Marketing Interactions

The Customer-Focused Content Difference

One of the most difficult challenges for marketers is to shift their messaging from company-focused to customer-focused. The fact that prospects have taken control of the buying process should be common knowledge, yet I come across a lot of marketers who are still trying to control things. The disconnect is that these marketers think they can do what they've always done, shift a few words around and, voila, they're customer focused.

I hate to disappoint here, but that's simply not the way it works.

In all fairness, the reason this happens is because we've developed company-focused messaging habits. It's hard to change from what we're used to because we're no longer objective. Marketers may also not realize just how much has to change to achieve customer focus.

One thing that may help is to look at a brief example to show the difference:

Company focused:

With the WhizBang 5XL, you have the most sought after tools that enable you to increase A, streamline, B and accelerate C.

Why it's not customer focused:

• The subject of the sentence is the product - mentioned a second time as the tools.
• "sought after" is the company patting itself on the back.
• The three achievements the customer will get are a secondary focus that loses impact due to the point above.
• Inserting "you" into a company-focused sentence does not shift the focus to the customer.

Customer focused:

Constrained budgets make it increasingly difficult for CIOs to increase A, streamline B and accelerate C—but it doesn't have to be that way.

Why it's customer focused:

• The subject is a problem the target audience is dealing with.
• The audience is identified, providing immediate orientation and relevance for the reader.
• The achievements from example 1 are now stated as goals pertinent to the target audience.
• The phrase at the end implies that the next sentences will tell the CIO why it doesn't have to be difficult and how to achieve his 3 goals.

In the customer-focused example, there's no reference to the company, products nor any back patting. There's nothing for the reader to object to. Unless they think, "yeah, right" about the last phrase. But controversy can be a good thing because you've likely inspired their curiosity to find out if their assumption is correct—so they'll read on trying to prove they're right. Hopefully, you'll convince them otherwise, or at least get them thinking about some of the ideas you've shared.

Another reason that it's difficult for marketers to make the switch to customer-focused content is due to this idea of "always be selling." When your mindset is "selling" it becomes very difficult to get away from your products. But you need to. Content marketing for a B2B complex sale is not about selling products, but rather ideas based on expertise.

The ideas will eventually follow the path to the products, but at the pace the buyer dictates, not yours. Especially if your content is designed to be useful to your prospects and customers for their stage in the buying process.

Manticore Technology VII Enhancements Boost Marketing Performance Management

Manticore Technology is rolling out over 40 enhancements and features to their marketing automation platform to improve usability, accelerate lead flow and more closely align marketing with sales. What this means is that they’re simplifying the process while expanding the capabilities. Marketers can now accomplish more while increasing precision at the same time.

I recently had the opportunity to see a demonstration of the new capabilities and liked what I saw. The interface is intuitive and the capabilities are need-to-have, not nice-to-have, for marketers who are truly embracing lead management process execution and diligently pursuing alignment with sales.

Let’s look at what a few of these enhancements mean for B2B marketers:

Marketers, as business users, need technology that simplifies complex process execution. With longer term buying cycles, the ability to track and measure prospect behavior over months—sometimes longer—improves their ability to help transition early-stage buyers into late-stage sales opportunities.

In case you need further motivation to consider implementing marketing automation to improve your lead management results, the 2010 Lead Generation Optimization report from CSO Insights may nudge you in the right direction. Their research found:

• Over 49% of marketers report that 25% or less of the deals closed resulted from marketing-generated leads.


• 49% of marketers said that sales would say the quality of their leads needs improvement.


• 60% of them said that sales would say the quantity of leads generated needs improvement.


• More than 54% of marketers say that less than 50% of leads result in a first call.


• Over 65% of marketers say lead scoring is informal or nonexistent.

When you consider that 50.6% of marketers also indicate that their ability to execute a web-based marketing program needs improvement, it’s time to take a serious look at the tools your company is using to facilitate the execution of marketing strategies. Manticore Technology has listened to what their customers need to continuously improve their marketing performance—and they’re working hard to deliver on their promise to provide simply powerful marketing automation.

Go check out Manticore Technology VII for yourself!

[disclosure: Manticore Technology is a client]

The Fallacy of No Competition

We all want to think our products and solutions are unique, differentiated and give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace. After all, we're passionate about what we do. We wouldn't be in business if we weren't. But competition often has the characteristics of a chameleon.

