b2b customer engagement

Creating customer engagement using relevant content

Shane Redding

Cyance

In this session

• What do you do now?

• What do your prospects and customers want?

• 5 Top Tips

• 3 mini case studies

Do you stand out from the crowd?

Top Tips

1. Remember its all about THEM not you! i.e. Research for Relevance

• industry

• where in the buying cycle

• & PERSONAL needs/wants/emotions

so can you feed their…

Needs/wants/emotions?

Use great copywriting skills for compelling content = What’s in it for me?

– Safety– Ease– Greed– Power– Ego

Pay for excellent copywriting! See

www.copywritingthatsells.com

Top Tips

2. Match Content to their journey with you• Audit – do you do this or are they

stuck in a vicious cycle?• As they move closer to you can offer

more about you (products/services)• Remember customer content is king

(case studies, endorsements, brand ambassadors)

Top Tips

3. The vehicle enhances the message• Want to appear innovative – then use new media

appropriate to your Target e.g. www.cyancecensus.com

• YouTube now 2nd main search tool after Google for b2b

• but beware some CIO will block access to video• Video must be produced to high quality• Set up your own You Tube Channel

Top Tips

4. 3 R’s: Reformat, Recycle, Reuse• Will save you £££s• Provides consistency – stay on brand,

deliver what you promise• What have you already got? Start with

content audit: marketing, sales, logistics, PR, partners

• Create a searchable content library

Some ideas: Reuse

Use past media coverage for content in lead nurturing emails – make sure its relevant

• If a prospect has enquired about a product and it’s recently won an award send “why we won and you could be a winner too”

• Reuse executive interviews, or media presentations using industry leadership to people who have registered for those topics

• Signpost clearly using social mediaYou will increase open rates and conversions

Some ideas: Repurpose

Just how much exec time is spent creating slide presentations that have a one off life?

• Have a strategy for repurposing content delivered in person e.g. put on slideshare.net, load to website, use rich media, create podcast or video, promote with social media

• You can piggy back both your customers brands as well as other endorsements

• Case Study: Earnest

Case Study: Earnest – Vital statistics for b2b marketers

How to stand out as a new and unknown b2b agency?

• Already researching social media to better understand their market and use for clients

• Existing blog not getting much traction

Earnest – Vital statistics for b2b marketers

Objectives:

• Raise Earnests profile

• Use video to showreel strategic and creative prowess

• Optimise online presence

• And .. generate new business

Earnest – Vital statistics for b2b marketers

Targets:

• 1000 videos in 6 weeks

• 30% increase in twitter

• 20% increase in av weekly website visits

• 20% increase in inbound links

• 2 new business opportunities

The Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXQdy-22TXM

http://earnestagency.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/vital-statistics-for-b2b-marketers-%E2%80%93-the-case-study/

The Results• 13,860 views to date!• 50 new YouTube channel subscribers• 110 mentions on Twitter• 220% increase in weekly visits to Earnest blog• 30% increase in weekly website visits to their corporate site:

http://www.earnest-agency.com• Inbound links to blog up 125%• Over 25 blog posts by respected commentators covering the video• Significant improvement in natural search performance (e.g. always

top 3 in organic search results for ‘b2b statistics’)• 3 new business opportunities (including US Fortune 500 tech

company – just waiting for a PO number before we kick the work off!)

• Video is now being used as course material at Rutger University mini-MBA programme on Social Media in the US

Some ideas: Reuse

Testimonials are like gold – difficult to dig out but SO valuable (people trust people, now more so than ever)

• Use them in your content at the right time in the buying cycle, can be the tipping point

• Engineer content from client events – short to camera pieces

• Create microsite with video testimonials, use in linked emails

• Can repurpose in offline ads

Some ideas: recreate

• Turn boring into fun

• Product demos are idealhttp://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/AudioVisual/RM_Mobile_ONE_tests_low.wmv

Some ideas: Recycle

Take standard content and top and tail with customised content for different vertical sectors

• Testimonial (written or voice)• Expert opinion (benchmarking/ surveys)• Key takeaways as audio summary• Respected media partner (content/distribution)

Does it work? Management consultant BearingPoint• Tripled conversion rates adding podcast to white paper• 18% of listeners downloaded more than one podcast• Better qualified leads

Top Tips

5. Maximise your Lead capture• Information exchange culture• Build up data collection as prospect goes through

lead nurturing cycle – so they will see benefit• Create download (knowledge) centres• Set up permission centres• Use advanced lead tracking tools such as

www.webforensics.co.uk to identify companies who didn’t complete a registration form (can populate directly into salesforce with a lead score)

Setting up a knowledge centre

• Requires long term commitment – (2 year min) budget and resource

• Excellent processes supported by robust technology (ideally integrated CMS, CRM database, web analytics and conditional content Email)

• Why do it?

Cushman and Wakefield

• Leading international commercial property developer

• Highly competitive market• Little/no knowledge of complex DMU

outside of sales people• Sales Cycles of 5 years + with million £

deals• Had invested in new technology

What they did

• Decided to target 2 key audiences: journalists, and existing clients

• Strategic Objective: position Cushman and Wakefield as the industry thought leader globally

• Tactical: capture data on customers and prospects through launch of a knowledge centre

• Challenge – info was previously freely available with no need to register

The results

• Launched in 2007, month 1 generated 6,701 new registrations

• Database today stands at over 35,000 (larger than vertical media owner!)

• 75% opt in to emails• 86% increase in doc downloads• Full case study

http://www.concepglobal.com/case-studies/property

Permissions

• Try and think about it from your prospects point of view (Seth Godwin) www.permission.com

• Microsite where prospects/customers manage what they want from you: topic, media, frequency

• Make sure you are on brand in tone of voice in your privacy statement

• http://www.davechaffey.com/E-marketing-Insights/E-mail-marketing/E-permission-marketing

Shane.Redding@Cyance.com

Selection of clients

© Cyance Limited 2011

Sports & Events Clients

© Cyance Limited 2011