Message Maps, Frameworks, and More: Decrypting the Differences for the B2B Marketer

/in , , /by
Share this entry

It’s typically standard practice for B2B marketers to lead the development or enhancement of an organization’s messaging. What’s not standard, however is how marketers label a messaging development effort. In our experience we’ve seen tech marketers use any or all of the following when attempting to describing a messaging creation effort.

  • Message map
  • Messaging framework
  • Message house
  • Message architecture
  • Messaging matrix
  • Messaging hierarchy
  • …and more

With so many different terms all used in varying degrees, there is the potential for some initial confusion. What distinctions are there between these terms and approaches? How significant are those distinctions?

Given how often we see this confusion we thought a short primer that can help decrypt those differences would be useful. In this article, we’ll take a look at all the different ways a company can organize its messaging, and exactly what a marketer will focus on when approaching the problem form a particular point of view – message map, message house, etc.

Finally, we’ll dive deeper into the specifics of how to develop great B2B messaging – regardless of how it’s structured.

The Rundown: Different Options For Structuring Messaging

Message Map

A message map lays out a company’s positioning for their product or solution in the format of a map. It will typically start with a key value prop, followed by key messaging points and supporting details that explain the benefits of the product or solution to a specific buyer persona.

The supporting information can include examples, proof points, or even customer quotes. Some marketers may prefer to keep those supporting details in an appendix that are ready for external use.

Pros + Cons: Message maps offer a great visual representation of an organization’s messaging. It allows for a quick snapshot of the core value prop, followed by key and supporting points. However, it may not provide the space necessary to provide a detailed and strong set of supporting points.

Messaging Framework

A messaging framework lays out an organization’s key value prop(s), messaging pillars, and supporting proof points in more of a grid-like format. Messaging frameworks generally offer more space to be descriptive and detailed.

Messaging frameworks can be flexible about which details make most sense to include. They will typically include specific personas, industries, and company size segments. They may also include elements like short and long-form positioning statements, customer pain points, and the brand tone to use.

Pros + Cons: Frameworks provide the room that’s needed to include thorough and comprehensive copy, allowing marketers to get into great depth with each framework element. However, this copy-heavy format many not be as scannable as other potential formats.

 

Message House

As the name suggests, a message house organizes an company’s messaging in the outline of a house. At the top of the house is the roof which contains an “umbrella message” that is meant to convey the primary value proposition. The three columns each have a supporting pillar message. The foundation includes the supporting details such as proof points, examples, and testimonials.

Pros + Cons: Similar to a message map, message houses are also great for creating a more visual impact. The structure of the house provides a strong visual indication as to how each message component supports the company’s main message. However, an additional appendix may be needed to provide the additional depth needed for certain audience segments.

 

Message Architecture

A message architecture addresses the key messages each persona or stakeholder needs to hear, based on their needs and how the product or service will benefit those needs.

Additionally, a message architecture will outline key objections or concerns that each persona is likely to have and your company’s responses to those objections. Those responses should be persuasive, well-reasoned and include supporting proof points such as case studies, third-party research, and more.

Pros + Cons: A messaging architecture offers a more persona focused way of organizing your messaging. This format may be particularly helpful for sales teams; however, it may not provide overall, foundational messaging that marketers need that crosses all of the company’s target personas and solutions.

Messaging Matrix

A messaging matrix is a chart that allows companies to create distinct messaging by persona and channel (email, social, paid ads, etc.). This is particularly useful when developing content to reach prospective customers at different stages in the buyer journey.

Pros + Cons: Similar to message architecture, a messaging matrix concentrates less on the behind-the-scenes internal messaging that guides an organization. Instead, it focuses more on how to activate it that messaging. Messaging matrixes are great for developing a plan that effectively targets personas and the channels they pay attention to. However, this approach has the same flaw as a messaging architecture in that it doesn’t typically provide overarching messaging for the company as a whole.

The Verdict: How Should B2B Marketers Structure Their Messaging?

Each messaging format provides a different visual representation of an organization’s messaging. Although very similar, there are differences in how they can be best utilized.

Message maps, houses, and pyramids are all similar in the fact that they are very visual in nature and can provide a clear snapshot of an organization’s messaging at a quick glance. They can be very useful when an organization is misaligned on it’s messaging efforts all up. At the same time, more visual approaches like message maps limit the amount of information that can be effectively conveyed at a glance. This can be a problem for more complex solutions or for companies who target a number of different verticals, solution areas, or personas.

