An interesting storytelling project I am working on currently involves a very innovative start up company that has invented a completely new way of managing power on a yacht. In essence the brief is very simple, but the solution requires a great deal of thought. When the company founders talk about what they offer, people tend to scratch their heads and walk away confused. So they want me to help them to communicate their brand value proposition in a way that’s easy to understand and instantly appealing to their target audience.
What’s common in these situations is for the inventors, who are invariably very technical, to think in abstract technical terms when describing their product. The message then becomes very impersonal and rather dull. Yet the reality of what they do couldn’t be further from that perception. They’re actually in the business of fun making, because they allow boat owners to take their lives with them onboard, giving them access to all the comforts you expect to have on land when at sea? This needs to come across in their brand messaging and content.
This is a copy of my recent article ‘A giant leap’, outlining some of the key considerations for accountancy firms wishing to embark on or improve their digital marketing. It was originally published in Taxation magazine and if you have a subscription, you can read the original here. For those who don’t you can enjoy it in full below. (more…)
I went to a couple of the DMA’s #writerscrawl events last week and one in particular made me think. It was the ‘Words are Experience’ workshop by Lab Digital on the use of NLP (neuro linguistic programming) techniques in copywriting and the impact this can have on response rates. Funnily enough, it coincided with the Oxford Dictionary announcing that the term ‘post truth’ was a defining phrase of our current times. Post truth being the use of emotional language – particularly by politicians – to gain influence, as opposed to simply offering a rational argument. Based on the outcome of the workshop, this idea is too one sided. To be really effective and convincing, copy needs to take the reader on a cycle combining emotional, rational and subconscious arguments.
There were three things of particular note arising from the DMA session, which provide useful tips for anyone wanting to make their marketing copy more effective.
- A quick and effective method for proposition sanity testing
During proposition development, where resources and time are limited, it’s very helpful to test a marketing pitch on unconnected friends and colleagues, giving them a brief overview of the basic premise. Their role is to very quickly note down any unanswered questions they have, to be reviewed afterwards. It’s a very revealing and efficient exercise. No matter how thorough you think your pitch was in conveying your proposition and answering questions, there will be things you hadn’t thought of. It’s a very quick and effective way to initially road test an idea before committing to focus groups or surveys.
- Audience predisposition to different language styles
An important goal of much B2B content marketing is education, using thought leadership articles and white papers. As writers we understand the importance of adopting a style and language to appeal to our audience. Taking a psychological approach, this goes beyond using simple tone of voice branding guidelines when creating such pieces. Just as we all have different learning preferences – some people are predominantly auditory, visual, or kinaesthetic – we have preferences to different types of language. Some people will react more positively to visual language for example, using words like brilliant, clear or bright, vs kinaesthetic, movement orientated words – like get, enjoy or connect. Since it’s impossible to know in advance the language a reader will prefer, it’s important for writers to be aware of these tendencies and accommodate the diversity among audiences with variety in their content.
- Understanding how an audience filters information
There are three primary ways a reader of content will filter the information they are presented with, relying on a combination of contextual or subconscious information, rational facts and emotional arguments. Giving a marketing proposition or story a psychological grounding takes the reader through all these phases and helps to make it more convincing. The process can be broken down into discrete stages. Firstly in Stage 1 we have the contextual phase, the ‘how could you get a better outcome from your current circumstances’, ‘would you like to get better value’ questions, designed to elicit a ‘yes’ response. This is followed in Stage 2 by the explicit offer being made… “well now you can, with XYZ…” Stage 3 explains how this is achieved, detailing 2 or 3 emotional factors, concluded in Stage 4, with a final, future focussed declaration of the benefits with a call to action.
Given the level of ‘noise’ that most B2B marketing content and copywriters face, any practical tactics that can easily be employed to increase the impact of content, either making it more persuasive, or more likely to elicit a reaction, are well worth trying out.
I offer a wide range of content writing services, please do get in touch if you would like to outsource B2B copywriting to an expert.
