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“People don’t shop for our products online.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told this by sales and marketing leaders at B2B companies that make obscure, highly complex technology and products. They tend to resist inbound marketing and lead generation because they don’t make “click to buy” products. Most have expensive custom products with long sales cycles and apply to a very narrow customer base. They figure few people are searching online for their products, so they don’t try too hard to attract them. I call them “superniche” companies.

My superniche education began when working for a company that made a product called a femtosecond laser for manufacturing very small parts. A femtosecond laser pulses light every quadrillionth of a second, more or less–so fast that it can make very tiny parts with extreme precision–think holes the width of a human hair.

It’s a very sciency product in a highly specialized industry. They cost around around a million dollars and it takes a couple of years to sell one. Superniche.

“People don’t shop for this online”

I was told at the start. Wrong. Well, not quite wrong. Sure, they don’t buy a million dollar laser online but, as we know, everyone researches online before contacting a supplier–even for exotic lasers as soon learned. If a company has a viable product that solves a problem, people are looking for it. There might not be that many searchers, but that can be a very good thing.

Here are 8 reasons we’ve found that inbound marketing works great for highly specialized B2B companies.

1) There is less competition for search terms

One of the keys to successful inbound marketing is optimizing content around the search terms your ideal customers use to look for help with the problem you solve. You want to find keywords with high volume and low competition; meaning there are a good number of people using these terms to search for solutions, and it won’t be terribly difficult to rank high in the search engine results.

Well guess what? As a superniche company, you are not likely to face much competition at all for the search terms you want to rank for. Believe me, it wasn’t difficult to rank high for “femtosecond lasers for manufacturing.” This means you can rank on page one, in most cases almost immediately, by optimizing web pages and publishing content around the search terms in your business. 

2) You get immediate gratification

While there aren’t a lot of people searching for obscure keywords, those that are searching for, say, femtosecond lasers for manufacturing, are likely to be seriously interested. They aren’t searching for an obscure technology just to amuse themselves.

This means that in addition to ranking higher, faster, the company can get qualified leads faster, too. When we started a blog on femtosecond laser technology, and started offering educational whitepapers, our web traffic tripled and our contact database grew 6x in just three months through whitepaper downloads.

3) Big value

While the search volume and target audience may be small, customer acquisition in these industries tends to be very valuable. The products are expensive, and tend to involve long term commitments and relationships. A new customer represents a lot of revenue, both immediate and future.

4) Education works wonders

One of the principles of inbound marketing is that you should educate and inform, not sell. This tactic works very well in industries that involve sophisticated technology and services. Novices and veteran workers are motivated to stay up-to-date on new developments in their fields.

We created a blog for a company that excels at creating hermetic seals for implantable medical devices. You guessed it, superniche. Not only did their web traffic double in a few months after starting the blog, we got loads of comments thanking us for providing a new forum on the topic.

5) Your competitors aren’t doing it

The mentality that “people don’t shop for this online” is still pervasive in many fields that are highly specialized. You can tell by a survey of the competition. I’ve worked for a number of medical device contract manufacturers.

Many websites in this field haven’t been updated in decades. They are not publishing new content, have few calls to action for lead generation or nurturing, and simply aren’t investing in inbound marketing because they don’t think it applies to them. This means if a niche company runs an inbound lead generation and nurturing program, they’ll get leads that their competitors won’t.

6) It rewards quality

One of the most common questions we get from companies is

“How can you write about our technology if you’re not from this industry?”.

Their concern is a good one, because the more specialized the industry is, the more important it is to create content that is credible and valuable. You have to do your homework in order to understand what the issues are in the business, and how to bring new information and insights to bear on these issues through web pages, blogs, whitepapers, case studies and other materials.

People in these industries can detect “marketingspeak” very quickly, and will call it out. At the same time, quality content will be read and shared. A professor asked to use a whitepaper we wrote on packaging and sterilization for medical devices in his graduate course on medical device manufacturing, giving our client a huge source of traffic and leads.

