Whose Got the Power?

One of the Internet's strengths is its ability to help consumers find the right needle in a haystack...  ~Jared Sandberg

If you think you have the power - over your brand, your marketing and sales cycle or your buyers - think again. 

Thanks to the digital age, today’s buyers can research, select and purchase their products without getting you involved in the decision. You won’t even know they were buying. Everything shifted. Your choices: shift too—or get left in the past. 

Yesterday's News

Traditional sales and marketing moved prospects and buyers in a progression through a funnel that we presumably controlled, also known as the all-hallowed pipeline.  We used marketing techniques including demand generation, PR, advertising and more to pull our prospects into that funnel - and then we pushed them along by sharing information about our products, problems solved and a few how to's along the way.

Since we were the keepers of the information - it worked, kind of. Those pesky competitors and their information did get in the way - but we focused tons of resources on competitive analysis to know exactly what they were claiming -and then created rebuttals to their claims.  No one really knew the truth - but we surely did spin those stories. 

The fact was - we controlled the information,  so we could somewhat control the way our prospects moved through the buying cycle.

For example, when I started out in business, selling mainframes against IBM, one of the first things I was taught was how to "seed" an RFP within a client. Since I held the information about my products, I could shape the RFP or purchasing requirements by doling out pieces of information to define the problem, set the criteria and even point to the alternatives to my offering. Marketing supported my sales efforts with lots of glossy materials, customer stories, press placements and more that shared the stories of my products. Analysts confirmed we were the best and I used those recommendations wherever they would stick.

It worked - at leat until IBM flew in the big guns and turned the tide.  Why did I even have a chance? Because buyers didn't have access to the information they needed. They had to come to me or my marketing department to get any information. Once they reached out to my company - they were in the funnel and we were driving them along with our information-driven sales and marketing pipeline process. We didn't always get the sale, but we did control the information flow.   

Welcome to the Empowered Buyer

If you think that funnel works today - you're fooling yourself. The very idea that we can push a prospect through a funnel makes me laugh out loud. How can you push, pull or manipulate someone who really doesn't need you anymore?  

Today, the buyer decides when and if they will connect with you. Read that again. It's the biggest shift in sales and marketing since we moved from the paper to the digital world. So why do we keep doing things the way we've always done them? Welcome to human nature, and gravity. 

A recent IDG Connect study of B2B buyers proved the shift. In that study buyers demonstrated their independence when it comes to the buying cycle. 

•  23% of their time is spent with peers and colleagues
•  56% of their time is spent reviewing web sites - including vendors, industry leadership, social media communities and more.
•  21% of their time is spent in direct conversations with vendors sales teams - after they determine which vendors they will evaluate. 

Talk about a shift! 79% of the buying cycle is now completed without a vendor directly involved. 

If you're still thinking in terms of your 20th century funnel or pipeline - I'd strongly suggest you shift into the 21st century reality. 

Your Buyer is in Control

I cannot understand why marketing and sales folks continue to think and act as if they had the power. It boggles my mind when I hear folks claim they can control their brand. In fact, I think that belief is possibly the biggest and most dangerous gravity think in sales and marketing - ever. Yes, you can put information and marketing prose out into the world.  

Yes, you can say and do all the right things wrt marketing and promotions. But unless you deliver the value buyers expect - in everything from truth in marketing and sales to your product delivering promised value to effective customer support and more - you will not positively influence your brand. That's the new market reality.  Even if you do all of the above for one customer - unless you live and breathe it for all your customers - you can end up with negative brand image in the market. That's the power of your buyers.

Our world shifted. Buyers no longer need us to gather information, insights and real world experience or opinions. They can do that on their own - and we won't even know they did it. 

There is good news. With the right conversations and information flow, product value focus and followup, you can and will attract prospects to invite you to the party. You can create strong buyer pull through your successes, become one of their trusted advisors and be successful in managing your brand. 

But what about that funnel?  I think we have to shift our sales and marketing efforts, big time. Some examples?

