The Customer Digital Experience: 5 Emerging Trends

The next time you walk down the street, take a look around. Yes you'll need to lift your eyes from your smartphone to do it. Once you look up, what you'll likely see is everyone else's heads down, focused on their own devices. That's pretty much the case everywhere: in stores, at sporting events, and in restaurants. What you are witnessing - and likely participating in - is the Digital Experience, something that's growing stronger every day. According to Forrester Research, in 2010 90 million people in the US owned smartphones and 5 million had tablets. That grew to 140 million smartphone and 60 million tablet users last year. By 2016, it's expected that 205 million people will have smartphones and 110 million will be using tablets.

In its recently released study on this digital device explosion, Forrester discussed the effects of this phenomenon. Here's a look at five emerging trends.

1. From Responsive Design to Adaptive Design - By now you're likely aware of the shift toward Responsive Design in web site development. Organizations like the Boston Globe have designed their sites so they function appropriately regardless of whether opened on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. As digital devices have become more pervasive, we're now moving from Responsive Design to Adaptive Design. Not only will sites display correctly, but the device will dictate what content you'll receive. For example, if you go to the New Zealand Kiwi Bank site on a smartphone today, you'll see a specific mobile friendly login, branch finder and customer service number.

2. Responsive Context - Companies continue to mine Big Data to find out more about you. This will allow them to match your specific information from prior purchase and service history for example, to current situational data - where you are and what time of day it is - and present you with appropriate offers. For example, if you go to the ZipCar site, it will recognize your location and guide you to the nearest available rental. It will then book the transaction and unlock the door for you.

3. Device Synchronization - As the use of the cloud increases, there's continued development to connect devices to products and services and to each other. Amazon with its Kindle and Evernote are already well down this path and the trend is likely to accelerate for all providers. AKQA built a social game for Heineken to engage fans at soccer games. The game connects fans at the stadium, pinpoints where they are and also provides commentary in synch with their play by play broadcasts.

4. Adaptive Interfaces - This year the number of people who access the internet on mobile devices is expected to surpass those that go online on desktops. Developers are reacting to that by creating interfaces more easily used on smaller, mobile devices. Layouts are cleaner and less cluttered. Action buttons are bigger and easier to click whether by touch or with a mouse.

5. Information Visualization - Information that is being presented from sites like Mint or Hipmunk is expected to take the next giant leap. They are moving from tools that track behavior - financial spending trends, health care tracking, and mobile phone usage - to interfaces that help users act on that data. In addition to presenting basic information, sites will explain what it means, its consequences and how you can use it to make improvements going forward.

Ultimately, according to Forrester, we're headed quickly to a time when our mobile phones become the remote control of our lives. Now if they could only come up with a DVR where we can relive the good parts and delete the bad ones....

What trends are you experiencing in your digital world? Where do you think we're headed?

How Marketing Automation Can Help You NOW

If you're responsible for marketing in almost any organization, your head is likely ready to spin off your shoulders. You're being called on to do everything from research to strategy to advertising and promotion to social media. And oh by the way, measure it all to see what's working.

It doesn't look like the added bricks of responsibility will lighten up anytime soon so what's a harried marketer to do?

Take a serious look at Marketing Automation for one thing.

Marketo defines Marketing Automation (MA) as "the technology that allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster." That's a mouthful but stated simply it means that there's software available that can help you automate and handle many of your mounting tasks.

In its eBook The Right Content at the Right Time, Yesler states that 18% of B2B marketers have adopted MA and that's expected to rise to 40% by 2016. Marketo points out in its Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation that not just large companies are employing the technology. The fastest growing segment of MA adopters are small to medium sized businesses (SMB's).

There are a myriad of reasons why MA is being so aggressively implemented. Here are five key areas where an effective Marketing Automation program can yield significant results.

1. Lead Generation

The days when a breathing, warm body was considered a good prospect are long gone. Companies have come to realize how resources can be squandered pursuing the wrong target audience. Effective lead generation requires that you find the customers that fit your target profile. According to Marketo, MA helps to identify "the hot ones displaying buying behaviors that indicate that they are ready to engage with you and make a purchase."

2. Persona Development

Designing your target profile customer is not enough. Yesler points out that you have to build your buyer personas as well. "Today’s purchasing decisions most often include multiple people who play different roles in the buying process, sometimes at different stages." Identifying users, influencers and the appropriate budget authority is as crucial to the selling process as targeting the buyer. Once you've established all the players, MA helps organize and drive the appropriate content to each at the appropriate time.

