Thoughts on B2Bs, Crappy Origin Stories & New Rules
I found the chapters to be inspiring — I scribbled tons of notes about how I could apply ideas in the book for the local company I work for. But creating content and communicating your business’ expertise takes so much time and patience! For a small business who can only afford to employ one marketing person part-time, doing all these initiatives is daunting. One may say the owner may need to pony up the money for a full-time communications employee, but that’s difficult when ROI isn’t as obvious (as the article about social media impacting your bottom line noted! #NOPE)
Creating useful content reminds me of an old marketing technique — create a problem for your customers that didn’t exist before, then solve it. For example, customers didn’t care about hand soap being antibiotic until advertisers told them so. Thus a business that may not have obvious things to write about may need to look at the industry at a whole and say, “What’s missing?” then hype that niche issue to customers with the oh-so-convenient way you’re already solving it.
B2Bs
Also, I noticed that majority of the examples were B2C companies. I’m not sure a lot of the techniques mention apply to B2Bs. Marketing to other businesses may require more of a sales approach, individually building relationships with your contacts. Or perhaps utilizing niche social media like Linked-In is better for this than Facebook. I say this theoretically because the last time I worked for a B2B, social media didn’t exist yet.
I love what I read in the textbook about telling your company’s story. That simply showing who you are and how you’re different will bring the customers flocking. The examples of companies doing this well were remarkable and motivating, but what if your origin and existence story is one that people don’t want/care to hear? What if your story is boring or mean (we were formed from a hostile takeover) or unappealing?
Crappy Origin Stories
In the early 2000’s I worked for the previously-mentioned B2B that assembled hardware for small businesses — it wasn’t unique in the least. I’m pretty sure it started in the owner’s garage — that story’s been told before. Its location wasn’t anything special. The owner was nice, but not inspiring or kindhearted. Thinking of this business in terms of authenticity and the new rules of marketing and PR, I ask myself “How in the hell would I make this company interesting/attractive by telling its story?” To me, the author implies ANY company that tells its story will be successful. In this instance, I don’t think exploiting the origin story would work.
Then I wonder if there’s not a compelling story, wouldn’t the company go out of business? Be its own demise? If there’s nothing to say, do you make something up for marketing purposes? Embellish its not-so-humble beginnings? Tell the truth but let a snarky tone be the voice of the company? Maybe the lack-of-story would be the impetus to spur the owner/leaders to DO something to talk about?
I’m thinking that this type of company should concentrate on creating authentic, niche-filling content. It could cull its expertise info to write white papers and post tips on social media to drive purchasing. Plus, it could target the plugged-in bloggers and micropublications to reference the company to further show the business’ expertise.
It’s definitely less clear on how to market your business with the new rules if the parameters of what your company does or its story aren’t appealing!
