Tell a Story
When most companies develop marketing collateral they think in terms of what their product or service will do for their customers - what the features are, what the benefits are.
But when you take it a step further and translate those features and benefits into a story that resonates with prospects, your marketing instantly becomes more understandable and more memorable.
In today’s blog post, I interview a marketing consultant who specializes in developing stories.
Her name is Kim Gusta and she has 13 years of experience doing marketing for Symantec and other software companies.
Judy: I’ve heard you say “Marketing is much more effective when it tells a story.” What kind of a story are you talking about?
Kim: Most software marketers are tasked with “checklist marketing” or marketing that is driven by a list of deliverables to create for different marketing activities such as a product launch. The product launch checklist might tell them to create a standardized set of deliverables like a datasheet, PowerPoint presentation, and an FAQ. The advantage, of course, is that this approach ensures consistent marketing coverage for each product or campaign that is created.
The problem with checklist marketing, though, is that it follows a regimented approach. Your prospects’ unique information requirements aren’t necessarily taken into account. Checklist marketing really institutes a “one-size-fits-all” approach and the messaging for each marketing piece often exists in isolation from other pieces. The pieces often don’t work together to tell a story about how your organization can help solve your prospects’ challenges.
The story approach I’m advocating means all your content marketing activities (collateral, website, blog postings, webcasts, etc.) have strategic content that progressively tell a story about how you can solve your prospects’ challenges.
A great book that lays out this strategy in detail is Ardath Albee’s eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.
Judy: Why does using a story make the collateral more effective?
Kim: As prospects investigate solutions, they’ll be exposed to many messages in your various marketing activities. If you think about someone who is just starting to explore solutions to their challenge, they probably want high-level, objective information about their issue.
For instance, say you’re a marketing manager at a software company that helps organizations migrate to new operating systems, and you target system administrators investigating Microsoft Windows 7. For prospects at the very beginning of their research phase, they want broad, objective, and useful information about how to migrate Windows 7 but they’re not interested yet in hearing about your product. Useful content examples could be providing analyst reports about Windows 7 migrations, creating a web page with useful industry links about how to do a migration, etc.
As this prospect digests your information, you build a relationship with them. They gradually begin to trust that you’re an expert source on Windows 7 migrations so they look to you to provide more useful information. The key to this approach, though, is recognizing the prospect’s needs for information and to not push your products at them. That’s a turnoff, it doesn’t build trust, and it’s not useful in this information-driven approach.
Judy: How can you use a story to get prospects the right information at each stage of the sales cycle?
Kim: First, you need to understand the stages in your sales cycle. Then you analyze your prospects’ information needs in each of those stages. In the example above, the system administrator who is just starting to learn about Windows 7 migrations is early in the sales cycle and has very broad information requirements. He’s not interested in hearing about your product yet. He wants to learn more about Windows 7’s new features and how a migration process works. It’s not until later stages in the sales cycle that he wants to learn how your solution specifically solves his challenge.
Your goal is to build a set of marketing materials or activities that map the buyer’s information needs to each sales cycle stage. Each of these materials should work together as a story to support the buyer’s information needs.
Judy: How can a company get started telling a story in their marketing materials? What is the easiest way to start using this strategy?
Kim: First is mapping the stages of your sales cycle to your buyer’s information needs. Of course, this requires that you have an in-depth understanding of your buyers, their challenges, and the types of information they need. Next, you create a content plan that outlines the deliverables you’ll create that address the buyer’s information needs and map to the sales cycle stages. It’s a bit like creating an editorial calendar. But, rather doing checklist marketing, which dictates a standardized list of deliverables, your content will be driven by the buyer’s unique information requirements.
Judy: What are other advantages to this approach?
Kim: With this approach, your marketing has the potential to really engage your buyers, because you’re showing them you understand their information needs. That pays off in many ways – they begin to trust information they receive from you, and they’ll continue to come back for more. And because you’ve become a trusted advisor, they’re much more likely to share this information with their friends and colleagues.
For more information about Kim Gusta, check out her website at www.kimgusta.com.
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Fun and Goofy Products to Nurture your Customers
Amy Yaley is our company’s expert in buying promotional items for use in nurture programs. She is going to be sharing her expertise by doing guest posts from time to time with cool giveaways she has found.
From Amy…
Finding the right product to promote your company can be a challenge. If you or your company has a goofy side, why not try some of these giveaways at your next trade show, or use them as a calling card on your next sales visit.
The Goofy Guy pens feature a broad imprint area and a variety of imprint colors to showcase your logo and business name. The suction cup at the base ensures the little guy will stand tall while his head bobbles.
