If a prospect is to respond, they need to be clear on two things: what it is we want them to do next and why it is valuable to them. It’s a simple principle, but if we apply it with an understanding of the market and the buying process, it can dramatically improve results.

Here are three key steps to creating calls-to-action that actually work.

1. Consider the buying cycle

There are probably as many versions of the buying cycle as there are books on sales and marketing. But when it comes to developing the right call-to-action, they are useful tools since they help us understand that when we ask the reader to do something, it has to be appropriate to their current situation.

A typical buying funnel contains four stages: recognising the problem; working out what caused the problem and how big it is; evaluating possible solutions; and deciding on the best course of action.

Somebody who has only just recognised they have a problem is unlikely to pick up the phone and jump straight in to a sales meeting. At this stage, what will be most valuable to them is help in understanding the nature of their challenge. For these prospects, we might consider a link to download a whitepaper, or even inviting them to a workshop that helps them think through the cause and scope of their challenge.

Even at the later stages of the buying cycle, our time-poor prospects will be wary of picking up the phone unless they can see the value they will get in return for their time. Instead of ‘arrange a meeting with one of our experts’, then, how about a ‘case study road-show’ that shows how others have dealt with similar challenges?

2. Plan a series of CTAs

So, we understand the importance of a call-to-action that is relevant to the prospect’s current situation. And we can also assume that, in any given market, organisations will each be at a different stage in the buying cycle.

What we can do now is plan campaigns that have a series of calls-to-action, each one helping to ‘nudge’ the prospect along the buying cycle. Ask yourself, at every ‘touch point’, what is the right action to motivate people along the buying cycle?

Think about the ideal next step for your prospect, based on where they are in the buying process and taking into account any other considerations relevant to the market you are in. Also, plan out the subsequent touch points you will need to maintain customers’ forward momentum. Success comes when all of these touch points tie together seamlessly.

So, our appetite-whetting email might link to a website. The website persuades our prospect of the value of attending an event. The event finishes with an offer of a one-to-one workshop that helps the prospect understand their challenge and gives them materials to promote their case internally. And then, when they’ve had that crucial meeting with finance, we get in touch and book a sales meeting to discuss the next steps.

3. Put CTAs at the forefront

OK, we are now ready to create our content. All we need to do is remember the golden rule: we are selling the next step just as much as the solution.

So often, we devote 90 per cent of the content to the end product or solution and leave ourselves just a tenth to get across the bit that really matters: what we want them to do.

But now we have planned our ‘next steps’ to work together, our content can reflect that. We can devote more space to explaining the value of taking each step, giving us a much better chance of getting a response.

Consider it as your chance to make a pitch to the reader as to why they should act. Think about the level of investment you are asking them to make. The bigger the investment we ask, the stronger the case needs to be. If we ask them to take half a day out to attend an event, the value of that half-day will have to compare favourably – not only to other events but also any way they might usefully spend their time. With an audience that is frequently very time poor, ‘do nothing’ can be the strongest competition we face.

So, rather than making your call-to-action an afterthought, it should be at the forefront of your communication. If planned in the right way, it completely changes the structure and emphasis of your content. Let’s put calls-to-action at the heart of our creative.

Alongside a more detailed set of critical success factors, our review suggested 4 key attributes essential for creating lead management programmes (each then breaks down into several competence questions in a kick-off process):

1. Detailed knowledge of the business objectives and capabilities/needs of different teams in the business/external partners
2. Insight into target individuals, their typical needs and decision/purchase journeys
3. Expertise in the strategies, content, and hooks that drive forward the audience journeys
4. Working understanding of the technologies of lead management, nurturing and CRM (technology must not come first, but understanding the different capabilities of Eloqua vs Silverpop vs Oracle vs Marketo vs Aprimo vs Neolane vs Microsoft Dynamics vs Salesforce etc etc will ensure rapid time to value)

Only by balancing these 4 factors is it possible to take the 4 actions necessary to build the best performing programme (while these 4 are distinct and each have several sub-actions, they can’t be treated in isolation as each has an impact on the other):

1. Identify areas of potential for greatest business impact from lead management (and set the right targets/measures)
2. Correctly set the process and scoring for management/handover of different levels of opportunities and for management/improvement of ‘marketing’ data in the nurturing process
3. Design the right journeys, create enticing content (or ‘wrap’ existing content), identify appropriate triggers/personalisation opportunities
4. Select the best areas to launch the programme, implement rapidly and scale up appropriately

It would be interesting to hear if anyone has spotted any other headline factors responsible for lead management success…

Augmented reality (AR) is probably as complex as presentation can get – in case you haven’t come across it, AR involves laying ‘artificial’ information/graphics over images of the ‘real’ world. The first businesses using this technology to communicate a proposition are benefiting from buzz and excitement – and are finding some interesting ways to apply it.

