My $24.95 lesson in marketing in an age of empowered customer.

I recently purchased Ad-Aware Plus because my computer has been acting really strange and opening random websites involuntarily. Well, I received a very nice notice from Google stating that my computer might be infected and I needed to get software to clean it up. Google listed three products; since I trust anything that comes with Google brand seal of approval I just clicked on the first one. OK, so $24.95 is not a bad deal to get this annoying problem solved.

Right? Well, wrong!

I buy it and when I go to download, it does not. So I contact their shiny online customer service agent. He comes online within seconds…I am happy as a clam. I need to get this resolved and get back to work asap. Rep tells me that I need to pay another $25.95 service fee to help with the download. Seriously? You are asking me to pay more to help me access something I already paid for? Click! I am out and on twitter ranting and raving about Ad-Aware.

Then it occurred to me, I am the empowered customer now. I have a voice.

Lessons #1:

We are living in an age of empowered customer. Same customer you just ticked off might just have 6000 twitter followers. She might be advising a $100MM company and be in charge of a multimillion dollar IT budget. More important than any of this…she now has a voice that can potentially reach thousands of YOUR customers.

Lesson #2:

One of my favorite bloggers Valeria Maltoni at Conversation Agent had a recent post that highlighted the need of customer-centeredness in budgeting for marketing as well as communication strategy and customer service. She stated “Marketing budgets need to be set on customers’ ability to pay, not marketing spend.”

The point of setting marketing budgets based on customers’ ability to pay is especially poignant for B2B service providers. When I speak to clients about marketing budgets, we often shift our thinking from setting benchmarks based on what we spend last year or what the competition spends. Instead we focus on determining measurable and predictable results based on the customers’ engagement with the service offering. For example engaging customers on social media is not necessarily a budget intensive activity but rather it is time intensive and has to be strategically administered.

In this age of customer empowerment, lines are not only blurred but completely emerged between customer service and profitability. Marketers can no longer hide in their cubicles and burry themselves in excel charts within the safety of quarterly budget meetings. Social media is the acid test for all things marketing and it is immediate. Throwing money at bad business practices is no longer effective. We have to get back to the basics and scrutinize our business models. As marketers we have to be courageous and question managements' view on marketing ROI.

After all ROI really comes from customer not from marketing activities.

Why demand generation works where traditional advertising and marketing falls short?

Let’s focus on the basics. Marketing is all about selling stuff. We know this and our customers know that we keep the lights on by selling. So, why marketing has become the black sheep in the family? Why is our advertising and direct response programs are no longer bringing the results they used to?

We need to think in terms of demand generation and not simply soapbox style message distribution.

Here is why:

Interruptive marketing stopped working: We have all heard the adage that only 50% of advertising works. Well, we can actually now measure which half is working and why. It is a continuous process of testing, measuring and tweaking. Relevancy is the key and customer focus is an absolute necessity. Demand generation programs test, measure and help you develop marketing content that is sure to resonate with your target audience. The result is customer engagement and continuous flow of qualified leads.

Every sale is a complex sale: Gone are the days of marketing managers with annual marketing budgets that are only called to question at the end of the year. We live in a world where every business decision is made by a committee of executives with various priorities and business challenges. Organizations need to create messaging that speaks to various angles; many touch points with different channels.

Sharing knowledge is cool: Internet has brought the age of free content to our lives. Sharing best practices and your organization’s accumulated knowledge in your field is a sure way to bring you to the thought leadership position. The tools are out there for you to accomplish this and become a publisher of quality content in no time. Organizations that see themselves as content publishers are very successful at inbound marketing where leads come knocking at their door, instead of the other way around.

Being human is cool: The C level decision maker is a busy executive. She could fill it up with back to back 15 minute meetings if her day can be 36 hours. She does not want to be interrupted by cold calls. But this does not mean she does not want to hear from someone who is on her top 5 list. The trick is to know if you are on her list. You know this because your demand generation program has been following her activities on your website. You have been sending her truly relevant content that she forwarded to her team. She participated on your LinkedIn discussion. Three other people from the same company signed up for your webinar. You sent her tips and tricks white paper and she twittered it (or tweeted it, one or the other…but you get my point). So when you call her, all you have to do is be human and ask if she is ready to talk to you.

