I have a friend with a son who is a sophomore in high school.  This morning, she told me that she can’t believe how many money colleges waste precious funds on expensive direct mail communications.  She described the quality of the paper, the outsized packaging, and the heft of the packages they’ve been receiving–all of which she tosses in the waste bin.

Direct marketing mail campaigns are often cost-effective

As a marketer, I told her that her would-be correspondents may not be wasting their money.  After all, college tuition for four years is now in excess of $100,000–perhaps more than her fully loaded salary as a manager at a Philadelphia-based research organization.  If only 1 or 2 students that they contact eventually enroll, a school can easily justify the cost of the mailing.

Success depends on a compelling value proposition

I suggested she open a few to see if they had a message that would compel her to act, something that was important to either her or her son.  So, she opened one that arrived yesterday.

Sell, don’t tell

As she expected, it was just like all the others.  It started by pointing out that her son ranks higher than most students in the country.  They knew that.

The letter said that they are seeking students who want the types of challenges and experiences, from which others shy away.  Then, the letter told him they were looking for students.

Response mechanisms can erect barriers

Finally, before closing by asking that her son visit their website or send them a card, they said they were a prestigious liberal arts college–even though they confided, they prefer to think of themselves as a school that nurtures collaboration for big results.  The Admissions Director included his phone number under his signature.

Good design contributes to the message

The collage of pictures on the letter didn’t seem to add to the message.  In fact, if one just saw the pictures, he or she would be hard-pressed to guess what the sender was advertising.

Most prominent was one of the Dalai Lama.  Another was of clinicians in an operating room.

Others were of people talking, a building, an outdoor snapshot, a row of apartments, and kids kicking a soccer ball.  There were also headshots of people of different races and national origins.

Calls to action must resonate

The calls to action encouraged students to give the school a chance to get to know them before they apply–and offered to provide advice that would help them apply to any school.

She threw the package away.  Now perhaps there are students with whom one of these marketing messages will resonate–but I think the schools can do a better job of convincing their correspondents to take the next step

Capitalize on the data you have

Clearly, this school was able to get students’ names, PSAT scores, and zip codes.  Even without additional information, they could probably guess the student’s sex–and assume that he or she was a sophomore in high school.

Think through the implications

From just the zip code, they knew that her home is in a middle-class community several hundred miles north of the school.  From that they could have discerned that the recipients likely weren’t aware of the school and would probably require financial aid.  Yet, nothing in the communication addressed either concern.

Step into the buyers’ minds

The letter writer had sufficient information to recognize that the main marketing messages wouldn’t resonate.   Having had no previous interaction with the school, which didn’t have a national reputation, neither mother or son was likely to care that the school was seeking students–or wanted a chance to get to know the son before he applied.  Moreover, there was no reason to believe that the family would contact a complete stranger for help applying to other schools.

The letter also didn’t speak to the son’s needs.  In March of his sophomore year of high school, the son wasn’t seeking out more challenges.  Instead, like most boys his age, he’s focusing on the here and now:  his schoolwork, his friends, his extra-curricular activities, and sports.

Timing is everything

Unless the school could obtain information from the PSAT administrators that would enable them to speak to his current needs, a letter to the son was premature.  Also, the chances are slim that any teenage would call an adult and this marketing communication didn’t offer an email option.

I had to agree with my friend’s initial assessment.  Even organizations that seek small response rates can’t afford scattershot approaches.

Create campaigns that generate leads

How much more effective would this lead generation campaign have been if the sender had:

• Focused on its most promising prospects
• Spoken to their needs and concerns
• Tailored its message to where prospects were in their buying process
• Tested its calls to action
• Offered multiple response mechanisms

My guess is that the college could have gotten a far better return on their marketing investment–if only they’d thought a little more about the audience–rather than focusing exclusively on their own goals.  The question is how often do businesses make many of the same mistakes?

Need help confirming assumptions about your audience?  Try our Revenue Accelerator Quick Start program.

Related posts:

1. Drip campaigns keep your company top of mind: 5 steps for success + an example

Value is in the eye of the beholder

Although not stated explicitly, it is essential that marketers define the value proposition with the target audience’s perspective in mind–and that the content directly contributes to the delivery of that value proposition.

While these points may seem obvious, there are many websites that start by describing what makes the company unique without making the connection to the value their target audience seeks to derive.   The content of these websites, when they highly optimized for search engines, attract attention but  fail to convert prospects into repeat visitors or customers.

Start with deep customer insights

The implied “step zero” of Kristin’s process is gaining deep insights into the “who”, “what”, “when” , “where” and “how” of your prospects’ buying process.  Do this  by developing detailed buyer personae of your most promising prospects–and the individuals they involve in the buying process. It is this knowledge that enables development of compelling value propositions–and “remarkable content”.

