If you’re a marketer struggling to get funding for digital techniques, there are six steps to getting organizational buy-in.

This week we’re joined by Malika Waller: Digital Marketing Manager of Landis+Gyr. The company focuses on energy measurement solutions for utilities, and especially on “enabling the smart grid of the future.”

Malika told us just how she got the organizational buy-in she needed to turn her company’s digital marketing from zero to 100mph. Spoiler alert: it took hard work.

When Malika first came onboard at Landis+Gyr two years ago, the marketing was very siloed – more by product than by skill set. Now, as they’ve evolved, the teams vary according to their tasks (pr, events, digital outreach, social media, etc.) and do so for all of the different products they offer.

Two years ago, the company had no digital strategy…but they did know they needed one.

So they looked for an expert, which is why they brought in Malika. Her role morphed as their digital value grew. One of her biggest challenges was the fact that though Landis+Gyr was a utilities-based company, they were also relevant in other fields like software.

Fortunately, thanks to her education in marketing, Malika was able to recognize what they needed to improve upon.

The company had a website and an email newsletter, but there was no nurturing or measurement of engagement. The potential for data was there…it just needed to be utilized.

Trying to wedge oneself in the door of digital marketing takes a lot of education. Out of habit, people tend of fall back on what they know. In the case of the aging utilities industry, what they know is traditional marketing.

One of the first things Malika did to push her company towards digital and win organizational buy-in was present the management team with hard facts, numbers, and data.

A big aid in this conquest was a Martech 2017 infographic about the rapid growth of digital marketing.

Just like marketers need to speak the language of prospects, Malika had to speak the language of engineering-minded, industrial executives. To this day, she holds a monthly meeting to show the companies their latest marketing data, what it means, and where marketing will likely go from there.

Malika didn’t just stop with her executives, either. She took every opportunity she could to speak with her peers about digital marketing.

It wasn’t about making a sales pitch. It was genuinely being excited about something new in her field.

Marketers should be able to (and want to) gush about their work to anyone who’s listening. It should be natural, but also intentional. Let your coworkers know where you are, and what baby steps the company is taking at present to adapt.

Any movement forward is better than none. Movement is where momentum comes from.

Once you start educating others, that makes organizational buy-in a lot easier if you’re starting with a marketing team that don’t yet have the skill sets they need to handle new technologies. If imparting marketing information is already second-nature to you, educating them will be a cinch.

The more you naturally gush about new marketing technologies, the more you’ll find and build a network of coworkers who believe in the value of those technologies.

Marketing is considered a major spend nowadays. If you want to convince upper management to investigate new techniques, it can be a huge advantage to have more than one person at the table who’s supporting your claims.

Adapting to digital is sometimes difficult because it’s not yet well-understood. If you’re not setting expectations or letting people know what’s worth getting excited about, they’ll assume nothing good is coming of their investment.

For Malika, she recommends waiting 6 months or so after launching digital techniques. That’s when the data generally starts to show blips on the radar. After that, it’s all about building longevity.

Talk about success when it happens so that the higher-ups will let you continue exploring.

The first technique that Landis+Gyr dipped their toes into was creating landing pages for events they visited. They didn’t try to start something huge and automated. They just “piggybacked” on their traditional techniques to start.

Instead of paper flyers to follow up after an event, they sent out links to a single page with more information.

For one thing, the launch helped to build their web presence. It was also a great resource for customers who were curious about Landis+Gyr, but unable to investigate during normal business hours.

The website saw great upticks in traffic, and the sales department also loved being able to refer buyers to those pages.

Once Landis+Gyr started to realize that digital marketing was going to be a worthwhile effort, one of their first tasks was to overhaul their own website without overwhelming themselves. Their content and press-releases weren’t very easy to find, and the navigation itself wasn’t intuitive. Soon Malika figured out why.

The site was very terminology-heavy, using “internal speak” that was native to the sales team or the industry experts, yet not to the buyers.

Malika and her team started using BrightEdge to find out the terms their personas were likely searching for, as well as what similar websites were doing to improve their own strategies.

Landis+Gyr customers may not always search for the terms “smart meter,” “smart meter tech,” or “smart meter analytics,” for example. That’s why it was important to change. Those words were something that the company could (and still can) continuously refine and improve.

