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Lead Generation from Start to Finish: A Marketer’s Reference GuideFrom emedia

The most successful lead generation practitioners make their offerings available where and when their content consumers are looking.

No statement is truer these days. If you offer a set of solutions for a particular business issue, you need to be able to educate prospects when they’re just researching the problem. You have an unparalleled opportunity to position yourself as a leading solution at the time they’re scrutinizing and judging their options. Furthermore, you need to be in position to differentiate yourself when prospects are in the decision stage.

You can even start educating prospects, and getting them to associate you as a solution, before they realize they even have an issue. This gives you a real head start over your competitors in the content marketing race.

The Lead Generation Content Plan Can Be Boiled Down to an Easy-to-Grasp Process

In its entirety, following emedia’s time-honed process will build a quality lead funnel – and drive your company’s sales machine – to put you light-years ahead of your competition.

How Does this Work?

Create content for all four major decision stages of the B2B buying process. Craft these into valuable offers for educating and enlightening prospects about the issue at hand, and then about potential solutions. Put your firms’ contributions to the solution set into a favorable light. Then get this content, selected and customized for each stage, in front of decision makers when they are going through each of the five stages.

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How Do You Go to Market? What Types of Content Should You Create for Your Prospects?

Start with a Survey

Let’s ask them. Start with a survey to determine which content types are appropriate for your needs. Which forms of communication does your audience respond to? Are the business issues addressed by, and does your audience expect, information represented graphically – multiple graphs, flowcharts, tables, etc? Would your prospects, given the issues at hand, put time into viewing video explanations or demos, or webinars? Would your customers put the time into using a trial version of your product as a short-term trial?

You may combine this line of inquiry with one focusing on respondents’ current desktop management situation, and familiarity/experience with the platform compatibility issue.

Combine this survey data with practical considerations

Is it advantageous to represent your solution visually, or, if not, can you tell a good story that supports an intangible sale? (Video can do very well as collateral). Is there any practical downside or restriction to putting a trial version of your product out there? Do you have the resources, and the organizational support, for collateral types you’re considering – a collateral set that will serve your audience at all steps of their decision process?

The Five Decision Stages of the B2B Buying Process

emedia has found that B2B decision makers undergo a five stage decision process, similar to that described by other thought leaders in the lead gen space. Our stages progress as follows:

1. Issue Existence/Initial Awareness – The decision maker may not yet be aware of a looming issue affecting his industry, profession, or environment. More likely, he is superficially aware, but does not yet have enough information, and does not yet feel sufficient pain, loss, or inconvenience, to seek more knowledge or to consider solutions.

2. Pain Awareness – The decision maker’s performance is hampered by the issue at hand, and he is quite aware of it. He actively researches the causes of this issue, its ramifications, and potential solutions.

3. Assemble Solution Set – The decision maker compiles and begins to organize his options. He may begin to put a budget together at this point, and he actively engages superiors and other stakeholders to get their awareness and opinions. Most significant B2B solutions are made by a group nowadays, with information gatherers, domain specialists, and even occasionally clients/vendors playing roles.

4. Evaluate Solution Options – The decision maker and his team considers and ranks each option, and ultimately selects one.

5. Point of Decision – Final purchase order signoff is obtained, and the purchase is consummated.

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The Process in Action

Let’s illustrate with a realistic example, using a typical horizontal B2B sale.

Dextero Technologies, a desktop management solutions vendor, markets to network managers and IT administrators across all industries. Clearly a dynamic space; its customers are busy, often harried, multi-taskers. Dextero customers are responsible for accommodating their internal clients, keeping them digitally secure, and managing their access to organization resources. Their own departments are staffed as lean as can be, yet they’re expected to be up on all relevant threats and opportunities, as well as solutions enabling action on any of these.

How Dextero, Our Desktop Management Solutions Vendor, Capitalized on Each of the Decision Stages of the B2B Buying Process

In the early days of desktop virtualization, not long ago, many IT managers were not clear on the problem of cross-platform compatibility. Tech-savvy as they are, these professionals were beginning to realize the promise of user-level virtualization, and consider it for upcoming budgets. Yet not all variables were on their radar.

