Partner Marketing Playbook A guide to integrating the SharedVue platform into your existing marketing mix
SharedVue Marketing Playbook foreword In a busy world of managing relationships with customers and vendors, the last thing you have time for is figuring out how a new platform fits into your marketing plan. This Partner Marketing Playbook is a usable guide that integrates SharedVue s syndicated content, email, and social media tools into your marketing mix, freeing up more of your time to take care of the day-to-day maintenance of your business. You ll learn exactly what process a customer goes through when they begin searching for the solutions you offer. From initial research to purchase, you ll be able to see how SharedVue helps nurture your contacts into meaningful, personal relationships for engaged sales opportunities. This decreases your time investment in developing content and enabling your teams. By following this step-by-step guide, you can execute smart marketing campaigns designed to help you generate leads for the brands you sell. Inside you ll discover best practices to bring customers into and through your sales pipeline while still catering to your individual vendor offerings. At its core, the SharedVue platform bridges the gap between Vendors and Solution Providers.
The Customer Buying Process Understanding how to guide contacts through your story, qualifying them for sales In this section, you ll learn: What steps customers take to find solutions to their technology problems Ways to align your marketing and sales efforts into a pipeline Which activities work best for generating contacts, nurturing leads and turning existing customers back into new sales
The Technical Buyers Journey the face of the buyer Before you begin any marketing efforts, it is important to understand the actions B2B technology buyers take as they explore a solution that s right for them. The customer journey takes place in phases, starting with a need, progressing through research and ending with a purchase. During that journey, different types of media play an important role in guiding the customer down the appropriate path. Make sure that you are leveraging the key components in the right sequence to guide customers through your story. Social media, email, and direct website traffic are the pieces of any marketing mix with which customers spend the most time.
Telling Your Story to Customers building a pipeline Much like a good book, your company has a very special story to tell customers. You want to make sure you guide them through the chapters in the right order so they fully understand how you differ from competitors and why your offerings are the best fit for them. If you re telling the story in a disjointed, unorganized way, your customers will get lost and open a competitor s book. Not everyone you encounter is ready for a dedicated sales effort. Sometimes contacts need to be nurtured before a sales representative should spend time with them. Thus, to effectively market the brands you sell and integrate them with your custom products and solutions, it is important to establish a well-thought-out qualification process for contacts and leads. * On the next page you will see a popular, almost scientific method, for turning unqualified contacts into well-nurtured, sales-ready conversations.
Marketing Lead Qualification building a pipeline 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Pipeline Building Steps Contacts are gathered from social media interactions, lists, sales prospecting, research and referrals, or are self-qualified through inbound efforts. Contacts become qualified marketing leads if they meet certain criteria and then enter the nurturing loop. Once nurtured, some marketing leads become sales prospects if they meet the sales profile. Sales then gives these prospects a capabilities demo. Sales qualified prospects then enter the proposal phase. If sales determines the prospect is not ready, the prospect is demoted back to a marketing qualified lead and is returned to the nurturing phase. If a sales lead passes the proposal phase, it becomes a customer and enters the customer marketing lifecycle.
Social Media Aiding you in cultivating a culture of thought leadership and quality customer relationships In this section, you ll learn: How to choose the right content for your social followers Tools to make managing your accounts time efficient How to use SharedVue Social to amplify you social reach
Content Sources efficiently managing your curation time Curating content for your social efforts is as easy as reading new articles and educating yourself on topics that align with your company. Ideally, you will be able to identify your go-to sources for content in each of the below categories. It is best to break your content sources down into four main categories: Original Content, Trusted Feeds, Evergreen Content, and Personal Curation. For example, original content comes from your company s own website, blog, or the SharedVue program. Trusted feeds may be industry news or review sites, vendor sources, or related blogs. Evergreen content may be in the form of instructional videos about your products, whitepapers, or case studies. Lastly, personally curated content adds a nice, personal touch to any social program. You may craft original posts or come across a random, relevant article. Use the space below to brainstorm places you can gather content on a regular basis. Original Content Trusted Feeds Personal Curation Evergreen Content
Social Media Content Flow mapping your content sources Once you have a good base of sources for your social program, you should think about ways to automate as much of the posting process as possible. There are tons of great tools on the market that will allow you to directly post or queue-up a series of posts to go out over time. In this case, SharedVue Social acts as both a trusted source and posting tool. You are able to take content from all your sources and load them into one central place. You can easily augment your curated content with a feed coming directly from your vendor. You ll end up with a healthy mix of industry, branded, and vendor content that automatically posts to your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts at a regular, pre-determined cadence.