I find that businesses often underestimate who/what they're competing against. They think that just because no other company does what they do in the exact way that they do it, that their competition is minimal.

This perspective has its drawbacks.

Let's say a company designs what they think is a product with a unique approach to solving a problem they see in the marketplace. They look around at other companies that have identified themselves as serving their target market and say - "We're unique and different. We have no competition."

Their content marketing and messaging is built upon that platform of "the one and only."

Taking the stance of "the one and only" has it's own drawbacks. It raises the question of why you're the only one doing it that way if it's the best way? The risk meter swings to red and people back away, not wanting to pioneer uncharted territory.

Aside from that, the reality is that people solve problems in a variety of ways. Unless they think exactly as you do and have your level of passion, they may not have any interest in approaching the problem in the way you've chosen.

It's not enough to look at the offerings being put forth in the marketplace. We need to find out how companies are actually solving the problem, or the workarounds they're putting in place to avoid having to solve it. We also need to look at why they would choose not to solve it at all.

• Is the pain excruciating enough?


• Have they exhausted all other options?


• Is the perceived complexity of the solution too daunting for them to tackle?


• Is the problem noticeably limiting business growth?


• Are there other resources they can throw at it to reduce impact?


• Are they blaming something else for the cause of the problem than what you address?


• Does their organizational culture make them resistant to your solution?


• Will solving this problem open a Pandora's box of other problems that could be worse than what they're dealing with today?


• How long will your solution last before they have to deal with this issue again?

Keep in mind that the answers to these questions can be different for each stakeholder involved with the problem. In fact, stakeholders can also be your competition.

What companies fail to acknowledge is that competition comes in many forms. Your competition also shifts along with the business environment. When you do your competitive analysis, expand your thinking beyond the traditional SWOT charts (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats) to include sources in addition to products similar to yours.

What you learn could truly point the way to messaging that resonates because it gets to the heart of the matter from the buyers' perspective.

And yes, once again we've circled back to our buyers and customers. Funny how that works, isn't it?

How to Get UnLinked on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool for B2B professionals to meet colleagues they'd never otherwise have access to, network with those they don't see very often and engage in conversations on topics of interest. It's also one heck of a community for getting to know your prospects and customers.

LinkedIn can also expose a lack of integrity and authenticity in a heartbeat.

Here's an example of how that can happen:

Yesterday, I received an email from a colleague telling me about a woman he'd met on LinkedIn who was asking for advice on finding a job with a marketing automation vendor. Since that's not his specialty, he suggested that she contact me. She thanked him for the referral to me. I know this because my colleague forwarded me the email trail of their discussion along with his note.

An hour or so later, I received an invitation to connect on LinkedIn from the woman which I accepted.

Next, I received the exact same email that she had sent to my colleague:

Date: 7/22/2010
Subject: Thank you!
Thank you so much for connecting with me virtually! I just wanted to introduce myself and see if I may be able to help you in anyway and initiate connecting further.

If I may, I am writing to you because my current employer which is a small marketing automation provider, lost its funding. As a result, I am initiating an aggressive job search campaign. I am a well-qualified sales/business development executive with a 15+ track record of surpassing sale quotas.

If you have any questions about my background or would just like to see how we may be able to help one another, please email me or dial...

No salutation. Nothing personalized. Word-for-word the same exact message as if the exchange between her and my colleague never happened. If you get this message, just click delete. I have a feeling it's being sent to more people than the two of us.

What a turn off!

Will I help this person? NO.

Am I even interested in being connected to her? NOPE.

Do I feel slimed? YEP.

The point of this rant is that building a network takes time, care and respect. LinkedIn is tied to your professional reputation, your integrity. Trust me, if this woman's name ever comes up in conversation my response won't be favorable.

You never know who people know or the side conversations that can happen beyond your visibility. It's a small world out there - getting smaller by the day. If you don't have respect for others or for yourself, it will become obvious faster than you think.

The sad part is that she could have started a relationship. She could have met some people who could introduce her to others who could help her find a new position. She could have made the experience valuable for others and for herself. But she didn't. 

She has just been "unlinked" - removed from my connections.

Is Sales Stepping on Your Marketing Dialogue?

