Justin.King November 15th, 2008

Very appropriate post today from Marketo.  In addition to the below great points, I would add that we need to make sure we are addressing the real needs of our customers, and find ways to engage with our customers in a relevant dialogue.   This last week has been a week of conversations around “How do we engage with our customers in a meaningful and relevant way”.  These are good first steps and I love that my customers are starting to think that way – here are some other strategies as well.  I realized this week, that it is important to have a level setting conversation a couple of times a year with our customers.  This conversation should be looking at the original objectives, measuring how we are doing, and brainstorming about new ideas.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks, as many are contemplating survival techniques.  We have seen marketing budgets shrink considerably, but luckily businesses continue to move into interactive marketing so our plans remain steady.

Here are a couple great tips from that Marketo post.

What does all this mean? It means that now, more than ever, marketers need to:

• Maximize conversion of their advertising dollars into prospects by optimizing their landing pages.
• Stop wasting leads that aren’t yet sales ready and start using lead nurturing to build relationships so that when they are ready to buy, you’ll be positioned to win. In a recession, new prospects are less likely to be looking to purchase right away — which means they are less likely to want to talk to a sales rep. Lead nurturing is even more critical in a recession to ensure you convert the precious dollars you spend acquiring prospects into revenue.
• Use lead scoring to identify the best leads and help the sales team prioritize where they spend their time
• Prove the impact their marketing activities have on revenue and pipeline

What kind of conversations are you having?

Tags: b2b marketing, recession

• Attract , Closing the loop , conversion , relevant content
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Justin.King November 7th, 2008

I have been working with a major brand that sells specialty tools to contractors (plumbers, electricians, etc.).  They are planning on launch on a new product, and my agency Rosetta is putting together the product launch plan and digital marketing approach.

Partnering
We are working with the companies traditional agency of record, as they have no true interactive marketing capabilities.  This has been an excellent process, of which I would like to dedicate another post to.

Research
Together with the traditional agency, we did quite a bit of customer research, talking to prospective customers, conducting online surveys, and talking to editors of trade magazines.  Through the research we found that the customers of this new product had some significant challenges in front of them.

• the economy is affecting their business tremendously especially with the slow down of new residential and renovations
• green and energy efficient is on everyone’s minds, but most don’t know how to take advantage of it
• because of the economy, contractors are trying to find new ways to sustain their businesses

What we found
In our quest to be relevant, we also faced challenges.  What was easy to do for the client was to create a microsite with the typical features | benefits | case studies information.  As I probed deeper and deeper, we kept asking the question what does your customer care about.  The answer was simple – the customer wants to be able to make more money in this down economy.  They are not sophisticated enough to determine ROI – they just care about the R (Revenue).  Therefore our content that we provided needed to be focused around solving this core problem of making more money for the contractor.

Lead generation
The goal for the product launch was to create a lead engine that could attract prospective buyers and in the end create sales-ready leads that were ready to be engaged by a salesman who could close the deal.  To get those leads, we knew we had to give the contractor something of value so that we had the right to ask for a name and email address (simple forms for landing page optimization).  Going back to our research, we decided to create white papers and eBooks around “How to make more money in a down economy”.  We are now going to tailor those to each primary segment and personality profile that we have identified.  So we will have “4 ways for HVAC contractors to heat up your business in a down economy” and elements like that.  The information is simple, not product focused and has a lot of value – no marketing propaganda.

What’s next?  We are now working on the nurturing approach to turn them from leads to sales-ready prospects.

Creating a relevant dialogue is critical.  Here are a few practical strategies to keep your content relevant.

Tags: b2b marketing, customer research, digital marketing, driving traffic, green, relevant content, relevant dialogue

• Attract , Segmentation , conversion , relevant content
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Justin.King November 5th, 2008

Get to know your customers
The only way to know if your content is really relevant is to get to know your customers, and understand what their perceived problems and needs are.   While you’re at it, get to know your potential customers as well.

Identify and extract thought leadership in your organization
Thought leadership is found in people not departments and roles.  Most organizations have certain employees that always have ideas or are a step ahead of the organizations.  Incent those employees to come forward and start providing content.  This content can be white papers, case studies, blogs, twitter updates, etc.  Make sure you give these employees time to create content, and recognize them throughout the entire organizations.  BTW – if you can’t identify those employees you have a whole other problem.

Tell a story
We all know that stories sell.  Your stories should include real life examples, weave in research and case studies and trends in your industry.  The best stories engage the reader emotionally.  See this posting for great information on creating white papers.

Research
Backup your stories and content with real research that shows subject matter authority based on quantitative data.  While you are at it, use that research to seed PR news releases and blogs.

No more propaganda
Relevancy by definition means no sales and marketing propaganda.  Focus on educating, informing, and attacking real problems with real solutions (not your products!)

You gotta give it away
I know it’s hard, but give that content away.  By give it away, I’ll still allow you to get a name and email address in exchange.

Tags: relevant content

• conversion , relevant content
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