Dextero saw this issue early, and added a key compatibility component to its desktop management suite. The company faced an awareness-building need before being able to cultivate prospects into customers.

Stage One – Issue Existence/Initial Awareness

Dextero’s Survey

Dextero executed a research project with a two-fold purpose. The primary objective was to help it better understand its customers’ familiarity with the cross-platform compatibility issue, and to determine how they wish to be communicated with. The company also planned to package the results into an original research paper and share with its market – increasing its stature as a thought leader and adding to its arsenal of lead generation offers.

Taking from a sample of over 1,500 qualified respondents, the research confirmed some of what Dextero knew, and revealed new insights too. Following analysis, the vendor formulated a plan for releasing content pieces, tailored by topic and by type, to its IT audience. Dextero put together a set of high-level white papers to enlighten its audience, along with a calculator tool. To further inform audience segments in consideration mode, and to nurture prospects, Dextero created a one hour webinar and a product trial offer.

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The Survey Research as Collateral

Dextero also created collateral specifically with issue awareness objectives. As mentioned, Dextero released a research report summarizing the findings of its survey. Dextero titled it “The Cross-Platform Compatibility Situation: Awareness & Response Among Enterprise and SME IT Departments – Original Research”. This piece presented a general explanation of the cross-platform compatibility issue, then laid out the survey results. Desktop management users got an idea of where they stood in terms of behavior, attitudes, and issue awareness, among other factors. Data on how to best communicate and nurture the audience, Dextero did not share.

IT Audiences Appreciate Practical Tools as Collateral

Finally, Dextero took the extra step to create a desktop management platform compatibility tool. This tool gives the IT pro a convenient overview of the compatibility features of each major user platform for desktop management implementations. Of equal importance, it enables the IT pro to calculate the man-hours likely needed were his department to implement the traditional way. Dextero’s tool broke new ground within its space. It greatly owed its existence to the company’s content survey.

Promoting the Survey, Research Paper, and Platform Compatibility Tool

Proactive Media Especially Useful in the Awareness Generation Stage

Dextero used a combination of promotional vehicles for getting its early stage collateral in front of its audience. In addition to emailing to its house list of prospects, and circulation on social media channels, Dextero posted the survey research results paper on web-based lead gen properties and in email bulletins. In this early awareness-generation stage it was critical to use proactive solutions, such as email, branded email bulletins reaching permission-based IT audiences, and social media.

The company made prospects and other constituents aware of its platform compatibility tool on these same channels, though the tool was hosted on Dextero’s own website and traffic accessed it via direct links. (Within a week of the tool’s release Dextero’s website traffic spiked over 75% and continued at an elevated level for months).

For execution of the survey Dextero relied on emedia’s email bulletins to carry it to its audiences of IT professionals and management. emedia’s Windows Desktop, Network Management, and SME Technology, as well as IT Security audiences, readily noticed the survey, as it was pushed to them using a solus (dedicated) email deployment – and because they anticipate receiving branded email bulletins weekly. As an incentive, Dextero raffled off a pair of iPad 2s to qualifying survey submitters.

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Stage Two – Pain Awareness

White Papers Great for Generating Awareness and Framing the Issue

Dextero created an eight page white paper, plus a single page executive summary, tailored to the portion of the audience exploring desktop management implementations and facing the platform compatibility issue. Dextero titled this “5 Platform Compatibility Essentials for Your DM Environment”. Target readers were either certain they needed desktop management to enable further efficiencies within their environment, or were considering it.

Furthermore, target readers had some awareness of the platform compatibility issue. But readers typically had a long way to go to understand how platform compatibility impacts their plans. Dextero designed its white paper to help its audience get this fuller understanding.

With its survey Dextero’s reinforced its conclusion that its audience preferred to absorb data, as well as to compare choices, using visual media, such as graphs and charts. So Dextero strategically placed a series of data descriptive visuals throughout the paper. Also mindful of audience time constraints, Dextero leaned toward bullet points and short paragraphs as the predominant paper elements. Finally, the company gave an overview of its solutions and capabilities at the end of the paper.

