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Turn prospects into buyers with apowerful emarketing strategy! “Albee shows how smart business-to-business marketers learnabout buyers, tell a story, and greatly influence the B2B lead-to-saleprocess. This is your guide for Web marketing success.” David Meerman Scott, bestselling author ofThe New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave “A compelling read for both B2B marketing and salesprofessionals alike, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale is a practicaland insightful how-to guide that will enable marketers to drive salesconversions and faster sales results.” David Thompson, CEO, Genius.com, and founder of the Sales 2.0 Conference “Albee lays out a path to understanding buyer personas,building their trust, and delivering contagious content that they want to read.A must-read for B2B marketers looking to engage with today’s buyers.” Steven Woods, CTO, Eloqua, and author of Digital Body Language “If you’re looking for a comprehensive, well-researched, single resource to plan,build, execute, and succeed in your eMarketing efforts, then buy this book!” Barry Trailer, managing partner, CSO Insights “New media, content marketing, social networking . . . Ardath cleverly wraps theseconcepts in a bow and makes this book required reading. . . . Become the expertresource for your customer and watch your business grow.” Joe Pulizzi, coauthor of Get Content Get Customers and founder of Junta42 About the Book Web 2.0 has reshaped the role of marketingin the Complex Sales process. Because prospectsnow have instant access to informationabout your company and its products-andyour competitors-they can make buying decisionswithout ever communicating with you.Doing what you’ve always done simply won’twork anymore; you must entirely rethink howyou attract and compel buying behavior. With eMarketing Strategies for the ComplexSale, expert B2B marketing strategist ArdathAlbee breaks new ground in the field of digitalmarketing and new customer acquisition.Albee offers techniques and tools for developingand executing strategies that are guaranteedto generate results. The Internet offers an unprecedented opportunityfor creating trusted relationshipswith your prospects and customers-beforeyou ever “meet” them. Never before havemarketers enjoyed such a wide-reaching andvaried communication platform. Yet with allthe noise, you have to stand above the crowd.The key is to converse about meaningful andrelevant topics with your diverse audiences,to share your perspectives on what matters tothem. That’s just what Albee teaches us to do. eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale sharesmethods to help you: Create eMarketing strategies basedon customer perspectives Use a contagious content structurefor competitive differentiation Establish trusted relationships Continuously measure, tune, andimprove your effectiveness eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Salealso shares proven approaches to collaboratingwith sales. You can leverage eMarketingto move leads further into the pipeline whilefocusing sales time and energy on highlyqualified opportunities. The results? Reducedtime to sales, increased sales productivity, andgrowing revenues. eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Salereveals processes critical to ensuring that youmake a powerful, measurable contribution tothe lengthy sales process-and to the longtermsuccess of your organization as a whole. Ardath Albee is CEO and B2B marketing strategist for her consulting firm Marketing Interactions, Inc. She uses over 20 years of business management and marketing experience to help her clients create customer-focused e-marketing strategies that generate more sales-ready prospects. Her articles have appeared in CRM Today, Selling Power, B2B Magazine, Rain Today’s Special Reports, and Enterprise CRM News. Foreword by Jill Konrath xi Foreword by Brian Carroll xv Acknowledgments xix PART I: eMarketing Essentials Chapter 1: Why eMarketing Is a Big Opportunity for Complex Sales 3 .The Shift to Self-Education 7 .Six