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Heat Up Your Cold Email

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How can sellers use cold email to engage rather than irritate?

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Ryan O'DonnellIn this episode of B2B Revealed, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell chats with Replyify Co-Founder Ryan O’Donnell on how to use cold email to increase audiences and avoid the spam filter.

Obviously, cold email is more likely to be welcomed when it is relevant to the recipient. But Campbell mentions how common it is for him to open a cold email that has nothing to do with his work. “…It wasn’t targeted, it wasn’t relevant, there wasn’t appropriate research done, [and] it wasn’t packaged correctly,” he said. Clearly, the seller hadn’t bothered to make sure their outreach was of value the recipient. This is a big no-no.

Instead, start with those who already have demonstrated an interest in your product or service. “The easiest place to look, if you already have clients, is your existing client base,” O’Donnell explained. These folks are much more likely to find your outreach applicable to their work than someone contacted out of the blue.

O’Donnell provides some helpful guidelines to prevent sellers from flooding customers’ inboxes and trying their patience. “We like to see 3-5 sentences per email. We like 5-10 emails delivered over the course of 30-45 days, with a mix of give-and-take. You’re giving the [audience] something of value,” O’Donnell said. Make sure buyers can quickly grasp the point of your communication and how it relates to their work. While an occasional follow-up is OK, don’t just keep bugging people who haven’t replied. Instead, focus your energy on those who have chosen to engage in a conversation.

Streamlining your cold email processes is possible through automation platforms such as Replyify. “Replyify helps you manage replies and to-do items, automatically send emails, manage unsubscribes, update contact information, and move folks around,” O’Donnell said. “Once you actually create these different sequences, and you put a strategy around reaching out to these different segments, or personas. It becomes really easy to keep that going because once the automation takes over on the email side, you’re just feeding the beast.” This platform allows sellers to monitor all of their cold emails for legal compliance as well as assess and hone targeting efforts.

In essence, cold email shouldn’t be a shot in the dark. It should be a clear, targeted message with direct relevance to the recipient. Aim to start a conversation, not bury the buyer in a deluge of unwanted email. Add value, not spam.

Defrost Your Cold Email Writing Skills

Want to improve your cold email writing skills, but don’t know where to begin? Listen to the full episode for more on this topic and check out our guide to sending legal cold emails along with tips for effective written communication.

Do you need more B2B brilliance? Check out the many ways you can follow us.

Message Testing: Because Intent ≠ Interpretation

Message Testing: Because Intent ≠ Interpretation

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Somewhere between intent and interpretation, a lot can get lost in translation.

Many B2B marketers suffer from this problem. Some focus heavily on one buyer persona and ignore the other key figures in B2B purchase decisions. Others fail to communicate what sets their product apart from the crowd. Buyers balk at cocky messaging or jargon that goes over their heads.

Make sure you’re leaving target customers with a favorable impression. Read on for the most common problems revealed by our message testing research for B2B technology companies.

You Have Buyer Personas. Plural. Woo them all.

Research shows that B2B tech purchases tend to be group decisions. Your messaging should target each buyer persona involved in the purchase.

Don’t just focus on the big guns. There are more people involved in B2B buying decisions than the executive signing the purchase order. Messaging that only focuses on C-levels or VPs is doomed to fail, as it ignores other important decision-makers such as end users, department heads, and business group leaders.

Your Differentiators Should Be…Differentiated.

How different is your messaging from your competitor’s? Are both websites a list of the same “itys”? Do both websites boast of fantastic reliability, security, manageability, and usability?

Instead of trying to score on every possible differentiator, pick one and nail it.  Perhaps you uniquely meet a target persona’s “job to be done.” Maybe you can boast of exceptionally smooth integration. Or perhaps you offer pricing models that are far more attractive than those provided by your competitors. Speak to your real strengths.

Don’t Pretend To Be Buyers’ Only Hope.

Most business problems existed before your company appeared on the scene. Be cautious about claiming to be the only solution capable of solving a problem.

Instead, strive to convince buyers that your solution is the best at solving the problem it was designed to solve. That way, you won’t inadvertently insult buyers who have been tackling the problem in another way.

