A series of posts that looks at the complex B2B technology sale. Specifically, what's changed, who's involved, what they want, and where they go to find answers.
PHASE 1: AWARENESS
Who's involved?
Potential users of the solution typically lead the charge.
Individuals who will use the product, or solution, are typically involved early on in the decision-making process. They’re often the first group to bring the need for a new or improved solution to the attention of management.
They're instrumental in defining functional specs or baseline requirements, and may often recommend vendors. They tend to fall out of the mix after requirements have been defined, but are often brought back in the final purchasing phase to provide input.
What do they want?
Heavy focus on features and functionality.
As potential users of the solution, they’re looking first to ensure your solution does what they want. Specifically, they're looking for:
Detail descriptions of features and functionality.
Clear and easy to find pricing.
Downloadable whitepapers that educate them on need for technology and benefits.
Downloadable product literature.
They're also interested in rich media presentations, especially when it comes to complex solutions. Rich media is often easier to digest and lets them get a quick sense of what you provide.
Where do they go?
Word of mouth still rules. But web and offline have impact too.
Recommendations from colleagues are still the most important when it comes to initial awareness, but online and offline channels are also influential.
Technology buyers spend roughly the same about of time reading and relying on offline, or traditional media channels, as they do online sources of information. Specifically:
84% of technology buyers begin search with one of the major search engines (77% with Google)
They visit multiple sites in their search for information. Online sources include news sites, opt-in emails, and social networking sites.
80% said offline materials created enough interest to have them often seek more information online. Popular sources include print trade publications and direct mail.
33% of decision makers and 29% of influencers said they “found” their vendor because they were already a client, so working those existing relationships is key.
Online communities seen as extension of personal networks.
ITtoobox found that “IT decision-makers and influencers spend more time with and increasingly consider online communities as extensions of their existing network of personal contacts.” Social media sites have influence and your buyer is spending time listening to what others are saying.
According to MarketingSherpa, nearly half of IT buyers learned about a product or service that they began using through a social networking site.
What does this mean for me?
Be where your customer goes for answers.
The increase in the amount of online sources means your buyer is more informed and educated than ever before. And this awareness and education is happening earlier in the buying cycle.
Buyers no longer have to wait to have sales meetings or presentations to get a better understanding of what solutions are out there. And many times, they may not even be looking for a specific solution to a problem but instead come across a solution as part of their daily search of the blogosphere looking to get smarter about what they do.
With all these different sources of information available, it’s critical to be where your customer goes to find information. It's not enough to just have a web site.
Creating targeted content that answers your buyers' questions and distributing that content on multiple sites increases your chances of being found online.
Help them spread the word.
In the early stages of the decision making process, users often need to convince others that a new solution is needed. Providing downloadable content they can pass on makes it easier for them to create awareness for others in their organization and make the case for a new solution.
This is the first in a series of posts that looks at the complex B2B technology sale. Specifically, what's changed, who's involved, what they want, and where they go to find answers.
Lots of different people. All with different needs.
According to MarketingSherpa, there can be as many as 21 people involved in a complex technology sale. Multiple people come and go throughout the buying cycle and some will wear multiple hats.
No matter how many people are involved, they all want the same thing - clear answers to their questions. What's tough for B2B companies is that different people ask different questions at different times in the buying process.
Buyers want product details first. Company details second.
As buyers move through the decision making process, they first want to be sure your solution does what they need. Once they're convinced it's a viable option and within budget, then they take the time to learn more about your company.
Buyers want content that informs.
The biggest shift overall has been the role that content plays in complex B2B technology sales.
According to a study by KnowledgeStorm, 85% of technology buyers said they needed 3-5 pieces of content before they had a clear understanding of what the company provided. They're looking for educational content that explains concepts, strategies, and benefits.
Additionally, because of the amount of information available online, buyers aren't reaching out and contacting companies as early in the process as before. Instead they're doing more research online (on your site and others) without engaging your sales team. This shift means B2B companies need to start providing content online which may have been more typically covered in the first contact with sales.
What does this mean for me?
It’s the combination of multiple types of content, each meeting a different need at a different point in the sales cycle that works best.
Content that is more relevant to the buyer (because it answers their questions) will be perceived as more valuable. And companies that provide that information will be more likely to get invited to the table.
In the next post, we'll dissect the first phase of the buying cycle - Awareness. Who's involved, what they're looking for, and where they go to get it.
In the last few years, we've seen how the wealth of online content and online resources has shifted B2B technology buyers' expectations in terms of what information is available (they expect more) and how we engage them (they expect 2-way conversations) online. That's why we talk a lot about content and social media on this blog.
At EB, we also think it's important to provide relevant content and engage our prospects and clients.