Messaging frameworks give the space needed for marketers to delve deep into the specifics of each messaging pillar and supporting points. This added depth makes it easy to keep various marketers, and sales teams aligned, when it comes to in-depth customer facing messaging. However, such a format can lose the forest for the trees, in that a clear understanding of a single clear brand promise, tagline, or top line messaging pillar can be harder to connect with.

Message architecture and messaging matrixes focus more on how an organization would go about activating these messages and how to use different messages while targeting different personas via different channels. These are helpful for marketers who have already established their organization’s foundational messaging, and are thinking about the best ways to activate that messaging.

Ultimately, any marketer needs to make a choice when it comes to these formats. Is it more important for me provide detail and direction or vision. Once that decision is made, the choice of model – or at least a category of models – becomes that much easier.

B2B Messaging: How to Make a Significant Impact

Aristotle once said, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” This insight can apply to messaging efforts as well. While all of the models discussed previously provide a way to structure the parts of a messaging effort, the parts themselves only add up to so much. A great messaging development effort ultimately focuses on how all of the messaging will impact customers over the buyer’s journey. It is this “sum of the whole” that marketers need to keep their eye on.

As a way for marketers to stay focused on this end goal, we developed a checklist to help determine if 1.) they’ve met the baseline of what’s essential to any set of messages, 2.) they’ve elevated their messaging into the realm of being highly effective, or 3.) their messaging actually contains some red flags.

Table Stakes B2B Messaging: What’s Essential

These are the critical components that need to be included in any B2B organization’s messaging:

Key Value Proposition/Brand Promise
Critical to any organization’s messaging is their key value proposition. A brand promise or similar, describes, in a nutshell, what is most important about your organization and what sets it apart from competitors.

Messaging Pillars
Organizations use messaging pillars to elaborate on their key value prop. Messaging pillars branch out and expand upon the different key messages that target personas care most about.

Proof Points, Facts, Etc.
Some claims made in a messaging pillar or value prop will need to be supported by an outside, third party source. For example, if a messaging pillar includes a reference to your technology solution being “number one” or “industry-leading” in a certain area, that needs to be backed up by independent research of some kind. Without those proof points, marketers won’t be changing any minds. Worse yet, they could actually be alienating potential customers with claims they consider to be dubious.

Elevating Your Message: How to Make it Truly Resonate

To elevate the content of your messaging so that it captures the attention of prospective buyers and inspires them to act, marketers should ensure the messaging is:

Tailored To Specific Personas, Industries, And Company Size Segments
Messaging that speaks to the right person is the first step toward delivering a message that will resonate. Once you’ve identified which role at a certain sized company and in a specific industry that you will be targeting in your messaging, then you can speak to that person’s specific fears, risks, and challenges they face within their roles. You can speak to the meaningful career goals your solution can help them achieve, and highlight the exact features of your solution that they would care most about. This level of specificity is the crucial first step toward building out messaging that will motivate them to learn more.

Truly Differentiated
Great B2B messaging requires differentiators that actually stand out. This seems obvious. But unfortunately in B2B tech great differentiators are hard to come by. To ensure your messaging is truly differentiated, it needs to be:

Unique from competitors

Before crafting your own messaging, perform an analysis of your competitors’ messaging. Do you notice any gaps that your offering can cover? Are there certain features or benefits that your competitors don’t have or that they are not highlighting? Are there certain areas where your offering could do something better or improve upon what a competitor is offering? Those are opportunities for you to message something that’s different from what’s out there.

Specific

Avoid copy that could be considered generic and vague. Your messaging should be explicit in explaining exactly who the solution is intended for and how that will benefit them. Furthermore, the messaging should make clear the types of customers, organizations, or personas that it would not be a good fit for.

Valuable to the buyer

According to the B2B Elements of Value pyramid, B2B buyers have a spectrum of priorities, beginning with table stakes elements like price, capabilities, and features. Higher needs like their own personal fears, risks, and challenges, however, is where differentiation begins to occur. If your brand or solution is tied with a competitor on table stakes, your peak elements of value might get you over the line with your buyers.

Backed By Research
Market research helps to set a strong foundation for which effective messaging can be built upon. For example, buyer persona research can help to identify which roles in the buying teams carry the most influence, what they care most about, and how your solution could potentially benefit them. Message testing can help make clear which messages resonate best with which audiences. These kinds of insights can provide the information that’s needed to build effective messaging that’s rooted in fact, not intuition.

