Author Archives: Katy Sebastian

Content Marketing

Boosting your business with blog posts

Posted on by Katy Sebastian
06
May

Blogs can be a powerful and inexpensive way to promote your business. As trust in advertising drops and customers look for reliable content to help make buying decisions, blog posts are a popular way to enhance a brand. And it isn’t just B2C consumers who are reading blogs more now than ever; 71% of B2B buyers reported reading blog content during their buying journey. Whether you have never set up a blog, or you have one that has been long neglected, it may be time to make this marketing channel work for you. 

Why Blog?

As much as we love to educate our customers and let them benefit from our expertise, blog content benefits go way beyond just providing resources. 

Drive traffic to your website

You can drive more traffic to your website by buying ads (SEM), or optimizing your website for search (SEO). Blogs are a great way to boost SEO,and businesses who blog get 55% more website visitors than those who don’t. Writing frequent, original blog posts tells search engines that your website is worth visiting and they will put you higher up in search rankings. Websites with active blogs generate a lot more indexed pages – over 400% more – which leads to higher organic search traffic and more leads. 

Each blog post itself will also bring customers to your website as it shows up in search results and gets shared on social media. If you write a great blog post that others want to reference, you can get backlinks (links to your website from other websites) that also help boost your SEO. 

Develop trust with customers

Writing relevant blog posts for your target audience establishes your credibility and authority. While this is a tough metric to measure, it is important for moving prospects through the buying stages. A customer may read several of your posts and find them helpful before choosing to engage with you. Once they do engage with you, their trust in you will be high since you have already provided useful information. 

Your own internal expertise is important for establishing credibility, but you should also consider bringing in well respected guest bloggers or interviewing subject matter experts. Content from someone from within your industry whether it be a customer, researcher, or a complementary business, tells readers that you also are a respected and important player in the industry. 

Collect Leads

From your blog post, you can add a call to action requesting that readers share their contact information. If you have created something compelling on the same subject, your audience may be willing to share their information to have access. White papers, free trials, and ebooks are examples of content you could provide.

Keep in mind if you decide to require contact information to see your content, less people will see it. Readers are more and more hesitant to give out their information as email fatigue increases. There is another approach favored by some organizations to give their content without any strings attached. The idea here is that if you have a great white paper or infographic, you want it to be read, shared, and referenced as much as possible. 

What should I write about?

The most important thing to remember when deciding blog topics is to write for your customer. Clearly define who your target audience is and what they care about. Define their top challenges and goals. The more specific you can get, the better because you will be attracting the right readers who may turn into customers. Create a content calendar and plan ahead so you will be more likely to keep up with posts, and can make sure the content has some variety. Types of posts could include:

  • Educating on niche industry topics
  • Interview industry experts and share their responses
  • Give your thoughts on industry trade shows and events
  • Share an analysis of internal survey data
  • Predict trends

Keep your posts focused on education and not on pushing your products and services. Customers are savvy and don’t want to read a sales pitch. You make the case for your products by showing your expertise and helping customers solve problems. 

How often should I post?

Consistency is the key here. More frequent posts will give you the best SEO boost, but not everyone can post multiple times per week. What you shouldn’t do is write several posts and then publish nothing for 3 months. A stale blog makes it heard to develop a reader base and won’t help your web traffic. If you find it difficult to write consistently, engage guest bloggers, internal experts, or freelance writers to pitch in. 

…….

Sources:

DemandGen 2018 Content Preferences Survey Report

HubSpot 31 Business Blogging Stats You Need to Know in 2020

QuickSprout Guide to Making Your Corporate Blog Relevant

Content Marketing

Getting Started with Content Marketing

Posted on by Katy Sebastian
02
Mar

Spending on content marketing is rising, with the most successful B2B marketers now spending 40% of their total marketing budget on content. You know that creating content can bring in leads and grow your brand, but before you go out and hire a writer or social media manager, you need a strategy in place to make sure your efforts will actually pay off.

This may seem like a no-brainer – have a plan before you spend money – but you would be surprised how many small businesses skip this step. Putting together a strategy will help ensure that the content you create is working toward a larger goal, and ultimately pulling in new customers. Here are a few questions to answer as you build your strategy.

Who is your audience?

Some brands try to be all things to all people so they don’t lose any potential business. In reality, if you are small you probably have less resources than a larger company so it is even more important to focus on the customers that are most profitable. When your content is hyper-targeted, you will attract the right audience and let them know you understand their unique problems.

When selecting your target, consider your competition, your pricing, your core competencies or expertise, the segment’s size and growth potential, and logistical realities. Are you producing the highest quality product that commands a premium price? You don’t want to be creating content for bargain shoppers.