Another tool that “doubled the marketing department without adding actual people,” was Hubspot. Both programs helped the company change their online presence enormously, without necessarily needing to create anything strictly new.

Their webpages and content started showing up and solving customer problems faster, once they edited the copy to include relevant words and phrases.

The key to gaining organizational buy-in, Malika maintains, was working with what the company already had…then simply asking, “How can we make this better?”

Now Landis+Gyr is building a social media presence and is growing their brand with pay-per-click as well. This way they can show their customers by example that their services are “future-proof,” as Malika puts it.

It’s all to achieve every marketer’s number-one goal: getting on Page 1 in Google Search.

And it is possible. Because – as her Twitter handle says – @Malikadidit.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get each of our weekly episodes sent directly to your inbox! You can also subscribe wherever you download podcasts so you can listen on the go!

If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you. If your topic gets picked for a future episode, you’ll win a free IndustrialSage t-shirt!

This week’s guest hails all the way from Victoria, British Columbia! Darragh Grove-White has been the Digital Marketing Manager at LJ Welding Automation for two years, and has been deep in the world of online marketing for eight years.

LJ Welding is an industrial automation manufacturer based out of Edmonton, Alberta. They began largely in the field of oil and gas (and the many sub-industries thereof) forty years ago. Over time, they started to branch out after the economic crash in 2009 to include nuclear power, military contracts, and even companies involved in space exploration.

With so many different industries to reach, LJ Welding’s marketing has to be very persona-specific in order to reach the right people and appeal to them in the right way.

When Darragh came on the scene, he knew they needed to transition into digital marketing. But first, he helped LJ Welding to differentiate their target audiences until they had a list of six distinct personas for each industry. Each of these personas has distinct pain points and buying motivations.

Knowing these personas is particularly important because many end-users feel that their jobs are threatened by automation…the very thing that Darragh is trying to market. Because of this, Darragh makes sure to categorize each lead when they come in. He also makes sure his sales team knows what each persona means. That way, they can communicate more effectively with each lead.

But coming up with such a streamlined process took a vast amount of effort.

While the company is over forty years old, it was purchased from Larry John in 2006. At that time, the business was only based in Edmonton in a single garage bay, and marketing consisted of little more than paper flyers and a select few loyal, local customers. Since then, the company has grown exponentially.

That little single-warehouse business grew into two facilities reaching 45 countries, with an annual revenue of $30 Million. And Darragh contributes it all to their transition into digital marketing.

LJ has spent several thousands of dollars on paid ads, from Facebook and LinkedIn to even Reddit. Additionally, the company got a head-start on Google Adwords and gained more targeted traffic for a few years before their competitors even realized what was happening.

After the company originally came under new management, one of the first changes they made was to create a website. However, that site was little more than an online photo album and “glorified mailbox,” according to Darragh.

He came onboard just as the company was deciding to increase its online content. At the time, they were producing a few blogs here and there without any purpose.

They were just posting content for content’s sake. No one was asking customers what they wanted to know or see.

Darragh had just gotten his university degree, and his HubSpot Inbound Certification. To this day he asserts that taking the free online marketing course is one of the best choices he ever could have made. His previous experience in sales prepared him to transition into digital marketing without issue.

Once he came in, Darragh figured out LJ had no clear ROI on their ad spend or lead generation. They weren’t even tracking conversions; just counting leads (qualified or not). That was a serious problem.

The company’s problem also wasn’t that it was necessarily ignorant of its needs. Rather, the staff were just too busy to implement the changes they needed.

As Darragh recalls, the COO was trying to do the marketing himself, while being the central deal-closer for the business. Because of that, his energies and focus were split between two very key departments. Each really deserved a single person’s whole attention.

Was the arrangement functional? Sure. Was it cost-effective? No.

To complicate matters even further, LJ was employing an outside marketing agency to manage their PPC at the time. On the surface, that decision was just fine…until Darragh dug deeper.

LJ was getting some leads from their agency’s marketing. However, none of those leads were differentiated, or necessarily even qualified.

As it turned out, the agency was chosen mainly because they were local. And without other agencies to compete against, they were able to charge a high price for what the company now knows was pretty poor paid advertising.