Create content that addresses needs on multiple dimensions

Content is only remarkable when it squarely addresses content consumers’ needs and preferences.  In addition to speaking to their most pressing concerns, what makes this content remarkable is that it appears where intended audiences look for it–and in the form they prefer to get it.

Engage with frequent and consistent communications

When their requirements are met, audiences find the content so remarkable they come back for more, they share it with their friends.  It is this process that ultimately induces them to engage with the individuals and companies that produce it.  So, when executing the 6 steps that Kristin recommends, also make it a goal for each of your communications to contribute to the delivery of the value that your products and services will ultimately provide to your most promising prospects.

Tailor communications for each audience and buying stage

Here are two examples that pertain directly to the medical device companies attending the upcoming meeting.  To reach patients, especially at the early stages of their “buying process”, medical device companies may want to deliver content via health education websites, in addition to their own.  To address physicians’ needs, nearing the end of their “buying process”,  these same companies may want to create instructional videos that demonstrate how to use these devices in their practices.

Tools and tips for value creation

Need help getting started with your own marketing efforts?  Use the value proposition formula to help you develop marketing messages that capture attention and compel action.   Then, read this post for ideas about how you can discover the  content that captures attention.   Then, before you post, double check to ensure that everything you’re about to publish is tightly integrated with the value your best prospects seek to obtain.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds

B2B transactions are “bet the company” decisions

As I was reading, however, it occurred to me that the characteristics that both Paul and I ascribe to B2B businesses may be a function of scale and complexity, rather than just the target audience.  After all, most consumer acquisitions are not “bet the company decisions”.  Notable exceptions include real estate, new jobs, mates, and the most major of surgeries.  In each of these situations, individuals’ buying behavior is more like that of businesses than consumers.

Nevertheless, I still think the points that Paul outlines are what distinguishes most B2B from most B2C transactions.  Even those B2B purchases that are not “bet the company” decisions, occur in the spotlight, are ones for which the buyer is held accountable by others, and are therefore “bet the job” decisions.

Long sales cycles are expensive

Of the points Paul mentioned, my own focus as a B2B marketing consultant has always been on shortening the sales cycle.  As he notes, B2B sales cycles stretch out because success depends on addressing the needs of multiple people at multiples stages of the buying process, each of which have different priorities.

Long sales cycles are expensive.  Ironically, any time that salespeople spend on prospecting for new business, building relationships, pointing out the benefits of the company’s wares, or ensuring that each stakeholder gets satisfactory answers to the questions she or he has is relatively unproductive.  The company only makes money when its salespeople are closing deals or negotiating their terms.  Any time spent on the activities leading up to a sale has a huge opportunity cost, because that’s time that the salesperson isn’t closing other deals.

Advance preparation is the secret to accelerating the sale

Advance preparation is the secret to shortening the sales cycle.  Salespeople tend to only have messages for a few of the audiences that they need to reach.  Because they are under pressure to close the transaction, salespeople don’t have the time it takes to research and prepare the nuanced responses that others who influence the buying decision often require.  Consequently, their communications are not as powerful as they could be–and the sales cycle stretches out as prospects continue to shop.

This is where B2B marketers, and B2B marketing consultants like me, make their greatest contribution.  Our job is to anticipate who will be involved in the buying process, what they’ll need at each stage, and how they prefer that the company meet these needs–with the goal of developing targeted communications and tools well before Sales needs them.

B2B marketers are at a disadvantage

Unfortunately, we can’t take advantage of many of the tools that B2C marketers have at their disposal.  They get reams of data gathered through surveys and via scanners at the point-of purchase.  They also have many media in which they can cost-effectively place highly-targeted ads.

Our audiences are smaller and buy less frequently.  They are also less homogenous both due to the greater complexity of the B2B buying decision–and because our total available markets aren’t generally large enough to divide into sizable segments.

It’s, therefore, hard for us to get relevant survey data.  For one, it’s hard to capture the nuances of complex buying decisions in a survey that’s limited to forced choice answers.  For another, there aren’t enough of us, targeting any given market segment, to justify third-party investments in any but the most general survey data.

Historically, our best alternative, for getting at the heart of the buying process, has been to gather information from decision makers through one-to-one interviews, or in small groups.  Doing so requires special skills to avoid predetermining the answers by the way we pose our questions.  Moreover, because the available data collection methods were expensive, we could only speak with relatively small samples of the population.

From a communications perspective, we’ve never had a cost-effective media.  As Paul notes, our goal is to reach multiple audiences that buy relatively infrequently–and whose needs vary depending on where they are in the buying process.  If we purchase spots in broadcast media, we’re paying to reach too many people we don’t care about.  On the other hand, direct marketing, which allows for more targeted messaging is also expensive–since we still don’t know which prospects will be receptive to our messages at any point in time.

Search and social media promise to be a tremendous boon

Search and social media have the potential to make us both more efficient and more cost-effective.  They promise to improve both the quality and quantity of the information we can obtain.