In the end, readers left with a fundamental understanding of the platform compatibility issue, potential solutions, and Dextero’s role in providing these solutions, as well as a nutshell impression of Dextero as a solution provider.

Promoting the White Paper

Valuable Synergies Between Promotion via Proactive Media and on Web-based Lead Gen Properties

Dextero capitalized upon its house list to plug “5 Platform Compatibility Essentials.” The company also made use of a select set of email bulletins and newsletters to bring the paper to its target IT audiences. Where possible, Dextero pushed this paper to earlier requestors of its research paper via the same email vehicle. Finally, the vendor placed the paper on web properties devoted to desktop management and related audiences, such as emedia’s Windows Pro Zone.

Dextero discovered that CPLs (Cost-per-Lead) are lowest, indicating greatest value, when it promoted a paper on a web-based lead generation property as well as on a proactive vehicle, such as within an email bulletin or newsletter, going to the same audience. There is a reinforcement effect, a synergy, between the two options. It also realized the incremental value of presenting paper #2 to audiences exposed to paper #1 via the same vehicles. The synergy between static audience destination property and dynamic audience vehicle was again apparent with two sequential papers.

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Stage Three – Assembling the Solution Set

Webinars Work Well with IT Teams in Research or Decision Modes

For audience members in serious consideration mode, and for anyone willing to put the time into more fully understanding platform compatibility, Dextero also created a live one-hour webinar. Led by Blake Mathews, a renowned writer, consultant, and thought leader within the space, the webinar consisted of 35 minutes of critical, impartial discussion of the issue and options facing the typical decision maker. The producers followed this with a 10 minute segment on Dextero’s capabilities, and where these stand among other options. Just after this Mathews addressed a number of questions via phone, email, and text message, closing out the webinar with a link to the webinar slides/video.

Several hundred IT decision makers attended, and many more accessed the archived webinar over the following months. Members of Dextero’s core audience invited other team members to the webinar, or forwarded them the link to the webinar recording. The webinar piece proved especially useful in this regard; almost all IT solutions decision makers operated within a team, often consisting of colleagues gathering information and researching, end user representatives and other stakeholders, superiors, financial types, and others. The webinar piece served as a unifying source of information supporting their decision steps.

Promoting the Webinar

Make Research Stage Offers Available Where Prospects Go

As a desktop management solutions provider, Dextero is used to customers making purchase decisions on a team basis. Dextero promoted its webinar, “Platform Compatibility 101 for Desktop Management Programs”, like the other offers, across several channels – email bulletins/newsletters, social media (LinkedIn Groups, Facebook pages for desktop management pros, Twitter feeds), specialty web properties, and direct email. This time the company placed a special emphasis on two tools in particular: targeted email to consumers of the “5 Platform Compatibility Essentials” white paper and web-based lead gen properties.

Dextero sent emails to a nurtured segment of their house list, targeting especially those who downloaded its platform compatibility papers. Multiple contacts at each prospect organization were invited. A similar outreach was deployed via emedia’s nurturing tool, ReTouch. In addition, Dextero placed the paper on a vetted set of web properties, specializing in results-based lead generation, created for desktop management audiences. emedia’s Windows Pro Zone site featured highly at this stage. Over time, web placement has done well for webinars; decision makers search for, and then sit through, webinars when they are in a serious research or pre-decision mode. Furthermore, it is convenient for them to share links to webinars, hosted on lead gen sites, with colleagues.

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Stage Four – Evaluate Solution Options

Product Trials Ideal for Reassuring Purchase-Ready Prospects

For a select subset of the Small-Medium Enterprise segment of their audience, Dextero offered a trial version of its desktop management solution, including the platform compatibility piece. This consists of the ability to deploy a limited version of the software within the user’s own environment for a predetermined term, generally ten days to two weeks. (Enterprise-level prospects set up custom sandbox trials directly through account managers). People accessing it brought a relatively high level of interest and commitment, and were generally in a stage of purchase consideration and/or vendor assessment.

