As per B2B Content Marketing 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America, 70% of B2B marketers say they will produce more content in 2017 than they did in 2016 and 39% of B2B marketers say they will increase spending on content marketing over the next twelve months. Content is key for any marketing initiative to succeed. However, in the present world of information overload, content without context merely is a ‘low-test fuel, prone to knocks and stalls’. In this exclusive with The Smart Manager, Rutsky talks about how B2B companies can break through and lead when they control the context of the market conversations.
To become market leaders, you say, organizations should exert influence on the context of market conversations...
Markets are at their core conversations between buyers and sellers. The topic of the conversation is the exchange of value. As a buyer, I am exchanging my time and money to obtain the benefits of the sellers’ product or solution. However, value is a very subjective judgment that the buyer makes. That judgment is made in the buyer’s context, not the seller’s. If we can first tap into that context in a way that is meaningful to the buyer, we can then influence the context and ultimately connect our value to that context influencing what the customer values in our favor.
You urge companies to resist the temptation to customize the solution. Why?
Sellers must realize that today’s buyers are highly educated and fiercely independent. The days of showing up and questioning and qualifying a prospect before presenting your solution are over. They want sales representatives to teach them something, not question them.
If most companies follow similar strategies, how will they differentiate their communication?
Organizations who better connect to the customer’s world and make it better are the ones who are seen as differentiating. Your solution still matters, but it takes second, as it should to your customer’s success.
How can companies break the quantity vs quality trade-off?
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Denne historien er fra May - June 2017-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
