Predictions about the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to escalate. Smart consumer devices, such as home automation, refrigerators, and smart cars always seem to come in front-and-center as market examples. Smart cars alone are expected to generate gigabytes of data per hour when they add autonomous or new assisted driving capabilities. That’s a lot of new data to handle; yet the ramp-up on affordable autonomous cars—and even “aware” refrigerators—is likely to be a long and low volume market adoption in the foreseeable future.

Industrial IoT

So what’s causing the real bump in all the analyst estimates of IoT growth? The answer is industrial applications, including manufacturing, logistics, energy, and even healthcare. This category is known as the “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT).

Tech companies that really have their eyes on the IoT market know the onslaught of data won’t come from large quantities of data generated from smart coffee makers [1], but will come from small bits of data generated from swarms of industrial IoT devices. Machine-to-machine (M2M) IoT involves intelligent communication between industrial controllers, as well as data capture for big data analysis. This will create the need for ever-greater integration between wireless, mobile, cloud-based networks, processing, and storage.

Data from a horde of controllers may be dumped at once—or trickle in one device at a time, at unpredictable times, depending on their functions. For example, consider power grid monitoring, where hundreds of thousands of thermostat devices send temperature settings every hour. This will lead to what the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) calls the Integrated Grid.  Or, think of logistics applications with smart-tagged containers that automatically “report in” at shipment checkpoints. [2]

The Intersection of IIoT and IT

The real challenge for IIoT and network management and capacity is that it intersects at the edge of two different technologies, with two distinctly evolved skillsets—industrial automation and network IT. The opportunity and challenges for IoT are at these crossroads.

Savvy industrial control manufacturers are “thinking forward” into cloud, mobile, wireless, and big data opportunities to best leverage existing enterprise IT infrastructures for their IoT devices. Meanwhile, “traditional” data center and cloud IT vendors are developing more IoT-friendly solutions. These solutions include:

• Software-defined networking
• Dynamic cloud deployment
• Automated endpoint security
• Analytic tools to not just accommodate but help monetize IoT operations and data

How well these two disciplines (industrial automation and network IT) work together, with different skills and market mindsets, will determine the winners and losers in this multi-billion-dollar or perhaps multi-trillion-dollar market.

If the concept of 20+ billion new IoT devices is too mind-boggling, how about the concept of “Smart Dust?” Pioneered by DARPA in the 1990s, this technology involves tiny sensors in the air, everywhere, made of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that monitor chemical signatures, brainwaves, movement, temperature, and more.  Will this lead to an Internet of Dust (IoD)?  Will industries take the lead in leveraging this technology to form an Industrial IoD?  Instead of big data, will this lead to “Gargantuan Data” challenges? How will network IT handle this?  We welcome your feedback.

Steve Bosak is a senior writer for Hoffman Marketing Communications, Inc. In his eight years at Hoffman, Bosak has specialized in providing B2B marketing and technical writing services to leading enterprises. A 25-year veteran in the industry, Bosak has provided white papers and other product launch and sales enablement materials on many topics ranging from network IT to cloud computing, cyber security, and more.

[1] 26 billion devices by 2020 (according to Gartner, Inc.); Cisco estimates these devices to reach $19 trillion in revenue opportunities.

[2] To learn more, visit the Industrial Internet Consortium, which now boasts over 200 members.

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Everyone in the cloud computing market is talking about containers, containers, and more containers. It’s the topic of a lot of tech press coverage and analyst speculations. Deploying Docker, OpenStack, and other open source container technologies and tools has picked up tremendous cloud market momentum, especially in the last year.

Containers:

• Are lightweight, flexible application and service environments that share a common virtualization operating system
• Enable much higher resource utilization and faster deployment over traditional virtual machines (VMs)
• Facilitate efficient use of common code and components, enhance development efficiency, and make operations simpler to manage than multiple VMs

Container FUD

Traditional virtualization and cloud vendors have begun to respond with their own container offerings. Or these vendors are acquiring companies that have container-related expertise. The saying “imitation is the best form of flattery” holds especially true with cloud containers. But vendors not jumping on the container market bandwagon have a few tidbits of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to slow adoption in the market.  The following container FUD is just enough to make enterprises wary of this relative newcomer to the cloud:

• Containers are immature
• Not all apps or processes work on containers
• Where’s the security in the containers?
• What do customers do with their existing IT investments?