7) You have more content than you think

We’ve found that companies with very sophisticated products and services have a lot of content on hand that they are not using. Some employees may have published papers at trade conferences, or they’ve given workshops or presentations to customers or internal groups. Training documents for new employees often contain a great deal of educational information about the industry they are joining.

One company we work with that makes very specialized manufacturing equipment has RFPs and sales quotations that have rich descriptions of the features and benefits of their products, complete with illustrations–great starting material.

8) R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Inbound marketing is all about respecting your customers, engaging them as they search for solutions to their problems, and offering them helpful information instead of interruptive sales pitches. We’ve found that this respectful way of marketing works exceptionally well in superniche businesses, as these industries tend to distrust traditional marketing tactics.

Companies making sophisticated products are typically staffed with sophisticated employees. You’re not going to trick them into considering or buying something they don’t want or need. Creating materials for people that are respectful of their knowledge and their needs will be rewarded.

They’re looking for you now

I think a challenge for superniche companies is that they tend to think that no one will ever find them in the vast reaches of the internet, so they give up. They don’t realize how good search engines have become at helping people find just what they are looking for, and that they are not competing with thousands of other companies for consumers’ eyeballs.

As I pointed out, if a company has a good product, one that solves a real problem, people are looking for it online. It can be even better if not that many people are looking for it, because that translates to less competition for search terms and fewer frivolous searchers, which gets companies found by the right people, faster. 

Get in the game

If your company has been sitting on the sidelines of the Internet, assuming that your potential customers aren’t searching for and researching your solutions, it’s time to get in the game. The good news is that the tools you can use to optimize your website for search, publish helpful content to your target audience, make it easy for them to ask for more information and stay in touch, have gotten easier and easier to implement and use. Inbound marketing platforms make it nearly a point and click experience to get started, with automation tools that turn your website into a 24 hour sales person, fielding inquiries, qualifying leads, distributing information and updating your human sales team.

Here’s an ebook we put together to help you get started:  How to Build an Inbound Marketing Campaign for Your Superniche Company.

No one seems to agree on cover letters. How much time do you need to spend perfecting them? Do hiring managers even read them? Is it better to just send in your resume and call it a day?

Now, I’m not in HR, but I’ve been approached by applicants who wondered whether their cover letter would actually be read. My answer is one not many of them wanted to hear: “Sometimes.” Sometimes it will be read. Other times, you can get away with just sending in your resume — like when you network your way into applying for a position.

Download 10 free resume templates here to help you land your next job.

The truth is, you can’t really predict on a case-by-case basis — and you’re better safe than sorry. For the most part, having a cover letter will give you an upper hand in ways your resume doesn’t. It allows you to show off your writing skills, provide details that you couldn’t fit on your resume, demonstrate your passion, and show your willingness to put in as much time and effort as possible. 

But if your cover letter is sloppy, you might as well have no applied at all. Grammatical errors could mean your application is thrown in the trash. Using a generic “one-size-fits-all” cover letter — especially if you forgot to change the name of the company — will definitely hurt your chances. So if you take the time to write a cover letter, take special care that it reflects you in the best possible light.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Sample Cover Letter

 

Here’s an example of a great cover letter. The numbered sections are explained in more detail below.

1) Header

The level of formality your header has will depend on the company you apply to. If you’re applying to a formal business, it’s important to use a formal header to open your cover letter, like in the sample above. Put your address, the date, and the company’s address. But if you’re applying to a company that isn’t as formal, you don’t need to include yours and the company’s addresses. You can still include the date, though.

2) Greeting

Using “To Whom It May Concern” is okay, but you may want to take the time to research the name of the recruiter or hiring manager online. If you do your research and aren’t confident you found the right name, then you should definitely use the generic greeting — but if you are sure, then it shows you put in the effort to find their name and it will catch the recruiter’s eye.

