The New Rules of Marketing for Cloud Technologies

© Copyright David J Brown 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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The new rules engagement –
marketing Cloud and Cloud-based solutions

Buying software – the traditional way
purchase
2
research solution
implement
go live

3
The purchasing decision was
based on risk, reward and ROI
If the technology supplier could sell a vision
of high reward, buyers were willing to take
the risk – and that’s what companies like
SAP and Oracle did. They promised great
things from their software, and people were
prepared to take the risk.

4
Upfront costs, implementation
expense and the go-live risks
were all assumed by the buyer.

5
While the customer
implemented the
solution …
...the software
seller had already
banked the check.

But this all started to change:
o the recession of 2008 when IT purchases
were delayed or postponed – companies
made do with “good enough IT”
o the adoption of Cloud solutions
o mobile technologies – employees were
building their own solutions from a
library of apps

Companies like Amazon started offering
“buy what you need, when you need it”
technology services - at wafer-thin margins.
So did Google and a host of other
companies.
Salesforce.com, one of the first to adopt
the SaaS model, offered $5 per month, per
user for their Cloud-based solution.

A shift had taken place,
prices were falling
and …

9
…the risk moved from the buyer
to the supplier. The day of the
big technology purchase was
coming to an end!

10
Buyers …
o became resentful of paying for features and
functions they didn’t use
o adopted an “app mentality” – preferring to build
their own device to a pre-packaged solution
o expected “freemiun” or low-cost of entry
o were willing to pay for additional features that
were valuable or useful

Technology selling moved from features and functions
to a “consumption-based” discussion. It was less about
what a technology could do, and more about how it
could be used – or consumed.
The discussion shifted from one of CapEx to OpEx.
Buyers would purchase more only if they received value.
11

The cost of switching technology
suppliers dropped considerably,
the solution had to be sold and
re-sold everyday – marketing and
sales departments couldn’t
declare victory and walk away
when the first purchase order
was signed …

…the single sales event was
replaced with multiple, lower-margin
sales efforts
selling more features per
user, more users per month
and more apps per user.

Automated marketing program “blasts”
will become a thing of the past – for the
Cloud, a new approach is needed.

15
“…broad campaigns are expensive but, worse,
they are inefficient. Maybe they influence some
target buyers, but we are also paying to reach
thousands of other people that we don’t care
about… we ask ourselves, why did we put up
with this inefficiency?”
“Consumption Economics: The New Rules of Tech” Wood, Hewlin and Lah

16
Marketing automation allows the rapidly launch of
programs through email, social media and websites
– but is this the best way to engage buyers?

17
Not only is it costly and inefficient to send
broad messages to large contact lists –
it’s incredibly frustrating to receive Tweets,
posts, pokes and emails that are not
relevant or important.

Today, almost every company
promotes itself through social
media and automated marketing
programs. We’ve probably
reached the point when there are
more people sending content
than receiving it!
18

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A new approach is needed – one that talks
directly to the consumers of Cloud solutions…

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… a more targeted and
relevant conversation
focused on the end user.

21
“The next ‘big thing’ in tech marketing will be
‘micromarketing’ – individual end-user
marketing fueled by dynamic Consumption
Roadmaps, targeted specifically at end users
based on their unique industry, company , job
role and level of sophistication”

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Micromarketing for Cloud solutions
o the decision maker is the end user
o in the Cloud, we know all our users
o intelligent listening gives us the insight needed
o it’s possible to place highly targeted offers
o we can track every reaction to an offer
o we can respond to buyer behavior and
technology consumption
“Consumption Economics: The New Rules of
Tech” Wood, Hewlin and Lah

23
Micromarketing …
building conversation

24
A note from our
workbook …

Marketing automation and micro marketing
Dynamically–
formed Contact Sets
Fresh content (curated or built
during the engagement)
Marketing
Set
Copyright David J Brown 2014. All Reserved.
Contact
Lists
Automated
Market
Automation
Pre-built
Content
Programed Engagement
Micro /Responsive
Pre-built
Content
Conversation-based
Engagement
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set

Automated Micro/Responsive
1. Pre-programed
2. Pre-built content
3. Automated processes
based on target buyers’
reaction
1. Built “JIT” while the
program is running
2. Some pre-built content but
greater emphasis on
curating up-to-the-minute
news, blogs and relevant
publications
3. The process responds as
target buyers react

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A marketing “set” is a group of target
buyers that share a characteristic:
o an existing customer who has
behaved a certain way based on
their consumption of the Cloud-based
service (tracked by the Cloud
provider through intelligent listening)
o a potential customer who responded
in a certain way to a “poll”

Dynamically–
formed Contact Sets
Conversation-based
28
Building the dialogue – existing customers
With existing customers you have
purchase and consumption
history in order to group buyers
into marketing sets based on
characteristics they share.
Understanding how they use the
Cloud solution will help develop a
micromarketing conversation.
Pre-built
Content
Engagement
Fresh
content (curated or
built during the
engagement)
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set

Getting the attention of existing customers
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But often, understanding consumption
history is not enough to get buyers’
attention. Remember, we’re all
swamped by so much content these
days.

