In light of the economy, more and more marketers are concerned with late-stage leads. These are the leads that are almost ready-to-buy and are far more likely to provide an immediate ROI. While marketers know that leads in other stages may become useful down the line, they often don’t know what to do with those leads in the meantime and count them as “bad leads.” What many of them don’t realize is that it is critical to nurture those leads now, so they add to the ROI of a program down the road.

While many marketers won’t discount these leads entirely, they will stop messaging them on the theory that they are too early on in the sales cycle and should be contacted again later on. This is a huge mistake. By the time these leads are contacted again they may have already decided on another vendor.

Alternatively, other marketers may continue to pressure a lead who is not yet ready to buy. This can result in frustration by a lead who is still in the awareness or consideration phase of the buying cycle and may discount this vendor when it comes to making a short-list.

The key is to consistently message these leads with relevant content in order to move them along the buying cycle. The exact method of re-messaging will vary from company to company and from lead to lead, so it’s extremely important for marketers to take their company’s buying cycle into account, along with different ways of re-messaging to different types of leads. This means getting rid of the one-size-fits-all emails being sent each month to all potential leads.

Nurturing a lead may happen in many different ways - it may involve phone calls, emails, printed mail, or invitations to events. The key is to figure out the process that makes sense for your product/solution and to make sure that leads are being targeted not just consistently, but correctly. Ideally, the communications should feel like resources and help leads as they move through the process.

At times this process may be frustrating, and there will always be leads that are never converted, but it’s important as a marketer to never lose a sale because you gave up halfway through the battle.

As marketers, we all realize the importance of continuing to fill the sales pipeline - but it becomes especially important during times of economic downturn. It also makes it that much more difficult. Every sale matters and every marketing dollar must be spent wisely in order to yield the highest return.

If budgets are tightening across the board, they are definitely tightening for marketers in smaller businesses as well. I came across a recent blog post from Marketing Studio which takes a look at how smaller businesses have been impacted, and it found that 60% of the respondents stated webinars, case studies/article and blogs are the most difficult lead generation tactics to execute.

I think it is safe to say that executing such lead generation tactics during this recession is a tough job for small/mid-sized/enterprise businesses alike. However, I would think it hasty to move lead generation resources away from “difficult to execute” tools such as webinars/webcasts and case studies.

TechTarget recently conducted its 2009 Media Consumption Report which observes how IT pros are consuming media during the recession. The following slide highlights the report’s findings showing that webinars/webcast & case studies are of use to IT pros during both the consideration to decision phases of their buying process.

Key findings from this report also concluded that given the recession, IT pros need content which will:

• • CUT TO THE CHASE - Be efficient - tell them what they need to know, in order to help make their research process faster.
• • SHOW OFF SUCCESS - Highlight content showing the proven product success or case study/vendor comparisons.
• • BE ON THE SHELF - Maintaining presence is key given search is one constant medium which IT pros rely on throughout ALL phases of their buying cycle.

While marketers may find it more difficult to execute on lead generation tools such as webinars/webcasts and case studies - I would have to agree that they can be very effective tools during a recession. In fact, I have noticed an increase in the use of case studies in technology-focused lead generation campaigns. Often times in the form of syndication or as offers incorporated into display advertising.

What are your thoughts? How are you currently highlighting your organization’s success stories?

I recently sat down for an interview with Stephanie Tilton from Savvy B2B Marketing. In our discussion, we addressed TechTarget’s latest IT Media Consumption and Google/TechTarget research studies. Both technology marketing studies point to IT buyers’ preference for specific content based on their buying stage, which further suggests IT marketers need to align their media types, content strategy, and keyword buys to these IT buying stages.

To read more about our marketing reports, and how TechTarget is helping marketers take advantage of these key findings, read Stephanie’s blog at: http://www.savvyb2bmarketing.com/blog/entry/84801/qa-with-marilou-barsam-of-techtarget-a-top-b2b-advertising-venue--

You can also follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephanieTilton

Today’s economic climate is definitely impacting how IT marketers are measuring their online marketing programs.  There is so much pressure to deliver qualified leads in a timely fashion that will ultimately convert into opportunities.  I know that in my conversations with my information security clients, this is definitely top of mind for them.  However, it seems to me that because of this pressure by senior management, marketers are losing sight of the basic fundamentals of a successful online program.