If you have the recruiter’s name, do you greet them by their full name, or by their courtesy title (i.e. Mr., Ms., or Mrs.)? Similar to the header, it depends on the company’s level of formality. If you’re applying to a corporate business, you may want to consider using “Mr. Snaper” instead of “Jon Snaper.” If you’re applying to a start-up or a business with a more casual culture, you can use “Jon Snaper,” as shown in the example.

3) Paragraph 1: Introduction

Your opening paragraph should, in 1-3 sentences, state why you’re excited to apply and what makes you the perfect candidate. Get right to the point, and don’t worry about explaining where you found the posting or who you know at the company. This isn’t a place to go into detail about why you’re a great candidate — that’s for the second paragraph. Here, simply list a few key reasons in one sentence to set up the rest of your letter. Keep in mind that the recruiter may cross-reference your cover letter with your resume, so make sure the two sync up.

4) Paragraph 2: Why You’re a Great Fit for the Job

Next, sell yourself and your experience by choosing one or two concrete examples that show why you’re a great fit for the position. What did you do at a previous company that gave you relevant experience? Which projects have you worked on that would benefit the new company? How will your prior experience help this company grow? Stay humble in your explanation of credentials while still showing that you would be an asset to the team. Use this paragraph to show you’re genuinely excited and interested in the position.

5) Paragraph 3: Why the Company is a Great Fit for You

While it’s certainly important you’re a good fit for the job, it’s also important that the company is a good fit for you. “A cover letter typically describes why you’re great for a company — but how will you benefit from getting hired?” asks Emily MacIntyre, Senior Marketing Recruiter at HubSpot. “We want to know why our company appeals to you, and how it will be a mutually beneficial working relationship.”

In the third paragraph, show you’re serious about growing and developing your career at this new company. What impresses and excites you about the company? Is there something that you feel strongly about that aligns with the company’s goals? For example, the candidate in the sample letter used this space to show his personal commitment to environmental causes aligns with the company’s green initiatives.

6) Strong Closing Paragraph

Don’t write off the final few sentences of your cover letter — it’s important to finish strong. Be straightforward about your interest and enthusiasm about the new position without coming off too strong. Tell them you’re available to talk about the opportunity at any time and include your phone number and email address. At this point, the ball is (rightly) in the recruiter’s court to decide how to follow up.

Last but certainly not least, thank them for their time and consideration. 

7) Formal Sign-Off

Use a formal sign-off like “Best,” “All the best,” or “Sincerely,” and finish by typing out your full name. You don’t need to sign it with a pen.

5 Cover Letter Tips From the Experts

While the sample from the previous section provides a basic framework for writing your cover letter, there are also several tips you can follow to help get your cover letter to stand out from the crowd.

1) Do your research.

In order to craft a truly compelling cover letter, you need to show that you understand what the company does and what their pain points are. And that usually entails doing more than simply reading a job description.

Start by soaking up all the information you can find on the company’s website and blog, and then consider drilling down into the LinkedIn and Twitter accounts of executives and employees you could end up working with. That research will help you fine-tune the messaging of your cover letter.

As author and entrepreneur Jodi Glickman told the Harvard Business Review:

Think about the culture of the organization you’re applying to. If it’s a creative agency, like a design shop, you might take more risks but if it’s a more conservative organization, like a bank, you may hold back.”

2) Keep it short.

You might have heard that keeping your cover letter to one page is ideal. But according to Forbes tech journalist Seth Porges, you may want to consider keeping it even shorter than a single page.

As Porges once noted (in appropriately concise fashion):

“Less. Is. More. Three paragraphs, tops. Half a page, tops. Skip lengthy exposition and jump right into something juicy.”

3) Don’t state the obvious.

One trick for helping you keep your cover letter concise: Avoid wasting real estate on information that the hiring manager already knows — like the position you are applying for.

