How to capitalize on the content marketing continuum

HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON THE CONTENT MARKETING CONTINUUM HOW TO DESIGN MARKETING-TO-SALES PROGRAMS FOR THE NEW BUYER By Ardath Albee Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Continuum – noun; A continuous extent, series or whole - Dictionary.com Marketing is no longer effective when comprised of one-off events, messages or campaigns The buying experience during a complex sale must be fluid, connected and engaging across its entirety Content marketing programs are the threads that weave together to create a fabric of engagement that elevates pipeline velocity, putting salespeople in viable opportunity conversations sooner—rather than later There are no stops and starts in a continuum The flow is consistent, steady and designed to build the problem-to-solution story with buyers by providing the education, expertise and evidence they need to conclude that your company is the ultimate choice to help them achieve business objectives This eBook is your guide for generating a transformation in marketing, from standalone efforts into strategic business assets that improve revenue performance ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Table of Contents Get Up to Speed Online Publishing Changes the Game .5 How Online Publishing Affects Buyers .6 How to Rise Above the Online Noise Tools to Increase Relevance Buyer Personas 11 Five Steps to Building a Buyer Persona 12 Four Types of Prospect Attention 13 The Importance of Integrating Marketing Channels 14 Why Segmentation Marketing is the New Black 15 How and Why to Narrow Your Focus 16 Messaging to Multiple Target Segments 17 Design Content Flows for Target Segments .18 How to Improve the ROI on Marketing Content Investments 19 Shifts in Skills Needed to Market to the New Buyer 20 Creating Synergy with Sales 26 Producing Leads Worthy of Sales Pursuit 27 Why the Toss Over the Wall is OUT and the Baton Pass is IN 29 Give Sales a Conversational Toolkit 30 Position Salespeople as Valuable Experts 31 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum 32 About the Author 33 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Get Up to Speed The buyer has taken control of the purchasing process; it’s a refrain heard often in marketing and sales channels Information has become ubiquitous—as has access to it No longer are companies and their salespeople the gatekeepers that must be sought out for help to assuage curiosity, reveal solutions to problems, build business cases and select a short list of vendors to pursue The informational gatekeepers are now represented by search engines, social networks and perceptions of relevance Marketers and salespeople are now reliant upon their ability to: • Be found with the right information in the channels buyers prefer • Attract and keep the attention of buyers and influencers • Respond appropriately with digital dialogues that motivate buyer intent • Elevate the perceived value of every interaction—whether with marketing or sales What the continuum means for marketers Marketing has become a continuous stream—not one-off campaigns or events This creates a continuum that must be sustained by stripping away the pretext, posturing and limitations of traditional company and product-focused marketing A continuum approach is based on delivering escalating value for buyers in every online interaction to create digital dialogues that drive momentum that results in sales and continues on across the entire customer lifecycle Implications for sales Where the continuum intersects with sales, the provision of value-added, fresh and relevant ideas must seamlessly transition without interruption to momentum Salespeople must be primed to provide unique expertise beyond what competitors can even imitate—should they try Preparing for the Content Marketing Continuum The ability to publish content online, interact with buyers and engage in social conversations has become simple to execute It’s the planning, strategy, and context—along with a foundation for sustaining it consistently over time—that challenges marketers and salespeople Shifting the dynamics of marketing requires new skills and ways of thinking Following is a framework to help you prepare for sustainable marketing and sales efforts that put the new buyer at the center of your strategy Change is never easy, but it can certainly be transformative Ready? ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Online Publishing Changes the Game Speed is one of the dynamics of today’s marketing The concept of real-time is pushing marketers to move more quickly than they’ve ever moved before Speed for marketing is a construct driven by the ease of publishing content and the rallying cries of social media enthusiasts and so-called marketing gurus The fear of missing out in the chase after the latest shiny object developed to change the way people live, work and play—and most importantly, buy—is urging marketers to move faster This is not to say that it shouldn’t be an imperative to take advantage of these new capabilities, but that marketers need to take a deep breath and consider the implications that come with online publishing, and how they change the game Online publishing is a rather broad concept It covers every format for distributing content online including, but in no way limited to, website content, articles, blog posts, video, white papers, case studies, eBooks, social media profiles, company pages on Facebook, LinkedIn discussions, forum questions and answers, webinars and virtual events, Tweets, podcasts, images, slide decks, and the rapidly growing use of infographics Let us not forget that online publishing also includes processes such as curating content and publishing press releases 58% of buyers say thought leadership from solution providers is important or critical during their buying process 48% said that if the quality The concept of earned media has been enabled by online publishing Earned of thought leadership im- media is often defined as what others choose to say about your company, but it proved, it would influence their should also be considered in relation to those who share your content with their purchase decision networks This includes content curators, community blog syndication and social mentions All types of earned media serve to extend the reach of your content ITSMA and PAC, 2010 How Customers Choose Study, 2010 farther than you could on your own Sharing transfers credibility from the source with their recommendation that their audience will find it relevant to their interests Rather than paying for content placement, marketers can now create their own media and earn coverage in channels where that content is found valuable by audiences they want to reach But the biggest game changer of all may be the ability for a company to create, own or sponsor online communities and websites “ Adobe is the brand behind [cmo.com], but our job is not really to sell product, but to educate and inform the chief marketing that facilitate the publishing of thought leadership content to help their target officer about issues going on in audiences deal with business priorities—without