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Lead Nurturing: How to Woo MQLs

B2B Lead Nurturing: How to Woo Your MQLs

October 7, 2020/in B2B Customer Experience Research, B2B Customer Journey Mapping, B2B Market Research Blog, B2B Marketing Blog, Blog Posts, Marketing Enablement, Marketing Strategy /by Laura Johnson
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B2B leads don’t become customers overnight. B2B marketers need to master the art of lead nurturing to guide prospects in their buying journey. At this phase, your content has piqued their interest enough to fill out a contact form or download a whitepaper. Now your job is to keep their interest. You have to convince them that your solution is the best fit.

Knowing how and when to make contact with your marketing qualified lead (MQL) is the key to winning them over. But, there are a few things you need to consider before you make your move.
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B2B Churn Rate: Don’t Be A Chump About Churn

B2B Churn Rate: Don’t Be A Chump About Churn

September 16, 2020/in B2B Churn Analysis, B2B Market Research Blog, Blog Posts, Sales Enablement Research /by Brian Surguine
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Customer churn is a normal part of SaaS business models. Some analysts think an annual B2B churn rate of 15 percent is considered acceptable. But, you might be aiming for 10 or even 5 percent. In any case, a lot needs to go right for a customer to be happy with a new product or service, and it is impossible to please everyone. But if the churn rate gets too high, you need to quickly determine where the problem lies.

Your customer analytics can usually provide clues as to where users are struggling with your product. However, these datasets won’t tell you the whole story, such as the internal dynamics behind why a customer dropped you, or ways your solution fails to adequately address jobs-to-be-done. Worse still, your data may even be misleading you! Qualitative insights from customer conversations are the only way to understand the churn your customer analytics can’t explain.

Here are four reasons for a high B2B churn rate you may not have considered, based on conversations we’ve had with B2B buyers over the course of scores of 14+ years of market research projects.

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B2B Buyer's Journey

B2B Buyer’s Journey: 7 Reasons Prospects “Swipe Left” Instead of Reaching Out

September 7, 2020/in B2B Customer Experience Research, B2B Customer Journey Mapping, B2B Market Research Blog, Blog Posts, Marketing Enablement /by Laura Johnson
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First impressions matter, especially in the B2B buyer’s journey. Buyers identify the problem or need their company is experiencing and begin exploring their vendor options. They swipe left or right on potential matches based on nothing more than what they see on vendors’ websites.

The amount of time a prospect spends on all of that content you’ve produced is minuscule compared to the time you spent developing it. For example, Google Analytics data suggests that a reasonable target for average session duration on a B2B website is two minutes.

So much like a social media or dating profile, your site needs to be engaging right from the start.

Finally, buyers spend nearly half of their B2B buyer’s journey flying solo. A 2019 study from Gartner shows that buyers spend nearly half (45 percent) of their time in the journey doing independent research. Many potential leads are lost in this phase—without sales or marketing even realizing it. Why? Because something makes that prospect swipe left before they ever fill out a contact form, send an email or pick up the phone.

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Real Buyers vs Imaginary Friends | B2B Market Segmentation | Cascade Insights

B2B Market Segmentation Research: Real Buyers vs. Imaginary Friends

November 21, 2019/in B2B Go-To-Market Research, B2B Market Research Blog, B2B Market Segmentation Research, Blog Posts /by Brian Surguine
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How much guesswork is involved in your B2B market segmentation strategy? Are you building products for an imaginary buyer? In the B2B tech sector, this happens more often than you would think.

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B2B Quant: Not Your Average Survey | B2B Quantitative Research

B2B Quant: Not Your Average Survey

September 4, 2019/in B2B Market Research Blog, Blog Posts /by Brian Surguine
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B2B quantitative research works differently than in B2C.

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Going Beyond Brexit: Doing Business in the UK, France, and Germany

May 15, 2019/in B2B Marketing Blog, Blog Posts /by Brian Surguine
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In this episode, we discuss how Brexit will impact the world of B2B with Martina Bozadzhieva, market research Europe expert at DuckerFrontier. Bozadzhieva’s expertise comes from direct experience navigating business dynamics in the turbulent European market. You’ll definitely want to listen if you do business in the UK, France, or Germany.