To summarize, demand generation programs enable marketers to work more effectively. Generating results is fun and data can be really sexy too.

Path analysis and buyer profiles can help you come up with a better process map for your demand generation program.

By now in every industry marketers fully acknowledge that we are living in the age of empowered customers who will use every tool at their disposal to come and find you when they have a need. But try to push your message onto them when they are not interested and you will quickly find yourself and your precious marketing investment completely ignored or worst yet, in the spammer abyss.

The key is to use marketing tools to build relationship and only pass a lead to sales when they have expressed a need and are able to make a decision. If they are not the decision maker, marketers needs to keep nurturing that relationship. When the prospect expressed a need and they want to learn more about your product or service, then the sales teams need to know a whole lot more than name-rank-serial number to be able to close the sale. One of the methodologies used in demand generation programs to help guide the interaction around customer needs is clearly defining the path customers walk in their decision making process.

In his popular blog Brian Carroll has been repeatedly highlighting the benefits of walking in the customer’s shoes as you are setting up lead nurturing program. Brian states: “Walk IN your potential customers’ shoes means thinking like your customer and considering the questions they will have for you and your company.”

Another good tool to gain intimate understanding of your customer is to create customer profiles, we sometime refer to these as buyer personas. Groundswell blog has several of these profiles that consumer marketers use. In recent weeks Forrester also came up with B2B profiles.
The tool is called Social Technographics Profiles of business buyers. B2B marketer now can use this tool to integrate buyer behavior and social media into their marketing tool set.

Demand generation programs have come a long way from just using email and list building to create demand. With these types of tools we can now more precisely define our audience and have a better chance to influence their decision making process.

Demand generation basics Part 2: Segmenting your audience (don't ignore hidden gems)

Last week I talked about building a database and explained what sort of information must be collected on prospects. This week I will go into segmenting and targeting. This activity is often reduced down to slicing and dicing the database to uncover lowest hanging fruit for the picking. Well, it is a bit more complicated than that. The main purpose of segmenting your audience is to understand priorities of each group and serve relevant content so you can better engage them. Here are some basic strategies for segmenting your database to achieve just that:

-Email: Sounds simple but email is your best ally when it comes to figuring out how best to segment your list. Testing subject lines will give you a great indication about what triggers interest by each group. If you test the headline of your email message and find out that one headline performed much better with CMOs, you can customize content accordingly to better engage this particular group.

-Web analytics: Great listening and measuring tool. You can examine traffic, time of day people visit your site, what pages they spend more time, which path they follow. If you match this information with email campaign results, you can design better landing pages to bring in more qualified leads. This is achieved via behavioral targeting. Professional service firms that use behavioral targeting and web analytics in their segmentation strategies are able to generate impressive results.

-Search: Looking at what keywords people use to find your site is also a very good way to segment your prospect list. For example if you are trying to build hospitality industry client base and you find out that prospects in that industry find your site by typing in keywords like “tax attorney and hotel management” you can then generate a white paper loaded with those keywords and develop a multi-touch campaign specifically for that audience segment.

-Repurpose your content: By segmenting your audience you can repurpose your existing content according to your prospects’ criteria that you determined by analyzing all of the above tools. The idea is to custom design your marketing messages according to the needs of your audience.

-Hidden gems: As you segment your audience and learn more about their behavior you might discover that there is a specific group that is gobbling up every piece of content you put out there but are not in a position to buy your services. They download your white papers, sign up for webinars, e-newsletters and podcasts but they clearly don’t have the resources to hire you. These people can be your evangelists; don’t ignore them just because they are not likely to bring you short term revenue. Ask them to contribute to your blog or webinar. They can also be potentially a good source for referrals. Share the spotlight with them; this will only help cement your position as a thought leader in your industry.