FUD like this sounds vaguely familiar. From 2004 to 2007, data center vendors used it in an attempt to hold back the rise of cloud computing and virtualization. (Some of this continues even today.) After all, at that time, cloud threatened the sales and revenues of data center vendors’ raft of on-premises servers, switches, and other data center-dependent apps and components. The latter was stellar technology in its time, but the cloud provided an alternative.

If you have an especially good memory, you’ll recall the FUD tossed about by companies that opposed virtualization – for all the same reasons listed above. This nearly identical FUD is the same competitive playbook used for nearly every computing evolution that gains significant traction.

Containers: The Next Step in a Long Line of Advances

The reason for this is that corporate computing is voracious in its advances – one technology seemingly devouring or replacing another. But it’s never that simple. Each advance builds on the status quo. Mainframes begat minicomputers, which spawned PCs, which gave rise to multiprocessor servers, which then became the perfect hardware for virtualization.

Containers are another important step in the evolution of enterprise computing. Its advantages are now being demonstrated in production environments. Benefits include better resource utilization, faster DevOps, reusable code and microservices, more efficient business processes, and automated operations.

Most importantly, containers represent the future of cloud native apps. Not coincidentally, containers will lead to the full maturity of cloud computing itself by giving cloud a true “home” for creating native, reusable, flexible, and efficient cloud apps and processes. Up until now, most cloud applications relied on the migration or modification of data center server-based apps. A consortium of major vendors have formed the Cloud Native Computing Foundation to support this evolution to cloud native solutions.

Granted, containers are not yet a wide-spread, fully-adopted technology. But neither was the PC in the early 1980s, VMs in the early 2000s, or public cloud services in 2005. As always, history will repeat itself. The momentum and utility of containers are already too great to ignore. Big industry tech vendors are supporting open source variants or rolling out their own containers. It’ll be very hard to “contain” containers much longer.

Steve Bosak is a senior writer for Hoffman Marketing Communications, Inc. In his eight years at Hoffman, Bosak has specialized in providing B2B marketing and technical writing services to leading enterprises. A 25-year veteran in the industry, Bosak has provided white papers and other product launch and sales enablement materials for many leading cloud product vendors and service providers.

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An oft-quoted (though unsubstantiated) claim states that “people process visual information 60,000 times faster than text.” MIT research  in 2014 does verify that the brain can process images within 13 milliseconds – much faster than reading and comprehending a blurb of text. In our social media age of short attention spans, this gives infographics an advantage over other forms of marketing collateral.

A study performed by 3M and the University of Minnesota on the role of visual presentation in persuasion found that visual presentations increased persuasion by 43%. The persuasion model used in the study measured attention, comprehension, agreement, and retention, which were all improved by visual presentations compared to presentations without visuals.

Educators have long understood the value of visual learning in the classroom because 65% of students are visual learners. Business marketing is an educational process as well, as illustrated by the marketing model known as AIDA: attention (or awareness), interest, desire, and action. The business buyer’s journey is the progression of a prospect through these stages. While the business-to-consumer buyer might progress more quickly from awareness to action, the B2B sales cycle is longer due to the higher risk involved in making large purchases. Thus, B2B buyers need to be educated on how the business investment can benefit them.

It’s up to us as marketers to create the path for the buyer’s journey with suitable content for each stage. Infographics are well suited for the initial stage of attention/awareness. See a few samples here.

Awareness usually results when a buyer conducts research that brings a company to their attention. Infographics can increase a company’s chances of discovery because they are easily found in search results, especially if [infographic] is included in the title.

Infographics are considered as valuable as white papers as a form of content marketing that B2B marketers prefer. Learn about a package that Hoffman offers to develop both a white paper and an infographic.

Because infographics contain valuable research, they are increasingly being used as offered content for lead generation.