B2B Messaging Red Flags: What to Leave Out

Does your messaging contain any of the following problems? Unfortunately, much of B2B tech messaging is flooded with these common mistakes. Take a look and see if you may be turning buyers away with:

People-Pleasing: Trying to be all Things for all People
B2B messaging should always clarify what the product or service does not do. Being upfront about your solution’s limitations saves buyers’ time and reduces confusion. Forcing buyers to dig through your website looking for what you don’t do leaves them frustrated. They know that before their organization invests a significant amount of money into this purchase, they’ll need to know what the limits are of that solution. Making that easy to find builds trust; making it difficult to find leaves a sour first impression.

Worse still, glossing over limitations leads to frustrated customers later when they realize they didn’t get what they paid for. That leads to churn and bad reviews, which turns other prospective buyers away.

Conversely, clearly laying out your solution’s limitations gives buyers an accurate picture of how best they can utilize it. The majority of buyers want to understand the cons of a product or service before purchase. Filling in the information gaps for them can only be mutually beneficial.

Buzzwords
What do phrases like “digital transformation”, “robust ecosystem”, or “scalable” all have in common? Well, they’re used constantly in B2B tech messaging, yet they don’t really mean a whole lot to buyers.

The problem with these terms is that they don’t provide any real, concrete descriptions or examples of what they will do for buyers and how they might benefit from them. On top of that, competitors are all using these same terms, so you’re losing your ability to differentiate.

Inauthentic Or Unsubstantiated Claims
It’s tempting to develop a messaging strategy that overemphasizes the inspirational, uplifting, and idealistic aspects of your brand. However, sometimes marketers may take it too far, moving into the realm of inauthenticity. B2B buyers are inherently cautious and skeptical of this type of messaging.

B2B buyers also have a dim view of any marketing boasts they see that don’t come with proof. Making claims like being the “fastest” with no statistics and competitor comparisons provides no useful information for your buyers. Worse yet, it can mislead and/or turn them off if they try to gain clarity by googling to figure out if your boasts are true and it turns out that they are unsubstantiated by any reputable third party sites.

Moving Beyond the Message Map

American writer Richard Bach once said “Judge not by the form of the messenger, but the form of the message itself.”

B2B messaging can come in a myriad of forms. However, how that messaging is organized internally – whether it’s through a message map, or framework, or house, or anything else – is typically of less significance than the impact of the messaging.

Effective messaging will instantly capture the attention of the desired persona and inspire them to learn more. Free from buzzwords, people-pleasing, and inauthentic claims, great B2B messaging stands out from the competition.

If that sounds like something you’re interested in, then give us a call. We can organize your messaging in a way that makes sense for your organization. Most importantly, however, we’ll deliver targeted, focused, and differentiated messaging that inspires action.

This blog post is brought to you by Cascade Insights, a firm that provides market research and marketing services exclusively to organizations with B2B tech sector initiatives. Want to learn more about the specific messaging that we deliver? Our B2B Messaging services can help.

4 market Research Studies Every BioTech Startup Needs

4 Market Research Studies Every Biotech Startup Needs

/in , , , , , /by
Share this entry

In 2020, the biotech industry experienced a boom in venture capitalist (VC) funding. Of course, that increase was spurred by the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. But even after vaccine rollouts, funding continued to climb in all areas of biotech until 2022. This year, funding dropped nearly 40 percent.

Read more

4 Ways B2B Buyer Persona Research Supports the Sales Process

/in , , , /by
Share this entry

What was the last movie you watched? Maybe it was Top Gun: Maverick or Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Now, imagine that you’re a cast member on the set of one of these movies. If you have the movie script, you’re going to understand each character’s role in the movie, what their lines are, and what motivates them. In fact, if you understand the story well enough, you might just improvise an iconic scene. However, if you show up to set without a script, you won’t know what the story is, what your lines are, or how you should even respond to the characters around you.

The same idea applies to B2B sales. Fundamentally, you need to understand how the buyers and stakeholders in your target accounts talk to each other and how they embark on and conclude a buying journey. Buyer personas give you a sense of how these conversations start, end, and what type of “dialogue” each character uses. Most importantly, buyer personas give you a broader view of the decision making process.

Don’t Fast Forward Through Your Buyer Personas

One of the most common mistakes salespeople make is the failure to recognize that there are several decision makers involved in the buying process. In fact, Gartner reported that an average of six to 10 people are involved in most buying decisions. Our experience shows that many sales teams struggle to even identify five roles involved in the decision making process.

