On this Thanksgiving Day, I’d like to thank our customers, the staff of Minds On, and the local community here in Central Ohio for making this a wonderful year. And a special thanks to those of you who are now following us on this blog and our Twitter and Facebook pages. I really enjoy sharing in the conversations that are getting started.
This is a day specifically set aside for the contemplation of the previous year and the many things we have to be grateful for. I have a long list. I hope you do as well.
All of us at Minds On wish you a happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Becoming a Thought Leader – Part 1
In my post, 5 Ways to Really Connect with Your B2B Audience, I detailed 5 key steps you can take in driving effective marketing with today’s emerging tools. I’ve covered Understanding ALL of Your Audiences. Let’s move on now to one of the most difficult and valuable points.
Thought leaders are individuals that don’t just know a lot about a particular topic; they’re the ones SHARING their ideas. The best ones are doing so in a continual stream of detailed blog posts and position papers, but also with Tweets in a short, nearly continuous flow of ideas and observations. That focused and persistent contact is very close to what before was an unobtainable marketing idea. But now you really can stay in front of your customers and prospects all of the time – especially if you have something valuable to say to them.
Let me give you an example of someone from the marketing world, Seth Godin. Seth is a popular author and speaker, but using the social media tools, I can hear from Seth every day, see what he’s thinking, let him spark new ideas for me. And I can communicate with him by exchanging comments. His blog, is simple, direct, and very focused. Just a few minutes out of his day and he touches thousands of interested readers.
Guy Kawasaki is another – he’s a terrific speaker – make sure and see him if you have a chance. And his blog and experiments in social media are very interesting.
The fact of the matter is this: not just anyone can become a thought leader. First, you need experience and the insight to recognize what you’ve learned in a particular subject area. And leadership means sharing what you’ve learned and are currently thinking in that subject. It’s a significant commitment. To truly be a thought leader you’ll need to share frequently; and frankly, most business people aren’t able to make the time and mental commitment to do that. But if you do decide to step up and become a thought leader, the potential returns – the payoff – can be significant for you and your organization.
Here’s one big benefit: increased search engine ranking. If you publish just blog posts on your web site every week, that’s 52 new articles about your business, your industry, and the issues your customers face. That will gradually build up the “Long Tail” and increase your traffic.
In my next post – Part 2 – I’ll post 9 steps you can take to become a thought leader.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to become a thought leader. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
Thought leaders are individuals that don’t just know a lot about a particular topic; they’re the ones SHARING their ideas. The best ones are doing so in a continual stream of detailed blog posts and position papers, but also with Tweets in a short, nearly continuous flow of ideas and observations. That focused and persistent contact is very close to what before was an unobtainable marketing idea. But now you really can stay in front of your customers and prospects all of the time – especially if you have something valuable to say to them.
Let me give you an example of someone from the marketing world, Seth Godin. Seth is a popular author and speaker, but using the social media tools, I can hear from Seth every day, see what he’s thinking, let him spark new ideas for me. And I can communicate with him by exchanging comments. His blog, is simple, direct, and very focused. Just a few minutes out of his day and he touches thousands of interested readers.
Guy Kawasaki is another – he’s a terrific speaker – make sure and see him if you have a chance. And his blog and experiments in social media are very interesting.
The fact of the matter is this: not just anyone can become a thought leader. First, you need experience and the insight to recognize what you’ve learned in a particular subject area. And leadership means sharing what you’ve learned and are currently thinking in that subject. It’s a significant commitment. To truly be a thought leader you’ll need to share frequently; and frankly, most business people aren’t able to make the time and mental commitment to do that. But if you do decide to step up and become a thought leader, the potential returns – the payoff – can be significant for you and your organization.
Here’s one big benefit: increased search engine ranking. If you publish just blog posts on your web site every week, that’s 52 new articles about your business, your industry, and the issues your customers face. That will gradually build up the “Long Tail” and increase your traffic.
In my next post – Part 2 – I’ll post 9 steps you can take to become a thought leader.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to become a thought leader. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Understanding ALL of Your Audiences
In my post, 5 Ways to Really Connect with Your B2B Audience, I detailed 5 key steps you can take in driving effective marketing with today’s emerging tools.
Today, let’s talk about identifying and understanding all of the different audiences you deal with.