Understanding consumption
behavior is a start, but to have a
meaningful conversation, you need
to get your buyers to stop what
they’re doing and listen to you – for
that, you need to understand their
pain points, or hot buttons.

To understand hot button issues, ask
“What keeps buyers awake at night?”

Finding the hot button item
…for your set-based
discussion

Buyers
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Building sets – getting to the hot button
Industry
sub-vertical
Mapping Buyers
Orientation
Business
Orientation
Able to Purchase
Solution
Technical
Orientation
Able to Purchase
Solution
Technical
Orientation
Able to Influence
Purchase
Decision
Business
Orientation
Able to Influence
Purchase
Decision
President
CEO
CFO
SVP
Operations
VP Sales
CIO
VP
Applications
Dir IT
Project
Manager
Influencers
We start by mapping target buyers by role
and title to understand their motivation.

Engaging buyers – motivation
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President
CEO
CFO
Each buyer quadrant is faced with a number of tasks to
achieve, or goals – some of these goals are impacted by
barriers that the Cloud solution can address.
Understanding the buyer’s motivation to break down
barriers to achieve goals is how we understand the hot-button
provocation.

Building the polling set – hot buttons
Marketing
Set
Grouping buyers by hot button issues ,
together with consumption of the Cloud
solution, enables us to build the marketing
sets and start the micromarketing
engagement.

Dynamically–
formed Contact Sets
Fresh
content (curated or built
during the engagement)
36
Now you’ve got their attention – let’s engage
Consumption behavior
Procurement behavior
Industry vertical
Role/Title
Pre-built
Content
Conversation-based
Engagement
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set
Marketing
Set

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But, what about prospective buyers?
We have no
information on
consumption of our
solution.

It works pretty much the same …
…but, first we “poll” them to “homogenize” the set.

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Building the sets – potential customers
Industry
Role/Title
Marketing
“Polling” Set
Set
Polling sets are the first
pass at building a set for
new buyers.
The “poll” is the initial
engagement through
social media or email –
the response of those
polled will determine
membership to
marketing set.

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Polling …
is the practice of sending out a social media message or
email to gauge the response of the audience. Those taking
action – clicking a link, downloading content, retweeting or
responding – are placed in a set based on the action taken.
With the set created, the conversation can begin!

Let the conversation begin
“Polling”
Set
Marketing
Set1
Marketing
Set2
Marketing
Set3
Social media / direct email
Fresh curated content
White papers, eBook, video
(prebuilt content) © Copyright David J Brown 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Building the conversation
One of the best ways to engage your
buyers and potential buyers is with a
frame-based discussion – in other
words, using a frame of reference
that is relevant and important.

“Frames are mental structures that shape
the way we see the world. As a result, they
shape the goals we seek, the plans we
make, the way we act, and what counts as
good or bad outcome of our actions
(and decisions)”.
George Lakoff
Professor of Cognitive Science, Berkeley

Effective frames engage buyers
They communicate messages that are:
o relevant
o important
o demonstrate value
o offer a reward
o provoke buyers to take
the next step

Building your frame …
Your customer service team
and tech support are great
sources of input for building
the frame.

They understand how your customers are
consuming value from your product today
…and how new customers will receive
value in the future.

Building the frame
customer service
tech support
consumption (usage)
role specific hot buttons
Have your customer-service
and tech-support
teams discuss the goals
and barriers they see for
each marketing set
developed…. and of course,
for existing customers,
include consumption
patterns of the solution.

Then, develop the frame for the set “conversation”
customer service
tech support
consumption (usage)
role specific hot buttons
Marketing
Set
Challenge
Cause
Impact
Resolution

Using the frame to build a dialogue
Well-designed frames ensure the
micro-discussions are:
o relevant and important
o demonstrate value
o offer reward
o provoke buyers to take the
next step with you
Click here to learn how we build
frames in a workshop setting.
Marketing
Set
Challenge
Cause
Impact
Resolution

The set-based frame
…is a model for a responsive engagement with
the target buyers. Showing how your solution
solves their issue in a way that no one else
does is how you establish the unique value
proposition of the Cloud solution.

Responsive “frame-based” marketing…
…drives the marketing engagement into
the hands of those who have the most
contact with buyers – not just the
marketing team.

Now, imagine …
a situation where
everyone in your company
is marketing your
solution.

“So once again we ask ourselves, why did we put up with this
inefficiency? Well, it was the best we could do to reach the
decision makers who drove our revenue. Our marketing
departments did their best to be targeted, and their absolute
best to track the efficiency of their spending.
“We believe that the new world of Consumption Economics
and the cloud are about to give tech marketing a whole new
job…”

dave brown
dave@espressob2b.com

The New Rules of Marketing for Cloud Technologies

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