Why You Need Customer Success Content

In my last post, I discussed why most B2B companies need content marketing programs that are specifically designed for existing customers, and I described three specific business situations that make marketing after the initial sale particularly important.

The ultimate objective of marketing to existing customers is to retain and, where possible, expand the business you do with profitable customers. The most direct and effective way to achieve this goal is to help your customers successfully implement and use your solutions. Therefore, most of the content you use with existing customers should be focused on providing information and insights that will help them maximize the value they derive from your solutions and from their relationship with your company. A number of thought leaders are beginning to call this kind of content "customer success content," and it plays a vital role in the emerging field of customer success management.

Obviously, existing customers have different content needs than prospects, but many content marketing principles are the same for both audiences. Suppose, for example, that you sell a complex product such as an enterprise software solution or some kinds of industrial equipment. In these circumstances, your new customers will likely face a significant learning curve to become proficient with your product. Most of your customers will progress through multiple stages in the process of learning how to use your product, as illustrated by the following diagram.

We now know that when we're marketing to potential buyers, it's critical to have content resources that are specifically designed for each stage of the buying process. That's because the issues that are important to prospects change as they move through the process. The same principle applies when developing content for existing customers. The information needs of a power user are different from those of a new user, and the same content won't be equally effective for both.

Another similarity is the need to provide content in a variety of formats. For example, "how-to" content for existing customers is usually presented in written form (online help articles, answers to FAQ's, etc.). Today, many companies are using instructional videos to convey the same information and provide customers an alternative way to access the information.

Finally, while it's true that you usually need different content for prospects and existing customers, there are important exceptions. Some content that is designed for customers can be very effective with late-stage prospects. For example, a case study that provides a detailed description of how one of your customers used specific features of your product to accomplish an important business objective would be useful and valuable to other customers and to late-stage prospects.

So far in this post, I've haven't discussed the issue of using content to sell new, related, or ancillary products to an existing customer. Content can play a valuable role in expanding your relationships with existing customers, but you need to use the right approach. As with new prospects, the best approach is to start with content that focuses on the business issues that your new, related, or ancillary products can address. Once the foundation is in place, you can move to more product-focused content.

Content marketing shouldn't stop when the initial sale is closed. For many companies, marketing to existing customers is just as important as marketing to potential buyers, and content is critical to your success with both audiences.

When Marketing to Existing Customers Really Matters

Most of the conversation about content marketing has focused on its role in acquiring new customers. For example, we often hear or read about the use of content to attract new prospects and about how content provides the "fuel" for lead nurturing programs.

What is discussed less frequently is the critical role that content plays in building and sustaining relationships with existing customers. Marketing to existing customers is part of what is often called customer lifecycle marketing, and it is also a major component of most account-based marketing strategies. Although the principle isn't new, a growing number of companies are recognizing the value of maximizing their relationships with existing customers.

This is the first of two posts that will discuss content marketing for existing customers. In this post, I'll describe three circumstances that make marketing after the initial sale particularly important. My next post will describe the type of content that helps build strong relationships with existing customers.

Creating and maintaining strong relationships with existing customers will produce major benefits for virtually all kinds of companies. Research going back to the early 1980's has shown that it's usually much more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain and grow an existing customer. In most companies, existing customers account for a large percentage of total company revenues (up to 80% in some companies), and those revenues tend to be more stable than revenues from new customers. Highly satisfied customers are also more likely to recommend your company to other potential customers.

These broad benefits are important for most B2B companies, but there are three circumstances that elevate the importance of building strong customer relationships, particularly with newly-acquired customers.

When Customer Profitability Requires Multiple Purchases

In several types of businesses, most customers make multiple, relatively small purchases over time. For example, some commercial printing companies and firms that sell MRO supplies have this type of business model. From an economic perspective, software companies that provide their products on a subscription (or SaaS) basis have the same model.

In this situation, the first sale to a customer is rarely sufficient to make that customer profitable because of the marketing and sales costs that must be incurred to acquire the customer. If your company has this model, it's obviously critical to persuade newly-acquired customers to make several purchases.

When the Purchase of Ancillary Products are a Major Component of Customer Profitability

In this situation, the first sale to a customer may be sufficient to make the customer marginally profitable, but over the lifetime of the relationship, most of the profits will result from the customer's purchase of ancillary products. For example, Epson probably earned some profit when I purchased my new printer about a year ago, but they've almost certainly realized even more profits from the several ink purchases I've made over the past year.

When the Potential to Expand "Share of Wallet" is High

In some cases, your first sale to a customer may cover only a portion of the customer's actual requirements for the product or products that your company can provide. Perhaps the customer is "testing" your company or is reluctant to move all of their category spend to a single supplier. Whatever the cause, you may have the opportunity to significantly increase the revenues and profits you earn from the customer by increasing your "share of wallet," and that will require you to entice the customer to move more of its business to your company.

