"It's Not You, It's Me" #INYIM14-The Truth Behind Why Your Prospects Won't Engage
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This presentation was given by Phil Harrell at HubSpot's Inbound Conference 2014 and compares marketing to dating. It highlights 1) Why product centric marketing is like bad dating and persona centric marketing is like good dating, 2) The key challenges for mid-market & Enterprise companies in moving to persona centric marketing and 3) Top tips on how mid-market & Enterprise companies can move from product centric to persona centric marketing.
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"It's Not You, It's Me" #INYIM14-The Truth Behind Why Your Prospects Won't Engage
- 1. #INBOUND1 4 It’s Not You...It’s Me #INYIM14 The Truth Behind Why Your Prospects Won’t Engage Phil Harrell @pjharrell VP Corporate Division, HubSpot
- 3. “I’m Happy” “I’m Ecstatic” @pjharrell @pharrell
- 4. *DISCLAIMER/FINE PRINT: I’ve been happily married for 16 years and therefore my information on dating in this presentation is way outdated. Any accurate representations of modern dating are purely accidental. #INBOUND14
- 6. #INBOUND14 “Let Me Decide Who is Right For Me”…
- 7. #INBOUND14 …”Wow, You Ladies Sure Are Competitive…”
- 8. #INBOUND14 “We’re Connecting-This Feels Right”
- 9. #INBOUND14 …”She’s The One”
- 10. #INBOUND14 Parallels Between The Bachelor & Today’s Buyer The Bachelor • Full control over decision process • Lots of choices in single women • Opportunity to go on a lot of dates/ figure out who is right match Today’s Buyer • Complete control of buying process • Lots of choices in solutions • Can gather information easily & from lots of sources
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- 19. #INBOUND14 Let Me Tell You About Our Company & Products
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- 21. #INBOUND14 1st Time On Our Website? Lets Get Married!
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- 23. You’ve Been On Our Website-You Must Be Really Interested #INBOUND14
- 24. #INBOUND14
- 25. #INBOUND14 Stop Harassing Me With Annoying Emails!!
- 26. #INBOUND14
- 27. #INBOUND14 Guess What? That is what your prospects want. To be understood.
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- 29. #INBOUND14 Top of the Funnel
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- 31. #INBOUND14 Middle of the Funnel
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- 33. #INBOUND14 Bottom of the Funnel
- 34. “Product Centric Marketing” “Persona Centric Marketing” Bad Date Good Date
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- 43. #INBOUND14 Step 1: Create A Cross Functional Team
- 44. #INBOUND14 Step 2: Pick Top Target Persona
- 45. #INBOUND14 Step 3-Conduct a Content Audit to Identify Gaps
- 46. #INBOUND14 Step 4-Build A Content Development Infrastructure
- 47. #INBOUND14 Step 5-Personalize Your Website
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- 56. #INBOUND14 Connect With Me @pjharrell pharrell@hubspot.com
Editor's Notes
- Key Points: Those dreaded words. Maybe you’ve heard this phrase before? As it turns out, there are many parallels between dating & marketing to prospects. In both cases, you’re trying to connect with someone & build a relationship. It’s frustrating when it doesn’t work out and you don’t understand why, isn’t it? When you examine why certain dates went badly, and others went well, you start to see some patterns….patterns that exist with good and bad marketing. WHAT YOU”LL LEARN FROM THIS PRESENTATION: Will learn why traditional product centric based marketing approach is outdated (and akin to bad dating practices), how persona centric marketing leads to better results (akin to good dating practices) How to move from product centric marketing to persona centric marketing I will use analogies to dating to make it fun & drive home my points about the differences between the two marketing approaches
- Key Points: VP Corporate Division-dedicated to helping mid-market & Enterprise customers transform their marketing I have an identical twin brother works for Google and people confuse us all the time But on social media I’ve been frequently confused with a famous musician, so for the record I want to clarify….
- Key Points: I’m not Pharrell-the famous musician who has written/produced songs like “I’m Happy” and “Come Get It Bae” But the confusion is understandable-given that our Twitter handles are nearly identical, and that we’re both generally happy people. So I can understand why folks would get us confused If you attended this session because you thought you’d hear from Pharrell, then you’re going to be disappointed and I won’t be offended if you get up and leave
- Key Points: Unlike my knowledge of sales & marketing, my knowledge of dating is extremely outdated. Been happly married 16 years….and when I was dating, you actually had to leave the house to meet people. I make frequent references to dating in this presentation…and any accurate representations of modern dating are purely accidental So let’s jump right in
- Key Points: Pretend for a moment that you’re single Sean appears to be the man of your dreams…handsome, happy, strong…in short, someone who you’d like to go out on a date with But there’s only one problem….
