The Buying Season

December 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Buying GiftsIt’s December and buying is a top priority on people’s minds. The emotion of buying far supercedes any forces from selling we might presuppose as marketers and salespeople. The natural cycle of our culture overtakes people’s behaviors during this time of year. If you are positioned well and can help people buy as they are intent on doing, then the opportunities for converting customers is extremely high. The key is understanding why people buy. Here are a few reasons:

  • Emotion. Culture, relationships and expectations are extremely high during the holiday season. Buying is an emotional process. Before a purchase is made, there is an emotional motivation. Tapping into and aligning with your buyer’s emotion is critical for connecting your product or service.
  • Timing. Certain offers are relevant when the timing is right. If you offer a 50% transmission discount when my car’s gears breakdown, you are extremely relevant. Before this, it is noise. Helping me have a relevant answer to gift giving, tax deductions or employee recognition is a timely offer.
  • Creativity. We are bored with the mundane. We buy this throughout the rest of the year. If you can position your offering in a new light that shows creativity and context, it catches attention. Tell a story. Sell the story. Help your buyer imagine a new context. Creativity and imagination can transform otherwise mundane offerings into desirable products.
  • Customization. Something that is specific for a business or a person is much more desirable than a product for the masses. It meets a specific need that feels personal. It’s why seeing your name on a mug or having a product that works specifically for your business is perceived as higher value than the generic version.

As buyers spike in their consumption, be positioned with your value proposition. There is a cyclic window which you can tune into that reaps great rewards for those that understand why people buy.

How can you reposition your offering to connect with buyers?

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Marketing With The Back Story

December 5, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Melvin The Magical Mixed Media Machine from HEYHEYHEY on Vimeo.

There is a video which has an immense following. It is not about a person. It is about a machine, a Rube Goldberg machine, which promotes itself via Twitter, Facebook, video and a website.

Some passionate artists and technicians did the work of creating a show which told a story. The video above is astounding and speaks for itself to the creativity, hard work and genius of the project. The story draws you in even further. It is marketing at work behind the product.

Ironically, the automation developed in the machinery is one part of the project. The marketing which works to self-promote the machine is another process in itself. The story behind what we see draws us in further to discover the background.

Show And Tell

Seeing your product or service in action is an immense part of communicating your value to the world. New customers want to get their minds around how you work, what they are getting and how you deliver. You don’t necessarily have to build a Rube Goldberg machine, but there needs to be a show which helps them see what happens when they do business with you. It is part of the show which makes the tell easier.

The tell is the part which helps to bring color, description and intrigue to your value proposition. It is the back story which answers the questions:

  • How do you do what you do?
  • Why do you do what you do?

Telling your story is what makes you unique in the mind of the buyer. It is your own and noone else’s. We relate to story. It fills in the missing pieces for motivation, desire, and inspiration.

Melvin The Machine is a remarkable piece of machinery designed with patience, care and attention to detail. See how you get pulled into the back story and think about what your product or service would benefit from with a better tell.

How can your show and tell improve?

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Validation In The Buying Process

November 28, 2011 by · 1 Comment

validatedThe internet changes the game between the buyer and the seller. Second opinions are easy to access for a buyer. Assuming your lead generation systems and marketing automation are set up well, a new lead will be nurtured, scored and engaged when they are ready. There are analytics and systems which work effectively. However, trust is not built solely on marketing automation.

When a buyer is wanting something, they search and look specifically for their desired product or service. The choices may be numerous. Your competitors are just a click away. If they click off of your website, then you can easily be forgotten in their continual navigation.

Imagine what you do when you do start to hone in on some choices after searching. You gravitate to places of value. You are seeking validation. Here is how validation works within an inbound marketing process:

  • Content Which Educates. Sellers think about what they sell all the time. They forget that buyers think about many diverse things and have limited attention. They are new to a domain you are fluent and obsessive about. They don’t even know the right questions to ask. If you have content which educates then their searching and navigation continually draws them into your rich resources to help them understand value and orient themselves to your industry.
  • What Others Say. When the buyer decides that you are worth engaging because of what they see and feel from your inbound marketing systems, then they find validation in what others say. Testimonials, social media and other forums and sites which lend opinion about you are important. They build a picture of your credibility. It’s all out there. Be sure your goodwill and success stories are captured and searchable.
  • Congruence. We have all experienced businesses which have remarkable marketing but they disappoint when the first touch point with the customer happens. Unresponsiveness, uncaring, rudeness or complexity create incongruence with the message. Validation requires that what the buyer experiences aligns with what they expect from what they read and research.