As Porges wrote for Forbes:

Never ever, ever use the following phrase: ‘My name is ___, and I am applying for the position as ____.’ They already know this, and you’ll sound inexperienced.”

4) Add some personal branding.

Career coach Evelyn Salvador recommends using personal branding elements — specifically a slogan, a testimonial, and/or a mission statement — to help make your cover letter more attention-grabbing. As Salvador told Monster.com:

Each of these elements is optional, but it might just be the thing that makes your cover letter stand out from those of other candidates.”

Here’s a quick run down on what those three elements are, and examples of what they might look like.

• Slogan: A short summary of the value you’d bring to a company/role (e.g., “Using data to solve the problems of tomorrow.”)
• Testimonial: An excerpt from a letter of recommendation, thank-you message from a customer, or other short quote that highlights your past performance (e.g., “[Your name] was prompt, professional, and responsive throughout the entire process. I can’t wait to work with her again the future!”)
• Mission Statement: Similar to a slogan, but focused more on the philosophy behind why you do what you do, and why you want to accomplish what you want to accomplish (e.g., “The key to customer happiness is creating products that people love. My mission is to produce the most lovable products on the planet.”)

5) Don’t force humor.

Some folks have a knack for seamlessly integrating humor into their writing. If you are one of those people, and you’ve done your research and know the company/hiring manager would appreciate a little humor, by all means, include it in your cover letter.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that — when poorly executed — (attempted) humor can often hurt rather than help. As author and career strategist John Lees once told the Harvard Business Review:

Humor can often fall flat or sound self-regarding.”

Instead of using humor to grab a reader’s attention, Lees recommends that you write something “direct and dynamic, such as ‘Before you read any further, let me draw your attention to two reasons why you might want to hire me….’”

Cover Letter Examples That Enhance Any Resume

If you follow the tips in the previous section, the cover letter you end up crafting will invariably be unique. That being said, looking at examples of successful cover letters that other jobs applicants have created can help give you ideas for improving your own letter.

Here are three examples of stellar cover letters that you can “steal” from:

1) The Creative Cover Letter

This cover letter example comes from The Guardian. The idea behind it: Produce a letter that successfully balances creativity with a solid understanding of what the job in question entails.

2) The Straight-to-the-Point Cover Letter

Harvard Business Review contributor David Silverman hailed the following example as “The Best Cover Letter I Ever Received.” For context, Silverman believes there are only a handful of times when writing a cover letter is actually necessary, namely 1) when you know the name of the hiring manager, 2) when you know something about what the job requires, and 3) when you’ve been referred to the job personally. Under those circumstances, a straight-the-point cover letter like the one below could be your best bet.

 3) The Marketing-Specific Cover Letter

For our third example, here’s a cover letter from Monster.com that’s focused specifically on a marketing role. Notice how the writer includes references to important marketing metrics and terminology.

Remember: Writing a cover letter is easier said than done. Don’t hesitate to spend a lot of time writing and editing it. Or, ask a friend or family member to read it over and give you feedback. If the recruiter does end up reading it, you’ll be thankful you did.

 Have any other cover letter writing tips you’d like to share? Leave a comment below.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2014 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

That vocal bunch known as ad block users are quickly becoming one of the most sought after audiences on the internet. This untapped audience, if you can reach them without trivializing their concerns, is a massive opportunity for marketers.

If done correctly, reaching ad block users isn’t as complicated as it’s often made out to be by the ad tech industry. With a few simple tweaks to your marketing strategy, you’ll be able to target an audience few others are reaching currently. 

Why Are Ad Block Users So Valuable?

While people who use ad blockers are actively trying to shut out promotional messages, they also tend to be the most engaged audience online. Studies consistently characterize them has high-income earners, well educated, and early adopters of new products.  Statistically, they are also heavily influenced by the content they read, and they’re engaged with both the media sites they support and the authors who pen their favorite content. In other words, the payoff for reaching these readers can be unprecedented.