Infographics also grab attention with their colorful graphics. Studies compiled in the article, 20 Ways to Share Color Knowledge, found that color alone can increase readers’ attention spans and recall by 82%. While infographics are a high-engagement type of content, it’s useful to remember that not all infographics are created equal. To be truly engaging, an infographic must be educational and well designed

Additional benefits of using infographics include:

• High consumability: With a small time investment, the buyer can quickly scan an infographic and begin to gain knowledge about a company and its offering.
• Branding: Infographics can subtly reflect the visual elements of a brand.
• Thought leadership: Infographics contain data that is presented to educate, inform, and demonstrate thought leadership.
• Lead generation: Infographics can contain a call to action at the bottom so buyers can continue their journey by following their interest.

Hoffman Marketing Communications has been providing businesses content for B2B marketing for more than 30 years. You can view sample infographics we have produced, get pricing on the development of a custom infographic, or take advantage of our offer for development of a free infographic with the purchase of a custom white paper. Contact us at info@hoffmanmarcom.com.

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Following are my top nine tips for business writing.  I’m admittedly a bit set in my ways after 30 years of this, but perhaps you can glean a few nuggets that may inspire your B2B marketing efforts. To learn more, visit us here for a free download of our guide to the best writing practices.

Tip 1: Know your audience

The best advice I can give with regard to business writing is to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Think of what they need, not what you want to convey.

Tip 2: The English language is vast – use it!

There are over 150,000 words in common use in the English language. But to read most white papers and blogs out there, you would think there are only about 1000 words in existence. Take advantage of the variety of the English language to help you communicate useful information.

Tip 3: Inform, don’t sell

Because this is the crux of content marketing, this may be obvious. However, I see a lot of overt marketing, promotion, and selling in what I read. It is absolutely proven that providing useful content to your audience (rather than trying to sell them) helps them trust and admire you, and ultimately, buy your stuff.

Tip 4: Get organized

Writing is a creative process, yes, but it also requires some organizational skills.  You have two sides of your brain, so use both of them. Organize your document in a way that a reader can easily follow. Write linearly; don’t write in a circle. Find out more about document organization here.

Tip 5: Incorporate metaphors and examples

People better comprehend complex concepts when they can latch onto an easy-to-understand metaphor or example. Use this approach shamelessly – it works.

Tip 6: Use interesting visuals

Words are crucial, but many of us are visually stimulated. For this reason, be sure to include interesting, yet useful visuals. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Tip 7: Be clear and concise

Enough said.

Tip 8: Be accurate

Check your facts. One factual error in your piece can bring into question your entire premise.

Tip 9: Be original

People want to read original material, not regurgitated blather. But when you use third-party information to support your story, be sure to abide by acceptable use and referencing practices.

What do you think of my top nine list?  What’s number ten? I welcome your comments.

For the last 30 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, collateral, and more recently multimedia, on complex business issues and technologies. Get your free copy of our Mother of all White Papers to learn the ten best practices for creating effective white papers.

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Content marketing is about providing useful information in a compelling way, right? Well, humans have been doing that for centuries. What can we learn from some of the best content in human history? How can we apply this to B2B marketing today?

The Bible: Tell an inspired story

The Bible is the world’s all-time best seller (with estimated sales of over 6 billion) [1] and is perhaps the most quoted content of all time. As useful content goes, it may be the most influential in the lives of more people than any other content in human history. Designed to provide a blueprint for human conduct and how to live a moral, ethical life (among other important purposes), it includes curated contributions from many authors over thousands of years.

The Bible employs many of the elements of great storytelling to add power to its points. It …

• Describes dramatic events to illustrate themes
• Includes heroic characters and colorful metaphors and symbolism to dramatize moral lessons
• Has a lexicon that has inspired commonly used language in everyday life.

The primary lesson we can learn from the Bible about content marketing is the power of storytelling. Everybody loves a good story, and humans have been telling stories for thousands of years. In fact, oral tradition was the primary means of passing down information from generation to generation until the invention of the printing press in 1439.  Examples generate empathy in the reader, while aiding understanding. Consider incorporating storytelling into your content marketing.

The Art of War: Provide practical, concise content

In the 6^th Century AD, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War provided soldiers in the Chinese army with basic principles of military strategy using quotations about warfare in ancient China. Remarkably concise and practical in approach, the quotations are memorable and useful. For example, “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak” and “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” [2]. The book provides best practices for identifying strengths and weaknesses in competitors, opportunities for advancing a position, and strategies for addressing specific situations. Fourteen centuries later, many interests and industries have co-opted the advice for planning, business tactics, political campaigning, sports, and more – wherever there is competition.