In This Episode:

  • Current business trends and challenges in the UK.
  • The companies set to benefit the most with a “hard” Brexit.
  • Unique EU regulations that impact B2B businesses.
  • Germany’s current economic state and unique aspects of doing business in Germany.
  • Business challenges and opportunities in France.
  • Differences in communication styles between the UK, France, and Germany.
  • Advice for country managers who are moving from corporate to another country, including how they can best interact with corporate.

Resources:

  • Martina’s LinkedIn profile
  • Martina’s Twitter page

The B2B Revealed Podcast is brought to you by Cascade Insights, a hybrid market research & marketing firm specializing in the B2B tech sector. Subscribe to the podcast to keep up with the most pressing issues facing marketers in the B2B tech sector. 

 

Win-Loss Analysis: Is Your Team Set Up To Succeed?

Win-Loss Analysis: Is Your Sales Team Set Up To Succeed?

May 14, 2019/in B2B Market Research Blog, Blog Posts, Win/Loss Analysis /by Brian Surguine
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Improving win rates is within your control. After many B2B win-loss analysis research projects, we have found that simple adjustments can make a huge difference to the effectiveness of your sales team.

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B2B Brand Research: Don't Skip the Qual

B2B Brand Research: Don’t Skip the Qual

April 18, 2019/in B2B Market Research Blog, Brand Research /by Isabel Gautschi
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Applying a B2C approach to B2B brand research just doesn’t work.

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Horror Stories: B2B Tech Messaging

Horror Stories: B2B Tech Messaging

February 1, 2019/in B2B Marketing Blog, B2B Messaging /by Isabel Gautschi
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B2B tech messaging tends to be big, broad, and vague. Which is the opposite of what savvy B2B buyers are looking for.

So often, B2B marketers leave customers in the dark in terms of:

  • The intended audience.
  • Relevancy to buyers’ “jobs to be done.”
  • How the product or service uniquely solves their business problems.
  • Whether the messaging is to be believed at all.

After conducting scores of B2B message testing studies, we’ve seen the good, the bad, and the truly horrifying.

Here are some common messaging mistakes to avoid before you launch your next landing page, product marketing initiative, or content calendar.

Horror Story 1: It’s Unclear Who It’s For… And Who It’s NOT For.

Tech companies, powerful visionaries that they are, have a tendency to go really broad with their messaging. For example: “Your vision. Your Cloud.” Or: “Cloud for all.” But is it really for everyone?

B2B products and services are rarely intended for the use of any and all. Unfortunately, it’s rare for tech companies to make it immediately clear who their intended audience is.

Buyers shouldn’t have to work to figure out whether a product or service is relevant to them. B2B messaging should make it really obvious. Whose life will be made easier by this B2B solution? Use visuals, smart layouts, and clever formatting to make sure the eye is easily drawn to copy that identifies and speaks directly to key buyers.

Horror Story 2: It’s Not Written In The Voice of The Buyer(s).

Is your target buyer technical? Do you have someone technical on your marketing team?  You should. At least make sure you get someone technical to vet your messaging.

Technical buyers will lose confidence in your solution if the messaging gets the jargon wrong or strings random concepts together in a way that doesn’t make sense. Or if it skirts specifics and stays vague. (Also, technical buyers will be turned off by anything they consider “fluff.” They don’t like marketing buzzwords.)

Context matters. Don’t message in a vacuum. Do what you need to do to author, edit, and verify that you’re writing messaging that resonates with your key buyer personas.

Here’s a place where understanding your target buyers’ “jobs to be done” really comes in handy. You’ll score lots of brownie points if you can speak to the specific issues your solution solves for the intended buyer.

And remember, B2B buying decisions usually happen by committee. In other words, you need to convince a group of stakeholders, not just an individual.

Your B2B tech messaging should speak to all the key buyer personas involved in making the purchase decision- not just the end-user.

Horror Story 3: The Messaging Is Stranded From The Brand Strategy.

The goal isn’t just for the customer to remember the product. You also want them to remember the brand.

If your product is part of a larger suite of solutions, your messaging shouldn’t make it sound like an isolated offering.

Graphics are often an effective method of demonstrating that a particular solution or tool is part of a holistic suite of offerings.

Your B2B messaging strategy needs to connect the product or service back to the company.

Horror Story 4: It’s Poorly Written.

