B2B Marketing to Men vs. Women

Is it politically correct to talk about the differences in B2B marketing to men vs. women? Maybe not, but working with a new client this past week revealed a bit of the reality related to that issue.

It all started with the client implementing the proven, accepted best practice in direct marketing that involves including an offer tied to an expiration date or deadline.

The purpose of employing this tactic is to overcome natural human inertia. Here’s how it works.

A prospect, customer or member receives a direct marketing email, direct mail piece, or even sees an eye-catching Google™ Search Engine Marketing Ad. But because of today’s over-the-top workloads and time demands, these folks put off responding to the message by thinking, “This looks interesting. I’ll do it later.”

The offer is the device that stops that thought and says, “You must respond now or this inviting ‘extra bonus’ will go away.”

Making an offer to generate quick action is effective with both businessmen and businesswomen. The difference lies in which offers work with men and which are attractive to women.

Trying to get a selected target to participate in an Industry Trend survey, marketers are safe with something like, “The first 200 to complete the survey receive an Amazon.com gift card.” This allows respondents to choose the gift that appeals to each one personally — regardless of gender.

My client, a business products company whose market is 75% female, was using an offer to try to increase the size of each purchase. They tested two offers:

• Order $200 or more and get free shipping

vs.

• Order $200 or more and receive a certificate for a Free Box of Name-Brand Chocolates

The men responded to the free shipping. The women chose the reverse — in overwhelming numbers.

What this tells B2B marketers is that, when building in-house prospecting lists or even populating a CRM program, it’s important to include a field for gender. That’s because there may be times in the marketing process when knowing the gender of your prospects could make a huge difference in the response to your campaigns.

What B2B marketers can learn from TV ads.

There are actually a few people out there who do not have a single television set in their home. I have a lot of admiration for these people. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. I do my part as a viewer of American television.

These days, with the advent of personal video recorders (PVRs), a growing number of TV viewers like me are fast forwarding through the commercials in the shows we’ve taped. But, once in a while, I do catch a live broadcast and get a bit caught up on what Madison Avenue has been up to.

I am actually very critical of 90% of the ads I see on television, but last night I saw a truly great ad.

The live-action story portrays a father leaning into the passenger side window of an automobile. He is giving last-minute good-driving reminders to his daughter who is in the driver’s seat. The daughter is a small child. In spite of not being tall enough to see out the window, she seems anxious to get the conversation over with so she can get going. After assuring her father that she will follow his instructions, he hands her the car keys. At that point, of course, the camera moves again to the daughter and you see that she’s a teenager of driving age. It’s then you learn that the car is a Subaru.

What does this beautifully done ad communicate? It says that fathers always see their daughters as little girls and that Subaru is a car fathers can trust to be safe enough for their daughters.

It’s what advertising should be, and it illustrates a good lesson for B2B marketers. That is, it illustrates the most important factor in B2B marketing programs, strategies and messaging:

Always see the environment and the product being sold through the customer’s eyes. It’s the only point of view that makes it possible to truly connect with them.

B2B Marketers — Don’t Go Out Without Your Makeup.

It was 1995 when Newsweek had Bruce Willis on its cover in a t-shirt and jeans with a headline that read “Have We Become a Nation of Slobs?” We dressed pretty casually back then, but these days it’s a miracle if folks aren’t going to work in their pajamas on casual Fridays.

It’s a bit different in B2B marketing, especially for companies selling larger ticket items. When a B2B marketer shows the company’s “face” to prospects, that company needs to be wearing all the proper clothing and makeup.

This sounds like I’m talking about branding, but the brand is only one element of what prospective customers see when they are ready to make contact. Here are the other two critical foundations that must be in place before ANY other marketing is undertaken:

1.  Build a Web site that, in addition to supporting the brand, is a strong sales tool.

Here are the basic items that must be included:

• Strong story that quickly and clearly communicates what the company offers, who the product is meant for and the main benefits the product(s) delivers
• Opportunities for visitors to interact with the site, such as white paper downloads (both free and those requiring registration), a strong opt-in invitation, possibly an ROI calculator, videos and other similar interactive devices.
• Multiple contact options, including a “Please contact me” form, phone number, email address and, yes, even a fax.
• Navigation that lets visitors quickly and easily find the information they need.