All three of these circumstances elevate the importance of having marketing programs for existing customers. In most cases, content marketing will be the most effective way to nurture relationships with your existing customers. In my next post, I'll describe the kind of content that you need for this purpose.

7 Ways to Maximize Fulfillment and Collateral Pieces for Profits

 My latest article in Target Marketing...

Sure, fulfillment and inserts aren't as sexy as other forms of marketing, but they can be viable ways to bring in steady, ancillary revenues.

I've seen some online publishers bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars with a carefully thought-out insert program. For instance, taking a direct mail control piece and adding it in customer fulfillment packages as an insert. A no-brainer, right?

Wrong! You'll be surprised how many businesses are leaving money on the table by not doing this.
Are you leveraging your fulfillment kit? Do you have a strategy for your inserts?


Here are some simple ideas, when applicable, for print and electronic fulfillment that help encourage sales (cross-sells) and help customer lifetime value:

1. Personal Welcome or Thank You Letter (whether it's for newsletters, products or services. It could highlight all products OR current top sellers). This is the first thing a new customer will see. Make sure it is written in a personal, comfortable tone—welcoming the customers and reiterating what a good decision they just made and thanking them for their purchases. You can also add a little verbiage about your core values and what makes you unique in the marketplace. Be sure to reiterate any product guarantees you have, as well as customer service contact information.
2. Cross-marketing Piece. This can be a current direct mail piece edited for insert purposes. A flier highlighting a current hot product OR a natural, synergistic upsell from the product ordered. Or a "customer favorites" catalog. This encourages continued purchases now and down the road.
3. Coupon or special discount offer. (or if electronic, coupon/promo code for online ordering). Consider offering a special "thank you" coupon or a "share this with a friend/family member" coupon for additional sales and viral/word of mouth marketing.
4. Free Sample. (Women may remember Avon used to include tiny little lipsticks or perfume with their order. This approach can be translated in most any business—it could be a small, economy/sample size product, a bonus report, or more. Customers love, love, love freebies!
5. Renewal at Birth. This is a popular publishing term. If you're selling a subscription service or continuity program, you can include a renewal order form with your first issue at a special early discount rate.
6. Packing Slip. Many people overlook this fulfillment piece, but it can be used for more than printing out what is being sent to your customer. You can print your return policy/instruction on this piece of correspondence, as well as adding several product return reasons to help evaluate customer satisfaction and product refinement, going forward.
7. Feedback/Testimonial Form. Have a form to solicit customers' feedback and testimonials. This information could be priceless, as far as customer service, marketing, and new product development. Make sure your testimonial collection process is compliant so you can use stellar comments in future marketing efforts.

As most direct response marketers know, the first zero to 30 days is when a customer is red hot—as legendary entrepreneur and best-selling author of, "Ready Fire Aim," Michael Masterson, would say—in their "buying frenzy." So don't leave 'em cold. Give them cross-sell and upsell options.
Leverage this timeframe with your communications and turn your fulfillment pieces into another way to increase sales and relationship-build with your customers.
You may just turn on an additional revenue stream for your business!

The Empty Seat at the Table

There could be an important person missing from your senior management/executive team meetings.  I’ll give you a hint: this person is responsible for driving the strategic plan to grow loans and other key performance indicators for your credit union.  This person has invaluable feedback when it comes to opportunities for growth, process improvements, new product and service recommendations, and ideas to get the staff more engaged. 

Pssstt…it’s the marketing person. 

If this seat is empty at your institution, I urge you to reconsider the merits of why your marketing vice president/manager/director/department head hasn’t been included in meetings thus far.  It may be because their schedule is already so packed that you couldn’t possibly ask him or her to sit in on another meeting.  Or perhaps there is the perception that a lot of the conversation at these meetings is operational and therefore doesn’t apply to marketing. 

Ahhh…but that is EXACTLY why your marketing person should be included in these meetings.  If you have a seasoned marketing exec, their insights into industry and institutional trends, ROI, staff culture, and organizational goals will not only enhance the meeting as they are the most knowledgeable about potential growth opportunities inside and outside the institution, but it will help to make the marketing efforts that much more successful if this person is very well informed about all aspects of the organization.  If, perhaps, you have a less experienced marketing person at the helm, what better way to help them grow than to expose them to the whole of the organization so they can be more knowledgeable about, for example, why loans need increased, who a good target market will be for a campaign, and how that affects the bottom line?

Marketing is the engine that drives all of the operational goals.  For example, how is ROA increased?  Pinpointing the exact opportunities within your membership/customer base for potential growth and pulling various tactical levers to achieve growth in loans, deposits, products per member and retention.  Marketing isn’t about pretty postcards and banners on the website.  Marketing is born out of the strategic goals - and even challenges – for your institution. 

