by William Walsh | Apr 11, 2023 | 2023
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
Last week we finished a new website for a client. It’s the third time in the last 2 years we’ve been the “rescue” vendor on a website build that had gone wrong.
If you are thinking about updating your website, and/or are an agency building sites, here’s what we’ve learned through those experiences that you need to know.
- Building a new or “refreshing” a website is not just a website build – it is also a rebranding, repositioning and a messaging project. Know that going in and plan for it. You may also want to scope in a competitive assessment.
- Don’t build anything until everyone that counts has a say or has reviewed a page, content, images, etc. To hell with project timelines, don’t do a thing until the right people are on the same page.
- Make it “paint by numbers.” Use pre-designed templates, provide direction on what you need from the client and be specific….”We need 250 words that describe your corporate culture.”
- Scope in a copywriter. You’ll need one to either fill the gap on content or at a minimum, edit copy.
- Give the client access to the staging server. Let them see the site as it is being built. Full transparency, do not wait to the end to share the site. At each client update meeting, walk them through the new updates and get their input. This is a collaborative effort.
And finally, if you offshore or nearshore the build, see the paint by numbers point. Give exact and specific directions to your developers. Stay on top of the development at each stage of the process. Plan reviews before showing anything to your client. Look at EVERY single detail.
by William Walsh | Jan 16, 2023 | 2023
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
Off we go into 2023!
For us, 2022 was an odd year. The first half was on fire. The second half…it was hard to even get a spark ignited.
One thing was clear, at least for our clients, the recession mentally hit during the late summer. It began with budgets being clawed back, and then the ax came down hard for 2023!
Heading into the new year, I believe we are going to see a similar situation. The first half will be slow, then improve during summer, and momentum significantly gaining into 2024. As a result, I’m going to segment my predictions for the year into two parts.
For the first half of the year, I envision the following:
- Hiring freezes and staff cuts. This is probably not shocking, but where it occurs might surprise you. Covid hit event and travel budgets in 2020, but during this downturn, I see
it hitting digital spending. And when it does, companies will freeze their digital staff hiring (once viewed as a never-ending need).
- CMO exhaustion. It’s already happening. CMO’s are exhausted from the internal battles over budgets, staffing, strategy, etc. The last three years have been a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
- Message confusion. Never have I seen the wild swings hitting the B2B market in such a short amount of time. From supply chain disruptions to overstock warehouses, and endless job openings to layoffs, it’s gone from one extreme to the next. It’s virtually impossible to stay current with your value proposition with so many swings between effectiveness and efficiency.
The second half of the year, as I mentioned, should show some improvement in the economy. As a result, I think we’ll see:
- CMO turnover. The burn out mentioned above will fuel CMO’s desire for a clean start. As soon as the economy and hiring outlook improves, I suspect you will see a lot of
movement.
- Big time AI adoption. Chat GPT is just the beginning. Expect to see agencies widely embrace AI for all types of creative – not just content. Open AI’s CEO Sam Atlman sees the greatest application of AI for creative use, not in replacing blue collar jobs as many had predicted. (more on this topic to come soon in an article of The Drum).
- Better tools for improving ROI. Better tools will come online to improve; 1) the quality of intent data, 2) the cost of content syndication, and 3) the effectiveness of ABM programs.
And of course, as with any prediction, I could be entirely wrong. I am genuinely optimistic, though, that we will be in a much better position kicking off 2024 than we are today.
Good luck and much success this year. I hope your year burns brightly!
by William Walsh | Oct 20, 2022 | 2022
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Together, we will roll out the xiQ platform and Carbon Design will work with your sales teams to do an in-depth analysis of current stalled, or lost opportunities and develop new approaches to resurrect and win deals.
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- Build momentum for 2023
- ROI within 3 months
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by William Walsh | Aug 13, 2022 | 2022
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
The third installment of our four part series on how to navigate decision making blockers.
