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Transcript of Digital Relevance
Copyrighted material – 9781137414793
Contents
List of Illustrations vii Preface xi
Introduction Bridging the Gap between Training and Business Results 1
Chapter 1 Did They Like It? 17 Chapter 2 Did They Learn Anything? 27 Chapter 3 Are They Doing Anything Different? 37 Chapter 4 Did It Impact the Business? 73 Chapter 5 Was It Worth It? 103 Chapter 6 How Do We Maximize Impact? 117 Summary 151 Conclusion 161 Case Study 1 Measuring the Impact of Leadership
Training 165 Case Study 2 Maximizing the Impact of Leadership
Training through Different Delivery Modes 185
Index 199
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Contents
List of Figures xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 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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viii ● Contents
Chapter 11 Moving from Campaign to Continuum 83
Chapter 12 Get More Value from Investments in Content 89
Section 4 Storytelling—Make Your Customer the Hero 99
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 Contextual Connections—The Art of Getting Personal 157
Chapter 21 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 Proving Performance—Science, Not Fluff 193
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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Contents ● 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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Copyrighted material – 9781137452801
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 companiesand 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 2015658.8�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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Copyrighted material – 9781137452801
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 mar-keters 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 rela-tionship 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 infor-mation mixed with an emotional connection that buyers are searching for. Quite often, they also don’t know their customers very well. But compound-ing 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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2 ● 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 achieve-ment of business objectives.
More than $40 billion is spent globally each year producing and using cus-tom content in marketing programs. But how much of that money is bring-ing 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 busi-ness 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 con-cerned 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 pros-pects or customers briefly, in the immediate moment.
This just won’t do. Buyers have changed. They’re demanding, exact-ing, 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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Introduction ● 3
found in every medium and channel. It’s no longer enough. Business-to-business (B2B) buyers crave meaning and connection—not just utility or value. That’s a distinction that raises the bar for relevance and what mar-keters 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 strat-egy or the ability to speak to what matters to target markets that prospective buyers continue not to trust content produced by vendors. Buyers think ven-dor 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 solu-tions to their problems, marketers are shouldering more of the responsibil-ity 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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accountability, 1, 6, 88, 127, 168, 193, 200account-based marketing, 182–3Apple, 12, 16, 42Ask, Julie, 96attention, 77–9
cursory, 78intentional, 79misleading, 78voluntary, 78
Audi, 169–70audience overlays
advantages, 179content for, 179–80overview, 177–9
Bernoff, Josh, 96big-picture perspective, 22–3, 60–1blog 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, 25budget, authority, need, and timeline
(BANT), 212budgetsBudweiser, 114building relationships, 23business-to-business (B2B) marketing
brand positioning and, 37content and, 3, 84customer experience and, 64, 73engagement and, 3, 7irrelevance and, 13relevance and, 7, 9, 20, 35
shifting relevance and, 20, 23storytelling and, 113value and, 20, 35
buyersbuyer experience, 76–8buyer questions, 76–7buying stages, 55, 76–7, 107, 125,
130, 173, 195, 202, 214–15buzzwords, 38, 52, 92, 104
calls to action, 85, 92, 142, 153campaigns, 58–62, 86–7channels
characteristics, 168–70integration, 121–2need for, 124–5putting channels in context, 122–4relevance, 167–70
chief financial officers (CFOs), 118, 152, 199
