Business Bedrock

Sales tip - how best to follow up when someone downloads your content

It was recently my pleasure to interview via webinar Craig Elias, author of SHiFT!, and renowned guru on all things sales, but in particular the theory of "trigger events".  Trigger events start buyers on new buyer journeys - if we can recognise or even better CAUSE trigger events then we give birth to new sales opportunities, WELL in advance of our competitors knowing about them!

Over the coming weeks, we'll be writing up various components of the interview - expanding on Craig's comments - and giving you links to the various literature he mentions.

To start things off - Craig made some very interesting comments on how best to follow up when a prospect downloads a piece of content - perhaps from your website, or maybe via the landing page associated with your recent email blast.

Via the link at the end of this article you can hear Craig for yourself - but by way of summary he made the following excellent points:

1. When building a form/landing page - the critical questions you need to ask are:
• Name
• Phone
• Email
• How did you hear about this resource
2. Once someone fills in a form and downloads your content, you MUST call them within 5 minutes(!)
• Craig referenced The Lead Response Management Study - carried out by Kellogg/MIT - that informs that the chances of contacting and hence qualifying a lead in 5 minutes is 21 TIMES GREATER than doing it in 30 minutes
3. Craig also referred to Aaron Ross's work around Predictable Revenue
4. So - once someone has downloaded your content - your have 5 minutes to call them.  What do you say?  Craig's advice is:

• State that you're following up on them filling in the form - and you have 3 quick questions, so can you take 2 minutes of their time(?)
• Question 1 - "Did you get the email that has the link to the resource you were looking for?"
• Question 2 - "How did you hear about this resource?" OR "What about this resource caught your attention?"
• Question 3 - "I am curious - what happened recently that made this resource more important/relevant to you?"

What you're listening for as you ask these questions is to determine where on the buyer journey the prospect is ie are they:

• Calm
• Their status quo is shattered ie they're in the "window of dissatisfaction"
• They're searching for solutions/alternatives

 

So - having determined where they are on their journey - what's the CTA (Call To Action)?

Based on information gathered - you may offer to send them a new resource to advance them on their buyer journey - or ultimately you may offer them some sort of "scoping study", wherein you can fully analyse their situation, and make specific recommendations.

So - are you responding to content downloads within 5 minutes?  And are you then asking the 3 key follow up questions?  Click on the link below to hear the relevant part of the interview with Craig.

Craig Elias - Following Up a Form Download

 

Optimising your online presence for shorter sales cycles

 

 By Jill Riddiford, B2B Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting

 

Content matching with keywords

To better engage with customers we need to reach them with the right content at the right time. Buyers use different types of language, when looking for solutions, depending on what stage they are at along the buyer journey.

Businesses typically don’t have the mechanisms in place to attract prospects early in their buying journey, so using ‘late buyer journey’ tactics such as offering a ‘buy now’ incentive isn’t always appropriate. It certainly won’t help the buyer who is at the ‘search around problem’ stage and wants to first build their awareness of potential solutions to a problem.

So how do we increase the probability of buyers reaching us when they in the early stage of their buyer journey?

One of the best indicators of where someone is along the buyer journey is reviewing the types of keywords they are using within their searches - what people are searching for can provide a clue as to the type of content that could be developed.

For example the owner of a growing business wants to upgrade their phone network and types in: “upgrading small business phone system” which brings up a long list of suppliers and a few comparison sites, the “Search around problem” stage in diagram above.

The searcher takes a deep breath as he anticipates several hours of research ahead but notices on the first page of results, an article: “How to choose the right phone system for your small business.”

The article, authored by a Telco supplier, provides some useful information and the buyer is now better able to frame his requirements and the likely solution. The buyer narrows down the search to three suppliers which he then compares directly on their websites for features and prices, but he is more inclined to purchase from the supplier who provided the useful article.

Of course from the supplier’s perspective, throwing out a random ‘how to” article is not enough to ensure a high ranking in Google search results. Businesses need to build and nurture their online presence by regularly updating their website content, participating in social networks and using relevant keywords.