Nothing sets off lead nurturing scoring system alarms more than the presence of a C-level Influencer hitting content. They’ve got the right title, hit your content, probably more than one and you’re thinking there has got to be intent. But unfortunately that’s not the case, here’s why.
Influencers are information seekers to the extreme. In fact, you probably know one in your personal life. They’re the first to find out about a new restaurant or a new band. They’re your go to when you’re looking for a weekend getaway or vacation spot. And they love to do it. Influencers are motivated by being the first to know and sharing the information with others.
And that’s why there is no real intent. The information that they are consuming or downloaded is going to someone else. Recently we found a C-level Influencer that forwarded an email invitation to a webinar over 30 times! Influencers often are a “false position” – giving off a signal of intent, but the real need or opportunity is with someone else.
Influencers are great MQL’s, but terrible SQL’s
The upside of Influencers is that they are a key channel for introducing new ideas into organizations. Even better, they’re great at selling people on ideas. They consume a tremendous amount of information from a vast amount of sources, online and offline. Marketers this is your number one personality type to target, but they have a unique preference when it comes to content.
Sales, the good news is Influencers keep a loose schedule and enjoy meeting new people, but don’t chase them. Because of their position in the organization (often senior exec), and their personality type they are off to the next thing.
Influencers don’t usually own projects or budgets, their staff does, and that’s who you need, especially a “Champion” personality. The good news is that they often come back into the deal at the end to deal with any resistance from others in the buying group.
Here’s how to get the most out of leveraging Influencers in the account.
- Give them the right assets. Influencers prefer short highly visual content that travels easily. They LOVE short (30 sec or less) animated videos that they can forward. An interactive infographic that they can play around with it like a moth to the flame. Short, visual content pieces that convey information easily work with them. Additionally, opportunities for people to learn about something like events or webinar invitations also travel well as I mentioned.
- Find them in your data. Since they have a habit of forwarding information, it’s easy to spot them in your data. Look for emails that have been opened multiple times over a 2-3 days period. Once you’ve identified them, see if that pattern repeats on other occasions.
- Tag and track them. You can also use PURLS or forms to track where they’re sending information. This is a key insight, sharing (or forwarding) is a much better indicator of interest than a download or click thru. But that comes with a caveat, where the information lands has to resonate or address an issue that person has currently. Unfortunately, because of the Influencers behavior mentioned above they have a tendency to forward information that never gets actioned.
- Sell them on the idea, not the solution. In all of our research over the years we have only found an Influencer being a blocker on one occasion and it provided an interesting insight. Influencers want credit for the idea.
- Give away ideas. One of our most important clients has an Influencer personality and a CMO title, but he’s never signed a contract. Give away free advice. It will usually come back to you in business from others within the organization.
- Use them to remove blockers. Influencers are present at the beginning of the buyers journey, and they will reappear at the end. In particular, to reinforce the value of the idea or solution. Influencers (hence the name) are very good at selling others on the idea, keep them posted on your progress and use them to get past Blockers in the buyer group.
B2B marketing campaigns are often DOA before they even launch. Why? Because of the influence of sales, we often target titles, roles and budget owners. Sounds pretty common, right? And that would be fine if marketing’s job was to sell…but it’s not.
Our goal as marketers is to grab someone’s attention and have them take action (click on this link, download a piece of content, and register for a webinar). Targeting roles or titles alone doesn’t give us the best opportunity to make that happen. Do you know what does?
Targeting Influencers, but know that they love your ideas or solution more than they love you, your company or brand. It’s nothing personal…it’s just the personality. Influencers play an important role for us as marketers. They react and take action. It’s not personal for us either, it’s just the type of personality that gets us the performance we need.
To read the previous installment of the series, 6 Ways to Engage Champion “Blockers” click here.
by William Walsh | Jul 26, 2022 | 2022
By Scott Gillum
Estimated read time: 5 Minutes
The second of four part series on how to navigate decision making blockers.