chief technology officers (CTOs), 100–1ChiefMartec.com, 25cloud, 16, 21, 92, 100–1, 121, 140CMI, 113competitive advantage, 63–4connecting silos, 30Conradt, Glenn, 96–7content, as investment
buyers’ learning styles and, 93connecting dots with, 93–8overview, 89reinvention, 89–90repetition, 91–2repurposing, 90–1
content hub, 96, 175, 179, 206–7
Index
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236 ● Index
content marketingcalls to action, 85content at too high a level, 85–6issues with, 84–6leaps of faith, 85overview, 84ownership of expertise, 85targeting, 86too much user effort, 85
context, 9–10contextual connections, 157–8contextualization, 121–5continuous improvement, 30–1continuum
attention and, 77–9benefits of, 87–8capitalizing on, 80–1creating continuum approach, 75–7distribution channels and, 79–80overview, 69–70real-time relevance and, 71–2speed and, 72–3
conversational competence, 26–9, 36Coolsen, Michael, 114CoreMedia, 96–7, 122Corporate Executive Board (CEB), 64cost per lead, 199–200CRM (customer relationship
management), 16customer advocates, 189customer experience
complexity, 64–6creating holistic experiences, 66–8overview, 63–4
customer obsession, 33–4customer service, 61
data/analyticsidentifying business metrics, 198–201overview, 197–8ROI in content, 201–2
Demandbase, 122, 183DemandGen Report, 9, 73, 113demographics, 160, 211–12Digital Pacesetters, 57distinct value
diagram, 42discerning, 42–5overview, 41–2
distribution channels, 79–80
dynamic stateday in the life of a dynamic
marketer, 152–4making transition to, 154–5overview, 151–2
eConsultancy, 170Eloqua, 95engagement
building a conversational framework, 163–5
context and, 162–63curiosity and, 162–3overview, 159–60personas and, 52–3relevance and, 160–2
Ernst, Jeff, 95–6execution, 127–8external research, 54–5
Facebook, 13, 39, 72, 167–9, 191FedEx, 16Flipboard, 79Forrester Research, 60, 94–96, 168Fournaise Marketing Group, 7, 193functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI), 103
goals, 171–5information and, 174–5mapping, 173–4merging, 171–3
Google, 42, 63, 92, 100, 167, 191
Hasson, Uri, 103
IBM, 16, 57, 92IDG, 27, 76, 159industry influencers, 188–9infographics, 8, 65, 72, 90, 93, 131, 174interactivity, 124, 162Ion Interactive, 95irrelevance
in action, 16–17overview, 13–15skills needed to overcome, 15–16
ITSMA, 171
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 114
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Index ● 237
key performance indicators (KPIs), 44, 88, 167, 186, 193
attention, 203–5intention, 207–9interaction, 205–7using with customers, 208
keywords and phrases, 51–2
lead scoring and progressionactive persona with no intent, 214leveling playing field, 216–17matching demographics to
personas, 211–12overview, 211progressive persona activity, 215scoring behaviors, 213–16updating progressive profiling
techniques, 212–13validating scoring processes, 217–18
leaps of faith, 85LinkedIn
channel integration and, 79–80, 123–4
content and, 72contextualization and, 122and digital relevance across channels,
167–70discussion groups, 14, 29, 39, 66, 80,
122, 123, 140, 188external research and, 54improving profile, 191Pulse, 79
listening, irrelevance and, 15LiveBall, 95
mapping, 107, 173–4marketing automation platforms
(MAPs), 201marketing technology, 31, 146Marketing Technology Landscape
Supergraphic, 25measuring performance, 193–5millennials, 64, 190Mobile Mind, The (Schadler, Bernoff,
and Ask), 96multichannel comprehension, 15–16
neutral stance, 20–1
ownership of expertise, 85
perceptive stateday in the life of a perceptive
marketer, 146–8overview, 145–6using perceptions to prosper, 148–9
personalization, 2, 54, 76, 79, 83, 97, 119, 122, 157–8, 168, 199, 225
personasbuyer, 47–8components of, 48–55customer, 48development of, 53–4engagement scenarios, 52–3external research, 54–5first-person scenario, 49keywords and phrases, 51–2objectives and, 49–50obstacles and, 50orientation and, 50overview, 47–8problems and, 50–1questions, 51social media and online
destinations, 52user, 48value of, 55
Pinterest, 167, 191podcasts, 72, 90positioning for competitive advantage
overview, 37–8role in spreading your story, 38–40
predictive analytics, 34–5proactive state
day in the life of a proactive marketer, 140–2
overview, 139–40pivoting to, 142–4see also reactive state
product replacement, 16profiling, 212–13pronoun shifts, 16
Quesenberry, Keith, 114questions, personas and, 51
radical relevanceoverview, 33–5relevance maturity, 35–6see also Relevance Maturity Matrix
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238 ● Index
reactive statecalming the chaos, 136–7day in the life of a reactive
marketer, 133–6overview, 133see also proactive state
