ITSMA Newsletter Add-Ins 2009-11-11
ITSMA Featured Research: Build a Word-of-Mouth Strategy
By Katie Espinola, ITSMA
When identifying alternative solutions, 68% of buyers globally rely on their professional peers. No other source comes close—except in the United States, where buyers also rely on online searches for information. Marketers need to keep in mind that these conversations with peers could be happening anywhere. Buyers turn to both informal and formal peer networks for information, which means that having a word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) strategy is more important than ever. WOMM can help shape and influence the conversations happening among buyers.
Marketers need to do a number of things:
- Identify and track the people most likely to share their opinions about your company (both supporters and detractors).
- Take an active role in WOM by engaging with influencers in the various forums where conversations are taking place or by providing your own tools for people to have conversations and share information.
- Give them something to talk about by providing good content and a point of view.
- Track the results of your efforts.
This data is from this year’s ITSMA How Customers Choose research, done in partnership with Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC). For more information, click here: http://www.itsma.com/research/how-customers-choose-solutions-2009/
Ask ITSMA: How Should You Structure Thought Leadership Content for Maximum Impact?
By Chris Koch, Director of Research and Thought Leadership, ITSMA
Each month, ITSMA receives a number of queries through Ask ITSMA, a resource designed to give members a quick and easy way to get insight on important services and solutions marketing questions they face. In this column, we will publish some of our favorite questions, along with excerpts from our replies.
Are there recommendations or guidelines on the structure or key content sequencing for thought leadership content that has best effect?
There are many different delivery vehicles for thought leadership, so we’ll limit ourselves to the most popular in this case: documents. The first thing readers do when they open a document or view a Web page is skim. They read the headline, then they scan the rest of the opening page for similarly digestible content—e.g., a secondary headline or “kicker” that explains the point of the story in slightly more detail, sidebars, subheads, graphs, pictures (and captions), etc. Often readers will make a decision about whether to continue at that point, without having read any of the actual text of the article itself. For B2B readers, this is especially true; they aren’t curling up on the couch with this stuff.
Your competition for the attention of senior executives comes from journalism. Good analytical journalism pieces have a strong point of view backed up by research and case examples. The goal of the piece is always to educate the reader. Thought leadership needs to do the same to avoid the recycling bin. You need a compelling headline and kicker, followed by a strong, clear first sentence, or “lede.” A few paragraphs down from the lede should be your “nut graf”—the paragraph that sums up the big idea of the piece and offers a few bits of evidence to back it up. The nut graf is usually followed by a subhead or drop cap where you start telling your story in depth. Your conclusion should wrap back up into your big idea and resummarize your main point.
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Upcoming ITSMA Events
To view all events, please go here.
The Use of Social Media in Business Innovation
December 3, 2009
17–19:30 GMT
(Free for ITSMA Europe members)
Cisco, Bedfont Lakes (10 minutes from London Heathrow Airport)
Is social media a powerful method for engaging senior B2B buyers, or has its time not yet arrived? At this event, Professor Evgeny Kaganer will present findings from a global research study conducted by three leading business schools on the impact of social media on collaborative innovation. Drew Nicholson of DNX Ltd, a B2B marketing agency that develops digital and social media strategies for its clients, will also talk about his wide-ranging experience of employing digital marketing and social media within the B2B marketing arena—and will question whether social media is yet a valid strategy for all B2B companies.
Get more information and register
Recent ITSMA Thought Leadership
Getting Closer to Customers: Winning Strategies for Engaging Senior Executives
In this tough economic climate, we may be seeing the demise of high-end hospitability programs. Consequently, marketers need to rethink their client relationship-building programs, from user group meetings to advisory councils to reference programs to hospitality and senior-level events. In this Online Briefing, ITSMA’s Julie Schwartz and Katie Espinola address the questions that get at the heart of how to improve relationships with senior executives at your most important accounts.
Understanding Changing Buyer Behavior: Marketing Programs and Tactics That Work Today
ITSMA’s 2009 How Customers Choose Survey has found that it’s more important than ever for marketers to align their tactics to the buying processes of customers. Marketers can create demand by developing idea- and trend-based thought leadership that helps clients discover and respond to the most important business issues they face during the epiphany stage of the buying process. Specific survey data shows how marketers are responding to the current economic recession.
How to Create a Thought Leadership Network
Marketers can’t do thought leadership on their own. What’s missing is an engine for developing the ideas and points of view that then feed into marketing’s dissemination supply chain. In this ITSMA Tool, we offer a model for creating that thought leadership content engine.
The “Marketing” Enterprise of the Future
The implications of IBM’s latest Global CEO Study and its Enterprise of the Future rewrite the rules of marketing. In this ITSMA Viewpoint, IBM’s David Wong discusses these key traits and provides examples of how IBM applies this thinking to its marketing.
Improving Sales Effectiveness Through Guided Conversations: Xerox Global Services Tour
By guiding salespeople through the selling process, Xerox’s XGS Tour tool helps top salespeople close business faster while giving less experienced salespeople the foundation they need to raise their game to the same level as these top performers. This ITSMA Case Study explains how Xerox developed, launched, and promoted adoption of the XGS Tour.
