Continuing on the dating/b2b marketing theme, the following is an Eloqua lead nurturing webcast that I think that you might find helpful. Click here to access the webcast.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Webinar: What Your Love Life & Lead Nurturing Having in Common?
Continuing on the dating/b2b marketing theme, the following is an Eloqua lead nurturing webcast that I think that you might find helpful. Click here to access the webcast.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Revisiting the B2B Marketing - Dating Comparison
Early in 2009 I wrote a posted entitled B2B Marketing and Dating - A Parallel for Consideration.
I wrote this post because I really do believe that the seduction effective marketing programs demand is in a lot of ways quite similar to dating.
Yesterday I had lunch with a couple of smart clients whose opinions and insights I really respect. That conversations simulated additional thought on the b2b marketing/dating comparison.
It might be easier for many of us to see the comparison I am making if we look at consumer marketing. There is no question that the marketing programs of car, perfume, clothing companies, as well as many other categories are working hard to seduce us.
Is there a comparable seduction required to sell solutions like valves, motors, business software solutions...? I contend yes. Of course, effective b2b marketing needs to be more informational than a perfume ad AND b2b marketers need to tap into different emotions. But, effective b2b marketing still needs to seduce human beings.
For instance, clothing companies targeting my demographic work to tap into the fact that every woman wants to feel pretty, most want to feel thinner, many want to express their personalities via the clothes they wear. So, to a prospective woman customer in her late thirties/forties, clothing companies will likely present a pretty, sensual woman who is thin (but not too thin) and who has a fun, dynamic and sparkling personality. What woman of my age does not want to feel fun, pretty and that she still has "it?"
We all are the same emotional creatures when we walk into our offices...we just tap into different emotions. We want to feel smart, successful, upwardly mobile, safe/we are making the right decisions, less burdened, less stressed, like a hero to our customers and colleagues. I believe most of us often experience quite complex and deep emotions via our professional activities. Career satisfaction study after career satisfaction study clearly demonstrate that our jobs are not "just a job."
I don't know about you, but I can begrudgingly accept not being as thin as I used to be and having a few wrinkles here and there. BUT, I cannot accept feeling that I am failing. I don't think that these feeling are particularly unique to me.
So as b2b marketers we do need to seduce our customers and prospects--can we make them know that they will be heroes, make them more effective/successful, convince them that as solution suppliers we will not let them down?
And....just as when we are dating, can we accomplish this in an appropriate fashion that respects and embraces the emotional beings we all are?
In a dating situation, if we try to move too fast or if we violate our beloved's trust we will experience a lot of rejection and quick cooling of budding passions. Similarly, in a b2b marketing situation if we violate trust, try to move too quickly our conversion rates will suffer horribly....or to look at it another way, many potential customers will abandon potential engagement.
Check out the parable within the B2B Marketing and Dating - A Parallel for Consideration post and let me know what you think.
I wrote this post because I really do believe that the seduction effective marketing programs demand is in a lot of ways quite similar to dating.
Yesterday I had lunch with a couple of smart clients whose opinions and insights I really respect. That conversations simulated additional thought on the b2b marketing/dating comparison.
It might be easier for many of us to see the comparison I am making if we look at consumer marketing. There is no question that the marketing programs of car, perfume, clothing companies, as well as many other categories are working hard to seduce us.
Is there a comparable seduction required to sell solutions like valves, motors, business software solutions...? I contend yes. Of course, effective b2b marketing needs to be more informational than a perfume ad AND b2b marketers need to tap into different emotions. But, effective b2b marketing still needs to seduce human beings.
For instance, clothing companies targeting my demographic work to tap into the fact that every woman wants to feel pretty, most want to feel thinner, many want to express their personalities via the clothes they wear. So, to a prospective woman customer in her late thirties/forties, clothing companies will likely present a pretty, sensual woman who is thin (but not too thin) and who has a fun, dynamic and sparkling personality. What woman of my age does not want to feel fun, pretty and that she still has "it?"
We all are the same emotional creatures when we walk into our offices...we just tap into different emotions. We want to feel smart, successful, upwardly mobile, safe/we are making the right decisions, less burdened, less stressed, like a hero to our customers and colleagues. I believe most of us often experience quite complex and deep emotions via our professional activities. Career satisfaction study after career satisfaction study clearly demonstrate that our jobs are not "just a job."
I don't know about you, but I can begrudgingly accept not being as thin as I used to be and having a few wrinkles here and there. BUT, I cannot accept feeling that I am failing. I don't think that these feeling are particularly unique to me.
So as b2b marketers we do need to seduce our customers and prospects--can we make them know that they will be heroes, make them more effective/successful, convince them that as solution suppliers we will not let them down?
And....just as when we are dating, can we accomplish this in an appropriate fashion that respects and embraces the emotional beings we all are?
In a dating situation, if we try to move too fast or if we violate our beloved's trust we will experience a lot of rejection and quick cooling of budding passions. Similarly, in a b2b marketing situation if we violate trust, try to move too quickly our conversion rates will suffer horribly....or to look at it another way, many potential customers will abandon potential engagement.
Check out the parable within the B2B Marketing and Dating - A Parallel for Consideration post and let me know what you think.
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