Things to Change About Your Content and Communications 8 .Ofine versus Online 10 .What You Need to Know 11 Chapter 2: The Mutual Rewards of eMarketing Strategies 13 .Rewards for Your Company and You 14 .Rewards for Them (Your Customers and Prospects) 17 .Shaping the Story 19 PART II: Customer Consensus Chapter 3: Using Personas to Understand Your Customers 23 .Customer Prles-The Wide-Angle Lens 25 .Why a Persona Is Different from a Prle 27 .Creating Personas 29 Chapter 4: Leverage Your Buyer Synopsis 33 .Create a Buyer Synopsis 34 .Use Social Media for Persona Development 37 .Personalization-One Step at a Time 39 Chapter 5: The Buying Process 41 .The Role of Content in the Buying Process 43 .Apply Content to Personas 46 PART III : Natural Nurturing Chapter 6: Put the Natural in Nurturing 51 .Create a Conversational Context 53 .The Role of Rich Media 56 .Leverage Inbound Interactions 59 Chapter 7: Capitalize on Cause 63 .From Status Quo to Priority Shift 65 .Become the Anchor 66 .Keep Your Assumptions on Track 67 .Create Content that Pulls Buyers Forward 69 Chapter 8: Construct a Framework for Content Strategy Execution 73 .Assemble a Natural-Nurturing Track 75 .Syndication Expands Nurturing Reach 77 .Frequency, Reach, and Shift 78 .HubSpot Attracts Customers at Unprecedented Rates: A Case Study 79 .Effective Nurturing Execution 81 .Remember Your Existing Customers 83 PART IV: Contagious Content Chapter 9: Why Contagious Content Increases Engagement 87 .Relevance Is King 89 .Simplicity Trumps Volume 90 .Contagious Content Requires Planning 92 Chapter 10: Content Structure for Competitive Differentiation 95 .Education-What Buyers Need to Know 97 .Expertise-Why Your Company Is the High-Value Choice 99 .Evidence-Let Your Customers Do the Talking 100 .Sales Conversational Briefs 102 .DealerOn-Contagious Content in Execution: A Case Study 103 Chapter 11: Create Content to Increase Attraction Value 107 .Urgency-Why Your Message Is Important-Now! 108 .Impact-What’s in It for Them? 110 .Effort-The Perceived Energy Required to Pay Attention 111 .Reputation-What’s Known about Your Company 112 .Intent-What Your Audience Thinks You Want 113 .Examples of How Catch Factors Can Inuence Behavior 115 .An Example of Catch Factors in e-Mail Messages 116 .Why Catch Factors Are Important for Today’s Marketers 118 Chapter 12: Design Your Marketing Story 121 .The Signicance of Stories 123 .Stories Instigate Momentum 124 .Design Content to Create Mindshare 126 .Authorial Styles-Which to Use When 128 .Quick Guide to Writing a Marketing Story Article 131 Chapter 13: Expand Story Impact with Ampliers 133 .The Nature of Ampliers 134 .Focus Squarely on the Customer 141 PART V: Persistent Progression Chapter 14: How to Facilitate Prospect Progression 145 .Intellitactics Increases Qualied Demand: A Case Study 146 .Tell Me More … 149 .The Gift of Going Wide 153 .Conversations Accelerate Nurturing Progression 154 .Buyer Evolution 156 Chapter 15: Scoring for Prospect Progression 159 .Points for Content-Driven Interactions 161 .Marketo Walks Its Talk: A Case Study 164 .Microsites 166 .E-Mail Newsletters 168 .Progressing Prospects to Sales 169 Chapter 16: Alignment Accelerates Progression 173 .The Handoff and the Take-Back 175 .Inuencers and Detractors 176 .Incorporating Insights 177 .Create a Useful Sales Portal 180 .End-Game Stamina 183 Chapter 17: Stories that Progress Sales Conversations 185 .Conversational Gambits 187 .Customers Like Them 189 .Attainable Objectives 191 .Presentations with Punch 192 PART VI: Meaningful Metrics Chapter 18: Quantifying Marketing Results 197 .Engagement Metrics 199 .Origination Sources for Opt-In Programs 203 .Marketing’s Impact on Sales 205 Chapter 19: Opportunity Quality and Sales Results 211 .Opportunity Quality 212 .Sales Results 213 Chapter 20: Feedback and Dialogue 219 .In Tune and In Touch 221 .Story Ideas from Third Parties 223 .Applied Listening 225 .Improved Personalization 226 Chapter 21: Social Contributions 229 .Virtual Engagement 231 .Participation Speaks Volumes 232 .The Value of Social Media 235 Notes 237 Index 240 About the Author 250