As Darragh dug deeper into the agency’s work, he found that they were blending metrics to make results look better than they actually were. They were taking credit for results that they couldn’t clearly measure as their own.

As well as phasing out that agency, Darragh started implementing changes for his company. They started to take control of their own transition into digital marketing by using HubSpot for Calls-To-Action and link tracking.

The first and perhaps biggest change was contact forms. Rather than using one “contact us,” form for the entire website, they started creating multiple landing pages for quote requests.

That way, leads would go to a more personalized page that matches their dilemma, their persona, and their needs. They could also be more easily tracked that way. Darragh and the sales team were able to see which products and services were driving more traffic and conversions.

Darragh also emphasizes that their landing pages were just that: landing pages.

That means the pages had minimum distractions, even going so far as eliminating menu bars and excessive text. One large image or video, a few bullet points, and the form: that was all. The pages were guiding each lead into finishing what they came for, rather than wandering away.

Tweaks and A/B tests like that have gotten Darragh’s average conversion rate on Request-a-Quote pages up to 30%!

20% is acceptable, Darragh says. Less than 10% on a page means you probably need a change…especially if the submissions that you are getting aren’t right for that service.

Differentiating landing pages and forms for different personas is also a great help to the sales team. By knowing which form a lead came through, sales can identify the needs and pain points of that individual so they know how to talk with them.

If conversions are still a struggle, Darragh recommends trying to decrease the number of questions you’re forcing leads to answer. Otherwise, increase your emphasis on the value of what they’re getting. If you’re giving a free ebook about how to save $1200 per year, remind them what a deal that is in exchange for their contact information.

As well as contact information, there are other questions about leads that might be more valuable to you than others.

One good question to add to your forms is asking your leads what they expect the price range to be.

It’s a very valuable technique for you and for your sales team to see how much a lead values your product or service before going in. And communicating with sales in this way is not an option to Darragh: it’s a way of life. What marketing does will always affect sales.

Darragh always makes sure to communicate with the sales team to try and make their job easer. He especially makes a habit to ask what common questions sales is fielding from leads. Those could be the subject of new, valuable blog posts.

One unexpected source of leads that Darragh touched on in our interview was Reddit. Frankly, we couldn’t help but ask for more information about that.

As it turns out, Reddit is one of the top nine most visited sites in the world. It even ranks fourth in the United States. It’s the “front page of the internet,” and it’s a bit of an anomaly. Reddit is its own self-contained ecosystem, says Darragh. If you can swing it, it can also be a really cheap source of advertising. But…you need to do it right.

The site is comprised of a predominantly 60% male audience under the age of 38, who are moderate to liberal in their thinking.

But before you dive into that gold mine, the site requires a lot of understanding before one can really begin advertising there.

Spend some time browsing the sub-reddits (think forums). You’re guaranteed to find one dedicated to just about any hobby in existence, from welding to unplugged woodworking to knitting.

The more popular a post, the more “up-votes” it gets from readers. The poorer the post, the more downvotes it gets. Each vote literally helps to move the post up or down the front page of that sub-reddit.

If you’re just getting started on a sub-reddit, you can also pay around $5 for 30 upvotes to garner some attention. It’s a bit of a black-hat technique, though. Besides, your content still has to be valuable if you want to keep getting upvotes.

Pay close attention to how the popular titles are phrased and how their content is delivered. They’re great examples of how to attract viewers.

Forums of any kind are great resources, because you can see firsthand what your prospects and personas are discussing. That can help you determine what content to create or release. Weldingweb.com is another forum that Darragh loves to use as inspiration for source material on LJ’s own blog.

Either way, he says, the process involves constant adaptation and change.

There’s no guarantee that certain techniques (especially slightly shadier ones) will work tomorrow. That’s why it’s key to be aware of your personas and their issues, so that you can continue to meet their needs wherever they are.

In short, a high-quality transition into digital marketing takes…well, work.

You need to identify your personas and figure out what’s relevant to them. Differentiate and track your conversions so that you can make life easier for your sales team. Keep up with the times and find out where your personas are online.

Most importantly, you. Need. To. Measure. Everything.

