Digital Relevance

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Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Bridging the Gap between Training and Business Results Chapter 1 Did They Like It? Chapter 2 Did They Learn Anything?

Chapter 3 Are They Doing Anything Different?

Chapter 4 Did It Impact the Business?

Chapter 5 Was It Worth It? Chapter 6 How Do We Maximize Impact?

Summary Conclusion Case Study 1 Measuring the Impact of Leadership Training Case Study 2 Maximizing the Impact of Leadership Training through Different Delivery Modes Index

vii xi

1 17 27 37 73 103 117 151 161 165 185 199

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Contents

List of Figures

xi

Acknowledgments Introduction

xiii 1

Part 1

Strategy—Building the Foundation

5

Section 1

Relevance—The Frame for Engagement

7

Chapter 1

Irrelevance

13

Chapter 2

Shifting Relevance

19

Chapter 3

Social Relevance

25

Chapter 4

Radical Relevance

33

Section 2

Positioning for Competitive Advantage

37

Chapter 5

Distinct Value Brings Differentiation

41

Chapter 6

Personas: Distinct Value in Application

47

Chapter 7

The Big-Picture Business Perspective

57

Chapter 8

Customer Experience Brings Competitive Advantage

63

Section 3

The Need for a Continuum Approach

69

Chapter 9

A Continuum Fuels Real-Time Relevance

71

Chapter 10

Creating a Continuum Approach

75

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Contents

Chapter 11

Moving from Campaign to Continuum

83

Chapter 12 Get More Value from Investments in Content

89

Section 4

99

Storytelling—Make Your Customer the Hero

Chapter 13 Our Brains on Stories—Why Stories Work

103

Chapter 14

The Strategic Value of Storytelling

109

Chapter 15

Story Structure—8 Elements of Story Design

115

Chapter 16

Contextualization and Channel Integration

121

Part 2

Dynamic Execution—Put Strategy in Play

127

Section 5

Responsiveness—Your Ability to Sync Up

129

Chapter 17

The Reactive State

133

Chapter 18

The Proactive State

139

Chapter 19

The Perceptive State

145

Chapter 20 The Dynamic State

151

Section 6 Chapter 21

Contextual Connections—The Art of Getting Personal

157

Engaging Diverse Audiences

159

Chapter 22 Establishing Digital Relevance Across Channels

167

Chapter 23 Goals—Merging Yours with Theirs

171

Chapter 24 Audience Overlays

177

Chapter 25 Marketing-to-Sales Relationship Architecture

181

Chapter 26 Social Advocacy

187

Section 7

193

Proving Performance—Science, Not Fluff

Chapter 27 Data and Analytics for Business Results

197

Chapter 28 Relevance KPIs

203

Chapter 29 Moving the Needle—Lead Scoring and Progression

211

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ix

Chapter 30 Empowering Sales with Content

219

Conclusion: Relevance—The Continuous Imperative

225

Notes

227

About the Author

233

Index

235

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DIGITAL RELEVANCE

Copyright © Marketing Interactions, Inc. 2015.

All rights reserved.

First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN: 978–1–137–45280–1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Albee, Ardath.

Digital relevance : developing marketing content and strategies that drive results / Ardath Albee. pages cm ISBN 978–1–137–45280–1 (hardback)— ISBN 1–137–45280–3 1. Marketing. 2. Strategic planning. 3. Customer relations.

4. Selling—Computer network resources. I. Title.

HF5415.A374 2015 658.8⬘72—dc23

2014027486

A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.

Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.

First edition: January 2015 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America.

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Introduction

A

few years ago, I spent a lot of time convincing marketers about the value of investing in content marketing. Today, I get calls from marketers saying, “We bought into the idea of content marketing. We’ve created great content. People read it. But it ’s not moving the needle.”

When I go online to take a look to offer feedback and advice, I usually see decent content. What I don’t see is any strategic plan for orchestrating engagement with prospects and customers. I don’t see any attempt at relationship building. Mostly, I see areas for improvement in relevance, context, and connection. This is because companies tend to talk about what they know best—their products. Even when marketers think they’re developing content for buyers, they’re not—not really. The problem remains that they don’t know their buyers well enough to provide the level of valuable information mixed with an emotional connection that buyers are searching for.