trying to sell anything Among the digital marketing world many examples are cmo.com, sponsored by Adobe, Smart Data Collective, sponsored by Teradata, and all Business, sponsored by D&B, and Bizmology, published by Hoover’s ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Timothy Moran, editor in chief, cmo.com Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum How Online Publishing Affects Buyers One of the misconceptions that comes with speed is that it’s an equal-opportunity dynamic Just because marketers can publish content quickly doesn’t mean that buyers will keep stride with this breakneck pace The rise in content publishing assumes that there’s a corresponding rise in the availability of time and attention needed to consume that volume of content For buyers, often the opposite is true Marketers may be producing more content, but buyers often have less time to consume it Three factors that impact the buyer experience include how to: Find the right information – the overwhelming amount of How buyers say they spend their information available on every topic imaginable makes it more time during their buying process: difficult for buyers to filter it to determine which of it is credible, or even useful The time this takes is also extremely limited, slowing the buying process regardless of how fast marketers think they’re 23% in discussions with colleagues 21% with sales team interaction addressing buyers’ needs by publishing more information, faster 19% searching the web Even if it’s information they need 19% with educational content Convince the right people – in a B2B buying process, the increase of 18% reviewing promotional complexity and breadth of solutions requires more people to reach content consensus—each of them with differing priorities and motivations The content that works to convince one stakeholder to embrace the IDG Connect, 2011 proposed change may not work to persuade the others Build the best business case – today’s economic climate has changed the usual budgetary structure, requiring buyers to identify problems, the reasons for solving them and—only once that foundation has been established—to build a business case to secure the budget to proceed Research by DemandGen Report found that 30% of B2B purchases were made in this fashion by buyers surveyed The challenge for marketers is to provide information so clear and relevant that the value of pursuing the fix is validated by proof of the impact the project can have on the company’s business objectives All three of these factors can be answered with online publishing, but to so marketers must first plan for and address the challenge of being found in the channels buyers prefer ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum How to Rise Above the Online Noise Being found by the right prospective buyers is dependent upon differentiation supported by specificity The only way marketers can this well is by doing the work and research it takes to get to know their buyers nearly as well as they know themselves Here’s an example to demonstrate what I mean by differentiation and specificity in relation to providing content that will rise above the noise for your buyers: Take the concept of “growing revenues.” It’s something most companies tout as a benefit their buyers can get from using their products and services But it’s so generic and high level that, on its own, it means nothing interesting There are many ways to increase revenues The key is to think about the how and the why instead of relying on the vanilla benefit (the what) Why is your prospect’s priority focused on increasing revenues? • Perhaps it’s because he’s a line of business manager and his job depends on the amount of product that gets sold in the marketplace • Maybe she’s the director of inside sales and her reps must provide field sales reps with leads worthy of pursuit or the company won’t meet their quota for revenues • Perhaps your prospect is a call center manager and his initiative is to increase cross-sell and up-sell solution extension products to current customers • It could be that your prospect is the CEO and responsible for increasing Buyers’ top complaints about content include: 33% say there’s too much content that’s not useful 29% say content is not relevant 24% say content does not stock value for investors through continuous growth milestones the meet the needs of all the company must achieve people involved in the decision To each of these people, the concept of driving revenues has a different context The reasons supporting the goal are different Their role and responsibilities 23% say there’s not enough educational content within the company are different If you’re trying to reach all of these buyers with the same content, it’s less likely to be found and assigned the attention required to build and sustain engagement across the buying process ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc IDG Connect, 2011 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Now think about the how How can the prospect best contribute to the overall objective of driving revenues? • For the product manager, perhaps the solution is new packaging to make the product more appealing or improve training for salespeople in how to sell it Maybe it’s improved management of production to better meet demand • For the inside sales manager, a possible solution could be providing faster access to information that enables her reps to have better conversations with prospects, improving quality and prioritization • For the call center manager, perhaps it’s improving the ability for her agents to easily know what products the customer already has and which are appropriate add-ons or advances relevant to their business needs This could mean integrating data silos • For the CEO, perhaps the answer is better dashboards or information visibility that enables better and faster decisions to be made for volumes of data When you can get specific enough to narrow your focus to the who, the why and the how that relates to the what (driving revenues), then you can create messaging and content that rises above the noise to get found by your buyers Once again, the best way to accomplish this is to get to know your buyers When creating content with differentiation and specificity, make sure that it delivers on buyers needs by: • Showing the reader why he should care at the start Don’t bury your hook • Educating them with information they need to know about solving a specific problem • Making your call to action easy to understand and simple to respond to • Demonstrating the impact you promise in simple terms and show them where to find it • Igniting urgency on their part to learn more and take next steps because it seems like the natural outcome for them after reading your content ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Tools to Increase Relevance Engaging B2B buyers across the entirety of the purchasing process must be the goal of marketers In today’s online business environment, this means not only the ability to create digital dialogues, but to sustain them over the long term By flipping your focus from the way your company defines the sales process to how buyers