You are not reading the review about the latest marvel of German engineering as it glides through some secret track testing location in Stuttgart! I’m talking about utilising points of view to propel your business into top gear with better content strategy online and more results driven copywriting for your marketing collateral, blog, website, social media, etc.
1st Person Narrative: The story is relayed by a narrator who is also a character within the story, so that the narrator reveals the plot by referring to this viewpoint character as “I” (or, when plural, “we”).
This point of view needs to be used very sparingly in marketing, as it takes the reader or the message recipient’s focus away from themselves and we all know that station “W.I.F.M – What’s In It For Me” is the only one that the audience listens to.
2nd Person Narrative: Probably the rarest mode in literature (though quite common in song lyrics) is the second-person narrative mode, in which the narrator refers to one of the characters as “you”, therefore making the audience member feel as if he or she is a character within the story. Every good advertisement, PR story, blog entry, sales letter, email, etc takes us on a journey, it tells a story, no matter how short it is, it is interesting enough to engage us.
Second person narrative is the most useful and proven method of engaging with your audience and influencing them through the written word positively to: buy your product, perceive you differently, take action, vote, etc
Unfortunately most authors of SME marketing materials, do not utilise copywriting in a scientific manner and do not treat it as multiplied salesmanship!
The “we’s” on the average website outnumber the “you’s” at a ratio of at least 2 : 1, and show, in a subconscious way, that an internal focus, rather than being customer focused.
On the other hand if you look at work by customer focused marketers, you will find their copywriting utilising “you v we” ratios of closer to 3 : 1 in favour of “you”.
3rd Person Narrative: Third-person narration provides the greatest flexibility to the author and thus is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. In the third-person narrative mode, each and every character is referred to by the narrator as “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”, but never as “I” or “we” (first-person), or “you” (second-person). In third-person narrative, it is necessary that the narrator be merely an unspecified entity or uninvolved person that conveys the story, but not a character of any kind within the story being told.
This is the preferred point of view of the bigger ‘corporate’ organisations. Unfortunately, in many cases, the customer or prospect walks away from the experience with this big brand feeling as if they are a “number and not a member!”
Third person is however useful when you need to:
– convey a more authoritative tone
– sound more objective than first or second person writing.
Although third person is the language we’re used to reading in our daily media, third person writing is also more distant, which is a disadvantage if you want to engage your reader.
Reminder: As we all know, marketing success comes from adopting a customer centric point of view; what we all sometimes forget is that it is important to communicate this point of view, after all if you don’t illustrate this to your customers, they simply won’t know. Perception is Reality.
Are you connecting with your customers? Call the Marketing Network and see how we can improve the perceptions your customers and prospects have about your business.
Here is an excellent article written by www.windmillnetworking.com which examines 3 fantastic examples of B2B blogging .
3 Winning Examples of B2B Blogs Done Right
Over the last few years blogging has become a recognized marketing tool as a component of a social media strategy. While businesses used to scratch their head as to why they should be fiddling with something that was originally created for individuals, B2B marketing professionals should now realize that a blog can and should play a central role in their content marketing efforts as well as provide the foundation for their social media engagement.
B2B blogs are not only showing up within the websites of more companies, they are providing real and measurable success for those that are doing it well. When done right, B2B blogs offer high value for a relatively low investment compared to other types of marketing activities like traditional advertising.
What are the common factors in a successful B2B blog? A look at these three B2B Blog Marketing Case Studies will show that these companies all have the following two characteristics in common:
Take a Strategic Approach to Blogs – A social media strategy begins with research to understand how and where your target customers use social media and consume information. You can’t just start a blog and expect results. A long-term perspective on social media strategy combined with the proper research created a blueprint which allowed these companies to plan out an effective blogging strategy customized for their audience and brand.
Become an Industry Resource – Blogging shouldn’t be about you – it’s about them, your target customers! Become the industry magnet by blogging about topics that would interest them. As more decision makers search for information on the Internet, your blog posts can now be discoverable on a much greater and even global scale. Over time you will become their trusted resource for information, which will naturally lead to more business.
There Case Studies of B2B Blogs (click “The Bottom Line” link for the full original stories)
This is the example that I always talk about when I speak on social media. If an old-school 19th century distributor of mesh and fencing can find something to blog about and generate business, so can your niche B2B business!
What is exciting about mesh and fencing? Nothing. But businesses need it for a variety of reasons and look for tips and advice on the subject just like any given person looks for information on topics that are important to them. What better way to give relevant information out to target customers than through a blog which then lands them on your website?
Louis E. Page was able to deliver content that their target user was looking for and slowly built up a loyal following of potential customers who they were able to build a relationship of trust with. They started seeing amazing statistics: A whitepaper on how to use woven-wire fencing to build a horse paddock received more than 1,500 downloads!
The Bottom Line: Louis E. Page saw a 850% increase in sales leads since launching their blog.
How does a supply chain management company engage in social media through their blog? By following the formula laid out above. Kinaxis first did its homework by hiring Forrester Research to better understand the audience that they were trying to reach in creating their social media strategy. While Kinaxis had already been blogging, and didn’t know if they had been wasting their time or not, the research indicated that they should continue blogging as an important part of their social media strategy. They now saw blogging as something that should be real and sensitive to their readers without being self-promotional.
Even though Kinaxis has already seen tangible results from their blogging efforts, they saw value at further increasing their blogging activities by allowing outside bloggers to post next to internal employees. Now, in addition to articles from 18 Kinaxis employees are posts from 5 leading industry experts, further helping to drive site traffic and strengthen the positioning of Kinaxis as leaders in their industry.