Many prospects who are directed to Web site landing pages — whether in response to SEM ads, emails, direct mail or other communications — may still choose to visit the company’s Web site before accepting an offer. So the Web site must “sell.”

2.  Make sure inbound callers can easily reach a human being.

There are still prospects out there who prefer to pick up the phone and call a company for information. Providing an easy option for them to call and speak with a sales person or operator (who can direct the call) ensures that companies don’t miss easy opportunities for personal interaction with their prospects.

Without the proper makeup, B2B marketing efforts — regardless of the channel — cannot be as effective as they should be.

B2B marketers must tell their CEOs to stop playing golf.

Today’s smart B2B marketers develop strategic, integrated marketing plans that make strong offers to targeted markets using the right channels, the right messaging and the right design. They track results, then adjust campaigns to grow and maximize those results.

These plans are carefully crafted and incorporate the latest in B2B marketing best practices. These marketers are proud of their diligent work and begin to execute the programs based on their plan.

Then their CEO goes golfing.

The very next day, that CEO walks into the marketer’s office requesting changes to the campaigns based on the great advice gotten from a peer on the golf course. Advice like:

• “When I run political campaigns, here’s what I do.”
• “How come you’re not doing this?”
• “You should do what this consultant told us to do.”

If there’s a B2B marketer out there who has never experienced this, my congratulations. For the rest of us, we must resort to the only approach we can use to educate the misguided CEO we dare not insult.

• Be ready to defend each strategy based on best practices supported by third-party sources.
• Show what market leaders in their industry are doing.
• Show what has been tested in the past that supports the current recommendations.
• Offer to test the CEO’s wacky ideas (in a small test panel to minimize the damage).
• Remind the CEO that all of the strategies are based on acceptable cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale numbers.
• Show the CEO the negative financial impact of using his or her ideas, if unsuccessful.

This problem is not confined to golfing buddies. Influential, but bad, advice can come from spouses, neighbors, college chums and a full assortment of people who have access to the CEO’s ear but know nothing about B2B marketing.

So be prepared to correct this bad advice at any time. After all, telling the CEO to stop golfing is a lot harder to do.

Bad thoughts that block B2B marketing success.

Blogs are mostly written from the experience of the individual blogger. This post is no exception — it came to mind when I heard a prospective client repeat one of the following statements, which I had already heard dozens of times. It occurred to me then that it might be time to share this list of bad thoughts so that other B2B marketers might see the possible error of their ways.

“Our target is IT. They won’t respond to direct mail marketing. They do everything online.”
Tell that to SAP, Citrix, VeriSign, Novell, Sage, Epicor, Cisco Systems, Adobe, PeopleSoft, Avaya, Proxima, McAfee, Corel, Broderbund, BEA, Symantec and hundreds of others. All of these companies have used — and continue to use — direct mail marketing to reach their target markets, including IT, because it cost-effectively generates leads and sales.

“I’m reaching everyone I need to reach with email.”
Frankly, that’s impossible. The very best B2B email lists available today are lists of subscribers to specific industry publications. These lists usually require their subscribers to fill out a profile form to get and renew their subscriptions. With lists like this these, marketers know that they are getting full opt-in. These lists also allow marketers to select titles and other profile details on their prospects. Comparing email lists to direct mail lists in the same category, however, consistently reveals that email lists average only 30% of the target universe available from direct mail lists. B2B marketing only using email is, therefore, missing two-thirds of available prospects. With the delivery loss from spam filters, the missing number is likely to be even larger.