- Key Points: So do a lot of other women The Bachelor is a reality TV show where A handsome, eligible bachelor has an opportunity to date 25 beautiful women to figure out which one of them would be a great marriage partner Obviously, the bachelor has a lot of choices and can get information about each of his dates to figure out which of the single women is best for him.
- Key Points: As you can imagine, on The Bachelor, competition is fierce between the single women to capture the bachelor’s attention And the contestants spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to gain a competitive advantage and win’s Sean’s heart
- Key Points: Some of the contestants think of crazy date ideas Generally, the women who advance the farthest have the natural interactions with the bachelor, get to know him It feels natural and authentic->ask a lot of questions, find things in common, genuine-in it for the right reasons, go on dates that are appropriate for Sean’s interests, don’t play games
- Key Points: On the The Bachelor, only 1 woman will get the rose. All the other women will be left wondering what they did wrong.
- Key Points: Buyers and the buying process has dramatically changed Buyers today choose how and when they want to engage with your company. They gather tremendous amounts of information on their own in the manner and method they choose to They block out unwanted messages or interruption based approaches that they don’t want to hear How are you going to woo your buyer given the new realities of how they buy today? WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Those companies that don’t modernize their marketing to reflect how buyers buy today and the leverage they have will be at risk of disruption. The companies that can shed the old marketing approach and adopt a new marketing approach will enjoy huge competitive advantages.
- Key Points: So pretend you’re one of the contestants that didn’t win Sean’s heart and unfortunately this another bad dating experience in a string of bad dates. Frankly you’ve been on a cold streak. You’re left wondering why. Even worse, Sean let you down with one of the dreaded-it’s not you-it’s me lines. He’s tried be nice about breaking up with you. But let’s be honest-you’re not buying it….
- Key Points: Because as Dwight Schrute, salesman in the TV Show The Office said it-when a date/significant other tells you it isn’t you…they’re lying. It IS you. The frustrating part is figuring out why….what went wrong? You want to know. Just like a bad date when your date won’t tell you why they’re not interested, prospects don’t tell us either. But the key stats-# of visitors, # of leads-are telling us something is wrong. Web site traffic is not scaling in line with increased marketing investment. Or lead conversion rate is way too low. The truth is prospects won’t engage with your marketing messages because of the way you’re marketing at them, just like on the dating front. Let’s dig into some of the possible reasons that this might be happening
- Key Points: Hopefully by now you’re interested to learn more
- Key Point: (You might not know what type of person you’re looking for) Dating You’ve had a wide range of people on dates, but they’re all wrong. One cause could be be that you don’t know what you’re looking for in a potential match Don’t know the characteristics and specifics of who would be ideal for you Which means…
- Key Point: (Which means you’re attracting the wrong type of person) Dating Maybe you’ve been attracting people that aren’t right for you How many times have you been on a date and 30 seconds in you’re looking for a lifeline? It is pretty easy to end up with a mismatch if you don’t know what you’re looking for… And obviously if right off the bat the date is the wrong person, then you’re headed for another bad dating experience
- Key Point: Marketing Just like dating, many mid-market & enterprise marketers don’t have a good idea of what they’re looking for in an ideal prospect And thus their web site and marketing materials don’t have a specific tone and message the demonstrates who they’re talking to And that means that maybe they’re attracting lots of visitors, but they’re not attract qualified prospects that are the right fit for their solution When you asses how you’re doing in this regard in your marketing…do you know who you’re trying to attract to your web site? Do your marketing materials speak to that person?
- Key Point: Dating Bill Lumburgh , VP in the movie Office Space illustrates it best: how much of a bore is it when you go on a date with someone who won’t stop talking about themselves? Really? Do I really need to hear about the fact that you were valedictorian of your elementary school and that you were voted most likely to succeed by your high school peers? Over sharing and not asking about the other person is a huge dating no-no….
- Key Point: Dating Other ways to bore your date is if you talk about yourself/only what you’re interested in, or you’re a downer, overly serious, you complain about everything, you don’t smile or try new things, you work all the time Maybe you’ve talking too much about yourself, bragging about yourself, instead of asking the other person about their interests? Are you sharing too much information?
- Key Point: Marketing Just like bad dating, many mid-market/Enterprises are boring their prospects by droning on and on about their company or their product. Talking about your company, bragging about your product->this is the epitome of a product based marketing approach. How are you doing in this regard? Are you talking too much about your company and product to your prospects? Are you showing interest in them?