The primary lesson of The Art of War is the power of practical, concise guidance in content marketing. When you develop and distribute content that provides truly useful, practical advice or best practices, your audience is more apt to share and repurpose it. When you release control of your content, the community adds value to your brand. Allow others to take your advice and run with it, expand it, and enhance it.

The Feminine Mystique: Tailor content to the right audience at the right time

Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique addressed the frustrations of a specific demographic at a specific moment in U.S. history: college-educated, middle-class, suburban women. In this way, Friedan struck a nerve: she launched the modern women’s movement. Soon after publication in 1963, the book became a runaway best seller that’s widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20^th century. It served as a catalyst for social change.

The Feminine Mystique reminds you to know and cater to your audience. Carefully define your audience. Learn about your audience through surveys, focus groups, or online research. What keeps them up at night? Be sure you understand the concerns of your audience right now – not what their concerns were a few years ago, what they might be in the future, or what you want them to be. Then highly tailor your content to specifically address your audience’s concerns and needs. If you can demonstrate your understanding of your audience’s needs and then respond to those needs, your audience is more likely to act on your call to action.

Mao’s Little Red Book: Use powerful quotations

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, also known as Mao’s Little Red Book, served as an ideological field manual for soldiers in the Chinese Red Guard, or People’s Liberation Army. The book is a collection of quotations from Mao’s speeches over many years.  Originally published in 1963, more than one billion copies were circulated during the Cultural Revolution. The goal and unofficial requirement was for 99% of the population of China to read it and carry it with them at all times; it soon became one of the most widely printed and distributed books in human history.

Mao’s Little Red Book was actually used for the indoctrination and control of the Chinese populous. Despite this questionable practice, it remains a dramatic demonstration of readers’ affinity for quotations from authority figures.  Relevant quotes from such sources make your content more compelling. Let the direct words of authoritative sources tell at least part of your story for you.

Key takeaway

Whether you want to change the world or simply enhance your position in your marketplace, it pays to follow some of the most proven content marketing practices from inspirational leaders of history: Target and understand your audience carefully, provide practical and concise content, and enhance your content with strong storytelling and authoritative quotes. What inspires your best content? We welcome your comments.

References

1. Russell Ash, “The Top 10 of Everything 2002,” The Ten Bestselling Books of All Time.
2. Goodreads, The Art of War Quotes.

Photo credit: Gutenberg Bible, Lenox Copy, New York Public Library, 2009, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

For the last 30 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, collateral, and more recently multimedia, on complex business issues and technologies. Sign up here to get your free copy of our White Paper on White Papers to learn the ten best practices for creating effective white papers.

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Infographics are everywhere—from government reports to high school classrooms. We’ve even seen infographics about infographics. At Hoffman, we’re seeing an uptick in demand for these infographics. See our infographics page for some samples that may inspire you.

The subject of this post: how to put together more impactful, motivating infographics as a part of your ongoing content marketing strategy. Like all content forms, infographics have some key components that either make them stellar or stale. Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” we’ve discovered at Hoffman when we get our ducks in a row to create infographics for our clients over the years.

DO…have a strategic and specific communication goal in mind. You can’t spill all your company’s beans in one infographic and have a lasting impact. The key is a carefully orchestrated flow of information that leads to an inescapable (or at least highly convincing) conclusion. Pick a topic that reflects well on your company or one of its products—not the entire market you’re in.

DO…use a writer to work closely with the subject matter experts and marketing folks to make sure you are delivering a distinct and clear message. There’s nothing worse than just dumping a project on an unsuspecting graphic artist by saying “serve-up a jaw-dropping infographic for us, please. Take a look at our web site!” It’s rare that companies have graphic artists that have both a keen sense of messaging and artistic ability. So get a writer involved early. Have the writer and marketing team decide the theme, flow, and end message you want to deliver.

DO…have that end-goal message in mind, then work backwards to find supporting facts, figures, and statistics that will lead to your blockbuster conclusion. This is Internet grunt work at its best: combing the web internal resources to find just the right nuggets of info that will make your graphic conclusion pop.

DO…provide a mock-up of the infographic to the artist, including all references and attributions for your info-message. Take the time to actually include placeholder graphics, icons, and even typefaces you might use, clipped from other sources.