engage in the buying experience, you’ll gain a better understanding of how to make this happen Instead of orienting your funnel to a sales perspective, focus the stages of The Buyer-Experience Funnel the funnel on your B2B buyers’ experience When your funnel is focused stages include: on meeting the needs of all the people involved in the decision, you’ll see a swelling in the middle, instead of the constriction that indicates fallout, or Interest: Get buyers to take a leakage, in traditional funnels look at how you can solve the problems they face In the buyer-experience funnel, notice the buyer/customer and marketing Attention: Convince them to are interwoven throughout the entire buying experience—and beyond opt-in Fallout occurs if they Salespeople enter the process around the 5th stage and are usually out of choose not to continue Value: Instantly recognizable value increases willingness to engage Engagement: Prospects spend more time & mindshare with your content Buying committee involvement: Your funnel swells as influencers interact to gain consensus by building and validating the business case Conversations: Sales steps in to drive momentum to purchase based on interests expressed The funnel narrows to core decision maker participation Purchase: Buyers choose to partner with your company ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc the equation after the buyer purchases But most importantly, recognize the expansion that happens in the middle of the buying process during buying committee involvement This is where knowing who else is involved in the process—and addressing their interests—is critical to continuing the flow of buying momentum Today’s buyer experience is quite different from the process most marketers have enabled and supported in the past Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum A disconnect occurs because marketers haven’t changed in response to how their buyers have shifted The figure below shows how the majority of marketers are responding to the buyer experience according to a poll taken with attendees of the Sirius Decisions Summit in 2011 According to the poll, 79 percent of marketers are only addressing a fraction, if any, of the buying experience that’s pivotal to generating the increased demand that leads to customer acquisition This presents a huge opportunity for the marketers who recognize and address the importance of addressing the variety of activities and needs that arise across the entire buyer experience funnel The buyer experience funnel has a direct overlay to the stages of the buying process and the questions your prospects will need answered as they move from stage to stage 10 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum • Repurposing As has been discussed previously, content is more effective when its focus is narrowed to address the needs of one target segment What may not be readily apparent is that there may be overlays across industries or segments • Take a look at your persona—or target segment—questions to see if versions of the same question are asked by different personas It may be that a content asset designed for one persona can be quickly revised to address the version of the question asked by another • Many companies address the same target audience in a variety of vertical industries Make the appropriate changes to the content to position it for each additional industry where it applies I will caution you that just changing the references to the industry is not enough Make sure to address the subtle differences and phrasing that expresses your understanding of each industry and audience • Repetition Using the ideas shared in your content more than once is how marketers should frame the context for repetition New ideas take time to take hold What Repetition is Not: • Using the same piece of Here’s a basic example: Let’s say the main idea is “The expectations of the new buyer.” The original idea is to write an article about how the buyer has changed, backed up with industry statistics and examples that are relevant for the target market you’ve selected content over and over • Saying the same things everyone else in your market is saying • Using the same self-serving calls to action (Schedule a To put repetition into play, determine other ways to spin this main idea Examples demo today!) might include: • 10 reasons you need to change what you’re telling buyers • Why your customer’s trust level has declined • How to have a conversation with today’s buyer • What sales needs to close the new buyer Now you have topics based on one main idea that you can develop into marketing content using the same research you’ll to develop the content asset around the main idea All with a different take or spin, each one reinforcing your expertise on the topic Shifts in Skills Needed to Market to the New Buyer Making the shift from static B2B marketing to dynamic B2B eMarketing not only requires the appropriate technology and tools, but a change to the marketer’s mindset Companies are recognizing there are differences to be addressed as they realize the power has shifted from their companies to their buyers The Internet has unleashed a torrent of information, changing forever the ways in which complex sales are conducted To reach and engage the new buyer, marketers must develop and tune 20 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum new skills quite different from those they’ve relied on in the past The following shifts in skills will help marketers capitalize on the content marketing continuum From Talking to Listening “CMOs think market and technology factors are the two most powerful external forces affecting their organizations.” Traditional marketing was predicated on companies controlling which “Four out of five CMOs we information was available for consumption by prospective customers Due to talked with anticipate a high or this perceived control over the informational flow, marketers focused on talking very high level of complexity about how cool their products were, how groundbreaking and how their over the next five years, prospects would perish without these solutions but only half feel ready to handle it.” Companies waxed poetic about how they were the “leading providers of…” and the awards they’d won They talked about the feeds and speeds of their products, unaware that this wasn’t doing a thing to help their buyers actually buy From Stretched to Strengthened Insights from the IBM Global CMO Study anything In the past, salespeople built the relationships one prospect at a time They established the relationship and guided the buyer through their purchasing process Today’s buyer has firmly expressed their displeasure with that process by taking advantage of the wealth of available information to their own research and make their own decisions Their opinion of salespeople has been expressed by limiting their participation to the end of the buying process, often after the short list of potential vendors has been determined This shifts a bulk of responsibility from sales to marketing, although many salespeople would argue they’ve not seen the gauntlet picked up for this challenge The first shift that marketers need to