It was hard to end the interview, with all the amazing tips that Darragh was willing to share. We certainly can’t wait to have him back, but in the meantime he can be reached at [email protected], and also on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get each of our weekly episodes sent directly to your inbox. If videos aren’t your style, subscribe wherever you download podcasts and listen on the go!

If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you – and if your topic gets picked for a future episode, you’ll win a free IndustrialSage t-shirt!

In today’s episode we’re joined by Jordan Quackenbush, Creative Director at Atlanta-based video marketing agency Optimum Productions.

Originally a motion graphics editor, Jordan now controls most of the creative decisions for each video project. He’s involved from writing scripts and shooting interviews to creating animations in AfterEffects. In talking with IndustrialSage, he explains how creating a quality marketing message means more than just rotating a product on a pedestal for all to see. It’s also about utilizing stories to their full potential, and being open and vulnerable to what your audience actually wants to see.

Companies put a ton of effort into the visual quality print ads. Yet despite that, they’re not always as concerned with the quality of their message. But message has a major impact on the first impression given to potential buyers, much like the decor and menus at a restaurant. By the time you walk in, take a seat, and place your order, you’ve already formed an opinion long before tasting a single morsel.

If your business has a poor message – or no message – then you’ve already taken a backseat in the minds of your prospects. You need to think about the first impression you’re providing.

A quality marketing message is seen as a reflection of company competency.

That might not seem fair – and it isn’t entirely. Back to the restaurant metaphor, there are a lot of dives that have fantastic food with rather terrible ambience and plain, grimy menus. Their regulars may love them. But all the same, they may not be getting a lot of new business because their appearance can drive people away.

Being the “Best Kept Secret,” in the industry is good for your customers, but bad for your business.

That’s not to say you have to be flashy in your marketing (unless that’s how you want your culture to come across). Still, you should want to increase your reach.

Being a big Star Trek fan, Jordan talks about one of the show’s key subjects: “first contact” with each new alien species. Each new race (aka: prospect) may know nothing about you. Therefore, their first glimpse of you needs to be a very carefully-considered one.

Of course, coming up with a carefully crafted quality marketing message is easier said than done. In some cases, you may already know what to say or how to introduce yourself with exact clarity. You just may feel like it’s hard to actually make your work sound… well, interesting.

Optimum has worked with companies in all sorts of fields, from medical research to logistics to power lines. Many of them tend to put themselves down when asked what makes their work interesting.

There’s some truth to that. Machines are not exactly the first thing that come to mind when attempting to connect with the human spirit.

Nobody wants to portray their company as boring. Sometimes they’ve just never seen it in any other light. But the last thing you want is for that feeling to translate into your videos.

It certainly is hard to connect emotions with automations, or to make a coil of electrical wiring feel like something glorious. Fortunately, there’s actually an easy way to close the gap.

You need to remember the significance of what you’re doing and how your work will impact other people.

All you need to do to tell your story is to find the human element within it. Maybe you’re behind the scenes day after day in countless lives and they take your success for granted. Or perhaps you cater to a rare few and can launch them far ahead of their competition. Either way, seek out and pinpoint that moment of human connection.

Story is how we communicate, but humanity is what makes each story emotional and relevant.

When working with HD Supply, Jordan and the rest of the creative team at Optimum made the connection that HD Supply provides not just equipment, but therefore electrical power. The resulting video focused on the company’s role in keeping houses lit, warm, and safe.

That quality marketing message made the company’s purpose appear not just necessary, but even awe-inspiring. A touch of the right dramatic music, and it was able to evoke emotions far more than any print ad ever could have.

Your message doesn’t have to be expensive. It just has to resonate.

Vestra Logistics was another company struggling with self-image. How do you make trucking and freight and a new price model interesting?

Jordan and his team ended up pitching an idea almost entirely out of left field – a salesman in boxers and a transparent suit helping to pitch Vestra’s transparent methods. It was by no means a traditional solution, but it was both relevant and frankly very attention-catching. Whether you’re in logistics or not…it’s pretty hard to stop watching.

Almost everyone feels like their job is dull, but that’s because it’s simply routine for them, not for everybody else.

