B2B BREAKOUT PANEL: How to Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages

B2B BREAKOUT PANEL:

• Michelle Mogelson Levy

Associate Vice President Marketing Programs, ECI Telecom • Loren McDonald

Vice President of Industry Relations, Silverpop • Ardath Albee

CEO & B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions, Inc. • Kirsten McElgunn,

Director, Marketing & Product Management, Western Union Business Solutions

Panelists:

• Brian Carroll,

Executive Director of Applied Research, MECLABS

Case Study: Effective Lead Nurturing;

Get Your Foot in the Door

How ECI aligned content to relevant stages of buying

cycle to improve conversions by 136%

Michelle Mogelson Levy

Case Study Background

company ECI Telecom The

marketplace

B2B telecom market,

12-18 month complex sales cycle

The product Network infrastructure solutions

for telecom providers

The channel Automated email marketing lead

nurturing campaigns

The

campaign objective

Case Study Background



Centralized core marketing team managing all outbound campaigns



Small team tasked with multiple, simultaneous lead nurturing

campaigns covering several segments



Running segmented email campaigns based on behavior without

aligning content to buyers journey

The Tale of Two Campaigns

Campaign #1 – The Easy Win

Focused, targeted campaign to defined

audience for segmented industry

 Utility Market Segment

 Utilized ECI generated content for 5 step nurturing campaign

 Results: 33% open rate 11% conversion

The Tale of Two Campaigns

Campaign #2 – The True Challenge

Broad-based technology

campaign spanning numerous

applications and solutions

Goal

Challenge

Replicate successful conversion rates on The Easy Win campaign… how can we ensure success for The True Challenge?

Create personalized, highly segmented lead nurturing campaign by offering compelling content matched to the

early/educational stage of the buying cycle

What do I have? How I do I fill the gap?

Strategy to Tactics – What Do I Need?

What do I need?

Tactic #1

 Define which assets are needed to fuel campaign

How I do I fill the gap?

Strategy to Tactics – What Do I Need?

What do I need?

Tactic #2

 Audit and allocate existing content to stages

of buying cycle

 Align/educate global matrix organization of content creators and owners to buyers’ journey

 Results of asset audit

 695 assets

Transfer the Knowledge to Buyer at Right Time

Your solution applies to our need.

Your solution will have the greatest impact on our business.

The business case is justified internally.

We are confident and ready to move forward.

Thought Leadership

Solution

Knowledge Value Story

Solution Validation Financial Justification On Boarding Published Articles Social Media White papers Blogs Events/ Webinars Web site/SEO Analyst Reports Product Collateral Presentations to Business Owner Case Studies Proof Of Concept Competitive Tools Executive Briefings ROI tools Client References Proposals Presentation To Financial Owner Welcome Kit Orientation Training Customer Newsletter

What do I have? How I do I fill the gap? What do I need?

Education Solution Vendor Selection

What do I have? How I do I fill the gap?

Content Audit and Mapping Process

What do I need?

Quality Value

Does the content you use for marketing purposes meet the same quality

standards you set for your products and services? Is it produced and presented in a high quality fashion?

How thoroughly does it address an information need? What content

pieces should be made freely available to website visitors and which should be gated?

Relevance Influence

Does the content meets the

information needs of the stages of the buying cycle?

How I do I fill the gap?

Strategy to Tactics – What Do I Need?

What do I need?

Aligning the Content



Breakdown by buying cycle:

 Raw data 400

 Vendor Selection: 174

 Solution: 120

 Educational: 1

What do I have?

Strategy to Tactics – How Do I Fill the Gap?

What do I need?

