning, I was reading the article From Data to Dollars in the Spring 2009 issue of 1to1 Magazine and saw a disconnect in thinking that made me scratch my head.

On the page was a chart in answer to the question:

What Customer Data Would You Like to Collect That You Don't Now?

Psychographic - 11%
Demographic - 9%
NONE - 9%
Competitive information - 6%
Customer needs and preferences - 6%
Web activity - 5%

On the next page is a graph that shows:

The Top 5 Uses of Customer Data:

Understanding customer value/profitability - 47%
Crafting marketing messaging - 47%
Creating up/cross-sell offers - 46%
Segmentation - 34%
Pricing - 20%

Now, maybe I need more caffeine this morning, but it seems to me that if you want to understand customer value/profitability and craft effective marketing messaging, then you need to know customer needs and preferences. How can you even attempt to create up/cross-sell offers if you have no idea of needs?

Additionally, knowing more about website activity can also help you pinpoint interests and levels of engagement to help you increase the relevance and value of your messaging.

I'm sorry, but I'm lost with this disconnect about what marketers think they need to accomplish what they want. Especially in this market where the buyer is taking control of their buying process.

Don't get me wrong, psychographic and demographic information is great, but without determining needs and preferences, really, who cares? Just because they could be your customer doesn't mean they have an urgent priority to become your customer.

The 9% who don't want to collect any more customer data either have this one handled or can't effectively use the data they already have. I wonder what the split was...

**The graphs sourced from 1to1 Media's Spring Data Survey

Putting my riff above aside, the article offered some valuable tips marketers should consider when crafting a strategy to leverage the data they're collecting.

For Sales & Marketing - remember they use data in different ways. "The key is in provisioning data to divisions so that each can look at the same data in their own way." I'd take that even further and stipulate that it would be helpful for marketing to present data in a way that enables salespeople.

Reducing Customer Churn: "With the right data and analysis, most any company can take steps to reduce turnover before it happens." Customer retention is high on the list for most companies in this economy. Go look at the activity history of customers that've defected recently and start connecting the dots. Then apply that insight to take proactive steps to reduce any other customers indicating less than total satisfaction.

Leverage Web analytics: "Right now Web analytics can be highly lucrative. With experimentation companies can make messages more relevant and track which are most effective." Oh, so true. It's all in how you look at the data and scale your view from an aggregate or segment view to that an individual prospect.

It's a given that technology enables marketers to collect a lot of data. The trick is in having a plan for how you'll use it. Otherwise, well, it's just data.        

Top 10 Dating Turn Ons for Your Prospects

Nurturing prospects is akin to dating. In a complex sale, it takes more than the first date to build the relationship. But, if you don’t use the appropriate marketing etiquette, you’ll never entice them to continue “dating” long enough to choose to buy from your company.

@openzine posted a link to Katrina’s Choice Zine on Twitter and I was curious enough to click through to see what the Top 10 Dating Turn Ons are these days. Turns out not a lot has changed. Consideration and etiquette still prevail.

As I was browsing through the list, I saw distinct correlations to what marketers should remember about dating their prospects if they want to “turn on” higher levels of engagement throughout a complex buying process. So here they are with a marketing twist, plus.

Top 10 – drum roll, please!

1. Light, Sexy perfume and cologne. Does your company reek of self-serving, company-focused promotions? Instead of leaving a heavy, cloying scent in the air, flip your focus to your prospect’s interests and help them smell the value you deliver.


2. Sense of Humor. Appreciate the ways your customers and prospects take control of your message and participate in the spirit of the conversations you enter. Even a negative can be handled graciously. See Marketers Cannot Control the Message for more on this one.


3. Listening skills. Companies need to focus on “hearing” their prospects and responding in ways that show they’ve not only listened to what’s said, but that the company has understood by responding accordingly. For example; if your prospect takes action to express a preference for a specific topic, don’t keep pointing them to information they don’t care about. I've got a marketing vision post about listening.


4. Attractive Apparel. Treat your prospects to websites, microsites, landing pages and emails that are light on the hyperbole and jargon. Use graphics, color and fonts wisely to create a feeling of less effort for the prospect to understand how to engage with you, and why they should. Focus on making a great impression with every interaction. See How human is your b2b company online.


5. Smile. Do your content and communications have spirit? Do they show the passion and enjoyment your company has for whatever you help your customers achieve? I think I summed this up in my Customers Are Looking for Yes! post.