•  Think Internet Dating.  That's right - you read it right. Forget the push push push. Marketing today is about getting your sales rep invited to the meeting, making sure you are one of the chosen products and vendors to be evaluated. It's all about getting that meeting. Sounds a little like internet dating, now doesn't it?  So here's a tip. No one wants a date with someone who is obviously self-centered. Would you??? Why would your buyer want a meeting with you if you're acting like the be all and end all of your market? Think about it.... 

•  Connect don't Campaign. 68% of buyers state they rely on vendor websites as the main source of information for their buying research. That means your site has to connect with them by sharing information that's relevant to them. Yet nearly 80% of B2B marketers say that their web sites are less than compelling and do not contain the information buyers want and need. I'd say that's a pretty big disconnect.  So how about focusing on bridging that gap instead of pumping that pipeline?

•  Act as a Trusted Advisor. If you want your buyers to pay attention to you - learn to listen to what your buyers need, and then share your expertise freely to help educate yout audiences to make the best decisions. Use marketing conversations to share your expertise freely, regardless of where your buyer is in their process. You never know who they may talk to that needs your offering - and that expertise you shared could get you a date you never expected. Educate them, help them, do it graciously with no expectations. Then watch as your buyers chat up your brand and your business - because you helped them to be successful, not because your marketed your wares to them. 

The Bottom Line 

Savvy companies share information in conversations that engages buyers because the info is important tothem. Velocity businesses make sure their information touches each buyer in a unique way, dynamically responding based on the specific buyers' requirements and situation.

The power has shifted. You can defy gravity to shift twith your buyers, engaging them in rich, expertise-filled conversations. Or you can stay stuck in gravity as a competitor (s) shift to capture buyers' conversations, engagement,  trust - and ultimately, their purchasing dollars. 

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Download my 1800CEORead ChangeThis ebook- Marketing to the Digitally Empowered Buyer for tips and tricks on shifting to address the needs of today's buyer. 

Conversation is the New Campaign

If you engage people on a vital, important level, they will respond. ~ Edward Bond

Our buyers no longer need us to get the information they need to make purchasing decisions. Today's buyers can research, compare and select products without our ever even knowing they were looking.  In fact - buyers spend over 79% of their purchasing cycle without ever engaging us... only if we make the cut during their research do they invite us into their process.  That's a huge shift that puts buyers in control - and it means that we need to shift our thinking about how we engage with our audiences. That's why I believe that conversations are the new campaigns. 

Given the dramatic shift in the buying process - I think that the concept of "campaigns" is one of the biggest status quo processes in all of marketing today. Yet everywhere I look - I see those push campaigns, especially in my Inbox. 

We're in the age of engagement - empowered by social media and web 2.0 to actively engage with our buyers in 1:1 conversations. That is the Holy Grail many marketers have searched for - and we're so ignoring the opportunity!

Yes, some campaigns are focused on engagement. I know that. But the process most of us use is still based on yesterdays news - back when we were the keepers of the information. That is gravity at its finest.  

It's Time to Shift!

First - let's look at the gravity behind campaigns.

This is the process we've used since the beginning of marketing. It's a very push oriented approach that assumes what we want to say about ourselves and our offerings is relevant to our buyers. That's always been a big assumption, based on some pretty iffy inputs. It's an especially dangerous assumption today.

•  For years we would listen to our top customers (who often don't represent our best opportunities going forward), our top partners and industry luminaries as our only market input. To adapt to the new world - we threw in the opinions of the masses from SoMe, based on our somewhat random engagement methods.  Here's a question - how do you even know those SoMe masses are potential buyers, at all???  Who says that the opinion of the masses has anything to do with your best strategy for succeses? 
•  Then we sit among ourselves and create our strategy, messages and content. Based on what We think. A little reminder here - Value is in the eye of the beholder, and the only beholder that matters is the one with the bucks, your buyer. I don't think that's you.
•  And then - we blast it out to the world. In CAMPAIGNS.... which by our own design are usually all about us, pushing our content and chest thumping messages out through all those marketing channels. Using SoMe and the potential power of a conversational medium as yet another channel for our push messages. Just because it's only 140 characters, that doesn't mean it's conversational or relevant!
•  Three touches and a sales call is NOT the way to engage buyers in today's world!

