Are You A Marketer or a Mind-Reader? How to Know What Your B2B Buyer is Really Thinking

Transcription

1 Are You A Marketer or a Mind-Reader? How to Know What Your B2B Buyer is Really Thinking Andrew Moravick Research Analyst Aberdeen Matthew T. Grant Director, Content Strategy Aberdeen 1 Andrew Moravick Research Analyst, Aberdeen Group Marketing and Sales Effectiveness Recent Research: Understanding Best-in-Class CRM Usage for Marketing Demystifying Complex, Multi-Channel Sales Data Mainer 2 1

2 Matthew T. Grant Director, Aberdeen Group Content Strategy Aberdeen Essentials Editor-in-Chief MarketingProfs Alum Likes words and music 3 What s on Your Mind? 4 2

3 What We re Going to Cover Why you want to know what your buyer is thinking How marketers usually try to figure this out Some better ways 5 6 3

4 We Want to Control Influence Buyers 7 What s the Standard Approach? 8 4

5 We Map the Buyer s Journey Business as Usual Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey The Buyer s World The Vendor s World 9 We Imagine it Looks Like This Business as Usual Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey The Buyer s World The Vendor s World 10 5

6 We Want Our Influence to Look Like This Business as Usual Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey The Buyer s World The Vendor s World 11 We Create Content to Fit the Journey The Buyer s World There s a better way? How do we make it happen? What s the best option? Can we get promoted now? The Vendor s World Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey 12 6

7 Behind Our Map, Our Objectives The Buyer s World There s a better way? How do we make it happen? What s the best option? Can we get promoted now? The Marketer s World Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey The Business Leads Opportunities Sales Wins Retention 13 This Approach Yields Real Results 14 7

8 Better Marketing Performance 15 Better Business Performance 16 8

9 Lower Cost-per-Lead 17 But This Approach Has Real Problems 18 9

10 The REAL Buyer s Journey Business as Usual The Buyer s World Oh, S#%t!! What the &#%^ do we do?! What the &#%^ SHOULD we do?! Can we stop freaking out now? The Vendor s World Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey 19 Signals Get Crossed Business as Usual Awareness of Problem Consideration of Options Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey The Buyer s World The Vendor s World 20 10

11 What Goes Wrong? 21 Our Assumptions Get in the Way [Sadly not #ProfsB2B] 22 11

12 Our Assumptions Get in the Way 23 Ask Yourself: Why Are We Mapping the Buyer s Journey? Experience There s a better way? How do we make it happen? What s the best option? Can we get promoted now? Explanation [Assumed] Awareness of Problem [Assumed] Consideration of Options [Assumed] Evaluation of Solutions The Customer Journey Metrics [Uncertain connection to] Leads [Uncertain connection to] Opportunities [Uncertain connection to] Sales Wins Retention 24 12

13 How Can We Really Know What Buyers Are Thinking? 25 We Have Three Options 26 13

14 Option #1 27 Ask Them 28 14

15 46% of all marketers don t interact with customers directly 29 77% of all Leading Content Marketers interact with customers directly 30 15

16 Three Approaches Talk to Sales 32 16

17 Salesfolk Have Insights 1. What questions are customers asking? 2. What are the problems they are talking about? 3. What drives decisions? 33 Is Your Content Answering the Right Questions? 34 17

18 2. Talk to Customers Yourself 1. Identify target customers 2. Draw up your list of questions 3. Make sure you have cleared things with sales 4. Make your calls (or visit if you can) 35 Where Does It Hurt? 36 18

19 Just observe someone while they are doing something Hire Someone to Talk to Customers for You 38 19

20 You Have to Know What You Want to Know 1. How do customers normally meet a particular need? 2. Why do potential customers choose competitors? 3. What do customers think when they hear your message? 39 Option #

21 Use Data 41 Use Your Own Data Data Nada 42 21

22 Are There Patterns to Customer Behavior? 1. Is there a piece of content that EVERYONE touches? 2. Is there content that gets ignored? 3. What searches lead them to your site? 4. What are people searching for on your site? 43 Create a Unified View of the Customer 44 22

23 Create a Unified View of the Customer 45 Find Data Partners 46 23

24 Complete the Data Picture 47 Option #

25 Write Their Minds 49 Example: Responsive Web Design 50 25

26 Example: Marketing Technology 51 Example: Buyer Personas 52 26

27 Example: Buyer Personas 53 Final Thoughts 54 27

28 Writing Minds and Stages of Content Alignment Data Nada A foundational framework for what s going on 55 Writing Minds and Stages of Content Alignment Data Nada Static/ general constructs to improve scalable relevance 56 28

29 Writing Minds and Stages of Content Alignment Data Nada The aspiration of many; the achievement of a strong few 57 Things to Do If you are going to map the buyer s journey, understand WHY If you REALLY want to know what buyers are thinking, choose a method (or methods) and find out When you discover that your content and message ARE NOT ALIGNED with what buyers are thinking, make some changes Ask yourself: If we could write our customers minds, what would we write? 58 29

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