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.

Top Spam Words and Phrases--Updated April 2010

The following is a list of the top 80 words and phrases common to business-to-business media identified to trigger spam filters. This list was updated in April of 2010. At the end of this list are spam triggers specific to Microsoft Outlook.

In addition to these words triggering e-mail spam filters, use of these phrases within web pages can negatively effect SEO/SEM efforts.

Finally, from our understanding Google can now (to some extent at least) read words within photos. Therefore, these words/phrases should be avoided within photos and other graphics within digital media efforts.

100% satisfied
Accept credit cards
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Amazing
Hidden' assets
Amazing
Apply online
Bargain
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Cents on the dollar
Check
Click Below
Click to remove
Compare rates
Compete for your business
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Investment decision
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Microsoft Outlook: Spam Words To Avoid In Your Emails (2/10)

First 8 characters of From are digits
Subject contains “advertisement”
Body contains “money back ”
Body contains “cards accepted”
Body contains “removal instructions”
Body contains “extra income”
Subject contains “!” AND Subject contains “$”

The Difference between Social Media and Social Networks

by Greg Satell

Twitter is a social network, but social networks are not Twitter.

Much of the hype about social media obscures a vastly greater opportunity. Although social media types love to tell the rest of us that we “just don’t get it,” the fact is that very few social “gurus”s have actually taken the time to learn anything about social networks.

Happily, the joke is on them. Social networks are where the real money is. Read More

The Primal Forces that Drive Social Networks

Fascinating. You may need to "hang on" a little bit, but the network theories touched upon in this article, if strategically applied could have a powerful effect on marketing campaigns and approaches.

The Primal Forces That Drive Social Networks
by Greg Satell

Social Networks are revolutionizing how we view our world. People are connecting, businesses are being created or transformed, and the world seems like a smaller place. As with any transformation on a grand scale, a plethora of consultants, gurus, blogs, and how-to books have risen to meet the demand for information about the social revolution.

However, it is very rare to hear anything about the underlying forces that actually drive the social network phenomenon. Read More

Social Media Trends at Fortune 100 Companies

Interesting summary from Mashable regarding the prevelance and increased importance of social media amongst the Fortune 100.




Click here to read the article.

Delivering Value. Abandoning Extortion.

Two great annoyances in my life are air travel change fees and the pricing strategy of replacement printer ink cartridges.

I will confess to being frugal, but I am not cheap. I will gladly and cheerfully pay for value. However, I am infuriated every time I hand my credit card to an airline ticket counter agent for four minutes worth of work to confirm my standby seat on a flight with empty seats. I am equally, if not more irritated, every time I replace a printer ink cartridge and pay nearly as much for the ink cartridge as I did for the printer.

Why do I find these costs so annoying? Largely because I am trapped. The airline and the printer companies are treating me like a rat in a maze, not a valued customer. If I want to print, if I want to go home, I have to play the game by their rules.

The companies in both the airline and the computer printer industries act in concert with one another leaving me, as the customer, essentially powerless. It is the sense of powerlessness, the feeling and the reality that I am paying a hefty price because “they have me” that I find so unpleasant.

Every company needs to make a profit in order to survive and thrive. I want my preferred suppliers in both my business and personal lives to make a fair profit so that they may continue to provide the products and/or services I procure from them. However, I want to feel valued, not manipulated. I know that I am not alone in this desire.

I have been thinking a lot about this dynamic as it relates to my business (publishing) and we continue to strive to build value into our programs and offerings. In the publishing business we used to have a number of high-profit, low-value revenue centers. Or, areas where the price was out of line with the value being delivered. Nearly all of these revenue centers have been squeezed out over the course of the last several years, which I think is a good thing.

Are there areas in your business where you change customers a lot of money just because you can? Low-value, unfairly high-profit revenue that irritates your customers? If so, it makes sense to me to think about reducing or eliminating these areas. I do not mean take a voluntary revenue reduction as few of us can afford that especially within this economic climate. But, perhaps look at ways to turn annoying, low-value fees into a high-value deliverable.

If an airline offered me no-charge flexibility when they can, they would have a customer for life. I am not asking an airline to secure a seat for me that they could sell. But, it would make me really happy if they offered me flexibility when they have empty seats available. Twenty empty seats are not going to be sold 50 minutes before take off…great opportunity to make me happy and build value rather than forcing me to pay a fee. Maybe they have the opportunity to increase their revenues by selling “jump seat passes.” Not for consumers to literally sit in the jump seats, but an annual pass that would offer more flexibility to pass holders.

Could a printer company charge a fair price for their printers, a fair price for their replacement ink cartridges and perhaps keep their revenue flowing by offering feature add-ons or software downloads for a fee that would enhance the functionality of the printer? If the add-on or download adds value, I will gladly pay for it.

Within previous posts I made a number of recent comments about the book “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis. In his book, Mr. Jarvis points out a fascinating aspect of Google and some of the other very large internet players like Craig’s List and EBay. Many of these internet players operate on a model of charging as little as possible rather than the traditional approach of charging “what the market will bear.”

To me this is a fascinating idea and one that I am thinking a lot about. Most of us have and need to have business models much different than that of Google or Craig’s List, but what does apply is that most of the current internet giants have built value into every aspect of their businesses. I don’t believe that the same can be said of many more traditional businesses/industries…at times, even my own.

4 Elements of a Successful Business Website

A really great Mashable.com post that outlines in an easy to digest way the very basics of a business website.

What’s the most important piece of your business’s web presence? Your website, of course.

Creating a website requires a good deal of thought; it’s important to plan what information you want on the site, what the layout will look like, and how you’ll connect each piece together.

Think of your website as your hub; it’s what people will see when they look for you. Here are four elements of a successful business web presence that can help ensure that your first impression is a good one.

Click here to read more