There are anonymous visitors that are checking you out right now and trying to decide if you provide value and are a good choice. If you can think through each step of your process with these points in mind, then trust grows and you win new business. Fix the broken links and work it continually. The battle for our customers’ minds and business is relentless.

How can your own process work better?

Filed Under: Blog, Feature Articles, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Automation · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Inbound Marketing Consulting Project With Pets For Patriots

November 14, 2011 by · 1 Comment

Pets For Patriots LogoWe finished off an inbound marketing system project with Pets For Patriots and they announced it on the wire today.

Their system has an array of automation tools that help to nurture and transact with site visitors.

They have a neat cause for our nation’s patriots and endangered pets.  Be sure to take a visit to their site when you get a chance.

New York, NY [11/14/2011] – Pets for Patriots, Inc., a not-for-profit dedicated to connecting last-chance shelter pets with service and veteran members of the United States military, is celebrating its two year anniversary with a major relaunch.

“Two years ago we received our not-for-profit status,” says Beth Zimmerman, founder and executive director of Pets for Patriots. “Since that time we transformed more than 100 lives, those of pet and person, through our honorable pet adoption program. We can’t wait to bring positive change to not just hundreds, but thousands more.”

Since its launch, Pets for Patriots has started its program in 30 states and aims to be in every state by 2013.

To help achieve this goal, Pets for Patriots is working with AscendWorks, which assisted the charity in Salesforce customization, marketing automation and website redesign. AscendWorks donated most of its time to Pets for Patriots and continues to work with the charity to create the infrastructure, processes and tools to support its continued growth.

“AscendWorks automates business processes and implements marketing systems for many different types of organizations,” says Don Dalrymple, AscendWorks President. “Pets for Patriots serves our country’s heroes and helps them with their emotional and practical needs. They save pets and soldiers. We are glad to help make a difference and help facilitate a beautiful process of helping our nation’s heroes. It is inspiring and we are glad to be a part of helping the cause.”

Zimmerman notes that AscendWorks has helped the charity in countless ways. “The passion and dedication they bring to our cause is without peer,” she says. “We’re incredibly grateful for all they’re doing to ensure our charity’s success. They have become our ‘go-to’ partner when we need to figure out how to get something done, and we’re touched that they’ve taken our mission to heart in such a big way.”

The Pets for Patriots website offers many new features, including:
Step-by-step learning and qualifying tours for patriots, shelters and veterinarians
Google map locator to easily find Pets for Patriots adoption and veterinary partners across the country
One-time, recurring, honorary and memorial giving options for donors
New canteen where supporters can purchase limited-edition branded wearables

Pets for Patriots is open to individuals from all United States armed forces at any stage of their careers, including retirees and veterans. To inspire them to bring an adult or other at-risk pet into their lives, the charity provides access to ongoing, discounted veterinary care and financial contributions towards the cost of pet food and other essentials.

“Surrender prevention is an important part of our mission,” says Zimmerman. “Short-term financial hardship leads many people to relinquish their pets. Our goal is to keep the families we help create together.”

The timing of the relaunch wasn’t lost on Pets for Patriots’ founder. “That our anniversary and site relaunch coincide with Veterans’ Day makes this all the more special,” says Zimmerman. “It doesn’t get better than that.”

# # #

About Pets for Patriots
Pets for Patriots, Inc., is a registered 501(c)(3) charity that helps military members honorably adopt adult and at-risk shelter pets. Its mission is to consistently give the gifts of fidelity, joy and companionship to both pet and person. Pets for Patriots is one of the only organizations in the country dedicated to both last-chance pets and military members. The charity is a proud member of the Army AW2 Wounded Warrior Program national community support network, a national partner of the Real Warriors Campaign and is listed by the National Resource Directory for ill and wounded veterans. Visit www.petsforpatriots.org for more information.

About AscendWorks
AscendWorks, LLC is a leading marketing automation strategy company located in Austin, Texas. The company creates and implements custom marketing automation systems and processes that generate and nurture leads for customers around the world. Visit www.ascendworks.com for more information.

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Why Marketing Automation Makes Selling Easier

July 5, 2011 by · 3 Comments

Marketing automation sets up the salesperson.  It assumes something that traditional sales does not: buyers prefer self-service until they are ready to buy.

If you court your buyer too early, you can violate trust.  It is intrusive and unsynced with how they would prefer to move through the process of buying.

At some point, a switch occurs.  When the buyer feels ready, they move into engagement.  Selling becomes easy at this point.  The hard work beforehand is a process.  The actual sale is an event.  Create a personalized, predictable and relevant process and you create repeatable events for your business.