Moreover, Buying Facilitation author Sharon Drew Morgen calls out a key point about sales when she states, “a seller is in a unique position to serve a buyer by helping them discover the how, what, when, where, and why needed to solve a problem within the parameters of their culture.” She follows a bit later in her book with this key point as well, “[a single] buyer cannot know all of the answers to your questions because the odds are huge that they have a decision team working with them.” 

So, how does a seller go from not knowing an organization to understanding their culture? How does a seller go from knowing one member of a buying team to understanding the needs of the entire buying team? 

First, sales teams need to slow down and ensure they are meeting the needs of each stakeholder. The best way to do this is to establish some baselines as to what a typical stakeholder for your product or service might want from a vendor.

Secondly, sales teams need to be certain that the messages they are sending align with the needs of the buyers. Similarly, marketing teams need to ensure that any account based marketing (ABM) content or broader based content addresses these needs as well. 

Third, marketing and sales teams need to understand how a stakeholder makes decisions over time. In nearly all cases, some members of the buying committee have a role to play at the start of the journey, middle, end, and a limited number will be involved in the project from start to finish.

For example, when a movie starts, we might have some sense of the climactic battle, but we don’t know the role that every actor might play. Is the character we meet in the opening scene going to be with us throughout the entire movie? Or will they “be brief and be gone”? Is the character we meet towards the end the true person our hero has to defeat in the end? Or is there someone lurking in the shadows who is even more powerful?

We see this idea play out in the Hobbit movie trilogy. It might be obvious as the first movie begins that Frodo is going to be with us through the end of the story. But Sam is the real surprise, as without his help, it wouldn’t be possible for Frodo to defeat Sauron.

The key takeaway: If you fast forward through the entire movie, would you really understand the plot (sales process)? You might understand how the battle (or sale) was won or lost, but you wouldn’t really understand how it happened. You wouldn’t understand which actor (or persona) was critical to the story, and you wouldn’t understand who was rooting for the hero (the seller) or against them. 

Supporting Actors Need to Understand Everyone’s Role

We once worked with a client who had successfully built relationships with leadership at several universities. This client wanted to develop buyer personas for university c-suite roles to inform their marketing strategy and related materials. The goal was to take a role-based approach rather than leading with a product-first strategy.

To make this pivot successful however, the sales and marketing teams in our client would require a deeper understanding of the needs of key buyer personas. In particular, our client was focused on the needs of a VP of Research and a Chief Academic Officer in a university setting. 

In a typical university, a VP of Research and a Chief Academic Officer have different responsibilities. A VP of Research is responsible for directing the university’s mission, focusing on policy issues, and establishing community relations. A Chief Academic Officer ensures academic quality in all departments, programs, and services within the organization.

Our client learned that each persona would need to hear a different message if they were to develop an interest in our client’s solution. The sales team would best be able to develop rapport with the Chief Academic Officer by discussing fundraising in academia. Similarly, the VP of Research might be interested in communicating to the student body about research grants or new partnerships. 

The key takeaway: Buyer personas give you an essential look into the motivations and needs of each buyer you’ll meet on the journey to a successful sale. 

Buyer Personas Tell You When It’s Time to Say Your Lines

We recently conducted a buyer persona project for a client who sold a SaaS solution of interest to law firms. They learned that law firms rarely make any recommendations to clients about what software to use because they don’t want to be liable for anything. 

However, Chief Legal Officers or General Counsels who work for companies about to go public might be interested in the software. 

As a salesperson, this discovery shows that you can’t always rely on referrals from every market segment you might touch. Without this information, a sales team’s outreach efforts would be fruitless. This knowledge allowed our client to utilize B2B buyer persona research to create extremely targeted outreach — maximizing the use of their sales and marketing team’s time. 

The key takeaway: You can’t always rely on existing clients to evangelize for you. Sometimes, you run into people who aren’t interested in your services whatsoever. But with buyer persona research, you’ll be able to maximize the value of your efforts and minimize wasted opportunities.

Buyer Personas Align Sales and Marketing Teams

Famous movie duos aren’t always in agreement throughout a movie. Take Maverick and Rooster, for example. Throughout the better part of the movie, Rooster resents Maverick after learning that Maverick pulled Rooster’s application to flight school, setting him back from his peers.

However, after Maverick gets shot down in an effort to distract the enemy jets, it’s none other than Rooster who risks his own life to save Maverick. The dynamic duo then steals an old enemy F-14 aircraft and barely makes it back to the base alive.