Take GE, who are using AR to raise awareness of their Smart Grid proposition. They’ve created an application that builds a smart grid in your hands when you hold a printed symbol up to a webcam. There’s a video of someone playing with GE’s smart grid below, but their site gives the best illustration: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality.

Right now, there are more examples of AR in B2C marketing – like BMW’s site for the Z4, which tied in to a recent series of TV ads and lets you drive a Z4 around your desk. But people are steadily finding business applications for the technology, as well as ways of making it work in the real world (as with the iPhone app below).

So there’s a real opportunity to be the supplier who clarifies things for a market and stakes a claim to be first port of call in any potential deal.

I’ve picked out a couple examples of extreme clarity to illustrate how even complex propositions can be made simple. Both examples make a virtue of simplicity – emphasising it not just in the content, but also in the presentation.

First, we have an explanation of cloud computing – a ‘hand-made’ presentation that belies the painstaking planning that must have gone into its creation:

And second, an overview of on-demand CRM – there’s something I find very compelling in this ‘no-gimmicks’ style of delivery:

Of course there’s a time and a place for complexity – talking to a well-educated buyer in the later stages of a bid, for example. But even this example isn’t black and white (the immediate audience for your proposal may be well educated, but what about the other influencers in the deal?).

Perhaps this is just making simplicity too complicated – there’s a quote from Jason Fried that our creative director is very fond of and which could probably stand instead of all the above:

“You don’t need to outdo the competition. It’s expensive and defensive. Underdo your competition. We need more simplicity and clarity.”

Writing on his blog, ITSMA spokesman Chris Koch said that ITSMA’s annual survey of buyers of complex IT solutions (entitled How Customers Choose Solution Providers, 2009: The Importance of Personalization, Epiphanies, and Social Media), “shows that the door to the C-suite is opening up”. You can download a free summary of the research here but the full piece costs.

The research Chris quotes found that usage of social media among IT and business buyers of technology rose 50% over last year. Now 55% of respondents said they use social media as part of the technology buying process in 2009 versus just 37% in 2008.

The research also found that C-suite executives used social media more than their lower-level buying peers. Just 15% of CEOs and directors said they did not use any form of social media at all, while 34% of manager/directors and 26% of VPs/Assistant vice presidents said they do not use it.

Commenting on these findings, Chris says “This has big implications for marketers. It means that social media is taking hold within your biggest, most valuable accounts at the highest levels. Sounds like a business case for investment to me.”

My stance on this would be that any social media strategy has to be woven into a wider business case for C-level contact.

Are C-suite execs using LinkedIn or Facebook to keep in touch with peers and ask for advice – yes, they are. Are they making decisions solely on the basis of this information? Our experience suggests that’s simply not the case. Designing a business case for social media investment on a standalone basis is pretty risky – you are in danger of embarking on a non-integrated programme that very likely cannot survive without supporting communications. Think instead, what do you want to say to these execs, and how can social media be used to best effect in the series of communications you’re going create over the long-term.

If the angles on using new media blended alongside traditional channels in yesterday’s post interested you, this article from eMarketer is worth a scan. It’s an interview with Melissa Katrincic, the head of interactive digital marketing and ecommerce at cult skincare provider Burt’s Bees.

Whilst Burt’s Bees is a B2C brand, Katrincic still struggles with the same challenges as B2B marketers: creating a consistent online/offline experience whilst maintaining control of offer and image:

“If we’re doing something online, how can we deliver an experience that is similar to retail, where you still feel an identification with the brand?”

“Facebook is a great new foray for us. The fact that it’s global has, at times, proved challenging because we run online promotions in the US that sometimes are unavailable to our Canadian or UK consumers. They let us know that they’re not very happy about that, but we’re working on it.”

The article’s available in full on eMarketer here.

The BMI’s 20 questions amalgamated a number of checks against which to review your content for focus and appropriateness. It recommends the creation of “persona” of the recipient before approaching them – to ensure message and fit are absolutely right.