Quite often, they also don’t know their customers very well. But compounding the issue is a one-off mind-set that inhibits storytelling over the length of the buying process. Rectifying these issues gets to the heart of context and relevance.

I wrote Digital Relevance for the marketers, corporate communications professionals, consultants, and entrepreneurs faced with the need to build relationships with elusive buyers whose context can change in a nanosecond.

Technology was billed as the answer. But it’s only confused the issue because the strategy is lacking. Marketing has changed—and changed fast—leaving marketers adrift without the foundation, mind-set, and skills they need to master the dynamics of digital engagement when faced with shrinking attention spans and the increasing noise and velocity of content publishing.

Meanwhile, the pressure for accountability builds every day with marketers unsure how to prove what they do matters. Yet matter it does.

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Digital Relevance

To be successful, marketers must implement highly personalized and integrated programs today in channels and manners they haven’t ever used before. The breadth of skills required to succeed in marketing has increased dramatically. For marketers used to coordinating the activities of external agencies and focusing on one stand-alone campaign at a time, a large gap in competency has been exposed.

Filling this gap will require that marketers develop customer-oriented communications, identify the distinct value that differentiates their company, make the shift from one-off communications to a continuum approach, and ensure that data and metrics are used to relate their programs to the achievement of business objectives.

More than $40 billion is spent globally each year producing and using custom content in marketing programs. But how much of that money is bringing quantifiable return on investment? How long will companies continue to spend on marketing programs that don’t help achieve business objectives?

Publishing content without a strategy isn’t moving the needle. Time, effort, and money are flushed away without a quantifiable impact on business performance. This is a serious problem for marketers. Their companies expect results. Their jobs are on the line. If not now, then soon.

Many of the marketers I speak with are concerned that their marketing isn’t as effective as it could be. They know that buyers and customers prefer digital information and communications, but they’re not confident in how to go about creating relevant content successfully. And, they’re deeply concerned that they won’t be able to reach their customers as the competition for attention online increases. Much of the marketing content I see lacks the personalization and targeting that is needed to do more than engage prospects or customers briefly, in the immediate moment.

This just won’t do. Buyers have changed. They’re demanding, exacting, and averse to risk. They want confident vendors that bring more to the table than their products. Buyers need strategic partners that bring expertise they don’t have to solve problems that are becoming ever more complex.

Marketers have the knowledge to do so. They just need to match it with the skills required to create strategies and approaches that will result in successful execution tied to business objectives.

Creating content your audiences find useful has been the rallying cry for content marketing for at least the last five years. Quality content can be

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3

found in every medium and channel. It’s no longer enough. Business-tobusiness (B2B) buyers crave meaning and connection—not just utility or value. That’s a distinction that raises the bar for relevance and what marketers must achieve to create sustainable growth for their companies in the future.

Given the ease of publishing, marketers have gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle with buyers. They’ve published so much content without a strategy or the ability to speak to what matters to target markets that prospective buyers continue not to trust content produced by vendors. Buyers think vendor content is biased and lacking substantiation for the assertions it makes.

Therefore they trust it less, just when we need for them to trust it more.

There is a silver lining. Buyers want to buy. They want to do so faster than they do now. They’re also solving problems they’ve never had to solve before.

Your buyers know they need help finding and deploying the right solutions.

But they’re stymied by the information they find online that doesn’t address what they need. They’re expending so much effort to make the right decision that it’s taking longer, involving more stakeholders, and introducing risk that keeps them from making a choice. And the inconsistency they experience across channels isn’t helping.

Marketers know relevance is critical, but they need to understand what it truly means in action and how to accomplish it. Digital Relevance will arm marketers with a comprehensive approach to learn the skills they need to correct these issues and iterate their way to being so damn relevant that their audiences can’t help but engage with them for the expertise needed to solve their problems. With this competency, they’ll help their companies reverse the credibility gap and help their buyers get on the fast track to problem resolution by creating better connections with depth of meaning. They’ll be equipped to master the contributions that content marketing can make in any digital situation, with any stakeholders, be they customers, buyers, sales teams, industries, or the executive board.