The results of including this person in your senior leadership/executive team meetings are twofold.  As stated above, it will only increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and growth in your institution’s key performance indicators.  The goal of any organization should be to grow and challenge its people and give them opportunities for advancement.  Including the marketing department head will also challenge and grow this person – regardless of tenure- and make them more loyal to your institution, which saves you money long-term as well.

If your financial institution is already including your marketing VP/Director/Manager in these meetings, then I would like for you to give yourself a big pat on the back!  Way to go! 

And, if you find yourself in the latter category, it’s not too late!  Go ahead - the rewards significantly outweigh the risks!  You will be on your way to even more amazing growth and success in the future while also having a more well-rounded employee that is a loyal spokesperson for your organization both inside and out.

 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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What it takes to be Carnac the Magnificent.

As marketers, we are always looking into our crystal ball, reading the tealeaves and flipping the tarots. 

Whatever it takes to be the industry's Carnac the Magnificent.

"Who needs our product?  Who will buy?  What will they buy?  When?"  

As we discussed on August 12, a great deal of focus in the magical, mystical world behind the marketing curtain is spent in segmentation. The scientific and not-quite-so-scientific methods of running human being's through a filter to better manage our time and monitory resources.

Recent blogs have yakked about segmentation from topics like: 8 life stages that you should market to and Mirror Modeling and Birds of a Feather methodologies. These are all great ways to plan for today and the near future. (And they're absolutely brilliant prose!)

But how can you look a bit further out? Elementary, my dear Marketer ... watch the schools.

The 2004 NEA research paper, K–12 Education inThe U.S. Economy: Its Impact on Economic Development,Earnings, and Housing Values, discussed these findings:

"With regard to effects on economic development, one statistical study found that cutting statewide public K–12 expenditures by $1 per $1,000 of state personal income would reduce the state’s personal income by about 0.3 percent in the short run and by 3.2 percent in the long run. They also note that another study found that such a cut would reduce the state’s manufacturing investment in the long run by 0.9 percent and manufacturing employment by 0.4 percent. Similarly, another researcher found that a decline in educational quality, as measured by a 10 percent drop in standardized test scores, would lead to a 2 to 10 percent reduction in home values.They also cite a study that found a 10 percent reduction in school expenditures could yield, in the long run, to a 1 to 2 percent drop in post school annual earnings."

My simplistic, "If-Then" interpretation: When schools are managed poorly and/or necessary levies are routinely voted down - the level of education suffers. When the education suffers - people choose to move other places. When people move other places - so do business. When businesses move - so do jobs ... then the community truly can't afford the levies to fix the schools and the snowball gets bigger.

So, when you're trying to decide where to build a branch, or what region of your footprint should demand your attention, or where the future opportunity is ... of course, look at the current demographics, employment and economy ... but also look at the schools. They hold the key to every city's future.

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.

With more than 255,000 visits worldwide, we hope that you enjoy this blog.  If you find it helpful, please share it with your colleagues. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for short video blogs about financial marketing.  

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker. Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

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B2B Marketers, Be Careful What You Ask For

For the past few years, B2B marketing thought leaders and practitioners have been advocating that marketing should play a larger role in the demand generation process. Proponents of this view argue that marketing should have the primary responsibility for acquiring new sales leads via inbound and outbound marketing programs and for nurturing and qualifying leads until they are ready to begin a meaningful engagement with a sales rep.

According to its advocates, this model of demand generation is more consistent with how today's business buyers learn about issues and possible solutions and make buying decisions, and it also uses a company's demand generation resources more effectively and efficiently.

While the arguments supporting this demand generation model are compelling, implementing it will constitute a major change for many B2B companies. To understand how just big the change is, we only need to look at where leads are coming from today.

The following table is based on the annual Sales Performance Optimization surveys conducted by CSO Insights and includes data from the survey results published in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The survey question asked respondents to specify what percentage of their sales leads are self-generated by sales reps, what percentage are generated by marketing, and what percentage originate from other sources. As the table shows, B2B companies are still relying on salespeople to generate almost half of all new sales leads.



 

The distribution of lead sources shown in the above table has been fairly stable now for several years. The following chart is also based on data from the Sales Performance Optimization surveys and shows the percentage of total leads generated by marketing from 2005 through 2013. As the chart shows, marketing has been producing between 24% and about 30% of total leads for the past seven years.



 

The CSO Insights data makes two important points. First, it clearly shows that B2B marketers will need to "step up their game" if they want marketing to take the lead in lead generation. They must be ready to demonstrate to senior company leaders that they have a strategy that will produce enough sales-ready leads to enable their company to achieve its revenue goals.

 

Perhaps more importantly, the CSO Insights data makes it clear that successful lead generation will require the involvement of both marketing and sales (and other business functions as well), at least for the foreseeable future. Even if marketing significantly increases its lead generation results, it is likely that, for the next few years anyway, between 40% and 50% of leads will still be produced by sales reps and other sources.

TILT: What Advance Readers Are Saying

TILT comes out in just over two months. Here's what some advance readers are saying: