The Magnificent 7: How many people does your marketing need to appeal to?

Who do you sell to?

That question tends to get an answer like ‘[C-suite or director level title] at businesses in [sector]’, but that is often only part of the picture. Gartner data suggests that in a company with 100-500 employees, there will be about seven people involved in a buying decision.

So, before you get the ultimate ‘yes’, six or so other people could have your buyer’s ear. Those six could delay, complicate, and ruin the deal, or they could accelerate, simplify, and secure it. If you want those people to make the process go smoother and shorten the sales cycle, then you have to:

• Be joined-up and strategic with your marketing
• Understand and appeal to a diverse motivations and priorities
• Think about how each of those influencers likes to receive information

Here is how.

How a joined-up marketing strategy reaches more decision-makers

To reach all the decision-makers and decision-influencers that you need to win over, three watchwords have to be ‘purpose’,‘focus’, and ‘consistency’.

A lot of businesses are trying to market themselves without a strategy. That means if they do manage to publish content, it is ad hoc and sporadic. Needless to say, that means there is no momentum behind what is produced, and it doesn’t have impact.

People need to hear a message 7 times in order for it to stick. If what you share is not all pulling in the same direction, towards one message, and you are not getting that message out time and time again, then the right people probably won’t see it, and if they do, they won’t remember it.

When you join up your marketing, all media and all messages, you start to reach the right people with content that resonates.

Appealing to the diverse motivations of your buyers

If you have seven decisions makers, you probably also have seven different reasons for buying.

People (and businesses selling to them) like to think of their decisions as rational. That is especially true in B2B sales, where marketers often act as if the audience is unemotional, detached, and driven by pure logic.

First of all, B2B buyers are humans, and as sales trainer David Sandler put it, ‘People buy emotionally, and they justify their decisions intellectually.’

Secondly, the data shows that a personal motivation to buy boosts conversion rates by 50%. That kind of motivation might be career advancement, a bonus, a sense of achievement, a desire to reduce stress — any number of things, in fact. What you mustn’t assume is that they are purely thinking about the facts, figures, percentages, and the pure business case.

How do you know the motivations of your buyers? Primarily though empathy. You can’t research it as such, because we are dealing with subconscious or unacknowledged motivations. You need to spend the time to build your personas, and imagine what annoys them, what they’re being judged on, what is worrying them, and what their incentives are.

How to produce types of content that your prospects want

Of course, reaching decision-makers is only part of the picture. The next part is what you give them when you have reached them. Aside from the obvious principle that the content should be interesting and valuable, consider the type of content that you should share.

Under that question, there are general rules for your audience, and specific approaches for the seven decision makers.

General rules

• 61% of decision-makers find thought leadership more persuasive than ‘product’ marketing
• 81% want an expert to challenge their assumptions
• 80% of decision makers prefer to learn about a potential supplier through a series of articles

In short, to engage your targets, prove your expertise, and become their go-to source for solutions, you need to be producing regular, high-quality thought leadership.

Specific approaches

Now, once again this requires empathy and persona-building.

• Are your targets time-poor? They almost certainly are, so how do you grab their attention? Do they need something quick and easy to digest, or will they make time for something if it’s sufficiently interesting?
• How do they like to research? Do video, infographics, articles, guides, or podcasts work best for them?
• Where do they spend their time? Are they very active on LinkedIn, do they browse industry publications?

When you tailor your approach to what your targets want and need, then you will find that your team of buyers are more engaged and receptive.

How to create marketing campaigns that reach the right people at the right time

Competition is growing, budgets are tightening, and the demands on marketing have never been higher. Without a clear strategy, businesses risk spending time and resources on efforts that fail to deliver results.

Download your free guide ‘Claiming the Spotlight’, for the insights, strategies, and data-driven methodology that help businesses like yours secure market share and scale without wasting time or budget.

GUIDE | Claiming the Spotlight

If you need help or advice getting your brand in front of the right people, Nutcracker has been helping businesses do that for over a decade. To discuss our results-focused, data-driven marketing method to grow businesses, please get in touch at jenny.knighting@nutcrackeragency.com.