The problems with this approach are so many I can't write them all here. So let's focus on the top four.

•  Value is in the eye of the beholder.  Unless you're listening to the real Keepers of the Truth about your value - meaning real prospects and buyers - you're probably heading in the wrong direction. Listening to the opinions of the masses out on SoMe is a dangerous game. Just as our messages must be relevant to our audiences - so must we be sure and listen to the feedback and inputs about our value from relevant sources. Social media masses are not relevant - unless you happen to be selling toilet paper or other horizontal and broadly generic products. 
•  No one cares what we say anymore. We vendors blew our credibility when we overpromised and under delivered.  Today's digitally empowered buyers just don't care what we think or say anymore, until we pass the research tests and they invite us to the party.  I believe that is why buyers spend 79% of the buying cycle NOT chatting with us or our sales reps...we lost the role as trusted advisor and have to regain it.  Campaigns will not put us into the Trusted role. 
•  Today's buyers are searching for solutions and making decisions in realtime. How can some campaign, blog or other content that you designed even 2 months ago (or even 2 weeks ago) be relevant to your buyers current needs? 
•  We have less than 10 seconds to capture our buyers attentions on our websites and social media outlets. If you're promoting and campaigning instead of conversing with them about what they need and want to know - they'll be gone before you ever knew they were there.

So why do we hang onto campaigns? 

Because it's the way we've always done it!

Welcome to Gravity!

Today's market offers such a huge opportunity to those who are ready to shift - to stay in sync with their buyers.  It's not that hard to make the shift - we just have to be ready to think differently and step out of our campaign status quo.  

Here are some ideas on the opportunity that's all around us - there for the taking.

Imagine yourself engaging your buyers and prospects in relevant, highly informative conversations. That's the key to creating trusted relationships in today's markets. Note - I said relevant.  That means conversing about what's important to them - not you. It's ALL about Them!  Learn to listen to what your buyers need, and then share your expertise and stories to help educate them to make the best decision - not your product messaging, features and cool stuff. Sharing your expertise and helping to educate the market with stories about other customers and their succcess is the best way to become a trusted advisor. Pushing you and your product will only send them packing.

A few opportunity tips:

•   Immediacy is the kissin' cousin of relevance.  Forget the canned content and 3 or 6 month campaign and blog schedules. You're irrelevant before you ever hit the street. Instead of creating, outlining, editing and struggling with that 25 page whitepaper to answer a customers question - shoot a 2 minute video that can be posted tomorrow.  Instead of crafting that campaign to respond to a competitive flurry - get out and chat with your buyers about their thoughts and opinions, share your experience and knowledge and help them to decide based on facts, not promotions.

•  Conversations with the right new folks are your source of information. Yes, you can still chat with those favorite customers, but remember, they've already drunk the gravity koolaid with you.  If you want to know the reality of your market, right now, go have a conversation with your new customers in new markets - the bluebirds that aren't in your target profiles.  They most likely represent your next market opportunity - and the chance for you to listen to their  experiences to guide others like them on their buying journey.  Listen to a wider range of qualified buyer types, ask questions and learn!

•  Communities are powerful marketing. I believe that communities are the most underused and potentially powerful marketing force we have today. Nothing is more compelling than a group of customers sharing their results, breakthroughs, tips 'n tricks with each other and your world of prospects! Today''s buyers want to see and hear evidence of your results with buyers who look like them. What could be more powerful than a community? "But someone might say something bad," say those stuck in gravity. "Let them!" is my response.  It's even more powerful when your customers rally to respond to that negative comment.  If you want to see a killer example of a community that kicksbutt - check out Caterpillar and their customer community. Bet you thought big machine operators don't do social.  Wrong... 