DON’T…shackle the artist. Once the designer has the message in hand, give him or her free-reign to play with the elements, original art, and especially use of white space, icons and other graphic elements.

DON’T…forget about your corporate style guide, though. Is the infographic using the approved color schema, typefaces, and logo? It’s best to make sure you’re not running afoul of corporate guidelines after hours of intense graphic design. Arm your designer with the style guide before the first arrow is drawn.

DON’T…forget to make sure the actual graphics, icons, pictures, and other elements and quotes are licensed, you have obtained permission for, and are correctly and legally attributed.  No sense going to market with a message that ends in nasty legalities.

In short, the best infographics tell a story—where do you start, but most importantly, where does the story end? Often a good infographic is a colorful invitation to explore the topic more fully—a natural lead-in to your other, more meaty content. If you’re interested in incorporating custom infographics into your content marketing, please visit us here to learn more about what we can do for you.

What are your “do’s” and “don’ts” for creating great infographics? Did we miss any ducks? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

For the last 30 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, collateral, and more recently multimedia and infographics, on complex business issues and technologies. See some samples of our infographics here.

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For the last 30 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, collateral, and more recently multimedia, on complex business issues and technologies. Sign up here to get your free copy of our White Paper on White Papers to learn the ten best practices for creating effective white papers.

The post Infographic: Anatomy of an Effective White Paper appeared first on Hoffman Marketing Communications.

In our first post in this series, Information Security Solutions: Construction of a Marketing Content Strategy, we defined marketing content strategy and discussed its importance as the blueprint for your successful B2B marketing communications. In this post, we put our hardhats back on to build the steps in planning an information security marketing communications project.

Step 1: Define Your Audience

If you were leading a building project, you would first need to know your client. You’d no more propose a large corporation operate out of a cozy main street shopfront than you would a mom and pop store occupy a city center high rise. Carefully defining the audience and how to present information to address their needs is the first, and probably most important, step in developing effective communication.

Various types of professionals evaluate and purchase information security solutions. In larger organizations, the audience tends to be more specialized, whereas medium and smaller businesses tend to be comprised of more general audiences. A Fortune 500 company will likely have full-time, dedicated information security specialists; smaller organizations are more likely to have IT generalists who incorporate security into their daily duties as network engineers, system administrators, or database administrators. A generalist audience is less likely to possess in-depth knowledge of the security industry than a specialist audience.

Once you define your primary audience, try to answer these questions from their perspective:

• What specific threat/threat actor, vulnerability, or risk does this solution help me guard against?
• What are the most important security measures to minimize or eliminate the threat, vulnerability, or risk, and what must a solution provide to achieve this?
• What type of information would motivate me to learn more about this security solution – say, read a couple of blog posts, or have a conversation with someone?
• Why wouldn’t I purchase this security solution?
• What’s my current knowledge of the threat, vulnerability, or risk, and what do I need to know about the solution to be confident it will minimize or eliminate the problem (e.g., terminology, technology, regulatory requirements, etc.)?

These questions provide insight into how to address the points so they are relevant and compelling to your audience.

Step 2: Define the Purpose

Next, carefully define the single purpose of each piece of communication, and then make every decision based on how best to achieve its purpose. Going back to our construction analogy, if you know the purpose of your building is to house goods for distribution, the decisions you will make about its design, size, location, and accessibility will become clear.

For your communications piece, if the primary purpose is to inform about, say, a new threat or vulnerability, then provide timely and relevant information on the topic in a single piece of collateral. This saves the audience from additional time required to locate more information, which can be frustrating. Of particular value to any audience are options for a hotfix or stopgap measure to protect themselves until a more permanent solution can be implemented. Complete background on the problem with actionable advice on remediation, even if temporary, increases the collateral’s value.

Step 3: Choose the Format (i.e., Medium)

In construction, the choice of medium is dictated by the building’s future occupants – its “audience” – and its purpose. If the purpose of the structure is to provide temporary shelter to festival-goers, then a large tent pavilion would be appropriate. Likewise the best method (format or medium) to deliver your information security marketing message depends on the audience and purpose of the collateral. Examples include:

• Company blog: Many information security companies maintain widely read blogs, in which they cover everything from threat activity reports to new research findings.
• Multimedia video: Online media increases the useful lifespan of videos beyond their initial purpose offline.
• White paper: A white paper that cites third-party sources provides information security professionals the in-depth content they seek.

