(sales x marketing) to the power of technology = extraordinary results

Create Leverage and Engage Your Leads

Getting valuable content to your target market is important.  It helps you build relationship and regard.  But putting together compelling content takes more than just providing information to your leads.  It’s also taking into account and triggering four Key Engagers.

I ran across this idea while reading a book I picked up years ago, called “The Power To Get In” by Michael A. Boylan.  It’s a book about access.  Gaining access to those leads and prospects that are important to your sales efforts – and getting right to the decision makers.  While designed for Sales folks, the ideas in the book translate into the Internet marketing age and can be used when putting together your content and approach for reaching your target audience.

The idea is to develop a content strategy that builds leverage with your leads.  If you think about the types of people that make up your target audience, and think about the four Key Engagers, as you construct your personas, you can create a more compelling content strategy.

So what are the four Key Engagers?

1. Fear of loss.  Think about it, when we were kids, we’d mis-behave and only stop and straighten up when the adults around us threatened us in one way or another.  As human beings, we pay attention when we think we could lose something important to us.   
2. Curious Insecurities.  Everyone wants to get ahead.  We pay attention to who’s up, down, ahead, behind, etc.   We’re concerned that someone will pass us by; that we’ll get left in the dust.  We look out for number one.  That is true of each of your leads as well.  Everyone is curious to know where they stand and how we or our organizations compare with others.  
3. Competitiveness.  Our society is extremely competitive – just think about it – with our jobs, schooling, homes, and in social environments, whatever the flavor of it, we “compete” with our peers.  If anything, this has become more pronounced in recent years, not less.  Most people want to be better at their jobs, or be rewarded or recognized for their contribution.  
4. Strong Desire to be a Serious Player.  Many of your leads have a strong desire to be connected, to be in the loop or in the know.  It allows them to feel they are important and have something to contribute.  They want to be viewed as a major player.  Someone who’s approval or knowledge is important if not critical to whatever is happening.  When they sense this could “go away”, they will immediately scramble to catch up.

Understanding these aspects of your target market can allow you to build content that engages your leads at their core.  After all, it’s about gaining access and trust with your leads in a way that affords your organization a shot at winning their business.

Agitation Can Make The Difference In Your Messaging

I recently listened to an interview between Perry Marshall, a marketing expert that I follow and Joshua Russell a Professor of Screenwriting and Film Aesthetics at DePaul University.  It was a fun and interesting conversation where they explored the power of stories from both a screenwriter's and marketer's perspective.  While there was far too much to cover in a single email, there is an essential idea that made an impact on me that I'll share with you.

A well told story will captivate and control the audience.  As Joshua Russell said, "It will take people to a place that is beneficial." What's beneficial of course, being determined by the story teller.  As marketers, our job is weaving a story compelling enough that our audience can't leave in the middle.  Given the multi-tasking nature of people today, it can be challenging to cut through the clutter that is clamoring  for their attention.

So how do we hold their attention and keep them interested?  As we read, our perception is constantly changing and being revised as we work through the material we're reading.

Paying attention to critical points of perception can help when we are constructing our stories.

When telling a story, there are three essential steps:

1.  Establish a subject.
2.  Introduce conflict with the idea of the subject (revising our understanding).
3.  Come to a new understanding (i.e. new subject).

Said another way:

1.  Introduce a Problem.
2.  Agitate the itch of the problem.  identify with it.
3.  Offer possible solutions to the problem.

If we skip step #2 and go right to #3, we aren't allowing our audience to naturally progress and follow the story.  By including step #2, we are allowing the audience's perception to identify with the problem for THEMSELVES, and naturally evolve THEIR perception of the need, so when they reach #3, they're saying "Yes!" in their head.  That is what defines engaging content.  If we skip step #2, and jump right to step #3, we will be forcing our point of view on our audience, which creates conflict, not engagement.

As Perry said, people can have problems for years and do nothing about it.  But when it gets to a boiling point, then we'll change.  As the stakes of the problem get higher and higher, it starts to look easier to change than to stay the course.

Agitation is the glue that connects the problem with the solution. 
How well are you agitating?

The 6 Influencers of Human Behavior

I was listening to an audio that came with a subscription to a series of panel discussions called "The League of Extraordinary Minds".  it was a conversation that the organizers of The League had with Tony Robbins.  In this conversation, he outlined the 6 influencers of human behavior:

1.  Certainty - people like to know what they're getting, what they can count on.
2.  Uncertainty - people like suprises and need variety.
3.  Feeling signficant, unique, special, or needed.
4.  Connection & Love
5.  Growth & Development – making progress
6.  To Contribute Beyond Yourself (you can't just get, you must give).