•  "But we can't change.  Our people can't engage in conversations - they might say something wrong. We can't possible be interactive with customers - it takes too much time and resource."  That's gravity talking!  Train your marketing team or a social media team to converse with customers and prospects. Share your expertise with your people and then let them shine on your buying community!  Enable them to respond in realtime to your audiences' questions. Staying relevant in realtime is the key to compelling buyers today - and you can't do that in a world of campaigns.  Empower your people and watch your conversations drive more qualified opportunities than any campaign, ever.  If you want to see some great empowerment ideas - check out Gatorade or Dell and their social media centers.

The Bottom Line

Everything shifted. Either we shift with our buyers, or we will be left behind, wondering why the way we've always done it just isn't working anymore. 

The Marketing Reality Gap

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  ~Einstein

Having a great handle on your buyers' reality is one of the most important aspects of great marketing. When we remain objective, seeing our markets in the truth of the present, we focus on customers' perceptions today. The problem is, staying objective and in reality isn't a natural thing for many of us. Human nature gets in our way. For example...

Humans can be passionate. It's really easy to let our passion shade our objectivity. I especially have to watch myself around this one. I'm a passionate person, and proud of it. When I believe in something, I'm like a puppy with a ragdoll. I will not let go. I get excited, energized and ready to take the world by storm. That passion fuels my creativity - which is a really good thing. Unless I step so far into my own passionate beliefs that I lose my objectivity about my customers' reality.  Our passion for our products, technology, services and more can create blinders to our customers' truths. That's when we lose sight of what really matters in our markets. 

A herd mentality also makes it tough to remain objective. We tend to adopt the beliefs and perspectives of those around us - in our business and our personal lives. It's how we form societies, friendships, business cultures and families. The more we interact with others and their beliefs, the easier it is to mind-meld with them. Sooner or later, we can lose our objective focus.  That's especially true in business - where we tend to be programmed with the corporate legends about which customers are smart, which are a pain in the you know what, which value sells and so much more....all based on our past experiences - not today's reality. 

Humans learn - and that messes with our objective view of reality.  We learn from others and our own experiences.  This is the biggest challenge to seeing reality around. We learn from that bad experience with a certain market - and we decide we can't be successful there. Even if the market shifts toward us - we don't see the opportunity objectively. We see it for what it was, not is.  That's true of almost every human belief  - those beliefs are based on yesterday's news, not today's reality.

Hanging onto the Customers' Reality

So how do we stay in our reality given the human condition -and the very bold reality that we are all Humans in Business? Here are tips I recommend to clients. 

Spend time in the real world. The bottom line is that what our buyers believe IS our reality, whether we like it or not. So go into the real world often and listen closely. It doesn’t really matter what any of us vendors think – what matters is what our buyers believe. Talk to people outside of your company, outside of your partners and channels or your best customers.  Get outside your comfort zone of familiar folks who tell you the same things over and over again - they've drunk your koolaid right along with you! Go look for some fresh perspectives - new prospects, folks outside of your market, that potential buyer who didn't buy from you. Ask them about their perspectives...and get ready for a strong dose of reality.  Only from our customers' reality can we create compelling buying propositions for our audiences. 

Shoot those Sacred Cows. Challenge everything you believe, ask questions, debate those big beliefs that you automatically follow.  If you have a belief you hang on to for dear life, or a belief that you push away and refuse to evaluate - you're probably dealing with a gravity-ridden sacred cow. Don’t just follow the strategy you defined a year ago, believe that positioning story is still all powerful. Ask yourself "What is true today-and tomorrow."  Sacred Cows keep us stuck in our past. Shoot 'em dead and step up to today - and tomorrow's truth. 

Be contrary.  If you're in a team environment, have a debate. Have part of the team defend the status quo viewpoint. Then have some other folks defend different perspectives that are contrary to that status quo. Appoint some neutral referees if you have a peppy team, and start the conversation. The objective is to explore every possible aspect, from all the angles. The more we push the envelopes of the status quo - the more opportunities we uncover. 

We all lose our objectivity. That's part of being human.

The question is - are you willing to make the effort it takes to remain in your buyer's reality? It's not that difficult to do - it does take a shift in your own behaviors. First, agree to cast aside your own business legends and beliefs.  Then, step into your buyers' world, focus on understanding their experience and their perceptions. Once you do that - you can move forward with their beliefs as the core of your business focus.  