With the growth of ad blocking online, the relationship between media company and reader continues to deepen. For properties that have the trust of their readers, the opportunities to market directly to them often comes in creative and untraditional packages. 

If you’re looking to target an audience that exists solely because of advertising blocking on the internet, you’ll need to learn as much as possible about them before you start working with brands to target them.

Determine The Ad Blocking Audience

Categorically speaking, some websites have audience segments with higher levels of blocking than others. For instance, ad blocking adoption has grown the quickest amongst the 18-24 demographic, and by extension the publications they frequent are under the biggest threat. That said, ad blocker adoption also continues to shrink across older demographics.  Installation intention, however, seems to be trending in the opposite direction. While the 18-24 demographic may have the highest adoption rate already, the benefits of ad blocking is resonating the most with those that are 45 or older. 18 percent of the 45+ audience plan to adopt an ad blocker in the next six months. 

Understanding your website’s readership and their tendencies will go a long way towards developing a successful outreach strategy. 

You can quickly capture information about your ad block audience by implementing technical solutions to track them. Today, most savvy media companies online know exactly the size of their audience currently using ad blockers. Sophisticated tools exist to collect that information, and both services and scripts will collect information about those using the blockers across their sites.

Once you know who’s blocking your advertisements, you can start compiling a plan to sell against your newly uncovered audience. Cutting edge media companies looking to target ad block end users often have dedicated content teams whose primary responsibility is to create content that leaves lasting impressions with their audience. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post have teams in-house that focus on designing native campaigns for brands. Understand the value of non-traditional advertising opportunities, and then prepare yourself to answer advertiser questions about audience trends, demographics, and what types of content resonates the most with your readership. Prepare marketing material to provide prospects with a compilation of your team’s best work, and then success metrics around each example piece of content.

Figure Out What They’re Reading

Determine what this new target audience is already reading and sharing online. Does your ideal marketing target spend most of their time reading editorials, or do they spend time digging through reviews on your website?  The only way to reach an ad blocking audiences at a targeted publication is to give them material that they’re already consuming online and in a format they prefer. Once you’re able to build a content profile for your target within a website’s customer base, you can begin to explore native advertising options with advertisers interested in reaching ad blockers on your site.

Embrace Native, Avoid Display

The truth is, it’s time move on from display advertising as a sole offering to advertisers. While media companies are still engaging brands about display, today most advertisers are looking for more interesting or custom offerings from publications. There’s a reason: sponsorships and natural alternatives reach their most valuable audiences while doing a better job of telling your brand’s story online.

70% of people online want to learn about products through content. That means reviews, videos, podcasts, and mediums that offer more than just “buy this now” advertising. In most of those cases they can instruct audience on why they should buy your products, or how it compares to the competition.  Product reviews and product-related editorial need each other.  Customers want to know if your products are up to the task, and if you’re providing the best option on the market.  Display advertising, when used as brand recognition can be a powerful tool, but product editorials provide more context and incentive to make a final decision on purchasing a product.  Reputable publications may be pricey, but if their audience trusts them, they’re more likely to buy products than they are when they see a simple display advertisement.

Target Newsletters

One of the quickest growing mediums on the internet is newsletters. Media companies, and their users love newsletters because they’re one of the most engaging mediums in their arsenal. Few mediums can guarantee a reader will view content, but newsletters can focus directly on who clicked a sponsorship, and who avoided your native content. 

Newsletters also boast some of the best click-through numbers on the web.  Much like display, your open and click rates will vary by content category, but the clickthrough rates tend to outperform display across the board. Open rates historically hover in the 20 percent range while click-through rates hover between the 1 and 5 percent range. 

The other beauty of newsletters? Readers have opted-in for the information being sent by media companies. The majority of subscribers know what type of information will be arriving in a newsletter, so if there’s a natural with with your brand and marketing strategy, newsletter readers will often embrace your advertisements.