It works like this:  As you increase the number of influencers that you fulfill for your leads, prospects, and/or customers given your product and/or service, you can move them from mere interest to Raving Fan.

(In terms of knowing whether you're fulfilling them or not, for each influencer, you’re scoring a 7 on a scale of 1-10).

The game/goal is to fulfill multiple influencers with your leads, prospects, and/or customers - and as you increase them, their regard  shifts in terms of their relationship to your company, as follows:

1 = Interest
2 = pretty excited / satisfied
3+ = addicted to your product/service (i.e. RAVING FAN).

How does this boil down?  If you meet people's needs, you will have raving fans.  This must happen in the way that you acquire them, share information with them, and deliver your products and service to them.

How valuable would raving fans be to your business?

If you are curious about The League of Extraordinary Minds, here's a link so you can find out more.

Does Your Messaging Distinguish You From Your Competitors?

What is your Unique Selling Proposition?  Is it unique?  Does it distinguish you from your competitors?  

Next question:  Does your messaging do the same?  In your industry where your competitors offer essentially the same thing that you do, how do you distinguish yourself?

In the first episode of Mad Men, Season 1, the issue with coming up with differentiated messaging now that they couldn't use what they'd always relied on (basically health-based messaging) -- how would a tobacco company distinguish itself?  There were 6 competitors -- all offering the same product, and essentially all were produced in the same manner.

If you've got a situation like that, then you could say anything.  As long as it's distinct from what your competitors are saying, and it's something that will land with your audience.  Even if your competitors do the same thing -- but they're not talking about it or highlighting that fact -- you could.

If people essentially are motivated based on perceived happiness from removing some pain or barrier, how can you capitalize on that, and build a distinction in your market that allows you to garner the regard and interest -- over that of your competitors? 

Take a look at your home page.  Then look at your competitors' home pages.  Are they essentially all promising the same thing?  Is it clear why you might pick one over the other?  If not -- then there is a HUGE opportunity for you to carve out a distinct selling proposition that others aren't exploiting, and provide the clarity that your leads and prospects are looking for.

Using my company as an example: In our industry, we are realizing that while we offer the most comprehensive tools for the price, we also provide service that is essentially unparalleled in our industry -- and our customers have told us so. We believe that it's important to make it easy for customers to contact someone for help -- offering both phone and email options -- and then providing timely replies and follow-up if people don't get through immediately.  We also listen to the needs of our customers -- and tie that directly into our product development process.  Something that seemed obvious to us, is evidently sorely lacking within our market space, and a way for us to differentiate our offering from that of our competitors.

What differentiates your company?  What can you say about yourselves that would make you unique and desireable in your industry?  Does that answer a need or a pain that people are experiencing - which would make choosing you the "happy" alternative?

Are We Really Marketing and Selling Happiness?

As we work to figure out and put together content that is not only engaging, but also compelling, we've got to get very clear about what our Unique Selling Proposition is.  Without that, what will guide the messaging that we generate?  How will we be able to stay consistent, and how will our prospects and leads know that what we offer will satisfy their needs?  How can we nurture our leads effectively?

Last night, I was watching the first and second episodes of Season 1 of Mad Men -- about the advertising industry on Madison Avenue, NY, in the 1960's.  In it, the main character was troubled and having a block about how to create the messaging for a tobacco/cigarette client.  The tobacco industry could no longer point to "health benefits" - so how would they differentiate themselves from any other cigarette.

Through different suggestions of his creative team, and the researchers, it was suggested that they approach it from "Hey, you're all going to die some day, so why not go ahead and enjoy your cigarettes now." -- Yeah, not a good idea... but why not?  For obviously a number of reasons, because people ultimately want to be happy.  People will take action when the bottom line is they'll be happy.  You don't sell doom and gloom -- happiness is much more effective.  But what makes people happy?  It may not be what you think.

Then, I was driving on some errands at lunch today, and listened to an MPR Midday program.  Speaking was Daniel Gilbert -- the author of "Stumbling on Happiness" (excellent book if you're interested).  He studies why people sometimes incorrectly predict their reactions to future events, and why we often guess wrong about what will make us happy.  You can check out the MPR story, and listen if you'd like, at the URL:

minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/08/10/midday2/

And I started really thinking about what we offer - increased effectiveness, freedom from reliance on IT, easier to manage and launch marketing efforts, and I realized that behind every one of those is the alleviation of some pain -- some gloom and doom -- with what?  Happiness.