By searching on germane keywords, we can find out what prospects have to say, unaided, on relevant topics.  This information will add value, since discussants are likely speaking about what matters to them– rather than just responding to questions about the dimensions that we think to ask about.  Search and social media also provide access to the crowd, decreasing our reliance on the insights of a few available individuals.

The news is even better from a communications perspective.  Organic search and pay per click dramatically reduce our costs.  One is free and the other only requires us to pay for audiences that are likely receptive to our messages.  We also can reach members of our target audience through social media via the online peer groups in which they participate or the lists members make of their peers using tools such as Listorious.

The availability of better tools is a double-edged sword

The good news is that search and social media have made getting the right message to the right person at the right time easier and less expensive than ever–and should enable us to significantly shrink the sales cycle.  The bad news is that customers will be less forgiving of companies whose marketing messages still  do not anticipate and address their needs.

Thinking about using social media? Learn how to make the most of your social media investments.

Related posts:

1. Social media for B2B Marketers via Paul Gillin
2. Shorten the sales cycle: one marketing message at a time
3. The search and social media paradox
4. Shorten the sales cycle next year: Year end marketing planning

Getting the sale depends on affirmatively answering all three of the following questions:

• Have they heard of your business?
• Do they know that you can address the problem?
• Will they remember you when it comes time to buy?

Brand awareness is not sufficient. Think back to your own experience.

Sure, you’ve lost sales because prospective buyers haven’t heard of your business. But, I’ll bet you’ve also lost business because prospective buyers just didn’t realize that you offered a particular product or service.

For example, three years ago, when I needed my hedges trimmed, it never occurred to me to call the arborist who prunes my trees. That is, not until I asked a neighbor for a reference and she told me she used my arborist.

I was taken aback. Even though I was highly satisfied with his services, it just never occurred to me that he also trimmed hedges. That’s because in my mind he was a “tree specialist”.

And, my mistake was not uncommon. In fact, most people only think of your business as doing the last thing you did for them–unless you take conscious steps to correct that impression. We’ll discuss how in a future post.

We’ve also all lost business because we’re not “top of mind” when the buyer finally develops a sense of urgency. We’ll also discuss how to stay high on prospective buyers’ radar in a future post.

In the meantime, we’ll discuss 4 questions you need to answer before launching a marketing campaign or engaging an advertising or public relations agency.

Who do you need to reach?

Often, it’s not just the decision maker. While he or she may make the final decision, many others often influence the sale. Without first engaging these individuals’ support, it’s often impossible to sway, or sometimes even reach, the decision maker. Prospective audiences for your marketing messages may include industry analysts, trusted advisers and internal staff such as technical evaluators and financial personnel.

How do you get their attention?

As Marshall MacLuhan said the media is the message. That means that the delivery vehicle is often as or more important than the message.

Most people are busy performing urgent tasks and are not receptive to messages about anything else—unless the information comes from a trusted source. Examples include advisers, existing suppliers, trade publications to which they subscribe, or presentations that they attend.

If, on the other hand, the prospective buyer is ready to purchase, he/she may be actively seeking out information. In that case, consider adding paid Internet search and website optimization to the marketing mix. If you’re already a trusted source, you may be able to save money and go direct—via telephone, email or direct mail—with confidence that they’ll open your communication.

How do you capture their interest?

Always speak specifically to the most pressing concern of the target audiences–in their language. General messages are not nearly as effective. So, it’s essential to first identify the target audience—and then what’s keeping them up at night.

As we discussed last week, you may need to prime the pump before speaking about your solution—or even the benefits it offers–if the problems your solution addresses are not particularly pressing. Consider developing intermediary messages that heighten prospective buyers’ awareness of the consequences of not addressing the problems your solution addresses. Follow those with messages that generate a sense of urgency about addressing these problems sooner rather than later. Then, and only then, will prospective buyers be receptive to messages about your solution and the benefits it delivers.

When is the best time to deliver your message?

The best time to deliver messages is when the audiences are most receptive. That however is hard to establish. That’s why marketers often say, “It takes 7 impressions to make an impact.”

In some cases, key events trigger needs for services. For example, everyone needs accounting services when taxes are due. Many require accountants when starting or acquiring a business. Nevertheless, the safest approach is to communicate your marketing messages consistently and frequently since recipients are generally pre-occupied with something else. Just by the law of numbers, if you communicate often you’re more likely to get a hit.

Once you get the answers to these questions, you’re ready to begin promoting your solutions.

Next week, we’ll discuss what to do once you prospective buyers’ attention.

In the meantime, develop marketing messages that capture interest.  Download our free guide for developing compelling value propositions.

Related posts:

1. Shortening the sales cycle starts with getting into buyers’ minds
2. Capturing buyers’ attention: What makes a value proposition compelling?
3. Shorten the sales cycle: one marketing message at a time
4. Follow the money: How to capitalize on opportunity in a tough economy