Pink or blue? You choose for this Funky Spring Bird pen. I love the blank stare the bird is giving, but guaranteed you won’t get a blank stare from your client when they see it.
These Goofy Stress guys are a great spin on the tried-and-true stress ball. With a decent-size imprint area and fuzzy head the customers will giggle when you hand them this one.
The magnetic face on this Goofy Paper Clip Dispenser rotates as it stores away the clips that are included in the deal.
Shopping tips
When shopping for promotional products like these there are a few things to keep in mind…
1. Just because it is on the website doesn’t mean it is available. Have a second choice ready to go in case your first pick isn’t available.
2. Check the imprint area for the graphic. If your logo is particularly detailed and the item has a very small imprint area it isn’t going to look great.
3. If you have a good size imprint area consider adding a tag line such as “Thanks for your business” or “Celebrating 25 years of service.”
4. Always check the production time and then add days for artwork and shipping. Plan for two weeks from the time you shop to the time it is dropped on your door step.
Sphere: Related Content5 Types of Nurture Programs
I talk a lot about nurture programs.
That’s because they are some of the most inexpensive and effective marketing any business can do.
They are also incredibly versatile.
Here are 5 different ways you can use a nurture program in your business…
1. Nurture prospects during the sales cycle
This is the most common way to use nurture… To take people who are serious prospects for your business - who are already interacting with your sales force - and send them something on a regular basis that reinforces what your sales people are doing with them and educates them about the value you provide.
Nurture programs of this type are typically heavily educational, since your goal is to overcome objections and teach them what they need to know to understand why your solution is the right one and why it is worth what you charge for it.
You might send case studies, educational articles you have written, reprints of articles published about your business or written by someone in your company, and articles written by others that support your point of view or explain why it makes sense to do things the way you do.
You might send links to videos of customer testimonials or demonstrations of how to use your products. You might have links to podcasts of interviews with you or key individuals in your company.
The goal of this type of nurture program is to help people move through the sales cycle faster, and to convert more prospects to customers.
2. Nurture “B” or “C” prospects
This is the second most common use of nurture programs…
These are people who are not quite ready to be serious prospects. Maybe they don’t have a budget yet, maybe they are still very early in the research stage.
They have contacted you and expressed an interest, but it is too early for them to actively engage with a sales rep.
However, you don’t want to ignore them because they are likely to buy at some point and you want them to buy from you, rather than a competitor.
Setting them up in a nurture program keeps your company in front of them, and lets them learn about your offerings in a low-key way.
Your goal here is to keep enough mindshare so that when they are ready to get serious, you’ll be on their list.
3. Nurture “ideal” prospects
This is an interesting strategy that can be extremely effective.
You identify up to 100 people who you would like to be customers.
They might be marquee customers, people or companies who are well-respected in your industry. They might be companies in an area where you want to expand and do more business. They might be organizations that are a little larger or better funded than your normal clients or just companies you really really want to do business with.
But they have never contacted you. They might not know you exist.
Well, you start marketing to them. You mail them something every month, something that educates them about what you do and what your offerings are.
Get in front of them month after month, and they will start falling into your sales cycle.
Your goal here is to introduce your company to high-value, ideal prospects and convert them to customers.
4. Nurture people who refer business to you
Most small businesses get most of their customers by referral. And most small businesses do nothing to general more referrals.
The main reason that’s the case is that almost all of us hate asking for referrals.
But it’s possible to get referrals without asking for them. At least, without asking in person.
You can set up a nurture program that goes out to people who refer prospects to you (or who could refer prospects to you) and have a little note on some of the pieces that says “We love referrals” or “If you know anyone who might be interested, we’d love to hear from them” or “Know anyone who might be interested? We’ll take excellent care of them (and send you a cool tshirt to say thank you).”
There are dozens of low-key ways to phrase a request for referrals. You can use any number of them.
But how you ask isn’t as important as that you DO ask.
Your goal here is to make sure the people who could refer business know what your business does and feel good about the quality of work you do, so they are comfortable making referrals. And, of course, to ask for the referrals.
5. Nurture your customers
You’ve seen all the statistics about how much more cost-effective it is to keep a current customer than attract a new one.
So direct a bit of your marketing budget towards making your current clients feel special and valued.
This is particularly easy if you have relatively few big customers. But it can be done even if you have thousands.
If you have fewer than a couple hundred customers, you can send a small gift once or twice a year. Not during the holidays, which is when everyone else does it. But in the spring or summer or early fall.
It can be inexpensive and clever - something with your company’s logo on it.
Or it can even be electronic, which is the way to go if you need to deliver thousands of them around the world. It could be a free ebook or tips on how to get the most out of your products…
The goal here is to make your customers feel appreciated and special.