You'll be more happy if you're more effective with your marketing efforts, right?  You'll be more happy if you pass true sales-ready leads to Sales, right?  And they will be too!  You'll be more happy if you can launch your marketing campaigns on your timeframes without relying on the schedule of your IT or webdev folks, right?  And you'll be more happy if you can get more done with less -- especially in the resource-strapped economy we're experiencing.

Bingo -- it's all about happiness... the key is how you tie into that in a way that compels leads to take action and move forward.

What do you think?  Let me know -- I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.  Just getting this simple point and translating it to your marketing and content efforts could make a HUGE difference in how you distinguish your offerings from the competitors.

Here's to spreading some holiday happiness!

Jumpstart Your Lead Nurturing Campaigns

The tools are available, and the companies who are using them are reaping the benefits of more qualified leads in their pipeline.  But many of the folks I talk with every day, are not sure how to get started or what to say.

I got an email in my inbox from Perry Marshall, a marketing expert that I follow, with a download on jumpstarting the process of writing autoresponders (also known as lead nurturing emails), put together by John Fancher, a world-class copywriter and auto-responder expert, entitled "99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain".

I downloaded it, because we not only work with our customers to utilize our marketing automation toolset, but we also put them together in our own marketing process.  Figuring out how to crack the code on putting these email sequences together and getting them written would help not only our efforts, but those of our customers -- so we're always on the lookout for great insights or tips.

John then sent out a challenge:  write 30 emails in 30 days - no sales pitches - just something in the area of your expertise and interests.  So I took the challenge, and will be writing one email every day for the next 30 days (starting tomorrow).  If you're interested in receiving these emails, and providing feedback on them, I'd welcome it -- again, there will be only my thoughts on marketing, business, etc.  for 30 days. 

NOTE:  The origiinal 30-day challenge has ended.  If you would like to receive the 30 emails - I would welcome the feedback -- and at the end, will send you the results and learnings after you complete a brief survey of your experience receiving the emails.

If you're interested in signing up to receive my series of emails - and participate in the process, just click the link:

Participate in Kim's 30-day Challenge!

If you're interested in getting John Fancher's "99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain", click this link:

99 Questions to Jumpstart Your AR Brain

What I'd love to hear are  questions, comments and experiences re: putting together lead nurturing sequences -- this is a big area that we all need to start mastering!

Is Your website a business-building machine?

I am constantly amazed that businesses will pay a LOT of money for a website design and then not think through how that site gets implemented such that it's a business-building machine.  I am also amazed at the number of web design and dev firms that continue to build basic brochure sites for their clients, without giving them access to the basic page-level search engine optimization necessary for every page at their site.

To keep up with business today, and to get the most value from your marketing efforts, your website needs to be a business-building machine.  It needs to be fluid and able to change and respond to your market.  By that I mean it needs to be designed to generate leads and feed a follow-up process that allows you to build relationships with your leads and move them through the buying process to your ultimate goal -- INCREASING REVENUES!

Doing this will take some time - YES, anything in life that is worthwhile takes effort.  But, if it helps you grow your revenues by 30-100% would it be worth it?  Studies show that if you can pick up your demand generation efforts, and implement effective follow up messaging that is relevant to your leads, you can grow your revenues.  Check out these statistics:

• generate 50% more sales-ready leads
• increase your win rate on deals by an average of 30%

My company, Genoo, has published a new series called Get Hitched; Not Ditched, and each guide looks at a specific aspect of the process of generating more leads, nurturing/following up with those leads, and converting them into customers.  Why?  because there is so much that's possible that doesn't need to cost an arm and a leg -- but will give you the ability to have a web presence that is a business building LEVER that you can access, exploit, and measure.

When I see sites today that have gone through a redesign, and essentially end up being hard to get search engine optimized just based on their structure, and don't include any lead generation aspects, it's disappointing because so much potential is lost, yet that company has made an investment in their online presence, that in the end isn't going to pay off very well.