Don’t Skip The Basics.

Address user experience in your messaging. Ease-of-use, integration, and adoption rates nearly always factor into B2B buying decisions.

These elements don’t need to be at the forefront of your messaging, but it wouldn’t hurt to weave them in (when you can back them up).

Use Acronyms Smartly and Sparingly.

Make sure you’re not using acronyms that are alienating to your audience.

Yes, use acronyms that are common knowledge within the vertical or business group you’re targeting. This helps to demonstrate a shared expertise in the buyer’s field.

Be very careful that you’re not using acronyms that are only common knowledge within your own company or amongst isolated groups of market analysts.

Know the difference before you flood your messaging with acronyms.

Anticipate “Too Good To Be True” Concerns.

There may be a downside to the benefit of your product or service. Buyers will be looking for one.

Do you offer a flexible platform?  Customers might worry that implementation will take too long. Are you providing a point solution to a single problem? Buyers may fear that the challenge of integrating with their other solutions outweighs the benefit.

Sing the praises of your solution’s benefits. Then address concerns about tradeoffs.

Answer The FAQs.

Make sure your marketing answers obvious, initial questions. Front-load your home page with answers to questions like “what does it look like?” and “how much does it cost?”

If buyers can’t find answers quickly, they probably won’t work very hard to figure it out.

That said, strong messaging should raise enough intrigue to make potential buyers want to learn more.

Are They Getting The Message?

While these guidelines will help you to convey the message you intended, it’s important to learn how your buyers are interpreting your marketing.

Market research, to the rescue! Message testing compares the “message received” to the “message sent,” diagnoses disparities, and provides insights to correct strategy.

This blog post is brought to you by Cascade Insights. Our research helps marketers craft messaging that resonates with target buyers.

giving a conference talk

Facts Bore, a Good Story Roars

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Facts and statistics make for a boring presentation. If you want to earn thunderous applause with your next conference talk, make sure your speech actually says something. Spellbind with a story.

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Troy HazardIn this episode, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell interviews renowned speaker Troy Hazard on giving a conference talk. Hazard is a seasoned keynote speaker, entrepreneur, author, TV presenter, and business consultant with more than 25 years of experience.

Hazard points out that an emotional arc means more to the audience than a random list of data points. “People relate to stories. That’s why we like the movies. We like to see the hero win and the villain get crushed, and all that sort of stuff. It’s the same on stage,” he said. “They’re going to immerse themselves in the journey, and there’s a far better learning opportunity when you do it that way.” Give your audience a reason to care about your data by putting it in context and explaining why it matters.

Campbell pointed out that some individuals are natural storytellers, others are not. What if a non-storyteller finds themselves giving a presentation? Can they learn to build a compelling narrative?

Short answer: yes. Anyone can turn experience into a story. What happened? What did you learn from it? How did you change afterward? How did that affect outcomes? Hazard encouraged potential speakers to answer the question: “What was the action you took after you experienced the events in this story?” That’s what audiences want to know and learn from.

Another key tip: don’t spend 5 of your 60 minutes walking through your bio. Instead, take the opportunity to grab your audience’s attention as quickly as possible. “I learned a lesson from a fellow speaker years ago that the best way to start that presentation is to walk out and start it. I’ll walk out onto the stage and say, ‘Let me take you back to 1996. I’m getting off a plane from Tokyo, and I get a call from the office, and the first thing is that they tell me is we just lost $375,000.'” In other words, get right to the point and start the story off right away.

To give a speech worth listening to, you gotta tell a good story. Turn your presentation into a hero’s journey of lessons learned from experience.

More Ways To Dazzle Your Audience

Want to spruce up your presentation skills? Listen to the full episode for more speaking tips and see our collection of business communication best practices.

Do you need more B2B brilliance? Check out the many ways you can follow us.

B2B Breakups: 200+ Interviews With The Ones That Got Away

B2B Breakups: 200+ Interviews With The Ones That Got Away

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Never waste an opportunity to learn from a lost deal.

