We ordered Domino’s pizza final weekend.
I do know, I do know. But cling with me for a second.
Do you already know the scene within the film Reality Bites the place they order Domino’s pizza and Lelaina, performed by Winona Ryder, asks, “Do they take checks?”
The final time I ordered Domino’s, that film was a 12 months previous. That’s proper. It’s been 28 years.
In the mid-Nineties, apps, web sites, and pizza trackers didn’t exist. Someone would cling a Domino’s magnet exhibiting its menu in your doorknob, and also you’d take it inside and fix it to your fridge. On that menu was … await it … pizza. Large or small. 11 toppings. Thick or common crust.
In 1995, ordering Domino’s pizza was an inherently environment friendly transaction. I known as, ordered the variety of pizzas, and specified the toppings. Thirty environment friendly minutes later, the pizza arrived at my door.
Domino’s grew to become recognized for that – common, environment friendly pizza.
@Robert_Rose delivers a #ContentMarketing lesson after he orders @Domino’s pizza for the first time in 28 years via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
So final week, after three neighbors mentioned we have been “missing out,” we ordered Domino’s. I method the 2023 expertise with a 28-year-old expectation for the Domino’s buyer expertise – a median, environment friendly pizza.
Domino’s iPhone app stepped up on the “efficient.” The menu has expanded to incorporate hen, tater tots, sandwiches, pasta, salads, and desserts plus 5 pizza crust choices, however the app obtained me by all these selections effectively. I ordered a few pizzas and went a little wild by ordering the tacky tater tots (don’t choose). The GPS-suggested supply tackle was spooky in its accuracy, and away my order went.
Less than half-hour later, Domino’s common, environment friendly pizza and tater tots arrived at my door.
Meh.
The ‘right’ approach to purchase
When I shared the expertise with the chums who really helpful Domino’s, they scoffed. “You didn’t do it right,” they mentioned. “You have to customize and always ask for double cheese. You need to add garlic. The basic tots are fine, but the cheddar bacon tots are killer.”
I used to be fascinated. They indicated the “meh” expertise was in some way my fault. I had manifested the suboptimal expertise as a result of I didn’t take sufficient time to order.
I don’t essentially disagree. But my expertise with Domino’s is a nice lesson for B2B entrepreneurs who facilitate advanced gross sales.
Can friction be a good factor?
Over the final 20 years or so, entrepreneurs have labored laborious to cut back or take away friction within the shopping for course of. You might have carried out digital expertise that mentioned it might “remove the friction from the customer journey.” You’ve streamlined your web sites, thinned the product pages, and offered gross sales enablement eventualities so tightly scripted as to eradicate any capability for a gross sales rep to “read the room.”
But B2B services and products are advanced. Your many “toppings” and “sides” can differentiate your answer or at the very least make it extra contextually helpful to a buyer. For instance, “marketing cloud” and “marketing hub” expertise merchandise provide so many selections. Whether it’s HubSpot, Oracle, Salesforce, or Adobe, their shoppers haven’t a clue of all of the elements within the full bundle.
Balancing the B2B buyer’s journey presents a problem: How do you provide custom-made selections with out overwhelming the shopper?
You introduce friction that will decelerate – or pause – the customer’s journey and supply worth that in the end enhances their total expertise.
Introduce friction to slow down buyers so they appreciate customized choices without being overwhelmed, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
I’ve seen a few profitable strategies utilized by B2B corporations.
Use content-generated information to tailor and prioritize
Many B2B corporations use first-party information to get private moderately than to assist them goal a answer for the individual. They give attention to the info fields that seize the who and virtually ignore the customer’s why or what.
A better B2B content material advertising and marketing technique tags information with attributes so you may refine the steered options or spotlight distinctive options that may immediate the shopper to pause and grow to be conscious of that distinctive mixture.
Default characteristic packages can differentiate
I discovered this lesson the laborious approach. As the CMO of an enterprise net content material administration firm, I believed one of many biggest options was our versatile method to content material translation and localization. Our clients couldn’t dream up a situation that we couldn’t meet. We thought it eliminated friction as a result of if a buyer requested, “Can you handle our translation and workflow process,” we’d confidently say, “Yes.” However, the model frequently misplaced clients to options with just one translation and localization methodology.
It seems clients – on the entire – sought another as a result of they have been dissatisfied with their translation and workflow course of. They wished to be taught the competitors’s default approach of doing it moderately than make their current expertise bend to their perceived unhealthy course of.
By recommending choices with verbiage, akin to “many customers choose this,” “recommended for you,” and even “editor’s choice,” you sluggish the shopper’s determination, however you additionally present simpler methods to make their determination.
Sustained viewers engagement: Marketing after the transaction
What I name the “dead zone” presents a improbable alternative for B2B content material entrepreneurs to sluggish the method. The lifeless zone happens after the shopper says “yes” to your answer and earlier than and/or throughout supply and implementation. Emotions run excessive on either side. Remember, the endpoint for advertising and marketing and gross sales is the start level for the brand new buyer. So the elated gross sales aspect often says, “Leave the customer alone. Don’t slow things down.” While the patrons, although often pleased, may be uneasy. They might lose the “new-car-smell” happiness properly earlier than they use the product.
Slowing down by including friction to this course of can really assist. During the lifeless zone, thought management can maintain engagement. Experiences may help the shopper prepare, be taught, put together, and usually perceive how they’ll get essentially the most out of what they only purchased.
More than upselling the vinyl mats or undercoating for the brand new automobile, helpful content material advertising and marketing experiences improve the shopper’s expertise to forestall second ideas or a lack of enthusiasm when recommending the model to their friends.
Slower may be simpler
Your total purpose mustn’t streamline the customer’s journey so effectively that you just miss alternatives the place the shopper may gain advantage from a pause. In my Domino’s expertise, the app was remarkably environment friendly. It took me by figuring out the supply location and scheduling a supply time earlier than it even requested what I wished. Then, the super-efficient configurator zoomed me by the method. Pizza. Big. Thin Crust. Pepperoni and Onions. Tots. Checkout. Done.
Your overall goal should not streamline the buyer’s journey so efficiently that you miss opportunities where the customer could benefit from a pause, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
When I chosen the primary three attributes, it might have replied, “Whoa, did you know that many of our customers in your area say ‘double cheese’ really makes their pizza special?” What if it acknowledged I hadn’t ordered in a whereas and provided a welcome-back particular, utilizing the most well-liked orders as a default? I might have needed to pause to find out about that bundle, however maybe I might have bought extra. Or possibly I might have made extra gratifying selections.
Remember, typically your clients don’t know what they need precisely or have preconceived notions that don’t match the optimum expertise. You and your main rivals might provide virtually the identical factor. But you may differentiate by slowing down the shopping for course of to make it simpler for the shoppers to know the combos that make your answer higher for them.
As you double down on creating extra helpful clients who keep longer and evangelize extra loudly, bear in mind it’s higher to decelerate and delay the suitable determination than pace up the fallacious one.
It’s your story. Tell it properly.
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Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute