Step out of the spotlight

 

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.”

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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What to expect from a content marketing strategy

 

                                   Content marketing strategy  photo by Kindel Media on Pexels.com

What makes content marketing distinct from other forms of marketing is that its primary goal is to engage your target audience’s interest rather than lead immediately to a call-to-action to buy. The content can take many forms, ranging from single pictures with captions on social media posts to extended articles, eBooks, and videos.

Part of planning an effective strategy is selecting the medium that is most likely to capture your audience’s attention. For a B2B that means showing awareness of business pain points and insights into what's happening in the industry now. For B2C, you want to connect with the consumers in your target market repeatedly by offering them helpful tips or engaging stories.

For example, a kitchenware seller may send out recipes or blogs that offer advice on healthy substitutions to make guilt-free desserts. It can also use video content effectively to demonstrate techniques in cooking or offer a downloadable app that converts cooking measurements from ounces to grams or milliliters.

​What all the approaches described above have in common is that they position the brand as a credible source of information within its own defined niche. Over time that leads to a deepened relationship with your audience.

Typically, you can expect 6-9 months of consistent content marketing posting to see an uplift in B2B sales. That's because B2B sales typically involve longer cycles, more approvals, and a lot more money than B2C.

 (One exception was a B2B blog I ghostwrote that brought in sales qualified lead the very next day).

As businesses don't tend to very receptive to cold calls and emails from businesses they have not heard of, the support of content marketing and demand gen leads to greater success in outbound sales efforts.

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What makes content marketing effective

 

Hairstylist spraying hair. Photo credit: Rene Asmussen on Pexels.com

 The hairstylist and the photographer

​Once upon a time (in the year 2005 ) I created a print magazine and managed both its content and ads. I brought the two together in what everyone today calls content marketing.  encouraged advertisers to write articles to give readers more context than an ad alone provided.
​
In one issue, I had articles from both a hairstylist-- who got it exactly right -- and a photographer - who got it totally wrong. What she did was offer tips that they could apply to their own hair. He, instead, opted to write about himself and his approach to photography with no takeaways of use to his readers. 

What was the result of the two approaches? The photographer admitted many people told him they saw his article, but they didn't contact him for his services. In contrast, the hairstylist reported that the article brought her more customers than any advertising had ever done. 

The moral of the story

The photographer failed to offer value to the audience  because he was solely focused on self-promotion.  The hairstylist, on the other hand, instinctively understood what content would appeal to her audience and was rewarded for giving it to them.  The key to successful content marketing is not to make it all about you but all about offering useful information for your audience that makes them trust you.  

​
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Beyond February 14: B2B marketing takeaways from Valentine's Day

Pink hearts photo from Freestock on Unsplash

When we think of Valentine’s Day, B2B is not exactly what we think of when we picture candlelit dinners, bouquets of roses, chocolates, gifts of jewelry. and stuffed animals and cards festooned with red and pink hearts. However, if you think out of the heart-shaped box, you can begin to understand that there are quite a number of parallels.

First of all there is the recognition of  important relationships. Sure Valentine’s Day is associated with romantic one specifically, though data tells us that for many people it is also  a day to celebrate their love for parents, children, friends, coworkers,  classmates, teachers, and even  pets. 

This doesn’t mean that you should be shoehorning your own B2B messaging into a heart shape when it doesn’t fit. Instead, think about how you can advance that relationship in authentic ways that relate to your client’s concerns. That means you demonstrate your commitment to meeting their expectations for your products and services. 

It’s the thought that counts for a gift, right? So is it enough to show you realize you are expected to buy something by picking up a gift conveniently set out on display at the drugstore on your way home?  No, the thought that counts is the one that shows you know what the person is about and what they’d like to get.  The question is: what expectations are in place and are they met? 

One interesting revelation from the National Retail Foundation (NRF)  data on holiday spending is the discrepancy that often occurs between the type of gift that people say they want and the percentage that say that is the type they intend to give. To apply this to a B2B context, you don’t want to disappoint your customers by failing to meet their expectations. 

So the first step, obviously, is getting to know them well enough to be able to grasp what they need, what their business goals and pain points are so that you can anticipate them in delivering the solutions. In other words, if you want to show you really care, you have to do better than just the token nod of a one-size-fits-all bouquet of red roses. 

What does it take to deliver on your B2B customer expectations? You have to listen to what they’re saying about  their current needs and wants. That’s not limited to what they tell you directly if you ask them for information in surveys; a lot of it is already out there. It’s possible to tap into the wealth of data, including the record of their purchases, how they place those purchases, what promotions they respond to, where they’re businesses are and where they wish to get to. 

All those data points feed into a complete view of the business that allows you to show you understand them. On that basis, you can build customized communication that is delivered the way they prefer it, whether that is via text, email, snail mail, a video chat, or an in-person visit. While one client may  love the in-person attention, another may consider it a drain on precious time at the office.

The takeaway from Valentine’s Day for building up a happily ever after relationship in B2B is the following:

1.Avoid the one-size-fits-all messages that will disappoint a large number of clients.