Just as a dressmaker wears the worst clothes and builders’ houses are always in a state of disrepair, the same has to true of the marketing and PR industry. As a freelance PR consultant juggling running a business with 2 young children, I rarely have much time to devote to my own blog or website. I’m always too busy helping clients to develop their own content for blogs and PR activities.
A recent Google Analytics report showed the clear benefits of blogging and the importance of keeping your blog well stocked with interesting and topical content. That is the essence of good content marketing and the main source of web traffic, or inbound leads if your goal is lead generation. I’ve been managing a blog on behalf of one of my clients for almost 7 years now, we were one of the earliest examples of an industry blog for their sector and the model has since been emulated by many other firms. However, they still retain the early mover advantage because long tail search enquiries, generated as a result of such a wide range of relevant content within the blog, always pinpoint their site. Type in a key phrase and they are typically top of the rankings, primarily because of the volume of relevant blog content they’ve amassed over the years.
What did the traffic report highlight about blogging and the power of content marketing? Of the 105 landing pages accessed by website visitors over a 3 month period, 66% of hits were to blog pages. Topical, free information was a major draw of enquiries to the client and they have seen a noticeable spike in the volume of telephone enquiries they receive, directly as a result of their blog posts. During meetings they estimate getting at least 3 calls each month as a result of a prospective client reading one of their blogs and wanting more information. If you are running a B2B company – a consulting firm, software developer or systems integrator, a professional services firm or a manufacturer and you had the opportunity to get three inbound sales enquiries as a result of investing in a professional writer to manage your blog, would that represent a good return on investment? Probably the answer is yes, especially when you consider the opportunity cost of doing it yourself.
So, what’s the moral here. Well, for those who are not investing in their blog, or who are dubious about its value, it is time to take action. Content marketing is the way forward. Your company presumably has considerable expertise in its field (or you would not be in business for long). Use this knowledge and start to share it. Post interesting and informative blogs at least twice a month and share them on social media. Share extracts with your clients to maintain regular contact with them and watch the enquiries roll in. If you have something interesting to say, which is relevant to your target audience, blog about it and prospects WILL find you. And the moral for me, is to make more time to practice what I preach, regardless of how busy I might be helping my own clients to develop their own content!
Learn more about my content creation services.
This blog in Marketing Week by Mark Ritson on content marketing caught my attention today because aside from the funny headline, the author makes some very valid points. He argues that whenever he looks at content marketing in any depth, he emerges feeling very old and cynical as there’s no substance to it as a discipline.
To a large extent he’s right, it is the latest big buzzword but we mustn’t get too caught up by the terminology. His observations are valid and they emphasise that the vast majority of content out there is what my lecturers at the IDM described as U-TOPIC (i.e. irrelevant because it’s just puff about the company no-body wants to read) and USELESS. However, there is also lot of really good content out there – I use it all the time for my work and in my daily life. A good example are all the fantastic yoga bloggers on YouTube. Thanks to their content marketing, it is possible to develop an amazing knowledge of postures and all round fitness without ever attending a local class.
Marketers and pr specialists need to put more emphasis on developing content that is USEFUL and ideally, facilitate opportunities for creating content that is USER GENERATED. Focus on this rather than get sucked into a hamster wheel of churning out large volumes of material that no-one is ever going to notice, let alone become engaged by. Blogs some of my clients publish in their newsletters are good examples. By sharing information for free online, they get a steady stream of inbound enquiries each month.
And as Mark highlights, content marketing is nothing new, especially in B2B industries. Neither is thought leadership marketing for that matter. It used to be called issues based PR and it’s really all to do with building trust in a brand. In seeking to educate and inform, a brand can potentially go beyond simply disseminating overtly promotional information and in doing so, can try to win the trust of consumers. Over time, they come to associate the brand with valuable information and so they are a natural consideration when drawing up a supplier shortlist.
So let’s not be sidetracked with terminology or buzz and just focus on the important bit, the audience, and being useful and helpful. If you question how to do that first and foremost, the content marketing strategy will fall into place very nicely.
Find out more about my content marketing and pr services for B2B clients in this case study.
