Marketing Interactions

Do You Know Your Customers...Or Are You Guessing?

In my book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, I bestow relevance with the "King" moniker. I did this because the old adage that "Content is King" is meaningless unless relevance is involved. Strangely, this point is often overlooked.

Attracting attention and keeping it across the entirety of the buying cycle are both critical if B2B marketing efforts are truly focused on creating sales opportunities. And, once prospects become customers, we need to retain them over the long term. Which of course means we need to get to know exactly what they want and give it to them.

What's increasingly interesting to me is that marketers presume to know what their customers want without anything beyond gut feel to back them up. According to Forrester Research, 80% of marketers asked say customer preference is a key factor for designing communications programs.

But the findings from the study show that guesswork is still reining supreme. Take a gander at a few statistics that demonstrate the disconnect between perception and reality:

• Only 29% capture what kind of content their customers want to receive.
• Only 12% capture customers' preference for frequency of communications.
• Of those who ask about at least one preference, at least 30% of the marketers who collect the information DON'T USE IT.

This is pitiful. Really. And, here's the kicker; this is in response to questions about CUSTOMER preferences - not prospects.

Customers are people we know. We (supposedly) have relationships with them, for heaven's sake! And yet it appears that many marketers go out everyday and execute marketing programs, certain that they know just exactly what their prospects want.

Who's kidding whom?

I know that the speed of business is moving swiftly. I hear a lot of "just do it now" from marketers under pressure to produce quantifiable results as quickly as possible.

But think about what can become possible if you really know your customers' and prospects' preferences. Delivering what people want, when they want it is a combination of art and science. It's strategic. And strategy takes some elbow grease. There are no short cuts. We need to do the work if our marketing is to become sustainable over time.

Think about the way the marketplace is shifting. Social Networks and hyper connectivity will only create greater visibility for all of us. Marketing is no longer a stop and start series of campaigns. It's an always-on reality. It requires a continuous flow of storyline that we have to keep building and telling, consistently and sustainably.

If we're not relevant, we lose. The only way to be relevant is to give people what they want. And the only way to do that is to get to know them.

Email is Still the Sharing Superstar

Social networking may be all the rage, but when it comes to sharing links, content, pictures and ideas—email remains the star. And not just by a little bit. According to a StrongMail study, "fully 86% of sharing activity related to social programs run on [their] platform in Q3 3009 was done via e-mail. Facebook got only 6% of shares, while another 4% were tweeted." 

This is a very good reason for B2B marketers to focus on making it easy to assimilate and share your ideas. It's one thing to have a prospect click forward and send on your eNewsletter or a link to your webpage. It's quite another to have them express ideas about why they think it's important. You need to help them with that.

A lot of people send me links to stuff with a "Hey, check this out..." type of message. Unless I really trust the source, I delete or let it sit there to see if the person will prod me a bit if they don't hear back. I'm busy, just like your prospects. Information is flying fast and freely at a rate that's hard to keep up with.

Referral from a trusted source also drives higher page views. According to ShareThis, emails sharing information not only create higher click through rates(CTR) but account for an average of 2.95 pages viewed per CTR. I'm pretty darn sure that this is due to the level of relevance for the recipient.

You see, when people know and trust the source, they're more likely to respond because they perceive that the person is sending something they'll find valuable. That should send a clear signal to marketers about the importance of:

• Getting to know your prospects really well.
• Segmenting your lists for improved relevance.
• Building credibility with each touch point.
• Designing "pass along" into your email/nurturing programs.
• Embracing storytelling to help prospects share your ideas.
• Ensuring your email message itself is valuable - not just the content you link to.

Attaining this nirvana of 1-to-1 communications may still be a bit out of reach, but B2B marketers can get a lot closer than they think if they're willing to put their time in on the front end when they design their communications programs. 

In fact, if you discover you have a lot of influencers (vs. decision makers) in your database, spend some time developing a program designed to gain exposure to the decision makers you're trying to reach via a sharing strategy. If the content you're providing is helpful to a peer or colleague, they just may share it. After all, we all want to be helpful and appreciated...right?

Databases should not be used for one-size-fits-all distribution of your email programs.

The 12 Days of eMarketing Christmas

Just a few things to think about as we bring this year to a close and look forward to new opportunities to build relationships with our prospects that turn them into buyers.