Much like the webinar, the Dextero product trial permitted multiple members of the decision team to get involved and experience how Dextero’s solutions eliminate platform compatibility issues. But the product trial offered something close to actual evidence – hands-on experience. It also displayed the ease of use and simplicity that Dextero wanted prospects to understand about its solutions.

Promoting the Product Trial

Market Later-Stage Offers Where Prospects Accessed Awareness-Stage Collateral

Dextero designed its SME product trial for prospects well into the consideration stage. Prospects that attended the webinar, or that downloaded the recorded webinar, were deemed to fit this profile, and Dextero reached out to them with its product trial offer. A bit more expansively, the vendor posted it in emedia’s Windows Desktop and SME Technology email bulletins, after promoting platform compatibility papers and the webinar in them, so as to catch prospects that were exposed to each of the earlier offers. This promotional cycle took about six months from research paper (the first one) through product trial.

In addition, Dextero enhanced its chances of reaching decision makers in “kicking-the-tires” mode by strategically placing the product trial on key industry web properties, including emedia’s Coding Insights, IT Security Watch, and Windows Pro Zone sites. Once again, this was placed well after earlier offers, especially the webinar, to catch prospects at point of peak interest.

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Email Bulletins/Newsletters and Lead Generation-Focused Online Properties are Mutually ReinforcingCertain prospects respond better to proactive media, such as email bulletins/newsletters - media that reaches out to them. Others put more project time into their decision, and convert at higher rates accessing later-stage offers on hosting sites. Most prospects access proactive media AND visit lead generation sites, to differing degrees.

It is critical to take advantage of both types of lead generation media to make the most of your campaigns.

Lessons for the B2B Marketer

A. Determine how your customers approach each of the decision stages. How do they gather information, how do they consume content, how do they involve others in making purchase decisions? What information do they require to make a decision?

B. Create appropriate content to help your audience (your market) understand the issue at hand, their solution set, and your role within it. What information will, more generally, help your audience understand the problem, and therefore help them create a decision set?

C. Position diverse content for each stage of the decision process, though there will be some overlap between the decision stages, and most content pieces can be referenced throughout the decision process. In doing so, you help position your company as a key thought leader, and therefore an authority, within your space.

D. Make your content available where & when your audience finds value in accessing it, while optimizing your budget.

1. Use a combination of proactive and static (hosted) media. Continue to test appropriate social media

2. Rely on low-risk Cost-per-Lead (CPL) agreements with media partners

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About DexteroDextero Technologies is a fictitious entity based on an amalgamation of several emedia clients. Dextero’s marketing program ideally illustrates one successful content marketing model. emedia assembled it using successful examples from several clients’ campaigns, with the objective of portraying a representative content marketing model for B2B marketing managers with lead generation as their goal.

About emediaemedia has specialized in B2B lead generation, white paper marketing, and building demand since 1999. We reach more than 3.5 million decision-makers across over 80 niche-oriented audiences within the following B2B areas:

• InformationTechnology • Electronics

• SupplyChain/Logistics • OccupationalHealth

• HumanResources • EnvironmentalManagement

• Marketing/Sales • ProjectManagement

• CorporateFinance/CFOs • Packaging/Converting

• B2BEvents • Construction&Architects

• Manufacturing • ProfessionalDevelopment

• SmallBusiness • DesignEngineers

• Procurement • ControlEngineers

• HospitalityManagement • Printing

• HealthcareTechnology • FacilitiesManagement…AndMore

emedia’s expertise and personal service permit effective implementation of Guaranteed Cost-per-Lead programs for our clients’ offers and collateral. Or we can drive highly targeted traffic to clients’ web pages.

emedia offers both proactive media (permission-based email bulletins to our audiences) and web-based lead gen properties ideal for decision makers in research mode. Our clients capitalize on the synergies of these two channels to fill their lead pipelines and nurturing systems.

emedia can also help you create winning collateral selections for your lead generation campaigns.

Contact emedia at 800-782-6167, 630-288-8480, or

inquiries@emediausa.com.

ACCELERATED B2B LEAD GENERATION – ON DEMAND

www.emediausa.com