A mentor of mine used to drill the following into my head: “You are not your target market.”
He meant that it doesn’t matter if you think the headline is great, the ad design is impressive, or the copy is sublime. It only matters what the customer thinks.
As he would say, “Our job is to make marketing that our customers will find interesting, engaging, and persuasive. It doesn’t matter if you feel the same.” You are not your customer.
Except, of course, when you are.
Many B2B marketers focus on marketing products and services to other marketing professionals. And marketing to marketers is one of the more challenging assignments to take on – especially in today’s digital marketplace.
Capturing any buyer’s attention and trust is difficult these days. But marketers are savvier — and more cynical — than most. That’s because they’ve seen (and probably used) every kind of trick anyone can pull out of their hat.
So, what works when marketing to marketers these days?
Earlier this year, CMI asked more than 300 marketers about the content they value, the channels they use to learn about solutions, and the reasons why they ultimately choose a particular solution to work with.
I wasn’t surprised by the results. But how meta is that? Of course, I’m not surprised by the results. I’m part of the results.
OK – before it gets weirder – let’s look at some of the most interesting findings.
Marketers still read (and they don’t want to meet)
I know you hear a lot about using video and audio to engage buyers — I do, too. And those formats have their place. However, most marketers (55%) still prefer to consume work-related content by reading online. Far fewer say they prefer watching videos (26%), listening (11%), or reading print (8%) for work.
Email is still one of the most viable ways to reach marketers. Nearly all marketers (98%) subscribe to work-related email newsletters, and almost half (49%) subscribe to more than five.
Read More at Content Marketing Institute