For the 12 days of Christmas my prospects gave to me...

12 emails deleted

11 unheard voice mails

10 abandoned web pages

9 ignored download forms

8 bounces on landing pages

7 bogus emails

6 half-read blog posts

5 GOLDEN COMMENTS!!!

4 inquiries

3 opt ins

2 newsletter sign ups

and one really sales-ready lead

Notice the shift? In 2010, B2B marketers who really listen to and get to know their prospects will reap huge rewards from their eMarketing strategies.

Let's make 2010 the Year of Customer Focus.

The Rule of 5 for B2B Content Development

Lead nurturing, inbound pull, social networks, blogs and other eMarketing activities are all fueled by content. Lots of it. That puts a lot of pressure on limited marketing resources to churn out not only volume, but quality content that delivers a consistent storyline to a variety of target markets and customers.

So what's a B2B marketer to do?

Embrace the Rule of 5.

The rule of 5 is that each and every content development undertaking should produce content assets that can be used at least 5 different ways.

Whether 5 versions of the same article to align with different industries or segments; or 5 different assets from the same research, there are many ways you can get more use from your content development projects.

The secret to the Rule of 5 is planning and the biggest way to help yourself is by creating an editorial calendar to help you see how content development efficiencies can be achieved.

Let's say that you plan to create a white paper. When you know in advance that you need 4 additional content assets from the project, you can plan production with that in mind.

One white paper can help you create:

• a series of articles
• several articles and a few blog posts
• a couple of scripts for slidecasts (slides plus audio)
• a webinar on the same topic (give the white paper away to attendees as a bonus)

The trick is in planning for the additional development before you research. When creating a white paper there is always (at least in my case) more research than actually gets used. By outlining your white paper you can maximize your research time by gathering extra fodder to be used specifically in complementary pieces.

Consider:

• Collecting information on the topic as it relates to various verticals.


• Addressing the topic from different angles to meet the variety of stakeholder perspectives you need to address.


• Customer scenarios that can be folded into other articles that aren't being used in the white paper.


• The needs of early stage prospects vs. late stage buyers. The same research can be used to produce educational content and then be blended with your company's expertise to create content used during the later stages by your sales team. (marketing content and sales content are different)

The only way to achieve economies of scale with content development is to have a plan that addresses storylines (themes) across your prospects' buying stages. When you're building a consistent story that pulls buyers through their purchasing process, developing multiple content assets during one project can help you produce enough fuel to feed your eMarketing strategies.

Is Your B2B Marketing Content Reader Friendly?

I was just reviewing some survey results from the Eccolo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey and came across this highlight:

"People prefer to consume collateral from their desktop: Only 1 in 4 surveyed even print out an online document."

There are lots of other useful findings, like white papers are the top influential informational source for technology buyers during a purchase decision. And that's what got me thinking.

When's the last time that you downloaded a white paper designed to be read on your desktop?

Despite the shift to reading online instead of printing stuff out, most white papers are still formatted in columns - and that requires an immense amount of scrolling for people to read them.

Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. Now for page 2...

Additionally, white papers often contain dense paragraphs that are hard to read on the screen. The writing is often academic and formal, making us slow down to "get" the gist. Yet, according to Lorie Loe from Eccolo Media, “Decision makers and those who influence them want information that is straightforward, well-crafted and can inform their earliest research into vendors and products.”

So why haven't we shifted the formatting and style of white papers to make our content more reader friendly?

Enter the eBook. With a landscape orientation and a more casual style that often incorporates white space to ease eye strain, this would appear to be the answer. In fact, there are a lot of companies using eBooks. Just not technology firms, from what I've seen.

For some reason, eBooks aren't getting a lot of respect for serious marketing. Which seems silly to me. Is it because we'd have to develop a new template? Because we'd have to think about how to do something differently? Or, maybe it's because we'd have to learn how to write more accessibly...hmm.