Using early buyer journey keywords in your website content such as white papers or blogs, means that buyers are more likely to discover you while still at the early stage of their buying cycle. At this point, buyers are unlikely to search for business names, and unless you are a major well-known brand, buyers probably don’t know who you are. But they may use generic words such as ‘review’ e.g. “cloud services review”.

However B2B buyers have become more sophisticated in their searches and are increasingly using “longer tail” keywords to enhance their SEO (search engine optimisation) process and increase the visibility of their website in organic, i.e. unpaid for search results. See example below, source: www.elliance.com

   

Long tail keywords are those that have less search volume but are highly targeted, e.g. “cloud services legal firms Sydney”. You can search for long-tail keywords with Google’s Keyword Planner Tool.

Or to generate ideas for long tail keywords, simply start typing in part of your keyword phrase into Google and keyword phrases will be suggested.

The SEO process doesn’t just apply to websites. LinkedIn profiles are also searchable so be mindful of the appropriate keywords to include on this platform to highlight the value you can provide to buyers.

By helping buyers to diagnose their needs — and at the earlier stages of the buyer's journey - businesses enhance their prospects of becoming a trusted advisor. To find out more, download our free whitepaper: Don’t let B2B buyers buy by themselves.

10 tips to successfully distribute content

 

By Jill Riddiford, B2B Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting.

 

Producing quality content on a regular basis is vital in marketing today but you need to make sure it’s reaching the right people.

 So after all the hard work you put in to ensure your content is relevant and interesting to your target audience, consider how to make your content work for you.

1. Find your niche
Reaching a smaller number of the right people for your content is generally a more effective strategy than broadcasting your message out to the widest possible audience.

The good thing about niches is that a greater proportion of members are likely to be active and therefore the more impact your content will have. From there it’s easier to engage and build a reputation as an authority within your space.

For super sharp targeting, know your buyer personas (a representation of your ideal customer) – where are they hanging out and getting their content from? Make use of online communities such as LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups to help locate your best targets.

2. Share it
To start with, publish the content on your website blog and then share it in social media channels:
• Post on LinkedIn – be mindful of the best times – generally late morning is good
• Use Twitter to tweet a snippet of your content and link back to the blog
• Add a link to your blog in your email signature

3. Recycling is in
If you have great content to start with it can be reused and repurposed many times across various mediums. (It’s a good idea to aim for evergreen content that can be used for months or even years.)

For example, maybe you’ve invested a significant amount of time into creating a whitepaper that includes the results of research you’ve conducted into your customer base. Think about other places where you can reuse that content.

You could prepare a summary of it and turn it into a slideshare presentation. Or maybe some of the statistics would work well in an Infographic.

A good principle to keep in mind is that different people prefer to consume content in different ways. Some people are more visual and enjoy video presentations, others prefer text, and for those who spend a lot of time commuting, podcasts can be ideal. There’s also the time factor; for example, personally I usually prefer reading as I can quickly scan the article to find relevant information, which is not so easy with a video.

Why not include a question about preferred content consumption in your next customer newsletter or survey.

4. Quote sources and experts
Mentioning expert sources in your content increases credibility and the authorities you cite may also reshare in their network. Look for experts in topics that complement your area of specialty.

5. Media and other influencers
Think about the wider media sphere when preparing your content. Who are the influencers in your industry that carry weight – perhaps a journalist in your trade media or mainstream media, or an influential blogger? Remember these people are always looking for good content – keep a list of story ideas and build relationships with these influencers.

6. Email marketing
Content marketing involves more than social media channels. Make sure that you leverage the people who already have a connection to your business – your database of customers and others you have built a relationship with. These people have “bought in” to your messages so include carefully targeted email campaigns or newsletters as part of your content marketing program.

7. Getting real
We may live in a digital world but live events are a powerful marketing strategy as you can share content and interact directly with your audience. People remember experiences longer than what they recall from reading on social media. And of course you can continue to engage your customers with content after the event is over.