Here's how you recognize these sites:  they have a bunch of information, and possibly a "contact us" form, or a "get a quote" form.  This means the ONLY leads they will get are all the way through the sales funnel.  This approach leaves a LOT of money on the table in terms of lost opportunities, because the vast majority of browsers are NOT ready to buy right away -- especially if you've got a complex/considered sale.  You need to capture and build relationships with people at the TOP of the funnel -- who are looking, seeking information -- and then build the relationship between your organization and your leads, such that when they get to making a selection, you've already greased the skids, and converting them into a customer is a natural process.

In Sales, I always hear - 'get the low hanging fruit'.  Here's a twist on that concept:  Having a website that is a lead generation and nurturing machine is a way for you to CREATE the low-hanging fruit on-goingly.

I'll make a bold claim -- if your website isn't delivering business results that can be tied to increased revenue, then you are missing a HUGE ability to get results and grow your revenues, and you will lose out to competitors that are being smart about their online presence.

Go check out the guides -- more are coming.  They are practical and will walk you through moving from a brochure to a business building machine. 

The Real Return on Marketing Automation Investment

When people examine ROI and possible metrics from their implementations and/or use of Marketing automation technology, there's an interesting conversation brewing.  In a recent post, Leadsloth talks about whether there are more metrics than revenue metrics that can be measured, and reaches the conclusion that really, all benefit from marketing automation comes from increased revenue.

The post discusses the possible metrics as put forth by Sirius Decisions, which are all revenue metrics.  He goes on to say the cost improvements/reductions are marginal.

I thought it would be good to consider what additional capacity is available through the implementation of marketing automation that makes it hard to evaluate cost reduction per se -- but will argue that you will get more done with less resource through implementing marketing automation.

First let's consider a small business.  There is usually only 1 (at best) "marketing" person -- and sometimes there are only sales people and no marketing people at all.  They've got a website that is mostly a brochure, and they need to work with their web people to make any changes or updates, or to add any pages or forms.  And doing so costs them money.

Their Sales people are smiling and dialing -- working to get through to leads and prospects who don't really want to talk with them much.  They are working harder to meet their numbers, especially given the economy and tight times we find ourselves in.

Enter the conversation for "Marketing Automation" -- and their questions are:  Why won't this just be one more expense item?  Will it really add to my top line?  So, obviously, the metrics that will get the executive/business owner's attention will be the revenue-based ROI conversation (as it should).

But let's consider a minimum of 6 capabilities that become possible through implementing any one of several marketing automation tools that exist on the market today, at affordable cost:

1. The ability to easily publish a "microsite" - which for many smaller businesses could be their entire website - or at least the market-facing public site.  This puts control over pages (web pages, and landing pages) in the hands of the business people at the company.  No more waiting and queueing up requests with your web design firm. 
2. The ability to create lead capture forms and place those onto your site pages and landing pages.
3. The ability to identify the "flow" that occurs when someone submits that form - in terms of what confirmation page or messaging to display, which lead category to put the newly captured lead, and whether they should also receive an email or begin to receive a specific nurturing or follow-up sequence.
4. All leads are now captured in a single database, which is also tracking all of their responses to your online marketing efforts -- viewable by both marketing and sales - so if you've got a lead that's "ready" for a sales conversation, that sales person can check out all of the information you've got about that lead - including how they've responded to previous marketing campaigns -- now that sales person can hit the ground running in terms of the conversation they are able to have with that lead -- continuing the relationship that has begun.
5. The ability to create email messages, and follow-up sequences that can automatically be triggered based upon a leads actions -- so once they are set up, they can just run -- and it takes tuning and tweaking to ensure that the follow-ups are effective.
6. The ability to see a metrics "dashboard" re: lead generation, most effective forms and content, email metrics, and conversions.

And those are only a FEW of the capabilities that marketers or small businesses would have available to them.  And for MANY small to mid-size businesses, that is a HUGE difference from current state.

Considering that through traditional sales, many leads are falling out of the process, and the process is largely inefficient.  Here's some statistics:  80% of the leads that are not qualified today, purchase within the following 24 months.  And another one from Marketing Sherpa: For every sales-ready lead that comes into a B2B vendor, there are 5-6X more leads that are longer-term and must be patiently nurtured until they are ready to purchase.

A lot of the small businesses I talk to and work with experience a freedom when they can implement these sorts of initiatives -- and they could not do so before -- so it's added capacity, oftentimes without any increase in staffing.  AND they get the revenue gains as well - because fewer leads are falling out of the process and getting dropped.

