When Alexis reassures David by telling him "People aren't thinking about you the way you're thinking about you" on an episode of Schitt's Creek, she accurately describes the spotlight effect.
What's true for individuals is even more true for businesses, especially B2B brands. The people working within them see their own spotlight and believe that their company news carries the same weight for the world at large as it does for them.
If you are one of those people, then it's time to snap out of that delusion and stop embarrassing yourself by assuming all applicants and new hires should have heard of your company before they tried to get a job there.
Why should they when they're not even your target customer? Remember: when your services are sold only to other businesses, your offerings are completely irrelevant to individual consumers.
There's absolutely no reason why an individual would be following your little startup and thinking about you the way you think about yourself. Even if you make it to unicorn status, that won't make you stand out among the thousands of other unicorns out there.
And as for those businesses that may have heard of you because they saw your represented at a trade show or they saw your ad, that doesn't mean they're just dying to hear all about your struggles and triumphs.
All they're really interested in is what you can do for them. So if you just go on and on about your accomplishments, you will not only fail to impress your audience, you will likely lose their attention altogether.
Brands fall into that mistake of playing the hero of the story they present because they have that skewed perspective of seeing themselves at the center of everything. But effective marketing is about allowing your customers to be the heroes.
Who’s the hero in your marketing story?
A few years ago, I interviewed Ken Rutsky, author of Launching to Leading: How B2B Market Leaders Create Flashmobs, Marshal Parades, and Ignite Movements, about what what goes into successful B2B marketing. One of the biggest misconceptions people have, he said, is that all they need is the right tech.
While tech does indeed play a role in data-driven marketing, Rutsky considers it only one third of the story. And getting the story right is actually the key thing in effectively connecting with B2B customers, just as it is for B2C customers.
From the tales of Homer to comic books and films like Star Wars, and even Disney’s Moana, stories of a hero’s journey remain persistently popular. Rutsky credits Joseph Campbell’s 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, for breaking down the steps involved in such stories.
Rutsky quotes Campbell’s summary of the journey story on p. 95 of his own book: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
In his own words, Rutsky described it as the hero’s perilous journey far from home to bring “a magical gift” to improve his own world. Such stories are a great way for marketers to present a product or service that will solve a persistent problem for the business customer. And they often do so, but what they tend to get wrong is the casting of the hero.
“Don’t make the product the hero,” warns Rutsky. “Make the customer the hero.”
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A young Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone in Disney's animated movie. |
While it is very tempting to give the starring role to what we’re selling, you must resist that temptation. Consider what's of greater interest to your target market and how story lines typically play out to audiences. In narratives of legends, we're not nearly as interested in the engineering of Excalibur or as we are in the hero who manages the wield its power as the rightful king.
What is of interest to the audience is how they can use your products and services to solve the problem. They take on the role of the hero, thanks to the magical sword that will enable them to slay the dragon. Or they will be the CMO that is able to deliver targeted campaigns via the real time data updates that come through your tech solution.
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