Marketing Interactions

Is Your B2B Lead Database Like Your Attic?

Today, I received an email from LinkedIn informing me that 86 of my contacts have started something new (read changed jobs or titles). That's about 17% of my total contacts - and that's ocurred since the first of the year, in less than 7 months.

How long have your leads been in your database? What percentage of them do you think have changed jobs, invalidating the information you have on file?

DemandGen Report conducted a survey in October of 2010 and, "found that more than 62% of organizations rely on marketing/prospect data that is 20 to 40% incomplete or inaccurate." Their CRM records are also pretty messy as respondents estimate that between 10% and 40% of the information is not worth the form it was entered from.

Just this year, I helped a client develop and launch nurturing campaigns only to discover that approximately 45% of the emails in their database were undeliverable because the list had sat dormant for nearly 2 years.

According to Sirius Decisions, lead databases double every 12 to 18 months. This means there's a lot of opportunity for bad data to buiild up like the clutter in your attic.

It's bad enough that such high levels of dirty data exist, but what's really concerning is what the DemandGen Report survey found when they asked about how B2B companies planned to declutter their databases:

• 30% have no strategy
• 34% "ask" their sales team to update records
• 15% append to complete or update records each quarter

The no-strategy folks need to wake up to the smell of a musty attic. Especially if they don't even bother to eliminate the bad records altogether.

The more than a third who ask salespeople to update the record during their interactions with the contact need to stop and think. If buyers spend 70% of their time with marketing, how many will ever make it to a sales conversation that allows their record to be updated? A long-term buying cycle for a complex sales leaves plenty of time for change to occur before sales ever steps into the picture.

Appending the records is at least a worthy try, but I also wonder how great appending services are at keeping up with the speed of data change?

Data hygiene is becoming a necessity that we can no longer ignore by closing the attic door and hoping it will happen miraculously on its own. Marketers spend a lot of time, money and resources generating leads. We need a better plan for keeping those records intact with valid information.

Marketing automation with progressive profiling in play may be one way to more efficiently address this issue. Inside sales teleprospecting as an integrated component of lead nurturing programs may also be a great choice.

But beyond dirty data, marketers should also consider the implications of how fast roles can change. For marketers who segment their databases and/or use personas to create marketing programs, you cannot leave those tools sitting in the attic along with your database.

Can you answer the following questions in relation to the changes that may be happening in your database?

• If one contact leaves, is the job filled by someone new or did that job get merged with another? (If the latter, this is a new persona and a new market segment if it happens often enough)
• If the change is due to layoffs, how might that impact the target market's interest in acquiring what we sell? (Do they need you more or less?)

In other words, are the people you thought were your prospects, still your prospects? Or are they now someone you really don't know? And have the reasons why they need what you sell changed?

The attic is only good for things past their prime. This should not include your leads.

Treat Your Content with More Respect

This morning I attended a webinar by IDC and IDG Connect, 2012 Sales Enablement Strategy: Content is King so Why Does Sales Feel Like a Jester?. Yep, it was the subtitle that got me!

To set the stage, we need to understand what buyers are doing while they're buying. Many of you have probably heard the rumor that salespeople are being limited in their participation during the buying experience. According to this data from IDG Connect, it's true.

Take a look at how buyers say they spend their time during their buying process:

• 23% in discussions with colleagues
• 21% with sales team interaction
• 19% searching the web
• 19% with educational content
• 18% reviewing promotional content

Have you noticed where they spend the most time? Time spent with content or searching for it comprises 56% of the buying experience.

Unfortunately, when IDG asked buyers what was lacking with the content that salespeople provided to them, their responses reflect that not a lot of respect is being paid to content by those who produce it.

Buyers top complaints abuot content include:

• 33% say there's too much content that's not useful
• 29% say content is not relevant
• 24% say content does not meet the needs of all the people involved in the decision
• 23% say there's not enough educational content

Other observations included content that was too long, too much text and not enough video or audio, and their inability to easily share content with others. In the age of social media, that's hard to believe.

The kicker is that only 7% of buyers said that nothing was lacking in the content sales provided to them.