In the mid-size businesses that I talk to and work with, many have had to utilize their IT staff to try and bring the intelligence and metrics stored in disparate tools together -- so leads captured at their website, plus metrics from their Email Service Provider system, their event/webinar sign-up and registration system, etc.  It takes them about 30 days to get the "metrics" on how effective their marketing was in any given month.  And they get those metrics a month AFTER the month in question.  That's like turning around an aircraft carrier -- way too slow for the pace of business and the need to nurture and provide leads what they are looking for.  It's very hard to test, tweak and tune with that reality.  Implement marketing automation, and that work, performed by highly paid IT staffers goes away. 

Maybe some other costs get redistributed -- for example, to pay for the marketing consultants that can help you source the content that will feed your new marketing automation and nurturing machine.  But those costs can be tied more directly to the results and revenue that get generated.

So, I believe that while tough to measure, the reality of productivity enhancement for the SAME cost equals cost reduction if we're really looking at a true comparison in capacity and costs.

To explore marketing automation that's affordable, my company, Genoo, provides a comprehensive platform.

Get Hitched; Not Ditched! Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness.

My company, Genoo, released a new series today, called "Get Hitched; Not Ditched".  These are practical guides that walk you through actual steps you can take to improve your online marketing effectiveness -- from demand generation through lead nurturing.  Subjects of focus will run the gamut from Getting Found (the genesis of getting hitched is first you've got to be where people are looking), which includes easy steps to getting your website and/or microsite ranked for the keywords that matter, to sourcing relevant and valuable content that your leads will engage with, including how to put together nurturing programs that build your relationship with your leads and prospects, using social media effectively, and synchronizing with your Sales group.  They will explore how to gauge where your competition is coming from in the online space, so you can focus your efforts.

Basically, when I talk with small and mid-sized businesses and their marketing folks, we get the scenario - not enough time; too much to do.  So what efforts will give you the most bang for the buck?  Without wasting a bunch of time and not getting what you need. 

This is not to say that being effective with online marketing won't take some time.  But there are many options, and I've seen a lot of confusion about how to harness the various online options in a way that adds value and produces results.  If you take a few minutes with each guide (the first is available now, and a new one will be published every few weeks), and actually walk through the steps, you will learn and start to think in ways that will impact your efforts positively -- even if you don't implement them right away.

So the Get Hitched; Not Ditched series is aimed at providing practical guides that will walk you through what you can do, de-mystify the technology, evaluate your current state, and provide some case studies for how others are applying the principles (and technology) for their benefit, and how they are seeing results.

Check out the series:  Get Hitched; Not Ditched, and start taking the steps towards improving your online marketing effectiveness.

Marketing Automation Can Help Sales Build Relationships

I ran across a post at TSL Marketing's blog, entitled "Lead Nurturing in 5 easy Steps" that outlines 5 things that Sales folks can do to nurture their leads -- those that aren't ready for the sales conversation quite yet.

It occurred to me that the first 4 items of the 5 mentioned, could be done easily with Marketing Automation software -- whether the lead nurturing is managed from Marketing or Sales (and I've seen it done/owned in either of these, depending upon the structure of an organization), and achieve the same results -- Here is my take on how:

1. Marketing Automation integrated with CRM allows for knowing whether a lead/contact is in a nurturing stage or is an actual opportunity that can be worked by the Sales person. 

2. Staying in tune -- if Marketing IS planning any of those events, then emails should be going out to all leads (where it's relevant), and Marketing Automation software 'should' be able to be "sent from" and "signed by" the sales person for that lead -- without that sales person actually having to do anything. If the lead responds, the reply email would go directly to the sales person. Imagine the time savings if the sales person didn't have to put all those individual emails together! 

3. Spend 1 hour a month -- With a great marketing automation system, tracking the responses to efforts, and interactions, the lead could essentially "self-select" into Nurturing sequences that keep the lead in touch -- and all of which could go out from the sales person (automatically) - again, without the sales person having to formulate all of them individually. This occurs to the lead as a personally sent email -- saving that 1 hour per month for working on leads that are in the sales conversation now (and could cover many more leads in the funnel). 

4. Personalize Emails -- All of the emails going out of the marketing automation system can be personalized, and sent from the assigned sales person -- building relationship all along the way.

Again -- the 5 easy steps for lead nurturing are good, but if they can be implemented with/by Marketing (or Sales if that is where lead nurturing is managed), using available marketing automation software, then the hour each week can be spent touching base with those leads that are ready to buy!