lead generation in b2b communities

Driving Lead Generation Through B2B Communities

George Krautzel, Co-Founder and President

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Contents

1. Toolbox.com Background

2. Trends in the Marketplace

3. Determining the Right Environment

4. Lead Generation in B2B Communities

5. Swing Thought – Where This is Going

6. Q&A

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Toolbox.com Background

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Who is Toolbox.com?

• Mission— Provide an online platform that

enables professionals to easily share knowledge with their peers

• Existing communities— IT (11 years), HR (1 yr), and Finance

(<1 yr)— More than 3.0 million monthly unique

visitors

— Over 2.6 million pages of practical user-generated content

• Advertising services– More than 800 advertising partners,

including: IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell

Where Toolbox.com Lives in the Media Space

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Consumer Business

Ed

itori

al

User-

Gen

era

ted

• Content is communication, specific appeal

• 2-way conversations between friends• Personal experiences, socially driven

• Content is communication, specific appeal

• 2-way conversations between peers• Personal experiences, best practices

• Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal• 1-way conversation from experts to

readers• News, consumer interests, and trends

• Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal• 1-way conversation from experts to

readers• News, case studies, best practices

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Trends in the Marketplace

Shift #1: Increase in Consumption of UGC (Trend)

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• Trend: consistent increase in social media consumption across IT job roles

Source: Toolbox.com/PJA IT Social Media Index, Wave 4, June 2009

3.48

2.882.71

3.263.06

2.88

3.74

3.35

2.85

4.72

3.54

2.79

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

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Social media/user-generatedcontent (Toolbox.com,

Wikipedia, LinkedIn, etc.)

Online Editorial media(InformationWeek, CNN,

WSJ.com, etc.)

Online Vendor content(vendor-produced whitepapers, webcasts, etc.)

Ho

urs

pe

r w

ee

k

How many hours during an average week do you spend online consuming or participating in the following media types?

Shift #2: Acceptance of Vendors as Participants

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Source: Toolbox.com/PJA IT Social Media Index, Wave 4, June 2009

• More than 76% of community members believe it is important that vendors listen to their audience and participate in conversations

Which of the following statements best reflects your attitude about vendor participation in online communities? (Note: by "vendor participation," we mean the vendor may monitor or actively engage in conversations.)

Shift #3: Emergence of Brand Management (Company)

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Background on the vendor

White papers, documents, and other

research from the vendor

Community conversation about

the vendor and products

Connections with interested community

members

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Determining the Right Environment

All Social Media is Not the Same - Communities

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Determining the Right Communities for Your Campaign

ContentContent

Context

Demographics

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Lead Generation in B2B Communities

Tactics to Utilize in B2B Online Communities

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• Promoting Assets in the Long Tail

• Building a Beachhead for Engagement

• Nurturing Leads Within a Community

• Creating Advocacy

Promoting Assets in the Long Tail

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• Utilize tools to integrate your assets directly into conversations

• With proper targeting, vendor information can provide further value to the community

• Contextual Matching on Toolbox.com– Relevant information assets

from advertising partners are matched with user-generated content

– Advertising partners are integrated into conversations with target audiences

User-generated content

Relevant lead-generation assets from advertising

partners

Building a Beachhead

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• Go where your audience is

• Build a beachhead– Establish a presence

– Promote through various channels

– Listen, listen, listen

– Tailor your interaction to your audience’s needs

• Starbucks’ Facebook Fan Page– 4.3 million fans

– Pushed beyond Coke as the most popular Facebook page in July 2009

– Discovered what works for their audience (e.g., free pastry and free ice cream giveaway

Nurturing Leads Within a Community

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• Opportunities exist to nurture leads within a “safe environment”

• Increasing touches can improve quality

• Possibility for more intelligent lead scoring

• Toolbox.com Lead Nurturing Tool– Gives partners the ability to

segment leads by demographics

– Allows those leads to be nurtured further down the sales funnel through targeted messaging and higher engagement

Creating Advocacy

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• Ford’s results (6 months)– 4.3 million YouTube views

– 500,000+ Flickr views

– 3.0 million Twitter impressions

– 50,000 interested customers, not current Ford owners

• Customers are your strongest brand champions

• More demand generation will come from a smart social media presence vs. traditional direct marketing

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Swing Thought: Where This is Going

Direct Results

2004-2009 2010-2015

Experimentation

Value: Web as a promotional vehicle

Primary Goals: Trial a new media concept, gain eyeballs, build brand and drive awareness

Measurements: Cost per impression

Marketing Tactics:– Branding – buttons,

banners– E-mail – newsletters, list

rentals

1996-2003

Value: Web as a direct results platform

Primary Goals: Drive traffic and lead generation

Secondary Goals: Thought leadership and branding

Measurements: CPL, CPC, brand measurements confirmed through surveys

Marketing Tactics:– Search ads– Lead generation – white

papers, webcasts – Branding - IMUs, larger

units, microsites– E-mail – list rentals

Value: Web as a relationship management platform

Primary Goals: Engaging prospects and customers outside of their Web site

Secondary Goals: Lead generation, drive traffic, thought leadership and branding

Measurements: Cost of sales, customer retention, brand penetration and measurements from direct results stage

Marketing Tactics:– Vendor communities– Two-way ads– Messaging connections

using trigger marketing– Successful tactics from

direct results stage

Relationship

Evolution of Online Marketing

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Marketing ROI – Traditional Campaigns

Impact = Site visits/leadsEffort = Funding

Traditional Campaigns

TIME

VALUE

With traditional campaigns there is a direct relationship between funding and results – once a campaign is over, that activity usually ceases (landing page visits, etc.).

Source: Pauline Ores, IBM

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Impact = Relevance and engagement

Effort = Funding

Social Media Impact

TIME

VALUE

Marketing through an online community allows advertisers to

quickly engage and make an impact with their target

audiences.

Social media marketing requires continuous, steady investment to build and manage the network, with eventual value created as the network grows and becomes self-sustaining.

Source: Pauline Ores, IBM

Marketing ROI – Social Media Campaigns

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• My profile on Toolbox.com: http://it.toolbox.com/people/george_krautzel

• My profile on Twitter: http://twitter.com/georgekrautzel

Q&A and Contact Information

George Krautzel

Toolbox.com Co-Founder and President