real-time relevancecontinuum and, 71–2speed and, 72–3
relationship architecturemarketing, 183–4overview, 181–3sales, 184–5SLAs to improve transitions, 185–6
relevanceoverview, 7–9, 225–6context as cornerstone of, 9–10
relevance KPIssee Key Performance Indicators
Relevance Maturity Matrix (RMM), 10–12
repetition, 89, 91–2research and development (R&D), 61–2responsiveness
conundrum of choice, 130–2overview, 129–30syncing 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, 219ruthless editing, 22
salesCliffsNotes for, 220–23overview, 219–20targeting and, 186, 220–1value and, 60, 160, 181–2,
200–1, 219–21sales accepted lead (SAL), 199Salesforce.com, 42scenario molding, 34Schadler, Ted, 96search engine optimization (SEO), 29, 65Service Level Agreements (SLAs), 185–6shifting relevance
neutral stance and, 20–1overview, 19–20skills needed to maintain, 21–3
Sirius Decisions, 20, 157skills
for overcoming irrelevancemultichannel comprehension, 15–16product replacement, 16pronoun shifts, 16
for overcoming shifting relevancebig-picture perspective, 22–3building relationships, 23ruthless editing, 22
social relevance andconnecting the silos, 30continuous improvement, 30–1conversational competence, 28–30technology enablement, 31–2
slide decks, 54, 72, 90, 206SlideShare, 39, 90social advocacy
attracting industry influencers, 188–9empowering employees in social
channels, 190–1helping customers become
advocates, 189–90overview, 187–8
social mediachannel integration and, 121–2,
169–70continuum and, 72, 79–80customer experience and, 61, 65dynamic state and, 151, 153employees and, 190external research and, 54intention and, 208listening and, 15marketing and, 183, 194perceptive state and, 146–7personas and, 52proactive state and, 140, 143reactive state and, 133–5relevance and, 8–9, 15repetition and, 92ROI/ROMI and, 200speed and, 72storytelling and, 113see also social advocacy; social
relevancesocial relevance
overview, 25–8skills needed to maintain, 28–32
software-as-a service (SaaS) company, 100–2, 146
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Index ● 239
speed, 72–3storytelling
character, 115–16climax, 116–17conflict, 106–7diagram, 118dialogue, 117–18evolution of, 113–14helping buyers find place in story,
118–19movement and, 104overview, 99–102plot, 116as process for continuous
improvement, 111–12progressive transformation, 107resolution, 117setting, 115strategic value of, 109–14structure, 115–19suspension of disbelief, 105why stories work, 103–6
strategyoverview, 5–6executing, 127–8storytelling and, 109–14value and, 5–6
Super Bowl ads, 114suspension of disbelief, 105syncing up, 132
targetingattention and, 77channels and, 15content and, 86continuum and, 86–7, 89conversation and, 164–5engagement and, 8, 10, 161goals and, 172, 174intention and, 207–8interaction and, 206marketing and, 2–3, 57–8, 84, 86,
158, 183–4personas and, 47, 55, 212repetition and, 91repurposing and, 90RMM and, 10–11sales and, 186, 220–1storytelling and, 115strategy and, 5
technology enablement, 31–2
Traditionalists, 57Twitter
channel integration and, 80, 121–3, 167–8
content and, 90, 96, 122–3conversation and, 28empowering employees and, 191hashtags, 90, 96, 122positioning and, 38proactive marketing and, 140, 142reactive marketing and, 134relevance and, 14, 29, 167–8retweets, 140, 168social advocacy and, 188speed and, 72value and, 96
valuearticulating, 157–8B2B marketing and, 20, 35big-picture perspective and, 59–61channels and, 122continuum and, 71–2, 74, 76–7, 79,
81, 86–7conveying, 20customer experience and, 63–4customer obsession and, 33differentiation and, 41–5distinct value, 42–5dynamic execution and, 127–8dynamic state and, 152–3engagement and, 160, 162investment in content and, 89–98marketing and, 1–3, 7, 86, 181–2,
184–6performance and, 193–5personas and, 47–55, 116–17, 119positioning and, 37–40predictive analysis and, 35proactive state and, 139, 143R&D and, 61relationships and, 23relevance and, 17retention and, 199ROI and, 174sales and, 60, 160, 181–2, 200–1,
219–21scenario modeling and, 34SEO and, 29SLAs and, 186social advocacy and, 188
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240 ● Index
value—Continuedstorytelling and, 105, 107, 109–14,
116–17, 119strategy and, 5–6
vendor websites, 114Volvo, 42
webinarsattention and, 78buyers’ learning styles and, 93channel integration and, 124content development and, 8, 90, 93continuum and, 72customer experience and, 65–7, 131digital marketing and, 194interaction and, 206
irrelevance and, 14–15marketing architecture and, 183personas and, 52, 211, 215relevance and, 8, 14, 19social relevance and, 27value 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, 104Zite, 79
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