For marketing to work, it must be relevant. But have you stopped to think what precisely that means? Why is relevant marketing so important? Do you have an objective measure of relevance to gauge your marketing messages?
Quick reminder of Audienz’ formula for making better hooks (see my post about effective marketing from Oct 2016): It must be relevant, it must be striking, and it must be blockbuster. Let’s dive into the first pillar!
Relevance is about connecting you and your product with your customer. But, what exactly are you connecting with? Why is it so important?
Here’s a useful sequence to keep in mind:
We marketers often forget that real people make purchase decisions. Even in the B2B world. People with desires, dreams, fears. They are not robots. They are not corporate utility-maximizing machines. Why do you think B2B relies so much on incessant personal touch?
At Audienz, we do everything with a solid understanding of the target audience. We don’t do this through arms-length quantitative research (though we value this move), but with amicable conversations. You heard right; amicable! Behind the curtain, we’re razor-sharp focused on understanding the following:
- The person: Drivers? Fears? Motivations? Values?
- The business: History? Vision? Challenges? Opportunities? Competitors?
- The product: Awareness? Perceptions? Adoption intent/stage?
- The purchase drivers: Who? How? When? Why?
In our conversations, we aim at building rapport before we start digging into the issues. From generic to specific—our golden rule.
Case in point: The Emerge Stronger Campaign
Amid the 2008-2009 recession, we were chartered to create a campaign for a leading enterprise software company to sell business intelligence solutions. This seemed like an impossible task. Who would buy non-essential software in the middle of a market storm? In our conversations with customers and partners, we sensed concern and despair. But we also identified a strong desire: That was to emerge stronger from bad times. This theme became the tagline for our marketing messaging, of what turned into one of the most successful marketing and sales campaigns our client had ever executed.
Being relevant is about speaking the language of your audience. It’s about letting them know that you understand them. That you respect what they do. If you do it right, it will lead to empathy, which is more than you can expect from a B2B digital marketing campaign. At that point, your sales team’s objective is to turn that into trust, influence, and, ultimately, a closed deal.
For my next post, I’ll share how you can captivate your audience through Striking messages. Don’t miss out!
Next Post
