Marketing Automation Trends - Download the Report

Marketing automation is a hot topic as more B2B marketers are adopting the technology to generate more and better leads, improve marketing productivity, and increase conversion rates. But what are the current trends, challenges, and success factors for marketing automation?

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We conducted a comprehensive survey, leveraging the combined wisdom of over 50,000 B2B marketers in the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn to get answers to questions like: What are the biggest barriers to marketing automation adoption? What marketing automation benefits do marketers expect? How do marketers evaluate marketing automation vendors? How do marketers measure ROI of investments in marketing automation? We received over 900 survey responses and distilled the survey findings into an easy to digest, information-rich report - you can download it right here. Enjoy the report!

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Why Third-Party Content Should Be Part of Your Content Marketing Mix

Two recent research studies have caused me to rethink my views regarding the role and value of third-party content in the marketing efforts of B2B companies. I have always argued that most of the marketing content resources used by a company should be developed internally or with the assistance of outside professional content developers. Either way, the "authorship" of the content is attributed to the company or to an executive or other internal expert. With third-party content, another person or firm creates the content and is shown as the author.

The ultimate objective of content marketing is to cause potential customers to view your company as a trusted resource for valuable information and insights and as a capable and reliable business partner. To accomplish this objective, most of the content you publish should be "yours." It must communicate your company's expertise and capabilities. As a general rule, third-party content just isn't as effective for those purposes.

While I still say that companies should rely primarily on content they create, I also now believe that many companies can benefit from using third-party content on a selective basis. My reasoning is based on two recent research studies that provide important insights regarding the types of content that B2B buyers trust.

The CMO Council recently published a white paper - Better Lead Yield in the Content Marketing Field - that is based on a survey of more than 400 B2B content consumers. When survey participants were asked what types of content they most value and trust, vendor-created content came in last.

As the table below shows, survey respondents said they value and trust professional association research reports and white papers, research reports and white papers created by industry groups, customer case studies, reports and white papers written by analysts, and independent product reviews more than vendor-created content.

The 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey by DemandGen Report showed similar results. In this survey, B2B buyers were asked which of four types of content they give more credence to. The table below shows that vendor-branded content doesn't fare as well as third-party content.

It seems clear that potential buyers are inclined to trust third-party content more than content created by potential vendors, and B2B marketers should take advantage of this inclination. Content authored by a third-party expert and sponsored by your company can be particularly effective for persuading a potential buyer to begin a relationship with your company. This type of sponsored content can include white papers, eBooks, and research/analytical reports. It could also include a webinar sponsored by your company and presented by a third-party expert.

Content that you develop should always play the predominant role in your content marketing efforts. There are several ways to make your content more trustworthy and credible to potential buyers, and I discussed this topic in an earlier post. However, the right third-party content used in the right ways can be a powerful addition to your content marketing program.

Improving Life, Even When Bogged With Lead Generation

Are you aware that B2B lead generation is one of the most stressful jobs that a marketer could ever experience? This is a reality that many will have to deal with. Otherwise, they will not be able to do their jobs at all. While it may be true that this can be a pain, the fact remains that this is also a very profitable activity. If you can generate good sales leads, then you can earn a profit here. How you handle the stress and baggage that this job brings to your life varies from person to person, but there are a few factors that are the same. Therefore, these are fixed points that can be improved on. 

And what are these pointers that you should know about?

  

1.   Plan well – this is an advice that we have all heard too often, but rarely do we really follow. As marketers, we must be able to decide on what business strategy to employ before we start. It would be a virtual waste of effort if we just do things without a proper goal in mind.

2.   Focus – when you work, really dive into your work. Get ‘into the zone’, so to speak. Not only will you be able to accomplish more of your work, but you would also be able to ensure that your attention is focused on the details.

3.  Have a break – of course, after intensely working for about an hour or so, you should learn to stop and take a break. In this way, you can avoid getting burned-out too early in the day. It will also let you refocus on your work later.

4.   Be neat – as some say ‘a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind’. While this may be true in some cases, the point here is for you to put everything in your desk in order. This will help you keep tab on things, as well as avoid cases of ‘misplacing’ anything, like notes from a telemarketing call.

5.   Do not seek perfection – instead, seek excellence in your work. You see, going for perfection is an activity that will never bring you any rewards. Often, this is an unattainable, frustrating, and a neurotic activity. Better aim for something that you can actually achieve, and that is excellence.