As buyers and customers become more self-sufficient at researching solutions to their problems, marketers are shouldering more of the responsibility to make sure their companies build awareness, are viewed as credible, and display enough expertise to get invited into the purchasing conversation.

Digital Relevance is your guide to ensuring that this happens.

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Index

accountability, 1, 6, 88, 127, 168, 193, 200 account-based marketing, 182–3 Apple, 12, 16, 42 Ask, Julie, 96 attention, 77–9 cursory, 78 intentional, 79 misleading, 78 voluntary, 78 Audi, 169–70 audience overlays advantages, 179 content for, 179–80 overview, 177–9 Bernoff, Josh, 96 big-picture perspective, 22–3, 60–1 blog posts, 14–15, 21, 25–7, 29, 31, 39, 52, 54, 65–7, 72, 78, 80, 90, 92, 95, 111, 113, 122, 124, 131, 134–6, 141, 145, 167, 169, 188, 191, 202, 206–7, 214–15 Brinker, Scott, 25 budget, authority, need, and timeline (BANT), 212 budgets Budweiser, 114 building relationships, 23 business-to-business (B2B) marketing brand positioning and, 37 content and, 3, 84 customer experience and, 64, 73 engagement and, 3, 7 irrelevance and, 13 relevance and, 7, 9, 20, 35

shifting relevance and, 20, 23 storytelling and, 113 value and, 20, 35 buyers buyer experience, 76–8 buyer questions, 76–7 buying stages, 55, 76–7, 107, 125, 130, 173, 195, 202, 214–15 buzzwords, 38, 52, 92, 104 calls to action, 85, 92, 142, 153 campaigns, 58–62, 86–7 channels characteristics, 168–70 integration, 121–2 need for, 124–5 putting channels in context, 122–4 relevance, 167–70 chief financial officers (CFOs), 118, 152, 199 chief technology officers (CTOs), 100–1 ChiefMartec.com, 25 cloud, 16, 21, 92, 100–1, 121, 140 CMI, 113 competitive advantage, 63–4 connecting silos, 30 Conradt, Glenn, 96–7 content, as investment buyers’ learning styles and, 93 connecting dots with, 93–8 overview, 89 reinvention, 89–90 repetition, 91–2 repurposing, 90–1 content hub, 96, 175, 179, 206–7

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Index

content marketing calls to action, 85 content at too high a level, 85–6 issues with, 84–6 leaps of faith, 85 overview, 84 ownership of expertise, 85 targeting, 86 too much user effort, 85 context, 9–10 contextual connections, 157–8 contextualization, 121–5 continuous improvement, 30–1 continuum attention and, 77–9 benefits of, 87–8 capitalizing on, 80–1 creating continuum approach, 75–7 distribution channels and, 79–80 overview, 69–70 real-time relevance and, 71–2 speed and, 72–3 conversational competence, 26–9, 36 Coolsen, Michael, 114 CoreMedia, 96–7, 122 Corporate Executive Board (CEB), 64 cost per lead, 199–200 CRM (customer relationship management), 16 customer advocates, 189 customer experience complexity, 64–6 creating holistic experiences, 66–8 overview, 63–4 customer obsession, 33–4 customer service, 61 data/analytics identifying business metrics, 198–201 overview, 197–8 ROI in content, 201–2 Demandbase, 122, 183 DemandGen Report, 9, 73, 113 demographics, 160, 211–12 Digital Pacesetters, 57 distinct value diagram, 42 discerning, 42–5 overview, 41–2 distribution channels, 79–80

dynamic state day in the life of a dynamic marketer, 152–4 making transition to, 154–5 overview, 151–2 eConsultancy, 170 Eloqua, 95 engagement building a conversational framework, 163–5 context and, 162–63 curiosity and, 162–3 overview, 159–60 personas and, 52–3 relevance and, 160–2 Ernst, Jeff, 95–6 execution, 127–8 external research, 54–5 Facebook, 13, 39, 72, 167–9, 191 FedEx, 16 Flipboard, 79 Forrester Research, 60, 94–96, 168 Fournaise Marketing Group, 7, 193 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 103 goals, 171–5 information and, 174–5 mapping, 173–4 merging, 171–3 Google, 42, 63, 92, 100, 167, 191 Hasson, Uri, 103 IBM, 16, 57, 92 IDG, 27, 76, 159 industry influencers, 188–9 infographics, 8, 65, 72, 90, 93, 131, 174 interactivity, 124, 162 Ion Interactive, 95 irrelevance in action, 16–17 overview, 13–15 skills needed to overcome, 15–16 ITSMA, 171 Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 114