This reluctance to update the style of our white papers may be due to the fact that marketers have no proof that people may only be reading the executive summary and stop after the first couple of pages because, well, it's just too much effort. The problem with white papers is that they're downloads and we lose track after they go. (although new applications that track PDF viewing beyond downloads are available)

But what I really started thinking about is that if people are reading on the screen, why not present our white papers as a series of connected web pages? You could even create a table of contents linking to each page to make it easy - run it down the sidebar so it's always accessible. Think about the insights that would make available:

• Length of time spent on each page.
• Which pages drew more attention (hint for further content development)
• Overal length of time spent on all pages.
• Where we lost them.
• How many visits it takes them to read the entire paper.
• What they clicked on when they navigated away from the page.
• How many read every single page (follow up indicator?)
• and more...

Newspaper and industry portals often have multi-page articles.

Ah, yes. But then we would lose all those download registrations. Or not.

Why not create an opt in form in the sidebar that offers more content related to the subject of the online white paper? Content not available publicly. I'd stipulate that the people who opt in are likely displaying higher interest than a majority of the people who would fill out the form just to get the white paper.

Either way, marketers need to start designing their content to be reader friendly - regardless of distribution method.

Q and A from 3 Must-Haves for Successful Lead Nurturing Webinar

Scott Mersy, Brian Carroll, Craig Rosenberg and I had a great time presenting the webinar, 3 Must-Haves for Successful Lead Nurturing. Thanks very much to the several thousand people who attended!

We didn't have time to get to all the questions you asked, so I wanted to follow up with some answers to a few of them. Thanks for asking!

Q: Ardath, would you agree that sales people are educators as well?

A: Absolutely! However, for a complex purchase, salespeople are coming into the conversation farther downstream. It's likely that by the time a sales conversation takes place, the buyer knows quite a bit about the problem they're solving, the product and company and is now looking to see exactly how it will apply to their specific situation. This is why salespeople need to know as much about their buyers as their products and solutions.

Q: Are there tools i.e questionnaires or templates to aid in developing lead nurturing programs?

A: Yes. My book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale is written to be a guide for creating lead nurturing programs and content strategy. For instant gratification, you can also download The Essentail Marketing Automation Handbook that I wrote for Genius.com. Brian Carroll's book, Lead Generation for the Complex Sale, is also a resource you'll want to have on your shelf. 

Q: Does the time delay re response time & engagement apply equally to higher value products/services that may have longer sales cycles?

A: This question is in response to a statistic that Scott Mersy shared about engagement opportunity declining after 30 minutes from when a lead visits your website. I think the answer depends on your perspective. In a longer cycle, you'll want to follow up with something useful - "I noticed you're interested in [topic] and wanted to let you know that we also have a white paper on the subject. May I send it over?"

The point in a longer sale is to be helpful, build your company's credibility and share expertise that has them coming back to your company for more answers to questions about how to best solve their problem. We talked about responsiveness in relation to increasing a prospect's level of engagement. So, in a longer sales cycle, don't think of following up as a sales call, think of it from a nurturing perspective.

Being helpful and not "selling" will keep the prospect from feeling stalked. And, a follow-up could also be an email with a link to related content - doesn't have to be a phone call. This is when knowing the prospect's stage in the buying cycle can be helpful. For example, you could set up auto responders for prospects with scores below #X who access specific content and set up an alert that notifies you to call them if their score is closer to sales qualification.

Q: What are your thoughts re using "networks" like Linkedin to promote content and generate leads?

A: LinkedIn can be a great network for generating leads. It's all in how you do so. Be respectful of the groups you belong to. Post links to your content in the News section. Make sure the information you share is relevant to the group. Don't do blanket posts across your groups. Many people belong to multiple groups on related subjects and it's irritating to see the exact same thing posted everywhere. The message that sends is similar to spamming people.

The other thing about networks like LinkedIn is that you need to participate as well as post your stuff. Be generous, gracious and respectful. 

Q: How do you recommend adjusting your prospect scoring algorithms based on environmental circumstances? (i.e. economy... a lot more "tire kickers" out there these days may show responsiveness, but are a long way away from buying)

A: This is a great question! My recommendation for this is that you adjust based on feedback from sales. If, in the past, marketing-qualified leads were in the right place for sales to step in, but now your salespeople are returning them to the nurturing program because their buying timeline is too far into the future, then you need to increase the score.

Lead scoring is not perfect and, as you say, environmental circumstances can impact the buying process. This is why we need to continuously monitor and update our processes. A couple of suggestions are:

• Audit some recently acquired customer profile histories to determine what behaviors they exhibited at the end stages of their buying process. Check your scoring to ensure that these "conversion" events are indeed factoring in properly.