6.  Learn to say ‘No’ – you see, there is a limit to what a normal flesh and blood can do. If you just keep on accepting workloads from your bosses, or from your B2B leads prospects, soon enough, you would be overloaded with things you have yet to do. You need to learn when to say ‘No’.

7.  Do not procrastinate – this is common even for those in the B2B appointment setting business. You need to do things now, not later, lest you miss the chance to generate good sales leads in the end.

This is for the good of your B2B lead generation campaign. If you are in top form, you will be able to perform better at the job.

How to Make the Cost of Delay Visible to Your Prospects

Keeping prospects moving through the buying process is a perennial challenge for B2B marketing and sales professionals. I suspect that all of us have faced this issue in one form or another. We acquire a new lead who seems to be a good fit for our solution, and for a few weeks, she responds to our lead nurturing offers and consumes our content. Then activity just stops. Or perhaps we've made a great presentation to the buying group and delivered a compelling proposal only to be told that our prospect has decided not to move forward "at this time."

When prospects don't keep moving through the buying process, the result is longer sales cycles, stalled deals, and the dreaded "no decision." Research from several sources shows that keeping prospects moving has become a difficult job. For example:

• In the 2013 Sales Performance Optimization survey by CSO Insights, 40% of respondents said that their sales cycles for new customers were seven months or longer. In the 2012 survey, only 33% of respondents reported sales cycles of that length. Research by SiriusDecisions, IDC, and others has also found that sales cycles are getting longer for B2B companies.
• The CSO Insights survey also revealed that the number of no decisions is increasing. In the 2013 survey, respondents reported that 26.1% of forecast deals resulted in no decisions. That's up from only 17% of forecast deals in 2002.

Longer sales cycles, stalled deals, and "no decisions" can be caused by several factors, some of which are beyond your control. However, you can alleviate one of the primary reasons that prospects stop moving through the buying process.

Today's business buyers are incredibly busy, and like the rest of us, they spend most of their working time dealing with issues or problems that they perceive to be important and urgent. If they don't see a problem as both important and urgent, they won't give it much attention. That's why the status quo is usually your toughest competitor. In most cases, doing nothing is the easiest choice your prospect can make.

The key to breaking the grip of the status quo is convincing your prospect that the problem your product or service will solve is worth his or her time and attention. In essence, you must help your prospect answer two questions: Why is it important for me to address this problem or issue, and why should I deal with the problem or issue now?

One of the most effective ways to demonstrate the importance and urgency of a problem is to make the cost of delay visible to your prospect. That's why I include a cost of delay calculation in every ROI calculator I develop. Most ROI calculators focus on the traditional ROI metrics - the basic ROI percentage, the payback period, net present value, and possibly internal rate of return. These metrics should be included in any ROI estimate, but they won't necessarily communicate a sense of urgency to your prospect. That's what a cost of delay calculation does really well.

The basic cost of delay formula is:

Average Solution Benefits - Average Solution Costs

When calculating the cost of delay, you can use daily, weekly, or monthly average values. I typically choose the unit of measure based on the size of the benefits and cost values. The larger the values, the shorter the unit of measure.

To illustrate how the cost of delay calculation works, let's assume that your company offers marketing asset management/web-to-print solutions to corporate customers. For a particular prospect, you've determined that your solution will produce the following financial benefits during the first twelve months after the solution is fully implemented.

• Reduction of request processing costs - $46,791
• Increase in gross profits - $25,000
• Reduction of obsolescence waste - $18,000
• Reduction of materials customization costs - $16,000
• Reduction of inventory management costs - $7,404

The annual cost of your solution is $75,000, and you will need one month to implement your solution for this prospect.

Based on these facts, the monthly cost of delay would be calculated as follows:

Monthly CoD = Average Monthly Solution Benefits - Average Monthly Solution Costs

Monthly CoD = ($113,195 / 13) - ($75,000 / 12)

Monthly CoD = $8,707.31 - $6,250.00

Monthly CoD = $2,457.31

To make the cost of delay even more compelling, I will typically include a cumulative cost of delay chart somewhere in my ROI calculator. For this example, that chart would appear as follows:

Making the cost of delay visible to your prospects won't cure all of your sales cycle problems, but it can create the sense of urgency that will keep your prospects moving through the buying process.

Strategic Partnerships Are Where It's At

As my whole family prepares for our annual fall pilgrimage to the South Carolina coast for a week of relaxation and reconnecting, I began receiving information from our rental company that had nothing to do with the house rental.  These specially-tailored messages featured things like grocery discounts, bike, boat, and ski rentals, and this latest one…a complimentary beach photography package.

