The document discusses replacing outdated collateral practices with modern content marketing strategies. It identifies six "pests" that should be replaced: 1) the punch list, 2) speeds and feeds blasts, 3) one-way communication, 4) oversharing, 5) generalist marketers, and 6) gut feelings. Each pest should be replaced with a new strategy like focusing on the buyer's journey, education and trust-building, two-way dialogs, targeted sharing of the right content, using content marketing specialists, and making decisions informed by data. The presentation aims to help companies transform their content strategies to better meet the needs of today's technology buyers.
1. Let’s Declare War On Collateral!
Kathleen Schaub Ann Naumann
Guest Speaker Content Marketing Director
Research Vice President Yesler
IDC CMO Advisory Service
3. Today’s Discussion
• How is today’s buyer driving the need for a
transformed content strategy?
• What are the six collateral “pests” that
must be stamped out?
• What content marketing strategies should
replace those pests?
4. Meet Today’s Technology Buyer
Q. If you could condense the next 12 months into one work day, what percent
of your typical work day would you spend on the following activities?
Other
Strategy, Planning
9.0% and Budgeting
20.0%
Personal/Professional
14.5%
Development
Pre-purchase IT Product
or Solution-Related Activities
13.2% 19.4%
Staff Hiring/Mgmt./
Coaching/Development
23.9%
Post-purchase IT Product or
Solution-Related Activities Source: IDC 2012
5. The New Buyer Is an Expert
“I Know How to
“I need you to take what I’ve learned Buy”
and help me achieve what I’m
expecting. And don’t lie to me.”
“I know how to figure out what I need
and compare things myself. I’ve been
“I have a network of people and buying things since I was a kid. I know
websites I use to find out what how to buy. Don’t sell me.”
options are out there.”
“I’m willing to give a fair price and
“I constantly look around to loyalty to a company that can
see how I can be better.” offer me a good value.”
Source: IDC 2012
14. Preferred Information Sources
Q. As part of your pre-purchase IT product or solution-related activities, please
indicate the relative importance of the following on your decision-making process
by using a pool of 100 points.
Interaction with vendors' technical teams
(e.g., engineers, CTO)
Buyers value
Consumption of vendor content* expertise
Interaction with sales representatives
Buyers value
Interaction with vendors' corporate self-sufficiency
executives (e.g., CEO, COO)
Improve the dialog
with Sales
Other Enablement
n = 204 0 10 20 30 40
* Vendor Content: e.g., Collateral, white papers, case studies, webcasts,
product information, other information available on their web site Distribution of a pool of 100 points Source: IDC 2012
**Refer to IDC’s Sales and CMO Advisory Research
15. Impact of Social Networking on
Vendor Interaction. . . Not Much So Far
Q. Has social networking influenced how you interact with vendors? (e.g., gathering
information on vendors, following them through social communities, interacting at
virtual events, communicating with sales, etc.)
Vendor information:
• “Access a greater amount of more up-to-date Yes
information”
• “It has made fleshing out details and specs much more
18.6%
immediate.”
Peer interaction:
• “I have a trusted set of peers to ask questions of.”
• “I benefit from instantaneous access to all my questions
and problems.”
• “Social networking is the easiest way to get feedback No
from other customers.”
81.4%
Impact on buying process:
• “It has provided an outlet to get more from your vendors
in terms of better service.”
Source: IDC 2012
n = 204
16. IDC Believes that Social Media Influence in B2B Tech
Buying…Will Expand Faster Than Most Expect
Q. Please indicate how you are leveraging social media channels to keep up with business
and/or technology trends or to stay connected with peers and other business contacts.