What are they looking for?

What problem do they have that you can solve? Your content should seek to address and help solve this problem. If you don’t know, it is probably time for some Voice of the Customer. You can also use Google Trends to find out what people are searching for.

Don’t underestimate the value of good content. Well written articles will keep people on your site longer, boosting SEO, and will get shared by readers and reach a wider audience.

What makes you unique?

Don’t be afraid to get specific with your content. If you truly understand your audience and their unique needs, you can dominate that niche. A digital marketing company could write an article on “How to advertise through social media” and try to out-rank thousands of other articles, or, if they have expertise in advertising to baby boomers they could write “How to reach seniors through social media” and have a higher chance of being found by potential customers.

Where can you find them?

Finally, consider where you will put your content and what type of content to create. This depends on your target audience, but B2B brands typically utilize:

Blogs are a popular form of content, being simple to set up and maintain. They should seek to educate the reader as well as help your website rank higher in search with strategic key words.

Ebooks are longer than blog posts. If you have a lot of expertise on the subject an Ebook can be a good way to gather leads. You can write an intriguing summary and ask for users to submit their information before downloading.

Infographics are visual ways to convey information quickly or to simplify a complex idea. They can get shared a lot, especially on social media. 

Case studies are an excellent way to build trust with new customers. Start by describing a problem a customer had that you solved, and get as specific as possible!

White papers are where you can really show your expertise in a technical field. They are in-depth explorations of a solution to an industry problem. They are also great for generating leads but take a long time to put together.

Social media posts should be frequent and work to build your brand identity. You can share photo or video, or repurpose content shared in other places.

Spending time up-front defining your audience and niche will help keep your content marketing strategy focused. It can be easy to chase every channel and think “we have to be there”, but spending money only where it makes sense for your particular audience is a more efficient use of your resources.

I can help you develop a content strategy that makes sense for your market and business goals. Let’s talk!

Uncategorized

Defining Your Value

Posted on by Katy Sebastian
19
Feb

Ask many B2B sales teams or Marketers why customers buy their product or service, and you may get a list of impressive features. Yes, features are important for a product to be competitive but they are not the reason people buy. Customers buy a product because of the value it brings them over the next best alternative. Understand that value and you will not only know your customers better, but bring in new customers by telling them what they will gain from choosing you.

Features to benefits to value

The best way to move from feature selling to value selling is to start where you are comfortable, with features, and work up from there.

  1. List your features – write down all of the major product features you sell on. For an equipment manufacturer it might be a 1 year warranty, stainless steel construction, a 2 week lead time, etc.
  2. For each feature, think about why a customer would care. What does that feature do for them? We’ll call these benefits. A 1 year warranty protects the customer in case of any defects, stainless steel construction means your product will last longer, a 2 week lead time means carrying less inventory. Most likely, you will see the same benefits pop up several times.
  3. For each benefit, think about the overall value a customer receives – Think higher level here. Your customer being covered against defects brings them peace of mind, a longer lasting product saves them money on maintenance and replacement, and carrying less inventory reduces business costs.

After this exercise, you will probably come up with 3-5 major values that your customers get when buying from you. These, coupled with the benefits should form the basis of your marketing messaging. Instead of listing features on your website and letting the customer figure out if they are important, let them know what real benefit and value they stand to gain.

Crafting the perfect value proposition

Also called value statement, the value proposition is an important process and should be crafted with care. You are telling customers “This is why you should buy from us over every other option” in a quick and concise way.

Define your customer’s problem

What problem does your customer have that your product or service can solve? Keep this problem in mind as you develop your value proposition. You want someone with this problem to see your product or service as a solution.

Decide what makes you stand out

Your value proposition should shine light on what you do better than everyone else. Stand out from the competition instead of blending in to it.

Make it clear

This is not the place for creating mystery. You want your value proposition to clearly and quickly define what you do.

Value proposition examples:

Square is appealing to busy business owners who don’t want to deal with multiple vendors
Bonsai is hoping freelancers who don’t want to deal with administrative tasks will take notice
Slack is offering digital collaboration for teams that may be spread out

Carefully defining your value not only lets your customer know what you can do for them, but it gives your internal team a solid foundation. Have you ever asked people at your company to describe the value you bring? You may get lots of different answers. Solidify your message so that everyone can contribute to delivering your core values.

Customer Insights

5 Tips for Better VOC Interviews

Posted on by Katy Sebastian
20
Jan

What drives your new product pipeline — projects that keep up with the competition, or ones that put you ahead?