The beef between Maverick and Rooster created a riff across the entire team. This tension almost cost the entire flight crew their lives as they trained for the dangerous mission.

The same idea holds true for sales and marketing teams. When everyone is clear on what personas you’re going after you can provide unified sales and marketing content without confusion.

The key takeaway:  It’s frustrating for a buyer to get different messaging from sales and marketing teams. Being in alignment internally creates a better outcome for your buyers which is the ultimate goal. Aim for cohesion, not confusion.

Be the Hero Your Buyers Deserve

In Top Gun: Maverick, Hangman only gets 35 minutes of screen time. (In contrast, Maverick gets 113 minutes, and Rooster, 66 minutes.) Although Hangman is an integral part of the jet fighter squad at the beginning, he isn’t selected for the death-defying mission. However, just as Maverick and Rooster are about to be shot down, Hangman comes in and saves them in the most heroic way possible.

The moral here for B2B sales teams is clear. Even the characters with the least amount of screen time can make a big impact. It’s easy to focus on the stars and forget that other actors can help you achieve your goals. Like Frodo and Sam, or Maverick and Hangman, you need to understand all the key personas, not just the ones with the biggest titles or the most screen-time if you want to win the deal.

Finally, don’t ask your sales team to win a deal without giving them the knowledge of all the players that matter, especially those folks who seem to be merely a supporting actor at first glance. We can help you get that early first look at the script of the buyer’s journey so you’ll know before anyone else how the story turns out in the end.

 

With 15 years of experience in B2B tech market research, Cascade Insights understands the value in knowing your buyer personas. Learn more about our sales services here.


Special thanks to Sean Campbell, CEO, for advising on this piece.

B2B Messaging Frameworks: Grounded by Research, Activated by Marketing

B2B Messaging Frameworks: Grounded by Research, Activated by Marketing

/in , , /by
Share this entry

Marketers often find themselves stuck when trying to create the right messaging frameworks for their organizations. Maybe it’s because they are nervous about suggesting a new messaging framework without the data to back it up. Or perhaps they weren’t hired to solve that type of problem; they were hired to drive existing marketing campaigns. So, they’re not confident in their ability to create new messaging. Or maybe it’s because they’ve been sitting at their end of the table for so long that they no longer even know what their buyers’ needs are.

Read more

market research healthcare cybersecurity

3 Types of Market Research to Benefit Healthcare Cybersecurity Startups

/in , , , , , , /by
Share this entry

It’s no secret that the tech industry has been experiencing some unsettling circumstances recently. Nearly every week, another major tech company announces more hiring freezes or layoffs.

While much of the tech space is entrenched in uncertainty, there are certain segments within it that remain resilient. One such area is healthcare cybersecurity – one of the fastest growing among venture capitalists right now. In fact, the healthcare cybersecurity market is expected to reach $35B+ by 2027, more than triple its size in 2020.

During such a rapid growth period, companies run the risk of making the wrong decisions and quickly squandering any potential success. Conversely, making the right business decisions during this time can help a company to expand and scale sustainably.

B2B market research is a key component to helping a rapidly-expanding healthcare cybersecurity startup grow in the right direction. Here’s how market research – particularly buyer personas, brand research, and competitive landscape analyses – can all be instrumental in setting a new company up for success.
Read more

Don’t Stop Believin’ in Message Testing

/in , , , /by
Share this entry

Arguably the most famous song from the 1980s was introduced in 1981 by the band Journey. To this day “Don’t Stop Believin’” is a hit song for people of all ages that’s heard at sporting events, weddings, and other social events. Now, you might be asking yourself, “How has this song stood the test of time?”

Greatest hits are rarely born overnight. For example, the initial inspiration for the core lyric in the song “Don’t Stop Believin,” occurred five years before Journey sat down to record the track. After inspiration, comes the hard work of developing lyrics and music that work in harmony. 

Musicians, songwriters, and producers write and rewrite a song, refining the lyrics, melody, and title until they create an irresistible song. Oftentimes, there are multiple collaborators working behind the scenes testing musical ideas. Even “Don’t Stop Believin’” has three songwriters and two producers to its credit. 

The same creative and intellectual rigor can be applied when developing great B2B messaging. Just as a great song benefits from multiple collaborators testing ideas, great messaging benefits from external perspectives – specifically, those of your potential buyers.

To develop B2B messaging that resonates, marketers first need to test it. Without message testing, your messaging may fall flat with your audience, alienating buyers, or worse, driving them to your competitors. However, conducting message testing allows you to understand where your messaging falls short, where it resonates, and what you can do to craft messaging that rocks your audiences’ socks off.