There are some critical points to consider in regard to these responses. According to IDG, the number of influencers in a purchase decision have increased by 20%. When they are brought into the deal, then come with their own questions and concerns. This halts forward momentum and they turn around and go back to find answers. (I refer to this as the step back stage of the buying process)

IDG Connect also shared that buyers say 7 pages is plenty for a vendor white paper, but that most white papers they review are still running 20 or so pages. Buyers say these take too much time and effort to read. This is not new information. Eccolo Media's B2B Technology Collateral Survey has been reporting this trend for the last few years. Apparently we're not paying attention.

Short is the new black and variety of content formats is growing in importance.

But the fact that 62% of buyers say that content is either not relevant or is not useful should be a huge wakeup call for marketers. This is - yet again - validation for using personas as the foundation for content strategies and development. We've got to know our buyers (all of them) if we're going to create content that engages them.

Buyers aren't the only one finding that content needs to be treated with more respect.

Salespeople say that only about 1/3 of the content that's available to them is useful in the pursuit of sales opportunities. But, wait, there's more at issue here that needs to be rectified.

When asked why they found shortcomings with available content, their responses included:

• 41% say they don't know what to use, how to use it effectively or when to use it.
• 30% said that it required customization before they could use it.

Additional comments included that it was in the wrong formats, hard to find or outdated.

This is akin to more "tossing stuff over the wall" from marketing to sales.

Here's the bright side of the research IDG Connect presented:

68% of buyers say their sales reps have become more important to them as a source of insight and guidance over the last three years in relation to other sources.

Buyers may be spending less time with them, but they're counting on them to filter through the clutter and noise they'd otherwise have to sift through on their own.

Marketers and sales support staff need to work more closely together and spend more time helping salespeople understand how to use content more effectively and when during the buying experience specific content is most beneficial.

Make sure to ask salespeople what types of content they use and how they use it. If that differs from buyer preferences, show them the proof and teach them how to use other forms of content to improve their effectiveness. Map content for sales and set them up to have the right conversations.

Apparently there's still a lot of work to be done. Just because marketing creates content and deploys it in marketing campaigns does not mean they're done. Tossing content to salespeople without context or as an afterthought is costing your company customers.

The real kicker - the majority of buyers that IDC surveyed said they want shorter buying cycles. But the lack of relevant information to educate them, and all other influencers, is slowing things down.

Think about it...

 

Related articles

• Sales Conversations Must Improve Buyer Experiences (marketinginteractions.typepad.com)

Content Marketing is a Practice

I read an article yesterday that stated a few things I'd like to counter about content marketing. I disagree with the premise of the article, most specifically these statements and assertions:

"One sign that content marketing may be failing is if you first need to market your content."

This statement is the equivalent of saying, if I publish it, readers will automatically find it. If this is true, then what are marketers doing on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities? Sharing content via social communities is synonomous with marketing that content. The same can be said for sending email to prospects with content offers, and inviting them to webinars. I'd also argue that offering RSS feeds is a form of marketing your content. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

"Where content marketing fails as a marketing model is that content is only one factor in demand generation. Other factors among many include measurement, distribution (reach), industry authority and strategy. If a piece of content is not working, it can’t tell you why. That’s because content marketing is not really marketing, but rather a “philosophy,” as Wikipedia describes it — i.e., 'an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases.'"

I completely disagree with this assertion.

Content marketing goes way beyond just content, as this author suggests. Content marketing is definitely marketing. It is a practice and methodology that incorporates:

Strategy: what objectives your content must accomplish and how it will do so.

Distribution: where it will be shared, how it will be shared and with whom, at what frequency.

Measurement: based on defined goals, measurements are assigned and monitored to validate both strategy and distribution choices and pull factors such as industry credibility/authority, referrals and earned media. Additionally, the means of measurement and testing for optimization can indeed serve to tell you why the content is working - or not working.

Personalization: doing the research to develop personas and segment audiences to ensure the most relevant content is developed for, and shared, with the people most interested.

Content: After all of the above are defined and integrated, content is developed to execute the strategy which can include the objectives of lead generation, lead nurturing, sales engagement and customer retention and loyalty.

