Leads are drying up in the cloud and hosting industry. Hosting Providers are discovering that the old marketing strategies aren't working anymore. Lead gen requires a commitment to make marketing a part of your overall growth plan, understanding your buyers and their pains, and following out regimented 6 step process to producing useful content for your target buyers. Originally presented at HostingCon 2015 in San Diego. One of the most popular presentations in the Sales and Marketing track.

1. Leads, Leads, Leads:
Get Me More Leads
———
Presented by
Makiko Ara
Director of Digital Media

2. My Goal for 2015:
‘Lose 10 lbs’
It wasn’t easy but I
was successful in
losing 10 lbs!
It took a full-time
commitment and
focusing on a
sustainable
healthy lifestyle.This is me!
Makiko Ara

3. If I wanted to lose 10 lbs by
next Monday, you could sell
me a bottle of Lipozin BUT…
- One bottle will only last you 10 days
- You’ll need to take it for at least 3 months to
maintain results
- You still need to combine it with a healthy
low fat/low carb diet, an healthy exercise
regiment, and cleansing
So is it even worth it?
Buy Lipozin for $22 a
bottle on Amazon.com

4. Health isn’t something you
turn on and off.
There are no magic pills.

5. Like a Healthy Lifestyle…
Healthy Marketing
Requires Commitment
and a Regimented Plan

6. But I want to get everyone on a
healthy marketing regiment that
provides organic leads and leads
to the healthy growth of your
business.
We don’t have the magic pill to get leads

7. Lead Gen is the tip of
the iceberg
Marketing is the mass
below the surface
Leads
Marketing

8. This presentation is...
Boring
NOT sexy
But Achievable
And Effective

9. First, lets get on the same page
The “New Norm”
- Phil Shih, Managing Director
Structure Research

10. The “New Norm” of Cloud and Hosting
• Consolidation (M&A)
• Competition
• Declining growth rates
• AWS the Juggernaut
• Not enough traffic and leads *

11. * Either you have
poor web presence or
your traffic isn’t
converting to leads.
Our journey to a healthier marketing strategy starts with traffic.
Let’s talk about Google.

12. B2B Buying Cycle Happens Online
40 to 70% of purchase research done
prior to contacting a sales person
So how do you get and nurture
these nameless prospects along
their Buyer’s Journey?

13. “Moment of Truth”
The “Moment of Truth” in bull fighting is the
moment when the matador goes in for the kill.
In sales, it’s when the customer and
organization have a one-to-one engagement
where the customer can either form or change
their opinion about a product or company. It is
when the salesman “makes the kill” or “closes
the deal”.

14. The reality is that the “Moment of Truth” in
the sales cycle has become insignificant.
Jeff in Sales doesn’t realize that he’s really
just a formality. The customer has done all
their research and made their decision even
before they ever talked with him.
“We’re going to get this deal!”

15. “Zero Moment of Truth”
Stimulus
ZMOT
Purchase Trial
The new critical moment is when a prospect recognizes a need or pain and goes online to
gather information regarding a potential solution.
Your brand needs to show up in that search phase.

16. Who is your buyer?
Meet Barry the IT Director.

17. Imagine Back Then (2005)
Barry the IT Director has too much corporate data.

18. He gets a list of providers but information is scarce.
Barry goes on Google…
He calls a few providers to get more information.

19. Fast Forward to Today (2015)
Barry the IT Director still has too much corporate
data.

20. Barry educates himself on Google (2015)
“
Cloud storage
”
“
Cloud for
Enterprise
”
“
Cloud storage
with auto sync
”
“
Best cloud storage
with auto sync for
SMB
”
Barry learns about the Cloud. He never calls anyone.

21. How do we get in front of Barry?
Once in front of him, how do we
control the sales process?
How do we move Barry down the
funnel?
What’s the answer?

22. You’re in luck!
Tech Buyers on average consume
14 pieces of online content before
making a purchase decision.
So what kind of content should you write?

23. 42
Years old
Who is Barry?
Brown
University
Acme
Global
Trading
Fear of
Downtime

24. The Buyer Journey
Buyer realizes
they have a pain
or problem.
Buyer learns
about solutions &
vendors.
Buyer shortlists
solutions and
vendors.
Get to know your customers
Awareness
Stage
Consideration
Stage
Decision
Stage

25. Your mission is this…

26. Be found by
during your prospect’s
Buyer Journey

27. Google is Always trying To Understand User Intent
Users want
to learn
something
Users want
to find
something
Users want
to do
something

28. What is the user’s intent and
what content would be useful?
Google’s Rating System
1.
Useful
2.
Relevant
3.
Slightly
Relevant
4.
Useless

29. Common objections we hear/see about marketing
Marketing is
something you turn
on and off
It takes too much
of my time
My Engineers
don’t have time
to write
We need leads but…

30. I have
no time.
We need a
CULTURE SHIFT
to connect content
production to the
bottom line.

31. “We educate people about
Cloud Storage.
And oh by the way, we also sell, implement and support
companies that need cloud storage”.
CULTURE SHIFT

32. A Healthy Marketing Regiment
6 Step Process
1. Understand unique value proposition
2. Identify buyer persona
3. Understand the buyer in their journey
4. Keyword analysis (volume, competition)
5. Intent of Keyword
6. Write useful content that addresses the buyers’
pains

33. The Buyers Journey
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
Example Keywords
block dropbox group policy
block dropbox cisco asa
Example Keywords
corporate data storage policy
cloud vs on premise backup
Example Keywords
cloud storage cost comparison 2015
corporate data storage costs

34. Google wants the
best for its users
• Google “knows all”
• clickthroughs
• time on page
• bounce rate
• mobile friendly
Free junk
is getting
harder to
give away
—

35. How about relying on PPC as a last ditch?
PPC is good as a part of an
overall marketing strategy.
NOT the answer when things are
going bad or if you need a “jolt” of
leads.
Put the money towards paying your
Engineers to write some content.