Here is the heavy lifting that marketing automation does before the event of a sale:

  1. Creates Awareness:  The marketplace is saturated and noisy.  Marketing automation gets past this noise by connecting with the buyer in an impactful and precise way based on their behaviors and preferences.  It is targeted when a well-designed marketing strategy has been implemented.
  2. Educates: Assume you know much, much more than your buyer.  You think about your product or service all the time.  Your buyer is buying when they need something.  There is a long list of items they have and you are one item in time and attention they are focused on.  They want to learn as much as possible, preferably from you.  Your marketing automation strategy should empower the buyer with knowledge which you have.
  3. Builds Trust: Your brand becomes part of the flesh and blood of your marketing automation system and touchpoints.  Frequency helps to spotlight your brand.  Insight and expertise positions you in the mind of the customer as the leader.  They want to pick the leader.  Effective marketing automation strategies build trust by positioning your leadership and your care by adding value as they are learning.
  4. Measures Interest: You can’t keep calling your unseen buyer.  However, their digital body language is telling you many things if you can capture it and analyze it.  You can see what content they are interested in, how they move through a decision tree and the level of interest they have ongoing.  Scoring what is invisible and surfacing it for sales readies the conversation your company will eventually have.
  5. Qualifies Leads: If your expensive sales team is wasting time talking to people that will never buy, then it is a waste of resources and money.  Allow your system to direct such uninterested prospects to some kind of referral nurturing campaign.  The workload for your sales team can be focused and cut down by seeing your marketing automation system percolate with the most qualified leads.
  6. Positions The Sales Meeting: Imagine someone who is already sold.  They are ready to do business with you.  They know your value proposition and they trust you.  This is the result of marketing automation executed well.  Your buyer feels like they know you because of the hard work of your marketing automation processes.

There are two ways to sell – you call people or they call you.  Calling people has natural limits.  You can only do it so often.  It is linear and inefficient.  It takes manpower and will power.

People calling you can scale as a business process.  It affords you better opportunities with higher levels of effectiveness.

Take a look at your selling process.  Think through how it works and what you would want your buyer to experience.  Imagine a process which connects personally and moves the buyer forward towards the sale.

What would stop you from implementing such a system?

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Marketing With Story

June 22, 2011 by · 4 Comments

We are all tied into story.  It is part of being human and can be found in cultures across time and space.  It is what resonates.

If you don’t have a story, you don’t have a business.  There is too much noise and your buyer cannot differentiate your offering from others.  When we work with our clients on positioning their brand and automating their marketing systems, the story is what has to come through to bring life to the otherwise devoid value proposition.  Why you do what you do has to come through or there is not a connection with the customer.  Your backstory is part of what makes you unique and valuable.  Here are some areas which are vital for building your audience:

  • Make it personal.  How did you arrive to where you are?  Share the journey.  What is the background to how you came into existence?  It is unique to you and needs to be told.
  • Share the process. If you deliver a service or a product, share how it is made.  Illustrate the steps.  Talk about the meticulous care you take in sourcing raw materials or working through the finer points of process so quality can shine through.
  • Illustrate problems and success. Your customers need to see themselves in the testimonials of customers you have.  The customers you have provide a mirror for prospective customers.  Tell their adventure in a way which highlights their problems and how you solved it.
  • Paint the vision. Do you want to have 50 million people using your product?  Are you wanting to bring water to every village in southern Africa?  How does what you do connect with something larger than all of us.  Your story helps the customer know what they are a part of by participating.
  • Create meaning. Whether you use symbols or imagery, make a connection with something simple that stands front and center in the customer experience.  Help them think about your story through something ubiquitous and frequent.  Make meaning happen.
  • Talk from the heart. Leave out the corporate speak and connect with authenticity.  Ensure your tone and copy shine your humanity through.  Faceless, sterile corporate identities leave little for the emotions or to build trust.

Every touchpoint you have with the marketplace should be laden with your story.  Let it resound with conviction.  The stories we hear help us identify with people and brands.

What is your story?

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Fooled By Advertising

May 23, 2011 by · 1 Comment

Advertising is largely ignored and not trusted as a medium for building a brand.  Existing powerful brands benefit from advertising because there is already trust.  There is a brand connection imprinted on the psyche of millions of customers of Ford, Coke and IBM.  These powerful brands have to advertise to continually keep attention and remind their constituency of their relevance.