embrace is the ability to stop talking and start listening Not only have buyers taken control, but they’re more talkative than ever, thanks to social media and the ease of publishing If marketers take the time to listen to what’s being said, marketing content and nurturing programs can be developed that resonate with buyers based on matching content to expressed interests Several ways to listen include: • Following targeted discussions in groups on LinkedIn • Determining the influential bloggers in your space and monitoring the interaction on their blogs – comments most especially • Attending webinars produced by competitors for the content and the Q&A at the end • Monitoring #hashtags for keywords on Twitter for insights about specific topics 21 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum From Packaged Campaigns to Tuning on the Fly The days of perfecting a campaign (or thinking we have), then executing and waiting to see how it turns out are over The beauty of marketing automation is “In the next three years, more that it enables marketers to view real-time results and responses to each step of diverse skills and capabilities a marketing program as it’s rolled out Marketers can tune, tweak and take will need to be demonstrated corrective actions to ensure they get the best results as they go Chief among them, according to 84 percent of the survey There’s no need to sit helplessly by and watch a campaign intended to generate group, will be more innovative 100 leads run its course generating only 25 that may not turn out to be actual approaches to targeting and leads The ability to see prospect behavior in response to content and messag- marketing Sixty-eight percent ing will help marketers make adjustments that increase relevance to get things cited capabilities in digital back on track—generating more qualified leads rather than solely focusing on media strategies.” quantity Marketing today means taking your best shot and proactively improving results Prophet’s 2011 State of Marketing Study during the execution in response to audience behavior and feedback This also means that marketers need to learn how to use the metrics compiled by technology to inform their decisions The 2011 Customer Engagement Report from eConsultancy learned that 57% of marketers have found web analytics to be among the most useful methods for gathering intelligence in the context of customer engagement The other change that marketers should consider in relation to the content marketing continuum is that the nature of campaigns has changed—forever Marketers who focus on a dialogue with buyers involved in a complex purchase, for example, must be able to create and sustain those dialogues over the entirety of the buying experience The days of generating contact information and passing that to sales are over When you factor in the preferences of the new buyer, this means that instead of a campaign with the usual three touches and a sales pitch, marketers must plan for many more touches and interactions that help buyers make progress toward sales conversations…and beyond As priorities and challenges become more complex to solve, so to the solutions we provide to serve our customers Distilling our messaging down to clarity that persuades buyers to take next steps is the issue marketers must address to embrace the content marketing continuum 22 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum From Big-bang PR to Continuous Publishing It used to be that marketers would spend months planning for a product launch We’d have spread sheets and be working under the “cone of silence” to get the media coverage that would help us reveal our new product with the loudest amount of noise and coverage we could muster—scheduled to go live all at once The next day we’d congratulate ourselves and go back to our status quo operational routines That approach no longer works To create engagement, marketers must learn to publish contagious content continuously to build relationships with target segments The “once and done” campaigns of the past won’t that The difference to note is “earn” rather than “buy.” Instead of attempting to form instant relationships with a big bang based mainly on paid media, marketers must focus on building rapport incrementally through continuous content publishing that expands—and reinforces—our story over time “Contagious content gains the attention of the prospects you know about and helps your ideas spread to others who haven’t yet raised their hands and identified themselves Content that is contagious speaks directly to your target markets—engaging prospects as if it were written just for them.” eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale Big-bang PR is developed for our company’s benefit It’s our shout out to the world that we’ve done something noteworthy Continuous publishing with contagious content is about being perceived as noteworthy all the time With the new buyer, every impression counts By developing a publishing mindset, marketers are better able to plan for and manage the content creation process with the aim to grow a network that will be motivated to help us share our ideas because we’ve made them continuously valuable and relevant This way, when we launch something new, our audience is predisposed to pay attention because we’ve taken the time to build credibility with them We’ve shown them we understand their issues and their business; and that we’re invested in their success for the long haul From One-off Blasts to Serial Storytelling The content marketing continuum is not about sending whatever is at hand just to keep our name and logo in front of our audience It’s not about the sales offer “flavor of the month” or product feeds and speeds Research by the CMO Council discovered that the top three pet peeves of buyers in relation to marketing content are: 23 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Hype and Puffery – Content that’s all about how great your company and products are with little regard for what your audience will find 44% of surveyed marketers relevant or valuable It’s all about you said prospects view Lack of Business Value Proposition – In other words, content must communications from their provide clarity around what your product enables prospects to do—that companies as “disjointed” they can’t now—that will help them achieve critical business or “hit and miss.” objectives Not enough Proof of ROI – Buyers don’t just believe you because you say Only 3% of surveyed it’s so Vague statements about how your product or solution positions marketers think they “wow” your customers to reap future benefits won’t cut it Give them meaty prospects by knowing what statistics and examples they can use to build a business case and model information customers need potential impact based on their unique situations and giving it to them Marketers who embrace serial storytelling can reverse buyers’ perceptions of The State Of B2B Demand Generation: Disjointed, Forrester Research, Inc June 28, 2011 irrelevance Serial storytelling during a complex B2B buying process means answering your buyers questions as they move through the buying process, starting from status quo From