Aspirational Pain?
When it comes to technology there are two types of marketers. The brand marketers who communicate an aspirational vision that establishes their company as a category thought-leader while connecting with prospects. And the demand generation marketers, who feast on the pain points of prospects to convert them into leads and ultimately sales.
The reality of the situation is that it's tough to be aspirational when constantly yelling fire in the theater. It's equally as difficult to drive action while preaching what a wonderful place the world is. No wonder there's been many a rumble within technology marketing teams.
What is more important, connecting or converting?
BOTH
Your brand communications, even though striking an aspirational tone, need to also give a reason for your prospects to take action. No action means no revenue. That eventually leads to a visit from your CFO and another round of the very fun game of tourniquet budgeting.
Your demand generation communications need to pay attention to the brand impression they leave behind, especially, to the other 98% who didn't convert. Ignore this and miss the opportunity to set the stage for future sales. You can also suffer from a lower sales conversion as opportunities can fizzle late in the process if your message doesn't resonate with the senior level decision makers who actually own the budget.
So how can you connect AND convert?
You can begin with you brand communications. For instance, it's fine if your messaging strikes an aspirational tone, and it even makes sense to have a thought-leadership offer that continues this positive messaging. However, your contact plan should include additional touches to move them from awareness to consideration. This should include probing for pain, as well as follow-ups with solutions that will solve it.
And with your demand generation communications, it's important that you infuse the brand into all of these efforts. For EMC, to tie in with its brand positioning, Where Information Lives, we developed a global demand generation campaign where the word Information was the hero – always manipulated in some way to address audience pain points. This demand generation platform was rolled out around the world, building brand while generating demand at the same time.
So aspirational pain might sound like an oxymoron. Nonetheless it represents a roadmap to brand and demand marketing nirvana.
Comments
I like this! Thanks for creating and sending to me.
Posted by: Valerie Sullivan | April 24, 2008 07:28 PM