Segmenting your target audience is one of the foundations of demand generation programs. By creating specific groups based on more than “name-rank-title” you will empower your marketing with growth opportunities, not just leads that may only bring in short term results.

Next week, I will talk about process mapping and creating content to match milestones in your customer’s decision making journey.

Demand generation basics Part 1: Consider your assets

While everyone is mourning the gloomy economic climate, you can be uncovering hidden opportunities. Yes, they do exist, and they can only be revealed by implementing a deliberate, focused and systematic approach. A very effective method for uncovering opportunities is to set up a demand generation program.

You can start by looking at what you already have under your finger tips. Lori Feldman, marketing database expert, a.k.a. Database Diva has a very sensible mathematical assessment of how much your existing customer base might be worth to you. In her example she states: if you have a list of 1500 contacts, that might represent over a million dollars in terms of earning potential. The bottom line is your existing contact list is your biggest asset. But you need to cultivate it.

The first step is to clean up and segment your list. The process can be as simple as verifying name, title, contact info etc. Database clean up is also a great excuse to do lots of cold calling that will not immediately turn off the person on the other end of the line. After all, you are not trying to sell anything to them. You are just verifying information. But while you have them on the phone, you can charm them into speaking further and provide you an excuse to learn more about their business issues.

The ultimate aim of your database building & clean-up efforts is to have relevant information about your customers and prospects, right down to what keeps them up at night. Armed with this knowledge, you can customize your marketing materials accordingly.

Database building is a continuous effort and best thing to do is to have an internal champion or a consultant dedicated to regularly checking the validity of the information on your customer base. Here are some essentials of an effective database:

* Existing customers:
Company profile
Executive contact information
Company products and services
Competitor information
Sales and financial data
Marketing materials sent (what do they currently receive from you i.e. newsletter)

* Prospects
Company profile
Executives and contact info
Sales and financial data
Products and services
Status (which campaign materials they received from you and when)
Current vendor (who do they currently use)

* Your own competitors and their clients
Executive info
Trade associations they belong to
Newsletters, blogs, tweets

* Trade media (who is writing about your industry, who are the influencers)

* Bloggers in your industry

Next week we will look at aligning your Value Proposition and process mapping.

What can service marketers learn from consumer brands?

Designing a demand generation program from scratch is a great opportunity to examine which best practices can be borrowed from other disciplines. I am working to develop a demand generation program for a packaging design firm and I wanted to look at successful consumer brands for ideas.

Here is a short list of ideas that struck my interest at a first glance:

Sample the goods: I had the privilege of serving P&G as an account executive many moons ago. One of the lesson’s I learned from that experience was to always consider consumer insight as the anchor of all sales and marketing related activities. For a professional service firm, having your customer at the core of your business means you need to genuinely care about solving their problems. Your new business acquisition strategy has to demonstrate that you understand their world. The way to do that is to deliver relevant content and do it consistently. Your demand generation program has to deliver value in order to build trust. This means sometimes you have to share your expertise and knowledge with your audience for free. You will become an expert in their eyes before you even pitch for their business.


Develop familiarity: I love Target stores. They are like a home away from home when I travel. I can always count on the store layout to be exactly as it is in the store near my hometown. I go there to buy few items that I might need but I come out from the store feeling grounded because everything is so familiar. Service firms are faced with the constant challenge of having to go between “feast to famine” when it comes to work flow. No matter how strapped for time you are, it is essential to keep your content consistent. You can hire a demand generation professional or run the program yourself but avoid interrupting the flow, changing look and feel or the tone of voice of the content too often.

Build an emotional bond: You may be a purchasing agent at a manufacturing firm looking to buy a multimillion dollar machine but the same relationship discipline applies as in the way you select which dentist to take your kids for their dental appointments. People like to do business with people they like. If the approach of your demand generation program is cold and calculated, you are telling your customer to treat you like a vendor instead of a trusted advisor. You must breed life into your content and make sure it reflects personality, not only expertise.

There are a number of tools and strategies out there to continuously improve performance of your marketing efforts. These few basic best practices will help keep your demand generation program humming along, generating leads while establishing your service brand.