I was on the phone with a B2B software marketer discussing the difficulty of keeping sales from trying to "sell" to any lead they could get their hands on—regardless of their degree of sales readiness. While I appreciate the sales team's enthusiasm, restraint can be a good thing.

There are many online behaviors that do NOT translate into "Sell to me now."

Such as, the prospect:

• Downloaded a white paper.
• Registered for a webinar.
• Passively visited your website.
• Read this month's nurturing content offer.
• Mentioned your company name via social media. (unless they said, "Call me.")
• etc.

In fact, if your sales team follows-up on any of these behaviors with the usual call that consists of "tell me about your company so that I can figure out how to sell you my stuff," chances are that any progress that might have been made is being reversed. Quickly.

Just as marketers are working to map content to the stages of the buying process, salespeople must match those efforts by mapping conversations to those stages. The two functions—working hand in glove—can transform your pipeline momentum by increasing engagement, rather than diminishing it.

For example, if a prospect has downloaded a white paper, it's not effective to have a salesperson call them without a valid business reason that builds from the marketing dialogue the prospect engaged in. If the prospect is in the early stages, perhaps personally inviting them to a webinar on the same topic is appropriate. If they're later in the buying cycle, perhaps it's sharing how a customer similar to them solved the same problem with your company's help. 

This doesn't mean that a few qualifying or discovery questions can't be included in the conversation. After all, the call must create forward motion for both sides. What it does mean is that the focus of the call has to be about being helpful, not on inking the deal.

The point is that we can no longer create sustainable momentum across the longer-term buying process if marketing and sales are working from different storylines and perspectives. In order to create consistency in message flow for buyers, both departments must be using approaches that work in tandem. This will not happen without planning, coordination and collaboration to determine just what buyers need, based on where they are in the process.

For some reason, we treat marketing and sales like they're two separate initiatives. In reality, they're two parts of one process.

I look forward to the day when I download a white paper and receive a follow-up call or email that's actually relevant and useful...

Get SNAP Selling and Stay Out of the Dreaded "D" Zone

My excellent friend, Jill Konrath, has done it again! Her new book, SNAP Selling, has launched to much well-deserved acclaim. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you to go get a copy -  Do it right now.

Whether you're in sales or in marketing, one of the things most of us struggle with is getting to  know our buyers well enough to engage them effectively and get them to buy.

Jill pulls back the curtain on the buyers' world to expose why what we've been doing is no longer good enough to get the job done. To reverse this trend, Jill shares fresh sales strategies—including the 4 SNAP Rules—and shows you just how to apply them to drive sales.

SNAP stands for:

Keep it Simple
Be iNvaluable
Always Align
Raise Priorities

One of my favorite things in Jill's book is her Buyers' Matrix. It's a take on the buyer persona that will help salespeople (and marketers) get to know prospects at the level necessary to apply the SNAP rules effectively. Prospects are busier than ever, protective of their time and taking control over just when they'll engage. This means that marketers and salespeople need to approach the buying process from a new perspective. 

In a business environment driven by online dialogue that must flow into offline conversations, the lessons and examples in this book provide real-world applications that will serve to create consistently valuable interactions between companies and customers. Gaining a clear understanding of your prospects is truly the foundation for exceptional selling and marketing in action. But Jill doesn't stop there. She shows you just what to do with that knowledge to create a dramatic difference in sales results.

Oh, yeah. And that dreaded D-Zone? That's when your prospects delete your messages, derail your sale, delay their decisions, and dismiss you. In the D-zone, you're as good as dead to them. Not a great place to be.

Yet another great reason to go buy the book!

Jill shares more fresh sales insights in an interview with Christopher Doran about closing the gap between marketing and sales over on the Funnel Focus blog.

In case you're still not sure - go read Jill's article, Are Your Prospects Suffering from Frazzled Customer Syndrome?

Lose the B2B Website Laundry Lists!

B2B websites still flounder in trying to connect with prospects. There are many issues that we can shine a light on, but for today, let's talk about those dreaded laundry lists. You know what I mean. Those endless, scrolling lists of links to stuff that make your website visitors' eyes glaze over.

Even worse, is when those lists have no context. They may have headers separating the lists of links, such as white papers, articles, Webinar archives, solution briefs, etc. The norm is listing the titles to web pages and collateral and making them hyperlinks. 