Always remember - it's ALL about them.  Now more than ever! 

Your Story has Two Faces

You get more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar... 

That's a very powerful rule for marketing - in any industry. 

Yet we so often forget the power of the positive spin as we get stuck in the gravity of shock and awe thinking. Ask yourself:

1.  How many of your promotions are based on fear or loss?
2.  How often do your messages focus on eliminating a negative?
3.  How often do you say something bad about a competitor? 

Every story has multiple faces....some enticing, some threatening. When we choose the threatening aspect of a story, we risk alienating our audience.  Who wants to hear about scary things they're doing? Would you??? 

Here's an example.

A company is selling to a technical buyer. Their offering empowers their buyers to change the way they do things, increasing their productivity and giving them more options than ever before. Their offering also reduces the vendor lock in we so often see in technology products. In fact, they offered the most options for flexibility and vendor freedom in their markets. That's a cool thing.

Because of that strong story, this company's main message focused on never ever again being locked into a vendor, with all kinds of scary stories about the negative impacts of vendor lock in. It was a good story - but was it drawing their audience to learn more, compelling them to buy? Not really.

Flip it Good

We flipped the story to offer the positive upside instead of threatening with the negative side.  Instead of vendor lock in - we focused on customer freedom and flexibility.

Guess what happened?  Yep, you got it.  Customers responded positively to the positive offer.

Think about this in your own personal buying. Do you want to work with the vendor who tries to scare you, makes you feel bad about what you're doing, tells you bad things about their competitors?

Or do you want to work with the vendor who points out the upside, makes you feel like you can be a winner, who tells you the truth about what their competitors can do well. They sound pretty fair, dont' they? 

People Like Positive

That piece of human behavior offers a key opportunity for marketers, when we take advantage of it. Focusing on the positive, the opportunity, the upside is a great way to create stories that inspire our audiences and compel them to learn more about us. Just make sure it's true - don't stretch or you'll end up overstating and lose credibility. Focus on the real upside, and all it's value. 

Doing our best imitation of Eyore and spreading the doom and gloom, or the famous Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)  is gravity thinking. It may have worked in some of yesterday's markets. But for today's Digitally Empowered Buyer - it's a turnoff.

People will naturally gravitate to the positive when we're given the option. Whether it's the offer from a vendor or the way a vendor chats about their competitors - dissing and negative is a turn off.  

So why use a stick in your marketing?  Carrots work better, it's human nature!

ReName, ReBrand or ReSign?

It's not Personal - It's Business!

A special guest post on personal branding from the one and only Nick Kellet - with one t!  You can learn more about Nick at http://nickkellet.com/

Should you rename, rebrand, or are you ready to resign yourself to obscurity?

Personal branding is not at all personal. It's big business. So why don't we treat personal branding like companies or products? I did a little research naming babies. Here's what I found. It seems Baby Naming Consulting is on the rise.

For me these posts are missing the point. Baby names aren't just for birthdays, baby names are for life. Your name is your brand, but can you own it?

• Do you own the dot com domain name and the twitter handle for your name?
• Can it be said and repeated over the phone without confusion? 
• Is it memorable? Is it unique? I believe you can own a name space. 

We can have a Personal Brand like Lady Gaga or Madonna. Many would view this kind of branding as extreme. Is it for all of us? Probably not, but why exclude the possibility?

Personal branding is on the rise, but are we all starting a little too late?

• What is the lifetime opportunity cost of being lost or forgotten?
• What is the price of not being memorable?

Your actions become your brand values. Having good "actions" are table-stakes, they are not your brand and they are not your differentiation. Acting well is what it takes to play the game of life. If we all have good actions, brand trumps action.

Brand is a differentiator. There is no escaping that reality. Personal branding is not a choice, it's a necessity. Your brand is the hook on which we hang all your goodness. With no hook, there is no recall. 