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Copyrighted material – 9781137452801 Index key performance indicators (KPIs), 44, 88, 167, 186, 193 attention, 203–5 intention, 207–9 interaction, 205–7 using with customers, 208 keywords and phrases, 51–2 lead scoring and progression active persona with no intent, 214 leveling playing field, 216–17 matching demographics to personas, 211–12 overview, 211 progressive persona activity, 215 scoring behaviors, 213–16 updating progressive profiling techniques, 212–13 validating scoring processes, 217–18 leaps of faith, 85 LinkedIn channel integration and, 79–80, 123–4 content and, 72 contextualization and, 122 and digital relevance across channels, 167–70 discussion groups, 14, 29, 39, 66, 80, 122, 123, 140, 188 external research and, 54 improving profile, 191 Pulse, 79 listening, irrelevance and, 15 LiveBall, 95 mapping, 107, 173–4 marketing automation platforms (MAPs), 201 marketing technology, 31, 146 Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic, 25 measuring performance, 193–5 millennials, 64, 190 Mobile Mind, The (Schadler, Bernoff, and Ask), 96 multichannel comprehension, 15–16 neutral stance, 20–1 ownership of expertise, 85

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perceptive state day in the life of a perceptive marketer, 146–8 overview, 145–6 using perceptions to prosper, 148–9 personalization, 2, 54, 76, 79, 83, 97, 119, 122, 157–8, 168, 199, 225 personas buyer, 47–8 components of, 48–55 customer, 48 development of, 53–4 engagement scenarios, 52–3 external research, 54–5 first-person scenario, 49 keywords and phrases, 51–2 objectives and, 49–50 obstacles and, 50 orientation and, 50 overview, 47–8 problems and, 50–1 questions, 51 social media and online destinations, 52 user, 48 value of, 55 Pinterest, 167, 191 podcasts, 72, 90 positioning for competitive advantage overview, 37–8 role in spreading your story, 38–40 predictive analytics, 34–5 proactive state day in the life of a proactive marketer, 140–2 overview, 139–40 pivoting to, 142–4 see also reactive state product replacement, 16 profiling, 212–13 pronoun shifts, 16 Quesenberry, Keith, 114 questions, personas and, 51 radical relevance overview, 33–5 relevance maturity, 35–6 see also Relevance Maturity Matrix

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Index

reactive state calming the chaos, 136–7 day in the life of a reactive marketer, 133–6 overview, 133 see also proactive state real-time relevance continuum and, 71–2 speed and, 72–3 relationship architecture marketing, 183–4 overview, 181–3 sales, 184–5 SLAs to improve transitions, 185–6 relevance overview, 7–9, 225–6 context as cornerstone of, 9–10 relevance KPIs see Key Performance Indicators Relevance Maturity Matrix (RMM), 10–12 repetition, 89, 91–2 research and development (R&D), 61–2 responsiveness conundrum of choice, 130–2 overview, 129–30 syncing up, 132 return on investment (ROI), 14, 118, 161, 174, 178, 193, 197, 200–1, 208, 223 return on marketing investment (ROMI), 57, 200 Richardson, 219 ruthless editing, 22 sales CliffsNotes for, 220–23 overview, 219–20 targeting and, 186, 220–1 value and, 60, 160, 181–2, 200–1, 219–21 sales accepted lead (SAL), 199 Salesforce.com, 42 scenario molding, 34 Schadler, Ted, 96 search engine optimization (SEO), 29, 65 Service Level Agreements (SLAs), 185–6 shifting relevance neutral stance and, 20–1 overview, 19–20 skills needed to maintain, 21–3