3. Lead Nurturing

I discussed the importance of lead nurturing in an earlier post but it's clear that obtaining the lead is just the beginning of the process. It's estimated that only 20% of leads are sales ready when they are first uncovered. Your MA program includes the integration of Sales operation software and CRM applications to ensure that you are doing everything possible to nurture each lead into a sale. According to the Marketo Benchmark on Revenue Performance, companies that implement this kind of lead scoring enjoy 28% better sales productivity and 33% higher revenue growth than companies without lead scoring.

4. Relationship Management

We all know it's far more profitable to grow sales with existing customers than by acquiring new ones. That's why retaining and strengthening the bonds with existing customers is so important. An effective MA program helps with up-selling, cross-selling, managing feedback and maintaining an ongoing conversation with your current customers. Marketo stresses that "you need multiple tracks for each buyer persona and buying stage that 'listen' to how the customer behaves, and adjusts accordingly – just like a real-world relationship."

5. Marketing ROI

Back to the numbers. Not only do you have to manage all these various programs, but you also need to measure and justify their existence through a detailed ROI (return on investment) analysis. According to Marketo, Marketing Automation "goes beyond process automation to help marketing executives get much-needed insight into which marketing programs are working and which aren’t. It gives CMOs the metrics they need to speak confidently to the C-suite about Marketing’s revenue impact."

Marketing Automation is catching on fast and will quickly evolve from a luxury into a necessity. As John McTigue, co-owner of Kuno Creative has said, “without marketing automation, you are just guessing– just hoping that people will take the bait and be ready to buy your products. Statistics show that buyers don’t do that. They want to learn at their own pace and be reached when they need more information or are ready to buy. A well-constructed marketing automation strategy makes that a reality.”

Are you using Marketing Automation? Could it help your marketing program?

Always Remember, Benefits Not Features

Benefits not features. Working with several clients this week, I found myself bringing up this same topic more than once. Though a basic building block for all effective content creation, it's a concept that too often gets overlooked.

Why?

Several reasons actually.

First, we are all by nature self centered. We care about us. What's in it for me? Unfortunately this spills over when we create content and we tend to want to talk about us. On a resume, we want to talk about all the great things we've done. On a product description, we want to highlight all the wonderful things it can do. On a business web site, we want to shout about how long we've been around, how many locations we have or how many awards we've won.

There's just one problem.

The prospective employer, consumer or customer you're trying to reach doesn't care about any of that. They want to know what you are going to do for them. They care about the benefits for them not about your features.

In football terms, flameout quarterback Ryan Leaf, selected second overall in the 1998 NFL draft, had the size, great arm, and all the physical tools (Features) to be a top QB. Tom Brady, a skinny kid out of Michigan who was a backup for most of his college career, was taken 199th overall in the sixth round of the 2000 draft, 199th overall. Brady's gone on to throw 334 touchdowns and counting. That's 320 more than Leaf so far. (Benefits)

A second reason you tend to see features instead of benefits is that it's difficult to write about how something affects the other person. Our first inclination is inward. To step out of our own skin and look at things from the other person's point of view takes discipline and imagination. It's hard but essential if we hope to get our message across to our target audience.

In my earlier post on Chevrolet's new tag line I wrote about how how Chevy shifted from a features slogan (Chevy Runs Deep) to one highlighting benefits (Find New Roads). The shift was from "we've been around a long time" to "we can help you discover new things."

There are other examples over the years of companies changing from a feature based slogan to one based on benefits. Budweiser shifted from "The King of Beers" (we're the best!) to "This Bud's for you!" (we brewed it for you). Coca Cola went from "Coke is it!" (we're great!) to "Enjoy a Coke" (you'll like it). Delta Airlines has morphed from "Fly the Best with Delta" (Us, us, us!) to "You'll love the way we fly" (you, you you!).

It's a simple concept but one which good content creators should never forget.

What does your marketing material look like? Are you highlighting Benefits or talking about Features?

