Many years ago, it became common knowledge that pushy B2B salespeople aren't nearly as effective as those who become trusted advisers to their customers and prospects. Marketing departments should follow suit by establishing their companies as trusted information sources. This aligns perfectly with the consultative selling role.
I'm surprised that it's taken this long, but this transition is happening today with the growing emphasis on content marketing. Furthermore, social media allow marketing to enter into a two-way dialogue with customers and prospects, meaning that we can have not only consultative selling, but consultative marketing.
I think the results of this kind of approach are predictable. If consultative works with sales, it will ultimately work with marketing. Truisms like "people like to buy, but they don't like to be sold" are pretty universal - if the options are there, people will gravitate to what they want.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Information versus Experience
People read for two reasons - for information, or to experience. No, this is not a recent revelation about the interactive web. It was observed many decades ago by Louise Rosenblatt, a famous scholar who studied how readers relate to text.
This wisdom should be taken to heart by anybody who communicates with customers and prospects over the web. For everything we publish, we need to ask ourselves what our readers are looking for. Does she want facts about a specific problem or issue, or to get a feel for how people are dealing with that problem? Does he want to see our price list, or to get more familiar with us as a company?
These two agendas call for very different writing styles. For fact seekers, we need a detached, neutral style, often enhanced with bulleted text, charts and tables. Our reader will be saying "get to the point, please." For those seeking experience, we need to tell stories. Our readers want to be seduced. This means a more personal style, and a narrative that transports the reader from point A to point B.
A good website should do both. What a lot of websites do, however, is confuse the two. Often we're trying to seduce readers when they just want the facts, or we're boring them with details when they're looking for an engaging read.
One of the keys to a good site is to be clear about our intentions, and make sure our reader has a positive experience with the materials we present. When we present a case study, we should present the whole story with no interruptions. When we present hard concepts, we should keep it crisp and to the point. The site should be organized and notated so that the reader can quickly find the facts or experience he or she is looking for.
This wisdom should be taken to heart by anybody who communicates with customers and prospects over the web. For everything we publish, we need to ask ourselves what our readers are looking for. Does she want facts about a specific problem or issue, or to get a feel for how people are dealing with that problem? Does he want to see our price list, or to get more familiar with us as a company?
These two agendas call for very different writing styles. For fact seekers, we need a detached, neutral style, often enhanced with bulleted text, charts and tables. Our reader will be saying "get to the point, please." For those seeking experience, we need to tell stories. Our readers want to be seduced. This means a more personal style, and a narrative that transports the reader from point A to point B.
A good website should do both. What a lot of websites do, however, is confuse the two. Often we're trying to seduce readers when they just want the facts, or we're boring them with details when they're looking for an engaging read.
One of the keys to a good site is to be clear about our intentions, and make sure our reader has a positive experience with the materials we present. When we present a case study, we should present the whole story with no interruptions. When we present hard concepts, we should keep it crisp and to the point. The site should be organized and notated so that the reader can quickly find the facts or experience he or she is looking for.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
5 reasons why I don't like the term copywriting.
Here are reasons why I don't use the word "copywriting" to describe my work as a writer.
1) The term copy implies that what's being written is filler, e.g., "we need some copy to flesh out our website."
2) Copy is often a commodity - e.g., copy purchased from news services.
3) The word "copy" doesn't sound very promising if your goal is differentiation.
4) The practice of copywriting often (but not always) uses a style of writing that seeks to manipulate readers in a very forumlaic way.
5) Copy tries to sell to people rather than engage them.
To sum up, copy implies all fluff and no content. Engaging with content, on the other hand, is what good writing is all about.
1) The term copy implies that what's being written is filler, e.g., "we need some copy to flesh out our website."
2) Copy is often a commodity - e.g., copy purchased from news services.
3) The word "copy" doesn't sound very promising if your goal is differentiation.
4) The practice of copywriting often (but not always) uses a style of writing that seeks to manipulate readers in a very forumlaic way.
5) Copy tries to sell to people rather than engage them.
To sum up, copy implies all fluff and no content. Engaging with content, on the other hand, is what good writing is all about.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Marketing's Hidden Presumptions
I got a call from the local phone company the other day. They are very eager to get me back as a client - I switched a couple of months ago to a VOIP competitor who gives better service at half the price. "If you'll come back to us this month, we'll waive our usual installation fee," said the caller.
There's a presumption here that this phone company has the right to charge an installation fee, and that by abrogating this right, they are doing me a favor. Of course, the fact that their competition doesn't charge an installation fee makes this pitch a little harder to swallow.
Marketing is full of such unwarranted assumptions. Companies offer discounts from their "usual" price. Who's to say that their usual price is a fair one? What really gets on my nerves are B2B vendors who claim to "understand your business". "You should consider this an investment in your business," said a caller trying to sell me some business software. As if she knew my business better than I did.
What bothers me about these assumptions is there is a kind of arrogance here. Prospects are seen as sheep that can be led. I'll have none of that, and based on what I see happening in the marketing world, I seem to have lots of company.
What's the alternative for marketers? Give prospects information they want. Once they get to know you, the chances that they'll do business with you are greatly increased. When people need something, they call people they know.
There's a presumption here that this phone company has the right to charge an installation fee, and that by abrogating this right, they are doing me a favor. Of course, the fact that their competition doesn't charge an installation fee makes this pitch a little harder to swallow.
Marketing is full of such unwarranted assumptions. Companies offer discounts from their "usual" price. Who's to say that their usual price is a fair one? What really gets on my nerves are B2B vendors who claim to "understand your business". "You should consider this an investment in your business," said a caller trying to sell me some business software. As if she knew my business better than I did.
What bothers me about these assumptions is there is a kind of arrogance here. Prospects are seen as sheep that can be led. I'll have none of that, and based on what I see happening in the marketing world, I seem to have lots of company.
What's the alternative for marketers? Give prospects information they want. Once they get to know you, the chances that they'll do business with you are greatly increased. When people need something, they call people they know.
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