What Makes A Greatest Hit?

Just as a hit song consists of a catchy title and lyrics, a memorable melody, and a great hook, great B2B messaging can be broken down into the same key elements:

  • Instant attention-grabbers
  • Clear persona targeting
  • Banished buzzwords
  • Clear calls to action (CTA)

Instant Attention-Grabbers

According to Pew Research Center’s 2021 Digital Experience Benchmark report, the B2B industry spends an average of 1.37 minutes on a company webpage. As a marketer, that’s all the time you have to grab your audiences’ attention.

Your message needs to instantly capture a potential buyer’s attention to want to learn more. Once you’ve commanded a buyer’s interest, more descriptive and informative messaging can follow.

You Can’t Write to Everyone, You Have to Write to Someone

If you’re still trying to write a universal message that resonates with all your audiences, think again. Sharp messaging should be built to target each of the personas’ interests and concerns. 

The context: We worked with a company who wanted to understand how people responded to the word “risk.” We found that respondents generally don’t like the word “risk” because it implies you might lose something. 

For example, if you’re talking to a line-of-business person in financial services, they wouldn’t want to hear the word risk. Instead, they’d prefer a phrase like “improving security.” Conversely, a chief security officer may want to hear how you plan to mitigate risk.

The takeaway: When you understand how your audiences will perceive different phrases, it allows you to write stronger content. Rather than writing generalized blanket statements, you need to tailor your messages to the right persona.

Say Bye-Bye to Buzzwords

Certain terms gain instant popularity in B2B messaging, but can fizzle out just as fast. These buzzwords suffer from frequent overuse, resulting in loss of meaning. Unfortunately, many B2B marketers still continue to use them.

The context: We once worked with a client who was interested in message testing across their website. Our experiential analysis revealed that consumers and IT roles did not respond well to the flashy marketing buzzwords they repeatedly used. Some of the language was so overused that it lost its meaning to our client’s tech audience.

The takeaway: IT buyers want to hear specifically what your solution does and why it is unique. They will lose confidence in your solution if it includes the same generic buzzwords they’ve used to describe other solutions.

Focused CTAs

Does your messaging encourage your audience to take the next step? Effective CTAs not only bring in potential new leads, they also clearly indicate what your audience should do next.

Some examples of focused CTAs include:

  • Download our ebook
  • Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
  • Download this whitepaper
  • Sign up for free

These examples have a few things in common. First, they evoke curiosity and entice the audience to want whatever it is you’re offering. Second, they require the audience to take an actionable step. Words like “download” or “subscribe” tell your audience to take action, so there’s no confusion.

Great Message Testing Leads to Great Messaging

Although successful business messaging can sometimes come from a flash of creative inspiration, most of the time great messaging is achieved through the process of testing and refining ideas. 

Here are a few examples of how B2B message testing research has helped out clients.

Test Messaging That Sticks With Your Audience

Generic, buzzwordy messaging feels easy, but B2B buyers are looking for impactful messaging. To reach your buyers, test specific messages with each of your target personas. 

The context: We worked with a client who wanted to improve the benefits of one of its offerings. So, they came to us to conduct message testing to understand their target audience and how their messaging was perceived.

Our research revealed that IT directors, system admins and developers each wanted different things from our client’s content. System admins and developers despised the use of marketing fluff and preferred language that was directly related to technology. 

However, IT directors were more interested in seeing the ROI impact and placed a strong emphasis on security. When it came time to place value on the benefits of our client’s offering, each persona felt differently because they didn’t feel like it met their exact needs.

When it came time to place a value on the benefits of our client’s offering, every persona responded poorly because they couldn’t see how the solution met their exact needs. The messaging wasn’t specific enough.

The takeaway: We recommended that this client adjust their messaging to educate and increase awareness of their offerings. Message testing helped our client understand that different audiences value the relevancy of a message. 

Rather than trying to put all your eggs in one basket, we suggested that our client develop specific messaging targeted at each persona. Why? Because it not only shows that you understand your audience, but also demonstrates that you’re aware of the environment they’re working in and what matters most to them.

No One Wants to Hear “Free Bird”

Long paragraphs and stale language bore your readers. Understand what your target audience wants and strategically deliver that message. 

The context: We worked with a company to conduct message testing based on previous knowledge of their target audience. However, the messaging they used included run-on sentences and complicated phrases. They completely missed the mark on delivering effective messaging because they assumed that their target audience wanted more detailed, thorough information. 