educating them about why they should solve the problem to sharing how your expertise adds value—in addition to your product—to sharing the evidence of the results your customers have achieved with your help, you tell them the story about why you’re the best partner they can choose The goal is to help your prospects connect the dots and take next steps with the insights each content asset provides Storytelling for marketing is not just realized with case studies, testimonials and executive anecdotes Content that helps buyers visualize how their world can change productively with your company’s expertise, see themselves becoming the hero of the story From Clicks and Opens to Mindshare and Momentum It used to be that companies judged the success of online marketing programs based on impressions, or even opt-ins But opt-ins don’t count for much unless they move through the pipeline The beauty of rich profiles and activity histories provided to us by marketing automation is that we can now develop lead scoring models to gauge prospect interest The goal of content marketing is to get your prospects to spend more of their attention on your content and engage with your company more intentionally than they with competitors Marketers who focus on becoming the “anchor” (the relied-upon resource) for how their prospects think about solving their problems will see an increase 24 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc 58% of buyers say that thought leadership content from solution providers plays a critical or important role in their buying process This includes the research, analysis and advice found in content such as reports, white papers, webcasts and articles ITSMA and PAC How Customers Choose Study, 2010 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum to pipeline momentum They will also see a higher rate of sales acceptance, opportunities and contribution to downstream revenues Building mindshare is the equivalent of building credibility, reliance and trusted-advisor status That’s what leads to revenues According to 61% of marketers surveyed by BtoB Magazine recently, contribution to revenues is the #1 metric that marketers are focused on improving.Market2Lead (prior to acquisition by Oracle) analyzed internal data to report that nurtured leads have an average deal size 9% higher, with a 23% shorter time to purchase But perhaps one of the most important behaviors that evidences the effect of mindshare on momentum is the increase in sales call acceptance by leads who have been nurtured with relevant content Sales Engine International partnered with ebQuickstart to run an experiment on the effectiveness of lead nurturing in relation to sales calls They were able to validate a 9X improvement to call receptiveness for leads who had repeatedly responded to email content offers in comparison to the results of cold calls to those who’d not received the emails Today’s buyers have changed Marketing approaches must shift as well—including our objectives From One-way Communications to Two-way Conversations This shift in marketing skills highlights the difference between static and dynamic communications Static—also known as push—is self-focused, without the intention to establish a dialogue Dynamic communications are interactive A conversational intent creates the force and power to drive funnel momentum To achieve two-way conversations, marketers need to give up the outdated idea that they have control over the message In the digital world, companies that won’t enable their prospective buyers to interact with them on their terms will lose to competitors who will Think of it this way: would you rather have someone speaking at you, blathering on about their opinion without respect for yours, or would you prefer to be involved in an exchange of ideas? The latter is more appealing, obviously Buyer knowledge will help marketers increase their comfort zone for “letting go.” The better you know them, the more relevant you can be This knowledge also serves to prepare marketers to react appropriately when buyers decide to respond It’s just good common sense that the better we know people, the easier it is to engage them With a strategic plan, marketers can not only engage in conversations more easily with their prospects and customers, but they can design interactive exchanges to gain actionable insights used to extend attention and encourage prospects to take next steps Marketing across a complex sale is an iterative process that develops one step at a time with an increasing number of people involved It’s also interesting to note that the research into buyers done by DemandGen found that the majority of buyers are not following a traditional buying process This being said, the report also found that 66% of buyers indicate that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is a key influence in choosing a solution 25 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum provider Marketers need to learn to take cues from our buyers to achieve the quantifiable results that contribute to downstream revenues And that requires two-way conversations Creating Synergy with Sales The issue of marketing and sales alignment has been the white elephant in the room for about as long as anyone can remember The crux is that the responsibilities of the two functions are different They will always be different But there’s one thing that won’t change for most B2B companies: without salespeople, there is no business Unarguably, the buyer has wrested control of how they buy, source information and make purchase decisions Buyers have pushed salespeople to the end of their buying process, transferring much of the weight and responsibility for educating them onto marketing But, let’s be reasonable, salespeople are 26 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc “Today, up to 70% of a customer’s buying decision is now made based on information he or she finds online well before a salesperson has a chance to get involved.” Selling Power Leadership Trends in B2B Sales & Marketing Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum still the ones most likely to have the insights and knowledge that marketing needs to perform that function well Contrast that with the opportunity marketers have to reach and digitally interact with buyers during a longer chunk of the buying experience and you’ll begin to see the disconnect For some reason, marketers often choose to operate independently of sales— and vice versa—without either side understanding the benefits of collaboration that they’re so consciously avoiding Synergy is a more appropriate term than alignment because it focuses on cooperative action, rather than trying to force both functions to operate with the same goals, under the same responsibilities Sales and marketing will never be equal in that regard This is not said to belittle either side, but to point out that cooperation and collaboration can help each role function to their highest capability in regards to creating a productive and unique buyer experience that produces shorter time to customer acquisition and revenues Marketing must focus on supporting that objective in concert with sales Producing Leads Worthy