There you go… 5 inexpensive ways to use nurture programs to help you grow your business. Which one are you going to try?
Sphere: Related ContentHelp for Haiti - Ideas for Small Businesses
If you are a football fan like I am, you couldn’t miss the American Red Cross ads that ran throughout the games this past weekend.
They were encouraging everyone to text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to their Disaster Relief Fund.
That’s a great idea. And it’s working.
As of a couple days ago more than 700,000 people had donated money, raising more than $7 million dollars.
There are lots of other places you can donate too. See a few of them at the end of this blog post.
We’re all looking for ways to help.
If you want to do something beyond donating money, this blog post is about ideas you might copy.
I know, it’s not exactly marketing.
But in a way, it is.
If you copy one of these ideas and share it with your customers or your list, you’re showing that you are a good world citizen. Everyone wants to do business with good people.
And you’re getting in front of your audience with a solid message. That has value too.
So check out some of these ideas and see if you think any of them are worth copying…
Give away your products to people who donate money
MJT Net and Perfect Table Plan, both small software companies, will send a free license for their software to anyone who donates money to Haiti Disaster Relief. You could do this with services too. In fact, we’re doing it at JMR. The web page should be up in the next couple of days.
Auction off a product and donate the proceeds
Olivia Wilde, Meryl Streep and others are auctioning off the clothes they wore at the Golden Globes through Artists for Peace and Justice. The auction will be run through eBay, which is handling similar auctions for other organizations, including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If you sell products on eBay, this wouldn’t be hard to do.
Donate a percentage of sales
Designate a period of time (maybe one day or one week in January) and donate a percentage of that week’s sales. John Bartlett, owner of a NY mens clothing store did that this past weekend.
Donate products
If you have products that can be used by the people of Haiti, contact a local relief organization to see if anyone is putting together a shipment. See if your customers or partners want to contribute anything along with you.
When you raise the money to donate, here are a few organizations you can feel comfortable sending it to:
American Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders
Plan USA
Save the Children
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3 Ways to Use Interviews on Your Website
Looking for ways to add depth and dimension to your website?
Consider adding some interviews.
If you want to, you can work with someone to do a “real” interview. You can record it and post the link to the audio or video on your website or blog.
Hint: You don’t have to pay $3000 or more to have a news personality do a formal interview. You can have one person in your company interview someone else. For example, you can have your marketing director interview your CEO.
If you decide to do a video, the easiest way to make it more professional is to do the filming yourself and then hire someone to edit it, adding a professional intro and conclusion. We worked with Pixability recently to do this and they did a great job for an affordable price.
You can also do the interview with webcams via Skype, if you want something very informal and inexpensive.
If you want only audio you can use Audio Acrobat (which is what we use) or one of the many similar services. Just do the interview over the phone, record it, and post the link to the recording.
But you can make it even easier…
Here’s how…
Just do a written interview. Write down the questions you want to answer, then answer them. Write it so it looks like a back-and-forth with an interviewer.
Here’s an example from one of our clients (I’m the Judy who did the interview):
Upgrading to iMIS 15: What Associations Need to Know
Can you see how easy that is?
And it has a lot of value. It has useful information, so it has value to web visitors. It’s keyword-rich, so it does well with the search engines, which helps bring people to the website.
Anyone can do interviews like this.
Here are 3 ways to use them:
1. Explain why your product or service matters
Lots of times, websites use formal language. They are written like a brochure, talking about what the company does, what the products do.
But that doesn’t tell you why people actually become customers.
You can explain that in an interview.
You can talk about how people use your products and services in an informal, casual way - what’s really cool about them, what kind of results they get, why they really buy - the way you would explain it to a friend or family member.
It’s a great way to add commentary to your website, to make points you can’t really make any other way, and to tell people what really matters.
2. Share your opinion on a hot topic
If you’ve got thoughts about a hot topic in the industry (and you’re not already blogging - or even if you are), this is a great way to get your opinions out there.
This is also a very useful way to bring traffic to your website, because there are probably a lot of searches on this topic. Just make sure you use the relevant keywords repeatedly throughout the interview.
3. Talk about what’s new
I bet you’ve got a new product or service that you introduced recently.
Do an interview about why you created that product or service. Talk about what’s great about it, why people need it. Share your excitement - let people see how much you care about this.
This is a good way to keep your website up-to-date. It also helps round out a launch and make it more interesting.
And it’s a good way to engage prospects and customers and bring them to your website - you can send them an email with a link to the interview and ask them to check it out.
So find a topic that would work for you and get an interview up on your site this month.
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