Nowadays, leads will choose a lesser company over yours simply because that other company has a better message. Even if you have the better service! On the opposite side of that spectrum, a quality marketing message can wow anyone.

After collaborating with a tool vending branch of Stanley Black & Decker known as CribMaster, Optimum created a set of videos that were shown at multiple events. Many of the staff apparently said, “We want to work at that company!” Then they were reminded, “You already do!”

Storytelling is the way we as humans connect. It’s the best way that you can begin building a rapport with your leads.

Another Optimum client, ADO Practice Solutions, wanted to create a video explaining how ADO helps eye-care practices succeed through collaborative teamwork. The resulting production focused entirely on the metaphor of a rowing team in training. Not so much as a contact lens was in the video, but it still connected and communicated effectively with ADO’s audiences.

Of course, finding your story is only half the battle. Sometimes, even if you do know what you want to say, the marketing message might be all wrong for your prospects.

One of Jordan’s pet peeves is when an executive is set on their own vision because they themselves are satisfied with it. They’re not always open to handing over their marketing baby. They’re not open to getting critical or honest feedback from actual creatives. So when push comes to shove, what do you do when visions collide?

It’s hard to see your perfectly-honed idea get stripped down or wiped away entirely. It feels very personal when that happens. But the truth is that you need creatives to step in, because internal feedback is not good enough.

Sure, you know your work backwards and forwards and better than anyone else. But sometimes that is precisely the problem.

You need those checks and balances in place so that you can test your work and humbly drop any aspect that could be holding you back from reaching your audience proper. That could mean letting go of jargon, traditions, your CEO’s ‘inspired’ concept, or even the agency you’re currently collaborating with.

When looking in the rearview mirror, some of Optimum’s favorite and most successful projects – like CribMaster – were also the projects where the creative team was given carte blanche on the script.

They still worked closely with the company’s marketing team, of course, but those marketers were willing to be vulnerable. They gave up a lot of control to, essentially, a bunch of outsiders.

Marketing, like any other product, is a source of revenue made specifically for your audiences rather than for yourself. Poor production will lead to poor sales as a result.

A few years ago when Optimum Productions went through their own rebrand, they attempted to redesign their logo themselves. They were creative and artistic types, and they certainly had the software and resources to pull it off. But they went through draft after draft and simply couldn’t settle.

Finally, they had to take a leap of faith and hand the reigns off to a professional graphic designer who could view the project with less bias. He was able to let go of the extra baggage that the OP staff had been clinging to, because they felt it to be necessary to their story. But in the end, those extra details had simply resulted in extra weight that had held them back.

The resulting logo was able to hit at the core of what Optimum does. It was a very personal reminder for the team to “take their own medicine.”

As another example, Jordan mentioned the big change that many modern video games are undergoing.

In this day and age, graphics quality has more or less peaked. Now, game creators are noticing that their customers don’t always care about being able to see every vein on every leaf on every tree. Often times, audiences start to migrate over to slightly kitsch options. Why? Because, despite the crude graphics, the stories still ring true.

A lot of new video games on the market have taken the hint and have humbled their graphics in order to to focus on their writing.

Seeking feedback from executives outside your department is indeed a big (and often necessary) step. However, usually you need to go even further and seek feedback outside of your entire company. Your buyers and prospects aren’t necessarily experts on what you do, so you need to find a few similar neophytes on whom to test your quality marketing message.

This is one of the reasons why millennials are considered such a big deal in marketing. They’re the majority of buyer audiences nowadays. Their generation as a whole has completed high school at minimum – and at maximum, many of them are already in their thirties and are well on their way to managing their companies as baby boomers retire.

Millennials aren’t just entering the workforce – they already are the workforce, and that does affect B2B marketing.

This powerful generation has a great “BS radar,” as Jordan puts it. That’s why it’s so important to get their feedback on what you’re doing as a marketer. They can tell you what your prospects are looking for, as well as why buyers might be (mis)judging you.

The preferences and ideals of millennials could (and will) take up an entire episode…but for now, suffice it to say you need to be connected with them right now.

A quality marketing message will affect your credibility according to your prospects, so you need high-level storytelling to communicate effectively with leads.