2. Put in the effort to get to know what they really want from you.

3. Deliver on those expectations and plan for how to anticipate their future needs and wants.

4. Repeat as necessary.

Acting on wrong assumption in pushing a one-size-fits-all attempt at communication when you should be personalizing doesn't show caring but a lack of consideration for what your recipient prefers. That can be as much a disaster as sending flowers to someone who is highly allergic to them or chocolates to a diabetic because you assumed that the popular choices are the way to go with everyone.

Related: True love meets marketing

The Why and How of B2B Rebranding

What’s in a name? Quite a lot for brands. Many invest a great deal in building up their name recognition. So when a company makes the move to rebrand: the question is, what justifies changing that name, which can cost the company the goodwill it has cultivated over years of conducting business? Also what particular challenges do B2B companies have over B2C ones when taking on rebranding? 

This was the topic of discussion I had with Paul Pellman, a former Google executive and new CEO of Kazoo, an HR tech company that brought together two different companies  — YouEarnedIt and HighGround  — under a single entity this April. With rebranding at the top of a newly named company, we talked about which situations necessitate making such a change.

Read more in 

How to Rebrand a B2B

How to win customers in cybersecurity marketing

Those who work in the cybersecurity business know that they have to keep up to date on points of vulnerability in technology to maintain their edge. What the ones who successfully market their products also know is that they have to adapt to evolving customer expectations in the highly competitive B2B market.

What goes into successful cybersecurity marketing? The answer to that was offered by Ken Rutsky, author of Launching to Leading: How B2B Market Leaders Create Flashmobs, Marshal Parades, and Ignite Movements in a recent interview about the paradigm shift that has occurred in B2B messaging and positioning.....

It’s all about “how to make value conversations relate to the buyer -- not the seller,” he says. 

Read more in How to put the customer at the center of cybersecurity marketing

Keeping it real in telling your marketing story

Just like in the realm of B2C, effective storytelling is fundamental to marketing in B2B. The key differentiator for brands is to make the stories not about how amazing they are but about the amazing results the businesses that use their solutions are able to achieve. That’s the key to a subtle shift in messaging at Dell Technologies. 

As we saw in "B2B Marketing: Who’s Your Hero?" this is exactly what brands should be doing in drawing on the stories of heroic journeys, in which a magical object can be brought back into the hero’s world to solve what appeared to be an insurmountable labor. Accordingly,  Dell Technologies is now showcasing its “Let’s Make it Real" effort, in the context of the real world where heroic businesses are applying the magic of its technology. 

Dell Technologies launched the “Let’s Make it Real” brand campaign on March 27. While the tagline dates back three years, the brand decided to take a new direction, in shifting away from the stage setting that puts the spotlight on digital transformation as magic to real-world scenarios in which digital transformation can have a magical effect. 

The following video represents the brand message Dell Technologies used in the commercial that aired last year.

Actor Jeffrey Wright presents the special effects, in a theater, that go with the defining message: “‘Magic can’t make digital transformation happen. But we can. Let’s make it real.’”  

Read more in: 

B2B Storytelling That Keeps it Real

Related post: https://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2019/03/casting-hero-of-your-story.html

Casting the hero of your story

Recently I spoke with 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. 

Who’s the hero in your marketing story? 

from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/
The_golden_fleece_and_the_heroes_who_lived_before_Achilles_%281921%29_%2814763705761%29.jpg

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. 

Read more in B2B Marketing: Who’s Your Hero?

Planning for 2019: B2B Marketing

CIOs at successful B2B companies are planning for a 2019 marketing stack roadmap with a focus on #CustomerTech. That means not just collecting data but using it to address the business needs of their customers to achieve an unprecedented lift in KPIs defined around understanding customer behavior.

Next year is set to be one for businesses to fully optimize their customer data quality and insights by setting up the right technology platform for marketing to business customers. As you plan your 2019 budgets, the essential thing to think about is the customer aspect of #CustomerTech. Approaching tech from that perspective results in better customer data and analytics -- the prerequisites for account based marketing (ABM).

Thanks to the rise of digital transformation, marketing models have evolved. The same demand for personalization that has arisen in the B2C realm now applies to the world of B2B marketing.

Read more in Gearing up for B2B marketing in 2019

Tailored and Targeted Marketing in the B2B Space

The problem facing B2B marketers is that they have not been given the same tools and capabilities available for B2C marketers to reach people on more than 500 channels available. That's because they don't have integrated data on the people they need to target, which hampers their addressable audience and reach.

The 2016 Forrester Report, “B2B Budget Plans Show That It's Time For A Digital Wake-Up Call," found that even though two-thirds of B2Bs indicated they would be increasing their digital budgets within the year, only about one-fifth considered their teams truly adept at leveraging data and insights for effective digital campaigns. 

Darian Shirazi, CEO and cofounder of Radius, a leader in connecting B2B data and intelligence spoke with me about the big challenge that B2B marketers have had in trying to target a CIO. 

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Targeted Advertising for B2B

Marketing B2B

B2B: Targeting Companies and Contacts

When it comes to B2B marketing, whom do you target? Do you go after the company or a particular individual? Whichever choice you make, there are, of course, solutions available to help you achieve your goal....

Just as it does for B2C, the strategy for B2B marketing starts with knowing who your target market is and reaching them with compelling content. 

read more in B2B: Targeting Companies and Contacts