As I’m sure you’ve all heard before the old saying that ‘content is king’ and the foundation to a successful program.  Now, that is truer than ever.  I was recently talking to one of my security SIM vendors  about the challenges they were facing - trying to establish themselves in their technology market, make a name for themselves and differentiate themselves from their competition - in addition to generating qualified leads that they could pass along to their sales team all while proving ROI in a timely manner.

Not an easy task… However, what I’m discovering is my clients want to reach these end stage decision makers - who doesn’t - but are utilizing content assets that are in the early phases of the buying cycle and attracting users that are in the research mode.  This really gets back to mapping content to the stages of the buying cycle.  If you utilize content that is educating people about a technology, you are bound to attract users that are trying to educate themselves and aren’t close to creating a short list much less make a purchase.  It’s very important to stay in front of people that are creating their short list of vendors with the appropriate content but if you want to reach the end stage buyers, you must give them the content that will appeal to them.

Our Google research provided tremendous insight into how users are searching when they are in the end stage of the buying cycle utilizing comparative phrases to learn more about the vendors’ solutions that are on their short list.  Creating content that compares your solution to your competition is easy to do and simple ways to reach the prospects that are either researching your solution or your competitions’ solutions!  So, if your marketing objectives include researching these end stage prospects - and I’m sure that includes all IT marketers - be sure to create content that speaks to this audience.

Insights for marketers on how to better align keywords and online media to the IT purchase process 

Over the past month, we have visited five cities throughout the United States to roll out the results of the Google/TechTarget Research Project. The research was based on a collaborative study between TechTarget and Google, where we interviewed over 2,200 IT decision-makers worldwide.  Accompanying me on the roadshow were Mark Martel, Senior Industry Marketing Manager of Technology Markets at Google, and Jeff Ramminger, Senior Vice President of Product Management at TechTarget. With a total of nearly 600 IT marketers and media buyers in attendance, we discussed our latest research findings that explained the relationship of IT buyers’ search and online media consumption practices to their actual purchase process within their respective enterprises.

Attendees from the roadshow took away a detailed view of the journey IT pros go through during their purchase process and specific search queries they use during the various stages. A revelation was the importance “comparison and review” queries have to IT pros and the implied importance of marketers providing content assets with “comparative” focus. In fact, during our Cambridge event, Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive, was busy Tweeting some of these key takeaways: http://www.clickz.com/3631617

The focus of the Google/TechTarget Research Project Roadshow was to give marketers the tools to make smarter and cheaper keyword and content choices for their 2009 online marketing plan. Along with gaining detailed insights on how IT buyers move through the purchase process and the specific keywords they use during each of the research stages, attendees also discovered the buyers’ attitudes toward registration forms and other lead generation efforts and the relationship between online search and branding. Another hot topic from the roadshow was the buyer’s utilization of new media; such as mobile devices, video and RSS feeds. Needless to say video is hot, and the length of the video greatly impacts its success.

For those who were not able to attend the event, we now have the full research report and the video of the roadshow presentation available online.

I am hearing from many technology marketers that — in a time in which marketing activities need to deliver tangible results within a tighter timeframe — it is imperative that marketers allocate a portion of their budget dollars toward campaigns which capture more late-stage, actionable leads.

To accomplish this, marketers often use pay-per-click programs that point towards product trials and online product demonstrations.  While these types of programs result in marketers competing for a relatively small pool of leads, they do generate significant results because they reach potential buyers in the late stages of the research and purchase process - the “ready-to-buy” prospect.  

Recent TechTarget market research indicates that “try-before-you-buy” programs are particularly effective in the Application Development software space, because the developer community is immersed in the types of tools and products that they are encountering or implementing on a daily basis.  In the developer community, we see that implementers have a high degree of influence on the IT purchase decision.  The “try-before-you-buy” method is very important in building their loyalty and trust, and provides the IT marketer with an opportunity to demonstrate both the quality of the product, and, in many cases, showcase the quality of the customer service supporting the product.