Message testing revealed that the needs and interests of their audience had shifted. Their audience preferred short, direct messages not lengthy paragraphs of detailed text. This research gave our client the opportunity to reevaluate their messaging to keep their target audience engaged.

The takeaway: A lengthier message isn’t always an effective way to reach your audience. Messaging testing helps reveal these misconceptions, allowing you to sharpen your messaging.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T the Research

Sometimes you need to set aside persona opinions to produce great messaging. 

The context: We recently worked with a company to conduct message testing on a few phrases for a product offering. After conducting focus groups, it was apparent that respondents preferred a particular phrase over the other options presented.

During the final readout, one of the stakeholders explained that they did not agree with the choice of words the respondents preferred. In fact, the stakeholder went on to say that they would not change their messaging, even though the data suggested otherwise.

The takeaway: While our job is not to tell you what to do, we try to give you the information to make savvy business decisions. It’s important to keep an open mind when hearing the results of a message testing project. 

Feel the Beat

Great messaging should help your clients and prospects feel the beat. A beat that speaks to their interests, their jobs to be done, and their organization’s goals. 

Yet, great beats take time to find and create. And they must be tested, with real world audiences. Finally, the danger in skipping this testing step is that you might find out you are standing out in all the wrong ways in the marketplace with your messaging.

If you want your messaging to be the next greatest hit with your buyers, give us a call. We can help you find the beat and create messaging that resonates.

This blog post is brought to you by Cascade Insights, a firm that provides market research & marketing services exclusively to organizations with B2B tech sector initiatives. Want to learn more about the message testing we deliver? Our B2B Messaging Services can help. 

Special thanks to Sean Campbell, Co-Founder & CEO, Laurie Pocher, Senior Consultant, and Brian Surguine, Creative Services Manager, for advising on this piece.

Panel Providers Vs. Expert Networks

Panel Providers Vs. Expert Networks: Who Gives the Highest Quality Respondents?

/in , , /by
Share this entry

Asking the right people to participate in your research study is just as important as designing and asking the right questions. You simply can’t have a successful market research project with a rushed recruiting effort at the start.

Sometimes, this means using a research vendor to assist with fielding the right participants. Vendors such as panel providers and expert networks are frequently tapped to identify respondents for research studies. But if you are using a research vendor and still throwing out a large number of respondents or are having trouble making sense of the data, it’s time to dig into the problem. And that may mean it’s time to switch to a new sample provider.

Read more

competitive landscape analysis

5 Pieces of Bad News a Competitive Landscape Analysis Can Deliver

/in , , /by
Share this entry

This is one of several blogs in our latest series, “Delivering Bad News to Good People,” where we explore different types of bad news we’ve had to deliver and how these discoveries help companies create meaningful impact within their organizations.

Marketers often have their own preconceived notions about a competitor’s success or failure in the marketplace based on anecdotal stories they’ve heard in the industry. A competitive landscape analysis can confirm many of these assumptions. However, it may also disrupt some of these beliefs by revealing unexpected challenges.

Read more

4 Types of Bad News B2B Brand Research Delivers

/in , , , /by
Share this entry

This is one of several blogs in our latest series, “Delivering Bad News to Good People,” where we explore different types of bad news we’ve had to deliver and how these discoveries help companies create meaningful impact within their organizations.

B2B brand research can help to measure the relationship customers have with your company’s products or services. It may either confirm brand awareness hypotheses you already have, or it may surface new opportunities or unexpected perceptions among your buyers.

Sometimes, the findings uncovered in brand studies come as an unpleasant shock. Although initially upsetting, confronting the truth is a necessary first step to success. Once you understand where your brand stands, you can begin to address the gap between customers’ existing perceptions and how you want them to perceive your brand.

Perception precedes reality. – Andy Warhol

At Cascade Insights, we are often the messengers who deliver bad news to good marketers. Below, we’ve laid out four examples of bad brand news we’ve had to deliver, and how they were able to use that information to change the tides of perception — and reality — for their brands.

Bad News #1: No One Knows Who The Heck You Are

Will Ferrell Elf GIF by filmeditor - Find & Share on GIPHY

The context: We once worked with a cybersecurity client that was initially interested in learning about how their product compared to competing offerings.

In the survey that we administered, we asked respondents which cybersecurity organizations they were aware of. Their responses showed that our client’s product was not as well-known as what they had thought.

