Questions

In other words, how do you get people to start searching for a problem that they didn't know they had, that you solve? Constant Contact went through this in the late-nineties; nobody hit Google and typed "email marketing software," because it didn't exist. CC was able to establish themselves as a thought leader and foster a demand for their product. What are some best practices in this realm?

From an overall messaging standpoint, you need to figure out how to tie in your messaging around the problem that they don't know they have to messaging around problems that they *do* know they have. Your product is likely not just solving one problem, but others by extension as well. In other words, expand your value proposition. For example, I do marketing for HubSpot, which sells an all-in-one marketing software. But not everyone who would be a good fit for our software goes out and searches for "all-in-one marketing platform" because they don't know that that's what they need. But they *do* search for "how to save time on my marketing," "how to make my marketing easier," etc. which are also problems that our software helps solve. So the trick is to go after both the long-tail keywords that are very closely relevant to your product, which will have a lower-volume audience, and to also target your messaging to resonate with folks at a level maybe once or twice removed from your specific value proposition.

Another best practice here is to get really good at content marketing. Make a video that your audience will want to share with others. Write some killer blog posts. Do some guest blogging on sites that are popular among your target audience - what blogs do these enterprise buyers skim every morning with their coffee? Having exciting, useful, and relevant content, and getting it in front of the decision makers of the companies you're looking to sell to, is what's ultimately going to get you noticed.

Happy to share more of my experiences marketing & selling a sophisticated B2B product if you'd like to discuss further.


Answered 10 years ago

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