While each win-loss analysis is unique, over the years, we’ve found many common themes that keep costing B2B tech companies customers and deals. From inflexible pricing, to misguided messaging, to bad sales strategy, we’ll talk you through some of the most common B2B blunders and how to avoid them.

These insights have been distilled from more than 200 recent interviews with B2B buyers, decision makers, influencers, and product/service evaluators.
Read more

B2B SEO

SEO: The Balancing Act of Visibility and Utility

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How should marketers balance the need to be visible with the need to be relevant and useful?

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Search for B2B Revealed on your favorite podcast player (iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and more) to subscribe.

In today’s episode, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell talks to Phil Singleton, CEO of Kansas City Website Design & SEO. Singleton is the author of “SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs.” He is also a Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant.

They discuss Google’s focus on prioritizing content that’s addressing a genuine need. Singleton explains why focusing on buzzwords alone isn’t enough to get the traffic you need. Campbell and Singleton explain why having a strong marketing strategy leads you to the right keywords.

Singleton shares why he thinks video and podcast guesting are great content strategies. YouTube is a platform in its own right, with its own traffic, and its own optimization strategies, so it’s great to have a presence there. Podcasting brings the guest visibility and establishes them as a thought leader. “[Podcast guesting] is the fastest path to building authority,” Singleton said.

Savvy marketers build helpful, user-friendly content, and don’t simply focus on keyword rank.

“The moral of the story is to always focus on providing really good content that is the answer to somebody’s problem, or research, or question,” Singleton said. SEO strategy isn’t just a mindless focus on keywords, but how you make sense of them for your audience.

What Type of Content Will Impress Your Buyers?

When looking for a solution, what, where, when, why, and how do your target buyers evaluate their options? Check out our research on key buying criteria, buyer’s journey, and more.

Do you need more B2B brilliance? Check out the many ways you can follow us.

Your Favorite B2B Podcasts of 2017

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This year our podcast went through a major change. The B2B Market Research Podcast became B2B Revealed. Our focus broadened to a myriad of issues that impact our clients in the B2B technology sector. The result? More interviews, more thought leaders, more insight, and an even better B2B Podcast.

As the end of the year approaches, we decided to take a look back at your favorite episodes of the year.

Your Favorite B2B Market Research Podcasts of 2017

1. Customer Insights: You Need More Than Market Segmentation Data

For this episode, B2B Market Research/B2B Revealed Host Sean Campbell reviewed Clayton Christensen’s “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice.”

Campbell, also the CEO of Cascade Insights, explains the book’s special relevance to product teams and corporate researchers.

Understanding “jobs to be done” allows companies to build the solutions their target customers actually need and to identify unmet market needs.

Ignore target customers’ “jobs to be done” at your peril. If a rival meets that need before or better than you, you’re ripe for disruption. Market research can uncover your customers’ “jobs to be done” and spot disruption red flags.

2. Big Data Ethics: Math Responsibility

Big data is just a bunch of numbers without analysis. But, that analysis has to have a basis on good math. Unfortunately, many a big, impactful decision in business, technology, and government have a basis on flawed math and bad analysis… Worse, these false arguments give the appearance of being backed by big data. Needless to say, it has never been more important to math responsibly.

In this episode, Campbell discusses Cathy O’Neil’s excellent book “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy” and how it applies to the B2B technology field.

3. The Pre-Flight Checklist for Research Presentations

No one wants to sit through a boring presentation. To capture and hold your audience’s attention, you need to transform yourself into a master storyteller.

Luckily, there is an easy way to make sure your presentation is interesting, effectively communicating your story, and highlighting critical information. Campbell shares a pre-flight checklist to keep your business presentation from crashing and burning. Make sure your audience’s key takeaways are the ones you intended.

4. Market Research Recruiting: How To Get A Superb Sample

Unfortunately, sloppy market research recruiting is the industry standard. But why waste your research budget on a panel firm when they interview respondents that aren’t qualified to answer the study questions?

Campbell explains Cascade Insights’ unique approach to finding study respondents that can truly answer clients’ questions in context.