The problem is that it's hard to discern why to click or what's at the end of the click. This creates uncertainty and friction. Without context, your website visitor sits there thinking:

"Should I chance it?"  

"Can I get back if I click?"

"Will it be what I think it might be?"

"Will I be wasting my time?"

Faced with all of those internal thoughts, it's often easier to click the back button and move on.

We've all been confronted by the wall of text. Faced with the daunting task of trying to read that dense copy, we abandon ship. The effort just isn't worth it. Well, the same is true with link lists.

Link lists are simply overwhelming to busy prospects.

B2B Marketers are taking the easy way out when they toss collateral up on pages as lists of links. Even with descriptions accompanying them, often these lists are all over the board in terms of addressing the buying stage.

How link lists miss connecting with website visitors:

• Early, mid and late-stage content are all jumbled together.


• No promising pathways are created to lead your prospects to the content they need. (Remember that prospects may not know what they need until you show them.)


• There's no promise or expectation set for why they should click.


• Too many choices create confusion, making it easier to just say no and leave in search of context that matches their needs.

There are a few reasons that this link madness happens:

• Websites with inflexible designs where templates dictate display based on siloed designs. For example, solutions in one area, customer stories in one area and resources in yet another - all disconnected from each other.


• Lack of content strategy based on the buying process that puts the focus on filling the slots in the web page templates, not on telling a story designed to help buyers take next steps.


• Not considering how website visitors arrive on the site via search and what else they may need when they get to that destination.

I'm not saying a website cannot have link lists. What I am saying is that we need to make them useful. Most of them are not.

Go look at the link lists on your company's website and ask these questions:

• How can you improve the user experience?
• Can you arrange them in a way that builds a story?
• Are your descriptions clear and compelling? Do you even have descriptions?
• Do you deliver what you promise when they click?
• Is everything gated?
• Where else is the content used, or where could it be used to create a more satisfying experience?
• How old is the collateral? Have you just kept on adding links without regard to freshness? What do you think your prospects think when they download a white paper from 2007—or older?

Do You Plan For The Content Experience?

As the business environment becomes more interactive and "social," content must follow step and become more experiential. I was working on a project over the weekend and thinking about the entire experience we were building for prospects with content.

Content is not just about an email send, or a blog post, or a white paper, or a Tweet. Content marketing is not just about getting people to read (likely scan) one piece. What's important is what happens next.

What kind of ripple did your content cause for them? Did you introduce new ideas compelling enough for them to play with?

Which idea do you think stuck with them? Or did they go away with nothing memorable? What will all the ideas shared by your content build up to over time?

What do they do after they read your content? Do they share it with their peers, or on their social networks? Do they do whatever it is you asked them to do? (you have a call to action, right?)

Do you think they're anticipating their next interaction with your company? What can you do to ensure that they do?

How do you think their impression of your company changed after they interacted with your content? How did you want it to?

When I talk about the content experience, I'm talking about the comprehensive experience over the long-term complex buying process. Do you think about that big picture view or are you still focused on one touch at a time?

Are you developing a relationship or simply trying to stay top of mind? (being helpful vs. checking in to see if they're ready to buy)

To plan for the content experience, we have to do more than plan for 12 touches across a 9 month buying cycle. We have to build a story. The story has to be so compelling that your prospects decide to become part of it by choosing to do business with your company because they want to experience the reality of it for themselves. 

And, the story has to be available beyond your email sends. Your story has to be sharable. It needs pathways and intersections at various distribution points and to provide discoveries that delight, educate and involve.

Just a few thoughts on a Sunday afternoon. 

Define Progressive Triggers for Content Marketing Programs

One of the questions I get asked often is how to define and respond to triggers within content marketing programs for B2B complex sales. I wish there was a simple answer to this question because it feels like I'm copping out if I say, "Well, it depends..."

Unfortunately, it does. What works as a trigger for other companies' buyers may not work for your buyers. What works for one type of buyer may not work for another. Plus, there are a variety of different types of triggers, so which ones are you talking about?

Sales-ready indicators. Yes, I know. But back up for a minute. Triggers are about much more than that last click before the sales hand off.