For simplicity, let's imagine we are working on the personal branding for a guy John, John Smith to use his full name. Good luck! How many John Smiths are there? Too many to count.

For me John Smiths is a Beer, but then I'm a Brit! For me, John Smiths Beer owns the name space for John Smith. 

Thinking about Business and Brands for a moment, would you call your product Pepsi22 or Nike_212?There's two big reasons why the answer should be a very loud NO!

1. You'd get sued by the men in dark suits working in Legal at Pepsi and Nike!
2. You could never own the brand. The mind space for Pepsi or Nike are taken. The cost of displacement would be enormous.

The second reason is the one that matters. You'd be crazy to try. You could throw millions at the problem and never succeed.

So let's return our focus to personal branding.

 Numbers in your names feels so MySpace! It's not the number of namesakes that matters. There's only one Pepsi and only one Nike. If you are going to brand something you want to own it (and the space around it).

• So many equivalent names should be a trigger to rebrand. One equivalent is too many. Why create yourself a branding problem? Zig when others zag!
• Branding is serious business. Getting into someone's brain is a complex challenge, so why reduce the likelihood of mental recall with quirky spelling. 
• Don't resort to a middle initial. Why does America, have a "middle initial" fixation? John JZ Smith the Third! Please, no! No JZ's. Don't make me remember an initial. Get out of the branding weeds. Pick a battle you can win! Is it Lady Gaga or Lady J Gaga? Dump the initial and the numerals! It's Lady Gaga, not Lady Ga II! Leave Roman numerals to Popes, Kings and Queens. 

I have a simple rule. Own your <name>.com and own you @<name> on Twitter and make them the same. While you are at it grab all you names on all the usual platforms - Facebook, Youtube etc.

• It's hard enough to comply with the rules for a company or product.
• With people, because we share common names, it's almost impossible.

I'd argue it's pure mindset. Of course it's possible. I'm lucky. I am the only Nick Kellet I've found.There's a Nick Kellett, a jeweller in the UK (but's he's a Two T Kellett), I've met another Nick Kellett in Quebec.  I am Nick Kellet the brand.

How about you? Do you own your brand?  How are you feeling right now? Are you passing the test? Have you googled yourself and your brand lately? Are you listening into brand and product mentions? Owning a brand comes with some big responsibilities. Are you ready?

Leading with Humanity

Are you caught up in the technology of the times?  All the talk of Twitter tools, Klout algorithms, Facebook Timelines, better ways to collect and analyze our clicks and downloads, scheduling and buffering and pinning gives me a headache sometimes.  

Technology doesn't drive success.

It never has and it never will.  Our success comes from the human side of our business. Even when we're surrounded by the best technology in the world - the human element drives all the decisions.

Humans buy and consume our offerings. Humans call our help desks to request support or guidance, more information or to upgrade their service.  Humans make the decisions about what to buy and from whom. 

Whether you use or sell technology - success is all about focusing on our humanity.

We're humans in business, not business professionals acting like humans. 

Our every decision is driven by our humanity.

Ask yourself. In your own personal or business experience, does technology....

• Decide which product you buy, which vendor you trust? 
• Determine which communities you join and how you interact?
• Select whose advice you follow when it comes to purchases? 

Of course it doesn't We make those decisions based on our human inclinations  even with all the facts and figures technology can give us.  Facts, figures, feeds, speeds do not drive business decisions. If the best products won in the market - many of our market leaders wouldn't be in business. 

Leading with Humanity

People buy from people they trust. People create communities with others like them. The human factor is compelling and controlling.

• The time spent selecting that catchy social media tool for blasting out your new product or campaign isn't going to drive success. Focus on solving your customers' problems, making their lives easier, improving their world - that's how you fuel everyone's success.

•  Forget the sizzlin' new video with all the whizbang animation and super star spokesman. Try sharing from your heart with your audience. Keep it simple and stay human. People listen to those who speak to them - not at them. That's true for entrepreneurial and big honking businesses.

•   Instead of spending days pouring over that Customer Relationship Management system,  looking for leads. Try reaching out to the real people behind the data. Customers are human beings who want to solve problems - not database fields.

