In this part 1 of a 3-blog series, we take you through the first 4 steps of the modern marketing process and help you establish the foundation of your content marketing strategy.
Build your foundation – Steps 1 – 4 of the modern marketing process
You may remember that the 8 steps process we introduced you to during the workshop is all about taking a ‘whole of business’ approach to marketing – and shifting the idea of marketing from promotion or advertising, to telling your company story in a way that resonates and connects with the modern B2B buyer.
So! Open (or create) your Word document and – if you haven’t already – use the 4 steps outlined here as headings. We will help you get started on documenting your strategy, starting with the foundation steps – steps 1-4 of the marketing process.
Step 1: Customer Journey
Acknowledge the new reality: the modern B2B buyer does not want to be sold to. They will avoid sales people while they search for information and speak to peers and experts. In time, they will reach out to vendors – but only when they are ready and usually after consuming multiple pieces of content. There are many models of this buyer’s journey. Our Buyer RACE(R) is a really simple one. Take another look at your notes or email us if you need another copy.
TASK 1: List out the key steps of the Buyer RACE(R) and start thinking about it in the context of your last few deals. When did the client contact you? Did they already have a solution in mind? What if you had the chance to shape the conversation at an earlier point in time?
TASK 2: Consider some of your existing content (and you will all have some!) – how does it map out against the Buyer RACE(R)? Don’t be disheartened if your content is currently product focused – make a commitment that in 6-months’ time you will have one piece of content for each key buying stage.
Step 2: Target Market and Segments
Think about the type of business you want vs the type of business you are winning today. How can you bridge this gap? It starts with clearly defining you target markets and key segments – not because you won’t be selling to anyone else from this point on (of course you will!) but so that your marketing effort has focus.
Unless you have unlimited marketing resources (and who does?!) you are much better off defining 2-3 target markets to focus on initially, and establishing some relevant, consistent conversations. In fact, why not begin with just one market or segment to focus on? Plan your activity, measure it, learn from it and, when the time comes, move on to the next segment.
TASK 1: Use the list of questions in your workshop notes and list (up to) 3 target markets to focus on. Which one will you work on first?
Step 3: Buyer Personas
Remember the clip from Groundhog Day we showed in the workshop? Much like the man at the bar, your quest is to build a very personal picture of the living, breathing people that buy from you.
Thinking about the target market you identified in the step above – who are the decision makers and influencers you need to build a rapport with? Hint: it is not just the CIO or IT Manager. In many instances, there will be at least 2-3 people you need to consider. In a technology sale, more often than not, these people will have finance and/or line-of-business responsibility.
TASK 1: Review the buyer persona(s) you developed during the workshop. If they are not aligned with the target market you decided to focus on in step 2 above, they may need some work. Take the time to copy the details of the buyer personas into your strategy document and develop them further – these are a critical foundation piece and you will need to refer to them again!
Step 4: Value Propositions
A value proposition is a statement that summarises why a customer should buy your product or use your service. It is very difficult to make these stand out from others taking the same solution to market – hence we encourage you to focus on defining these not only on a company level (although you need that too!) but on creating specific statements for each buyer persona.
TASK 1. Use the templates in your workshop notes and have a go at creating a value proposition for each of the buyer persons you defined in Step 3.
Worked through the first four steps of the modern marketing process? Great work – you have now created the foundation of your marketing strategy. Take the time to review and discuss this with other key people in your business or your network – remember marketing is no longer the role of one person or team, even if you are a Marketer!
The next piece in this series takes you through steps 5 and 6 and focus on getting you started with bringing some content to life.
Finally, if you have questions on any of this or are struggling to carve-out the time to create your strategy, do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and to spend some time on the phone chatting through your questions or exploring alternative ways we could help.
