 It is an easy content marketing virus to catch. Your new widget is awesome. It is faster than a turbo-charged drone, it takes less space than a bedbug in your suitcase and sleeker than any i-gizmo. You whip up the standard marketing content including:
• Web pages that are optimized for phrases like “Fast Widget”, “Small Widget” and “Sleek Widget” • Data Sheets which detail every technical spec you can find • White Papers that describes how to use your widget • “Case Studies” (which are fictional) because you don’t have a customer ready in the wings to rave about your widget • Video demos of your widget in action • Webcasts of your VP of Sales talking about your widget Next, You push email campaigns at target customers with catchy subject lines like “The Fastest Widget on the Market”. You post about your widget on all the social networks. And then you wait. And wait. You have been the victim of one of the most common content marketing viruses in the business; the “It's all About Me” virus. You forgot that in the customer doesn’t care about widgets. Customers are busy. They aren’t looking for faster, smaller, sleeker widgets. If they were, they would find your website and order widgets galore. Customers are looking to solve problems and if you can help, they will come. It is easy to get overly zealous about creating marketing content all about your widget. You still need your marketing content, but you need to shift your perspective to center on the problems your widget solves for customers. Listen to your customers. Maybe your target customers spend too much time on something your widget can do in a snap. Or maybe they are challenged to by big clunky alternatives to your widget. Your content marketing strategy needs to look more like: • Web pages that are optimized for phrases how to fix a problem (with your widget) • Data Sheets that describe use cases (and a few specs) • White Papers about solving problems (which your widget can do) • Authentic Case Studies featuring beta-customers • Video demos of your how customers get value from widgets more quickly. • Webcasts starring happy customers who are willing to share their success story The bottom line is that your customer doesn’t want to hear about your widgets. Your content marketing strategy needs to focus on the “It’s all about Me” Customer not the “It’s All about Me” Widget.
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“Word of Mouth”, or the recommendation of someone you trust, is likely the one of the single most powerful motivators of behavior. We all know that what our customers say about our company is far more influential than messaging crafted by marketing. Social Media, when you boil it down to it simplest form serves to amplify the impact of Word of Mouth marketing. It does this by serving as a forum to every prospect and customer who cares enough to participate. The power of Social Media to spread the experiences of your customers is stronger than ever.
Generating positive word of mouth is an investment that can build trust with prospects and customers. The single most valuable asset your company can develop is the trust your customers place with you. It is likely more important than the features of your product or service. This trust can support Demand Generation by stimulating recommendations and highly qualified leads. Squander the trust and the risk irreparable harm to your company’s brand as unhappy customers spread their complaints. No amount of marketing budget can overcome the mistreatment of customers. Customer service is an investment in building trust with your customers. Companies such as Zappos and Southwest Airlines demonstrate proactive customer service, where they seek feedback and opportunities to help customers. Zappos doesn’t have discount prices, but it guarantees customer satisfaction. This focus on excellent customer service becomes powerful differentiator and can grow existing customers into your best salespeople. Unfortunately, many companies treat customer service as an expense and outsource it. Call centers where problems that aren’t easy to solve via a scripted conversation are bound for failure. Remember the “United Airlines Breaks Guitars” fiasco? Its cost was estimated to run up to 10% of United Airlines market capitalization. Social Media gives power and a voice to the customer. Smart companies use it to listen, interact, and help customers and prospects. According to a recent study by Fournaise Marketing Group, a stunning 73% of CEOs think marketers lack credibility and are not business growth partners. This is a very sobering statistic for marketers to consider. Additionally, the study reveals that while 69% of marketers think their campaigns make an impact, they cannot prove it.