Your business may be more interesting or powerful than you think, because you’ve probably just gotten used to it. But if you dare to find the human connection in your industry and find newcomers to lay fresh eyes on your content, you just might be able to create something incredible, clear, and breathtaking. All it takes is a little vulnerability.

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get each of our weekly episodes sent directly to your inbox. You can also subscribe wherever you download podcasts and listen on the go!

If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you. And if your topic is chosen for a future episode, you’ll win a free IndustrialSage t-shirt!

Well, September is wrapping up! For our team here at IndustrialSage, that means a review of the 2017 third quarter. This particular review only has nine episodes, as our video and podcast only got started around early June (though it feels like much longer!). But there is certainly plenty of sagely wisdom worth reviewing here. If you’ve only just started following our show, this review will be a great way to catch up.

We’ve already seen and heard a lot of fantastic information about how manufacturing and industrial marketers can start easing into digital techniques.

If you’re just joining us, here’s what we’ve covered so far…

In the first two episodes, we discussed what really counts as digital marketing. We covered how B2B strategies differ from B2C, and the particular questions a business should ask before starting any digital campaigns.

Our third episode touched on common reasons why marketers tend to fall short of their lead-gen goals with trade shows. We also covered how an email newsletter and marketing plan can make or break your results there. Tracking every lead – digitally – is the real key to success there.

In our fourth episode halfway through the 2017 third quarter, we got to sit down with Jon Gatrell of Pragmatic Marketing. He gave some valuable insights into how and why product development should actually be integrated with marketing. Product designers’ ideas and prototypes should evolve according to the results and feedback brought to them by the marketing department.

Our fifth episode addressed key ways to get organizational buy-in. You have to bring hard proof to convince higher-ups that digital strategies are needed.

In our sixth and seventh episode, we got to chat with Lillie Beiting of CribMaster, part of Stanley Black & Decker. She helped us break down the basics of what pay-per-click is these days. Then, in a follow-up episode, we explored how to begin understanding and measuring the right KPIs for your company.

Our eighth episode, covered some key pitfalls surrounding the use of video in digital marketing. Your sales funnel can actually determine what kinds of videos are appropriate for your leads and prospects.

Stephen Timme and Melody Astley of FinListics Solutions joined us for our ninth episode. We nailed down how account-based marketing should address the specific needs of each buyer. A buyer’s priorities in each of those different roles can vary, even within a single organization. It’s important to know the motivations behind every persona. Otherwise, you won’t know how to make the right connection with them and encourage the sale.

Stephen and Melody also brought an extremely helpful graphic portraying an example of different buyers role within a single manufacturing organization. Take a look, or download a copy here.

The show is far from over, friends. We have a lot of great material coming up for the 2017 fourth quarter.

If social media, lead generation, webinars, or millennials haunt your nightmares…then you’ll want to stay tuned!

Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get each of our weekly episodes sent directly to your inbox. You could also subscribe wherever you download podcasts so you can listen on the go! If there’s a particular topic that you’d like for us to talk about, or if you have a particular a challenge that you’d like us to take a crack at, send us an email. We’d be happy to answer them for you.

Despite the usual friction that one generally sees between marketing and sales teams, there’s actually quite a bit that these departments can learn from one another; with measurable results.

In this episode we’re joined by FinListics Solutions CEO and Founder Stephen Timme, as well as Vice President of Marketing Melody Astley. FinListics is an Atlanta-based company that aids B2B businesses with their marketing and sales techniques by teaching them to understand the financial challenges of their customers.

With their extensive experience in finance and sales, Melody and Stephen have learned a thing or two about sales that has also improved their marketing tactics.

There’s a big shift going on in the marketing world – fortunately, as Stephen says. As buying behavior evolves, companies can no longer promote themselves by selfishly discussing their own product in and of itself.

In digital marketing, when you’re smart about it, you can align your touch and your campaign so that you’re touching the right people at the right time with the right message.

Now the challenge isn’t reaching your prospects – the technology takes care of that – but rather, developing the right message.

Developing the right message is difficult because traditionally, the sales message that we inherit from our predecessors in the department goes something along these lines:

“I have the fastest product!”

“I have the most efficient product!”

“We serve clients in 50 countries!”

“We’ve been around for a hundred years!”

“We, we, we!”

