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Hosting is intangible and commodity based. Look at it from your prospects' perspective: there are a lot of choices and everyone seems to look and sound the same. The answer is to stop dumping feature lists, product data and marketing jargon on your prospects. Knowing what the Buyer experience is, will allow us to market to our prospects better. Sell the emotional benefits of your product. Trust, security, competition, belonging, control, freedom, leadership, assurance, and even fear. B2B buyers innately have a fear of making the wrong decision. How you do that is through visuals, the tone of your copy, and through affirming the buyers decision that you are the right vendor for them. Employ the ETC Marketing Model to inject emotion into your marketing and connect with your buyer. "E" is for Emotional Benefits, "T" is for Triggers with Association, and "C" is for Content of Value. Learn the strategy and 5 ETC things you can do today to improve return on your marketing.
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The Art of Selling Space ReduxBy Makiko AraDirector of Digital Mediahttp://totalproductmarketing.com
Growing the Cloud and Hosting Industry
How do we make the cloud easier to
access and manage?
How do we connect to our buyer better?
How do we convince our buyer
that the Cloud is secure and stable.
The Marketing Pains of the Cloud and Hosting Industry
A Very Crowded Market• Providers tend to look and sound the same
Growth by Referrals• Regular marketing hasn’t been necessary
Lack of Resources• Budget and Team
Common Marketing Traps...
• Too much emphasis on functionality• A race to-the-bottom• Lack of creativity
B2B buyers are human. You are still selling to a Consumer on the other side of the screen. Decisions are not 100% objective.
… How Do Customers Buy Hosting
• Reactive not proactive
• There’s Amazon, GoDaddy, Rackspace and everybody else...right?
• Difficult to quantify and measure the differences
Everybody is secure, right?
I’ve been burned before.
Who can I trust?
`
So the worst thing you can do...
Focus too much on functionality!
B2B Buyers Make Decisions Based on Emotions
The traditional marketing strategy for technology branding has looked like this:
Time, Money, Energy, Resources Spent
#1 Functional: > 90%#2 Economical: < 10%#3 Emotional: < 1%
B2B decision making is largely irrational, so consider the consumer’s needs before your offerings.Mohanbir Sawhney, Professor of Technology at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management
See No Difference in Functionality
http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/promotion-emotion-b2b.html
QUESTION:Do you see a real difference between suppliers and value the difference enough to pay for it?
14%
NO86%
What if you…• Focus on Emotional Benefits
• Be unique and tout your specializations (be best of breed) and relate to the buyer
• Employ creativity and use your limited marketing dollars wisely
• Create the anticipation of professional and personal rewards
The Mind of the New (B2B) Buyer
A new breed of B2B buyer• Consumes content like water• Extremely self-sufficient for research• Extremely impatient and impulsive• Values trust and referrals
But...
The new breed of B2B buyer is still emotional creature that despite great attempts to cover it up in the form of ROI
analyses, hosting provider comparison matrices, technical evaluations and the like… is often driven by
FEAR. (the unknown, wrong decision, failure)
And other emotions that connect...Trust, Security, Competition, Belonging, Control, Freedom, Leadership, and even Guilt.
The 3 Benefits That You Must Convey
A B2B technology brand should convey 3 benefits to its B2B Buyer as part of their positioning message.
FUNCTIONALBENEFIT
ECONOMICBENEFIT
EMOTIONALBENEFIT
But Playing On Emotion is Not New
Remember these ads:
“10 out of 12 Healthcare Companies Use Oracle”
Why Add Emotion to Your Marketing
The emotional brain processes sensory information in one fifth of the time our cognitive brain takes to assimilate the same input.
http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-emotion-in-marketing
People feel first, think second
Trust is more valuable than data.
Leverage the ETC Marketing Model
EMOTIONALBENEFITS
TRIGGERS WITHASSOCIATION
CONTENT OFVALUE
#1: Promote Emotional Benefits
Sell on emotion. What does your product help the customer accomplish. How will they feel?
Why Add Emotion to Your Marketing
http://blog.bufferapp.com/science-of-emotion-in-marketingCase study following 1400 advertising campaigns measuring the
economic success of campaigns sorted by emotional content.
EMOTIONAL COMBINED RATIONAL
31% 26% 16%
#2: Triggers with Association
Using memorable triggers in your marketing to remind buyers of what makes you remarkable.
Triggers Help Buyers Remember You
www.geico.com
Exciting and Remarkable Content
www.willitblend.com
High perceived value content EQUALS
High perceived value of products, services & company
#3: Create Content of Value
Lawn Mowing
Child Care
Medical Clinic
Cos
t of S
ervi
ce
Complexity of Service
Janitorial
Courier
Insurance
Accountant
Consultant
Hosting
Customer’s Expectations for Quality of Marketing Content
Leverage the ETC Marketing Model
EMOTIONALBENEFITS
TRIGGERS WITHASSOCIATION
CONTENT OFVALUE
Insurance - A Parallel IndustryHosting and Insurance Industry
● Protecting our business and livelihood● Highly competitive industry● Commodity providers, premium providers and specialists● Disaster recovery has the same implications● Competitive research usually done on the web
What Can We Learn?● Marketing to emotion● The Insurance Agent is the trusted advisor● Off the shelf plans with customization● Established brands firebomb. Newer players enter with a
specialized angle.
Conclusion:Your Take Home Action Plan
5 ETC Things You Can Do Today
Visuals and photos that reflect the emotions and experiences of your prospective customers.
Piggyback on your customers’ brands and associated value, in a meaningful way. What they stand for, you will stand for.
Example photos
Specialize. Admit you’re not good at everything and focus on what you are good at. Sharpen your message. Make it meaningful.
Example photos
If you are selling support and specialized solutions, incorporate photos of team members as part of your brand. This is an easy but often over-looked way to connect at a human level with your customers.
Create a Jargon dictionary of commonly used words in your sector and remove them from your material. Use real words that resonate with the buyer.
A
CB
8 … 7 … 6 … 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1
?
1. Use visuals to depict the emotions of your buyer
2. Piggyback on your clients’ associated value
3. Focus on your specialization
4. Use photos of your staff to connect to your buyer
5. Remove jargon and use real words
5 ETC Things to do Today
Bonus Take-Away
Create customer-focused products as a starting point for discussion for selling.
Why Productize Your “Custom” Product
• Kill the “We can do anything” message.• Hone in on your strengths and play those up.• Specialize. Specialize. Specialize.
The product provides insight into how you service your clients.Address the pain points. Be the trusted advisor.
The Product as a Starting Point
Emotions Drive Buying Decisions
Trust is More Valuable Than Data
Emotional Benefits• Motivate action through emotion
Triggers with Association• Be memorable with triggers
Content of Value• High perceived value content = High perceived
value of company
Total Product Marketing
Makiko Ara, Director of Digital [email protected] 1.855.646.86621.855.6.GOTOMARKETwww.totalproductmarketing.com
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