Why include social media in your demand generation program?

We all know sales is a transaction oriented discipline and its focus is on targeting efforts to close more sales. Marketing on the other hand is brand oriented so everything is around building awareness, equity and persuasion. Demand generation campaigns are perfect bond to aligning these two disciplines.

Marketing collects content ideas from search engine key words from incoming traffic, blogs, point of view articles and identifies hot button issues to highlight on the demand generation outreach campaign materials. This ensures that the content created for the demand generation program is relevant and timely. Enter social media.

Social media can be a powerful tool to include in the mix of demand generation campaigns. But, one thing to remember is that social media is best to create online communities and monitor discussions, not necessarily for generating leads. It is relationship oriented not transaction oriented. Companies have to resist the temptation to cross the line. An overzealous insurance salesman friend someone brings to the party can totally suck the air out of the room…we have all been there. Social media works just like that. However, if I can be a relevant resource for you or I can make you feel good somehow, you would like to talk to me. Similarly, social media provides an outlet for you to build powerful and long lasting relationships.

Here are some reasons why you should include social media in your demand generation and lead nurturing campaigns:

1. Left brain meets right brain: Web is a big component of demand generation efforts. It requires strong analytical ability to crunch numbers and tweak levers. However, don’t forget consumer insight and persuasion psychology when you are creating content for your demand generation program. Today’s empowered, online savvy customer can smell a sales pitch a mile away. By monitoring the discussion you can determine relevant content.

2. If you don’t claim your spot on the stage, someone else will: Social media is here to stay. If you don’t claim your voice on the forum, your competition will. You can’t afford to hide under the blankets while everyone in your space is out there, perhaps making mistakes but also learning to do it better and building online relationships. If you are out there, at least you are in the game.

3. Help sales see the value of social media: Once you have an active online community your sales team will appreciate the attention it is getting and talking points social media forums can generate. Sales people are always starving for ideas to strike up a conversation with prospects. Someone can raise a question or complain about a competitor’s offering that can help the sales reach out and start a conversation.

The best part is social media gives B2B companies opportunity to engage and listen to genuine conversations with customers in a timely fashion. It is all about relationship building and being there when the customer is ready to buy.

But don’t just take my word for it. Here is a great blog on the subject that is written by a sales guru. The subsequent discussion provides great insight into how other B2B professionals are now finding value in including social media into the mix.

PR can be an effective driver of your demand generation program.

For me, one of the game changers has been when I read David Meerman Scott’s book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR”. David talks extensively about the demise of interruption strategies in the new empowered customer era. The bottom line he offers is the idea that in our blogs, press releases and in other customer advisory sites instead of heavy handed sales pitches we should more focus on providing useful information with a clear focus at the precise moment that the buyer needs it. For example if you are a caterer, create a blog and offer tips to organize a perfect wedding reception, or if you are a lawyer create podcasts or video casts talking about ins and outs of elder law. Content you generate will help establish you as a thought leader in your space.

As I explain demand generation programs to my customers, the question keeps popping up in our discussions; “Money is tighter than it has ever been in recent years…with all the tools out there, which one should I focus my marketing investment on? Which method will bring in the faster results?” My point is: Don’t ignore PR in your demand generation strategy.

Demand generation program is a multi-channel marketing tool set that offers to incorporate a multi-touch point, integrated relationship building and lead nurturing program targeting customers and prospects. The aim of the program is that when they are ready to buy they turn to you because they know and trust you as an expert in your field. PR is a very important element demand generation. It is a powerful tool of relationship building tactic and small businesses can not afford to exclude the online advisory boards, customer review sites as well as traditional approaches such as press releases that are very effective in establishing trust and credibility as well as brand building.

One of the PR outlets small business should monitor is Yelp. Recent New York Times article mentioned that starting next week, Yelp will let small-business owners publicly respond to reviews. Websites like Yelp and Angie’s list are empowering small businesses with the ability to respond to negative comments and have the opportunity to serve potential customers with relevant information improve perceptions in a timely manner.