There is obviously a significant disconnect between marketers and the executive teams they answer to. While the above-mentioned study does a great job of discussing the various reasons for the credibility gap – I think it presents a challenge. How do marketers earn a seat at the executive round table? You may have entered a career in marketing because it sounded fun, creative, and maybe even sexy. You may not have thought that you needed to ever think in terms of ROI. A few things to think about: 1. Focus on results and don’t be distracted by the latest “shiny object” marketing trend. Remember that while new marketing trends may warrant testing and exploration, they shouldn’t keep you from focusing on: a. Optimizing conversion rates of campaigns that are running today b. Nurturing and engaging leads that are in your database c. Developing relationships with existing customers that will improve their loyalty to your product/solution 2. Learn the language of your CEO and CFO. If you want them to listen, you must talk in terms of tying investments in marketing to revenue. Reduce your focus on the more nebulous discussions around brand awareness and positioning. 3. Demonstrate commitment to identifying revenue contribution of marketing spend. While this may be an intimidating concept, it is critical to gaining credibility with the executive team. a. Develop a dashboard that is tied to results – not activity. The dashboard might include marketing funnel metrics such as: New leads by source Cost per lead per campaign / source Opportunities created Conversion rates b. Develop a road map for your dashboard with the goal of continuous improvement in your ability to learn from the results of your activity – and apply the learning to improve ROI. The world of measuring the impact of marketing dollars by the number of impressions delivered to target customers is dead. In that world, the winner was invariably the marketer with the biggest wallet…as they could afford the lion’s share of impressions delivered to the captive audience through network television, print, and radio. The “Mad Men” of that world enjoyed the power of directing a one-way presentation of their brands to audience who paid attention.
While customers have been leery and weary of marketing messaging for decades – they had no good alternatives. Enter the boom in digital technology, which turned the captive market into an unpredictable, unforgiving, and demanding master. The market goes wild. Thanks to TIVO and DVD-R, we have winnowed the number of minutes we watch tv ads to nill (except Super Bowl Sunday). Thanks to Sirius radio, iPods, Pandora and Spotify, we no longer listen to the radio. Okay, I admit, there is one exception for me– Public Radio. Once, subscriptions to Time Magazine, the Economist, Vanity Fair, and Traveler were essential to staying current and educated. Enter in 24x7 news world and iPad. Why would I want to clutter my mailbox and coffee table when up-to-date news fits neatly into one electronic device? What would Don Draper think of this new world? I think he would go stark raving mad. According to Eloqua’s recently released 2012 Marketing Skills Gap, 75% of marketers say their lack of skills is impacting revenue in some way, and 74% say its contributing to misalignment between the marketing and sales teams. Beware if you are trying to build demand for your business using the methods of the past. The new market requires a new way of marketing. Eloqua summarizes the 5 must have B2B marketing skills. These include Content Marketing, Funnel Mindedness, Social Media, Analytics and Technology. B2B marketing has emerged to as a specialty that is treated as distinctly different from B2C marketing. This is based on the premise that B2C marketing is characterized by consumer goods like food products and services (restaurants). Marketing for Subway as a smart alternative to MacDonald’s is vastly different than marketing cloud solutions to IT buyers. No duh!
The purchase process for consumer electronics (laptops, tablets, and smartphones) in addition to high value items like automobiles is, however, very similar to the IT purchase process. Consider the following factors: 1. Length of the Purchase Process – The time invested in making a decision to buy a new car or laptop is often measured in months. This is the case unless consumers are forced into making a quick decision, (the transmission has fallen out of your old car or your laptop was stolen). The average purchase cycle reported for IT decisions has dropped dramatically in the past couple of years…to around 6 months. 2. Average Deal Size - Investment of hundreds or thousands of dollars makes consumers consider the purchase carefully before making a decision. 3. Number of Decision Makers – Few IT buyers makes a purchase decision without consulting business users. Like it or not, your spouse (or even your kids) may have significant influence on your next car or laptop. No self-respecting teen will support mom’s temptation to purchase another mini-van. 4. Higher Risk Decision – The purchase process for b2b and high tech consumer goods is longer because it is a higher risk decision. It the b2b IT decision maker makes a poor choice, it reflects poorly on him/her. Business users may point fingers. This is not so different than choosing what car to drive for the next 48 months. Who wants to listen to their spouse complain for 48 straight months. Who wants to live with a laptop that doesn’t meet your needs? 