Adding evidence to marketing messaging makes the value proposition credible.
A short summary version of my recent presentation at the Customer Marketing Summit, London Nov'23.
3. Beware random acts of marketing!
I wasted half of my marketing budget… I just don’t know which half
Why can’t we just market to the people who want to buy?
Don’t count the people that you reach, reach the people that count
…AND THAT
COMPLEXITY
CAN PROVE
CHAOTIC
4. ‘…AS MARKETERS, WE'RE WELL -VERSED IN THE MAIN GOALS OF INTERNET
MARKETING: TO GENERATE LE ADS AND NE W BUSINESS’ [INTERNET TRAININ G
RESOURCE]
‘…ONE OF THE MOST COMMON AND WIDELY ACCEPTED GOALS OF MARKETING IS
LE AD GENERATION’ [INTERNET TRAINING RESOURCE]
‘…95% OF YOUR REVENUE COMES FROM 5% OF YOUR LE ADS’ [VENDOR ADVER T]
‘ THE TOP PRIORIT Y FOR MARKETERS IS GENERATING LE ADS’. [VENDOR AD VERT]
… WHICH MAY LEAD TO OVER-SIMPLIFIED
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
5. PROOF EQUALS TRUST
If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust
you, they will do business with you.
Zig Ziglar
ALL MARKETING NEEDS PROOF POINTS TO
QUANTIFY A VALUE PROPOSITION
6. CONTEMPORARY CUSTOMER
EXPECTATION:
PROVE IT!
In a world where customers may be tempted to
shop for products that better suit their current
needs, brands will need to reward loyalty, stress
value, create personalized experiences, remain
connected and engaged, and ensure customers
know they have their best interests in mind. -
Mintel
TODAY’S DIGITAL SAVVY BUYER AND CONSUMER IS
MORE DEMANDING THAN EVER
7. Source: Two market-leading industry analysts, advising a large B2B tech org.
1. STOP TALKING ABOUT
YOURSELVES
2. USE EVIDENCE IN YOUR
NARRATIVE
3. KEEP IT SIMPLE AND
CONSISTENT
Source: Major Industry Analysts’ Marketing Advisory Services
EVIDENCE IS A TOP 3 MESSAGING REQUIREMENT,
ACCORDING TO ANALYSTS
8. THE BEST EVIDENCE IS FROM OTHER CUSTOMERS…
44%
of prospects validate vendors based on other clients’ success
9. According to the Content Marketing Institute,
40%
of B2B marketers said that case studies are the #1 type of content for
converting late-stage leads.
10. REAL TRUST COMES
FROM EVIDENCE
PROVIDED BY THOSE
WITH NO OTHER REASON
TO BE POSITIVE THAN
THE PRODUCT ITSELF
11. CONCLUSION: LOYALTY IS A
MARKETING SUPERPOWER
STRATEGICALLY, THE TRUTH OF HOW THE MARKET SEES
YOUR PRODUCTS IS AS IMPORTANT AS THE PRODUCTS
THEMSELVES.
TREAT IT ACCORDINGLY
Let’s think about why
And why that is, is actually really easy to get, if you think about the complexity involved in doing large scale marketing.
Whether its tech or pharma or FS or consumer goods, marketing is a big, multidisciplined effort, and requires thought and investment. Many different functions, many different tasks, different skills, all have to come together for marketing to work.
Even in a smaller organization, doing marketing right is a tough ask and rarely do we have all the answers, or all the resources, or the right budget, to do it correctly all the time.
Hands up if you have an adequate budget to exceed your targets?
And because of the complexity, and perhaps some realites about resourcing or budget, we are not certain on what bets to place, and they don’t always work. The 4 Ps are now 7Ps, so many permutations, so many different approaches, so many opinions.
I’m not speaking for anyone else here, but drawing on some personal experience, It would be fair to say not everything works out the way we wanted.
It’s a bit chaotic sometimes. These phrases are cliches but they are there for a reason. Attitudes to marketing reflect the chaotic nature of function. And chaos and sporadic results are not the basis for confident investment in marketing, especially in the non-revenue generating parts.
And there’s the main problem….
when we’re too busy as a marketing org we revert to being focused on lead gen and not much else.
I thought it might be a bit of a cliché about marketing being just a lead gen engine but then I looked at how it is depicted on the net, even by marketing themselves.
Anyone not In marketing would be forgiven for thinking that lead gen is basically what we are meant to do.
And for many of us if we look at the headcount in marketing overall versus ‘customer marketing’ the ratios tell the story all by themselves. Customer Marketing sits somewhere in the corner. Lead gen gets all the funding. Strategically, demand is where the weight is, where the discussions are.
Its all a bit Jerry Maguire.
(Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics)
Its as we said at the start, you have to be trusted for someone to buy from you. Truer now than ever.
The 1st fundamental is that prospects and clients alike must trust the vendor (and that trust comes from proof as well as the relationship)
Here’s what I see.
Whether you are a business or a consumer.
In the post pandemic digital era, with concerns over suppliers, fears about genAI, reports of fake news, worries about sustainability and diversity across the supply chain.
We’re all a little more sceptical. We are more careful with our suppliers.
And in the last 2 years especially, thanks to global inflation, spending power and budgets have dropped B2B and B2C. Brands have to work harder and harder to maintain customer loyalty.
We want to be as sure as we can be. We want reassurances.
We want proof.
Prove to me you deserve my custom. Prove to me you meet my requirements as a vendor.
Show me where that’s true.
A couple of years ago I was very lucky to book a direct consultation with both the big analyst firms (Fartner and Gorrester) who provide consulting services among their many other facilities on messaging and brand stories, they offered some guidance based on some source material we supplied to them. I was running brand at the time for my employer.
Remember these people see the marketing blurb of thousands of organizations on a regular basis. They can see through most of what gets said.
Some really good conversations but in a nutshell they were quite clear, quite blunt, about messaging.
Here they are. Free advice. Great advice.
Three things became my checklist for good messaging. And if you look at number 2, it is plain as day.
Prove it. Provide evidence. Where have you done this before, who else agrees with you.
And its obvious if you think about it yourself. If you check reviews on a TV or a hotel or a restaurant, you might want to do the same for a massive corporate expenditure.
And that’s borne out, if you pardon the pun, by UK research agency Vanson Bourne. I asked them a similar question about what content matters most in the buying cycle and hey guess what, nearly half of all prospects double check against other client success.
No customer wins, no deal.
You will notice here I am citing evidence – from an industry survey – to prove to you that evidence is important. And you believe it right?
Here’s another one. More empirical market data to support my view. Its effective huh?
The content Marketing institute think that case studies are #1 asset for late stage leads for nearly half of all marketers.
Success breeds success, as the saying goes. People like to know they aren’t the first. They want proof. They want zero risk. Everyone wants to join a winning team.
Look at this guy – he’s delighted!
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2019_B2B_Research_Final.pdf
We also made sure we asked the customers their perspective of the meetings they went to and the impression they got of our customer marketing programs.
This was then value-add content we can then feed back into the promotional engine for the coming year.
These are real quotes from real customers who were simply engaged with in the right way.
That’s not their real faces by the way.
OK first up – replanting a few roots here, why customer marketing matters.
I think we can all agree it matters.
Show of hands, anyone think it doesn’t’ matter?
We wont do a show of hands for this, but ask yourself quietly. Is customer marketing correctly represented in the important marketing strategy meetings. Does it have a seat at the top table.
In organizations I was at, customer marketing was often relegated to being a subordinate task, it was never a primary consideration. And the budget reflected that. The challenge we talked about earlier just gets propagated each year.