Brian Carroll
@brianjcarroll
How Empathy Will Improve Your Marketing & Sales Pipeline
@brianjcarroll
The Problem
Photo credit: http://jephmaystruck.com
@brianjcarroll
The Problem
Photo credit: http://jephmaystruck.com
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It begins with empathy
Photo credit: http://theleadingedgeblog.com/
Sharing another's feeling and thoughts
Empathy is the marketer’s intuition.
@brianjcarroll
Case Study: Empathic Marketing
Watch the video
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Source: http://www.cfstwo.com/
@brianjcarroll
@brianjcarroll
Karen Thomas-SmithVice President, Provider Marketing and Reference ManagementOptum
@brianjcarroll
Results to-date
• An integrated campaign that has generated over 12,000,000 impressions
• More than 10,000 downloads of gated content
• Results that have surpassed the team's goals by 250%
• Over $120 million in sales pipeline creation to date
Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
@brianjcarroll
1) Put your customers first
Instead of trying to sound interesting to others,
be interested.
Photo credit: http://blog.referralinstitutenn.co.uk/
@brianjcarrollSource: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
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2) Understand their motivation
What are the steps they need take to say “yes”?
@brianjcarrollSource: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
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3) Stop pushing, start conversing
Develop conversations, not campaigns.
Photo credit: www.openingabar.com
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Quality
Patient Access
Medical Necessity
Reimbursement
Financial andClinical Analytics
Population HealthManagement
AlignedIncentives
Providing Care
ClinicalCare
Coding andDocumentation
Care DeliveryModel
Managing Health
Prepare
for Change
Optimize
Performance
Invest
New Capital
Patient Satisfaction
Cost
Navigating the journey from providing care to managing health
Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
@brianjcarroll
4) Focus on helping, not selling
The best marketing feels like helping (because it is)
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Client learning and relationships
Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
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5) Give content they’ll want to share
It’s all about their relationships
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Landing Pages
PRIMARY CONTENT
Banner Ads
Blog Series
Email Templates
Optum.com/PURL
Reimagining content
SUPPLEMENTAL CONTENT
@brianjcarroll
Content machine
Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
@brianjcarroll
6) Remember that proximity is influence
Empower those closest to your customer achieve this
@brianjcarroll
Connecting Lead Gen/Sales
Source: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/video/how-optum-generated-closed-contract
“It's very difficult to design something
for someone if you have no
empathy.”
Stewart Butterfield, CEO
Slack
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/slack-ceo-starts-job-interviews-with-this-question-2016-2
“I fundamentally believe that
empathy is the most powerful force
in B2B marketing.”
Alan Cohen, Chief Commercial Officer
Illumio
Source: http://idg.me/22vNKtR
“The need for empathy towards the
buyer is huge. It’s a differentiator…”
Doug Brown, Chief Marketing Officer
IBM Systems
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/inside-ibm-digital-marketing-the-empowered-consumer-and-thought-leadership/
@brianjcarroll
7) Practice empathy
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/8043877054
Be the change you want to see
@brianjcarroll
Empathy case study on the right message
26
Background: ActiveNetwork is a large event management software provider
Goal: To increase total lead inquiries (phone calls + form sign-ups) from
visitors who abandoned the free trial sign-up process
Research Question: Which email tone will result in a higher rate of lead
inquiries?
Test Design: A/B single factor split
Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/
email-copywriting-change-tone.html
@brianjcarroll
ControlTreatment
Empathy case study on the right messageUsing A/B testing
Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/
email-copywriting-change-tone.html
@brianjcarroll
Standard Sales Tone
Control
Empathetic/Service
Tone
Treatment
Empathy case study on the right messageUsing A/B testing
Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/
email-copywriting-change-tone.htmlc
@brianjcarroll
Treatment
Empathetic/Service Tone
7.08% Conversion Rate
Control
Standard Sales Tone
1.58% Conversion Rate
Empathy case study on the right messageUsing A/B testing
Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/
email-copywriting-change-tone.htmlc
@brianjcarroll
ControlTreatment
Empathy case study on the right messageUsing A/B testing
!By addressing the customer’s anxiety (with empathy)
through the tone of the email copy, they saw a 349% increase in total lead inquiries
Source: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/email-marketing/
email-copywriting-change-tone.html
@brianjcarroll
7) Practice empathy
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/8043877054
When organizations allow a deep emotional understanding of
people’s needs to inspire them—and transform their work, their
teams and even their organization at large—they unlock the
creative capacity for innovation.
~ IDEO’s Empathy On The Edge
Be the change you want to see
@brianjcarroll
Takeaways
Empathy is your marketing intuition.
You can be high-customer or high-self. Be high-customer.
People don't want to be marketed “to,” people want to be communicated “with.”
People don’t buy from companies, people buy from people.
Apply empathy inside to positively impact those outside.