- Key Point: Dating Another problem in dating is when the date comes on way too strong. Kind of a turn off, right? It doesn’t feel natural because you’re just getting to know one another. Are you giving your dates crazy eyes…coming on way too strong and making comments that are out of line with how well you know the person?
- Key Point: Marketing Just like bad dating, many mid-market & enterprises are giving inappropriate offers to prospects they barely know For example, making middle and bottom of the funnel offers to first time visitors. Free trial, contact sales are the only calls to action/offers. What about starting the conversation and getting to know the prospects? Don’t give your prospects crazy eyes-when you’re first engaging with them How are you doing on this front from a marketing perspective?
- Key Point: Dating Studies show that the majority of communication is non-verbal…studies have shown anywhere between 60-93% of communication is non-verbal. In fact one strange tip that I read suggested that pointing your toes at the other person is a powerful way to establish good non-verbal contact. Weird. Anyways, many people don’t pick up on subtle clues and sign, which leads to awkward dating situations
- Key Point: Marketing Just like bad dating, many marketers are ignoring behavior and subtle clues For example, a lot of marketers are asking for a lot of information and giving very little in return->not recognizing that prospects very early in sales cycle If you’re asking a ton of 7 questions on your form-but only offering a high level white paper-you’re not listening to your prospects’ subtle clues. How are you doing in this regard on the marketing front?
- Key Point: Dating Big turn off If you express interest in someone and they overwhelm/harass you Are you being appropriate in your level of communication to your dates? Or since you’ve been on a bad streak, have you been a bit overzealous in your pursuit of your date?
- Key Point: Marketing Just like bad dating, many mid-market and Enterprises are harassing their prospects with irrelevant emails For example emailing middle and bottom of the funnel offers. What about starting the conversation and getting to know the prospects before crushing them with emails?
- Key Points: In our personal lives, we want our significant other to really understand us-to connect with us, to be interested in us. Leading psychologist John Dewey discovered. one thing on this earth that everyone wants (men-get your minds out of the gutter)…TO FEEL IMPORTANT If you can make someone feel important by valuing their opinions, time or feelings and be interested-then YOU will be attractive to them Be interested and be interesting…ask questions about what they find important, commit to total engagement
- Key Points: Your prospects want this too. Your prospects want TO FEEL IMPORTANT…Like any relationship, what prospects want is for you to show them you understand them-their needs, challenges, fears. Relationship is built on trust and you earn this trust thru engagement. This is persona based marketing. If you held your current marketing practices up against this measurement, how would it hold up? Would your prospects say they feel important, understood, that you’re committed to total engagement?
- Key Points: Dating We’ve gone through some fun bad date & bad marketing experiences, so let’s go through some good dating & marketing experiences and visualize what this looks like First take them for coffee or drinks..low investment of time and energy
- Key Points: Marketing Top of the funnel content is aimed at educating prospects and showing them how they can solve their problems Utilize Blog…high level content Companies have a misconception that they have to lay everything they have out there on their website at once because afraid that prospects won’t come back. If marketing is done right, then people will come back again. Part of why people come back is because it is a bit mysterious-they want more information Start with high level offers that are appropriate for where you are in your relationship with them Offer things that are of value to the prospect that helps them come to terms with their pain points and decide that their company is the right fit for their pain. And build a robust profile about them
- Key Points: Dating After first coffee date, you schmooze your date at dinner or do something fun together The best relationships are the ones that progress naturally from initial interaction and because both sides show interest and want to spend time together Deeper and deeper levels of engagement as you get to know one another.
- Key Points: Marketing Middle of the funnel offers show prospects why your products and services are the best choice Distinguish between casual information gatherers and the people who are really interested in buying (hopefully your product)
- Key Points: Dating Best relationships are the ones that the interaction is balanced and appropriate and that you learn more and more about person and the more your learn about them, the more they interest you Ready to establish a long term relationship
- Key Points: Marketing By the time that your prospect gets to bottom of the funnel, they’re ready to buy and the only decision is who they will buy from
- Key Point: You have two choices-do you want to approach it as Ron Burgandy the blowhard in movie Anchorman “I’m the greatest approach” or the boyfriend in The Notebook who listens approach. Which one would interest you more? Product centric marketing is akin to a bad date->talking about your company/your product, coming on inappropriately, failing to pick up on subtle clues & harassing your prospects with product email offers Persona Centric Marketing is akin to a good date->knowing what kind of person you’re looking for, connecting with them about their needs & challenges, deepening your engagement based on trust that has been earned. Just like great dating/relationships->Learning about each other, discovering things you do well together.
