B2B BREAKOUT PANEL: How to Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages

Transcription

1 B2B BREAKOUT PANEL: How to Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages

2 Moderator: Brian Carroll, Executive Director of Applied Research, MECLABS Panelists: Michelle Mogelson Levy Associate Vice President Marketing Programs, ECI Telecom Loren McDonald Vice President of Industry Relations, Silverpop Ardath Albee CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions, Inc. Kirsten McElgunn, Director, Marketing & Product Management, Western Union Business Solutions 2

3 Case Study: Effective Lead Nurturing; Get Your Foot in the Door How ECI aligned content to relevant stages of buying cycle to improve conversions by 136% Michelle Mogelson Levy Associate Vice President, Marketing Programs ECI Telecom

4 Case Study Background The company ECI Telecom The marketplace The product The channel The campaign objective B2B telecom market, month complex sales cycle Network infrastructure solutions for telecom providers Automated marketing lead nurturing campaigns To increase amount of Marketing Qualified Leads being pushed to sales 4

5 Case Study Background Centralized core marketing team managing all outbound campaigns Small team tasked with multiple, simultaneous lead nurturing campaigns covering several segments Running segmented campaigns based on behavior without aligning content to buyers journey Segmented marketing database of more than 30K prospects Hundreds of unmapped/unknown/orphan marketing assets 5

6 The Tale of Two Campaigns Campaign #1 The Easy Win Focused, targeted campaign to defined audience for segmented industry Utility Market Segment Utilized ECI generated content for 5 step nurturing campaign Results: 33% open rate 11% conversion Sherpa benchmark: 24% open rate 12% conversion 6

7 The Tale of Two Campaigns Broad-based technology campaign spanning numerous applications and solutions Wireless Backhaul Campaign #2 The True Challenge 7

8 Challenge & Goal Challenge Replicate successful conversion rates on The Easy Win campaign how can we ensure success for The True Challenge? Goal Create personalized, highly segmented lead nurturing campaign by offering compelling content matched to the early/educational stage of the buying cycle 8

9 Strategy What do I need? What do I have? How do I fill the gap? 9

10 Strategy to Tactics What Do I Need? What do I need? What do I have? Tactic #1 How I do I fill the gap? Define which assets are needed to fuel campaign Result: Set of third-party content aligned with educational stage of buying cycle 10

11 Strategy to Tactics What Do I Need? What do I need? What do I have? Tactic #2 How I do I fill the gap? Audit and allocate existing content to stages of buying cycle Align/educate global matrix organization of content creators and owners to buyers journey Results of asset audit 695 assets 11

12 Transfer the Knowledge to Buyer at Right Time What do I need? What do I have? How I do I fill the gap? Education Solution Vendor Selection? Loosening of the Status Quo Committing to Change Exploring Possible Solutions Committing to a Solution Justifying the Decision Making the Selection We might have a problem, or we are conceiving a vision. We understand the problem and how it connects to our business. Your solution applies to our need. Your solution will have the greatest impact on our business. The business case is justified internally. We are confident and ready to move forward. Thought Leadership Solution Knowledge Value Story Solution Validation Financial Justification On Boarding Published Articles Social Media White papers Blogs Events/ Webinars Web site/seo Analyst Reports Product Collateral Presentations to Business Owner Case Studies Proof Of Concept Competitive Tools Executive Briefings ROI tools Client References Proposals Presentation To Financial Owner Welcome Kit Orientation Training Customer Newsletter 12

13 Content Audit and Mapping Process What do I need? Quality What do I have? How I do I fill the gap? Value Does the content you use for marketing purposes meet the same quality standards you set for your products and services? Is it produced and presented in a high quality fashion? How thoroughly does it address an information need? What content pieces should be made freely available to website visitors and which should be gated? Relevance Does the content meets the information needs of the stages of the buying cycle? Influence Does the content asset influence buyer perceptions? Does best emphasize specific issues, risks, inefficiencies or opportunities that an offering is tied to? 13

14 Strategy to Tactics What Do I Need? What do I need? What do I have? Aligning the Content How I do I fill the gap? Breakdown by buying cycle: Raw data 400 Vendor Selection: 174 Solution: 120 Educational: 1 14

15 Strategy to Tactics How Do I Fill the Gap? What do I need? Acquire third-party assets What do I have? Tactic #3 How I do I fill the gap? Define sources of valuable content Third-party validation sources; analysts, research firms Sponsored (writing) articles by independent thought leaders Purchase licensed content for distribution Execute campaign 15