5. Sales Needs A Say In Strategy

Through interactions with buyers, your sales team is essentially doing qualitative research on target customers every day. So why do so many B2B tech companies overlook their sales team’s experiences as a valuable source of data?

Campbell describes the unfortunate tendency for B2B tech companies to isolate their sales teams. He goes on to explain why it’s in companies’ best interest to give sales a seat at the table when determining strategy.

Your Favorite B2B Revealed Podcasts of 2017

1. Why You Suck at Virtual Presentations

This episode features Roger Courville, the “Michael Jordan of online presentations and virtual classes.” Courville and Campbell discuss how to effectively teach via webinar, captivating audiences, and generating engagement.

2. Creating The Category

Campbell talks mid-market marketing with Matt Ipri, vice president of marketing and business development at Decision Lens. The two discuss how to create a new category when the product is first-of-its-kind.

3. Is Cold Email a Legal Evil?

Campbell takes a hard look at cold email legislation, market research loopholes, and international law. Spoiler alert: the legality of cold email varies from country to country.

He also shares tips for B2B tech companies to keep their cold emails legal, and less evil than the rest of the junk mail flooding your inbox.

4. Sell Like The Avengers

In this episode, Campbell discusses evolutions in B2B sales with Nic Read, founder of SalesLabs, co-founder of RGI and EdX, researcher, author, consultant, and teacher. Together they discuss how old sales habits need to change, and new approaches to consider.

5. The Spy Who Wasn’t – Clarifying Competitive Intelligence

No, it is not corporate espionage. Campbell interviews Competitive Intelligence Expert August Jackson on the strategy, systemization, and ethics of CI. Learn why a strategic pricing analysis program can get you more information than even the competitor’s price book.

Thanks For Listening!

We’ve enjoyed bringing B2B tech topics and thought leaders to our listeners. Here’s to another great year of B2B!

From all of us at Cascade Insights, we wish a happy holiday season and a fantastic 2018 to all of our listeners.

Subscribe to B2B Revealed on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, or Stitcher.

Your Favorite B2B Posts of 2017

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It was a good year for B2B content. As we reflect on 2017, we bring you a countdown of our most read articles of the year.

10. What To Read In B2B

Our “B2B Book Reviews: One-Sentence Recaps” page offers an efficient path to seeking wisdom from experts and staying on top of new trends.

We provide you with some of the best classic and recent books on B2B – and a few we don’t think are worth your time.

For example, here’s what we had to say about these books:

This list will provide you the opportunity to improve your B2B skills, and is continuously updated with new books to rush order or avoid like the plague.

Have a book that you want us to review? Let us know.

9. #Mrx Pro-Tip: Interview Your Competitors’ Ex-Sellers

“Running B2B Market Research? 26 Questions to Ask Sales Reps” reveals the wealth of insight you can access by interviewing former members of rival sales teams.

This piece includes key questions to help you get the right data. For example:

  • What were the key selling points of the competitor’s product or service?
  • Which product features were clients most interested?
  • What buying criteria did clients have?
  • Which features left customers uninterested or unimpressed?
  • Which of the competitor’s product or service features were the most lacking?

Check out the full article for more key questions and best practices for interviewing ex-sellers to better understand your rivals.

8. “You Can’t Always Have Quant With Your Qual.”

B2B tech is a niche field. As such, it can sometimes be extremely challenging or downright impossible to get an appropriate sample for a quantitative study. Luckily, qualitative research can get the answers without relying on a mathematically irresponsible sample.

Learn how to design the right kind of study to match your needs with “You Can’t Always Have Quant With Your Qual.”

7. If You Have a Point, Make It & Other Grumpy Writing Tips

If you’re in B2B tech, chances are, your job requires you to communicate through writing at some point. Read “Write Right: Convincing Content” for the best ways to get your point across.

Marketing Manager Isabel Gautschi encourages you to mean what you say, make smooth transitions, procrastinate strategically, and say it in fewer words. She didn’t earn her editing nickname “Half-As-Long” for nothing. Check out the piece for more curmudgeonly advice for writing compelling arguments.