Creating Content for the Technology Market: 5 Key Points

As we all know by now, content continues to be a crucial element in all marketing programs. But according to a recent survey, there are some key differences when reaching out to B2C and B2B customers. Technology Marketers need to consider these differences when formulating their content marketing plans. An overriding conclusion of Eccolo Media's 2012 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report is that technology customers "require vast amounts of compelling and useful content in order to engage with a vendor." The report goes on to say that "content marketing is now a recognized and adopted strategy to engage buyers and build trust within one's market segment. Consumers are driving the demand for high quality, relevant, and useful content."

Here are five takeaways from the survey of C-level executives, vice presidents, directors, managers, developers/programmers, and technicians at US-based companies

1. Match the right content to the right market

The report points out that technology marketers need to consider two very different markets when developing their content marketing plan - the large enterprise customers and the small/mid market (SMB) businesses. It's especially important to differentiate between those markets for two specific reasons. First , according to an IDC Customer Engagement Study, the SMB market is a $460 billion business growing at 7% per year. Second, and more importantly, the content that drives decision-making in the two markets is very different.

The survey discovered that SMB customers consume far less of each type of content than large Enterprise customers. For example, 72% of Enterprise customers read a white paper while only 31% of SMB customers consulted one. Thirty-one percent of SMB clients reported that they consumed no collateral material at all compared to only 9% of Enterprise customers.

The report suggests this is caused by marketers not developing content - white papers, case studies, eBooks - specifically for the SMB customer. Instead they are "reskinning" content written for Enterprise customers and the SMB prospect finds that irrelevant to his or her very different requirements. The survey concluded that marketers need to stop such repurposing and ensure that "content and collateral assets deployed to small businesses are written with this unique audience in mind."

2. Use mix of traditional and new content vehicles

While it's important for technology marketers to take advantage of the newer marketing channels, the survey showed that technology buyers still gravitate toward the more traditional content. Product brochures/data sheets (61%) and white papers (55%) topped the list of most consumed content followed by technology guides (47%). Newer vehicles like webinars (41%), blogs/social content (38%), ebooks (36%) and infographics (31%) were used much less.

When it comes to influencing the buying decision, white papers were picked as the clear number one choice with 46% calling them the most influential. Case studies (29%) and podcasts/audio files (25%) came in second and third followed by webinars (20%), and blogs and video( 18%). Ebooks and infographics trailed behind.

3. Maintain a strong website

When asked on what channel they receive their content, 37% of the respondents cited personal contact, the highest of any method. Second most was downloading information from a web site, named by 34%. Those two topped the list again when it came to influencing the buying decision, but the gap was much closer. Thirty percent ranked personal contact as most influential, while 29% said they were most influenced by information from a company's web site.

The report concluded that, "frequently used and perceived as very influential, a corporate Web site that is carefully planned, refreshed regularly, and leveraged as a channel to engage with prospects remains a vital strategy to build customer loyalty and increase revenues."

4. Ramp up social media

Although traditional content vehicles still lead the way, the report shows that social media will continue to be an influencer in technology buyers' decision making process. Facebook was named by 43% of respondents as having assisted them in a technology purchasing process. LinkedIn (29%) and YouTube (28%) also ranked highly. Overall, 77% of respondents said that simply having social media buttons increased the influence of written content.

"While the novelty of social sharing is less pronounced than last year," the report concluded, "it is clear that social media channels are becoming an important way to engage customers."

5. Focus on desktop vs mobile

This startling revelation seems to fly in the face of all current trends, but the survey clearly shows that technology customers gather most of their content on their desktops as opposed to their mobile devices. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported that they frequently consume vendor content on a desktop. Printed materials (10%) and tablet devices (9%) were a distant second and third. Only 6% reported reviewing content on a smart phone.

So while some enterprise customers do use mobile and tablet to gather information, the report concluded that technology marketers should "consider the type of content that you can deliver via this method and who your audience is before allocating valuable budget to custom applications."

What type of content are you using to attract technology buyers? What vehicle is most effective in driving leads and sales?

3 Reasons Businesses are Flocking to Inbound Marketing

I was recently talking to a small business owner about how to drive more prospects to her site. "Are you doing any Inbound Marketing?" I asked.

(Sound of crickets accompanied by deer-in-headlights look.)

"What exactly is that?" she finally responded.

Those of us in the marketing world know by now the difference between Inbound and Outbound Marketing, but there are still many business leaders who do not.

Hubspot defines Inbound Marketing as a "set of marketing strategies and techniques focusing on pulling relevant prospects and customers toward a business and its products." Think blogs, white papers, case studies, SEO and social media. These are tools used to "pull" customers to your business.