PR is very much part of an effective demand generation campaign. Integrating public relations tactics within your demand generation strategy will enable you to deliver useful and relevant content that would help solidify your position as a thought leader in your space.

Are you in sync with your customer's purchasing journey?

Here is a scenario we are all too familiar with: Sales teams follow a tried and true road map yet lately sales pipeline provides few and far in between qualified opportunities. You may have a desired product or service and your research shows your marketing message is compelling. But there is still a disconnect between the leads that marketing generates and your sales closing rate. A possible reason for the disconnect might be that your sales cycle is no longer aligned with your customers’ purchasing journey. Here are some of the reasons why this may occur:

- Customers have many tools at their disposal to get information about products and services to help them make purchasing decisions. They conduct online search, study buyer’s guides, view online customer advisory boards, sign up for webinars, monitor online chat forums, look at magazine ads and read company newsletters before they even express an interest in you. It is very likely that they may have already formed an opinion about your offering before you even get a chance to speak to them. Your sales team needs to be armed with the knowledge of all the touch points the customer interacted with before they connect with the prospect.

- My 15 year old son is the internet search guru at our house. I would not dream of making a major purchase without consulting with him. Consumer trends change. Millennials are now a powerful influencer segment in variety of categories. We recently changed our car insurance provider because he found an online comparison tool that gave us a much better rate on our car insurance. You need to be aware of who the influencers are in your category and where they get their information from.

-Sales is a transaction oriented discipline. Sales reps move on to the most closeable opportunity after few attempts. However, in today’s economic conditions most purchasing decisions are very susceptible to daily fluctuations so the decisions can stall longer than you anticipated. You may have uncovered a hidden need but did not stay in touch with a prospect long enough, only to have your competition move in to close the sale because they worked diligently to build a stronger relationship with your prospect.

The good news is that demand generation programs offer an excellent opportunity to ensure that your sales efforts are in sync with your prospect’s purchasing cycle. This is possible because of the close monitoring, content relevancy and measurement that a carefully designed demand generation program offers. At every touch-point you have the opportunity to probe, measure and adjust your next steps.

Knowing your customer’s purchasing journey will help you design content, frequency and relevancy of your marketing outreach so your sales reps can successfully walk the fine line between being annoyingly persistent and providing the right amount information to help your customers decide.

Matching the right tool to the job.

Marketers use variety of methods to bring in new business. But often it is not all that clear what is really working and why. To maximize marketing efforts, not to mention hard to come by budgets, it is important to match the tool to the purpose. This is where demand generation programs are most effective. These programs include different methodologies that can be designed to serve different marketing issues.

Here is a set of specific programs to consider:

- Lead generation campaigns. The purpose of these campaigns is to attract new names to your prospect database. Lead gen campaigns are also useful to re-activate dormant leads. Before any tactical elements such as emails, search campaigns, direct mail pieces, landing pages and call scripts are produced, it is important to carefully segment your list. Once the campaign is moved to implementation phase, the key indicators like conversion rates can give you the wrong signal if the message is not delivered to the right audience. You might think your program is not working but the truth may be that you are offering an exquisite chocolate cake to someone who is just looking for a quick sandwich.

- Lead nurturing programs. These campaigns are designed to maintain continuous contact with your prospects with the purpose of moving them through the sales pipeline. After all, the objective is not to repeatedly call on people and push your sales message, but rather send them relevant content so that when they are ready to buy they turn to you. It involves sending messages to inform prospects about your company, products and services, and gathering information about their behavior so you can understand their needs better. Important element of lead nurturing programs is to provide continuous supply of fresh and relevant content.

- Lead scoring. Final element of successful demand generation program is lead scoring which is useful in managing the actual transfer of leads to sales reps because it indicates when the lead is sales ready. Typically, companies that have complex sales cycles and dedicated sales teams benefit from complimenting their demand generation programs with lead scoring and tracking element.

Demand generation programs offer variety of tools to measure, track and optimize marketing efforts. A comprehensive program will match the tool to the specific business need. But it is important to remember that this is a cyclical process that requires several trains running on time on different tracks. The good news is that results are measurable.