“Social media is the only way to go today.”
Yikes! Social media has great value as an extension of any lead generation and nurturing effort. It is also a powerful support for positioning a company as a trusted thought leader. But no single channel can ever deliver all the elements necessary for an effective B2B marketing program.

“We tried that and it didn’t work.”
Regardless of what the “it” refers to, my response is, “Give me the details. Tell me the target, the Web site, the response device, the list, the sample size, the copy, the offer, the design, the tracking, and the measurement used.” Once I hear the answers, I’m likely to find not just one, but dozens of bad marketing practices used in the campaign.

Not every channel works or is a smart approach for every business. But trying an approach once, without following best practices, should never be a reason for a marketer to eliminate that channel from a strategic integrated B2B marketing campaign.

The best tool a B2B marketer can have when building a strategy and seeking success is this — an open mind.

B2B Marketing Tip of the Day: Stop asking questions.

All great sales people will tell you that asking the right questions is one of the most important elements in qualifying and pitching prospective customers.

• Never ask, “Would you like to have a personal demonstration of the product?”
• Instead, ask, “When would be the best time for you to get a personal demonstration of the product?”

The rule is to never ask questions that can be answered with the word “no.”

Unfortunately, many B2B marketers are unaware of this rule. Worse, I regularly see email or direct mail messages opening with a yes/no question, a practice that basically puts an end to the conversation before it even begins. Here is a classic example:

• Have you ever wondered how else you could sell, buy or market your products and services?

Rather than possibly generate a “no” answer, this opening sentence can easily be turned from a question into the promise of a benefit with something like:

• Finding ways to boost revenue and profits for your business is always a challenge. Many leading businesses today have met this challenge by discovering a new way to sell, buy or market their products and services.

Today’s tip for B2B marketers: Learn from great sales people. Never ask a question in marketing messages that can be answered by “no.” To be safe, stop asking questions.

Four Rules for Communicating with the “Crazy-Busy Prospect”

The title of a recent blog post by Brian Carroll, “Learn the New Rules for Selling to Crazy-Busy Prospects,” got my attention.

In this post he invites his readers to a complimentary Webinar on Thursday, June 24 at 2:00 PM CST (that’s tomorrow) featuring Jill Konrath, author of “SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales and Win More Business with Today’s Frazzled Customers (May 2010).” I’m sure it will be a valuable and informative event.

The focus of Brian’s blog and expertise which he shares on B2B Lead Generation is B2B selling and the complex sale. It’s an important topic.

But the title of his post hit me for a different area of marketing.

For marketing to generate a lead — or nurture one — we need to “communicate” with prospects in writing. Whether it’s an email, a direct mail letter, a product brochure, Web site, data sheet or any other communication, we must remember that the folks reading our B2B communication are crazy-busy.

How do we communicate in writing with these folks? I follow these four tried-and-true rules:

1. Make sure the reader/prospect gets the entire message by reading only the headlines and subheads, without having to read a word of body copy. A quick scan of the message should communicate the topic, big benefit(s) and the call to action.

2. Never write any paragraph, anywhere, that is longer than four lines.

3. Communicate the message as quickly as possible. The crazy-busy don’t have time to read, and if the message looks long and wordy, they’ll stop reading it and move on. Email marketing messages should be 250 words or shorter. Direct mail letters should fit on one page.

4. Always include a strong, clear prominent call to action. All communication, including Web pages, must tell the reader/prospect exactly what they are to do and when they are to do it. Yes, adding the words “now” or “today” makes a difference.

The crazy-busy don’t have time to wade through complex messaging. To reach this group, marketers should always keep B2B communications short, clear and direct.

To increase B2B marketing response, increase response options.

Many of the best practices I promote for use in email nurturing campaigns, on Web sites, and in offer content come from my direct mail marketing experience. One such practice has been proven effective over and over and over — including a mail-back reply device.

In a direct mail marketing communication, 20% of the replies ALWAYS come from the reply device if there is one. This is true even if the mailing is going to titles that spend their lives online such as CIOs and other top IT management.

