MarketingMuses

Develop a Message Platform for Program Effectiveness

Delivering a consistent message across all communication channels amplifies the effectiveness of your brand building, demand generation, thought leadership, and go-to-market programs.

I previously described the 4C’s of effective marketing communications. Consistency is a fifth C that is essential to an effective program or campaign. I develop a message platform by rigorously answering the following questions, and then communicate the resulting content consistently across all channels — website, PR and AR, direct marketing, advertising, literature, presentations, and events.

1. What product or service is the subject of the program?
2. Describe the primary market for the product or service?
3. What business factors are driving demand for the product or service?
4. What problem does the product or service solve?
5. What is the single most important message the program should communicate?
6. What is the specific call-to-action for this program?
7. Who (by title) authorizes the purchase of the product or service?
8. Who (by title) specifies or recommends the product or service?
9. What unique benefits does the product or service offer?
10. What features support the above benefits?
11. What other benefits (not unique) does the product or service offer?
12. What features support these benefits?
13. Who are the key competitors, and what are the competing products or services?
14. What are their respective strengths and weaknesses?
15. What are the actual weaknesses of the product or service?
16. What are the customer-perceived weaknesses of the product or service?
17. In what geographic location(s) will this project be used?

Communicate Solutions; Not Problems

If you're describing the problem to prospective customers, then you’ve got a bigger problem: You’re not targeting the right market.

A few years ago I helped engineer at turnaround at a struggling security-software startup. They had developed a very effective method to monitor Web-applications and detect suspicious user behavior indicative of unauthorized access and malicious conduct. But the market was, “Any company with web-access to confidential information,” and the first 12 of 30 sales presentation slides described the problem, as did the website and literature.

I quickly met with analysts and determined that recent regulations required financial institutions and their service providers to protect confidential customer information from unauthorized access. In addition, the media was highlighting high-profile data security breaches at financial institutions involving online fraud and identity theft. I proposed a marketing strategy that targeted executives with responsibility for protecting customer financial and identity data from fraudulent online access and theft.

Soon after, we made a presentation to a top U.S. bank. 4 slides in, one of the prospective customers said, “You don’t need to tell us about the problem. We understand that. Show us the solution!” The sales representative quickly jumped forward to slide 13. A few days later, the same thing occurred during a presentation to a major online brokerage. After that, sales removed the first 12 slides from the presentation.

Over the next few months, all marketing communications was refocused on online fraud and identity theft solutions for financial institutions, with a value proposition of information security, compliance and risk management. Sales took off, and the company executed its goal of a successful exit.

Marketing in a Global Village

David Meerman Scott practices what he preaches. He used his blog, WebInkNow, to develop content for his book, ‘The New Rules of Marketing & PR.’

The book’s thesis is that the Web offers companies and organizations of all sizes the ability to get, “…the right message to the right people at the right time.” Its main strategic point is that marketers should focus on buyers and their problems (rather than hyping products and services), and think like a publisher by, “…delivering content when and where it is needed and, in the process, branding you and your organization as a leader.”

To me, the book’s greatest value is its in-depth examination of new media tactics and channels, such as blogs, podcasts, videos, search engines, online media rooms, and more. The book is structured like a blog, and divided into three sections: 1) How the Web Has Changed the Rules of Marketing and PR, 2) Web-Based Communications to Reach Buyers Directly, and 3) Action Plan for Harnessing the Power of the New Rules.

If you are just dipping your toes into new media marketing, read the whole book. While information in some sections is redundant, it will be worth your time. If you are already involved in new media marketing, dive right into section three’s action plan, where information is cross-referenced (like a blog) to earlier sections in case you want to dig deeper into any specific subject.

Lessons from People Magazine

People magazine is the most successful paid-subscription magazine in history.

In his book, ‘Steal These Ideas!’ Steve Cone says, “Its success is based on four principles that you can use to create the most compelling marketing materials possible.”

1. Use pictures of real people, not models who are nameless

2. Use captions with pictures, always, always, always

3. Write concisely; you are not on a government commission

4. Leave plenty of white space on every page so the eye can digest what’s there

But will this work with B2B technology marketing? You bet it will!

Include pictures of company executives with their website profiles and in company literature. Include pictures of developers, engineers and other people responsible for your products and services in your marketing literature. And include pictures of customers, with their approval, in your case studies. Better still, insert short videos of all these people with the related information on your website.