8. It’s all about the journey
Ideally your content should lead the buyer on a journey, perhaps starting by reading a post on LinkedIn, clicking through to read your blog and then downloading a whitepaper. From there you need to have the processes in place to contact your readers and stay in touch.

Keep in mind how the type of content maps to the buyer journey. For example, to reach customers who are unaware of a problem, use a piece of content that will shock them out of their comfort zone e.g. a webinar or video, but if you want to reach them when they’re searching around the problem, perhaps a ‘How to’ guide is best. See the guide below for how different types of content can work at different stages of the buyer journey.

9. Measuring
With a distribution plan in place, you need to set objectives and measure the effectiveness of your content marketing. Start with basic free tools such as Google Analytics for your website and HootSuite for social media.

10. Do you have content confidence?
Not sure where to start with a content marketing strategy? Complete this content self-assessment to see how you rate:

What content marketing is and why you need it

 

Content marketing - when less is more

By Jill Riddiford, B2B Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting. 

Marketers can sometimes feel pressured to produce a large volume of content without considering what type of content may be most effective and when.

With buyers today better informed, how can Marketing and Sales engage customers before they even know they have a problem – before they reach out to a sales organisation? (See steps in new buyer journey below and opportunity to engage early.)

Consider the case of the owner of a medium size business who relies on various IT infrastructure to keep his company running smoothly.

This Mr B2B potential buyer doesn’t wake up in the morning and decide suddenly that his business needs a new accounting system (the calm point at the left hand side, above.) It often takes a near disaster such as data loss or a security scare to shatter his sense of status quo, and spark his buying journey (the next point after calm.)

These status quo shattering moments occur frequently. Marketing and Sales can listen to when these occur, knowing that these instances would be a good point to reach out to the prospect with a timely, relevant and targeted message.

Being proactive

But the ultimate goal is to be the one doing the status quo shattering. The marketer of the accounting system should develop ‘disruptive customer insights’ and package these up into different marketing and sales collateral. This could be the online publication of whitepapers, blogs and webinars with early engagement keywords to attract buyers in the early stages. It could also be providing Sales with the tools and training they need to deliver these insights, enabling them to shatter the status quo. 

Typical thought leadership style of content, which teaches customers about something they could be doing, is not appropriate here. 

Disruptive, or “challenger” content deliberately gets the customer to “unlearn” something they already know or believe about the way their business operates. It also needs to be uniquely relevant.

To produce this type of material, marketers need to be investigative and curious, digging deep into their customers’ business challenges. The objective is to provoke the customer out of their comfort zone and focus on the potential cost of inaction. 

Aligning sales and marketing

This approach requires Marketing and Sales to work together. The job of B2B marketers is no longer just to generate leads and “throw these over the fence” to Sales. As Sales and Marketing have different perspectives on the same customer situations, collaboration and sharing of ideas between Sales and Marketing is the key to producing the best content.

 Although finding unique insights, packaging them up and enabling Sales to deliver them can be challenging, the good news is that the creation of disruptive content typically means that less content is required from marketing teams because of the increased impact of what is published, e.g. in terms of social media shares, reposts and reviews.

Content along the buyer’s journey

Looking at the buyer’s total journey, different types of content can be more appropriate at different times.

But the most effective time is early in the process – status quo shattering. In this way, interruption marketing is not such a bad thing if it means creating disruptive insights.

To read more about content marketing and the new buyer journey, see our whitepaper: The rise of Challenger marketing: 7 guiding principles on how to challenge the customer.

Social selling - the jury is in!

Just as occurred some years ago with global warming, there are people both scared and dismissive of B2B social selling.

The reasons why executives are scared of social selling are well documented. That being said, there are some hugely successful global business leaders using social selling tactics incredibly well, some of which even admit they could not operate without it!