Why does this work? Because every person likes to do things their own way. By giving prospects more ways to respond, marketers increase the chances that people will find the response avenue that meets their personal style.

What does this mean to B2B marketers?

Marketers conducting lead generation or nurturing campaigns by offering free informational content should include their phone number and an email address to give the prospect the option to interact with the company making the offer. This is important because prospects that are already researching solutions and are further along in the buying cycle may have other questions and may want to engage with someone at the same time the offer is accepted. That’s why phone numbers and email addresses must be prominent on Web sites, in Webinar invites, on trade show booth invites and all other marketing communications.

Many marketers may respond that the prospect can just go to the Web site to find the contact info. But why make it MORE difficult for a prospective customer to respond?

Putting phone numbers and email addresses on sites that mass market — or on many types of e-commerce sites — may not make sense. But for businesses selling complex, high-ticket items with a long buying cycle, it is a necessity if those businesses want to increase response to their marketing.

Is there any B2B marketing subject of interest today besides social media?

There is a discussion on LinkedIn in the Technology Marketing Community about email subject lines. An especially insightful comment from David Isaac was posted yesterday and reads as follows:

“As content manager at IDG Connect, I wrote more subject lines than I care to think about, and we often tested subject lines. The differences were negligible in most cases. What really seemed to matter when it came to subject lines was the subject. Our subscribers responded to what was important to them. Our ability to dramatically increase numbers with a great subject line was limited.

That said, people did respond more to fresh content. So subject line a) New 2010 Security Report Unveils Latest Trends would do better than, say b) Security Report Unveils Trends.”

His use of the term “fresh content” somewhat clarified why close to 95% of the marketing-publication content to which I subscribe (MarketingProfs, Marketing Sherpa, eMarketer Daily, BtoB, eMarketing & Commerce [eM+C], Media Post Email Insider, Target Marketing) run lead stories, Webcasts and other info almost exclusively focused on social media.

Social media is the “fresh content” hot topic and likely attracts many readers because it’s new. But does this focus truly reflect the time and effort that B2B marketers are spending on social media?

I think not. In fact, I think social media should take no more than 5% of marketing time and budget. There are thousands out there who will argue with this figure. But for most B2B marketers, filling the pipeline with qualified leads using outbound email, direct mail, telemarketing and live events gives them the control they need to generate a predictable number of leads from each B2B marketing effort. Social media marketing cannot do this.

20 years of marketing know-how summarized in 3 words

Some of us in marketing still attend live ” yes, live” presentations in spite of the glut of informational Webinars we can watch from our offices with no expense and no travel time. But my outing last week to the San Diego Direct Marketing Association’s luncheon was well worth both.

The presenter was Douglas Walker, author of “A-ha! PERFORMANCE: Building & Managing A Self-Motivated Workforce.” He is a speaker, trainer, executive coach and human capital management consultant, so his focus is human nature and workforce motivation, not marketing.

Yet, he was able to put the elements necessary for successful B2B marketing (and sales) into just 3 simple words “clarity, attainability and payoff.”

Here’s what these words mean to B2B marketers:

Clarity: Quickly and clearly communicate what you are offering and how to get it.
Example: Click here to register for the 3-hour Executive Briefing on March 3, 2010

Attainability: Communicate what is needed to get it “time, money, effort, etc.
Example: Complimentary, just 3 hours of your time.

Payoff: Communicate what attendees will get by asking for it.
Example: Learn how to make your operation more flexible, agile and competitive.

These 3 points are also what is involved in converting leads to sales. Buyers must know what they are getting, that they can afford it, that it can be implemented in their operation, and what they will gain by using the product or service.

The information is not new, but it’s always a bit startling to have the essence of one’s field described so accurately, yet so simply.

Marketers, whether new to the field or old-timers, should make sure that if we do nothing else, we remember these 3 words: clarity, attainability and payoff.