6. There Are No Stupid Questions, But There Sure Are Some Smart Ones

In “101 Market Research Questions,” we share some of the sharpest questions we have based studies off of for B2B tech clients. Check out the smartest questions our clients have asked us to answer over the years.

5. “This Methodology Opens Numerous Possibilities.”

“Gender Gap: A Look at 50 Tech Giants” shows us that LinkedIn ad targeting opens the door for a number of studies of the tech industry.

We took a look at the workforces of 50 large tech companies to uncover insights on the gender gap and to reveal the demographic information accessible to researchers through ad targeting.

Yep, the gender gap is still pretty gapingly wide. The good news is that researchers are not forced to wait for intermittent diversity reports to study it.

4. Disruption Red Flag: Competitors Know Your Customers’ “Jobs To Be Done” Better Than You Do

Are you missing a critical measurement of success? Find out with “Customer Insights: You Need More Than Market Segmentation Data.”

It’s essential for companies to understand “jobs to be done” in order to build solutions that truly meet their customers’ needs.

Using Clayton Christensen‘s latest book, “Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice,” we examine essential questions for product teams:

  • What are target customers’ “jobs to be done”?
  • Does your solution get the job done?
  • Do you have the right data to measure whether or not it does?
  • Do customers have a “job to be done” that no current marketplace solutions meet? If so, this is an opportunity for innovation.

3. “Don’t Just Drop the Bomb and Leave.”

It’s difficult to be the bearer of bad news, but we share our constructive approach in “How Good Researchers Give Bad News.”

Check it out to learn how we turn bad news into constructive criticism. Advice includes:

  • Be direct.
  • Use data to defeat fear.
  • Acknowledge sample bias.
  • Describe the disaster you’ve averted.
  • Offer a cure.
  • Remember: There was a fire before you arrived.

Good researchers know not just share devastating findings and leave. Instead, they deliver the bad news, endure the pushback, and point the client in a direction that can improve their business.

2. Keep Your Presentation From Crashing & Burning

“The Pre-Flight Checklist for Research Presentations” provides a handy way to make sure your presentation is ready to soar to success. Relevant to anyone giving a business presentation, our advice shares practical tips for keeping your audience engaged.

1. Our Ageism In Tech Data Got Your Attention

Your favorite article of this year was, “Ageism in Tech: The Silent Career Killer.”

We examined government data, a Payscale study and LinkedIn ad targeting data to research ageism in the tech industry. Spoiler alert: the tech industry is not kind to those over age 35.

Thanks For Reading!

This year has provided us the ability to continue growing as a business, expanding our client base, and provide you with quality content that is important to you. We continue to appreciate our listeners and readers and encourage them to share their terrific feedback. We look forward to sharing more research, book reviews, and exciting interviews with you in the coming year. Thank you for your support, and we wish you the happiest of New Years!

This post is brought to you by Cascade Insights.

business and net neutrality

Business Needs Net Neutrality: An Interview with Ryan Singel

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The B2B tech world has a lot at stake with net neutrality.

Many businesses “live” on the internet today in ways they never did before. They market through the internet, they sell through the internet, and many of their internal business processes (payroll, HR, AR/AP) rely on the internet.

Should net neutrality be repealed, businesses may be forced to pay more for the same services they access today. Businesses might also find there is less choice among SaaS apps or cloud services to purchase. Further, in order to cope with new costs, businesses may have to radically alter their pricing structures and budgets.

On this episode of B2B Revealed, two B2B CEOs discuss what the potential repeal of net neutrality would mean for business. Contextly CEO Ryan Singel brings his perspective as a media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society to the issue. Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell interviews him on the implications of a net neutrality rollback for ISPs, tech companies, and startups.

Will A Net Neutrality Repeal Impact Your Business? Listen To Learn:

  • What net neutrality is.
  • How the current model protects consumers and innovators.
  • Why ISPs want a repeal.
  • The business implications of a potential net neutrality repeal.
  • What would happen to websites and web services if a repeal happens.
  • The difference between Title I and Title II and how it affects this debate.
  • Why the lack of ISP competition makes this more than just a “free market” issue.
  • How a repeal would make it more difficult for startups to get off the ground.
  • Why a repeal of net neutrality would cement current tech giants at the top of the food chain.