Outbound Marketing - or Traditional Marketing - focuses on sending company messages and advertising at consumers. Think trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. These techniques are designed to "push" the business at your customers.

In the battle for marketing budget dollars, Inbound Marketing is clearly "pulling" away. Businesses that know the difference are flocking in droves to the Inbound Marketing side.

There are three main reasons why according to Hubspot's 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report.

1. Inbound Marketing is more cost effective.

According to the report, which surveyed 972 professional marketers, the average cost of an Inbound Marketing lead was $135 - almost a third of the cost of an Outbound Marketing lead which was $346.

2. Inbound Marketing generates better leads

Leads from Inbound Marketing  - blogs, whitepapers, SEO - are five times more likely to close than leads garnered through traditional marketing tools. Only about 2% of Outbound Marketing collected leads actually close.

3. Inbound Marketing lands customers

62% of the survey respondents reported they acquired a new customer through LinkedIn. 57% credited their blog. 52% said Facebook and 44% said Twitter.

In the last six months, more than a third of the respondents rated Inbound Marketing as "more important" while a third ranked Outbound Marketing as "less important." That is blatantly reflected in their spending as 89% of respondents say they increased their Inbound Marketing budget last year.

What are you doing with your marketing strategy? Are you "pushing" or "pulling?

5 Reasons Why White Papers Work...For Your Prospects

It's not a news flash that communication vehicles are exploding all around us. Blogs. Twitter. Pinterest. Facebook. LinkedIn. Infographics. Podcasts. Video. eBooks. Webinars.

They're all great and should be part of a comprehensive Content Marketing strategy. But don't forget old faithful: White Papers.

Why?

Because they still work.

Everyone knows by now why White Papers need to be a key component of your CM plan - they set you up as an authority; they drive traffic to your web site; they generate leads.

That's why they work for YOU. But what makes White Papers so compelling to YOUR PROSPECTS that allows all that other good stuff to happen?

Here are five reasons why your customers and prospects still rely on well-written, thoroughly researched White Papers.

1. They establish a solid starting point

Let's face it. The demands on your prospects' time are increasing. Competing deadlines are the rule, not the exception. When a manager or executive faces a buying decision - whether for a product or a service - his or her to-do list just got longer. There is an abundance of data out there, but how can it be culled down to relevant information. That is what your White Paper can do. According to the 2012 Eccolo B2B Technology Collateral Survey, 59% of tech buyers found White Papers to be the most helpful tool in the initial sales phase. That's more than twice the second most used vehicle. After Data Sheets and Brochures, White Papers were the third most consumed collateral.

2. They are NOT advertisements

Or they'd better not be. When your customers are in the investigative phase of their buying process, they don't want to slog through gobs of marketing salespeak. They want facts, ideas and solutions. When done properly, a White Paper provides those things and becomes a critical document during a buyer's due diligence process. That's why it must be an objective document. Nothing will destroy the credibility of your White Paper - and get it tossed into the trash - faster than making it a thinly veiled infomercial. It needs to be interesting and well written but it can't be an expanded sales pitch.

3. They consolidate useful information

Business people today are being inundated with information from many outlets. A focused White Paper can filter the "noise" and provide the reader with the targeted information they want and need. The key to achieving that is to ensure that the piece is relevant to your audience. It has to address one of their problems and provide insight into solutions through use of the right product or service. Once they have that information, they will share it with other members of their teams. According to a report by Information Week Business Technology, 93% of IT buyers pass along nearly half of the White Papers they read.

4. They save time

Done right, the White Paper becomes a valuable tool for a decision maker. Yes, they could google the day away and come up with much of the same information. However by presenting a clear, well researched White Paper, you have just saved your customer or prospect a valuable asset - time. That's one of the reasons that usage of White Papers increased by 19% in 2012 according to the 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report put out by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs. Busy buyers always appreciate saving time.

5. They help drive decisions

Finally, White Papers still help make buying decisions. 55% of tech buyers have used a White Paper in the last six months and 57% found them to be "moderately to extremely influential" in the buying decision. It is a critical and sometimes determining factor for your prospect in ultimately deciding how they will proceed.

White Papers may not have the same sizzle as some of the newer communication tools, but clearly they still get the job done - for you and for your prospects.

What do you think? Does your organization use White Papers? Do your competitors?