I visit business and/or technology-based blogs at least once per month
I visit business and/or technology-based communities at least once per month
I visit LinkedIn at least once per month
I have been contacted by sales reps via Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media applications
I contribute to a blog (my own or someone else's) at least once every 3 months
I Tweet at least once every 2 weeks
Other or None of the Above
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
% of Participants 2012 2011
Source: IDC 2012
n = 339
17. Essential Guidance
1. Replace the punch list with the buyer’s journey
2. Replace speeds & feeds with education, trust, and service
3. Replace the one-way street with two-way dialog
20. Essential Guidance
1. Replace the punch list with the buyer’s journey
2. Replace speeds & feeds with education, trust, and service
3. Replace the one-way street with two-way dialog
4. Replace over-sharing with the right content to the right person
in the right format at the right time in the right place.
20
22. Marketing Content and Asset Lifecycle
Marketing Asset Content
Maintenance Planning
Marketing
Marketing Assets
Content
Asset
Creation
Distribution
Marketing
Asset
Development
(Content
Proliferation)
Source: IDC 2012
23. Direct Messaging from
Product Lines is to be Avoided
Corporate
etc.
Buyers Events Advertising PR
Product Field
Product
Line 1
Product
Line 3
Product
Line 2
Product
Line 4
x Sales
Region 1
Sales
Region 3
Sales
Region 2
Sales
Region 4
Source: IDC 2012
24. Think Circles Not Silos
Corporate
etc.
Buyers Events Advertising PR
Campaign &
Sales
Content
Enablement
Management
Product Field
Product Product Sales Sales
Line 1 Line 2 Region 1 Region 2
Product Product Sales Sales
Line 3 Line 4 Region 3 Region 4
Source: IDC 2012
25. New Content Roles
• Content strategists, editors and curators
• Campaign managers
• Social media/community managers
• Journalists
• Videographers
• Designers who understand how to work
with quantitative information
26. Essential Guidance
1. Replace the punch list with the buyer’s journey
2. Replace speeds & feeds with education, trust, and service
3. Replace the one-way street with two-way dialog
4. Replace over-sharing with the right content to the right
person in the right format at the right time in the right place.
5. Replace the marcom generalist with the content specialist
28. IDC Hierarchy of Metrics
for Content Marketing
Metric Level Business Questions Examples
Answered
Corporate What is the health of our Not Applicable
company?
Operational Productivity: Productivity:
How effectively are we • Investment management: People investment & Program investment trends and vs.
managing our resources industry benchmarks
applied to content • Staff efficiency: Staff through-put, staff allocations
marketing? • Program investment efficiency: Cost per performance value
Process Performance: Process Performance:
How well are our content • Increase product value: Up-sell and cross-sell ratio
marketing efforts • Improve reputation: Brand perception
performing in • Create customers: Share-of-voice, lead quality
contribution to our core • Enable sales and partners: Sales and partner productivity and satisfaction
business processes? • Increase customer satisfaction: Net Promoter Score, customer experience
Execution How well are we • Engagement and behavioral data: Time on page, average page per visit, emails or
managing our content shares, downloads , fans & friends
marketing programs? • Health data: Web traffic, listening metrics (topics mentioned, authorship), page
How well are our
rank
different content
marketing programs
performing?
Source: IDC 2012
29. Essential Guidance
1. Replace the punch list with the buyer’s journey
2. Replace speeds & feeds with education, trust, and service
3. Replace the one-way street with two-way dialog
4. Replace over-sharing with the right content to the right
person in the right format at the right time in the right place.
5. Replace the marcom generalist with the content specialist
6. Replace the gut feel with data that informs the art
30. Let’s Stamp Out Collateral Pests!
Replace these Collateral Pests with…. Content Marketing Best Practices!
1. The Punch List 1. Buyer’s Journey
2. Speeds & Feeds Blast 2. Education, Trust, and Service
3. The One-way Street 3. The Two-way Dialog
4. Over-sharing 4. Right sharing
5. Marcom Generalist 5. Content Marketing Specialists
6. Gut Feel 6. Data that Informs the Art
32. Let’s Declare War On Collateral!
Kathleen Schaub Ann Naumann
Guest Speaker Content Marketing Director
Research Vice President Yesler
IDC CMO Advisory Service