Bad grammar creates an unnecessary obstacle for communicating the relevance of your solution. Especially if your target buyers are non-native English speakers.

In our B2B message testing studies, we’ve watched scores of buyers use the bulk of their energy trying to parse out the intention behind our client’s initial attempt at messaging. This prevents customers from moving down the purchase funnel.

Make things as easy as possible on the buyer. Communicate clearly. Don’t make them work to figure out why it’s smart to buy your product or service.

So. Use complete sentences. Simplify your wording. Amplify your main message so that it’s the most noticeable thing on the page, the paragraph, etc. Only attempt to convey one idea per sentence. Make sure you can get through a sentence without having to take a breath when reading out loud. Shorten the sentence if you can’t. Edit. Edit a lot. (More on this here.)

Horror Story 5: There’s No Hierarchy of Emphasis.

Tech companies love listing the attributes of their product or service. Unfortunately, they often neglect to explain how these features solve problems for their target buyers.

Also, lists are just plain hard to read. Reading a list gets monotonous and boring. Which of the many adjectives is the reader supposed to remember? What’s the main point of the product? What makes it special?

Say you’ve got five key selling points. Please do not pack all five key points into one sentence or even one paragraph. That will mute the impact.

Instead, give each key point its own space and separate emphasis. Add in supporting points as needed. Make sure the supporting points strengthen the main idea, rather than sounding like isolated factors.

Strategic messaging requires a hierarchy of emphasis. Your marketing team needs to be clear on the main selling points of the solution and the supporting, secondary factors.

Readers are more likely to remember what is given the greatest emphasis. If everything has the same level of emphasis, readers may struggle to remember anything at all.

What do you want the main takeaways to be? Emphasize accordingly.

Horror Story 6: Unsubstantiated Boasts, Vague Terms, & Marketing Buzzwords.

During our market research studies, we’ve watched many B2B buyers grow suspicious over broad messaging claims.

Unless you have substantial, authoritative backup for making such a claim, shy away from declaring yourself “the best” or “the leading solution.”  When such lofty claims are made, we’ve noticed that B2B buyers often take it as a challenge to think of a brand with a better solution.

Further, to be blunt, messaging that reads like marketing wrote it puts many B2B buyers off.

B2B customers often take vague terminology as a red flag, as it may indicate that the solution is being pushed by a company who doesn’t understand how it will actually be used.

Further, marketing buzzwords tend to scare off technical buyers. These customers will only be convinced by brands that get what their day-to-day entails.

So, be as specific as possible. What does your solution actually do? How does it do it? How will it fit into the work of the buyer? Specifically, what value does it bring to your key customers?

Also, marketers, make sure to run your messaging by someone who is well-versed in the business and technical context of your target buyers.

The Takeaways

To summarize: don’t make your buyers work to figure out your solution’s relevancy and value-add.

Make sure your B2B messaging:

  • Identifies the intended audience. It should be very obvious who the solution was built for.
  • Is written in the voice of the buyer. Messaging needs to get the B2B buyers’ business and technical context right.
  • Connects back to the brand strategy. Give the reader an easy pathway to related solutions and information.
  • Is easy to read. Pay attention to good grammar and avoid run-on sentences.
  • Has a hierarchy of emphasis. Be clear internally on the top 2-5 selling points you want the reader to take away. The main value-add should have the most space, visual draw, ink, etc.
  • Is specific. Avoid vague terms, unsubstantiated boasts, and marketing buzzwords. Explain how your solution accomplishes the benefits you’re boosting. Back up your claims.

Need some help with messaging strategy? We offer B2B messaging upgrades.

Special thanks to Senior Consultant Colleen Clancy, Senior Research Analyst Hercules Randolph IV, and Research Analyst Courtney Bae for advising on this piece. 

With custom market research and marketing services, Cascade Insights helps companies seize opportunities in the B2B technology sector. We work with everyone from enterprise tech stalwarts to up-and-comers in fields such as FinTech, MarTech, Health Tech, and more.

Ready to Book It? Probably Not

Ready to Book It? Probably Not

June 6, 2018/in B2B New Product Launch Research, Blog Posts /by Trevor Gilbert
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Mistaking a fancy title for thought leadership is a common mistake in the book publishing business. After all, a fancy title does not a good author make.

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