of Sales Pursuit A majority of marketing and sales organizations have not done the work necessary to create qualified leads of interest to salespeople If you ask either side what factors are necessary for a qualified lead, you’ll either hear a sketchy demographic description, or criteria based on the antiquated notion of BANT (i.e., budget, authority, need, timeline) It’s also likely that how sales responds to the question will differ from the way marketers will answer it This must be rectified There are at least two of the BANT criteria that no longer define the buyers of today: • Budget Research has repeatedly found that budgets did not exist “Sales Reps believe roughly prior to building a business case and establishing proof of concept 70% of the leads they receive If sales reps reject leads based on budget, they could be giving your have a low probability to competitors a gift purchase.” • Authority Research also finds that the buying committee for a B2B complex purchase is growing This means that, although technically one person will ink the deal, there are a number of other people Vorsight & The Bridge Group, Inc Sales Speaks: Perceptions and Ponderings on Marketing Leads, 2011 who must reach consensus for a purchase decision to be made Timeline is also blurring as a factor, for if a budget has not been established prior to searching for resolution to a problem, there won’t be a timeline The number of influencers Based on urgency, level of pain, or depth of opportunity, the timeline could involved in a purchase decision be accelerated once the business case is developed has increased by 20% The only element of BANT that’s absolutely critical for producing a qualified IDG Connect July 2011 buyer is need If they don’t need what you sell, they obviously won’t ever become your customer 27 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum The Sales Speaks report, referenced at right, also found that salespeople prefer to be put in touch with decision makers, but that the leads marketing efforts provide are usually influencers The report concludes, “Sales reps must be coached to qualify the company, rather than disqualifying the contact.” This being said, with a buying process conducted mainly online prior to sales involvement, technology and tools will often dictate the visibility into lead activity and behavior that indicates sales readiness Lead scoring, a component of marketing automation platforms, can provide a steady barometer of lead progression Tuning the process over time with feedback from sales can help the process become a reliable indicator of pipeline momentum and lead quality The inputs that help marketers determine the quality of leads includes: • Demographic profiles to indicate whether the company fits your customer profile • Activity in response to content marketing offers Does the lead only respond when you prompt them via an email? Or they proactively engage with your content? • Frequency of activity can indicate the difference between casual or cursory attention and intentional activity that indicates the urgency to solve the problem is escalating—along with their interest in your company’s expertise • Time spent with content is an indication of the importance the lead has associated to the information marketing is providing Are they scanning or reading? Are they committing an hour of their time to your webinars? Are they asking questions? • Topics that they access can be indicative of where a lead is in their buying process—if marketing has mapped the content to the buying Lead scoring is still in its stages Not all leads start at square one with your content They may infancy, but it is encouraging already be convinced they need to solve the problem by the time they to see that 27% of sales reps find your company Having the capability to identify how far along report that scoring is accurate, they are can help to ensure that sales-ready leads are not overlooked with 57% reporting somewhat due to a low score accurate • Human touch is still an important part of the lead qualification process Marketing programs, no matter how strategically designed, 6% report that scoring is very will not impact each lead in the same way Follow-up by an inside sales accurate, offering proof that rep can help to validate assumptions made via analytics and activity refinement and tuning the reports, and arrange a handoff to sales should the lead be ready process can pay off • Type of content accessed can also be indicative of a change in qualification For example, if the lead has been reading thought leadership content and is now engaging with product and solution information, sales involvement may be warranted 28 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Vorsight & The Bridge Group, Inc Sales Speaks: Perceptions and Ponderings on Marketing Leads, 2011 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Why the Toss Over the Wall is OUT and the Baton Pass is IN Technology can become a double-edged sword when it’s used to replace process with function An example is the automation of the lead handoff from marketing automation systems to CRM systems The lead handoff is not just about the technology that elevates a lead status or shuffles it from system to system Lead qualification criteria and timing are important, but not all that’s required for a smooth transition Marketers need to orchestrate the handoff in a way that provides value for both the buyer and the salesperson Not check off a box that the task is done Yet, according to the chart, lead handoff and management is the least challenging marketing-to-sales funnel process identified in a Marketing Sherpa survey Since most marketers say they have lead management in hand, they should know a whole lot about their prospects—especially activity history Given what a lead has shown interest in, what’s the next step that a salesperson can expose them to that makes sense? Marketers need to set that up Otherwise salespeople will start over, halting all the momentum the buyer has made in order to ask questions we may already have the answers to, rather than providing value and insights that buyers have come to expect Buyers don’t care what a salesperson wants to know They expect sales to step in with fresh ideas and perspective that aligns with where they are in their buying process Marketers should be positioning salespeople to this from the transition, as well as providing support through to purchase, and beyond Marketing is a continuum that never ends—with a lot of moving parts It’s highly questionable that lead handoff is being done well when the top challenge is converting qualified leads into customers The handoff is about more than who has custody of the lead Marketers need to start addressing the buying experience funnel in its entirety—as an integrated, strategic process—not a short-term role that ends at the handoff 29 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Give Sales a Conversational Toolkit It’s long been known that salespeople don’t use two thirds of the content that marketing provides them with When asked why not, 41% of salespeople told IDG Connect that they don’t know what to use, how to use it effectively, or when to