Step 4: Identify the Optimal Style

Ensure your style fits the medium. In our analogy, a log cabin would be more suitable for a mountain retreat than a corporate headquarters. Similarly, email and blog posts should be casual, whereas white papers and case studies should be more professional. We’ve written a popular series of blog posts on the many aspects of style, which are applicable to information security marketing:

1. Marketing Communications Tone: Is Your Marketing Collateral Tone Deaf?
2. Marketing Communications Word Choice and Voice: Your Corporate Persona’s Inner Khakis or Suit
3. Marketing Communications Style: Know Your Audience…and Your Company
4. Marketing Communications Style Guide: A Dress Code with Style

Now that you’ve planned your information security marketing communications project, check back next week for our top guidelines for developing great content – the brick and mortar of your successful B2B marketing communications for information security solutions.

What approaches have you used to define your target audience and tailor content to them? What do you view as the primary purposes of your collateral? What format (media) have you found most effective for various audiences? We welcome your comments and thoughts.

For over 20 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, product launch materials, and more recently multimedia, for information security companies. Visit us here to learn more about how we can help you build successful marketing communications.

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So you’ve been tasked with developing marketing communications for an information security solution. Now what? You’ve come to the right place. This is the first in a series of three blog posts on information security marketing with an emphasis on business-to-business (B2B) marketing communications. In this post, we’ll discuss the all-important construction of a solid marketing content strategy. This is your blueprint for successful marketing communications.

What is a Marketing Content Strategy?

Many notable thinkers have defined marketing content strategy, what it should achieve, and why it’s important. For simplicity, let’s say a content strategy is the planning, development, and management of high-quality, insight-rich, information-packed content. With it you can build a solid foundation for all of your marketing efforts. The content – your building materials – may span print, digital (web/interactive/social media), and multimedia.

When Should You Establish a Marketing Content Strategy?

The best time to think about marketing content strategy (your blueprint in our construction analogy) is before you begin developing content. But it’s never too late to start! Your content strategy helps you prioritize resources and focus tactics. Chances are, unless your organization sprang into existence last week, you already have content developed. Managing what already exists and deciding what to develop next can be overwhelming – a content strategy can guide you. But where do you start?

1. Map Existing Content to Phases of the Sales Cycle

A good first step is to identify the steps in the sales cycle for various solutions across various market segments. Sales cycles for information security solutions vary widely, from relatively short, largely automated cycles for mature, inexpensive products such as virus protection, to very long, complex cycles for multi-year roll-outs of hardened point-of-sale (POS) and other perimeter defense hardware. Audience (i.e., target market segment) and other factors also influence the sales cycle for a solution. The length, complexity, and other characteristics of the cycle matter less than the fact that each piece of content should map to a specific phase of that cycle.

Once the steps are identified, examine your existing content to see what fits where. Your content is the building material of your marketing efforts. For instance, white papers help to inform and build awareness and are most useful early in the sales cycle (e.g., lead generation), whereas video testimonials of satisfied customers influence and solidify credibility, and are therefore ideal for late-cycle use (i.e., the oral presentation of a proposal).

2. Identify Gaps that Point to Missing Content

Each step in the sales cycle builds upon the step before it, but in mapping content to specific phases of the sales cycle, gaps or imbalances may appear. For example, you may discover that you don’t have an effective way of keeping customers engaged between the time they download a white paper from your website and the point where they request a proposal. Or you may discover that you excel in lead generation, but your proposal content doesn’t seem to meet the same standards of quality and effectiveness. These gaps point to the next piece(s) of content you need to develop to strengthen the foundations of your marketing communications.

3. Package Your Content

Once you have identified the phases in your sales cycle, mapped your content to each phase, and identified the content you need to fill the gaps, it becomes easier to see how multiple pieces of content can be packaged together. Ideally, in such a campaign, different pieces of content serve different purposes. For instance, you might devise a direct mail campaign that consists of a letter, a one-page “briefing” that summarizes the contents of a white paper, and a customized landing page on your website that offers a free download of the white paper after registration. The campaign can be customized for particular customer personas—IT admins, CIOs, etc. These pieces of content each serve a distinct purpose as they approach each customer segment on its own terms.