Walking you through the thought process of a consumer, hiring a photographer for our beach vacation wasn’t on our radar.  At all.  We have talked about having a family photo every Christmas probably for the past ten years, but it is something we’ve never been able to coordinate with our busy schedules during the holiday season.  But, after seeing this post on the rental agency’s Facebook page, I sent an email out to my family and we all agreed this would be a good idea.

This rental agency has formed strategic partnerships with nearby businesses of every stripe in order to add value to its relationships with customers of all interests.  And those partnerships are mutually beneficial for both companies.  The photography company sends business to the rental company as well through its website, storefront and social media pages. 

We are all in strategic planning mode for 2014, and I urge you, community banks and credit unions, to step back and take a look at the communities in which you do business.  Your greatest opportunity for growth lies there, but your opportunities for adding value to your customer and member relationships can be vast, which will only make the community corral around your financial institution even more.  And it not only stretches your marketing dollars, but gets your message in front of people who might not ordinarily see your message but are interested in your services.  Case in point: the photography business in Charleston, SC.

If your financial institution offers business services – loans and deposit products – there is an even greater opportunity to differentiate yourself within the market and add value to these banking relationships by finding mutually beneficial ways to partner and grow each others’ business.  These partnerships don’t have to be companies necessarily.  Niche markets within your communities like residents’ associations, special demographic groups, and interest groups can be incredible for your institution because these groups all have very specific needs that you could be perfectly positioned to serve.

Knowing your customer and member base would be a good place to start.  Where are they shopping and spending time locally?  Adding more value to your product offerings is all about looking in new and different directions.  And strategic partnerships would be a great benefit to your members and customers - and your local community as well – in 2014 and beyond.  Happy planning!

Amanda

We bring these philosophies to credit unions and community banks all over the country to help them with their strategic planning, marketing, and branding initiatives.  Contact me to learn more about how MarketMatch can help your financial institution define its "why" and achieve sustainable growth in the future.  Don't forget to ask about our ROI Guarantee - the only guarantee of its kind in the entire financial industry!

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Dealing With Angry Telemarketing Prospects

When prospecting for potential B2B leads, looking over your old calling lists can be a good way to start your work. I mean, you already have a relationship with the people on the list, right? So why not give them a telemarketing call and ask if they are interested in doing business with you again? More often than not, these prospects would say ‘yes’, but there are also cases where the prospect would not only say ‘no’ but would probably have a litany of complaints against you, your offers, or probably to your company in general. These are angry business prospects that, while they may not bring business in, are worth every effort to assuage their temper. For the sake of your business, you need to handle this right.

You see, you can think of angry customers as those who were disappointed by your company. It could be due to a lot of reasons, like poor service, non-delivery of goods, or even fraud. These are just some of the ways to really earn the ire of such former customers. While they may not rank high in our B2B lead generation campaigns, what they say in social networks can bring down our business. So you have to deal with them quickly every time you have such an encounter. Anyway, for those tense moments, it pays to remember these useful tips:

One, do not take their criticisms personaly. They just wanted to get their resentments out of their chests. And in case that failure your company made is serious, then it is only natural that they would want to speak out to the first representative that calls them.

Second, leave the anger out of the equation. If you react to the negative outburst with an equally negative outburst, nothing positive will come out of it. Indeed, this will just end up escalating to higher levels of trouble for you and your company once this gets out of control, which will usually happen.

Third, apologize once things have calmed down a bit. Even if this is not your fault, you represent the company that caused the prospect grief in the past. Assure them that you are there to solve whatever problem they had with your service in the past. Usually, this would have mollified your prospects and make them more receptive to your B2B appointment setting efforts.

Lastly, concentrate on solving the problem itself. Take note, these prospects are unhappy because of some problem your business gave them. For that reason, you should ask them where things went wrong.

Yes, that would be an ugly process, but you need to know in order to iron your processes out in the future. At least you are getting more information. You may not be able to make a sale at this point, but at least you are fixing your relationship with your previous prospects. Once you have gotten this fixed, it will be easier for your lead generation campaign to do business with them again.

What Do Your B2B Lead Generation Prospects Want To Hear?

