Archive for Marketing
July 6 th
Seeing through your customer’s eyes
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You have a great idea. You turned it into a product. It’s going to solve all kinds of problems. The company you work for is great (lucky you). You see it and you want everyone else to see it too.
You want to make sure people know that you have the coolest thing around, so:
• You write a white paper that tells all about your product and its features.
• You write a case study on who bought your product and how they’re using it.
• You write a blog post letting your readers know what a visionary you or your company is
• You produce a Webinar that demos all the features of your product.
It’s natural. When you’re passionate and proud of something, you want to tell the world. But guess what? The world has their own things they care about and you now have to do something that can be very difficult—step into your customer’s shoes and see the world through their eyes.
Your customers live in a world with competing priorities, differing opinions, and tight budgets, yet are being asked to find answers to real business problems. Can you repeat the business problems your customers are dealing with – in their own words? Do you know the constraints they’re up against?
Beneath the business needs that your product may address, you also need to speak to the personal needs of your buyer. Yes, you’re selling to a real person who has his own personal agenda. Make sure you consider these personal needs as well:
• Make my company money
• Save my company money
• Stay employed by making the best decision
• Stay out of jail (compliance)
• Make me successful
The successful vendor or marketer will be the one who knows how to marry the product benefits with real world needs and do so in a way that shows the customer you understand his challenges. It’s the basic solution-based selling over product sales. Most vendors are doing this now, but we all need that reminder to take another look at our messages and make sure it’s all about the customer, not all about me.
June 17 th
Are Some BI Vendors too Quiet?
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Yesterday, I went to a luncheon put on by Qlikview at the Seattle Yacht Club. I love these vendor luncheons, not because of the free lunch (though it was delicious), but to keep up on the BI industry and hear first hand from other BI users and managers.
I really didn’t know much about Qlikview. Oh, I’ve heard the name now and then but still hadn’t heard anything of substance. Turns out they’ve actually been around since the 1993 and have been headquartered in the US since 2005. And, last year IDC named them as the fastest growing company for three years running—which is probably where I heard about them.
They have a nice reporting and analysis product that replaces the need for cubes and their associated processing time. Because all of the data for a particular subject area (created by IT) is in memory, users are not limited to a predefined hierarchy and can move around through the data very quickly. Ok, that’s very cool.
As for marketing, they seem to be doing most things right. They have a very robust website, including lots of available educational resources like white papers, analyst reports, a blog, webinars, and several “how-to” videos. They’re also good at promoting their community with an active Twitter account (@qlikview), a very busy forum, user groups, and even a wiki.
Finally – be still my heart – they even have a corporate social responsibility program. Currently, I only see that they will offer grants for free product, hosting, and training to selected non-profits. It’s a start, though I think they can do much more here.
So my BI friends, have you run across vendors that you should have known but didn’t? Why do you think that is?
May 5 th
My 3 Wishes from the Marketing Genie
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Remember watching cartoons about Aladdin and the magic lamp? I always hoped I’d find a magic lamp on a beach somewhere and I’d be granted three wishes. Didn’t you wish you could have three wishes too?
Well today I’m setting aside my marketing hat, my BI hat, and my corporate sustainability hat. I’m putting on my customer hat and asking for three wishes I know your marketing team can grant me.
Here are my three wishes:
1. I want a real relationship with you. I want to know that you are real people. I want to know that your company values align with mine. I want to know you are passionate about what you offer. I want to know you understand my needs and that you care about my success. I want to know how you give back to society. I will look for clues in your blog posts, Twitter tweets, forums, and other forms of social media.
2. I want you to help me be successful. I need to fully understand my challenge, including the business impacts. I need to learn better ways to do things, including best practices. I want to know how others have been able to overcome challenges and be successful. I need you to help educate me with credible and objective information. I need you to help me justify my business case. I will look for this in your white papers, case studies, data sheets, articles, webinars, e-books, and other educational content and tools.
3. I want to be able to find you when I need you. I want to easily find the information I need. I want my questions answered quickly. I want you to communicate in ways relevant to my needs. I want you to know who I am when I call. I will look for a well-designed, organized, and complete website, regular newsletters, targeted e-mails, trade show presence, search engine results, and most of all: contact information that leads me to a real person.
Rather than standing in the middle of the marketing department and looking out, I encourage you to walk over and stand in your customer’s office and look out. How do they see you and your company? Does your brand personality show through? Are you approachable? Do you offer a variety of content to help meet their educational needs?
If the magic genie could grant you three wishes (not necessarily marketing or business related), what would they be?
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