Part of the problem marketing to C-level executives is that they are just like the rest of us. Increasingly, they’re tuning out traditional marketing messages. They fast-forward through commercials and click past online ads. They’re so bombarded by messaging — at home, at the office, anywhere they go with their smartphones — that they’re just not listening anymore.
And C-suiters also have unique qualities that make them tough targets for marketing. For one thing, they’re protected by gatekeepers. Fortune 500 CEOs typically employ a phalanx of assistants and schedulers dedicated to filtering out unwanted phone calls, visitors, email and publications. They’re also scheduled down to the nanosecond, with little free time to consider whatever it is you’re offering.
So C-suite marketing can be tough. But they don’t exist in an impregnable fortress. Getting inside is hard, but the key is the same as it ever was: to provide executives with something they need. And that something is relevant content.
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Even at the highest ranks of a corporation, the need for information is acute. And executives didn’t get where they are by making decisions in a bubble.
Selling to the C-Suite by Nicholas A.C. Read and Dr. Stephen J. Bistritz (updated and revised in 2018) is based on data collected from interviews with hundreds of executives. The authors found that executives want to be contacted because they thrive on “fresh ideas from outside their companies.” The key word here is fresh. No one, least of all top executives, wants stale marketing messages or warmed-over information. As one CIO told the authors, sales representatives calling him “better be prepared to tell him things he can’t get from his own people.”
A Quartz survey of more than 1,300 global C-suite executives found that they are very responsive to content from sources they perceive as experts in their industries, especially exclusive data and analysis.
Content That Gets Attention
What type of content works best? In our marketing work for B2B companies, our research too often uncovers a disconnect between what a company thinks its content accomplishes and the reality. C-suite executives frequently tell us that they don’t receive thought leadership from our clients — even though we know they are regularly contacted with emailed newsletters and white papers. Other executives report that they are aware of receiving content, but it’s not content that they need. Still others indicate that the content they are getting is not credible because of its source.
A successful content strategy must therefore accomplish three critical objectives:
- First, it needs to get noticed. This requires customer journey research to gain an understanding how and where your C-suite audience acquires information. Will they log onto a webinar? Attend a seminar? The Quartz survey found that a majority of executives access a large amount of their news on their mobile devices, underscoring the importance of optimizing content for apps and small screens.
- Second, C-suite content must answer your target’s information needs. Again, research will uncover what keeps them up at night, the knowledge gaps they struggle with, and what other information sources they currently consult. In short, you must become as steeped in their industry as they are, so you can serve as the trusted expert they’ll turn to for advice — and with their business.
- Finally, C-suite content must be credible. Achieving credibility requires taking a close, hard look at your organization and asking: What do we know that no one else knows? In what areas can we credibly be considered thought leaders? One strategy for increasing the likelihood that your content will be perceived as credible is making it proprietary. Surveys and other primary research can establish credibility even in areas in which you may not already be perceived as an authority. In a testament to the power of brand, the 2018 Quartz study also found that a large part of perceived credibility comes from design and marketing. 79 percent expect a seamless mobile experience and 91 percent will not return to a website where bad advertising has affected their navigation.
Finding Your Content Niche
One organization that gets this right is a client of ours, one of the nation’s largest accounting and advisory firms. This firm deploys content marketing to reach its core decision-making audience: CFOs and CEOs. “We provide a service based on knowledge and expertise,” observes the client’s director of communications. “You can’t go to market without a strategy based on content.”
The firm is quite scientific about marketing to C-level executives. Its brand is built around its ability and willingness to offer clients advice and expertise they can put to work in protecting and building their businesses. Content supports this brand by providing practical information that a C-suite executive can use to make strategic business decisions. While the firm regularly issues updates to keep clients and prospects informed about late-breaking legislative and regulatory changes, it recognizes that virtually every sizable accounting firm is doing the same thing. So it has invested in developing proprietary survey content to give it an edge. It has even branded this research-based content — a canny approach to building awareness.
Significantly, the research is focused on areas in which the firm has deep market penetration and broad credibility, such as hedge funds and private equity. The director of communications notes that his firm’s content-focused C-suite marketing strategy has led to interviews in key industry trade publications and invitations to speak at conferences. “C-suite executives aren’t hard to reach,” he observes, “but it is hard to get their attention. For us, content is one important channel to get attention. But we are always aware that our reputation is on the line with everything we publish. We know that it has to be targeted to what our audience is truly interested in.”
The C-suite is hungry for information. Content doesn’t replace traditional marketing channels, but it plays an increasingly important role in any synchronized C-suite marketing program. If you provide your content in a compelling, focused and credible fashion, you’ll have a much better chance of putting your product or service in front of this critical but elusive audience. This may require research investment, but think of the CEO the way nonprofits think of major donors: Successfully targeting just one can lead to significant rewards. Having his or her ear has a higher ROI than just about any banner ad, billboard, or marketing campaign.
To learn more about capturing the C-suite’s attention with content, contact us.