This makes a lot of sense – we’ve had many CIOs say to us “don’t assume I want technical content”, many seemingly time-poor executives happily read detailed 3 page letters that have broken all the “traditional” rules of direct marketing – all because the understanding of the target market and the journey they needed to be taken on was exactly right.

The very good Buyer Persona Blog recommends building formal buyer personas for each of your target demographics, and lists ways to go about achieving this.

The video is well worth a look – available here (and it gets to the best bits after about 2 minutes in) – but these are our conclusions/highlights:

Selling with the CIO, not to them

There was a move a few years ago for many IT companies to believe they should stop talking to IT and start talking to the business. It sounds very black and white, but for some companies it really was that simple.

But for every IT supplier bypassing IT and trying to build a case with the business, there’s an IT department that wants to do exactly the same thing. Perhaps if they worked together, they might both stand more of a chance?

Someone like Bruno should be a supplier’s ideal route into the business – and they would certainly appreciate the proof and angles that suppliers have to share. We’ve shared some of his tips for influencing the business at the end of this post.

But it will take quite a shift in mindset for many suppliers to get their marketing approaches ready to help a CIO like Bruno.

Real-life Corus project examples

Take Bruno’s story of a recent million-pound telepresence project. Of course, he had all the vendor benefits to hand (like reductions in travel expenses), but he knew the struggle he would have getting stakeholders to cut their budgets to fund ‘his’ IT project. Instead, he had to find a way to make telepresence fit with a key part of the corporate agenda – fortunately, CO2 reduction was a main objective of the steel company. (Of course, once telepresence was live, travel budget reductions followed swiftly…)

How many suppliers are adjusting their propositions based on the individual situations of the key accounts? And how many are sophisticated enough not to sell ‘to’ the CIO but sell with them? Every communication, every event, every meeting could be an opportunity to help the CIO engage with the business.

The example of a current Corus supply chain project shows just how strong the CIOs desire to play an integral role in the business is

“This supply chain project, without going into too much detail, the way we have been organised in the company is in business units which operate as silos, and there is a limit to how much we could optimise each silo. So we are looking at activities that could bring the business together. So this supply chain project, which IT is key to, is about breaking the barriers between business unit silos. I’m really proud of that, because it is business transformation powered by IT.”

Lessons from the CIO about selling a proposition into the business

How would Bruno suggest going about selling a proposition into the business?

Some of it is fairly obvious:

“Understand what their main agenda, business priorities, KPIs – make sure that my proposition and what I am trying to influence three months on match with this agenda. I’m looking to see if there is anything for him in that proposition.”

Although it does raise the question of how many IT/Services suppliers are really digging into these issues (think CO2 reduction rather than cutting travel expenses – and how for a different company these two could be the other way around).

But there are some important techniques, like the one Bruno describes as “trying not to finish the job”:

“What I do is try not to finish the job – I try to come with propositions that are open so they can put their own ideas into the proposition so that they feel they own it. So there are 2 areas – being prepared, but developing together the solution. Let’s make a proposal – and let them finish the job.”

There’s a fine line between crafting a proposition that has enough detail to spark interest (whether we’re communicating to IT or the business) but which the client can take on and own for themselves.

What does the recession mean for IT’s role and IT spend?

At a tangent to the main discussion, Bruno Laquet’s views on the recession’s impact on the IT department is also very interesting. The clarity of vision and clear purpose come across particularly strongly, as does the importance of showing how well aligned IT is with the 2 main business programmes (one focused on cost reduction, the other on business transformation to support growth in the future):

“We have two big programmes running at the moment [...] the first one is about eliminating costs – and we in IT do a lot to contribute to this. All my IT Supply team is focusing on moving cost out by innovative ideas – we’re not talking about reducing by 5% or 10%; we’re looking at ideas to cut spend by half. So that’s the kind of project we are doing at the moment, fully aligned with this business priority.

“The second programme is about [...] working with the business to help transform the company. We’re very active at the moment in supporting projects for business like creating shared services or the supply chain programme I mentioned.”

Once again, these focus areas give any supplier to Corus a clear idea of how to frame up their offerings for the next year.

But there is definitely a wider point here: How well do you understand your key clients? Do you work with or work around the CIO? How well do you shape propositions for them? Do you have the evidence you need to share with them? How about the initial points of interest that tell them you have something they need to know?