Target Sponsored Content

Advertorials and Sponsored Content, Branded Content, and In-Feed Ads are all examples of native content types that fall under a sponsored content umbrella, but they all take a slightly different approach to displaying your content to readers.  In some cases, ad blockers can be configured to block sponsored content and other forms of native content, but when it comes down to it, if advertisements are built with care and adhere to a reader’s expectations, it’s unlikely that your sponsored content will be ignored. 

Sponsored content is often built by a media company for their audience, but based on your marketing targets. In this situation, media companies work alongside advertising teams and determine which types of content  (infographic, an article, etc.) will align with an advertisers campaign goals. 

Target Both Audio And Video Podcast

Just like newsletters, podcasts result in very high engagement number.  Unlike its written brethren, media company audiences opt-in to receive continuous content in a variety of applications on both mobile and desktop computing systems. If your targeted media company has a podcast with embedded advertisements, the content will bypass ad blockers and reach your intended audience.  Podcasts are a great way to target the ad block demographic with your marketing messages while giving them content in a format they prefer.

Target Whitelisted Publications Or Ad Networks With Your Display 

While display may be on the way out, there are a couple approaches marketers are taking to get their display campaigns in front of ad block users. Did you know some display ad networks are currently whitelisted across a variety of ad blocking applications by default? 

That means some networks, like Carbon Ads, can fulfill your display advertisement campaign needs, while still being able to target consumers running ad blockers. As a marketer, it makes sense to search out networks and exchanges that have been whitelisted and place your display ads through those mechanisms versus traditional exchanges.

Conclusion

Targeting ad blockers isn’t without its dangers. There will always be a vocal minority who admonish your marketing attempts publicly no matter your best efforts or pure intentions. There’s nothing you can do about it. Arming yourself with facts may help you get over the anxiety of publishing native content, but you should be prepared for a negative scenario that may manifest itself after publishing your campaign. Some people just like to watch the world burn.

By now, you probably know that today’s buyers hold all of the power when making a purchasing decision. You’re also probably aware that they’re doing some of their research online. But have you really adapted your marketing plan to match the way today’s customers shop and buy?

Consider these recent statistics about B2B buyers from a 2015 study by Think With Google:

• 89% of buyers use the internet during the B2B research process.
• 71% start with a generic search query (they’re looking for a topic, not your brand).
• 57% of their evaluation is done before they’ll perform an action on your site.

What’s a marketer to do to make sure your buyers find you early and often? Go where they’re going, of course.

That might sound obvious, but how deeply do you understand exactly where your buyers are doing their research and what is influencing their decisions? That is where research comes into play.  

Whether you’re a newbie or experienced with market research, this guide will give you a blueprint for conducting a thorough buyer’s journey study.

How to Do Market Research: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey

Step 1: Define Your Personas

Before you dive into how your personas make buying decisions, you must first understand who they are. This is where buyer personas come in handy.

Buyer personas — sometimes referred to as marketing personas — are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They help you visualize your audience, streamline your communications, and inform your strategy.  

To get started with creating your personas, check out these free templates, as well as this helpful tool. These resources are designed to help you organize your audience segments, collect the right information, select the right format, and so on.

You may find that your business lends itself to more than one persona — that’s fine! You just need to be sure that you’re being thoughtful about the specific persona you are optimizing for when planning content and campaigns. 

Step 2: Recruit Buyers

Now that you know who your personas are, you’ll need to find a representative sample of your target customers to understand their buyer’s journey. These should be folks who recently made a purchase (or purposefully decided not to make one).  

