Justin King December 1st, 2008

I have been told all my life that sales is about storytelling.  We have seen it time and time again on places like eBay that a simple story for a product for sale sells the product faster and sometimes at a greater value.  As B2B marketers on our quest to create relevant content, story telling is part of what we do as well.  A recent article on DestinationCRM says story telling is:

Motivating your Audience to your Goal Interactively with great Content.

The keys include:

• Motivation—absolutely essential to get others drawn into the story you’re trying to tell;
• Audience—understanding that you need to get the customers’ attention before disclosing your intention;
• Goal—explicitly calling those hearing your story to some type of action;
• Interactive—engaging all of the senses and really fostering a two-way conversation; and
• Content—which can be found through your own experience, observations, history, metaphors, and analogies.

Marketing is about dialogue and conversations.  Great conversations are sparked by great stories.  How are you telling stories?

Tags: Arts, b2b marketing, business-to-business, EBay, Marketing, Motivation, Online Writing, Product, Storytelling

• Misc , relevant content
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Justin.King November 23rd, 2008

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine and author The Long Tail, has a blog that I have classified in my Google Reader as “Smart Stuff”.  His concept of Freemium has me thinking about the applications to B2B.  Read these articles here and here.

Free is not a business–it’s zero-cost marketing for a business. And it works best at the largest scale: a small percentage of a big number is a big number.

In the new Web 2.0 economy and what I am overusing as B2B 2.0, how can we apply “Freemium” to scale for our businesses.  I guess it depends, doesn’t it?  If you are a manufacturing company where most of your target audience knows who you are and buys from you one way or another, this plays a lot differently then if you are a software firm launching a new product into the marketplace.  Both very B2B, but very different in their approach.

But for the majority of businesses out there that don’t have their customer base “locked up”, the question of “What’s a free customer worth” should be tackled.

Problem is, convincing the regular customer to be a part of this model is difficult.  So, let’s start basic:   When you figure out where your thought leadership is, give at least some of it away for free.  Track the heck out of it and get some information from them (name, email), but give it away.  Establish yourself as a thought leader in your specialty area, start creating relevant content, and give it away.

Anderson goes on to talk about the 4 types of free:

• cross subsidy – get one thing free for buying another
• subsidized – third party ads support free
• freemium – a few support the majority (basic “free” version)
• gift – given away for non-monetary rewards

I really like the idea of doing zero cost marketing.  Marketing to the masses by offering a freemium product and getting a small percentage to subsidize the masses.

Tags: b2b marketing, Freemium

• Misc , relevant content
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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

After reading an article by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II, I am adding the word Authentic to my b2b vocabulary.  How true does this ring?

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet holds a message for the marketing world: To thine own self be true. With authenticity appealing more and more to customer sensibilities, those words could not be more important. Organizations today should be true to their own selves, while also being who they say they are to others, according to the authors of this article. Yet the customer experience of actual offerings often fails to live up to what marketers said about them. Now is the time to stop saying what your offerings are through advertising, and create places where people can experience those offers as they actually are.

Creating a relevant dialogue and content is more than just perceived relevance, it has to be authentic as well.  Here are a few ways to stay authentic and relevant in your content online.

• More thought leadership, less marketing – focus on finding individuals in the organization that are closest to the customer, that understand the actual problems your customers is facing and know ways to solve it.
• It’s okay if your content is raw – I know you want your content to be marketing driven and developed with the right “messaging”.  I understand – so do I.  But, if the content is raw and unfiltered, it shows authenticity.
• “it is what I say it is” – be honest with yourself and your customers about what you can and can’t do.  Stop with the B.S. and focus on your strengths.  Your customers will appreciate you for it.

I love the word authenticity, and it is actually convicting to think about.  Building my own personal brand, I need to remember “it is what I say it is” – I am going to strive to be true to myself.  Not a bad goal.

Tags: authenticity, relevant content, relevant dialogue, shakespeare

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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 7th, 2008

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.“  Wayne Gretzky

I have been using this phrase a lot with clients lately (as a result of a colleague using it in a pitch).  With the economy in turmoil, it is important to look into the future and figure out where you need to skate to get to the puck.

Referencing my simple B2B philosophy, point number two is “Meet your customers wherever they are at”.  I should probably add to that and say “Wherever they are going to be”.  Once you understand your customers, how they buy, why they buy, what their perceived needs are, and who is meeting those needs, you can then start asking where are my customers at?  Once you know where your customers are at and where they are going, you can put a plan in place to go out and meet them.  Meeting them is action and requires you and your organization to mobilize and invite them into a relevant dialogue with your organization.

In my own conversations lately, I keep asking the question of where are your customers and where are they going?  It’s a basic question, but the answers are critical to determining what we are actually going to do online.

Tags: b2b marketing, relevant dialogue, wayne gretzky principle

• Segmentation , 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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