[QUIZ] Relationship Marketing for B2B Tech Startups
How many emails did you get today? How much time did you waste sifting through irrelevant ones vs. answering the important ones?
According to Adobe, Americans spend five hours per day checking their email (26% of those surveyed said they expect this to increase in 2020 and 2021).
So if your brand uses email as their primary means of marketing communication (MarCom), you'd better be remarkable or you're going into the trash folder.
What do I mean by MarCom? Communication relating to your positioning, differentiation, unique proposition, unique story and why it is important to your customers all fall into the MarCom category. It's important to get right - dangerous to get wrong.
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Take a look at what effective MarCom means (and why some common tactics fall flat) . . .
Communication Is Context
Let's think about this simply.
Effective MarCom clarifies your messaging for your target audience, whether it's about your brand, product, a new offer, a great deal, or simply your About information. To be effective, your communication must be consistent across your communication channels, understandable, relevant, and meaningful.
Sound familiar? Refer to this blog post for how about how to define the story of your brand.
If you relegate communication to a subordinate MarCom role of one-way conversations like brochures, you're missing a tactical opportunity to create a relationship with your target audience on a genuine level. Wonder if you're missing the mark? Take this 30-second quiz:
#1: Is your context relatable?
Are you making your target audience work too hard to understand your message? Clear beats clever every time. We're not talking about rocket science or the trick to making a perfect souffle on this blog: at GrowthShift, we keep our communication simple and effective.
#2: Is your message aligned with how your customers think?
Use your customer's language, showing you understand them better than any of your competition. One of your largest communication responsibilities is to listen to customer concerns and reframe them as 'how you solve their problems'.
#3: Is the medium effective?
With an overabundance of communication platforms, your team could be wasting effort without an effective communications strategy. Consider email marketing: as the numbers in this blog post's opening prove, it's an over-communicated, over-stimulated channel. How can you break through the noise?
With relatable, thoughtful, human communication, using the three guidelines above.
If your MarCom isn't focused on establishing trust and conversations required to create a real, human connection, then your audience has already tuned you out.
Is Your MarCom Creating a Conversation?
When we talk about MarCom, people tend to think about the assets they're creating. Common ones are:
• Literature
• Case studies
• Presentations
• Blog posts
• Infographics
• Collateral
• Emails
But it's much bigger, more important than just the tools - it's about creating a relationship, elevating your brand and creating a compelling reason to choose you. They're only tools to engage with your audience - at their most effective when you've already started engaging with potential or current clients. Use these tools as part of a comprehensive communication platform.
Return to Email Marketing
Don't let a single email deviate from your unique value statement. Ensure sales people aren't contradicting information on your site. Lead the customer, gently, by linking your next point or contact with their original concern.
Otherwise, that eBook your team spent 30 hours crafting and sending via email will be sent directly to the Trash.
Additionally, email needs to be part of a much larger conversation, across your website, social channels, and other platforms.
Bring It Back to Connection
"Man is by nature a social animal," said the great and wise Aristotle, and it's a lesson today's marketers should heed.
People crave connection - we need it to thrive and to grow. It's vital to our world, not just for B2B tech sales, but everything we do. So, we're naturally inclined to dismiss things that don't create a connection.
If your MarCom isn't focused on establishing trust and conversations required to create a real, human connection, then your audience has already tuned you out.
Create conversations as if you're talking with an old friend. The platforms may change (social, content, web, customer referrals) but what doesn't change is the two people on either end. They're consistent, and so is the conversation.
You recognize your close friends' voice and manner of speaking because it sounds familiar: , whether it's a phone call, in-person chat, or email. Approaching your marketing strategy to feel the same allows you to focus on being a social animal, instead of a flat brand.
Every email you send should sound like a conversation with a real person. They can't just be lists and bullet points or fancy graphics with a catchy slogan.
Conversations aren't busywork. Emails and MarCom shouldn't be either. Treat each tweet, post, email subject line and body like you're conversing with your dad or a cherished friend . . .
. . . and your communication will create a brand your audience trusts.
Get Your Competitive Positioning Audit
Differentiate your B2B tech startup
(before your competition does it for you):
