What role Social Media Mktg for B2B people like us?
If you think that Facebook is all about helping people under 30 connect for their next date — well we need to rethink that prejudice. We recently attended a great pitch from a social media marketing agency, called Room 214, that defined in great detail how b2B marketers - especially in high tech - who are using Facebook to drive real lead acquisition. The number of hours — during the work day — that many of our target prospects are spending on Facebook is staggering! We need to think about Facebook much more as a platform to harvest prospects from than a NewsFeed of friends of activities.It’s not just for B2C !
Take a minute and check it out.
Who can really sell Managed Services to SMBs?
Recent news that Staples is getting into the Managed Services business got us thinking: What does it really take to close SMBs on these outsourced services ? Will SMBs really want to source IT services from the same place they buy paper and toner ? Will ‘Staples Advantage’ in store salespeople be able to leverage the wide and shallow relationships with hundreds of thousands of SMBs into a more profitable services relationship ?
It appears that Staples is starting with Print services — however Channel Matters could find no website content describing these services @ Staples.com or CorporateExpress.com. This print services area might make sense — but it would appear there is a huge leap to get to building the confidence and technical integrity required to convince an SMB that site hosting, Security services, and app hosting can be delivered with 99% SLAs from an office products retailer.
Of course , five years ago, we never thought CDW could sell Enterprise class Servers, Storage and Networking gear —- and clearly that is no longer the case . And they are making a good go of it with managed services resell from their Berbee acquisition.
Back to Staples: You’ve got to love the database list and DemandGen potential they bring to the game. Who would not want to expose a free trial offer of 10 seats of XYZ security suite to that list! I don’t know a VAR that would not want 4% of that number!
Is your Reseller Firm Optimized for Getting Found ?
Channel Matters is consistently amazed by the disconnect between End User behavior and reseller marketing spend. Too many resellers seem unaware that their online presence, and social media mentions often time precede a phone call from a new customer. Search Marketing and Social Media marketing should be one of the highest priority spend categories of any reseller in 2010.
Your prospective customers are seeking testimonials and ‘online social proof’ that you are the local expert in: virtualization, HP Servers, or Microsoft Dynamics implementation to name a few. But resellers do not seem willing or knowledgeable on how to get there from here. this is understandable as these categories are not simplistic to optimize — but help exists.
Channel Matters recently attended a seminar in Denver hosted by Heather Lutze of the Findability Group. Heather correctly emphasized the criticality of investing in these areas to maximize your online credibility and build your online brand. One of Heather’s favorite quotes: ” World domination through key word phrase ownership” is only part of the trick! yes - Paid search and maximizing organic search results are minimum table stakes in 2010 — but so are simple video testimonials from your best customers, and social media mentions on sites like LinkedIN ….and even Facebook. Did you know that Twitter is now the #3 Search Engine — tied with Yahoo? [Google - #1 and Facebook - #2]Clear evidence that brand building online is changing.
Event Marketing with notoriously suspect ROI —should be way down the list of reseller spending priorities in 2010. Seek out experts like the Findability Group to maximize your online presence.
Guaranteed B2B Lead Programs - This Works!
I continually hear from vendors [and a few resellers] about the incredible lack of expertise in the reseller community with DemandGen marketing tactics. A revolution has occurred over the last few years among B2B marketers — many spending @ least 1/2 of their DemandGen Marketing budgets with online tactics. Paid Search [PPC, etc.], Search engine Optimization [ SEO] , Email, Webinars, Social Media outreach, etc. But the challenge still remains on cost effectively sourcing names to target online or offline.
One of the most productive tactics that is driving results now is ‘Paid Lead’ programs with online campaigns. B2B publishers [online and offline] who in the past may have rented list names at 30 cents per opt in name - are now entertaining programs where a vendor only pays when a lead occurs. These Guaranteed Lead programs put the risk on the publishers to deliver leads against their list . Is it expensive ? Not if you care about aligning your spend only with results! Guaranteed Lead programs cost anywhere from $20 to $60 per lead. A lead will be predefined in your agreement with the publisher - but might be: White paper download, webinar/videocast registration, or capturing a registration for any marketing asset that you may be promoting.
B2B publishers are now getting well over 1/2 of their revenue from non advertising sources. They are very motivated to maintain the quality and viability of their Opt In customer lists for rental to vendors in these types of programs.
Recent 2009 data indicate publisher ad pages are down over 26%! Most publishers [especially small B2B pubs] are willing to negotiate to be a part of any guaranteed lead program that will deliver incremental revenue.
While there are many critical dependencies to the success of your program — it is key that your Call to Action deliver highly relevant, exciting content that is meaningful to your target. Headlines matter - write a good one that will tease some clicks!