To design better products, you need to really know your customer. B2B companies have the advantage of a smaller more educated buyer group, and should understand that group on an even deeper level than B2C organizations. This means doing more than trade show chats, NPS surveys and sales presentations. Continuous understanding of customer processes, problems, and priorities is done through gathering the Voice of the Customer.

Voice of the customer (VoC) is the process of gathering in-depth insight. While you should also utilize data and surveys, my preferred tactic when developing new products is customer interviews. When you ask customers what they want, the answer is often limited to available technology and you aren’t the only seller hearing it. But, when you ask customers what their problems are and then probe deeper, you can develop new, innovative solutions to those problems.

I did dozens of Voice of the Customer interviews as a Marketing Manager for a Fortune 500 company and learned a few lessons along the way. If you are ready to implement your own VoC process, here are 5 tips on how to make your customer interviews more effective.

1. Do it in person

While I have conducted customer interviews over the phone, the quality of results just isn’t the same. There are a many benefits to an in person interview including:

  • Getting a tour — often you can get a tour of the customer’s facility during your visit which can help tremendously as you discuss their needs and issues
  • Showing customers you are serious — the fact that you took time to visit in person and perhaps even bought a plane ticket shows your commitment to understanding their needs. This builds on the relationship and the customer is less likely to cancel the meeting when they get busy.
  • Less technical difficulties — while virtual meetings have come a long way, I have yet to be in one where everything ran smoothly. Using video can bring back the nonverbal communication you would miss over the phone, but carries significant risk that you will have technology issues that derail the discussion.

2. Don’t “lead the witness”

You want to keep yourself open to hearing about your customer’s problems and needs, not trying to work out solutions during the interview. Use open ended questions, make sure your customer is doing most of the talking, and avoid bringing up a topic of interest for as long as you can. If they bring up a topic organically it means it really matters to them. If you ask “would you like to see wireless connectivity on that device”? Your customer will undoubtedly say “yes!” — but will they pay for it when you launch?

If there are specifics I want to get into with a customer that relate to a new product, I like to save them until later in the interview. Keep your discussion as broad as you can, then narrow down later.

3. Don’t invite your sales team

This one is usually a touchy conversation. Your sales team has built great relationships with key customers and is a go-to source for feedback. You will be tempted to ask them to help you set up VoC interviews.

However, my advice here is to look for a way to, respectfully, set up customer interview teams that don’t include the sales team. Having a salesperson set up or attend a customer interview can affect what you come away with for a couple of reasons:

  • It will always feel like a sales call — your customer listens to a lot of presentations, and if your sales rep attends, it will feel like a normal sales call. When I first started doing VoC interviews, I asked a salesperson to help me set some up since he had great relationships with the customers. I wrote up a detailed script to help prep the customer who said she understood. When we got into the meeting and started the interview the customer stopped me and said “Oh, I thought you were coming in here to present a new product to us — I called in all of my engineers”. Cue the red face.
  • It can unintentionally stifle wishful thinking — your sales team is trained to sell the portfolio you have, not necessarily to look out for unmet customer needs that you are a year away from being able to address. I remember being in a customer interview with a sales leader in the room. The customer was talking about what they wanted to see in a product. I was excitedly taking notes when the sales leader interrupted with “oh, we already have that! It is that new product I told you about and it can do that [what you just mentioned].” And just like that, the conversation thread died.

4. Don’t only talk to customers who like you

Bill Gates once said “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning”. While it might be tempting to go talk to those customers who buy the most from you, the most important criteria for a target VoC customer is that they are representative of the market you wish to dominate. Often you can learn the most from someone who for whatever reason has not bought from you in the past. Even better is a customer who used to buy from you but has cut spending — you can get some insight into why.

5. Debrief asap with your team

When doing customer interviews it is best to have at least 2 people — there is often a lot of information coming your way and it can be tough to ask questions and take notes properly. In my experience, I typically brought along an engineer or application specialist as the discussions often got above my technical knowledge. Even with two people taking notes, those notes may not make much sense the next day, let alone later in the week. It is a best practice to sit down and round out your notes with additional context before you forget what you meant when you wrote “hates when she has to stock extras”!

After the immediate debrief, it is best to summarize your notes and share with all stakeholders. Ask managers to take the feedback you gather and talk with their teams about how their role specifically helps the company meet these customer needs. Customer insights are for everyone!

I hope these tips will help you have better conversations. VoC interviews with customers have yielded countless insights that surveys never would have told me. If you haven’t checked in with your customers in a while, ask them to spend some time helping you better understand their problems. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how eager people are to share.