Your Best Stuff

Information versus Experience

2009-09-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

People read for two reasons - for information, or to experience. No, this is not a recent revelation about the interactive web. It was observed many decades ago by Louise Rosenblatt, a famous scholar who studied how readers relate to text.

This wisdom should be taken to heart by anybody who communicates with customers and prospects over the web. For everything we publish, we need to ask ourselves what our readers are looking for. Does she want facts about a specific problem or issue, or to get a feel for how people are dealing with that problem? Does he want to see our price list, or to get more familiar with us as a company?

These two agendas call for very different writing styles. For fact seekers, we need a detached, neutral style, often enhanced with bulleted text, charts and tables. Our reader will be saying "get to the point, please." For those seeking experience, we need to tell stories. Our readers want to be seduced. This means a more personal style, and a narrative that transports the reader from point A to point B.

A good website should do both. What a lot of websites do, however, is confuse the two. Often we're trying to seduce readers when they just want the facts, or we're boring them with details when they're looking for an engaging read.

One of the keys to a good site is to be clear about our intentions, and make sure our reader has a positive experience with the materials we present. When we present a case study, we should present the whole story with no interruptions. When we present hard concepts, we should keep it crisp and to the point. The site should be organized and notated so that the reader can quickly find the facts or experience he or she is looking for.

Giving Free Advice

2009-08-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got some free advice from my electrician. We were missing some parts, so he was unable to finish. Since I'm technically inclined, he asked if I preferred to finish the job myself. When I said yes, he outlined the steps.

From a sales perspective, it could be argued that he was giving away business. If I remained ignorant, I'd have to hire him to come back. So why did he share his trade secrets with me instead?

To put it simply, he understood that when it comes to getting business as it tradesperson, the best policy is relationship building. In this case, it was better for the relationship to empower me to help myself. He chose to put the relationship first.

B2B marketers should follow this example. Free advice, appropriately given, is a highly effective relationship builder. If you help people try something on their own, you immediately enter into the trusted advisor role - the valued position that companies work so hard to attain.

Of course, care needs to be taken that you don't over-advise. Had the electrician's advice been beyond my capabilities, I might have gotten frustrated and blamed the messenger. I suppose there could be liability issues as well.

As marketers, however, we can choose the areas where we give advice. We can also, with the help of web technology, determine the kind of advice our prospects are seeking.

Buyers have to determine whether or not they need us. If we recognize this need and help them help themselves in an honest way, they will come to their own natural conclusion. If they are happy with our advice, it will be equally natural for them to engage us when they are ready.

Demand creation versus demand discovery.

2009-06-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Given all the buzz about the Web 2.0-driven era of "people centric" marketing, I'm surprised by the persistence of some old ideas - in particular, the notion that marketing is something we do to people.

Why do we still talk about "converting" prospects? Are we trying to get them to adopt our faith? Or more to the point, are we hoping to transform them into robots that will buy on command? And what's this about web content having a "hook"? Are we throwing our prospects a curve?

I think it's time we questioned the whole idea of demand creation. Demand is what people want. Can we really create that?

Sure, classic marketing stills works in many situations. But in a Web 2.0 environment, the returns from these covert methods are diminishing. The problem for traditional marketers is that everything has become very transparent. People want unfiltered, useful information, and on today's web, they're going to find it. It's just a question of from whom.

I would argue that demand "created" by means of a conversion or hook is really artificial demand. The link to reality is, at least in part, an illusion. Under the glaring light of a transparent web, these illusions are fading.

Real demand, on the other hand, is discovered, not created. There are people out there who are our best prospects because there is a good fit between what they want and what we can provide. Discovery is mutual - they learn about us, and we learn about them. This is how marketing worked long before the web, television, or even the printing press.

The web accelerates this ancient process. By publishing useful information on a website or a blog, we can create a following, and that can lead to relationships. And as they have for ages, people buy from whom they know.

Those most interested in our insights from day to day experience are most likely to be our best customers. Sharing what we know in informative content is the most direct and natural way to connect with these people.

Your Best Marketing Strategy

2009-06-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

Classic marketing is all about persuasion. Create powerful, subliminal images, associate them with your product, and people will buy from you, sometimes without knowing why.

This blog is about something different. It's about sharing your best stuff - the most useful knowledge you have to offer - with your prospects in order to build relationships with them.

Sharing knowledge is a viable alternative to classic marketing because:

Likes attract. Those interested in what you know best will naturally be attracted to doing business with you.
Buyers start out as information seekers. If you provide them with the information they are looking for, a relationship will develop. And when they do become buyers, they'll do what most people do - buy from whom they know.
Buyers have filters. There's so much marketing out there that they tune out. Sharing knowledge freely greatly increases the odds that you will reach people.

I've spent the past 7 years helping experts share what they know. This blog is all about how I, and others, do this. Stay tuned!