The secret to an effective B2B lead generation campaign lies in your ability to give your prospective B2B leads what they want to hear. You know that it can be hard to keep their attention focused on you, let alone compel them to actually take action (based on your message), so if there is any way for you to achieve this goal, you would take it. As for that challenge, you just have to tell them what they wanted. Not that you are going to lie, mind you, but more along the lines of being the source of convincing content. Being honest is a big thing in business, as you can see from the things you can say below:

  

1.    You can talk about their market position – it does not have to immediately translate to narcissism or anything, but a lot of businesses would want to know how they are faring in the market these days. If you can help them determine where exactly they are in industry ratings, then they would most certainly want to hear that. Bonus points if you can give them the exact number for the job.

2.    You can be their ‘crystal ball’ of the future – one of the biggest enemies of a business is uncertainty. The unknown is notorious for causing a lot of ruckus to many B2B appointment setting campaigns when it strikes. That is why a lot of companies would be willing to spend just to reduce the number of unknown factors that they have to deal with. And if you can provide that particular service, then it is all good for you.

3.    You can be a management practices expert – with the evolution of businesses and the market, one need to be aware of the latest practices and standards that will help make him more competitive. If you can  serve as the expert in best practices, quality control, or even business laws, then you will be able to grab the attention of interested sales leads prospects.

4.    You can act as their researcher – information is the name of the game, and the company that has in their possessions the latest market data and business trends are the ones most likely to generate the B2B leads that you are looking for. If you can become their provider of necessary business data, for example, because you conduct B2B telemarketing surveys, then you will be able to have a deal with them.

5.    You can offercustomized business solutions with them – remember, not all companies are the same. In one way or another, they may have needs and concerns that go beyond what a pre-fabricated solutions system can provide. Customization is the key here, and if you can provide that, then you have their business.

As I have mentioned earlier, being honest plays an important role in the success of your B2B lead generation campaign. Tell them upfront what you can do or cannot do for them. While this might be too blunt, your prospects will understand. They need real solutions, not pretty band-aids.

Stop Wasting Your Time on Superficial Personalization

For more than two decades, experts have urged marketers to use personalized messages to boost the effectiveness of marketing communications. Many marketers have heeded this advice, and they are now using various technology tools to create personalized marketing messages in a variety of media and formats, including web pages, e-mail messages, and printed materials such as direct mail documents.

The most common way to personalize a marketing message is to include specific facts about the recipient in the message. Some examples would include the recipient's name, her job title, company affiliation, the industry in which she works, or information about a recent purchase.

The reality is, this type of explicit personalization no longer has much impact with potential buyers, largely because so many marketers are using similar personalization tactics. Two recent research projects have confirmed that explicit personalization alone has become an anemic tool for improving the effectiveness of marketing communications.

Earlier this year, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducted two concurrent surveys sponsored by Lyris. One of the surveys was directed at consumers, and it asked survey participants about the effectiveness of various marketing channels and tactics, how they prefer to engage with brands, and what influences their purchase decisions. You can obtain an executive summary of the EIU survey report here.

The major findings from the EIU consumer survey regarding personalization include the following:

• More than 70% of survey respondents said that the volume of personalized messages they receive has increased over the past five years.
• Seventy percent of the respondents said that many of the personalized messages they receive are annoying because the attempts at personalization are superficial.
• Sixty-three percent of respondents said that personalization is now so common that they have grown numb to it.
• Only 22% of respondents said that personalized offers are more likely to meet their needs than mass market offers.

Research by the CEB Marketing Leadership Council also shows that explicit personalization has lost much of its impact. In July of this year, CEB surveyed 1,500 consumers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia regarding how, why, and what they buy, and about their attitudes regarding the tactics brands use to engage them. One of the survey questions asked participants how they felt about some of the more common forms of explicit personalization. The table below shows how the survey participants responded.

The lesson here is that explicit personalization alone is not sufficient to make marketing messages more effective. The real key to improving the effectiveness of your marketing messages is to use what you know about your potential buyers to craft messages that will be more relevant and useful to those buyers. Relevance and usefulness (what Jay Baer calls "Youtility"), not mere personalization, are the real drivers of better marketing results.

This doesn't mean that you should stop personalizing marketing messages. It does mean that the personalization should be contextually appropriate (not just a gimmick) and that personalization shouldn't be the core component of your messaging strategy.

"With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility"

The Avengers

Think of your favorite superhero.  Why do you like him/her?  Is it the fancy uniform, super cool abilities, or their willingness to always help people no matter what – even in danger and mortal peril?