Increasingly though, there is a mounting case of statistical evidence to point to the success that social media can provide if successfully mixed into the sales process. We thought we'd share some of the most compelling statistics with you.

Consider the following:

• Some 72.6% of sales people using social media outperformed their sales peers, and exceeded quota 23% more often
• Social selling increases total team attainment of sales quota, improves customer retention rate, increases sales forecast accuracy and increases the percentage of sales reps making target
• Some 3 in 4 IT purchasing committees are ready to have a conversation with a new vendor on social media
• Some 68% of IT buyers are open to connecdting with vendors via social media and 76% are ready to have a conversation via social media

We could list countless more statistics - but the case is inarguable.

So - why aren't more sales teams getting on board?

In our view, the problem lies in the training strategy. The emphasis is usually placed on training sales teams on individual platforms ("Come on everyone - let's attend this course on how to use Facebook to sell") rather than on selling techniques that happen to include (relevant) social platforms. 

We need to constantly remind ourselves that we need to learn about selling - not about social media!

At Carpe Diem we've had great success training sales teams on sales workflows that include social media, even though these workflows might span a number of social media platforms. We concentrate on teaching about how to sell more effectively and only focus on platforms relevant to the business we're training. 

What are these workflows?

• Finding new opportunities
• Finding new prospects
• Being introduced to new prospects
• Tracking competitor activity
• Maintaining thought leadership and "top of mind" with customers
• And so on.

See how your organisation's social media adoption is faring against others in it's space by participating in our annual "social media trends in B2B organisations" survey.

If you want your sales teams to start winning more deals, we're holding a bootcamp "Leveraging social media for sales success" on October 24 in Sydney (also 21 November in Brisbane) in response to the hundreds of people who come though our doors armed with the stats that prove social selling is having traction. 

The bootcamp will introduce and build on the key new concepts and skills required to create and implement a successful social media strategy for B2B sales. You will walk away with an action plan that will be followed up by the instructor after the session to ensure you are implementing what you have learnt.

Qualifying prospects via social selling - did they read the info we sent?

I wonder how many times in the last century a well-meaning salesperson has been sent away “happy” from a sales call because the prospect asked them to “send me some information”, and they dutifully email off the company profile and some brochures.

The follow up phone call goes unanswered. How do we know whether or not the prospect actually looked at what we sent?

At Carpe Diem we prefer to talk about social selling WORKFLOWS rather than social media PLATFORMS, but every now and then the capabilities of a specific platform make us sit up and take notice.

We believe that social selling is really about “listening”, “publishing” and “participating in communities” – but tools such as Postwire interestingly deliver the “publishing” piece, whilst at the same time allowing us to “listen” to see whether the prospect is responding.

Postwire involves setting up individual web pages for individual prospects/customers and then posting information within that page that we believe is of interest to them.  The prospect/customer accepts the invitation to review the page (and is free to review the information we send to them) which we can regularly update over time.

What a great situation to be in if the prospect/customer accepts our Postwire invitation. We can regularly update the information contained in our Postwire page, with that page wedged into our customer’s browser’s bookmarks.

If we’re smart, we’ll AVOID putting information about our company and our products - information which frankly is extremely BORING to our customers.  We could however provide thought leadership pieces, case studies, checklists etc – using content marketing principles to position ourselves in the minds of the customers.

The trouble is, how do we know if they’re reviewing the stuff we serve up?

What’s great about Postwire (and other platforms such as SlideShare that has similar functionality) is that it reports back to us on whether or not the customer accesses our information. Furthermore, it tells us which pieces they access and when, as well as a convenient form for them to provide us with feedback.

In summary, if we accept that the knowledge as to whether or not a customer reads what we send them is a valuable qualifying tool, why wouldn’t we use these sorts of platforms to deliver information to customers rather than just “email it out”?

To learn more about social selling and how to increase your sales by using social media, attend our full-day training bootcamp: Leveraging social media for sales success, taking place in Sydney (Oct 2013) and Brisbane (Nov 2013). 