36. Organic > Paid
• It’s there for a reason.
• it earned its way through your
clicks and trust.
• it didn’t bulldoze its way there
through money.
Paid vs. Natural
Click Distribution
Natural
Search
Paid
Search
Of the 1.4 billion successful search queries, the vast majority
ended up with natural results being clicked.
- GroupM and Nielsons
When is the last time you clicked
on a paid ad?

37. Paid – You turn off, it’s gone forever.
Organic – Evergreen
Why Organic > Paid?

38. 1. Make a Commitment
- If that means changing the culture of your company, it may need to start there.
2. Understand Your Buyers
- Really get to know your Barry.
1. Follow Our 6 Step Regimented Process
- Write useful and relevant content that intersects with your buyer’s journey
through Google.
Simply Put…

39. A Case Study
Cloud Spectator
The insight you need to move with confidence to the Cloud
—
C L O U D S P E C T A T O R . C O M

40. CloudSpecator is a leading cloud benchmarking company that works with both the Enterprise
for cloud adoption/migration projects; and with Hosting Providers that want to benchmark their
performance against other leading providers.
We’ve know Kenny Li, CEO of CloudSpectator for several years now, but he wasn’t quite ready
to commit to Marketing when we first met him. But about a year ago he came to us with his
commitment to make marketing a part of his business plan in 2015, in order to move his
business to the next level.
We began in earnest in late November of 2014. As with all engagements, we went through a
process of understanding their business model, their goals, revenue streams, and the
marketplace.
The new message we developed for CloudSpectator is:
The insight you need to move with confidence to the cloud.

41. Who were CloudSpectator’s Buyers?
Consultant
Charles
Enterprise CIO
Richard
Provider CEO
Paul

42. The Annual Cloud Benchmark Report
In November, Ken Balazs, VP of Sales and Marketing for
CloudSpectator, came to us with their annual analysis of the top
10 IaaS providers.
The goal was to extend their reach beyond the hosting and
cloud industry and get in front of buyers like Charles the
Consultant and Richard the Enterprise CIO.

43. Timeline of Process
Monday, Jan 5, 2015
• Lead Conversion
• Owned Media
• Earned shares from
bloggers, news
• Email campaign
Dec 2014
• Keyword research and analysis
• Value proposition and target
audience
• Cover and landing page design

44. KW = cloud vendor benchmark 2015 pdf download
Included more popular KW’s:
• “Vendor benchmark”
• “Cloud vendor benchmark”
• “Cloud vendor benchmark 2015”
Not a penny was spent on PPC.

45. Ingredients for this campaign
High quality
content
Understanding of
Buyer Persona,
Behavior, Buyer
Journey
+ +
Key Word
Research and
Analysis

46. Results for January 2015
848
Total Views
364
Submissions
Graph of Page Views by Source in January

47. 3430
Total Views
Views over 20 Weeks
Graph of Page Views by Source from January 5 to May 25, 2015 (20 weeks)

48. Leads from February 1 to May 25
30
Leads per Week
(previously 6-7/wk)
120
Leads per Month
(previously ~30/mo)

49. Analysis Where did the traffic come from?

50. Referral traffic dried
up after 3 days
Social requires
continuous feeding
Traffic Sources Other than Organic Search…
Referral traffic is critical, but dies down
quickly as content is pushed down on 3rd
party sites.
Social media traffic is also valuable but
requires continued effort to keep it
visible. Only new NEWS is NEWS.

51. Traffic Source Organic traffic is Evergreen
Organic traffic to the page
continues to grow

52. Evergreen Content Lead to More Organic Leads

53. #1 cloud vendor benchmark 2015 pdf download
#1 cloud benchmarking for enterprises
#1 cloud price performance benchmarking
#1 cloud benchmarking 2015
#1 best price performance cloud providers
#1 cloud benchmarking
#2 cloud performance benchmarking
#3 cloud vendor pricing
#4 iaas price comparison
Keyword Page Rank Results
#1

54. Nurturing Buyers with custom follow-up emails
Reaching the
Enterprise
Buyers

55. Implementing the 6 Step Process
Understand
unique value proposition
Identify
buyer persona
Understand the
buyer’s needs in their
journey
Keyword
Analysis
Intent of
Keyword
Useful content that
addresses buyer’s pains

56. C L O U D S P E C T A T O R . C O M
"TPM is more than a strategic partner, they are an extension of my team. They have
provided both strategic and tactical expertise to help drive growth. By fully understanding the
issues and trends around Cloud and Enterprise Hosting, they are able to provide deep insight
into the customer and have been a critical element, significantly increasing web traffic, leads
and sales through their online strategies and digital marketing programs.”
— Ken Balazs, VP Sales and Marketing, Cloud Spectator

57. Visit:
http://site.totalproductmarketing.com/offer
FREE Overview Guide On
Lead Generation

58. Makiko Ara, Director of Digital Media
—
makiko@totalproductmarketing.com
Call 1.855.646.8662
1.855.6.GOTOMARKET
www.totalproductmarketing.com