use it The research also found that salespeople spend less than hours each week preparing for customer or prospect interactions Salespeople are doers, not researchers They will not dig through marketing content to figure out what to When buyers were asked what set the best salespeople apart, this is what they said: Understand our business (51%) use, when, or how to use it most effectively Marketers need to provide an assist Listened extremely well (43%) in this area Provided relevant content to help our decision (42%) Given the late stage that buyers invite salespeople into conversations, the quality of the conversations that salespeople have with them are critical Salespeople need to be able to generate conversations that seamlessly connect from where the buyer transitioned off the marketing program The transition itself signifies a shift in focus In the final stages of the buying cycle, the decision maker and the most prominent influencers are evaluating the company—assessing viability, working relationships, partner value add, and deciding if they trust your company to deliver on the promises made by marketing Stayed with us every step of the way (37%) Focused on educating us rather than trying to close the sale (35%) IDG Connect July 2011 In addition to the buyer’s activity, demographic and psychographic profile, sales needs the following resources that weave the earlier stages of the marketing process with the end stages of the sales process to complete the buyer’s experience The conversational toolkit may include: • Value propositions focused on the buyer’s goals in relation to the problem they’re solving • Campaign-based FAQs – think the cliff notes version of content the buyer has viewed • A recap of the last interaction the buyer had with suggestions for the next movement in the relationship—including both conversational prompts and appropriate content • Conversational prompts based on the buyer’s industry and company demographics • Mini slide decks focused on helping the salesperson tell a value-added story about the problem-to-solution scenario the buyer is involved with including validation for results All of the above are customer focused—not product oriented Marketing cannot just reload lead generation and transitional content into the sales portal/system and expect that to carry sales through closing the deal Sales content deserves to be created just for sales conversations And it’s not a one-time thing Just as marketing content evolves when buyers change, sales content must, as well In order to tune sales content, it’s imperative that marketing get feedback 30 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum and monitor content use and effectiveness to learn what’s working for sales Marketing needs to take responsibility for tuning what’s working and removing, or replacing, what’s not In fact, marketing should treat sales content like a continuous campaign, paying the same attention to the metrics of sales force use and activity in relation to content as they to lead generation and nurturing campaigns After all, the role of a salesperson is not to call on leads, but to generate opportunities that drive business If sales content isn’t supporting that role, find out why not and fix it Position Salespeople as Valuable Experts Depending on whom you ask, salespeople have either become more valuable or, well, not You can see two contrasting views represented in the call-out boxes on the right This being said, the indication that buyers only spend 21% of the buying experience with salespeople, could be indicative of the rising level of their importance during that shorter validation period as the complexity of solutions continues to increase With buyers placing increasing importance on thought leadership, 58% of executives say sales marketers should take heed and work toward helping salespeople be seen as reps occasionally or never such Your salespeople likely have a lot of valuable ideas that could be extracted bring thoughtful, relevant ideas and showcased to support their expertise in more concrete ways Not just for about solving business your company’s benefit, but to help sales reps prove they differentiate your problems company from others, and that they’re worth the buyer’s time The net is credibility and trust for your company via your salespeople That’s what wins ITSMA and PAC How Customers Choose Study, 2010 complex sales in today’s market Several ideas for positioning your salespeople as experts include: • Helping them to edit and update their LinkedIn profile to emphasize expertise in a conversational way Check their other social media profiles used professionally for consistency • Provide web pages developed to showcase each rep with customer testimonials and brief insights that share their expertise in understanding the buyers’ industry and business Most salespeople 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 have areas of focus – such as industry Focus their signature web pages on what’s most relevant to buyers and have them use a link to the page in their email communications Link to the page from related customer case studies, as well 31 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc IDG Connect July, 2011 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum • Give salespeople some coaching in participating on social platforms Make sure they understand how marketing is engaging on social networks and coordinate the efforts on both sides to produce consistency in the buyer’s experience • Interview salespeople to gain their insights about what buyers need to further understand to solve their problems and use the information to create a bylined blog post or article on the subject Link to it from their web profile page There are many who would argue this is not a wise use of a salesperson’s time, but a 30 minute interview that produces a content asset that helps late-stage buyers, is a boon for both marketing and the buyer’s perception of the value the salesperson brings Salespeople must know the products and solutions they sell very well They must be able to apply what those solutions to the situations buyers are facing But they also must learn to provide strategic value in the eyes of the buyer Personalization and instant gratification are critical across every stage of the buying experience Where sales can help to inform marketers about the reality for buyers, marketers can help salespeople understand what’s relevant for the buyer at the time of transition There is value to be gained for each side from the other IDC defines sales enablement as: “The delivery of the right information to the right person at the right time in the right format and in the right place to assist in moving a specific sales opportunity forward.” Nowhere in this definition does it say that sales enablement is about marketing or sales, but rather the indication is that sales enablement is squarely focused on facilitating the buyer experience—by whichever role is best positioned to so Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum As digital channels and social platforms become more embedded in business, marketers and salespeople alike must become proficient with the skills necessary