selling in the age of changed buyer behaviour (cpca industry meeting presentation)
TRANSCRIPT
Selling in the age of
changed buyer behaviour
Presented by Marie Wiese
CPCA Conference & Christmas Social
December 4, 2014
Your buyer’s behavior has changed…
What are you doing about it?
70%
Your buyer will be 70% of the way through their buying process before you ever hear from them
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11.2
Potential customers will use 11.2 pieces of online data in the decision making process
99%
Of prospects will consult a website before they decide to buy anything
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100%
Will go to your website before making the final decision to buy from you
“Check out our blog post - 24 Content Marketing
Stats that will Blow Your Mind”
Your website and digital dialogue is
the new FIRST sales call.
Your website and digital dialogue
has replaced the top of the sales
funnel.
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1898
Today
60% of the sales funnel is taking
place in the digital space…
How good is your digital dialogue?
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Have your sales people ever said…
• We don’t hear from customers until after they have made another decision to buy something
• We are struggling to add value
• We have become order takers
• We are caught in the bottom of the sales funnel
Digital Dialogue
Unless your organization can survive in a commoditized procurement state, you MUST create a digital dialogue with your customers so you can engage them at the top of the sales funnel.
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Building an
integrated digital
dialogue…
How do you do that?
Good content = Sales
Well planned, customer centric
content…
Is not intrusive
Adds value
Invites you to engage
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Company versus Customer
1. Customers are not targets; they are people who are interested in solving their own problem.
2. People don’t buy from companies; they buy from people.
3. Marketers worry about their ability to build persuasive copy but persuasion is not authentic. Clarity is persuasion.
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Communicating versus Marketing
• When you communicate, there is no action required on the part of the recipient - they are passively receive the information
• Marketing means you are eliciting a response or follow through on a call to action
• When you start a digital dialogue, you are looking for a physical and measurable response
Challenges to creating a digital
dialogue that starts the buying process
1. Overcoming product bias
2. Thinking good content is easy to produce
3. Dealing with CEOs that are afraid to share
4. Unwilling to test
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Should I use social media in my
business?
Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be socialized to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.
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Should I use pay-per-click in my
business?
Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be socialized to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.
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Should I use SEO in my business?
Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be socialized to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.
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Should I use email marketing in my
business?
Yes. Well planned, customer-centric content can be socialized to drive traffic back to some CTA or activity on your website.
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A note about CASL & Canadian
email marketing
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Pros:
• Made us rethink what we send, when we send and to whom we send.
• Made us think about email strategy and policy.
Cons:
• The people it’s really meant for will ignore it.
• Hurts the sales and marketing process and made us paranoid.
Express consent is provided when…
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• Sign up for a blog or email list
• Download content or subscribe to a list
• Existing business relationship (enquired about)
• Buy something from someone
Implied consent is provided when…
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• Meet someone face-to-face and exchange contact information
• Attend an event and provide contact information
• Meet someone at a tradeshow
Growing your list in a CASL-
compliant way
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• Provide value-added content that speaks to problems not products
• Forms throughout your website
• “Join my mailing list” on every form you have
• Tweet out “join my mailing list”
• Ask people to join in your email signature
• Provide an incentive to join*
• Only email product information/receipts
The
Content
Marketin
g
Success
Loop
Building a Content Marketing Plan
1. Be clear about how content marketing will help your business
2. Define your audience
3. Articulate your differentiation
4. Decide who is leading and executing your plan
5. Determine content publishing schedule
6. Define how your audience will find and consume content
7. Create metrics to see how well you are doing
Marketing CoPilot Resource Library
• Subscribe to our blog
marketingcopilot.com
• Find our resource librarymarketingcopilot.com/resources
• Email us
@mcopilot
Content marketing is about getting
the buyer to raise their hand
• Customer-centric business problems in blog topics and social media
• Email campaigns with good headlines
• Headlines create links in social media
• Paid media test headlines
• People engage with content that matters to them
• They download the brochure
A true story…
Company: Grantek.com
Background: North American B2B systems integration company
Objective: Lead nurturing
Buyer interaction tested: Who cares more about safety automation: Senior managers or safety engineers
One topic: Two audiences
Conversion Point
Results
Example
Example
• Gate value-add content
LinkedIn Posts Examples
Results of good content…
Guide achieved 75 downloads in the first 3 months• 43.5% conversion on download via email campaign• 65.5% conversion on download via published press release• Email campaigns had a 100% higher click through rates vs.
previous email campaigns to the same email lists.• Email campaigns targeted at both customers and prospects
resulted in a conversion rate on the download page ranging from 37.5% to 46.7%.
• Grew followers on LinkedIn company page from 50 to 1500• Track-able links embedded into guides driving downloads on
site resulted in a 59.3% conversion rate.
Now for the big test!
Marie Wiese
@mariewiese
Question
What has fundamentally changed forever making a digital dialogue for your company a MUST?
Answer
Buyer behavior!
Buyer wants to self-educate
They want to get information from other people and places other than your sales people
They want to start the buying process online
Question
How do you support the online buyer journey?
Answer
Produce value-added content so your customer can self-educate, offering them the content they want to consume in a way that makes sense for them.
QUESTIONS?
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Get this presentation 1 of 3 ways…
1. http://www.slideshare.net/marketingcopilot
2. Email us [email protected]
3. Tweet us @mcopilot