What is the big marketing message the Pied Piper of Hamelin gives us? Pull works better than push.

So what communicates and pulls better and faster? Examples! Real examples!!

How do you showcase examples?  We could capture an example through a Product Success Story, Marketing Case Study or even a Failure Story. In B2B communications, these powerful customer touchpoints can really touch a business buyer as these go-to-market collaterals talk about real customer, real problems, real solutions and also reveal your honesty quotient. So what prevents some of the marketing heads and decision makers of selling companies not to don the Pied Piper’s costumes… here I offer a few reasons:

1. “We are busy. We need to find time for this.”

Case Study content creation and design is not a critical task that should stay with the marketing team. Outsource it to specialists who understand your domain and nature of your work

2. “Case study writing and syndication is not affordable for us.”

Case studies written and told well can generate leads by themselves. Can you afford to lose real prospects with similar pain points?  Can you afford to lose an edge to your nearest competitor? Case Study writing and organic syndication will not be costlier than a brochure.

3. “The Corporate PPT and the brochure will do the job better.”

Corporate PPTs and brochure can’t be tailored to specific target groups and prospects. Only case studies can weave a story around the real event and demonstrate the problem-solving capabilities and solution-oriented thought process.

4. “I don’t think our customers will like it or participate in it.”

These objections are specific to outsourced partner relationships. Let us look at these objections little closely. Will not like it? – here the outsourced partner is rather worried about the internal politics at his or her customer’s place. Will not participate in it? - here confidentiality could be the main culprit. I agree that there will be exceptions. But most of the customers would like to document their work/solution and showcase it to the media or top management.