Finding Content that Works shareable content There are tons of great types of content available on the internet that can benefit your audiences. Look at other social networks, like the ones below, to find interesting and educational content that makes you look like a thought leader. In addition, you may find sharable content in the personal conversations, shared files, and pictures you come across in your daily life. If it is inspirational, unique, and relevant, you can probably use it in your social mix. Enlightening infographics, educational videos or compelling PDFs are also valuable.
SharedVue Social establishing consumer consideration In all stages of the buying journey, decision makers often use social media to narrow their consideration set by finding qualitative, impartial and educational information about the topics and solutions that meet their needs. By adding SharedVue Social to your marketing mix, you ll have access to a library of this type of content from your Vendor(s). Curating valuable information for your followers at this stage of the purchase journey guarantees you ll be in the buyer s consideration set when it comes time to make a purchase. Need Research Review Purchase How to Use SharedVue Social Developing the original social media content your followers want is a big investment. To offset this burden, you can use SharedVue Social to augment your feeds with vendor-provided content that is both educational and engaging for followers, being part of the entire buying journey from need assessment to purchase. Simply connect your social profiles and select the content that s right for your followers. 1. 2. Select content curated from high-value sources that engages your followers. Cultivate meaningful relationships between key members of your organization and followers.
SharedVue Social establishing consumer consideration
Email Marketing Nurturing engaged contacts into sales-ready leads with targeted, timely messaging In this section, you ll learn: How to gather contacts for an email campaign or newsletter Tools to make managing your accounts time efficient How to use your Vendors SharedVue library to easily nurture contacts
How Email Marketing Works email workflow SharedVue s email marketing tool helps you narrow a broad spectrum of contacts into a targeted group of sales prospects and leads in four ways: Promotions, Events, Lead Generation, and Newsletters. Using email marketing will help you understand prospects needs based on their opens and clicks. By pre-qualifying contacts with BANT emails, you are able to understand how contacts should be prioritized for sales follow-up, freeing up time to focus on current deals while automatically nurturing new contacts. Budget Authority Need Timeline How to use SharedVue Email Marketing Not every contact is a lead, and narrowing a broad contact-base down to the right people to call is important for sales-enablement. SharedVue s email tool is built to help you discover the key data points (BANT) that qualify contacts as leads. To effectively use SharedVue Email Marketing you should spend time getting to know your contacts: 1. Select content curated from high-value sources that engages your followers. 2. Cultivate meaningful relationships between key members of your organization and followers.
How Email Marketing Works email workflow
Content Syndication Providing contacts, customers and leads with branded information to drive sales In this section, you ll learn: What content works best on your website for closing deals Why you should integrate compelling content for the brands you sell on your site How to integrate SharedVue Content Syndication for maximum impact
Content Syndication aiding purchasing decisions SharedVue Content Syndication allows you to automate the maintenance of your website and spend your time where it is needed most closing sales. Adding content syndication to your marketing mix aids the buyer in the decision-making phase of the buying cycle. You become the authority because of the breadth and depth of content visitors find on your site. Content syndication is best paired with other marketing activities like social media and email marketing. Attention Interest Desire Action How to use SharedVue Content Syndication Placing syndicated content on your website allows visitors to research solutions to their needs using a broad spectrum of valuable content. Having Vendor provided information keeps visitors on your website, increasing the likelihood of purchase. With SharedVue Content Syndication, you should: 1. 2. Place the content in a visible spot to help organic visitors find what they need quickly. Drive prospects to valuable content and assets using other tactics like SharedVue Social and Email Marketing.
How Content Syndication Works email workflow
Contact us to find out how you can take advantage of the SharedVue platform FREE OF CHARGE www.thechannelcompany.com http://links.sharedvue.com/playbook info@sharedvue.com 919.287.4600