5. Role of Content Marketing is paramount in higher risk decisions. Shoppers will seek information from multiple sources to support their decision process. They will seek out expert commentary, independent comparisons, specifications, and pricing. I spent nearly ten years in marketing at Nissan North America. We analyzed the purchase cycle for our products and those of our competitor’s. We had a plethora of syndicated data to analyze and learn from. We designed marketing campaigns to strategically “plug the leaks” in our purchase funnel. I applied the same principles in high-tech B2B marketing. Google analytics, CRM tools like Salesforce.com, and marketing automation tools give B2B users similar data. In a recent Pardot survey, many B2B marketers claim the lack of time and resources make tracking marketing performance difficult. The good news: 80% of B2B marketers claim that they will invest more time and resources in marketing metrics in 2012. Data suggests that over 70% of the buyer’s purchase process is completed before a sales person is every contacted. The buyer is in the drivers’ seat of the shopping process as they research their problem and possible solutions. They develop a short-list of solutions, open questions and price ranges before they ever contact sales. This new process gives sales a limited influence on the buyer’s decision and raises the bar for your marketing team. Providing prospects with the information they need to get your product or solution on their short lists is just as important as the features of your product or solution. Since the buyer controls the process, marketing must: 1. Listen to the buyer in order to learn about: a. Pain points which are urging the prospect to seek solutions b. Purchase process that prospects are likely to take 2. Support the purchase process with educational content. 3. Make the process simple by pointing prospects to the next step. Buyers sit squarely in the drivers seat of the purchase process - with steering wheel in-hand and a foot on a pedal (brake OR accelerator). They are busy and driven to distraction by information overload. What is a B2B marketer to do? Four simple ways to improve the performance of your content marketing:
1. Remember that B2B prospects are people too. Your content needs to catch their attention; even entertain them. Surprise them with a little humor, creativity, or something unexpected: a. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then consider an infographic or short-video clip instead of a traditional 14-page whitepaper. b. A little humor has the potential to increase the share-ability of your content. I forwarded Eloqua’s Juan Eloqua series to many of my marketing peers. 2. Repurpose your content into different mediums and smaller “bites”. For example, take sections of a webcast and publish them as short podcasts. Prospects may not have an hour to invest in a webinar but they may give you 15 minutes for a podcast. 4. Identify the next step for your prospects. Don’t close the door on future engagement. In other words, make sure to point your prospects to other marketing content, groups, and sources of information as they educate themselves. Content marketing has evolved as a critical component to support the B2B purchase cycle. B2B marketing, in contrast to B2C marketing is characterized by:
1. Longer purchase cycles than B2C 2. Requiring more content to support the decision - as making a purchase decision for a business is riskier for those involved. Making the wrong choice can cost an organization in many different ways. A poor decision could cost a decision maker his/her job. 3. Multiple people who influence the purchase decision Content Marketing became increasingly critical as organizations implemented Marketing Automation Tools such as Eloqua, Marketo, and Pardot in the past decade. The success of these tools is dependent on leveraging a library of marketing content. Operating under the old mantra “Content is King” marketers published webinars, podcasts, white papers, case studies and comparison guides. The purchase process of B2B prospects is changing dramatically: 1. Recent research by TechTarget shows that the IT B2B sales cycle has shrunk significantly in the past year. Implication: · It is imperative to deliver marketing content to support a compressed purchase cycle. 2. Usage of mobile devices as tools to research and to stay connected via social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) has exploded. Prospects are more connected and dependent on their social media groups. Implications: · Content needs to be available in smaller bites and optimized for smaller screens. · Content Strategy needs to be designed to engage prospects - not just educate them. 3. Prospects are deluged with marketing content and are increasingly: · Adept at tuning out marketing messaging. · Seeking unbiased content shared by peers or influencers (via Twitter, LinkedIn Groups, Blogs) · Making purchase decisions based upon what others are saying (versus outbound marketing messaging). Implications: · Existing customers are your best sales people. Exceeding their expectations goes a long way in earning their support. · Marketing Content must be worthy of sharing. · Products/solutions must meet customer expectations - because more than ever before, they will be evaluated and judged in open forums. The race is on. B2B marketers must evolve their Content Marketing Strategy to compete. I found this factoid to be amazing: "82 percent of B2B marketers now employ content marketing as a strategy in their marketing programs. Coming in at a distant second place is search engine marketing at 70 percent." according to HiveFive B2B Marketing Survey Report.
Content Marketing is more than King it is exploding ....but why do so few marketers understand it? |
AuthorPhyllis Stewart- Archives
April 2015
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