skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Five years ago, marketing gurus cautioned us: customers' worldviews had changed.
They no longer trusted institutions of any kind, whether business, government, nonprofit or media.
Arguably, the distrust was deserved. Rascals and reprobates ruled the day's headlines. Kenneth Lay. Bernie Ebbers. Jack Abramoff. Jayson Blair. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
But that wasn't the whole story.
The gurus held out another warning at the time.
Trust—the bedrock of purchasing—had not merely ebbed. It was in near-mortal danger.
As things turned out, the gurus were right. The years of distrust have ended.
We've entered the Age of Suspicion.
Customers today aren't just distrustful. They're downright suspicious.
They no longer give you a pass to treat them as lemming-like receptacles for marketing messages. Instead, they discredit your messages before they've even taken them in.
Everyday objectivity has given way to habitual disbelief. It's as if your attempts to communicate were toxic or, worse, "candy from strangers."
Old-fashioned curiosity, open-mindedness and the benefit of the doubt have vanished. Ordinary trust is a dinosaur.
We see proof of this constantly from public opinion polls.
Recent polls show, for example, that:
- 25% of us doubt President Barack Obama's US citizenship
- 40% think the government is suppressing evidence of extraterrestrial life
- 52% have little or no faith in banks
- 72% believe corporate wrongdoing is widespread
Social scientists teach that trust is a bond based on one person's willingness to become vulnerable to another.
Sadly, that bond has been broken once too often in recent years.
As a result, customers no longer feel safe enough to consider unfamiliar risks, even trivial ones. And their refusal to lower their defenses makes customers virtually immune to most forms of persuasion.
Customers today reject most of the tools that have traditionally functioned as marketers' stock in trade.
Customers no longer tolerate the expert opinion, the reasoned argument, the manufacturer's warranty, the "act now" deadline, or the product-claim based on the avoidance of pain.
If you want to win customers in the Age of Suspicion, you cannot rely on outmoded means of persuasion. You must adjust for mistrust.
To learn how, read my free special report, Path of Persuasion.
Want to succeed in exhibit marketing?
Marketing sage Seth Godin suggests there are only two ways.
The first way to succeed is to steal the show. To stage your company's presence so that it dominates the event.
"When you have the biggest booth, when you are the buzz of the event, when you are everywhere people look, you reinforce your position as the leader," Godin says.
The second way to succeed is to design the interactions. To target the few attendees who'll really benefit by talking to you and leave little to chance.
By "designing these interactions so that this small number of people set out to evangelize their peers on your behalf," you'll come out ahead.
The most common mistakes exhibit marketers make?
- They set out to dominate, but don't spend the money required.
- They chase after every attendee, at the expense of ever getting personal.
For an overwhelming majority of firms, designing the interactions is the smart—and safe—choice.
"If you staff and invest appropriately, you don't have to 'win' the show to make it worth the trip," Godin says. "On the other hand, if you're setting out to win and investing at the appropriate level, you better win."
Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman have been around the block. And it shows.
Coauthors of the new Social Marketing to the Business Customer, Gillin and Schwartzman have the street-smarts to avoid those golly-gee-whiz, social-media-is-just-awesome sort of statements that have grown so wearisome.
Instead, they've produced a sound—and in some instances profound—little book, filled with tactics and tips that any business marketer should find welcome.
Part One argues, convincingly, that despite the relentless attention paid to B2C social media efforts, "B2B companies actually have more to gain from social marketing than their consumer counterparts."
That's because social media mirror many of the needs of business buyers (such as their demands for tons of technical information, open communication, and multi-level relationships with suppliers).
But Gillin and Schwartzman are wise enough to state that social media marketing isn't a "panacea."
In fact, they admit that some B2B marketers may discover social media "has little or no apparent value."
How refreshing!
Part One also provides guidance in two crucial areas, "winning buy-in" and "creating a social organization."
If you struggle to overcome internal critics, you'll do well to study the two chapters devoted to these topics.
Part Two walks you through all the basic social media tools—blogs, podcasts, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, SlideShare, etc.
Here, the authors focus on avoiding risk. And what risk is that? The risk that you'll waste time and money if you choose the wrong—i.e., nonproductive—social media platforms.
A worthwhile consideration indeed.
Part Three relies largely on case studies to examine the best uses of social media for lead generation, which the authors call the "Holy Grail for B2B companies."
You'll learn from the far-ranging experiences of such organizations as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Deloitte, Indium, SAP and Spiceworks.
Without doubt, you'll find this the most rewarding portion of a most rewarding book.
By 2013, there will be 1.7 billion mobile Internet users.
How can you be sure your Website is ready for them?
Self-proclaimed geek Shane Ketterman offers these tips on Copyblogger:
Create smart navigation. Make sure to give readers distinct ways to link to your “cornerstone content.”
Limit the use of images. Limit the number of images to one or two and avoid using Flash and Javascript. Best practice? Stick with HTML.
Employ friendly design. Use plenty of whitespace around paragraphs. Break up long blocks of text and make sure your content is easy to scan.
Write clearly. Make sure to use compelling headlines that let readers know they’re going to have a good experience reading your content. Getting quickly to the point also assures readers can digest your material on their mobile devices, even while they’re distracted with other tasks.
Find more tips for writing clearly in my free special report, Path of Persuasion.
Clicking “Publish” doesn’t have to mean your content has reached the end of its life. With a little ingenuity on your part, it can live on in new incarnations.
Blogger Gautam Hans recommends these seven ways to extend the life of your content:
Guest posts. Reproducing your content as guest posts is a great way to build links and drive traffic to your Website. Write an extract that gives readers a taste of what they can expect if they click through to your site. There’s a good chance they’ll turn into loyal readers.
E-books. Republishing the content of your Website as an e-book is another smart option. An e-book can be used to increase your mailing list. Many people are eager to provide an email address in exchange for a free e-book. Take your work a step up by adding it to the Kindle store. If it’s any good, you’ll make sales.
Membership. If you believe your content’s too valuable to share with just anyone who happens to breeze through your site, consider creating teaser copy and holding the “good stuff” behind a gated area. This is another good way to build your mailing list and add a revenue stream.
PowerPoint slides. Take the key elements of a post and build a set of PowerPoint slides from it that you can add to directories like Slideshare.
Videos. Repurpose your PowerPoint slides into videos, talking the viewer through each set of points.
Podcasts. If you decide to talk through each point, why not also record a Podcast? Ideal material for iTunes.
Evergreen posts. Posts can become dated quickly. Why not freshen up some of your old ones and recycle them?
