Authentic marketing is about giving something of value to your customer. As a B2C (business-to-community) marketer, have you thought about what your company is contributing to your audience? Are you giving them something they want?

Last weekend, I fought off cabin fever (thanks Storm Nemo and Blizzard Charlotte) with a dose of Marie TV. The star, Marie Forleo is an entrepreneur, life coach and marketing guru with a kick-butt attitude and down-to-earth personality. I stumbled upon her weekly YouTube series a couple months ago and now I’m hooked. She’s that awesome.

In one episode, Marie offered up some tips on succeeding with your business goals, one of which was giving back to your customer. It made me think about how Marie’s contributions to me have made me a loyal subscriber. Every week I can tune in and get really great advice on a range of topics relevant to my interests.

Paying attention to what you are giving your customer can really pay off in your marketing strategies. Here are a three ideas to consider:

• Teach your customer something
  This is seriously one of the best ways to engage with your target audience. Build trust with potential customers by giving clarity on topics that confuse them. Prove to them that your company can make their life easier and better.
• Give free resources
  Make your audience feel like insiders. Incorporate resources, tips and tricks in your direct mail and marketing campaigns.
• Be a storyteller
  People love to know inside stories. How your company evolved and the people making things happen behind the scenes are all interesting ways to engage. The fact that Marie Forleo rocked it on MTV, is a Jersey girl who didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and knows a ton of 90’s R&B lyrics makes me respect her even more because I can relate to her experiences, and respect her ability to overcome hardships and obstacles.

Do you think giving adds depth to your brand? Have you incorporated this concept into your direct mail campaigns? Tell us about it in the comments below or share with us on Facebook.

Image courtesy Compass Creative.

You’ll find plenty of books, articles, seminars and guides on how to market to c-level executives. They are the elusive top-prize for most b-to-b marketers. However, they read mail, visit websites, check voicemail and respond to marketing just like the rest of us. The trick to reaching them really isn’t all that different from reaching any other consumer.

To get anyone’s attention you need to be relevant, engaging and impactful. That’s it. That formula works regardless of the title you are going after. If your marketing can combine all three of these components chances are you’re going to have a successful campaign.

Relevance: Is your message relevant to a c-level executive? Depending on the size of the company, buying decisions are often made below the c-level, so perhaps you’re making an assumption on who the right person to talk to is. You also have to take into account that many c-level execs have assistants. If an assistant doesn’t think what you have to say is relevant to their boss, chances are they won’t pass it on.

Engaging: So perhaps you have made it into a c-level executive’s office. Now what? How are you going to get he/she to notice your message? Engagement is all about getting the recipient to notice and spend time with your brand. Using personalization is a very effective way to engage your recipient. Taking that one step further, a PURL (personalized URL) holds their attention and allows you to capture more intelligence on your prospects. We’ve got more ways to make something engaging than you can shake a stick at! By the way, where the heck does that expression come from? Since I am a bit of a nerd I had to look it up.

Lastly, we have to be impactful. Our piece has to make a lasting impression. I have received a lot of flat mail in my day and the only one I can really recall is my Dunkin Donuts coupons. Impact can only be had when the piece speaks right to the recipients needs and causes a response. [blatant sales pitch warning] We know impact like nobody’s business. As LeVar Burton used to say, don’t take my word for it.

It’s sort of funny that entire books, lectures (and blog posts) have been dedicated to this subject. For me, there aren’t too many differences between getting the attention of a c-level exec and Joe Shmo. I admit, the gatekeepers that executives have tend to be much better than Joe’s, but even gatekeepers respond to clever marketing.

It’s simple. Marketing is about getting in front of prospects when they are ready to buy. That’s all well and good for lower cost items, like toasters and pants, but it doesn’t play out when marketing high ticket items that have complexity like B2B products and services. Let’s face it, most of these products lack the “wow” factor. They are utilitarian in nature, and any “wow” lies deep beneath the surface, no matter how “cool” of a name that the product has.

Why do people buy B2B products and services? Because they believe that those services will provide a specific benefit to them. The products must either save money for their organization, or they must offer the ability for the organization to be more productive (both, really).

In order for the B2B buyer to see the value in the product or service, they are going to need to understand some of the complexities involved. Those complexities are going to have to be explained, and that knowledge is going to have to sink in and resonate with the buyer.

In order for the seller to get an opportunity to help the buyer to understand these complexities, and prove the value of the product or service, the buyer will have to be interested enough in what the seller is offering to make some time for the salesperson to speak with them and present the offering.

What is the best and most efficient way to get those busy professionals, who are so mired in their work that they don’t have time to read the “blog” that you advertise on, who you think will benefit most from your B2B product or service to know who you are?

Well, the fact is that most people (myself included) need to be hit over the head, and more than once in order for them to pay attention to anything new, regardless of how good it is, especially if it’s not full of cool color and a touchscreen that does everything for you. TVs with great picture quality can sell themselves. People just need to see them working. B2B products and services can’t make that kind of splash on their own. They just sit there, waiting.

If all of the wonderful products and services were invited to a dance, B2Bs would be standing against the wall all night, while all of the B2Cs partied down on the dance floor, moonwalking and breakdancing the night away. Oh, sure…B2B’s are the good students, they work superhard and get great grades, but no one cares about that at the dance, do they?

That is a mind boggling number. It’s so high in fact, that I don’t even look in the app store anymore. I don’t want to have to sift through hundreds of options (even if they are ranked by users) to find the right new “thing” to add to my phone. I only have so much space to allot to these apps, anyway!

