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What "Job" Do You Want Content to Do?

Marketing professionals who are trying to understand the principle behind content marketing can take a lesson from Clayton Christensen of the Harvard Business School and his "jobs-to-be-done" marketing ideas.

 

This core Christensen idea is presented in a recent HBS Working Knowledge article, Milkshake Marketing. The article describes a fascinating study his team conducted on behalf of a fast food chain that wanted to improve milkshake sales. The company initially applied a typical market research approach before it engaged "one of Christensen's fellow researchers, who approached the situation by trying to deduce the 'job' that customers were 'hiring' a milkshake to do." 

 

Parallels Between Product Design and Content Strategy

 

Consider this comparison between product design and content strategy. Both product design and content share similar problems. Product design challenges are revealed in the low success rate of new product introductions. Marketing content issues are revealed in the low usefulness to sales and customers. 

"When planning new products, companies often start by segmenting their markets and positioning their merchandise accordingly. This segmentation involves either dividing the market into product categories, such as function or price, or dividing the customer base into target demographics, such as age, gender, education, or income level.

 

Unfortunately, neither way works very well, according to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who notes that each year 30,000 new consumer products are launched—and 95 percent of them fail."

Clayton Christensen

 

With business content, the American Marketing Association has found that 80% of content created by marketing is never used by sales. IDG reports IT buyers find relevant content only 42% of the time. "The lack of relevancy for the prospect reduced the vendor�s chance of closing a sale by 45 percent."  

 

The "Jobs-to-be-done View"

 

Christensen's prescription is to look at the important difference between determining a product's function and its job.

 

"Looking at the market from the function of a product really originates from your competitors or your own employees deciding what you need.

Whereas the jobs-to-be-done point of view causes you to crawl into the skin of your customer and go with her as she goes about her day, always asking the question as she does something: Why did she do it that way?"

This is directly related to the principle behind the content marketing movement.

Three good questions marketers can ask to get at "the job" they want their content to do:

1. What impact do we want content to have on the buyer? 
2. What do we want content to tell us about the viewer (Digital Body Language)?
3. What does the buyer want to learn from viewing each piece of content?

From a company's perspective we might want content to capture and hold attention, to educate, to prove or persuade, to motivate sharing of content, and to cause behavior change or action.  We might want content to identify the viewer's areas of interest, functional role, industry, company size, stage of investigation, or degree of urgency.

A viewer or buyer will typically be researching a specific question or area of focus. Their interest will vary based upon their role, buying stage, role in the decision process, beliefs and values, and numerous other factors.

To accomplish its "job", we know content must be relevant to each viewer. This means we must know:

• Who, specifically, we are creating each piece of content to serve,
• What their specific issues could be,
• Where they are in their evaluation or buying process for each content piece,
• What alternatives they are considering,
• And a host of other elements.

We know that only late in their buying process will buyers be seriously interested in learning about specific elements of a company, its products and services.

Even here, understanding the "jobs-to-be-done" view, together with the skills marketing develops to create more relevant marketing content, can improve the current void in sales content that support the  "closing business job" of sales and sales content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are You Communicating Synchronously in an Asynchronous World?

We live in a world that prefers to receive information asynchronously. But we tend to focus on using live, synchronous delivery methods. This is a key source of high costs and low results in every area of a business. I cannot overstate the importance of this idea and distinction, as well as the implication for individuals and organizations.

First, some simple definitions.

Synchronous communications happen at the same time with all participants. Synchronous communications tend to be traditional voice-based conversations to deliver intended messages. They can be conducted in person or over the phone or web.

Asynchronous communications do not occur in the same time. Communications experienced asynchronously are consumed "on demand" at a time of choosing by the recipient. Asynchronous communication rely on content to package and deliver core messages -- audio content such as voice mail, text content, or video.

 

Implications for Your Communications

As I consider the world of communications I am struck by the challenges and importance of aligning communication methods and timings with intended communication objectives and audience preferences.

I believe we live in an asynchronous communication world. People tend to overstate the use and importance of synchronous over asynchronous communications, in part because in-person conversations are so impactful.

But content-based, asynchronous communications, are more important for today's marketing and selling activities -- especially due to the impact of the internet. This implication puts the value of pre-produced content in a new and important perspective, far more important than typically considered.

According to Gerhard Gschwandtner from Selling Power magazine, only 17% of B2B sales conversations are conducted live and in person. Of course there are variations by industry and sales function. This information is also supported by other sales communication experts I have interviewed.

• What percent of communications that you experience are conducted in the same time frame, what portion are asynchronous?
• When do you think "same time" communication is the best method, and when are asynchronous methods preferred?
• What distinctions in communication purposes do you make that might inform tool or delivery method selection?
• How do you know what "tools" to use to accomplish your communication objectives: in person conversation, telephone call, third person delivery, text (all methods), graphics or images, recorded audio or video? When is a live meeting, text, recorded audio or a video best applied to specific communication objectives?
• How do time factors impact the selection and use of synchronous and asynchronous tactics?
• How well prepared are your people to appreciate these distinctions, to make these considerations, and to execute appropriately?

Whether you are in sales, marketing, customer service, or general business functions, or the executive ranks, these questions are critical. Modern communications, especially the internet and digital media, have greatly expanded our communication tool set. This also raises the risk of misuse of each tool.

As I raise this distinction between synchronous and asynchronous communication methods with customers, I find they help people re-consider their decisions for each communication situation. I hope it helps you as well.