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Thought Leadership
Article
Channel Demand
Generation
How to Drive An Effective Demand
Generation Strategy
It’s no secret: B2B buying patterns are changing. In the past, buyers had few options
to acquire information on their own and depended on the sellers for details about
products and companies. As a result, sales reps were in control of the buying process.
But now, according to industry analyst firm SiriusDecisions, nearly 67
percent of the buyer’s journey happens digitally. With easy access
to content through search and the Web, today’s buyers are far more
“According to
industry analyst
firm SiriusDecisions,
nearly 67 percent of
the buyer’s journey
happens digitally. ”
knowledgeable than in years past.
So, what does this mean for demand generation in the channel? Resellers,
agents and other partners, you must rethink your tactics, and reevaluate
the content and technology coming from your vendors so you don’t get
left behind.
As buyers become more savvy, new methods that rely on quality content
to engage them will become more prevalent. According to SiriusDecisions,
about 50 percent of current marketing program spend is digital and
focused on inbound marketing. Over the next five years, we can expect
Thought Leadership Article - How to Drive An Effective Demand-Generation Strategy
For more information call 1-800-624-6354 (US) or +31-88-369-8000 (Europe) – Or email [email protected]
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to see that number increase to about 65 percent, with mobile technology
“According to
SiriusDecisions, about
50 percent of current
marketing program
spend is digital and
focused on inbound
marketing. Over
the next five years,
we can expect to
see that number
increase to about 65
percent, with mobile
technology driving
the increase.”
driving the increase.
For partners worried their digital marketing campaigns aren’t driving leads,
read on for ways to ensure your demand generation keeps up with the
times.
Content is King
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “content is king.” This couldn’t be more true
for today’s demand generation strategy. One of the beauties of the Internet
is that it places an endless amount of information right at a user’s fingertips.
However, this also means salespeople no longer are the first source of contact
in the B2B buying process. There is an opportunity for marketing departments
to capitalize on the growing trend of research-first, sales second, and to
use the Internet as the marketing collateral platform. Yet, it’s not enough
to just put any content online – high quality content is a must to increase
engagement.
Recently, at the SiriusDecisions Summit in Orlando, the firm’s analysts
revealed several eye-opening survey findings on content: some organizations
waste as much as tens of millions of dollars each year due to ineffective
content creation. More than 29 percent of the survey participants cited
publishing irrelevant content as the culprit, and an additional 13 percent
attributed the loss to publishing low-quality content.
It’s hard to rationalize content strategies if an organization isn’t getting value
from the content produced. Often, vendors are responsible for ensuring that
content is accurate, relevant, timely and engaging, but it’s critical for VARs
and other partners to have a thorough understanding and connection with the
content as well. Additionally, large vendors who run global operations may not
understand the nuances of a local market in the way that a partner does.
Take the time to review the collateral and discuss the option of adapting
content to local audiences. The extent to which this is feasible will likely
depend on the vendor, industry, product, etc., but any vendor should have
a vested interest in adapting collateral to best drive revenue. High-quality
content is often a gateway to sales – both for the partner and the vendor.
Consider a Vendor with a Content or Social Syndication
Program
For demand generation to be effective, partners need access to the latest
and greatest when it comes to marketing messages and collateral. To ensure
that you’re always getting the content you need to boost success, consider
selecting a vendor that uses a channel content syndication solution.
Thought Leadership Article - How to Drive An Effective Demand-Generation Strategy
For more information call 1-800-624-6354 (US) or +31-88-369-8000 (Europe) – Or email [email protected]
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Brands that push out their digital content through content syndication have
“Some organizations
waste as much as
tens of millions of
dollars each year due
to ineffective content
creation. More than
29 percent of the
survey participants
cited publishing
irrelevant content as
the culprit, and an
additional 13 percent
attributed the loss
to publishing lowquality content.
an enormous leg up on the competition when it comes to generating leads.
Content syndication services make it extremely easy and cost-effective to
distribute content consistently and in real-time across a partner community.
In addition, partner branding is reflected and adapted automatically across
all digital partner sites or product detail pages where brand content lives –
without the traditional, resource-intensive manual processes of informing,
selecting, replacing and updating assets. Vendors that use these types of
platforms are more likely to be on top of getting lead-generating material out
to their resellers and improving overall sales success. They also save time for
their channel partners by ensuring that all collateral comes accurately cobranded and ready for use.
With the greater emphasis placed on social media marketing these days, it
makes sense to also consider whether a vendor provides a social syndication
program. While still relatively new to the market, social syndication holds
huge potential for companies looking to better use the channel. Like content
syndication, social syndication removes the manual step of publishing social
content across Twitter, for example. All tweets automatically link back to
Source: SiriusDecisions Survey
vendor content on the partner’s website. From the outsider’s perspective,
it looks as if partners are publishing the updates, but, really, tweets are
automatically published through the partner’s Twitter identity. These types of
offerings save time for resellers and help improve results, so they are worth
looking for as part of the vendor selection process.
Analyze Your Content’s Strengths, Weaknesses
It’s not enough to simply push out content across all digital channels.
Content needs to be optimized and personalized to make sure marketers are
reaching the right targets.
Often, you’re looking to your vendor to assess the strength of content;
however, with analytics, VARs now have the insight to identify which content
works and ensure that it’s delivered at the right stage of the demand
generation process. Whitepapers, peer referrals, webinars, email, user
events, analyst reports and case studies are relevant, worthwhile materials
for engaging the buyer, but someone who is at the education phase, for
example, will be less interested in a customer event than someone who is
already at the purchasing phase.
Thus, choosing the right content for the right consumer is critical, and
resellers should have a say in this as well.
Thought Leadership Article - How to Drive An Effective Demand-Generation Strategy
For more information call 1-800-624-6354 (US) or +31-88-369-8000 (Europe) – Or email [email protected]
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Across the board, today’s business buyers are more knowledgeable than ever
and are tending to engage with representatives later in the sales cycle. To
address this, marketing needs to help sales build a “digital-relationship”
with the buyer, to help influence them before contact is ever made with
a sales rep. With buyers proactively consuming content and educating
themselves on products and offerings, it’s critical for channel partners to
implement targeted marketing strategies to ensure their content remains
accurate and consistent, and tells the story a buyer wants to hear.
Author: Brian Tervo
Brian Tervo is Chief Executive of Operations for TIE Kinetix, a leading
provider of SaaS based e-commerce and channel marketing solutions. He
brings more than 15 years of business leadership and operational experience
in strategic areas including business development, strategic partnerships,
reseller relations, product sales, and mergers & acquisitions for both startup and established software and managed service companies.
Since joining the company in March of 1998, Brian has proven success in
building high-performance teams, integrating organizational silos and
positively changing company culture and achieving corporate goals across all
functions in TIE Kinetix’ worldwide operations.
Connect with Brian »
Originally published on Channel Partners Online on June 27th, 2014
Thought Leadership Article - How to Drive An Effective Demand-Generation Strategy
For more information call 1-800-624-6354 (US) or +31-88-369-8000 (Europe) – Or email [email protected]
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