Triggers are behavioral indications of a shift in prospect interest. They result from the ways in which prospects respond to and interact with your content marketing programs. The challenge for marketers is to define triggers that are consistently indicative of  specific shifts, not one-off behaviors that produce differing results.

Consider these 4 types of triggers:

Buying Stage Transition: This occurs when a prospect who's only viewing early stage educational content makes the shift to view best practices content, for example. This is an indication that the prospect has decided solving the problem is becoming more urgent. Otherwise they wouldn't take the time to move from "why should I solve it?" to "how do I solve it?" This is why it's important to map your content to the buying process to help you understand when a prospect's level of interest shifts enough to move them to the next stage in buying.

Attention Jump: If the average time a prospect spends with your content is 2 minutes and suddenly this becomes 4 minutes, this is a trigger that their interest has grown. Either that or your content suddenly became riveting. Either way, it's a good indication that you should take notice of their growth in attention as well as what may have caused it. It's also important to monitor to see if this trigger holds true or if it really was just related to that one content asset.

An additional attention jump would be if the prospect then chose to spend an hour with your company by registering for and attending a webinar.

Another scenario may be if they used to click on the link in your email, view that content, then leave - but now they stay to read other related content. [Hint: "related content" is the key phrase] And also why you need to build content pathways that enable them to easily choose to spend more time with your content. Every moment a prospect spends with your content means they're not engaging with a competitor's ideas.

Pro-active Visits: This is when a prospect who only visited your website in the past when you prompted them via email starts to visit on their own in search of more information on a particular topic.

Dialogue Initiation: This trigger is about the prospect making the effort to do something other than read. This can be leaving a comment on a blog post, asking a question on Twitter, replying to an email you sent to them, submitting an inquiry on your website or even picking up the phone. A dialogue initiation can also be the completion of an opt-in form giving you permission to stay in communication with them.

Defining triggers is essentially about discerning patterns of behavior that—strung together—lead to achieving the preferred end result. In this case, sales readiness.

But, beyond defining them, the key to being able to string the triggers together to get to sales readiness involves determining the type of response each trigger requires to keep up the progression.

It helps if you think about triggers as your prospects' self-determined calls to action. They are the only ones who can decide to pull the lever. Of course it follows that the better you know your prospects, the more you can influence them by giving them what they need, when they need it.

Now, before you get all wrapped around the axle on this, defining progressive triggers is a trial and error process. It takes time to identify patterns. Focusing only on the last click before conversion is not the answer. That's because unless you can figure out what gets them to that last click, you have no way to consistently put what they need in front of them to speed their time to that last click.

The Contagious Content Challenge

Over the weekend, I received an email from a reader of my book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, sharing his success with contagious content. With his permission (he requested anonymity) I'd like to share with you what he discovered.

I read your book and am beginning to implement your strategies.  We are a startup software company in silicon valley.  For the last 6 months we have issued press releases and product information -- all company directed.

When we issued these materials we would post on LinkedIn updates and to discussions in relevant groups.  We would send the info to a few key bloggers.  And, we would also email to our internal mailing list a blast with the info.  Typically - these standalone blasts would generate about 60 hits on our website.  And, that was it.

I read your book.  Built a blog to have a publishing platform.  And, created some contagious content.  Regarding distribution - I did everything exactly as I did before as a test to see if we got a different reaction.

First time out -- we got incredible results.  In the first 4 days of the release the story got read over 310 times -- 5x times the rate of the company concentric material.

And, then the interesting part.  Two firms we have been selling to for over 4 months and it has gotten down to checking in every 3-4 weeks for a status to see if they are ready to go forward [no action] .... called us within two days of getting the information.  We closed one deal and the second one is checking references.

Thank you for the book.  We are aggressively building out more content to create a lead nurturing campaign next.    You have changed our company!

As an author and content marketer, I'll remember this email forever. But, the one thing I'd like to say is that the reader gave me way too much credit.

I didn't change his company, he did. He took the ideas and put them into practice. I'm so darned happy about his results, it makes me smile every time I think about them! And I'm especially grateful that he chose to share the story with me.

The one thing I'd like to point out is that the reader had a pretty good process established. He was already publishing his content where his prospects would find it. By only changing the content—not the process—he gained tangible proof that content focused on his prospects is what made the difference.

Are you up to the challenge?