How does that translate to your product or services? Well, the fact is that your prospects are out there dealing with a sea of options for the products and services that they want and need (or maybe even don’t even know they want and need), and it’s far easier for them to not even look than it is to sift through the mounds of information on the internet than it is to “consider” your wonderful product or services.

So, how are you going to get these prospects to notice you? Online marketing is great, but it is equivalent to putting on your finest duds and standing against the wall at the dance. You are going to have to get out there on the floor at some point and present yourself to your prospects in a way that stands out above all the noise and all the options. How do you plan on doing that?

I received a piece of product literature last week from a company called “Mindwave Research”. I assume it’s a product brochure which describes the company’s services. It’s a 4 color, wire-bound for easy page-turning and a great deal more attractive than other information that I normally receive. I have yet to look at it, but I don’t want to throw it away, either. It seems like it may be worth looking at, just by the way it was put together. It makes me think that there must be some value to the information that was sent to me. Like it or not, the thought and investment that was put into the creation of this brochure has had some kind of impact on me.

So, it sits on my desk, gets shuffled back and forth with all of my papers, and continually beckons me. I don’t have time for it right now… after all, I have other priorities (like writing about it). But there it is, slowly making its’ way into my psyche with each accidental glance and shuffle. I will read what this company has to say…..eventually. I may not be able to use their service, but at a minimum, I will know who they are.

Is there value to your business in putting deeper thought and care into the marketing literature that you send out to your target audience? If you provide something worth keeping around for awhile, do you think that will help your prospects know more about you? Do you think if they know more about you, they will be more likely than less to engage you at some point? Will they be more receptive to your Sales efforts if they recognize your name and recall the interesting piece of marketing that they received from you?

I tell you what…I don’t really like to receive phone calls from salespeople either (and I am one). But, if the guy who sent me this nice piece of product marketing from Mindware Research calls me, I almost feel obligated to talk with him. Besides, he might save me the time of having to read all of it (winning!).

Structural Graphics specializes in helping companies to create truly memorable marketing materials that are not only more likely to be kept around, but will also encourage the recipient to read and learn more about the product or service being marketed. And, because our designs are interactive, the recipient is engaged longer, and in a more stimulating way. So, here’s how I suggest you stand out:

• Get their attention in a unique and memorable way
• Engage and encourage them to interact with your message so that they learn more about the value of your product
• Hit them with a follow up call or email about a week after it arrives (give it a little time to sink in).

Will you get all of them? Not a chance. Will you get more of them than if you don’t use this approach? I have my money on ‘yes’. And we have a whole bunch of customers who can attest to how much more effective their campaigns have been since coming to Structural Graphics.

Why do so many people watch the superbowl? Is it because they love football? Well, for lots of people that is pretty much the reason, but in order to get XX million people to stare at the same thing at once, there has to be more to it, right? The fact is, people anticipate the ads more than the game, and are very critical of the ads that don’t deliver. They stand at the water cooler (or whatever) and laud the ads that were most entertaining, the most memorable ads.

You have the opportunity to do a superbowl-sized wallop with your marketing, and get great reaction and recall from your target audience….what are you going to do to make that happen? What is so unique about your product that will make it rise above the din and scream for your target’s attention and understanding, and trip whatever switch is necessary for them to take some kind of action TODAY to find out more about your offering?

Right now, advertising agencies all over the country are getting ready for the superbowl. They are storyboarding, brainstorming, playing ping pong and going back to their clients with wonderfully unique concepts meant to thrill and entertain the largest television audience in the world during the event that will put more people in front of the television than any other. It certainly is a lot of pressure. Why is it such a big deal? Because the audience expects great things on this day. The TV ads that air during the Superbowl are talked about as much as (if not more than) the game itself! It is the ULTIMATE branding opportunity, where customer affinity can be made or broken. AND it is the only time that this guy lays off the TIVO fast-forward button.

These are huge consumer brands with enormous advertising budgets. They are the Coke’s, the Budweisers, The Geikos, the Careerbuilder.coms….all B2C products who know that this is the most efficient way to effectively get their message across.

Entertainment…that is the key to engagement during the Superbowl. If your commercial stinks, YOU stink. If your commercial is funny and unique, YOU are funny and unique. It is that simple, and that has an impact on sales.

Now, in comparison let’s take a look at B2B. No matter what kind of budget you have, you are not going to spend it on a Superbowl Ad. It’s just not efficient. Your target isn’t the entire world. It’s a much smaller group of decision-makers out there, hidden away on a precious list which is neatly kept and cared for on your company’s CRM database. But are these people any different in terms of their expectations of what is placed in front of them for their attention and consumption of their precious mental energy than those who have gathered around the tube for Superbowl Sunday?

As they sit at their desks, to-do lists of meetings and calls and projects and spreadsheets and data and metrics to analyze and important decisions to be made about the economic future of their company (and their career), how can you POSSIBLY hope to effectively gain their attention in an efficient way? Email? Well, if they have signed up for your newsletter, they might look at it once in a while if you have a title that is particularly compelling to them (a very rare event). It’s certainly a good idea to have a newsletter (and hey, write a pithy blog while you’re at it).

Here are some ways to get the attention of your audience:

1. You need to stand out from the competition. Attention-getting creative on all your marketing materials will make you stand out from the crowd.

2. Just like with a superbowl ad, you need to get your audience to talk about you and your ad. Make sure you send them something that is worthy talking about.

3. It’s a fact, consumers need to be exposed to your brand a multitude of times before you are placed in their memory. Make sure when you are thinking about a campaign, multiple touches are a must.

Now, you tell me…which of these will you choose to invest in to get your message across?

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME….or will they?