• Solicit feedback from sales about triggering events and specific circumstances that precipitated a customer's choice to buy. Is there a content opportunity gap you can address that will shift your scoring toward better accuracy?


• Revisit the qualified lead criteria that you've agreed to with your sales team to see if adjustments are necessary and then update your scoring to match.

Q: Several people asked what the acronym WIIFM, on one of my slides, means. My apologies, I must have forgotten to clarify.

A: WIIFM = What's In It For Me? And it's definitely a WIIFM World from your prospects' perspective.

Q: What factors do you use to determine if lead nurturing is the best tool? Is price the primary factor?

A: If your sale is transactional, then lead nurturing may not be the best tool. If your sale is more complex and takes consideration and education, then nurturing will work for you. Take a look at the problems your products and solutions solve. How much education is needed for your prospects to choose to buy? How long is your sales cycle? What will it take to get your prospects to consider your company as the expert they want to partner with to solve their problem?

See more questions answered over on the Marketing Genius Blog

There are a lot more questions and I'm sure Brian, Craig and the discussions over on Focus.com will also tackle them. If you have a specific question for me that I haven't addressed, ask it in the comments and I'll be sure to respond.

You can also listen to the on demand webcast replay.

Thanks again to all of you for attending and participating! You made the experience memorable.

Whose Reputation is Your Marketing Content Building?

B2B marketing departments are often pressed for resources. The increasing demand for content to drive eMarketing programs can create a "hamster on the wheel" type of pressure that's overwhelming when added to already filled plates of marketing responsibilities.

So marketers commission 3rd party content to fill the gap. They also count on the fact that the reputation of the 3rd party they hire will help them gain awareness, generate more leads and facilitate the desired buying behavior. 

But companies are selling themselves short. They're not becoming known as experts in their field, but as a resource people can count on for access to information they want by exchanging contact information instead of shelling out the big bucks these 3rd parties charge for their work.

The perception of the value of the report or white paper is higher than the cost of having to endure the likely sales call that will result. And usually it is.

However, what I find worrisome is the perception cost to the companies who rely on them for the bulk of the information they employ in their nurturing, newsletter and lead generation programs.

One of my clients has recently undertaken the creation and execution of a thought leadership nurturing program. Unfortunately they aren't perceived by their prospects as thought leaders. But they are noted for supplying relevant and useful 3rd party expertise.

The nurturing program isn't yet hitting the same engagement levels as the eNewsletter program that uses 3rd party content.

Why not? Because the company doesn't have any credibility for the provision of this type of content. Instead, their marketing programs have built credibility and trust for those experts they're paying to promote.

The problem is that they've only committed to a proof-of-concept program for one quarter. Three months isn't enough time to change market perception. It's a start. Progress is being made. But if they cease the program at the end of three months, they'll lose the traction they're building.

Becoming a thought leader is harder than it looks. It takes time, patience and perseverance. 

This doesn't mean they can't continue to use 3rd party expertise. What it does mean is that the combination of the two is a better approach. This way the company can keep providing what their database expects as they begin to set new expectations. As they build credibility for their own content, they can reduce their reliance on the 3rd party content.

In this world of online word of mouth, peer referrals and conversational exchanges, companies need to recognize the benefits of becoming relied-upon experts in their field. So the next time you plan your editorial calendar, pay attention to whose reputation you're building and make sure it's heavily weighted to your side. It may take some time, but it's an investment well worth making...and sticking with over the long term.

Prospects who only interact with you to get other people's expertise are not going to buy from you without a great deal of coaxing. Marketing programs are intended to help put salespeople into conversations with those who have demonstrated an interest in actually buying what your company sells.

Company authored, thought leadership content can play a critical role in shortening sales cycles by building your credibility, showcasing value delivery and helping your prospects see a clear path to success with your help.

So, why would you want to give those benefits to someone else?

Marketing Content Should Educate Both of You

There's a lot of talk about how we need to focus on our buyers' issues and provide them educational insights to help them learn what they need to know to make buying decisions. Heck, I say it in my book...in several places, I think. I've said it on this blog, and I'll continue to say it.

