Reaching the elusive Fortune 1000
April 25th, 2006 | Melissa MarronOne question that I have received over and over again is how we can help our vendors can gain interest and demand from those “ever so elusive” IT pros from Fortune 1000 companies. There are several ways to try and target with one off list rentals, but that offers little return with lots of effort. How can we help in targeting this audience, especially for clients who spend so much time and money creating content assets fit for the large enterprise?
My answer, the best way to show your ROI from marketing to Fortune 1000 companies is to create an integrated program that ONLY promotes to Fortune 1000 companies. As an example, one Enterprise Application client was looking for effective ways to penetrate the Fortune 1000 list. We selected the appropriate online communities that would be interested in Enterprise Applications and organized an integrated program in which all the promotional venues (editorial e-newsletters, list rentals, white paper/webcast promos) contained names defined by the Fortune 1000 list. Plus, the assets created for this audience will automatically attract enterprise names via search as well.
April 27th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Why does this approach “automatically attract enterprise names via search”?
How does search help with my goal of senior execs at the F1000?
April 27th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Lisa-m: My experience has shown that if execs have time to do research (or have it done) through Web search they look for best practices as well as competitive information amoung their peers, i.e. other Fortune 1000 companies.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Hi Lisa-marie: With a targeted email promotion to only F1000 companies (discussed above), you will ONLY garner leads from F1000 companies. In addition to the promotional elements, you can automatically garner targeted leads from search by placing specific keyword phrases in your content assets. These phrases should be developed by what you think an executive would use to search on your specific technology solution or service. Once you research the frequency and popularity of the search term, you can create content assets that will draw the audience desired via search.
April 29th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
Damgirl
What if we are trying to reach senior execs for the first time? Are we not going to need one fortune 1000 company to buy into our solution before others jump in? We will need one advocate before we become a best practices solution, don’t u think?
May 3rd, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Yes Karen, having an advocat is your best marketing tool. Getting that first one is the hardest thing and the activities described by Melissa are those first steps you need to take to reach that person. What is really important is to know WHO to speak to within a F1000 company, by that I mean the level/position. You have to know who is the decision maker and you have to speak their language and address exactly their needs. If you can’t reach that senior exec, who is the person to most likely influence him or her?
May 24th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Is there different advice for running a F1000-targeted PPC campaign? Since Adwords doesn’t allow ad copy that uses other company names, I can’t list advocates or previous clients in them.
Is there a resource of keywords that are F1000 “friendly?”