If you are an unknown brand or a startup, then the strategy of advertising can be alluring.  It is attractive as one of the go to market strategies because of:

  • Notoriety. We see the glitzy images and pictures.  The vanity of seeing ourselves in print or media gives us a high.
  • Safety. If you are caught up in a corporate mindset, then it feels safe to go with traditional marketing approaches, regardless of whether they are obsolete and do not connect.  If everyone around you buys in, then the decision becomes easy to do what does not work.
  • Emotion. With advertising, it is typically difficult to measure.  Often times, it is desirable to be vague rather than specific in metrics, conversions and analytics.  It is better for some to rely on emotion and disengage from reality.
  • Ignorance. Advertising is a default marketing method.  You might think this is marketing as it has always been.  It takes little thought, creativity and strategy.  Just put something out there and see what happens.

The cash cow of advertising is big business.  The reasons above play into why many marketing departments and unassuming small businesses buy advertising.  The problem is that it fails to build a brand.  It is selling and none of us like to be sold by strangers.

Content Marketing

For building a brand, there is an antidote.  While established brands are spending time and money on expensive advertising, build something more lasting, strategic and effective.  Content marketing is what helps to tell your story and create fans.

With relevant content that brings value and builds trust over time, your credibility and connection to the marketplace builds a pipeline of opportunities in today’s day and age.  The focus should be on helping, not selling.

What you offer solves a problem.  Articulate that problem and tell your story through solving the problem.  Your buyers are looking for specific solutions, but they want to know you understand them and bring ideas, strategies and solutions for helping them win.

Advertising is a pretty picture which comes, goes and has to be refreshed continually.  It is the old game.

Content endures and builds momentum for your brand. The systems for attracting a customer are readily available today to position you and connect directly with potential buyers.

How are you building your brand?  Feel free to comment.

 

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Targeted Marketing Required

May 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Why would you choose a method other than targeted marketing?  Today, if you are selling and marketing like the old days, then there may be several reasons why you choose mass vs. specific targeted marketing.  Here are some of those reasons:

Ignorance of Targeted Marketing

You do not know about the systems for marketing automation and how an anonymous visitor can be tracked and directed all the way to a sale.

It’s Easier To Manage With Emotion Than Data

Once specific targeted marketing information and results show up, accountability becomes much higher.  It may be preferable to confuse your boss with ambiguity and a lack of information than provide real results that are methodical.

You Think 1% Is A Good Result

You bought a lie which accepts 1% as a norm.  This is an insane number for direct mail, cold calling, advertising and other outbound marketing efforts.  You have been conditioned to see this as normal.  However, 99% failure ticks off a lot of people, damages your brand and is a waste of a lot of money, trees and energy.

You Don’t Think You Can Know Your Buyer

targeted marketingYour future customer is like your past customers.  If you don’t study them or you have the illusion that everyone is your customer, then the lie that pulls you to spend more and splatter the world with wasteful marketing blinds you to opportunity.

You Don’t Care

It’s not about a result.  It’s about being and looking busy.

What Targeted Marketing Can Do To Change Your World

If you care and want to be more strategic rather than random, then you have the opportunity to make your marketing count and connect.  Targeted marketing means that you have:

  • the right message
  • connecting with the right person
  • at the right time

Having the content, the systems and the connection which creates an enticing process for the buyer is both sensible and necessary today to remain competitive.  You spend less and you get more.  You require less resources and you have more predictability.  Month-over-month, your systems are doing the work for you methodically.

Of course, the diligence required to get out of the rat race mindset and into an intelligent way of connecting with your buyer is required.

A targeted marketing approach means you start with strategy.  You focus on buying and work on the individual steps of the buyers’ experience through a system that is set up to educate, position and persuade the buyer.  It is the process of helping a stranger become a friend and building trust with providing value consistently.

Question: What keeps you from implementing targeted marketing strategies?

 

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Buyers Start By Research

April 18, 2011 by · 12 Comments

Online ResearchWhen we want something, we start by research.  Sellers are so eager to sell that they have their sales process set up around a buy now approach.  Unless the pain is high, your ability to sell with this approach will be ineffective.  You might have better luck if you had full attention and were exclusive.  However, buyers use the internet first because of its extreme convenience.  On the internet, you have little attention and are one click among many.

There are more choices with each search a buyer tries.  The very first touches with your brand need to meet the initial need.  The buyer is researching and trying to understand what they are looking for.  They are researching and looking for information which increases their IQ about your industry and solving their problem.  Educate them and solve their problem and you will have a viable connection for a conversation.  You will have permission and access to engage further.

Content Which Educates

Avoid glamour and narcism.  Glitzy images are an obstacle to what a new buyer is looking for.  They will click on and off your landing pages or website if there is not content which helps them think through their issues.  Here are a few ways to design and deliver an experience which helps your buyers in their initial stages.

