Tuesday 2¢ - Nessa is Back

This week I am inspired by a sign in a hairdresser's window (or salon for you folks over the pond) that reminded me - we need to find our Nessa.

On my morning walk today, I noticed a handwritten sign in a hairdresser’s window, “Nessa is back” with a number to call for a booking.

One assumes that Nessa is pretty handy with a hairdryer and has a bit of a local following amongst the clientele.

In an industry that is very much about people and service, Nessa is a marketable asset. The discerning ladies of our Oxfordshire town don’t just want to go to this hairdresser’s, as splendid as I am sure it is, they want Nessa.

And I am sure you are predicting where this is going as I twist this into an analogy for B2B marketing:

Who is your Nessa?

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with my incredibly learned chum Robert Rose on the Rockstar CMO podcast about the importance of individual credibility vs brands in content marketing. Specifically, in the age of AI, trust is shifting towards individuals.

To quote one of my favorite lines from the very wonderful works of Ann Handley, “your from line is more important than your subject line”.

This means that in B2B marketing, if your company does not naturally have them, we need to create, promote and support credible voices, spokespeople, and thought leaders.

Creating our own influencers who’s content can work in the big, dark bucket that sits above your funnel. Where 95% (according to LinkedIn’s 95-5 rule) of your potential buyers and audience are busy researching the right solution, making a shortlist of folks to trust, way before they are a blip on marketing automation radar or heaven forbid an MQL.

And yep, it’s dark, unless you’ve got budget for brand research or intent data, but that’s a hobby horse to ride around for 2 cents on another day.

Speaking of dark, there's a dark side to our Nessa story: the fact that she’s back suggests she left, presumably much to the consternation of the hair salon and its punters.

And, that’s something we need to consider as we invest in marketing our category champion, thought leader, and guru - what if they leave?

If individual influence from thought leadership has the value we are suggesting, then the content and audience we have curated for our hero will make them attractive in the market.

It’s something to consider, but it should not dissuade us from building the personal brands of the smart people in our businesses; it’ll happen. The simple answer is not to have just one Nessa, but I'll dive into a multi-Nessa strategy another day.

But for now - Who’s your Nessa?

Who would your audience want to see in the “from line”?

And be delighted they are back, if they were ever away?