Viewing marketing communications holistically, through a marketing content strategy, uncovers strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. This exercise helps set priorities and define short-, medium-, and long-term goals. With priorities and goals identified, you are ready to begin planning your next B2B marketing communication for information security solutions. In our next posts, we’ll discuss planning and developing content – the brick and mortar of your campaign.

What do you think of our key points? How has your firm approached the challenges of marketing communications in this vertical? We welcome your comments and thoughts.

For over 20 years, Hoffman Marketing Communications has created white papers, product launch materials, and more recently multimedia, for information security companies. Visit us here to learn more about how we can help you build successful marketing communications.

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As we described in our last post, most enterprises realize the value of effective success stories (also known as case studies). Yet many product managers struggle with the task of actually developing them. This post describes seven proven techniques for how to write success stories.

1. Convince the Customer

In many enterprises, the number one factor that limits development of success stories is the customer. To help convince a customer to agree to sign their name to a success story, explain the benefits they will realize. For example, remind the customer that they can show the completed success story to their senior management or board of directors – demonstrating that they are innovative, solution-oriented, and focused on business benefits.

Another way to help convince the customer is to tell them they will receive a framed hard copy of the final success story as a form of thanks. This framed copy, hanging on the wall of the customer’s office, will become a symbol of the successful relationship between the customer and the solution provider. Over the years, colleagues, co-workers, visitors, and others will admire the achievement.

2. Work with Customers to Ensure Success

Customer involvement is much more than just the initial “ok” to proceed. Follow these tips to ensure a positive customer experience and help ensure successful completion:

• Obtain customer permission before writing the document, solicit input during the development, and secure approval after drafting it.
• Rather than asking the customer to draft quotes, write them for their review; this usually results in more compelling material.
• Use “homegrown” customer photos to personalize the story and help connect with readers.

3. Agree on a Common Organization

The time-tested, most effective organization for a success story follows the problem-solution-benefit flow. First describe the business and /or technical problem or issue. Then describe the solution to this problem or resolution of the issue. Finally, describe how the customer benefited from the solution. This natural story-telling sequence resonates with readers.

4. Get Started with a Bang

The most prominent parts of a success story (e.g., title, subtitle, and benefits bullets) are typically the most difficult parts to get right. The best advice is to start with a bang. Use action verbs and emphasize benefits in the title and subtitle. Include a short customer quote in larger text. Then, summarize the key points in 2-3 succinct bullet points. The goal is to tease the reader into wanting to read more.

5. Try to Quantify Benefits

No single element in a success story is more compelling than the ability to tie quantitative benefits to the solution. For example, “Using Solution X saved Customer Y over $ZZZ,ZZZ after just six months of use.” Quantifying benefits can be challenging but not impossible. The key is to present imaginative ideas to the customer for ways to quantify the benefits, and remain flexible during this discussion. If benefits cannot be quantified, attempt to develop a range of qualitative benefits; the latter can be quite compelling as well.

6. Address Highly Tailored Solutions

Even highly tailored solutions and services can be described in an effective success story. This can be done by writing first about a more general problem in the industry, then transitioning to the specific problem that the customer faced. In the solution section, use the opposite sequence: describe how the solution solved this specific problem; then indicate how it can also help resolve this issue more broadly within the industry. Beginning more generally draws the reader into the story. Concluding more generally allows the reader to understand how the solution can address their problem.

7. Find the Right Writer

A common logistical limitation is finding adequate staff time to make the success stories happen. And even with the best plan, a success story is doomed to failure if the writer doesn’t know how to write success stories. A talented writer can make the difference between an effective success story and one that falls flat. When marketing staff time is limited, many enterprises outsource success story writing.

Conclusion

Enterprises usually can’t afford not to develop success stories. Their competitors may be using the power of example effectively, thus gaining an advantage. In most instances, a set of effective success stories can pay for themselves in increased sales. Many prospects need verification that a vendor’s solution can successfully address the types of business challenges they face in their industry. Success stories can provide them this proof.

What do you think of our tips on how to write success stories? What tips would you add? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

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