Along those lines, I was recently interviewed by Chris Butler from Newfangled Web Factory about our strategy for building a content-rich, engaging site. We were excited to see our site and our approach featured in their latest eNewsletter.
For those of you who are tasked with the sometimes daunting task of creating content for your organization, what are you finding works well? What tips would you share with others?
As B2B marketers we all know that what our customers say about us is more important than what we say about ourselves. So how do you make the most out of the customer testimonials you have on your site?
Make them real.
For a testimonial to have impact, your prospect has to believe it. A recent study by MarketingExperiments, found that in the B2B world, video testimonials had higher credibility with viewers than audio testimonials. And, text-only testimonials were less likely to be perceived as genuine by prospects (this is doubly true when they're anonymous).
Video has more credibility because the customer is real - your prospect can see and hear them. They can also pick up on tone and body language, which adds to credibility in ways that text alone can't.
Address real issues and concerns.
In complex B2B technology sales, buyers come to the table with specific issues and concerns. They're most often worried about ROI, implementation issues, and how you'll handle customer service.
You can use testimonials to get specific about how you'll address these issues - the more specific the better. Being up front about buyers' concerns and objectives makes you more trustworthy and credible in their eyes.
Placement matters.
You can increase the effectiveness of your testimonials by matching the content of the testimonial with similar content on your site. For example, place the testimonial that raves about your customer support on the customer support page. Put the one about ease of implementation on your "How it works" page.
So what does this mean for me?
Use testimonials to add credibility and proactively address your prospects' issues. If you're going to include testimonials, the more real you can make them the more impact it will have. Look at videotaping key clients where you can.
Ask sales to identify the top 3-5 objections or concerns they encounter in the buying process.
Identify customers who can talk specifically about these concerns.
Ask the customer to mention the issue they were dealing with and how your company addressed it.
Review your site to identify the issues/questions your prospect may have as they move through the site.
Categorize your testimonials by topic, then strategically place testimonials on relevant pages.
If you can't do all videos, try using audio clips with photos and customer details (name, company, title).
For any text testimonials be sure you include name, company, and title. Add project details where possible in a mini-case study way (e.g., product or service, dates, main issue they were trying to fix).
I am always impressed when B2B marketers take a chance and step outside the standard B2B world of "Increased ROI", "free whitepaper", and the like. For instance, getting world famous loon Gary Busey to endorse your small business phone system.
GotVMail, a phone system provider directed to small businesses, has put out over 30 videos of Gary ranting on a wide variety of topics, each with a small tidbit on GotVMail's service. Check out the landing page Gary Busey on Business for more marketing gold...
At 8AM PDT time, registrars around the world will begin to sell .ME domain names to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. That is, domain names such as www.youand.me and the like. There are a few thoughts that this brings to my mind.
Will this spawn a .ME domain name gold rush? Everyone jumping to get clever "phrase" names like pick.me, quitfollowing.me, etc?
The second, bigger question, concerns established brands. Will, for instance, Microsoft get microsoft.me (they almost have to get windows.me, right?)? Will we be seeing cocacola.me used for Coca Cola's new social network "just for Coke lovers!"?
Which then leads me to the third, and most overarching question regarding these domain names? Do they really matter? Are they actually going to get used by companies and major brands? Or will the just be bought up by domain name speculators?
With the $19.99 "estimated" price GoDaddy is charging for these domains, they seem to think all of the answer to the above questions is,"yes." They normally charge around eight bucks for a regular .com domain.
So, what do you think? Would you buy a .me domain for your business? For a campaign? Sound off in the comments.
I've been a fan of Adaptive Path for a while now, but never expected to ever have any influence or input when it came to their marketing tactics. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they're a big user experience shop out on the West coast. They have clients like Intel, Crayola, NPR, and Cathay Pacific. Who'd ever think they'd be listening to what I was saying. But I was wrong.
On Monday, I posted about eNewsletter subject lines. I used Adaptive Path's as an example. Much to my surprise I got an email that same day from Roland Smart, Senior Marketing Manager for Adaptive Path.
He said he'd been having conversations internally about the subject line and that my post was "enough of an impetus to make something change." "Please note that our next newsletter will have a new subject line!"
And sure enough, they were true to their word.
Adaptive Path is a company who understands the need to monitor the blogosphere for conversation around their company and what they provide. But more importantly, they engage in conversation and truly listen.
Are you listening in? You should be.
It's easy. Just set up an iGoogle Home page and pull in searches from Google Blog Search for your company's name. Take it one step further and add your competitors. You'll be surprised what you find and who's talking about you.
For those you not familiar with Adaptive Path, they work with companies to create better products and services through experience strategy and experience design. This involves focusing on the end customer, and their total experience, from the start of the development cycle through an ongoing relationship with the brand.