6. Proper Voice Volume. How often are you communicating with your prospects? Too much and you’re shouting at them to get attention, too little and it’s like you don’t care. See my article Screaming Louder Won't Help in the Keeping Your Sales Up in a Down Economy eBook - Free download.


7. Complimenting. Employ customer success stories to compliment your customers and show prospects how worthwhile it is to work with your company. Testimonials are complimentary to you and to your customers because they show you care about your relationships. They also build confidence and comfort levels that keep your prospects in the dating mindset.


8. Flirting. Tread lightly with your messaging and don’t come on too strong. “Flirt” lightly with them to see if they want to interact with you. If you’ve got something they’re interested in, they’ll respond. Plus, there’s no sense running after people who will never qualify as a good "date."


9. Intellect. Keep abreast of market trends and share innovative ideas. If you want to become the date your prospects clamor for, you need to share your expertise to start high-value conversations.


10. Cover the Bill. Always make sure you’re paying for your prospect’s attention in a way they acknowledge as valuable. If you promise something, you’ve set expectations. If your delivery isn’t consistent, they will find that paying you with their attention isn’t worth the effort.

Nothing really new here. Just thought it was a fun way of humanizing what marketing is really all about. And that’s providing stand-out value to your prospects and customers.

Marketing Metrics: The Hard and The Soft

There's a huge amount of discussion lately about measuring marketing based on ROI. And there seem to be two camps—Hard and Soft.

The Hard Marketing Camp wants to tie everything to sales metrics saying anything that doesn't result in a revenue measurement doesn't count.

The Soft Marketing Camp is focused on initiatives that drive engagement, conversations, interactions, awareness and brand.

Some of this distinction is tied to getting the respect of the executive team which translates into higher budgets.

However, I can't understand the dichotomy. In my opinion, you need both. In a B2B complex sale, [actually any sale] you can't get to revenue without Soft Camp initiatives. In fact, the more "social" marketing becomes, the higher a degree of Soft will be needed to generate Hard results.

This is why I'm such a big fan of marketing automation technology and the ability to score behavior and demographics, as well as shine a light on how prospects turn into buyers. What marketing ultimately needs are progressive metrics that help them prove Soft initiatives drive Hard results. That's what creates solid ROI.

What matters is being able to show, measure and evaluate how each outcome you track feeds into the sales process and, ultimately, impacts the generation of downstream revenues.

In fact, I'd say that proving exactly how marketing is driving demand and displaying that you have the knowledge to consistently move the needle holds more merit than just pointing to the end result without being able to definitively prove how you got there.

With marketing measurement becoming more sophisticated, imagine the ability for marketers to know the factors that cause buyers in specific segments to become sales ready. With integration into CRM, those metrics can be extended to show what happens on the other side of the funnel, as well.

The more visibility marketers have, the less focus will be spent on quantity and the more on quality. The Soft initiatives are what help determine quality—as long as you can measure them. The Hard revenue metrics are what tells you that the quality equation is correct.

For example, what if marketing could prove that Persona A has a 70% probability of buying after exhibiting these behaviors within their activity history (not necessarily in this order):

• specific white paper downloaded


• 3 personal interactions (comments left on blog and responded to, Twitter exchanges, replies to email sends of thought leadership content, etc.)


• opt in for related subject matter email program and they click through on 60% or greater of the sends.


• viewed on-demand demo for their vertical

By discovering specific patterns of behavior, marketers can tweak scoring to measure for their occurrence.  In fact, they could even drive those actions to occur once the pattern has been discovered. Think about the improvement to pipeline forecast accuracy and what that could mean for your company.

Now, all that said, I believe the Hard and the Soft is all one big Combo Camp. Ultimately, if the Soft Camp can't get to related revenue metrics, there's a problem. In a complex sale environment with a longer selling cycle, you've got to measure all the progressive steps to revenue. There are a lot of places along the way that could impact the end result you're after.

Without establishing buying process measurements that track from lead generation throughout sales activities, you'll have a really hard time figuring out just where those gaps exist. Let alone be able to close them.

Being able to show progressive behavior across the pipeline holds merit. In fact, if you can prove marketing is increasing the number of conversations and interactions during each stage—and that those activities lead to active demand—then your revenue numbers will follow suit.