Articulate The Buyer’s Problem(s)

Assume your buyer does not have their problem fully defined.  They feel pain, but they are looking for further validation and definition.  You think about your solution thousands of hours a year.  There are likely multiple problems that your past customers have approached you with.  Articulate these with empathy and precision.  This helps a complete stranger build trust with your brand.  Your understanding needs to come before your answers.

If you are an attorney, articulate the issues which matter to your potential clients.  If you are a car mechanic, share stories of what you see in vehicle problems with color and candor.

Tell A Story Of Your Customers And Their Success

Your past customers have stories which started with a problem and ended with success and trust.  Tell the story in a way which helps a stranger see themselves in it.  Stories have the power to connect and the opportunity to help buyers identify with your expertise.

The content can be in video, audio or print.  Have your past customers testify clearly about their problems, emotions and decision to move forward.

Talk About Your Industry

Assume your buyers are not familiar with the nuances of how your industry works.  Help them shape how they think about the choices available.  Help them with a framework for thinking through the options.  What should they be looking for between you and your competitors?  What criteria is of highest priority and what is noise?

A buying guide, white papers and primer articles are powerful for helping the buyer research.  If you have multiple pieces of content, these touch points provide familiarity with your brand over time.  There will be repeat visits and familiarity with your company.  This positions you as the thought leader that can be trusted.

Help Don’t Sell

It’s rude to ask a person to get married on the first date.  Strangers don’t know you or trust you.  They are looking for someone to date and trust.  To be that brand, set up your content and your buying experience to meet the need of research and education.  This first step in the buying process is hard work, but it is necessary to create connections with the anonymous buyer.  They are looking for someone who will help and will avoid those that are merely selling.  Be in the help business and watch the magical process of a buyer growing in trust with you.

How have your customers come to trust you through education and research?

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Niche Marketing Strategy For Inbound Marketing

March 15, 2011 by · 3 Comments

If your offering is not a mass market appeal, then your niche marketing strategy needs to position your brand for a specific, narrow and identified buyer.  There are brands that appeal to the mass market.  GE light bulbs, Xerox copiers, Dell laptops and the New York Times are focused on the masses.  If brands like these are not your competitors, then you are a niche.  You are part of the long tail.  Your strategy is completely different.  There needs to be a narrower focus to connect with your market.  As an inbound marketing firm, we work heavily with niche marketing strategies.  Our customers have a specific offering for a specific market.  Here are strategies to keep in mind as a niche player to drive revenue with your niche.

Stay Narrow On Your Buyer Profile

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

Heed Billy Cosby’s words.  A niche, by definition, is exclusivity.  There is a select crowd.  Everyone is not part of it; only a select or self-selected group are part of it.

Trying to please everyone dilutes your brand and muddies your message.  Ensure that your buyer profile is specific and targeted.  Your messaging must be tightly communicated to this specific person.  The narrower your message is, the better your brand will stick.

The temptation is to appeal to everyone.  Stay away from this.  Create new brands.  But don’t try pleasing everyone.  Your marketing strategy needs to focus only on the people that fit your offering in taste, personality and requirements.

One-to-One Marketing

Putting out a broad message only convolutes.  Treat each message as if it were to a specific person, namely the one in your buyer profile.  Create a personal tone.  Use highlights of successful customers.  Help your buyer see themselves in the accounts of your success stories.

One-to-one is the strategy to pursue rather than the one-to-many message.  If you make spicy sausages for Asian food lovers, use language and stories that connect with this specific buyer.  Be personal.  Be sensitive and use the language which connects.  Make it completely relevant to how this buyer thinks and considers based on what you know from your past customers which are similar.

Lead With Your Offering As The Best

Be the best.  If you are not the best for your niche, redefine your niche or enhance your offering.  There is nothing more powerful than being positioned as the leader.  Go to the grocery store and you will see examples.  There are lots of cheeses.  Which is the best?  Best in what category is the better question.  Best cheddar might be different than best aged Swiss.  The brands are likely totally different.  They are both cheese, however, their differentiation in categories causes us to reconsider brands in our decision making.

Define your offering in a way that allows you to lead.  Rally around this and be relentless in your communication to your buyer so that it is without question that you are the leader.

Choice Is Driving Niche Marketing

The internet has opened up the world of choice for all of us.  We can consider more options.  Your position in a niche and the perception you have in the mind of the buyer requires you to be specific in your approach.  Marketing automation which filters your incoming leads into the right conversation are important for presenting the most personal and relevant information.

Using systems which help you qualify your buyer up front are critical in your marketing process.  Success comes from being undisputed as the leader in your category.  Ensure your niche is well-defined and that you connect with the ones that matter.

How can you get narrower to grow your opportunity?

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