Tactic #3



Acquire third-party assets



Define sources of valuable content

 Third-party validation sources;

analysts, research firms

 Sponsored (writing) articles by independent thought leaders

 Purchase licensed content for

distribution



Execute campaign

Results

Quantitative

 The Easy Win: Average of 33% open rate and 11% post-click conversion rate

 The Real Challenge:Average of 78% open rate and 23% post-click conversion rate

 Industry benchmarks: 24% open rate and 12% clickthrough rate (Sherpa 2011 Benchmark Guide)

 Content audit serves as basis for Web mapping and supports all future campaigns

 Organizational alignment to buying cycle

Summary and Key Takeaways

Increased conversion rates by 136%. Its all about your buyers’ journey…

Aligning your content to their journey will enable you to deliver the

right

Credits

Aligning Content to Buyers Journey

Michelle Mogelson Levy

AVP Marketing Programs

ECI Telecom

Mail: [email protected]

Linkedin: MichelleMogelsonLevy

Twitter: @mogelsonlevy

Case Study: How Western Union

shortens the sales cycle and drives

double-digit revenue growth

Kirsten McElgunn

The Situation:

• Potential to grow a targeted business vertical: Wines & Spirits

• Large group unaware of non-traditional payment solutions

• Current economy and consumer preference for value wines = tighter margins

• Cost control key to success

• Specific vertical content developed was limited

• Business Objective

o Expand positioning from small wineries to target medium-large U.S. wineries in 2010

• Address Industry Pain Points

o U.S. wineries purchase barrels from cooperages in France and invoiced in Euros

o Larger wineries pre-order barrels with cooperages prior to harvest and are subject to currency risk before payment is due

• Facilitate Business Cycle

o May–June: Larger wineries pre-order barrels with cooperages

o October–November: Smaller wineries purchase barrels from cooperages

Buying Stages

Strategic Approach to Content Development

1ST_{CONTACT NURTURE ACQUIRE GROW &}

RETAIN Contact/Client Objectives Create awareness of business need Demonstrate value & depth of knowledge

Communicate client benefits and influence need to address

Provide Information and Education for product selection Enable International Payments Demonstrate ongoing value & deliver product enhancements /knowledge Business/Sales Objectives Awareness Positioning Lead Intelligence Segmentation TOM Awareness Interest Desire Positioning

Assess engagement level and provides Sales insights

Track/re-engage cooling leads

Our initial approach

Pre-show Email

• Created thought leadership content based on known pain points • Provided free white paper download

• Advertised the company’s attendance at the upcoming show

Industry Tradeshow

• Collected contact information of booth visitors

• Distributed leads directly to the sales force or to nurturing

Post-show Email

• Layered marketing approach through a post show email to the targeted list • Email contained more information around the company’s services - it also

promoted a second targeted white paper

Industry Specific Landing Page

1. Expanded nurturing program and actively continued client nurturing and engagement of all new and dormant Wine & Spirit leads 2. Engaged existing customer to

secure a testimonial and commitment to gain media exposure

3. Captured high-profile media coverage in industry specific publication

• Reinforced value – sent to key

Created a personalized email nurturing campaign with a direct call

to action for “hot leads.”

Wine & Spirits Nurturing - 2010

Email 1: Introduced email referencing media

coverage in Wines & Vines to create awareness & credibility

Emails 2 -4: Continued to promoted relevant

industry whitepapers addressing opportunity and solution sets

Business Results

• Email open rates ~13% higher than generic email nurturing

• _{Clickthrough rates (CTR) ~2% higher} • _{Significant number of qualified leads,}

including several inbound emails/calls, resulted

• 4% of contacts became new business

• Each component of the overall campaign fortified the others and shortened the buying cycle

Integrated efforts resulted in 35 new wineries becoming clients.

p.a.

Summary & Key Takeaways

Define target markets

Identify common pain points and other themes for

content development throughout the

buying cycle

Test, measure and

refine approach _EngagementContinuous

Nurture in conjunction with Sales and leverage marketing automation

Kirsten McElgunn

Director, Marketing and Product Management

Western Union Business Solutions

[email protected]

http://business.westernunion.com/

• Our Platforms:

o CRM: Salesforce.com

o Marketing Automation: Eloqua