The Bottom Line: Kinaxis reported 2.7 times increase in website traffic, 3.2 times increase in conversion, and 5.3 times increase in blog traffic in 2009 when compared to 2008 numbers.
Hinda Incentives manages corporate incentive programs for a number of clients around the world. Having done its homework, Hinda knew the name of the game in social media is “conversation,” so they looked for where decision makers who might use their service were hanging out. What they found surprised them: there really wasn’t much chatter in social media about incentive programs.
Instead of seeing this as a hindrance, Hinda saw an opportunity. The company took some time to build relationships and launched a blog that has all but created the conversations about their industry, with Hinda at the center, from the ground up.
The Bottom Line: Hinda’s blog traffic has increased steadily in a short time to over 1,000 visits a month and a 15% increase in traffic to their web site with subscribers from more than 30 different customers. More importantly, they have already seen several hundred thousand dollars of sales opportunities from their efforts.
Do you see any other common aspects of what makes a successful B2B blog from these case studies? Want to share more examples with us or explain how your B2B business leverages a blog as part of their marketing efforts? Please chime in and share your blog marketing case studies with us!
Most projects require Gene’s generalist and creative skills at least at the beginning of the engagement with qubePartners so as to deliver you the greatest possible return on your marketing investment.
Brand (Positioning Statements) should be able to hold their position in the long run and ideally achieve the following 4 criteria:
Differentiate the business (Communicate the USP)
Provide a Creative (Campaignable and Sustainable) platform
Benefits should be ideally expressed explicitly to the customer
Provide support to the brand name
Even when designing a brand from scratch it is difficult to satisfy all 4 criteria, so meeting 3 for a new brand or even 2 during a re-brand is often a great result.
You need to communicate with:
Clarity
Consistency
Compression
to ‘cut through’ the clutter that is now prevalent in most service and product categories to consumers who are bombarded by more commercial messages than ever before!
So how do we do this?
Firstly we need to “own “own” a place in the consumer mind.
the easiest and most effective way of “owning a place in your customers’ and prospects’ minds is to focus on the things that matter. Most small and medium enterprises do not have the time or the money to be all things to all people, in fact neither do the very big companies, and when they try, they end up meaning nothing to anybody. The result is at best mediocrity.
Focus demands Sacrifice – To own something you need to give up something else. Focus on the particular type of buyer. Markets consist of buyers who differ in their:
Wants
Resources
Locations
Buying attitudes
Buying behaviours
Simplicity adds value, by adding a halo effect for other benefits:
Simple benefit (the most important promise) oriented word works best no matter how complex the product or market.
The word must be exclusive.
Avoid change, personalities don’t change, neither should your Brand.
Positioning takes years and people don’t really change.
Next we will illustrate the power of brand positioning and focus with some examples.
How 2 Players Effectively communicated their Brand Positioning
Here are 2 industries and examples how the different players have through focus have found their niche and then effectively communicated their brand positioning.
Examples of the segmentation and brand positioning in the car…
Examples of the segmentation and brand positioning in the car industry.
Positioning examples through segmentation in the car insurance…
Positioning examples through segmentation in the car insurance category.
Most of the builders don’t have a positioning statement…
Most of the builders don’t have a positioning statement and are missing out on a great opportunity to truly connect with their prospects as well as be able to develop creative and more effective communication.
There is always an opportunity to be the “first”…
There is always an opportunity to be the “first” through even more focus. At the same time one has to be careful to protect their brand name!
People love stories from children’s fairy tales to books and movies. A story is more memorable than a straightforward message. A story is easy to re-tell and pass on to other consumers, hence providing your brand with more Word of Mouth Marketing opportunities.
A brand story needs to be:
Real and authentic
Colourful and interesting
Advertisements are nothing more than stories with the best ones engaging their audience. Famous brands such as Virgin and Apple have real stories surrounding their founders and form an important element of their positioning strategy.
Self Actualisation (Search for Meaning & Personal Salvation)
Gerald Zaltman, author of “How Customers Think” and Professor at Harvard Business School identifies deep metaphors in the minds of consumers in “Marketing Metaphoria”:
Overcoming the monster: Defeating a force which threatens safety, existence, success – David v Goliath
The Quest: A group in search of something (who may find it or something ‘better’)
Journey and Return: The hero journeys away from home and comes back (having experienced something and maybe having changed for the better)
Comedy: Not necessarily ‘haha’ funny. a misunderstanding or ignorance is created that keeps parties apart, which is resolved, by the end, bringing them back together
Tragedy: Someone, tempted (vanity, greed, etc), becomes increasingly desperate, or trapped by their actions, until the climax where they usually die
Rebirth: Hero is captured or oppressed (a living death existence) until they are miraculously freed
Rags to Riches: Overcoming a state of poverty, want, and/or need.
By telling your brand story you can differentiate your business and form a stronger connection with your customers and prospects. By understanding why you started the business, or for example why you named it in a certain way, customers will feel like they know you and understand you. After all it is hard to connect with someone you don’t understand.
In the world where we all suffer from A.D.D. originality is the marketer’s prescription for success. Human beings are hard wired to look for the new, so the first objective of any communication is to grab attention. -Gene Stark
The more “creative” the marketing communication, the more memorable and comprehensible it is. Which means that you do not have to expose your target audience to your message as many times as you would otherwise with “average” communication. Gene Stark
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