Digital Marketer of the Future – 4 trends disrupting the way we work

By Melanie McKinney, Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting. 

Last week's blog was all about the exponential change that is effecting the Digital Marketer of the Future. This week's blog is all about the 4 trends that are disrupting the way we, as marketers, work. 

1. New customer journey

• Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)

Before consumers are purchasing, they use the web to talk to peers and find out information about the product or service they are thinking about buying. Find out more here: Zero Moment of Truth. 

• Consideration of Omni-channel rather than Multi-channel.

Multi-channel means different messaging comes from different channels all around the same product / company.

Omni-channel means a unified customer experience that acknowledges the different ways the product is marketed and purchased. All channels need to be fully integrated.

• Mobile landscape shifting rapidly

- In 2013 mobile internet usage will overtake desktop usage
- Australia has 2^nd largest mobile penetration in the world
- 41% use mobile as primary device for accessing social networking sites
- 36% use mobile as primary device for search
- The scariest thing about these facts are that in Australia, people spend 30% of media time on their mobile but the advertising industry is spending only 0.001% of their budget on mobile.

Impact?

• It’s never been more important to understand HOW your customers buy and how that changes your strategy. This effects B2B too – they way your customers buy has changed. You can learn more about this at our How to get on your buyer’s shortlist event, taking place all over Australia.
• It’s never been more important to understand how marketing activity translates into business objectives.

2. Social reengineering

• Social media shouldn’t be about “media” (which media platforms you use), it’s now all about the “social” part.  It is about changing the whole company’s relationship with consumers.
• Australians spend more time on social networks than anywhere else in the world. This creates a huge opportunity for marketers whether you are B2C or B2B. If your company isn’t social, you will miss out on sales.
• Read about the first crowdsourced Nissan Z

Impact?

• Collaboration is essential to make your company social. Cross-functional teams with shared decision-making.
• Marketers should stop trying to “own” social media and get everybody in the business involved. They should manage this process and facilitate this process – not get in the way.

3. Multi-screening  

Multi-tasking is standard.

 

80% use smartphones while:

• watching tv 48%
• using internet 34%
• watching film 29%
• playing video games 16%
• listening to music 46%

 Plus:

• People under 30 years old can do 5.4 things at once
• People who are 40+ can do 1.2 things at once

Impact?

• Are you just promoting your products / services on one screen or are you building multi-screen experiences for the multi-screen consumers? 

5. The Singularity

Ray Kurzweil (The transcendent man): “Technology is progressing at such a rate that it will intersect and surpass the processing power of the human brain”. He predicts this will happen 2029.

Scary stuff? It’s actually happening.

Examples:

• Connected devices - Evrythng
• Smart technology – Start Cap and Outback Steak House birthday chair 
• Wearable technology – Neurowear   

Impact?

• Are you building a culture of experimentation in your company?
• Have you found the right partners?
• Are you ready to fail sometimes?

 Panel pointers 

A few key pieces of advice from the panel experts:

• John Batistich - Director of Marketing - Westfield Group
• Matt James - Managing Director - Mi9 Media
• Niall Mckinney - CEO - The Knowledge Engineers

What skills do people now need?

• Businesses need their teams to collaborate; marketers now need deep technology skills and a large mirage of skill bases including sales, technology, and analytical skills. Matt James.
• Skills are only part of the mix. Test and learn with a sense of urgency and have the ability to take people with you. Encourage curiosity, creativity and imagination – this will allow you to adapt through this change. John Batistich.
• Digital is no longer a department. Data and data scientists are now no longer a small group of geeks – they’ve gone mainstream. John Batistich.

How to find people with this kind of talent?

• Recruit through social networks. There’s been a big change in the way we recruit from recruiting only when we need it to on-going recruitment so we create a talent pool or a talent pipeline. Create relationships now, then when / if a role comes up, you’re ready to go. John Batistich.

How to get your senior management to build this culture?