Plot twist…in all of our research, we’ve never found Champion personalities to be true blockers. That said, they do exhibit two behavior traits making them appear as if they are blockers.
What is a Champion personality? A Champion is someone who is very driven and career oriented. They make things happen inside organizations. In the book, The Challenger Customer, Champions are referred to as a “Go-Getter Mobilizer” because of their willingness to champion and drive initiatives through the organization. If you’re using DISC segmentation they will be identified as Dominants.
You don’t have to read the book (although you should) or use a personality profiler to identify them. Just go to their LinkedIn page and look at how many different companies and roles they’ve had. If it averages 1 new position or company every year or two, you’ve got one. Champions are very ambitious and climb the corporate ladder quickly, or they will go elsewhere. \
For example, we just finished building an ABM program for a client and found the best example of a Champion we’ve ever seen. He’s been working for 22 years and has had 19 updates (new roles) to his LinkedIn page.
Champions are heads down doers.
Now for the downside, of all the buyers we’ll cover in this series, Champions are the most important to connect with because they drive the buying process. But, they are one of the hardest to engage. Because of their personality, they typically have a lot on their plates and are heads down on delivery.
As a result, you (or someone in the buying group) have to attract their attention by aligning whatever you’re selling against their immediate priorities (in their field of vision), which means you need to know them. Additionally, you have to connect your solution to one of their priorities (fit) and to them personally (motivation).
Here comes the second challenge, because of their career ambitions they are very savvy at reading the organization. If they sense a shift in priorities, or an opportunity to get a greater reward/recognition for another initiative they may drop you like a hot potato. About a third of the “no decision” sales opportunities we evaluated had a Champion shifting priorities.
The game plan for engaging and motivating Champions to stay in the buying process.
- Research their background. I already mentioned what to check for on LinkedIn to identify them. Scan down their profiles and look for certifications and executive education posting. Note what content they are engaging with (Likes and Comments). Look at the groups they belong to and any volunteer experience. You are trying to get a 360 degree view of them as a person, not just a decision maker or budget holder.
- Connect to them personally. Now that you’ve done your homework it’s time to use it. Of the four personality types we’ll cover, the Champion is the one most personally invested in your solution (and brand) and what it can do for them. Personalize your value proposition and DO NOT “BS” this buyer, they will read through it in a second.
- Use relevant examples. Champions like to see themselves in your examples. When pitching them make sure to use case studies or use cases in their industry. Get as close to their situation as possible. Most importantly, connect the results to what it could mean for them professionally and personally.
- Show them off. They are ambitious and looking to advance their career so help them. Feature them as speakers at industry or peer conferences. Highlight their success in case studies, articles and advertising.
- Understand what motivates them. You’re in it for the long haul. If you typically have a buying process longer than a year, your Champion is critical for keeping it moving. They’re your advocate in the buying group, so arm them with the right information that motivates them to continue to fight for your solution.
- Use other people in the buyer group to help sell them. Locate an “Influencer” in the organization and arm them with the information they’ll need to get the Champion excited. They love to “champion” (hence, the descriptor) other people’s ideas, especially Influencers who are “heads up” looking for something new and better.
Unlike Challengers, which skew towards being more male, Champions skew towards being female. Not only do they get things done, they often deliver more than what is expected, which is the reason they climb the ladder so quickly.
Speaking of getting things done, their boss (and the organization) knows they’re good at driving projects forward and over delivering. If the sales process seems to have slowed or stopped, it doesn’t necessarily mean the deal is dead.They may have been asked to take on special projects that are stalled or just a priority for the moment.
As a result, you may find that they may have high engagement early on and then drift off. Stay in contact with them. B2B buying cycles are long, often because of a shift in priorities. If Champions still find a win in your solution they will come back to it.
Finally, if they are successful using your solution or services they will take you with them as they advance to their next position or organization…and then they’ll be your Champion.
To read this first installment of the series, 6 Ways to Get Through and Around Challenger “Blockers” click here.