Here’s the first thing you’ve got to understand: you don’t have just one audience. In trying to reach the decision maker inside a business, you’ll often discover it isn’t just one person. There are several people, or groups of people, that will have a say in that buying decision. In a consumer sales transaction, marketers are taking advantage of the new social media tools to grow and expand the power of peer influencers. Consumers won’t buy because of an advertisement they saw, but they very well might, based on what their friends and people they admire recommend. You can use those same tools to develop peer influencers for your B2B sales.
But in a B2B transaction, it can become a much more complex and time-consuming process. You’ll need to leverage a combination of media – based on marketing fundamentals – consistency, repetition, and multiple touches – but with additional new tools. And these social media tools are here to stay, so don’t be a late adopter and miss their benefits while your competitors establish themselves as the authorities and masters of these new approaches, informing and influencing YOUR potential customers.
To get started, you need to pinpoint exactly who each potential decision maker is inside your prospect’s organization. The idea is to break the big catchall “audience” into smaller groups and then target your strategy to each group separately. You’ll likely find that these different groups and individuals respond to marketing very differently – reacting to different tone, imagery, and offers uniquely. Your segmentation of these audiences needs to include a very clear picture of who you’re talking to.
The Miller Heiman approach as outlined in The New Strategic Selling defines four basic buyers inside any organization: Economic (also known as executive or “C Level”), User, Technical, and Coach. They care about VERY different things. You have to be able to speak to each of these and address what they care about.
Think about it this way, the user, the person or department that will be using your product or service, has their own specific needs. They probably don’t care what it costs; they care about how it will help them do their job and meet their goals. But the Economic buyer cares very much about cost. They’re focused on VALUE and ROI, not features. They want to know one thing: how does it affect my bottom line. The Technical buyer will have their concerns, including system integration issues, ease of implementation, and the non-acquisition costs. And you’ll typically have outside parties, consultants and trusted experts that may talk with each of these players. They’ll be some of the most important influencers – they’re coaching the team members and helping them achieve their corporate goals. If you can find out who your audiences trust and listen to and talk with these trusted influencers, you’re a lot closer to winning the business.
It’s not easy, but you’ll need to speak directly to each audience and make it possible for them to come into easy agreement that YOU provide the best solution. Each will come to the table to decide with their own concerns. Do they have everything they need to reach that decision? Do they need more than a website? Is there still a role for technical specs, white papers, product brochures, and other conventional materials?
After you have identified and segmented your audience, you need to determine how best to reach each group. Ask yourself the following questions:
Start a spreadsheet! Down the side list your best customers, the ones you have the best fit with. Then across the top list when they last bought from you, what they bought, and the job titles involved in the decision to work with you. You can add columns at any time, like for what role did they play in the decision, what messages worked with them, and how they responded to separate media types. I think you’ll quickly see patterns – patterns you can use to help drive your messages forward.
Yes, the B2B buying cycle can take a lot of effort and time, but if you’re clear in your understanding of your segmented audiences and stick with it, you’ll find the success and sales you need. You’ll have to be consistent and patient, but I’ve seen it pay off again and again.
In my next post – I’ll post Becoming a Thought Leader.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to understand all of your audiences. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
Today, let’s talk about identifying and understanding all of the different audiences you deal with.
Here’s the first thing you’ve got to understand: you don’t have just one audience. In trying to reach the decision maker inside a business, you’ll often discover it isn’t just one person. There are several people, or groups of people, that will have a say in that buying decision. In a consumer sales transaction, marketers are taking advantage of the new social media tools to grow and expand the power of peer influencers. Consumers won’t buy because of an advertisement they saw, but they very well might, based on what their friends and people they admire recommend. You can use those same tools to develop peer influencers for your B2B sales.
But in a B2B transaction, it can become a much more complex and time-consuming process. You’ll need to leverage a combination of media – based on marketing fundamentals – consistency, repetition, and multiple touches – but with additional new tools. And these social media tools are here to stay, so don’t be a late adopter and miss their benefits while your competitors establish themselves as the authorities and masters of these new approaches, informing and influencing YOUR potential customers.
To get started, you need to pinpoint exactly who each potential decision maker is inside your prospect’s organization. The idea is to break the big catchall “audience” into smaller groups and then target your strategy to each group separately. You’ll likely find that these different groups and individuals respond to marketing very differently – reacting to different tone, imagery, and offers uniquely. Your segmentation of these audiences needs to include a very clear picture of who you’re talking to.