• Find out who the blockers are and who needs to be convinced – then use doses of fear (to motivate) change. John Batistich.
• Talk to them in their own language – make it highly practical and highly relevant to their business. Don’t talk blue sky and make sure you empathise with their concerns. Overusing fear can disable change too. Niall McKinney.
• Quantify it – can we afford to lose $20M if we miss out on an opportunity? Matt James.

If you work in B2B ICT and you think you / your company needs help addressing some of the issues above, download our related whitepapers on the topic. These are all specifically created for B2B ICT Sales and Marketing staff. You can also use our useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of your content marketing program against the needs of the modern B2B buyer.

To learn more about the new customer journey, come to our How to get on your buyer’s shortlist event, taking place in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne which is aimed specifically at B2B ICT Sales and Marketing Directors. Spaces are limited so register today.

Digital Marketer of the Future – exponential change

By Melanie McKinney, Marketing Consultant at Carpe Diem Consulting. 

I went along to the Digital Marketing of the Future event last week - run by the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) and The Knowledge Engineers.  We were presented with insightful and forward-thinking content and a view we could not complain about (the venue was the top of Sydney Tower with panoramic views)! This week's blog is all about the changing digital landscape and will be followed next week with a blog identifying the 4 key trends disrupting the way we work. 

Speakers:

• Sam Yorke –  Acting CEO & Head of Regulatory Affairs - IAB
• Niall McKinney – CEO – The Knowledge Engineers 

Panellists:

• John Batistich – Director of Marketing – Westfield Group
• Matt James – Managing Director – Mi9 Media

The changing landscape

With statistics such as “Digital ad spend is about to overtake free-to-air TV” and “182% increase in mobile ad spend growth from 2012 to 2013” – it’s clear that the way marketers are interacting with their customers is changing – and this applies to B2B marketers too. This is partly due to the changing ways consumers (and businesses) purchase products. The progression and adoption of Digital – whether it’s simply Google searching or advergaming – has changed the way customers purchase forever. 

To set the scene, Niall McKinney, CEO of the Knowledge Engineers (and my brother!) shared a very thought-provoking quote from James Cameron who spoke with the Editor of one of TKE’s products (12ahead.com). He said: 

 “All the skills I have learned as a young film-maker have changed. Each tech skill I learned at the time is obsolete. But I am not obsolete. We created a brand new toolset to expand what we can do as story-tellers”.

Exponential change examples

“The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller” (than the one computer at MIT in 1965).

1. The average number (across all categories and all industries) of sources consumers use before making a purchase:

• 2010 it was 5.2
• 2011 it was 10.4
• For B2B businesses, the numbers are likely to be on the higher end of this spectrum. When a business is parting with a large amount of money they do their homework – and may have multiple people working on this homework at one time (as opposed to one consumer looking to buy a new teapot).

2. Volume of mobile data used by the average person (in the world) every year:

• 2010 it was 55MB
• 2011 it was 150MB
• 2012 mobile internet overtook fixed line in India (and in China this year).

3. Some 90% of the world’s consumer data was created in the last two years. The majority of this data is unstructured.  

What does this means to marketers and how we do business?

• Skills: The world has changed and our skills as marketers have to change with it. We are not obsolete – but we need new skills to keep on top of these changes.

• Speed: We need to be able to quickly change our business models and marketing / sales practice when it’s needed - rather than following fads.  

• Change: We need the ability to change - in our own roles and in our companies. Our places of work have to nurture this.

If you work in B2B ICT and you think you / your company needs help addressing some of the issues above, use one of our self-assessment tools to identify where your weaknesses are. These are all specifically created for B2B ICT Sales and Marketing staff: 

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of your content marketing program against the needs of the modern B2B buyer.
2. Assess your business to see if social media is being used to maximise your marketing & sales outcomes.  

To learn more about the new customer journey, come to our “How to get on your buyer’s shortlist event” taking place in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne which is aimed specifically at B2B ICT Sales and Marketing Directors. Spaces are limited so register today.