Key takeaway: Marketers often don’t like what the brand research tells them. But information — especially of the unpleasant variety — inspires action.

Once this client fully grasped the reality of their situation, they then had the leverage they needed to launch a smart B2B brand awareness strategy.

Bad News #2: No One Knows What You Offer

The context: One of our clients commissioned a brand study to investigate how recognizable their core offerings were to their clients. This client explained that its core offerings were foot traffic data, geo-contextual awareness, and point of interest data. Yet, at the same time this client wanted to expand from being seen as purely B2C focused to someone who could handle B2B needs.

We found our client had a very positive brand perception among B2C consumers. While this company’s social media presence was well-known, its B2B offerings were not as recognizable. In fact, almost 20% of survey respondents weren’t aware that this company offered foot traffic data. Given this client wanted to grow their B2B footprint, this was a challenging finding.

Key takeaway: While this may be perceived as bad news for our client, the study revealed key insights regarding its varying B2B and B2C awareness that enabled them to react, adapt and realign themselves with target customers.

Bad News #3: You’re Not Being Perceived How You Think

The context: One client of ours had recently made a significant effort to engage with the open source community and invest in a number of different open-source projects. After this investment, they wanted to conduct brand research to see if buyers recognized them as friendly to open-source.

Unfortunately, our research uncovered that buyers felt our client was not involved in open-source projects at all. To make matters worse, despite our client’s efforts in the open-source space, buyers didn’t feel that our client contributed to open-source projects. Further, our research revealed that buyers were more likely to work with a company that they perceived to be open-source friendly.

Key takeaway: Initially, this news was frustrating for our client to hear after already working to establish themselves in the open-source space. But, the research made it clear that they had more work to do. Additionally, it reinforced the value buyer’s placed on organizations who truly embraced open-source.

Bad News #4: You’re a Well-Known Brand, But Not a First Choice

The context: We conducted a brand study with a cybersecurity client who needed to determine their level of brand awareness. Our survey asked respondents what brand characteristics they felt were most important and how they would rate other cybersecurity on these attributes.

After completing the survey, we discovered that our client had a relatively high level of brand awareness. This result was a positive takeaway considering the market was so segmented. Despite this, only 5% of respondents said they would actually consider switching to our client from another vendor.

Key takeaway: You won’t be a good fit for everyone. But if you aren’t appealing to the customers you want, you need to know why. This brand study unearthed customer values that could inform the strategic messaging pillars to use in the company’s sales and marketing efforts.

We’re Not Always The Bad Brand News Bears

We’re not always the bearers of bad news. We’ve also seen instances where companies’ key brand attributes aligned exactly with what the market cared about.

For example, one of our clients wanted to conduct brand research to measure how well their customers’ perceptions mapped onto the company’s brand values. Our client believed they were perceived as a caring, friendly, and responsive online HR provider. Our research confirmed this hypothesis, and the respondents emphasized how much they appreciated that our client’s values aligned with buyers.

The point is, brand studies don’t always deliver bad news. They can also confirm positive sentiments about your products and services. But until you actually conduct the research, you won’t know the reality of where you stand in the market.

You Can’t Ask Life to Take The Lemons Back

In the well known game series “Portal,” Cave Johnson voices the following quote.

“All right, I’ve been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! ‘I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?”

Unfortunately, for Cave Johnson, and all of the rest of us, you can’t ask life to take its lemons back. Nor should you get mad about it. But you can make changes. Those changes can be a simple light that others in your organization can choose to follow. And that change in direction can lead to more prospects, customers, or market share.

If you’re tired of dealing with lemons, or you think you might have some lurking around, drop us a note. We can help you figure out what to do with them – instead of just throwing them back.

 

This blog post is brought to you by Cascade Insights, a firm that provides market research & marketing services exclusively to organizations with B2B tech sector initiatives. Want to learn more about the brand research we deliver? Our B2B Brand Research can help.

Special thanks to Sean Campbell, Co-Founder & CEO, Tyler Honsinger, Director of Research, and Raeann Bilow, Content Marketing Architect, for advising on this piece.

B2B Buyer Persona Research: Truth Over Templates

B2B Buyer Persona Research: Truth Over Templates

/in , , /by
Share this entry

The power of a strong B2B buyer persona is undeniable. In the past, creating them brought a competitive advantage for companies that used them. Today, it’s more than just a benefit; it’s a necessity. However, if your personas are so generic that you can’t effectively reach your target audiences, you might want to think about basing those personas on a firmer foundation of truth.

Read more