Editing is Essential

“I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.” – Blaise Pascal

I learned to write by reading and studying the work of good writers. One of my favorite books is 'A River Runs Through It,' by Norman Maclean, a Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Chicago. It tells the poignant story of Norman and his brother Paul growing up in western Montana, and includes well-developed characters and vivid descriptions of fly fishing in 135 pages. Norman was taught to write by his father, a Presbyterian minister who valued economy and precision, whether casting a dry fly or writing. There is a scene in the movie of the same title, made with great fidelity from the book, were Norman presents his writing to his father, who returns it filled with red lines through unnecessary text and with phrases replaced with single, precise words. Norman learned well, and I don’t think there is a superfluous word in his book.

Personally, I spend about 3 times longer editing and rewriting than I spend writing an initial draft. Meticulous editing is time consuming, but for me it’s essential to producing clear, concise communications.

Give Your Products and Services a Hand

Apple® uses hands in iPhone™ promotional videos to show compact size, portability and easy operation. Hands not only help demonstrate a product’s use and value, but also draw the viewer into a video or pictorial (i.e., the hands are perceived as those of the viewer). And hands can help visualize and humanize the abstract attributes of software or a service. These three promotional pieces show how I used hands to make products and services more realistic, humane and compelling.

On the left, a new power meter, for remote applications, is shown at actual size on a brochure to illustrate its unique hand-held form factor. This repeatedly enticed viewers to push buttons on the keypad image.

In the middle, a hand is used to draw the viewer into a depiction of how simple and easy it is to learn and use menu-driven customer relationship management (CRM) software.

On the right, hands are used as a brand identity element to convey the caring and nurturing qualities of an organization that helps people rehabilitate from acquired brain injuries.

Make Your Position Perfectly Clear

If you don’t position your company, your competitors will.

A positioning statement (similar to a mission statement, but entirely marketing focused) is one or two sentences that clearly and concisely declare what a company does, the market(s) or customer(s) it serves, and the benefit(s) it provides. It is the central message in a complete marketing and corporate communications scheme, and, ideally, should describe the purpose and value of your company in 50 words or less. Here’s an example:

(Company name) develops and delivers software that passively monitors online banking and brokerage applications to prevent unauthorized access to confidential data, without affecting application availability or performance. This enables financial institutions to reduce fraud and identity theft, comply with federal and state online information security regulations, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Don’t try and describe how you do what you do: a clear, concise positioning statement will compel interested readers to learn more. And avoid the previously discussed rhetorical traps of bombast and techno-babble.

It's All Wrong!

Early in my consulting career, I wrote a message platform for a new product targeting the emerging wireless telecommunications market. When the product design engineer and I met to review the platform, I asked him, “Overall, how does it look?” And he replied, “It’s all wrong!”

I was stunned that I had totally misunderstood the product’s features, capabilities and benefits, and prepared myself for a long, difficult meeting. I asked him what the main problem was, and he said that I showed the upper frequency range as 4.2 GHz, when it was actually 2.4 GHz. After correcting what I viewed as a simple typo, I asked, “What else?” And he replied, “That’s all.”

Stunned again, I responded, “But you said it’s all wrong, and now you’re telling me a typo is the only problem.” At this point he fixed his gaze directly on me and replied firmly, “If someone buys this to operate above 2.4 GHz, it won’t work. If such important, fundamental information is wrong, everything is wrong.”

Credibility is an essential element of all business communications, but the margin of error is much smaller in technology marketing.

B2B technology marketing often targets those who design and build products or IT infrastructure. If even a small element of their work is wrong, the product or network will not work properly, and may not work at all. This is the mindset of many designers, developers, and engineers when they read marketing information. If any part of your message is wrong, no matter how small, it makes everything else suspect. And if something really important is wrong, many readers will reject everything you say.

The KISS Principle Illustrated

Keep It Short and Simple.

If you doubt that technical information can be short and simple, stop by your local bookstore or visit Google Book Search and look at David Macaulay’s, 'The NEW Way Things Work.' It was written for anyone old enough to read well, and especially designed for those who find technology intimidating. It not only provides comprehensive descriptions of the way hundreds of machines and devices work, but also gives explanations of the scientific principles behind each. The book makes liberal, effective use of graphic diagrams, and describes most of the machines and devices in 200 to 300 words on 1 or 2 pages.

Reader Comprehension = Effective Writing

Writing is input. Reading is output. If the reader doesn't understand what you've written, you've failed.

The Informatics Review provides writers of medical information (just as applicable for technology writers) with the following suggestions to increase reader comprehensive:

1. Keep sentences short (sentence length is the greatest factor affecting comprehension).
2. Avoid jargon.
3. Design your message around the needs and experiences of your audience.
4. Write to inform rather than impress.
5. Use the active voice, and write in the first or second person.
6. Use simple declarative sentences, and express statements in positive form.
7. Use carefully chosen verbs, and avoid an overuse of modifiers.

Reader comprehension is an absolute, unconditional test of effective writing.