And to complicate matters even further, not only is technology enabling your buyers to educate themselves on what they need… but your buyers also differ depending on their position within their company. A Chief Operating Officer and a CTO and a CFO may all have the same goal within their company over-all, but they have different needs, and you need to adjust your message accordingly.

And the priorities of your audience aren’t the only things that vary. Different people in different careers also process information differently; and that means you have to communicate with them differently.

In short, digital marketing is largely evolving into account-based marketing, which means making a message as specific as possible for your targets. So instead of casting a wide net, a message for a company like GE could be very specific to GE, and it could differ in a few detailed ways from a message for Honeywell.

The stakes of ignoring these changes in the market can amount to both missed opportunities and, as a result, lost business. A technical message or a feature-function specific message may not resonate with the executive sponsor or final decision-maker.

The companies who get their message right and do it first will capture the minds of those executive buyers, and then it’s a competitive loss for any marketers who were dragging their feet.

And sometimes even if you do get revenue, you find yourself settling for a lower margin because it’s your buyers who decide how much you’re aligning with their goals. That means lost revenue opportunities, lower profit margins, and smaller deal sizes.

It all starts with the client. What are they trying to accomplish? It’s actually not that hard to find out, because they’re sure to talk about it.

“I’m trying to digitally transform the business to have a greater customer experience.”

“I’m trying to transform the business to have a greater workforce experience.”

“I’m getting beat up by foreign competition, soI have to find a way to lower cost per unit.”

“We have limited capital budget, so this equipment… I want to get as much out of it as possible.”

“I want to have greater capacity utilization.”

Even if your buyer is part of a private company, you can look at the publicly-traded companies in the same industry and get some inferences into what your buyer wants.

The next key to determining your message is by figuring out how their executives are compensated; something that marketing and sales teams almost never consider.

So if they’re compensated on growth, if they’re compensated on some type of return measure, if they’re compensated on safety… use that terminology. Don’t come in and say, “We’re here to improve your profitability,” or, “We’re here to reduce costs.”

You need to be able to walk in and say, “We’re here to help you improve your Ebitda margin,” if that’s what they’re compensated on.

Most companies are focused either on operational efficiency, workforce transformation, or a greater customer experience. If you don’t help with at least one of those things, you’re irrelevant.

Selecting those specific needs that you can meet is certainly a far cry better than the “spray and pray” buckshot approach.

But like most other marketing transitions, making a major messaging change like this will take time. Perhaps not as much as one might think, but it’s like any other habit; the more you repeat the process, the more it will become second-nature.

When looking at buyers, stop asking yourself “How can we sell this?” and instead ask, “How can I help them? And by how much?”

Suddenly your attention shifts off of yourself and onto your client. Then you can get into the specifics, and a profitable conversation is born organically.

If you find that your client has a goal like “improve operational efficiency,” for example; that’s useful, but also very big and vague. The specific ways you can help will vary by each buyer’s role within the organization. Take a look at the following graphic, or download a copy here.

The first thing to do is to find those three or four lines of businesses that are going to be involved in your over-all goal. Then start thinking about how their initiatives differ. In the case of operations, success would likely be defined and measured by on-time delivery.

The message is going to be different, but it all starts with the “how,” and then moves into the “how much.”

The great thing about this technique is that it works regardless of product or solution. It’s all about learning to speak the language of your personas, and learning to meet their needs.

It’s the old marketing story: when you go to the store to buy a drill bit, what you really want is a hole. Besides that, just know your own history. Know not just the average percentage of improvement you bring to the table, but also how much that percentage would amount to for that particular buyer.

As your buyers become more educated thanks to the same technologies that you’re using to reach them, you need to make sure that your message and tactics are changing along with the rest of your assets.

Stop asking yourself “How can we sell this?” and instead turn your focus onto the needs of each specific buyer that you have. As yourself, “How can I help them? And by how much?” and examine the particular improvements for which that they might be compensated. Marketing is no longer a selfish inward-facing business, but is now a business of outreach.

As your marketing and sales departments learn about each specific buyer persona’s goals, they need to communicate with one another so as to reach future prospects more effectively. When was the last time your marketing and sales departments sat down to a meeting together?

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