It probably sounds crazy for a gal with 30 + years in technology to say that technology isn't the turbo jet for success.  Technology does have a critical role in business. Without it - you're toast.  But that doesn't mean that it's the Holy Grail.

Today's technology gives us the reach and range to touch our global audiences in ways we could only dream of even five years ago.  That's the Wow behind technology. 

But even with all that wow, we are all human. We make decisions based on beliefs, emotions, baggage and... the facts.  Which leaves one simple truth. 

Our technology is an enabler.  Our humanity is what matters. 

Long Live Content Marketing

Everywhere I turn I see some new article proclaiming the death of content marketing. What a crock...

Content marketing is not the problem! 

The problem is the chest thumping, blatant self-promotion that vendors claim is  valuable, customer-facing content. Here's a clue. If you're pushing your business and your product - it's not content marketing. It's promotion. 

Content marketing is  one of the greatest assets of any marketing organization. Our content is what creates the perception of our business for today's digitally empowered buyers.  Through content marketing - we can reach out and touch them, share our experiences and knowledge, help them solve their problems so that they trust us. When we actually execute a content marketing strategy - we can be very compelling.  

The problem is  - that's not the content we deliver. As we've transitioned from "traditional" marketing into "content" marketing - the only thing that's changed are the communication platforms for the content. Instead of a promotional e-mail -  we write a blog.  Instead of a product sheet -  we create a customer story.   But the content all has the same basic focus.   US - not the customer.

Self-promoting content will send your audiences running. 

Great marketing content is not about us. Great marketing content is all about them.  In my ebook It's Not About You Anymore I share some ideas on how to create compelling stories.  Here's a clue. Compelling stories support the customer in solving their problems - without flaunting our stuff. 

So stop blaming content marketing as the culprit. The problem isn't the strategy - it's the execution!

How can you shift from Chest Thumping to Customer-Compelling content?

Shift your thinking.  Instead of creating the status quo content focused on your product, your value, your success - shift your focus to your buyer.  Consciously decide not to mention your product, company or cool whizbang features.  What a concept - a total focus on the customer's needs and not our own. 

How do you make the shift? Here are a few examples:

• Share your expertise. Your audience has a problem. Don't try to sell them your stuff - that's just plain rude. Instead, help them understand how to think about their problem and potential solutions. Share your expertise with them, guiding them through the logical path to a solution. For example, let's say your audience is challenged by performance problems with their applications. Don't send them a piece of content all about your faster processor, database, system or whatever. That's obnoxious and pretty blatant self-promotion!  Instead,  share a piece of content about the key aspects of their infrastructure that they might want to check for problems. Share your expertise to guide them through the process to better understand their issues.  Why? Instead of being an obnoxious vendor selling them your stuff, you're now an expert sharing information and guidance freely. Which one would you trust and respond to more readily?

• Share alternative solutions.   Give them options and choices, describe how others like them have approached and resolved similar problems. Take them through the logic of each solution,  share the intricacies of the problem-solving process and how the decisions were made. Create content that gives your audiences a clear and broad perspective on real world problem/ solution scenarios that were successful. If you have a few that were failures - share those too. It's all about sharing lessons learned by others that will help your audience be successful. By sharing this content - you position yourself as the friendly expert helping them understand and evaluate all of the options.

•  Selling is selling and content is content.  When we mix the two, it turns off our audiences. If you're creating a piece of sales collateral ( say a product sheet) - then let it sell. If you're creating customer content - stop selling! Content marketing has a bad rap because we  turn everything into sales focused content and then and put a customer wrapper around it. Do you really think your audiences are that naïve?

Content marketing can create compelling market advantage.

That's only true if you're purely focused on educating, supporting and helping your audience to be successful.   Selling your products and organization is off limits in true customer-facing content. Sharing your expertise, sharing alternative solutions, sharing the logical processes that will support your audiences in their own decision-making - that's powerful content.  

As you educate and support your audiences to their best success - you'll position your company as a trusted advisor - not a self promoting vendor.  Which would you be most likely to partner with in your business? 