We’ve developed a few guidelines and tips that’ll help you get the right participants for your research. Let’s walk through them …

How to Determine Who to Recruit

Start with the characteristics that apply to your buyer persona. This will vary for every organization, but here are some additional guidelines that will apply to just about any scenario:

• Shoot for 10 participants per persona. We recommend focusing on one persona, but if you feel it’s necessary to research multiple personas, be sure to recruit a separate sample group for each one. 
• Select people that have recently interacted with you. You may want to focus on folks that have completed an evaluation within the past six months — or up to a year if you have a longer sales cycle or niche market. You’ll be asking very detailed questions, so it’s important that their experience is fresh.
• Aim for a mix of participants. You want to recruit people that have purchased your product, folks that purchased a competitor’s product, and a few that decided not to purchase anything at all. While your own customers will be the easiest to find and recruit, sourcing information from others will help you develop a balanced view.

How to Recruit the Best Participants

Market research firms have panels of people they can pull from when they want to conduct a study. Trouble is, most individual marketers don’t have that luxury — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, the time you’ll spend recruiting exclusively for your study will often lead to better participants. 

Here’s a simple recruiting process to guide your efforts:

1. Pull a list of customers who made a recent purchase. As we mentioned before, this is usually the easiest set of buyers to recruit. If you’re using a CRM system, you can run a report of deals that closed within the past six months and filter it for the characteristics you’re looking for. Otherwise, you can work with your sales team to get a list of appropriate accounts from them.
2. Pull a list of customers who were in an active evaluation, but didn’t make a purchase. You should get a mix of buyers who either purchased from a competitor or decided not to make a purchase. Again, you can get this list from your CRM or from whatever system your Sales team uses to track deals.
3. Call for participants on social media. Try reaching out to the folks that follow you on social media, but decided not to buy from you. There’s a chance that some of them would be willing to talk to you and tell you why they ultimately decided not to buy your product.
4. Leverage your own network. Get the word out to your coworkers, former colleagues, and LinkedIn connections that you’re conducting a study. Even if your direct connections don’t qualify, some of them will likely have a coworker, friend, or family member who does. 
5. Choose an incentive. Time is precious, so you’ll need to think about how you will motivate someone to spend 30-45 minutes on you and your study. On a tight budget? You can reward participants for free by giving them exclusive access to content. Another option? Send a simple handwritten ‘thank you’ note once the study is complete. 

Step 3: Prepare a Discussion Guide

The best way to make sure you get the most out of your conversations is to be prepared. You should always create a discussion guide — whether you’ll be conducting a focus group or a phone interview — to make sure you cover all of the top-of-mind questions and use your time wisely. 

(Note: This is not intended to be a script. The discussions should be natural and conversational, so we encourage you to go out of order or probe into certain areas as you see fit.)

Your discussion guide should be in an outline format, with a time allotment and open-ended questions allotted for each section.

Wait, all open-ended questions?

Yes — this is a golden rule of market research. You never want to “lead the witness” by asking yes/no questions, as that puts you at risk of unintentionally swaying their thoughts by leading with your own hypothesis. Asking open-ended questions also helps you avoid those painful one-word answers. 

Here’s a general outline for a 30-minute phone interview with one B2B buyer. Although, we recommend that you schedule 45 minutes to allow for tardiness, potential technology issues, and bit of small talk.

Introduction 

This section is intended to break the ice and get the respondent(s) talking. 

• Introduce yourself and why you are doing this study.
• Ask the buyer to give you a little background information (their title, how long they’ve been with the company, and so on).
• Ask a fun/easy question to warm things up (first concert attended, favorite restaurant in town, last vacation, etc.).

Buying Environment (5 Minutes)

Before getting into the details around a specific purchase, it will be helpful to understand their role and team better.

• Describe to me how your work team is structured.
• Tell me about your personal job responsibilities.
• What are the team’s goals and how do you measure them?
• What has been your biggest challenge in the past year?

Now make a transition to acknowledge the specific purchase they made that led to you including them in the study. The next three sections will focus specifically on that purchase.

Awareness Stage (5 Minutes)

Here, you want to understand how they first realized they had a problem that needed to be solved without getting into whether or not they knew about your brand yet.

• Think back to when you first realized you needed a [name the product/service category, but not yours specifically]. What challenges were you facing at the time?
• How did you know that something in this category could help you?
• How familiar were you with different options on the market?