Notable Quotes From Ryan Singel:

“The immediate effect is going to be on businesses and is going to hit them in the bottom line in ways that they aren’t going to understand.” – Singel on how a net neutrality repeal would impact businesses.

“This is a really bad plan for innovation.” -Singel explaining that a net neutrality repeal could remove the conditions that have allowed innovative startups to flourish in the past.

“Startups, especially in the B2B world, rely on a lot of other startups to run their business.”

“It looks like Mafia tactics.” – Singel discussing broadband companies’ current dealings with companies that rely on their internet services.

“Why repeal without replace? It doesn’t make any sense.”

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customer satisfaction research

People-Centric Marketing: Wisdom From Tom Shoemaker

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Large companies lose touch with their customers all the time.

Search for B2B Revealed on your favorite podcast player (iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and more) to subscribe.

Luckily, you can reconnect one conversation at a time.

Without investing in customer conversations, marketing will be off message, sales will say the wrong things, and product sales will suffer.

Virtually or in-person, have those conversations. It’s worth it.

In this episode of B2B Revealed, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell and Tom Shoemaker, CMO of itslearning, explains why customer conversations should be at the center of your marketing efforts.

Don’t Let Your Marketing Be a Monotone. In This Episode, You Will Learn:

  • Key questions to ask during customer conversations.
  • Why you should double or triple the number of customer conversations you’re having.
  • Tips for adjusting your marketing strategy for enterprise and mid-market.
  • Warning signs that you’re taking your customers for granted.
  • The real-world strategy PTC used to effectively regain touch with their customers and build stronger relationships.
  • How to make a value roadmap and why it’s important.
  • Why aspiring marketers should strive to pass “The Beer Test.”

Notable Quotes:

“Don’t be afraid to raise your hand, jump in, and do what needs doing.” – Tom Shoemaker on maintaining career success.

“Regardless of how many customer conversations you have, you should probably have twice as many, or more.” – Tom Shoemaker discussing how to properly conduct customer satisfaction research.

“What are the things they care about, what are their drivers.”– Tom Shoemaker on focusing on the customer’s story.

“We systematically talked about the things that mattered throughout the process of going from design to manufacturing to service. Then we articulated the things that companies ought to be looking for in a technology provider.” – Tom Shoemaker explaining his company’s change in their outlook as a true process-oriented, customer-oriented and value-based selling, consultative selling B2B software company.

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Channel Sales

Coaching Your Channel: An Interview With Steve Smith

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Business buyers have shoved IT out of the spotlight.

Search for B2B Revealed on your favorite podcast player (iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and more) to subscribe.

Surprisingly, IT service firms are failing to adjust to this new reality. Ill-advisedly, they continue to target IT departments rather than business buyers.

In this episode of B2B Revealed, Cascade Insights CEO Sean Campbell interviews Steve Smith, president of GrowthSource Coaching, on IT service firm survival. They discuss how failures in communication lead to bad sales strategies, and how companies can course-correct.

Smith is an expert in business management, leadership, and marketing.

Rediscover The Vision Of Your IT Services Company. Listen To Learn:

  • Red flags that your IT service firm has neglected its business goals.
  • The importance of understanding your business buyers’ “trade talk.”
  • How to translate your company’s value into terms that matter to your business buyers.
  • The difference between transactional and consultative selling.
  • Realistic business-building strategies.
  • How to be a better IT service firm leader or manager.

Notable Quotes:

“If you don’t know where you want to go, any place you end up at is going to be okay.” – Steve Smith, cautioning IT service firms to prioritize their business goals.

“The longer you’ve been at your business, or your occupation, or your particular trade, the more you start thinking and speaking in trade talk.” –Steve Smith, emphasizing the importance of sales teams being able to speak the lingo of their business buyers.

“You have to get out of your own head, if you stay in your own head for too long, your head will be your biggest competition.” – Steve Smith, discussing the importance of communication and getting sales teams comfortable with the human dynamic.

Mentioned in this Episode:

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