Long live content marketing -  and here's to the death of shameless self promotion!

Simply KICKBUTT Marketing

Today's post is short, sweet and to the point.  

I received this email last week from Apple.  The minute I opened it I grinned. I was looking at simple, compelling and superb marketing.  I love it. 

Why?

Instead of blatantly thumping their own chests for the App Store's 25 BILLION downloads (wow),  Apple spun that success into a Customer Facing thank you and opportunity. MUCH more powerful than simply announcing the big  number of downloads, now isn't it??? 

Compelling, audience-focused, simple and....brilliant. 

How do your campaigns compare?  Think about it..... 

Dear Pinterest

First  - I want to tell you how impressed I am with your picture boards. What a great idea, for everyone from teenagers and moms to marketing folks and story tellers. We humans are much more compelled by pictures than by the written word.  You've created a magical product to leverage human nature! 

Secondly - I want to congratulate you on a BRILLIANT "Get Sticky" strategy!  It took me a bit to understand your brilliance.  Now that I do - I have to tell you what a Defy Gravity kinda business you're running!

Until I understood, I was moaning to myself about what a PITA it is to build story boards.  I want to use Pinterest to tell stories to kids.  That means the images have to be in a certain order. But your boards don't allow me to reorder Pins once I've placed them on said Board. Once I upload or attach that Pin - it's in that order forever after. You DO know that's a pain - right? 

For you non-Pinterest folks, here's what I have to do when I create an Unstoppable U Story for Kids with Pinterest. First I have to storyboard the Pinterest board (kinda iike a plan for a plan). My Friend @Casudi uses  another tool (iPhoto) to order the images first. I use paper - primarily because I Pin a majority of my boards from website images. Once I get the order,  I have to Pin the images to the board- from urls or uploads, along with their desciption.  One at a time. Oh - and I have to tell the story in reverse order to create a story. So all the actually Pinning gets done backwards.

Let's agree - that pretty much sucks! We Pinners complain about it all the time.

Then it hit me...

That's a feature worth a lot of money. ONE SINGLE feature.  If you're a pinner, you'd pay $s/month for that single feature. My bet is up to $5 or MORE/month. 

This is where your brilliant strategy comes in Pinterest. My bet is you already have the ability to reorder Pins on a board.... You use it today when we Rearrange Boards. But why put it out there for the launch? You can get everyone HOOKED on Pinterest without it - and then charge all of us gung ho Pinterest story tellers for that feature when you're ready based on your market traction - and capture a LOT of revenue, almost overnight. 

I understand that Pinterest only has about 2.2M daily users at the moment. Real users - that is. But Pinterest also has the fastest growing audience in the history of internet tools. So it shouldn't take long for that 2.2M to become 10M active users. Then 50M.

My question to you is this. When do you plan to start gathering revenue? Otherwise stated, What's your timing for releasing that little Pin Rearranging feature? 

Until then your boards are a PITA to use. Brilliant, Powerful Story Telling tools - but still a PITA for anyone other than random pinners.

Congrats on the great strategy.  I'm already willing to pay - and so are most other pinners.  Just let us know when you're ready!

Here's to your Zero Gravity thinking!

 

Desperately Seeking Simple

Do you believe that simple sells? I do.

Yet in complex and technology markets, we often slip into the belief that our complexity is cool.We like to share all the details of our innovation. We revel in discussing  things like configurations, feeds 'n speeds, architectures, patents, designs and more.

Technology buyers think that's pretty cool. The problem is, they aren't the ones with the money to buy our stuff.

The people with the money are the business people. They don't care about our first ever whizbang, whatchmafloppy cloudgizmo.

They care about making money, saving money, making more money, saving more money.

It's that simple.

That's why it's important we keep it simple when we talk about our stuff. That's why we want to focus on how we help our customers make or save money.

When we make it simple, the people with the money  understand why they need to buy our stuff.

Then they buy.

So stop with the chest thumping complexity.

Make it simple for your buyers to understand how your stuff solves their problems.