- Key Point: Why is it hard for mid-market & Enterprises to move from a Product Marketing centric approach to a Persona centric marketing approach because the playbook has been ingrained for so long within companies. Next slides will outline five common challenge that most of you are facing in this room of why it is so hard for companies to move to a persona based marketing approach and then share tips on how to solve the challenges
- Key Point: No consensus as to who ideal buyer is…do you want Bradley Cooper, or the funny bearded guy in the front No agreement across the company who the ideal buyer is-sales & marketing-closest to customer, don’t agree, Even within marketing department no agreement on who the ideal buyer is. In fact, in many of my conversations, I ask two people from the same marketing organization and they will have different answers Who is our target market? What are their pain points? How do we help them solve their pain points?
- Key Point: Silos of information build up within marketing so that it is hard to get a complete picture of the buyer The same marketing team that doesn’t agree on who their buyer persona, doesn’t even have one consistent view of their customer. Disconnect can be expected because data is in different silos.
- Key Point: Have you ever been with a couple who can’t stop bickering with each other? It’s really annoying, right? Mid-Market & Enterprise company interdepartmental mistrust inhibit moving to persona based model Lots of examples of lack of sales & marketing alignment
- Key Point: Processes are supposed to help, right? Mid-Market & Enterprise company processes inhibit moving to persona based model Some examples-tight legal and compliance standards inhibit agile content creation. Problem in new model. If want to survive in today’s world, marketing approach has to evolve
- Key Point: Which all means lower ROI on marketing spend The effectiveness of current marketing playbook-talk about product, interrupt folks-is declining. Same number of visitors and leads with increased spend-so effectively cost per visitor and cost/lead is high and/or going up. PPC is an example of this-bidding up keywords.
- Key Point: There is a huge opportunity to change the game, to enjoy the benefits of first mover advantage by moving to a persona based marketing approach Think about it-those companies that can build those trusted relationships early-I emphasize the word EARLY-in their customer’s buying cycle will be much more likely to win the deal And once you have earned that trust, it is extremely hard for a competitor to take it away.
- Key Point: Next I’ll offer suggestions about how to move to this model Generate more quality traffic->the right fit kinds of folks to your site Generate the right fit kinds of leads
- Key Point: Persona Centric Marketing Important to get all groups who understand/touch customers-sales, marketing, product management, customer service-to be part of this effort. You want their ideas and feedback about the ideal persona/target buyer
- Key Point: Persona Centric Marketing Next you have to have all these groups define and agree on a target persona Pick one target person or two or 3 target personas (don’t try top pick too many). Pick the person who will be helped the most by what you have to offer Get it out of your minds and create a physical representation of it Who are you trying to attract to your website?
- Key Point: Persona Centric Marketing Then you have to figure out what content you have and what you need. For example, most companies need more awareness offers… Product centric marketing is about bottom/middle of funnel type offers. Which content is appropriate for which persona at which stage of the buyer journey? Does the content you have speak to your ideal persona?
- Key Point: Persona Centric Marketing Build a funnel in place to create content to keep it interesting Then you have build a content development infrastructure to deliver content assets to start the conversation. Create a playbook Create new content development process Create a single repository of content Put a someone in charge of the effort to create content
- Key Point: Persona Centric Marketing Make the prospect feel like you’re talking to them Segment which content it goes to which folks in your database Show a different call to action to move me further down the funnel Amazon is a great example
- Key Point: In summary It’s time to move way from the product centric marketing approach To stop acting like Ron Burgandy-boring your prospects by throwing up on them about your company and your product
- Key Point: It’s time to stop giving your prospects crazy eyes by making inappropriate comments & advances on them before they know you
- Key Point: Stop missing subtle clues that lead to awkward interactions
- Key Point: Stop stalking your prospects with harassing emails
- Key Points: It’s time to start demonstrating to prospects that you understand them. To make them feel important. To be interested and therefore be interesting. To get to know them in a way that feels natural-like taking them out for coffee Make offers that are appropriate to where they are
- Key Points: It’s time to start deepening your engagement with your prospects in natural cadence. To ask for more commitment from them as you show more commitment to them
- Key Points: It’s time to build relationships with your prospects that are balanced…and based on both sides’ interest. Ready to establish a long term relationship To treat your relationship with them as a marathon and not a sprint
- Key Point: It’s time to modernize your marketing by moving to the persona centric marketing approach Where you connect with people about their needs & challenges, deepen your engagement based on trust that has been earned & pursue them in a way that feels natural Start building meaningful relationships-the kinds of relationships that you value in your personal life-and your business will grow exponentially