But perhaps, what I haven't said here is that marketing content should also educate marketers.

Yep, you heard me.

That's one of the key payoffs you can get with a content strategy. This is why I advocate for using articles for content marketing in many cases. But I digress. Here's an example of what I mean.

Let's say you want to know which problem your prospect is working to solve. Think of this as the equivalent of a form with check boxes for "I'm interested in solving this issue - with check boxes for issues A, B or C.

Instead of the form, let's say you create a general article about the problem and then link to 3 tightly focused articles about issues A, B and C. Who is clicking to read which article?

What can you learn from that? If all your leads are reading about issue C and your nurturing program is focused more on A or B, you can shift quickly to capitalize on prospect interest. Not to mention shifting your content development plan to match up more closely.

Now, let's say that on the sidebar of the page for the article for issue A you have a registration form for a webinar about that issue. Whether or not they sign up will tell you just how interested they are. If they're willing to dedicate an hour of their time to actually attend, instead of just sign up, you've just learned something else about that prospect. 

Are they in the right nurturing track based on the content they're reading?

This is where lead scoring can really help you evaluate lead interest if you create scores based on topic-related behavior. In order for this to work, you have to present your content strategically to entice leads to increase their depth of focused exploration and learning. That's how you increase your learning, as well.

Creating a content plan is not just about creating content that maps to stages across the buying process, it's about planning your content to educate you so you can increase your relevance, hence their engagement with you throughout their buying journey.

So the next time you create content, think about what both of you can learn from it. You'd be surprised what kind of insights you can glean. Think not just about one content piece, but how you can weave content together to compound your learning, and theirs.

It's kind of like dynamic puzzle pieces. Sometimes you have to shift them around to see the full picture.

eBook: The Art of Social Sales

The Customer Collective has released a new eBook with contributions from some truly insightful sales leaders to help us understand just what "social selling" means in today's marketplace.

Although we all know that our buyers have changed, business is moving so swiftly these days that its hard to know just how we need to adapt to keep pace...and keep selling. This eBook shares some great perspectives on what's required...and what's working.

As a preview, I decided to pick some of my favorite insights from a few of the featured experts - but this is just a taste. You really should go download the eBook. It's good stuff!

Paul Greenberg, President of The 56 Group and author of CRM at the Speed of Light has been one of my favorite people to follow for a long time. His turns of phrase often spark light bulb moments for me.

"...it’s no longer good enough for a sales person to have a great relationship with an individual. The customer or prospect is expecting the entire company to be a 'person like me.'"

"And this must be the case throughout not just the transactions, but all interactions, regardless of whether it’s an in-person visit, a website visit, an email marketing campaign, or a mobile text message. Doesn’t matter. The “company like me” is what makes or breaks the successful sale."

Anneke Seley, CEO of PhoneWorks and author of Sales 2.0, is someone I've gotten to know personally this year. She's doing some revealing work into how the execution of selling is shifting to address our buyers' growing social appetites. She showcases two case studies in her article. Take a look at one outcome:

Dan, the Regional Director of Sales at a sales productivity technology company "claims 80% of his qualified leads now come from referrals, social networking and social media, which he considers technologies that enable communication with his personal referral network." 

Jay Dunn, VP of Marketing for Lane Bryant, discusses how to build market value through social networks. He offers up an interesting take on how to apply value to the followers of your followers. He calls this Dunn's Equation:

"Annual Value X Network = Network Value"

The example he uses is if there's an annual purchase value [$50] and your customer has 5 followers that share similar interests in your products, then the network value is $300. It's an interesting premise and one I'm mulling around for B2B demand generation - maybe related to cost per qualified lead. Hmm.

Jouko Ahvenainen, a co-founder of Xtract, the world first social network analytics company, and Grow VC, the first global peer-to-peer micro-funding service for startups. Among other things, he talks about Social Intelligence and targeting Alpha users.

Social Intelligence: better understanding consumer preferences and peer-to-peer networks and influence so companies can help people find offers that are relevant to them.

Alpha Users: the most influential customers within a social network - the ones who can spread the word and market/sell for you.

The articles written by these experts (and others) go into a lot more detail about successful sales strategies in today's social world. Go download the eBook: The Art of Social Sales, today. [registration is required - but worth it]