Sirius Decisions, 20, 157 skills for overcoming irrelevance multichannel comprehension, 15–16 product replacement, 16 pronoun shifts, 16 for overcoming shifting relevance big-picture perspective, 22–3 building relationships, 23 ruthless editing, 22 social relevance and connecting the silos, 30 continuous improvement, 30–1 conversational competence, 28–30 technology enablement, 31–2 slide decks, 54, 72, 90, 206 SlideShare, 39, 90 social advocacy attracting industry influencers, 188–9 empowering employees in social channels, 190–1 helping customers become advocates, 189–90 overview, 187–8 social media channel integration and, 121–2, 169–70 continuum and, 72, 79–80 customer experience and, 61, 65 dynamic state and, 151, 153 employees and, 190 external research and, 54 intention and, 208 listening and, 15 marketing and, 183, 194 perceptive state and, 146–7 personas and, 52 proactive state and, 140, 143 reactive state and, 133–5 relevance and, 8–9, 15 repetition and, 92 ROI/ROMI and, 200 speed and, 72 storytelling and, 113 see also social advocacy; social relevance social relevance overview, 25–8 skills needed to maintain, 28–32 software-as-a service (SaaS) company, 100–2, 146

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Copyrighted material – 9781137452801 Index speed, 72–3 storytelling character, 115–16 climax, 116–17 conflict, 106–7 diagram, 118 dialogue, 117–18 evolution of, 113–14 helping buyers find place in story, 118–19 movement and, 104 overview, 99–102 plot, 116 as process for continuous improvement, 111–12 progressive transformation, 107 resolution, 117 setting, 115 strategic value of, 109–14 structure, 115–19 suspension of disbelief, 105 why stories work, 103–6 strategy overview, 5–6 executing, 127–8 storytelling and, 109–14 value and, 5–6 Super Bowl ads, 114 suspension of disbelief, 105 syncing up, 132 targeting attention and, 77 channels and, 15 content and, 86 continuum and, 86–7, 89 conversation and, 164–5 engagement and, 8, 10, 161 goals and, 172, 174 intention and, 207–8 interaction and, 206 marketing and, 2–3, 57–8, 84, 86, 158, 183–4 personas and, 47, 55, 212 repetition and, 91 repurposing and, 90 RMM and, 10–11 sales and, 186, 220–1 storytelling and, 115 strategy and, 5 technology enablement, 31–2

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Traditionalists, 57 Twitter channel integration and, 80, 121–3, 167–8 content and, 90, 96, 122–3 conversation and, 28 empowering employees and, 191 hashtags, 90, 96, 122 positioning and, 38 proactive marketing and, 140, 142 reactive marketing and, 134 relevance and, 14, 29, 167–8 retweets, 140, 168 social advocacy and, 188 speed and, 72 value and, 96 value articulating, 157–8 B2B marketing and, 20, 35 big-picture perspective and, 59–61 channels and, 122 continuum and, 71–2, 74, 76–7, 79, 81, 86–7 conveying, 20 customer experience and, 63–4 customer obsession and, 33 differentiation and, 41–5 distinct value, 42–5 dynamic execution and, 127–8 dynamic state and, 152–3 engagement and, 160, 162 investment in content and, 89–98 marketing and, 1–3, 7, 86, 181–2, 184–6 performance and, 193–5 personas and, 47–55, 116–17, 119 positioning and, 37–40 predictive analysis and, 35 proactive state and, 139, 143 R&D and, 61 relationships and, 23 relevance and, 17 retention and, 199 ROI and, 174 sales and, 60, 160, 181–2, 200–1, 219–21 scenario modeling and, 34 SEO and, 29 SLAs and, 186 social advocacy and, 188

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Index

value—Continued storytelling and, 105, 107, 109–14, 116–17, 119 strategy and, 5–6 vendor websites, 114 Volvo, 42 webinars attention and, 78 buyers’ learning styles and, 93 channel integration and, 124 content development and, 8, 90, 93 continuum and, 72 customer experience and, 65–7, 131 digital marketing and, 194 interaction and, 206

irrelevance and, 14–15 marketing architecture and, 183 personas and, 52, 211, 215 relevance and, 8, 14, 19 social relevance and, 27 value of, 114 white papers, 8, 13, 65, 67, 72, 87, 89–90, 114, 141–3, 169, 174, 188, 206–7, 214–15, 217, 222 WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?), 118 YouTube, 39, 80, 167, 169, 202 Zak, Paul, 104 Zite, 79

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