Everyone out there has heard how critical the subject line is for eMail. So it surprised me that some of the regular eNewsletters I get use only the eNewsletter title and date as the subject.
I'm sure I'm like most people and subscribe to more things than I can read. I'm always moving stuff to my "Read Me" folder to look at later (sometimes days later). Today I had a few minutes (but only a few), so I wanted to quickly scan my list for an interesting tidbit. I have specific sources that I like, so I tend to sort using the "from" field.
Here's what I saw:
Here's what I did:
I skipped all the subject lines that were the same thing over and over and clicked on the one that looked interesting. Adaptive Path - a great newsletter BTW - got no "eyeball" time because their subject line wasn't helpful.
Here's the so what:
It's no surprise that I was drawn to the subject that gave me some insight into what was inside and matched up with my interests.
What is surprising is that as marketers we often forget how our one tiny subject line can be caught in a mass of other subject lines. You're battling for attention in a short attention span world. When the subject of your eNewsletter is the same thing over and over, it stops standing out in the crowd.
Here's what to try:
Even if your eNewsletter holds lots of info, pick a feature story to highlight and make it part of your subject. Adotas (show above) does just that. You're more likely to get clicked by providing details (even just one) than being generic.
If you're using a generic subject line for a regular eNewsletter or eMail blast, try changing up your subject line and see if your open rate jumps.
If you are like me, your feed reader (Google Reader in my case) is in a perpetual state of 1000+ unread items. But which feeds are to blame, and which do you read daily?
Most feed readers will allow you view your readership "trends", check it out you might be surprised by which feeds you read most consistently. In my case, only two of my 50+ feeds have a 100% read rating, AdFreak and Auckland Daily Photo. While the daily photo site was not a shock as it serves up content that is strictly visual and doesn't require much effort to view; AdFreak was not one I would have expected.
So what is it that makes a reader more likely to read every post put out? Well in AdFreak's case for me it is the mix of valuable content served up with a bit of attitude. Posts that you might send to your boss, and to your buddy who works in a totally unrelated business, that is the balance keeps me reading. Entertaining? Check. Educational? Check. Politically Correct? Not always.
So what feeds have a 100% read rating for you? Are what you would have expected? Are they more on the informative side or the entertianing side? Any hidden gems you recommend?
65% of IT buyer decision makers and 62% of influencers said they read a whitepaper within the last 90 days
58% of decision makers and 63% of influencers said they read 2-5 whitepapers in that period
57% of technology buyers said they passed on a whitepaper to others within their organization
So how do you increase interest in and downloads of your whitepapers?
Give buyers content they value.
Survey data, how-to guides, and educational content are the most valued.
82% of IT buyers said content targeted at their specific industry was most valuable, followed by 34% who said content targeted to their specific job function was highly valued.
Give buyers a preview - titles alone aren't enough.
75% of buyers want to read at least one paragraph before providing registration info. Interestingly enough, only 48% of marketers provide this type of info.
You can increase downloads by simply providing one or more paragraphs of content prior to registration.
Remove barriers to registration.
Most buyers will give you their correct name (72%) and email (68%) (however they often use a personal email instead of their business email – this helps them separate work related email from outside sources). Less than 40% give a real phone number or answer additional questions.
Try asking for just a name and email. It's easy for buyers and gets you the information you need to follow up.
Clearly state how you will use registration information.
Include a link to your privacy policy next to the submit button.
Repurpose your whitepaper content.
60% of IT buyers indicated that whitepapers would be more interesting as podcasts.
Some B2B companies have found that repurposing whitepapers into podcasts increases downloads.
Follow up on downloads within 2 days.
The majority of buyers who download your content are quickly scanning it for relevance and putting it away to read it more thoroughly later. So, it’s important to follow up quickly because it reminds them that they’ve downloaded your content.
72% of buyers say that timeliness of follow-up impacts their impression of the company and it products.
Use email to follow up as it’s the preferred method of buyers. (Whitepaper downloads typically signal a buyer in the early phases of the buying cycle. As this point, they aren’t ready to talk directly with someone at your company, they prefer being contacted via email.)
Test what works best for your buyer.
Whitepaper downloads are a great place to start testing what works best for your buyers.
Start by measuring the number of downloads you get today.
Change up one aspect based on the best practices above.
Measure the difference.
Keep what works, and discard what doesn't.
Keep tweaking the process until you've optimized downloads for your audience. Let us know what works best for you.
In the last few years, we've seen how the wealth of online content and online resources has shifted B2B technology buyers' expectations in terms of what information is available (they expect more) and how we engage them (they expect 2-way conversations) online. That's why we talk a lot about 
12120 Sunset Hills Road