This Slideshare presentation is a partial preview of the full business document. To view and download the full document, please go here: http://flevy.com/browse/business-document/how-to-structure-it-marketing-content-for-maximum-response-1645 BENEFITS OF DOCUMENT 1. How to escort the buyer from "Life's great" to "This problem's killing us" 2. How the "Sales Force" compares with the "Sales Machine" approach 3. The three IT value components, and how to use them in writing. DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION From the age of brute force selling via sales forces, we've arrived at the age when buyers do their best to avoid salespeople. If IT SMBs want to survive and thrive, they have to change their sales approach from maniacal pursuit of the market to magnetic attraction of the market. In this approach, the first contact between buyers and sellers is a piece of written content. If the content is written correctly, it intrigues buyers for further action with the company from this the content originates, and buyers and sellers enter into nurturing relationships that leads to a high probability of doing business together. But, if the content is structured incorrectly, then buyers discard them and move on to other sellers of similar products/services. In this document, we lay out and dissect the 21 components of an intriguing content piece that stays in synch with buyers' decision-making processes. We take the buyer on a journey from frustration to euphoria and see how we have to communicate with them.

1. Frame It Right
How To Structure IT Marketing Content For
Maximum Response
A content marketing framework for premium information
technology SMBs and independent IT professionals that sell
complex, expensive and hard-to-explain products and services to
savvy, selective and sophisticated clients.
Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan
http://flevy.com/ref/BaldDog
$79.00US
“To become successful at marketing, you have to enter the
conversation that’s already going on inside your prospect’s head.”
~ Robert Collier in The Robert Collier Letter Book (1930)

2. Frame It Right: How To Structure IT Marketing Content For Maximum Response
Page 4 of 14
Copyright 2015, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan
And remember, every 1% fee reduction means an 11.7% drop in net profits3
.
No Way to of Change Might Consider Change Ready and Willing to Change
Discoverè Diagnoseè Design
Satisfiedè Neutralè Awareè Concernè Criticalè Crisis
Defensiveè Curious è Select
Lifeisgreatè Comfortableè
Itcouldhappento
usè
Itishappeningtous
è
It’scostingusbig
moneyè
It’skillingus
By then buyers had already figured out what their problems (although they are usually wrong4
)
are and what solutions they want, and all they’re looking for at this stage is a cheap pair of hands
to do the donkeywork under the client’s watchful supervision, even if the “supervisor” is an IT
layperson.
Collaboration, one of the main foundations of delivering good solutions good IT consulting is
down the toilet and the project becomes a master slave relationship.
And it’s all because sellers waited until buyers have self-diagnosed, found the solutions that they
want and now they’re ready to buy.
They are ready, but at what price?
If you join the buying cycle at this stage, you’re treated as a fungible vendor.
If you want to be treated with due respect, then you have to join the buying process even before
the buy process even exists.
That is, you have to poke wasp’s nest for the kind of problems that your solutions address.
Your marketing collaterals have to open buyers’ eyes to problems that they don’t even know
they have.
And if in those collateral pieces, you talk about certain symptoms, using your target market’s
lingo, there is a good chance, if your buyers have them, they can recognise them and if those
pieces are well written, they will take the next action.
Sadly, many IT companies make...
The MistakeOf Using Salespeople ToProspect
Some people say what marketing collaterals can achieve, humans can achieve more effectively.
3
McKinsey & Co study: Managing Price, Gaining Profit by Michael V. MarnRobert L. Rosiello
4
McKinsey & Co. study: 49% of IT solutions fail to deliver the value that clients expect, buy pay for.
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3. Frame It Right: How To Structure IT Marketing Content For Maximum Response
Page 7 of 14
Copyright 2015, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan
Sales Force Sales Machine
shotguns shooting like crazy.
Lots of fishermen with rods, hooks and line
Slot machine
carefully aiming every shot.
Few fishermen with large nets
Vending machine
Using Content To Prospect ToInitiate Relationships
Every client relationship is an invitation for a change. After all, sellers want to sell their stuff and
buyers buy stuff because they expect improvement in their conditions.
But how that relationship starts makes a huge difference.
Therefore it’s important to structure the content for marketing the right way; in such a way that
compels buyers to start on a journey from lower performance to laying the foundations for higher
performance by consuming your content and later buying from you.
I use “foundations of higher performance” because sellers can’t guarantee higher performance.
As the saying goes, you can take the horses to water, but can’t make them synchronised swim.
As least I can’t, although the Huns, my ancestors, knew a thing or two about horses.
Mind you, I used to know a lot about rocking horses, but due to lack of regular usage, I’ve
forgotten most of it.
So, sellers can only hope to create such conditions that buyers take the appropriate actions to see
their desired results.
One condition sellers fully control is the message. If they can match their messages with the
conversations inside buyers’ heads8
, their campaigns have a good chance to win.
Also, let’s not that after the quality of your prospect list and offer, your content is the third most
important contributor to overall success.
In my marketing circles, I’ve met lots of self-taught IT professionals who are high school grads,
but have embraced the importance of marketing and the power of the written word, and they far
out-earn their peers with triple Ph.D. in information technology.
So, let’s see...
HowTo StructureInbound Marketing Messages
Many people naively believe that content is just a matter of stitching words together.
rifle/ammo combination)
8
“To become successful at marketing, you have to enter the conversation that’s already going on inside your
prospect’s head.” ~ Robert Collier in The Robert Collier Letter Book (1930)
This document is a partial preview. Full document download can be found on Flevy:
http://flevy.com/browse/document/how-to-structure-it-marketing-content-for-maximum-response-1645