to address their company’s strategic objectives The ability for buyers and customers to interactively exchange information with their peers, colleagues and partners will only increase This reality can be extremely liberating for buyers, but also serves to introduce confusion by stretching their ability to filter information to determine what is credible and what—and who—they should ignore This informational flow never stops Therefore, marketing and sales must be diligent, consistent and continuous in their efforts to interact with the people who can benefit the most from the products and solutions your company provides Sustainable marketing and sales programs that deliver on objectives must put buyers at the center of strategy With the framework and tools presented in this eBook series, marketers and salespeople can collaboratively build the foundation they need to successfully: 32 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum • Be found with the right information in the channels buyers prefer • Attract and keep the attention of buyers and influencers • Respond appropriately with digital dialogues that motivate buyer intent • Elevate the perceived value of every interaction—whether with marketing or sales By knowing your buyers and understanding their needs, preferences, priorities and aversions, marketing and sales can provide the education, expertise and evidence needed to become strategic resources and partners that buyers choose to engage with and buy from It’s time to make the move from static to dynamic There’s no going back 33 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum About the Author Ardath Albee, CEO of her firm Marketing Interactions, Inc., applies 25 years of business management and marketing experience to help B2B companies with complex sales create eMarketing strategies that use contagious content to turn prospects into buyers Ardath authors the popular Marketing Interactions blog and is a frequent industry speaker Her book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale was published by McGraw-Hill Ardath was recently selected as one of the Top 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management for 2011 Please visit her Website and follow her on Twitter About Hoover’s, Inc Hoover’s, founded in 1990, is a D&B company that provides its customers with insight and actionable information about companies, industries and key decision makers, along with the powerful tools to find and connect to the right people to get business done Hoover’s provides this information for sales, marketing, business development, and other professionals who need intelligence on U.S and global companies, industries, and the people who lead them Hoover’s unique combination of editorial expertise and one-of-a-kind data collection with user-generated and company-supplied content gives customers a 360-degree view and competitive edge This information, along with powerful tools to search, sort, download and integrate the content, is available through Hoover’s subscriptions Hoover’s is headquartered in Austin, Texas Follow Hoover’s on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn 34 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc [...]... complex to solve, so to do the solutions we provide to serve our customers Distilling our messaging down to clarity that persuades buyers to take next steps is the issue marketers must address to embrace the content marketing continuum 22 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum From Big-bang PR to Continuous Publishing It used to be that marketers would spend months... ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Vorsight & The Bridge Group, Inc Sales Speaks: Perceptions and Ponderings on Marketing Leads, 2011 Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Why the Toss Over the Wall is OUT and the Baton Pass is IN Technology can become a double-edged sword when it’s used to replace process with function An example is the automation of the lead handoff from marketing automation... sales conversations And it’s not a one-time thing Just as marketing content evolves when buyers change, sales content must, as well In order to tune sales content, it’s imperative that marketing get feedback 30 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum and monitor content use and effectiveness to learn what’s working for sales Marketing needs to take responsibility... content and the Q&A at the end • Monitoring #hashtags for keywords on Twitter for insights about specific topics 21 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum From Packaged Campaigns to Tuning on the Fly The days of perfecting a campaign (or thinking we have), then executing and waiting to see how it turns out are over The beauty of marketing automation is “In the next... loyalty? Today’s customers switch on a dime – 5 new metrics for loyalty and how to use them ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Every question that your buyers have can be answered directly with a content asset Discovering all the questions they will need to answer during their buying process should be part of the persona development process When Top 3 Marketing. .. addressing Catch Factors within your content, you will not only catch, but keep, attention across the buying process, transitioning it from cursory to intentional attention that turns prospects into buyers Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum 3 Voluntary attention – These are the people who subscribe to everything you publish They read your blog, sign up to attend webinars, but always stop short... based on the effectiveness of salespeople to create high-value perception coupled with low risk for buyers to help them make a purchase decision in your company’s favor 17 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Design Content Flows for Target Segments A content flow is the storyline marketers must create to engage a prospective buyer over the course of their... Sales & Marketing Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum still the ones most likely to have the insights and knowledge that marketing needs to perform that function well Contrast that with the opportunity marketers have to reach and digitally interact with buyers during a longer chunk of the buying experience and you’ll begin to see the disconnect For some reason, marketers often choose to operate... with one problem -to- solution journey If you focus more broadly, it’s hard to tell a consistent story that builds momentum over time Once you’ve used the problem to define scope, decide who the issue is most important to and begin to build your persona following these five steps 11 ©2012 Marketing Interactions, Inc Capitalize on the Content Marketing Continuum Five Steps to Building a Buyer Persona... develop into marketing content using the same research you’ll do to develop the content asset around the main idea All with a different take or spin, each one reinforcing your expertise on the topic Shifts in Skills Needed to Market to the New Buyer Making the shift from static B2B marketing to dynamic B2B eMarketing not only requires the appropriate technology and tools, but a change to the marketer’s