16 Results Quantitative The Easy Win: Average of 33% open rate and 11% post-click conversion rate The Real Challenge: Average of 78% open rate and 23% post-click conversion rate Industry benchmarks: 24% open rate and 12% clickthrough rate (Sherpa 2011 Benchmark Guide) Content audit serves as basis for Web mapping and supports all future campaigns Organizational alignment to buying cycle Qualitative Open rate: s opened divided by s delivered, Post-click conversion rate: completed a registration form 16

17 Summary and Key Takeaways What do I need? What do I have? How do I fill the gap? Increased conversion rates by 136%. Its all about your buyers journey Aligning your content to their journey will enable you to deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time. 17

18 Credits Aligning Content to Buyers Journey Marketing Benchmark Report 18

19 Thank You Michelle Mogelson Levy AVP Marketing Programs ECI Telecom Mail: Linkedin: MichelleMogelsonLevy 19

20 Case Study: How Western Union shortens the sales cycle and drives double-digit revenue growth Kirsten McElgunn Director, Marketing and Product Management Western Union Business Solutions

21 Case Study Background The Situation: Potential to grow a targeted business vertical: Wines & Spirits Large group unaware of non-traditional payment solutions Current economy and consumer preference for value wines = tighter margins Cost control key to success Specific vertical content developed was limited 21

22 The Challenge Business Objective o Expand positioning from small wineries to target medium-large U.S. wineries in 2010 Address Industry Pain Points o U.S. wineries purchase barrels from cooperages in France and invoiced in Euros o Larger wineries pre-order barrels with cooperages prior to harvest and are subject to currency risk before payment is due Facilitate Business Cycle o May June: Larger wineries pre-order barrels with cooperages o October November: Smaller wineries purchase barrels from cooperages 22

23 Strategic Approach to Content Development Buying Stages 1 ST CONTACT NURTURE ACQUIRE GROW & RETAIN Contact/Client Objectives Create awareness of business need Demonstrate value & depth of knowledge Communicate client benefits and influence need to address Provide Information and Education for product selection Enable International Payments Demonstrate ongoing value & deliver product enhancements /knowledge Business/Sales Objectives Awareness Positioning Lead Intelligence Segmentation TOM Awareness Interest Desire Positioning Assess engagement level and provides Sales insights Track/re-engage cooling leads TOM Awareness Acquisition Positioning Decrease time to first trade Track activity TOM Awareness Optimization Positioning Provides Dealer insights to stimulate Trades Up-Sell 23

24 Our initial approach Pre-show Created thought leadership content based on known pain points Provided free white paper download Advertised the company s attendance at the upcoming show Industry Tradeshow Collected contact information of booth visitors Distributed leads directly to the sales force or to nurturing Post-show Layered marketing approach through a post show to the targeted list contained more information around the company s services - it also promoted a second targeted white paper Industry Specific Landing Page When the reader clicked on the link in the pre or post show they were directed to a landing page that promoted additional content 24

25 Increasing Effectiveness 1. Expanded nurturing program and actively continued client nurturing and engagement of all new and dormant Wine & Spirit leads 2. Engaged existing customer to secure a testimonial and commitment to gain media exposure 3. Captured high-profile media coverage in industry specific publication Reinforced value sent to key clients 25

26 Wine & Spirits Nurturing Created a personalized nurturing campaign with a direct call to action for hot leads. 1: Introduced referencing media coverage in Wines & Vines to create awareness & credibility s 2-4: Continued to promoted relevant industry whitepapers addressing opportunity and solution sets 5: Invitation for ongoing engagement through daily e-newsletters focused on market trends 26

27 Business Results open rates ~13% higher than generic nurturing Clickthrough rates (CTR) ~2% higher Significant number of qualified leads, including several inbound s/calls, resulted 4% of contacts became new business Each component of the overall campaign fortified the others and shortened the buying cycle Integrated efforts resulted in 35 new wineries becoming clients. Included medium to large sized wineries with approx. $500K to $5M in FX Payments p.a. A number of these new wineries incorporated hedging solutions in addition to the international payment solution 27

28 Leveraging Success Regional Expansion o Australia, NZ, Canada Vertical Expansion o Additional US verticals Leverage Components o Client Interview Investor Relations Website Case Study o Collateral Integration 28

29 Summary & Key Takeaways Define target markets Identify common pain points and other themes for content development throughout the buying cycle Test, measure and refine approach Continuous Engagement Nurture in conjunction with Sales and leverage marketing automation Segment customers based on their sales readiness and lead scoring. 29

30 Thank You Kirsten McElgunn Director, Marketing and Product Management Western Union Business Solutions Our Platforms: o CRM: Salesforce.com o Marketing Automation: Eloqua 30

31 Commentary from Expert Panelists

32 Question-and-Answer Session