The thing that makes these superheroes stand out to so many is that they have this immense amount of power, yet they apply it for good deeds and not evil.  Moreover, they use their great responsibility of powers and talent to thwart evil at every turn.

You, my marketing friends, also can apply superhero mentality to your marketing efforts by applying your powers to good instead of evil.  Plainly stated, focus on the positives about your financial institution and how awesome you are at taking care of your customers’ or members’ financial needs.  Use those positive stories from when you helped someone start a business, buy a home, or help send their kids to college.

Focusing on the evil, like throwing the nearby competitor under the bus for example, isn’t how true superheroes roll.  They don’t have to say “I’m better than <insert superhero name> because of X, Y, and Z” because it would make them no better than the villains.

Stop competing with those other nearby community-oriented financial institutions!   We are all playing for the same team – just like our favorites who came together to fight a bigger evil in The Avengers.  Warring with one another over market share isn’t the stuff of superheroes because there is so much more opportunity in the big scheme of things.

In your marketing efforts and in the process of delivering that awesome experience to your members and customers, define what you are best at and what makes you different.  Then, in true superhero fashion, keep using your powers as an organization to keep helping people reach their financial dreams. 

Superheroes always take the high road, and that’s what makes them great.  You and your organization have great power and great talent to use for good.  So remember to be like that favorite superhero and focus on what you have to offer your customers and members.  

Amanda  

We bring these philosophies to credit unions and community banks all over the country to help them with their strategic planning, marketing, and branding initiatives.  Contact me to learn more about how MarketMatch can help your financial institution define its "why" and achieve sustainable growth in the future.  Don't forget to ask about our ROI Guarantee - the only guarantee of its kind in the entire financial industry!

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Don't Begin Your Next Planning Session Until You Can Do This!

The Super-Duper Credit Union/Community Bank member/customer is family focused. She is a married woman with a good job, but (combined with her husband's income) making just enough to support her family's comfortable lifestyle. She has one or two young children and a husband who likely earns a little more than her. They live in a 2 bedroom home in a middle class neighborhood with lots of swing sets and have been there for 5-10 years.

Retirement seems like a pipe dream. Though they invest a little through their employers, it is not the focus. They are more concerned with meeting monthly bills and still squirreling away some savings for their children's future college bills - who's majority will ultimately be financed through student loans.

Her time is divided by maintaining a career that she is proud of, raising children that she loves dearly, supporting her kid's activities, volunteering for community groups, exercising 3-4 times per week, and trying to salvage a relationship with her husband, family and friends where she can find time. She has replaced time on the phone with her friends with frequent pictures and updates of the kids on Facebook.

Because her husband is "busy earning more," or because she's more responsible, she's in charge of most of the family finances. While she is technologically savvy, she received her first email account when she started her first real job, about 20 years ago. That said, she writes more checks than she probably should but is beginning to see the efficiency of online banking and starting to trust it more. She's certainly not an early adopter of technology - but she LOVES her i-Phone.

Though she and her husband each switch cars every 3-4 years, they do not lease. They want the look and amenities of a BMW or Mercedes without the hefty monthly payments.

---------------------------------------------------

The off-site hotel is set and the golf reservations are made. You know how you'll entertain your Board and they are looking forward to a weekend together. Now, it's time to begin the REAL pre-work to your planning session.

As credit unions and community banks, everything we do is 

built around our members and customers ... EVERYTHING!  

You, of course need to be prepared to talk business: How will we decrease loan loss while still being open enough to grow the portfolio? How will the health care act effect us? How do we increase non-interest income without establishing big-bank fees? Are there new markets that we should look at? Do we want to merge (or be merged)? Are we over or under staffed?

This is all vital to discuss, but before you break into THAT agenda ... think about who you're doing it for.

Can you tell a story like the one above? You need to!

The days of being all things to all people is over. Your margins shrank years ago and have little promise of coming back any time soon. Your marketing budget isn't limitless. You need loans NOW and your 65 plus year old members simply aren't borrowing like you need.

So you need to focus! You need to determine who in your market(s) you are attracting now and who you WANT to attract. You need to understand your best customers and what makes them the best. Then learn everything you can about them. 

When you can tell a story about your customer: where they live, where they work, what they do for fun, what drives them, what they fear, what they care about ... then you can start making strategic decisions on your product suite, pricing, branching, tech investments, your website, and your marketing message.

Related Articles:
The Great Storyteller Gets the Audience
You'll Never Get Everyone to Love You
Mirror Mirror

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

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