Turn your customers into new business evangelists.

This week’s blog topic idea comes from a question that a colleague had asked me. I was explaining to her the scope of our demand generation program and I mentioned the need to address prospects and customers separately. As part of our services we suggest to our clients that they should run a targeted communication campaign to their existing customers distinct from their prospect lead nurturing efforts. She said “why would I need a targeted program to talk to my existing customers, I already talk to them on a daily basis?” This is a valid question. Demand generation programs are usually designed to uncover new leads and nurture relationships with prospects with the intent of turning them into customers. Why should you spend time and other resources to come up with a program to target existing customers?

* Customers are best referral sources. Nothing says you excel at your business better than having your existing customers endorse you. But we all know that if someone is happy they may talk to one or two people but if they have something to complain about they talk to 20+ people. You need to maximize the effect of your evangelists to help you generate more business. A targeted program like opinion pieces or industry trend reports will help you become a thought leader. Providing a way to your customers to interact with you on a regular basis will help you generate more business.

* People move around. Today someone might be working at company A but tomorrow they may move to another firm which can be a potential source of business for you. It is always a good idea to keep regular check points with your existing contacts. It is much easier and cheaper to keep your database fresh on a regular basis.

* Ensure minimum of 5 touch-points for repeat business. It is a generally an accepted fact that it takes minimum of five contacts at a company to secure repeat business. Once you sign on with a customer it is good practice to ensure more people at the same firm know about you and your services. It will help you stay top of mind and carve the path for repeat business.

These are few of the reasons why customers should be part of your demand generation program. The important thing to keep in mind is that targeted communication going out to your prospect requires different dynamics than the one you send to your customers. Customers’ priorities and information needs are different. Your expectations and success metrics from a deliberate customer communication program is also different. But they should both lead to the same overall outcome; business growth. Therefore, your demand generation outreach must include both segments. Customers are an important segment in your new business efforts and they require a deliberate and targeted outreach.

What are some of the best ways to keep nurture relationship with existing customers? Share your thoughts.

Just tell me why is it that I should buy from you.

Running a small business is a rewarding yet challenging endeavor. Small businesses exist simply because someone was passionate enough about a service or a product and wanted to create value for their customers. Small businesses are run by individuals who are dedicated and committed to the quality of their offerings. Understandably their focus is on the existing customers.

Running your own business is a 24/7 activity. I know this firsthand. You have to constantly think about updating your offering to stay competitive, you have to think about accounting, taxes, regulatory environment, customer service and a lot more. Maintaining a sales funnel of qualified leads often takes a second seat until some crisis hits or an existing customer pulls their business away from your firm for one reason or another. Sure, we all have a “database” that we spam….ehhem! pardon me…email once in a while when we have some news to tell about our product or a service. But demand generation and lead nurturing programs are a whole lot more than that.

The main challenge of a successful demand generation program is reaching the decision makers with relevant content on a regular basis. This means that you have an intimate knowledge of their issues and you know what is keeping them up at night. How do you know this? Because they tell you. You asked them through surveys, they clicked to the links on your emails, they forwarded your newsletter to their peers, they downloaded your white papers and podcasts, they commented on your blog…repeatedly. Demand generation is about building a relationship with your customer universe that includes existing customers, prospects and visitors. Just like any other relationship, it takes time and effort to build and nurture. The beauty of the demand generation program is that when the customer is ready to buy, they come to you because you have become a trusted advisor.

You know you have an effective demand generation program, IF:

* You can name your 20 ideal customers by company, name, title, industry, geography and business challenge.
* You have an ongoing integrated lead generation program that includes more than just email, landing page and analytics.
* Your customers are the ones coming up with list topics you should cover on your next newsletter.

I will talk more about demand generation programs on my blog upcoming weeks. This is just a quick food for thought as a start. Please tell me what topics you would like to see about demand generation programs by commenting below and I will try to address those issues on upcoming blog entries.

Until then.