4. Frame It Right: How To Structure IT Marketing Content For Maximum Response
Page 10 of 14
Copyright 2015, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan
T > (T1+T2+T3) or T < (T1+T2+T3).
If T is greater, then inertia wins, and the content fails to fulfil its purpose.
But if T smaller, then inertia loses, and the content fulfils its purpose. It gets read and acted upon.
Considering these three levels, we can now create a 3 x 9 content matrix for 27 message
fragments.
So, let’s see...
Describe each step at the...
Product/Service/Work
Floor Level
Process
(Operations) Level
Performance
(Boardroom) Level
Step 1. What’s the
buyer’s problem?
What’s the problem
your product/service
solves?
Oil leaking from
machine onto the
floor
How does this
problem show up in
your target market’s
operational
processes?
Machine operator
must stop working
and clean oil from
the floor.
How does this
problem show up in
your target market’s
organisational
performance?
Diminished
productivity.
Falling revenue and
profit.
Step 2. What are the
consequences of
ignoring the
problem?
What are the
consequences of not
solving that problem?
Oil keeps leaking
and one day someone
may well slip and
get injured.
Where can this
problem lead at an
operational level?
Production must be
shut down while
the police or the
industrial
regulatory body
investigates the
accident.
How does this
consequence show up
at performance level?
Dented reputation,
productivity loss,
quarterly
underperformance,
poor stock
valuation,
Step 3. What’s the
traditional solution
(which usually
doesn’t work)
What’s the traditional
floor-level solution?
Top up the oil in
the machine and keep
working. Stop
regularly to clean
up.
What’s the traditional
operational solution?
Keep a hefty
supply of oil and
cleaning supplies
in the store room.
What’s the traditional
strategic solution?
Increase “machine
maintenance”
budget, which is
really oil
purchase.
Step 4. Why the
traditional solution
The machine is still
faulty and someone
can slip on the
Operation
continues at a
diminished
Executives can’t
lie to shareholders
forever. Even if a
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5. Frame It Right: How To Structure IT Marketing Content For Maximum Response
Page 13 of 14
Copyright 2015, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan
I know this can take a bit of time, but as a seller, you have to follow how buyers think about this
problem.
Dan Kennedy calls this concept the progression of agreements. It means, you start your
presentation from your buyers’ problem.
1. Buyers have to agree with you that they have a problem.
2. Buyers have to agree with you that they can get the problem solved.
3. Buyers have to agree with you that they are willing to get the problem solved.
4. Buyers have to agree with you on where to start to solve the problem.
5. Buyers have to agree with you to buy your solution in order to solve the problem.
You can use even more differentiation depending on who the piece is for. Different decision-
makers have different interests as broken down in the table below...
Main decision-makers in the B2B sale have different concerns and interests as we can see it in
the table below.
CEO COO CFO CTO
Focus
Concerns
Interests
ROI
Brand
Reputation
Market
leadership
Market
positioning
Operational
effectiveness
Flawless
production
Projects
completed and
goods shipped on
time
Costs and
savings
Staying within
budget
Technical
perfection
Most up-to-date
technology
Authority to say
“Yes”
Yes Usually not Usually not Usually not
Authority to say
“No”
Yes Yes Yes Yes
And let’s remember these are top officers with profit/loss responsibilities. They care about the
company’s future because they can’t get their names associated with failures.
Lower level people are good employees, but at different levels of dedication to success. After all,
they can always get jobs somewhere else.
On Summary
The statistics are overwhelming about the fact that buyers have become sceptical and cynical of
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http://flevy.com/browse/document/how-to-structure-it-marketing-content-for-maximum-response-1645

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