Consideration (10 Minutes)

Now you want to get very specific about how and where the buyer researched potential solutions. Plan to interject to ask for more details.

• What was the first thing you did to research potential solutions? How helpful was this source?
• Where did you go to find more information?

If they don’t come up organically, ask about search engines, websites visited, people consulted, and so on. Probe, as appropriate, with some of the following questions:

• How did you find that source?
• How did you use vendor websites?
• What words specifically did you put into Google?
• How helpful was it? How could it be better?
• Who provided the most (and least) helpful information? What did that look like?
• Tell me about your experiences with the sales people from each vendor.

Decision (10 Minutes)

• Which of the sources you described above was the most influential in driving your decision?
• What, if any, criteria did you establish to compare the alternatives?
• What vendors made it to the short list and what were the pros/cons of each?
• Who else was involved in the final decision? What role did each of these people play?
• What factors ultimately influenced your final purchasing decision?

Closing 

Here, you want to wrap up and understand what could have been better for the buyer.

• Ask them what their ideal buying process would look like. How would it differ from what they experienced?
• Allow time for further questions on their end. 
• Don’t forget to thank them for their time and confirm their address to send a thank-you note or incentive. 

Step 4: Lead the Conversations

Now for the fun part: talking to people! This step is pretty straightforward, but here are some tips to make sure everything runs smoothly:

• Give participants space to think. Be comfortable with moments of silence. You’ll be asking for detailed information, so they might need time to jog their memory or gather their thoughts.
• Don’t accept short answers. Get clams to open up by asking them for more detail if they provide a one-word answer. If you notice this as a pattern with a particular person, start to make your questions scenario based. 
• Keep things on track. Give yourself permission to interrupt someone if they go off on an irrelevant tangent. You can avoid looking rude by saying, “That’s really interesting, but I’d like to shift gears” or “I hear what you are saying, now tell me about XYZ”.

Step 5: Summarize Your Findings

Feeling overwhelmed by the notes you took? We suggest looking for common themes that will help you tell a story and create a list of action items. 

To make the process easier, try using your favorite presentation software to make a report, as it will make it easy to add in quotes, diagrams, or call clips. Feel free to add your own flair, but the following outline should help you craft a clear summary:

• Background. Your goals and why you conducted this study.
• Participants. Who you talked to. A table works well so you can break groups down by persona and customer/prospect.
• Executive Summary. What were the most interesting things you learned? What do you plan to do about it?
• Awareness. Describe the common triggers that lead someone to enter into an evaluation. Note: Quotes can be very powerful.
• Consideration. Provide the main themes you uncovered, as well as the detailed sources buyers use when conducting their evaluation. 
• Decision. Paint the picture of how a decision is really made by including the people at the center of influence and any product features or information that can make or break a deal.
• Action Plan. Your analysis probably uncovered a few campaigns you can run to get your brand in front of buyers earlier and/or more effectively. Provide your list of priorities, a timeline, and the impact it will have on your business.

Conducting a buyer’s journey study can be a very eye-opening experience. Even if you think you know your buyers pretty well, completing the study will likely uncover new channels and messaging tips to help improve your interactions. Not to mention, you’ll be able to add “market research” skill as a skill to your resume.

How do you conduct market research? Share your tips in the comments section below.

Every marketer knows that a successful inbound marketing strategy includes a blog. But not just any blog — a blog that boasts relevant, consistent content that’s optimized for both the target audience and search engines. That’s the kind of blog that drives results.

Trouble is, finding time to balance quality and quantity is tricky. So what if I told you that your blog could generate leads and traffic without you having to create new post every single time? Intrigued?

In this live Google Hangout, Uberflip’s VP of Marketing Hana Abaza and HubSpot’s Principal Marketing Optimization expert Pamela Vaughan are joining forces to teach you how to optimize your blog to generate traffic and leads … without publishing another post.