Content can be developed in a number of formats and distributed in a myriad of ways to meet the needs of a variety of audiences. To say content marketing is not marketing is a misrepresentation. At least when it's done correctly.

Had the author said Content on its own is not Marketing, I could've gotten behind that. But to demean a practice that has proven value to company objectives in favor of another term that I would argue is dependent upon the very principles of content marketing for success is misleading.

Thanks for reading my rant. It's not my intention to insult the author, as we're all entitled to our opinions, this is simply a statement of my reaction to a few points made in the article.

If you'd like to read the article I'm referring to, it's here.

 

How to Get Buy-in for Marketing Automation

Today, Eloqua released a new guide designed to help marketers gain C-level buy-in for marketing automation. It's brilliant. Not just for helping marketers frame the conversation with the executives at their company, but as an example of how to create a personalized, multi-persona campaign that helps a buying committee gain consensus.

This probably isn't what Joe, Brian and the rest of the folks over at Eloqua will be overjoyed that I chose to write about, but if you're looking for a template for how to create relevant, personalized marketing campaigns, go download this guide!

Here's the setup:

The story is based on the concept of Revenue Performance Management (RPM) - good story. The great thing about the story of RPM is that marketing automation is just one component of the bigger RPM picture (people and process being the other two). But it's also a story that has hooks for the different people (personas) marketers need to get on board to gain budget to purchase the technology.

The guide makes a very clear and compelling case that marketers must focus on what matters to each persona, not the feeds and speeds of the technology. And it shows you what this might look like in a colorful, 9-page guide. I said brilliant, right?

Take a look at what I'm talking about:

The CEO cares about top line growth, profitability, customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the competition. They worry about overall company performance - some of them variables that are confounding because it's hard to lock down the numbers - or what they mean. Emphasize accountability.

The CFO cares about revenue growth, Op-Ex and Cap-Ex, return on investment and risk management. They worry about accuracy in forecasts and taking proactive action, not reacting after the fact. Emphasize the ability to measure things that are important to them, such as pipeline impact and momentum and improved budget spend. Show them how they'll be able to gain visibility to make more informed decisions.

The IT folks generally think marketers have no idea what it takes to do what they ask. They have a ton on their plates besides what your need to execute your latest campaign. Be prepared to show them you understand what you're requesting from them and additional benefits marketing automation will bring to help them reach other objectives they're tasked to address - such as tying together disparate reporting systems and improving data integrity.

You can see how all this comes together in the guide - this is just  a brief swipe. If you need to build a business case for marketing automation, all the better.

But, irrespective of that, if you're challenged to figure out how to improve the relevance of your content and need to address multiple personas on the buying committee for your solution - this is a great example of how to go about constructing a marketing program to do just that.

From a content perspective, think about how each topic of interest to each persona can be addressed as separate content assets, or even combined into a white paper or used to drive a script for a video. If you think about it creatively, you can build a storyboard for each executive - and seed the conversations they'll have with each other when you're not in the room.

And that's just what we all hope to accomplish with our content marketing initiatives - right?

Learn more and Download the Guide Here

Marketing Content on a Mission

Last month, I led a Contagious Content pre-conference workshop at Marketing Profs B2B Forum. The marketers who attended were a great group - serious and focused on tackling best practices for content marketing to make a difference in their organizations.

At the beginning of the session, I asked them to each share what their biggest challenge was with content. Nearly 1/3 of them stated a challenge related to messaging. Some of their responses include:

• Complexity of organization with multiple vertical messages
• Relevance to prospect
• Lack of simple and compelling message
• Translation and distillation of message
• Message is for a secondary, less important market

The marketers were targeting a variety of prospects - pretty much across the map - from engineers to educators to mid-level manufacturing managers and C-level executives. This challenge with messaging appears to be pervasive.

I'd recommend that B2B marketers stop and take a look at the mission assigned to their content as a way to identify how to shape it into something more valuable.

A content marketing mission is the responsibility your content has to achieve the goal you set for it. This mission in B2B is not generally accomplished by a Big Bang, but rather with a series of incremental, progressive steps that help a target segment get from A (status quo) to Z (purchase).