In enterprise B2B markets, selling the product or service out of the gate is pretty challenging. It might be too complex to get across in the time available. It might be that the prospect simply isn’t ready to buy. It could be that there are multiple logical marketing steps between first contact and first meeting. But many campaigns try to “close” the lead in just one step.

If the proposition itself is not compelling, or too complex to communicate, or if the prospect needs to be taken on a journey or to learn something before they will progress into a lead, you need to make the next step compelling instead.

Your job is to open the door and start a dialogue: entice the person to an event, get a prospect will take a call – not to sell the entire solution in one fell swoop.

Map the journey you need to take people on, and sell the next step. If you really want someone to take a meeting, consider what your proposition for the meeting needs to be. Have you information they would like? If you want them to attend an event, consider what they want to hear, look at what information you could provide that might make their job easier? (see what Egg’s CIO said about why this works.) Then consider what will happen after the event, what will they need to hear or see then to take them to the next step?

Nurture those who are a fit for your solution regardless of their timing to buy. As their knowledge of you and your propositions grows, you build credibility and access. Meaning that when the time is right for them, you are perfectly positioned.

The third and final post in this series will be available shortly, and features a number of ways you can tackle the creation of a compelling theme for your campaign. Get it as soon as it’s published by signing up to this blog’s RSS feed or subscribing to email alerts. Part one of this series on proposition development is here.

What is a proposition? In basic terms, it’s how we communicate what benefits your customer gets for the money they pay you. It normally involves a USP (unique selling point) which is the strongest and most differentiating factor in your favour.  But in campaign design we need to take that one step further. i.e. You might be selling consulting services, but how do we package up and take to market exactly what your end purchaser gets? Not just benefits but what the realisation of those benefits means to the person you’re selling to?

The point about a campaign proposition is that, however great your product/service proposition is, it has no intrinsic right to be read. People are bombarded with promises of ROI – it’s not a simple question of beating every other percentage quoted that week.

The campaign proposition is what earns the right for the real proposition to get a hearing.

In attempting this, what’s important is how these resonate with the end purchaser. Finding the likely emotional resonance for the customer’s purchasing decisions is really important. Even when buying decisions are made for “practical” reasons, it will be the way that the buyer felt (or will feel) about that practicality that was important in the decision-making process. It’s about knowing what’s top of the target’s mind – both in terms of challenges and emotions (Challenge: I need a collections solution that costs less to maintain and has the functionality to help us collect more debts. Emotion: I’m worried about all the risk involved in replacing our legacy system).

And we use this to realise that however much more money we’re promising that our collections solution can help them collect (which will be the proposition they use to make the business case), what we need to get across first is that we can take away to risk of migration.

We use some of the following questions to get to the campaign proposition:
• What does the audience need to think about us before they will listen to our proposition?
• What’s the emotional connection between where they are now and the promise of where the proposition will take them? What persuades people to buy in the real world? (If it doesn’t ring true to you, or interest you, it probably won’t to anyone else either.)
• What’s the single part of what we have to offer that is most instantly relevant to them?
• Or is it about offering a safe pair of hands? Telling the sometimes uncomfortable truth? Delivering consistent innovation?
• The proposition should have defined their needs, but what emotion sits behind these? How are we going to get them emotionally bought into it?
• Are there any fundamental misconceptions about the company, product, service, industry or area that we need to address?
• What do we need them to think about the client before they will consider the proposition?
• Why is it that the client gets repeat business? What does the customer need to see above and beyond a physical solution?
• What do we offer above and beyond a specific solution and the associated benefits? Could be guidance, thought leadership, practicality, understanding of their business…
• What are competitors doing that gives them an edge in the relationship with prospects?
• What are the most challenging bottlenecks between awareness and sale?
• What are the most interesting anecdotes, “factoids” or war stories that have come out during the research and workshops?
• What’s the problem the target audience is grappling with on its way into work each day?

Remember, you are trying to build a position here for the company’s product or service around positive and engaging content. Simpler (although not necessarily shorter) is often better in this environment. Keep boiling down the proposition until you are left with something compelling, interesting and emotive.

Just because we’ve got their attention doesn’t mean they will rush to make contact and become a sales-ready lead. That’s where the next level of proposition comes in – the proposition that persuades them to take the next realistic action on the path to buying. Look out for the next post on ‘Selling the next step’.