As a B2B PR specialist most of the work I now do with clients is online, with many different specialist publications aimed at decision makers in each field. Due to the pressures facing journalists of maintaining a 24 hour news and information culture, by-lined articles have become one of the most important B2B PR tactics, (more…)
As a quick follow up to my earlier blog with tips on how to write a good thought leadership pr article, I received the very pleasing news that one of these articles, which was published in the Industrial and Commercial Training Journal, has been awarded a Highly Commended by the publishers.
This serves as a great illustration of how effectively a PR specialist can work alongside a client to produce high quality thought leadership content for marketing purposes. This piece was the result of a series of interviews with different members of the client’s management team, plus my own research to identify a way to combine their message with an academic argument well suited to a management journal.
You can read the final article – “Discussing three models of client:consultant collaboration for effective training interventions – a case study approach” in the Work examples section of the Business PR for 20|20 case study.
Nice to see an end result like that for a client 
Find our more about my thought leadership marketing services.
Last month I got the results of my IDM Digital Marketing Diploma and was delighted to learn that I passed my course with a credit. Having been anxious to have even achieved a basic pass, it was wonderful and very welcome news.
As a freelance consultant working in an industry that is particularly fast moving, investing in continuous learning and development is essential. I’ve always ensured I keep up to date with new trends and am lucky enough to be working with a portfolio of interesting clients who share my mindset.
Find out more about the range of digital marketing and PR services I offer.
Case studies are a stable of B2B digital marketing and they form a key part of any good content marketing strategy. They provide clear evidence of the benefits a particular supplier can offer their customers and yet it’s suprising how many companies fail to make the most of the opportunity they present.
The majority of case studies follow the basic Problem – Solution – Results formula, but fail spectacularly when it comes to the results section. Instead of highlighting clear benefits and returns made, they fail to illustrate exactly what the user achieved.
There are many ways to highlight returns – fewer mistakes made, shorter accounting cycles, ability to launch new products, reducing overtime – the list is endless – yet these details are so often omitted from published case studies.
From experience, this happens when the interviewer fails to probe the end user for results. I’ve been there before, interviewing the customer contact provided by the client and it’s apparent they are either not the bext person to be speaking to, or they gloss over the project and provide vague information. Without probing them and suggesting possible benefits and returns seen, I would have come away empty handed. But in taking the initiative to dig a bit deeper, the customer opens up and shares many other details, all of which create a compelling case study.
In addition to a lack of information, many case studies are too generic, and fail to combine presenting the business case with an interesting story angle. Knowing the topics key media are writing about before writing a case study helps to ensure that the benefits of using ‘ABC solution’ are nicely linked to a topical industry issue. This makes the case study more likely to be of interest to a journalist and ensures it has much greater value as a piece of marketing and sales support content.
Find out more about the content creation services I offer.
Every 4 years, one of the largest trade events for the logistics and supply chain sector, IMHX, takes place at the NEC. It attracts a huge audience from across all aspects of the warehousing, logistics and transportation industries and a large number of trade journalists.
I was at the show working with my client Indigo Software earlier this September and being there highlighted the continuing relevance of trade shows within the purchasing decision making process. This rather contradicts the general consensus among many marketing professionals that as a result of digital marketing, ‘trade shows are dead’. Given the volume of attendees at IMHX together with the level of end user interest received by my clients at the event, that was certainly not the case.
Typically budgets allocated to trade shows and exhibitions have dwindled in recent years as the Internet has overtaken other channels as the primary means of researching B2B suppliers. But although reviewing potential partners online is essential, once a shortlist is in place, there is no substitute for getting out and meeting vendors. Trade shows provide a convenient way to do that and an opportunity to gauge the cultural fit of a would be supplier for an end user organisation. Most technology purchases are long term investment decisions, so ensuring a good match of cultures is essential to the success of the project and an increasingly important criterion in the evaluation process. It’s an obvious consideration but has officially been verified by Gartner clients.
In my mind, there only two real downsides to events such as IMHX – the awful venue that is the NEC and generally poor food choice availability whilst you are there. But I guess you can’t have everything.
Find out more about my event pr services.