As you prepare for launch, these criteria should help you determine the likelihood that your content will complete its mission:

• The core message is designed for a tightly defined target segment.
• The message applies directly to priority issues identified during persona development.
• The content delivers on the promise of the title and description used to catch attention.
• The hook (reason for engaging) is at the beginning, immediately obvious.
• Your products and the "leader" status of your company are not more prominent than the issue the content discusses.
• The message intent is to answer a question the prospect might have if they were trying to solve a problem you've validated is a top priority.
• The content has a call to action that makes sense to those who engage with it.
• You can read the content out loud without running out of breath during sentences, losing interest or laughing hysterically - this is a key point.
• Others - not involved in the message development - can do the step above.
• The story you're telling with the content helps the audience visualize how they can do/get something important to them.
• The content offers opportunities for sharing it with others - and a reason to do so.
• There are follow-on pieces that build the story you've started.

There are other criteria, but these should get you started. Now, let's circle back to the core messaging. The way to tell if your content has a simple and compelling message is if you can read it and summarize it in one sentence that's a statement of value for your audience.

Step into your audience's shoes, read your content and then see if you can fill out this sentence:

From this content, I learned/realized/understand ______________ which will help me get closer to achieving __________.

It should be that simple.

Notice it's nearly impossible to shove your products into those blanks. That's intentional. The product isn't the value - it's what your prospect can do now that they have it that counts.

This said, marketers often think that "value" must be some big deal - like the answer to the universe. This is not the point. You won't get enough mindshare or attention to answer "universal" questions with a content asset. Instead, think bite-sized insights. Think little flickers of AHA that build to that big deal. Each one that connects with your prospect provides value. Think snowball effect rather than avalanche.

It takes time for people to assimilate ideas related to change. It takes repetition and it takes consistency of storyline exposure that creates momentum.

We all want the sale. The way for B2B marketers to help prospects get there is to design the mission and then assemble the parts that - together - help prospects complete it.

Needless to say - if your content is on a mission that your prospects are not engaged in completing - your efforts will fail.

The mission for content must be designed to match the mission of the prospect. That's the secret.

One persona or target segment.

One problem-to-solution journey.

One mission at a time.

Instinctive and Structural Frameworks for Marketing

One of the biggest changes to B2B marketing is the evolution of skills needed to engage today's buyers of complex products and services. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be strategically integrated to produce results. Everything from technology to myriad content types to storytelling to nurturing to sales transitions and enablement, and more must work together with the lead generation and awareness that comprised the marketing goals of the past.

There are two frameworks for marketing that are often applied separately (or not at all) but should be integrated to deliver on marketing objectives in step with the buying process—Instinctive and Structural Marketing. In their definitions below, you'll see natural points of integration. Using one without the other will not produce the results B2B marketers are tasked to produce.

Structural marketing is all about process.

Structural marketing is the framework marketers apply to the entirety of the buyer experience. From where your prospects are sitting today, to wherever they can get with the value your company adds determine the parameters of your structural marketing framework.

Some of the processes that must be included in structural marketing include:

• Lead definition and persona development for each target market
• Buyer experience maps - including overlays with all channels in your marketing mix
• Lead management - including sales transitions and enablement
• Lead nurturing
• Customer nurturing and lifecycle management
• Metrics and measurement definition

Instinctive marketing is based on relationship building over the long term.

Instinctive marketing applies content strategy to the structural framework to produce the desired results. I define this as "instinctual" because marketers are applying the insights learned via persona development to craft engaging and relevant content strategies designed to build momentum over the long term complex buying process. Instinct is defined as a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency. This is exactly how you want your buyers to respond to your content — as if it's the most relevant information available to them.

Some of the components that must be included in instinctual marketing include:

• Storyboard development based on personas, customers and problem-to-solution scenarios
• Content definition and linkages based on buyer experience maps
• Identification of momentum drivers for lead management
• Editorial calendars
• Content development and governance
• Conversation simulations and social guides
• Sales enablement content and collateral

With all the moving parts B2B marketers are responsible for managing, developing frameworks that help us excel is becoming critical for our success. Dividing the components into structural plus instinctive frameworks helps to align these parts and help them work together - one in support of the others.

What am I missing? What would you add?