drive2

The right way to write B2B Marketing pieces

[This blog was inspired by many good posts out there about copywriting, such as this post by David Orban from O&Y.]

Attention everyone, class is now in session. I know some of you have taken this course because you major in related fields. Judging from your transcripts, I see a lot of ENGL, JRNL and of course some ADMN backgrounds. That shows me that you have some written communication skills, but it doesn’t automatically make you good marketers. Fear not, I’m going to give you some handy hints on how to write every item you send to business prospects. Here they are:

Avoid the words “we, us, our” as much as you can. While your company is no doubt really interesting, it’s not the one that the reader is keenly interested in. They’re most interested in solving their own issues or achieving more milestones. If you can talk to them about how they can do that (with some help from you), then you’ll have their attention.

I realize you rarely meet the end user, but try to imagine their environment and how they talk. Now match their communication style. If, for example, you’re writing for a buyer of industrial machinery, don’t use writing that looks like it came from an investment banker.

Don’t use exaggerated phrases, like those typically used in B2C marketing. Your target audience isn’t going to choose you because you put a “50¢ off your next purchase” coupon at the bottom of your collateral or used a cutesy rhyme. You’re not writing a newspaper flyer, you’re writing something that demonstrates your understanding of the prospect’s need and provides a solution whose value is beyond question. For these reasons, I forbid your assignments from saying: “Don’t delay, act today”… “You’ve tried the rest now try the best” … “This category-killing, breakthrough product” … here’s a good list of gobbledygook phrases to avoid.

I know most of you make your writing assignments as long as possible and ensure that you don’t leave out any explanation. But your prospective reader wants to read as little as possible, so help them by being brief. Remember that they want to find the quickest possible way to solve their problem – and they’ll listen to you if your piece clearly tells them that you can solve it.

I’ve been asked, “What happens if my piece is longer than it has to be?” and my answer is “nothing, meaning that the prospect will do nothing with your company, because they didn’t read your collateral.” So with all this in mind, I’m dismissing class to let you get on with your writing. By the way, I won’t be grading your assignment, your prospects will. Good luck!

Buyers are just not that into you

By Matt Massey, Managing Director, drive2 Inc.

I was stunned by the results of a poll done a while ago by the Business Products Buyers Survey*. They asked a panel of 478 B2B buyers to specify the percentage of their purchases where the vendor found them. Astonishingly, these were in the minority. These buyers claimed that 75-80% of the time, 'We found the vendor.'

Am I saying we should throw in the towel on outbound campaigns? Do I believe we should abandon direct marketing and let buyers assign themselves to our sales funnels? Absolutely not.

Let me point out some inaccurate conclusions people draw from these results:

• The 20-25% that were found by a vendor most likely bought from that vendor.
• The 'We found them' faction formed their own impression of the vendors in the space, based on…whatever information they came across and put credence in. In other words, it's anyone's guess whether they heard the marketing pitch the vendor had painstakingly created for them.
• Given that B2B prospects are fairly easy to identify, I don't believe that vendors missed 75-80% of the target audience. We must conclude that those who claimed they found the vendor must have forgotten any of the vendor's attempts to reach them. How many times have you heard your rep say, after a rival snagged the business, "I had them in our CRM, but they never moved past the suspect stage."

What I am saying is that if we want to have visibility on more than 25% of our sales, we have to shape up our sales & marketing processes. It's not something either sales or marketing can fix on their own. We have to integrate the message that they first responded to with later lead nurturing messages we give them. Our sales process has to incent reps to regularly check in with prospects. Our outbound activities have to entice them to introduce us to other stakeholders, instead of betraying their trust by going directly to the stakeholders ourselves. We have to politely create urgency for them and give them a business-case rationale that proves our value, not a gimmicky promotion.

As the vendors, we only have so much control over the buying process. We have to work as hard as we can to stay relevant to the buyer, over prolonged periods of time, in the hope that they'll involve us when they decide to buy.

*Results reported in MarketingSherpa's B2B Lead Generation Handbook, 2008 edition.