The Miller Heiman approach as outlined in The New Strategic Selling defines four basic buyers inside any organization: Economic (also known as executive or “C Level”), User, Technical, and Coach. They care about VERY different things. You have to be able to speak to each of these and address what they care about.
Think about it this way, the user, the person or department that will be using your product or service, has their own specific needs. They probably don’t care what it costs; they care about how it will help them do their job and meet their goals. But the Economic buyer cares very much about cost. They’re focused on VALUE and ROI, not features. They want to know one thing: how does it affect my bottom line. The Technical buyer will have their concerns, including system integration issues, ease of implementation, and the non-acquisition costs. And you’ll typically have outside parties, consultants and trusted experts that may talk with each of these players. They’ll be some of the most important influencers – they’re coaching the team members and helping them achieve their corporate goals. If you can find out who your audiences trust and listen to and talk with these trusted influencers, you’re a lot closer to winning the business.
It’s not easy, but you’ll need to speak directly to each audience and make it possible for them to come into easy agreement that YOU provide the best solution. Each will come to the table to decide with their own concerns. Do they have everything they need to reach that decision? Do they need more than a website? Is there still a role for technical specs, white papers, product brochures, and other conventional materials?
After you have identified and segmented your audience, you need to determine how best to reach each group. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What does my audience want?
- What do they care about?
- What do they dislike?
- Do they respond best to email, direct mail, magazine articles, phone calls or in-person meetings?
- What triggers them to buy?
- What’s your call to action?
- What imagery, tone, and message works?
- And does it work differently in international markets. That’s a whole topic for the future
Start a spreadsheet! Down the side list your best customers, the ones you have the best fit with. Then across the top list when they last bought from you, what they bought, and the job titles involved in the decision to work with you. You can add columns at any time, like for what role did they play in the decision, what messages worked with them, and how they responded to separate media types. I think you’ll quickly see patterns – patterns you can use to help drive your messages forward.
Yes, the B2B buying cycle can take a lot of effort and time, but if you’re clear in your understanding of your segmented audiences and stick with it, you’ll find the success and sales you need. You’ll have to be consistent and patient, but I’ve seen it pay off again and again.
In my next post – I’ll post Becoming a Thought Leader.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to understand all of your audiences. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
5 Ways to Really Connect with Your B2B Audience
Blogging and social media are the hot topic in marketing today and for good reasons. These new tools offer some terrific ways to both connect with and have conversations with customers and future prospects. It’s relatively easy to see how this can work for consumer sales, but a bit more difficult in business-to-business.
I’d like to share with you 5 ways that you can really connect with your B2B audiences using these new tools, as well as some conventional approaches. I’ll list them out here, and then over the next few days I’ll post more with expanded details, tips, and tools you can use to start with - benefiting from these approaches today.
Here’s my 5 Ways to Really Connect with Your B2B Audience:
Come back later this week and I’ll expand on the first point – Understanding ALL of Your audiences.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to really connect with your B2B audience. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
I’d like to share with you 5 ways that you can really connect with your B2B audiences using these new tools, as well as some conventional approaches. I’ll list them out here, and then over the next few days I’ll post more with expanded details, tips, and tools you can use to start with - benefiting from these approaches today.
Here’s my 5 Ways to Really Connect with Your B2B Audience:
- Identify ALL of your audiences and understand what they want and need. In business you rarely have a single decision maker like you can in consumer purchases. You’ll have to find a way to communicate with all of them (and some of them have conflicting interests).
- Become a “thought leader.” Show your audience that you understand their industry, what they need, and why they should be listening to you.
- Personalize – use technology to give your customers and prospects EXACTLY what they want and need. And let them tell you how they want to get it from you.
- Use cross-media approaches to get past the gatekeepers and distractions. You have more than one tool in your belt. Use them all.
- Survey your existing customers – they’ll help you understand how to win new customers.
Come back later this week and I’ll expand on the first point – Understanding ALL of Your audiences.
Give me your feedback
Do you have any thoughts on this? I’d love to hear about what you’re doing to really connect with your B2B audience. Or if you haven’t started that process yet, let’s talk about what it might mean for your business. Please leave a comment here on this blog or feel free to contact me.
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