Also, because the developer community places a high value on peer feedback and product recommendations, marketers can leverage social media to reach this group by providing a platform for experts within their organization to engage prospects in discussions about market trends, not just to gain exposure for their product, but build a rapport with — and establish a degree of trust within — the community.

Finally, although there is a significant benefit to offering downloads and trial versions of software to generate leads from prospects in the final stages of the research and purchase process, it is important that this not be the sole focus of your marketing efforts to the detriment of campaign elements supporting your branding efforts or reaching potential clients at the early and mid-stages of the research and purchase process.  You still need to maintain program elements to generate leads that will generate sales over an extended period of time.

While there is no “silver bullet” formula for what percentage of your marketing budget should focus on long-term or short-term leads, it is important that your plans include a mix of elements - like topical whitepapers to reach IT professionals at the very start of the research process, Webcasts and Webinars to reach mid-stage prospects, and virtual tradeshows to facilitate direct contact with prospective buyers.

Having just returned from the TechTarget Online ROI Summit in San Francisco, I combed through a number of attendee survey responses as I was very interested to know which specific subjects were most interesting and relevant to the 240 IT marketers/clients attending the event.It’s a foregone conclusion that anyone attending is generally interested in Best Practices for Online Marketing and its relationship to proving ROI; however it’s important to note which discussion points resonated with them the most.

It turns out that our data and insights related to trends in “the IT Buyers’ Purchase Process” were most appreciated. Marketers expressed that understanding how their content and media investments line up in satisfying all stages of the buying cycle is critical information when planning a program or campaign.

This explains why our findings around search — and where buyers are in their purchase consideration relative to specific search practices — received such high marks. It also explains why our general session around content strategy as it relates to the buying process is a standing-room only session.

As much as we all live and breathe “the buyer’s purchase process” here at TechTarget, the subtleties of how IT marketing media types and content relate to the process were very much appreciated by Summit attendees.

This makes sense as our insights suggest that marketers must have very distinct content topics and media offerings to attract buyers at the various stages of the research and purchase process.  It also emphasizes the degree to which “content preparation and strategy” are an essential component to success.  Yet based on this reality, nearly two-thirds of our audience admitted to having few resources to build content, and are often expected to produce it themselves.

That is astonishing when you consider how important content is to program success,  and how busy these folks are.  It seems to there needs to be a resetting of priorities in the IT marketing arena so that budgets are allocated to support content development so the burden doesn’t personally fall on the shoulders of the marketing directors themselves, so they can be free to spend more of their time being strategic.

Let’s face it; the current state of the economy has everyone, including IT marketers, concerned about their short- and long-term goals and the budget expenditures required to reach those goals.  A recent trend we’ve seen is IT marketers saying they only want to do highly filtered marketing campaigns to deliver only leads from a very limited demographic group that will deliver immediate sales.  And, if they have any funds earmarked for branding campaigns, many marketers think they should reallocate these branding dollars for use on lead generation programs.  While every online marketing campaign should deliver a percentage of immediately actionable leads, in many cases these short-term campaigns are being done to the exclusion of activities that will help generate sales over the long haul.

The danger of this approach is obvious — when the economy improves, marketers focusing exclusively on generating leads for immediate sales will have no supply of leads in their pipeline, and will have to start from scratch to rebuild one.  The situation gets worse if their competitors have been nurturing leads to generate sales over an extended period and now have a large pool of prospects at various stages of the research and purchase process.  If you find yourself on the wrong side of this situation - without leads in the pipeline — you can be certain of one thing: your competitors will be taking sales away from you for a very long time until you catch up, if you catch up.  The key lesson here: Even if your budget allocations are being scrutinized in the short-term, IT marketers need to think long term about future sales and be prepared to defend allocations of budget dollars to maintain a sales pipeline. 

An empty lead pipeline and loss of long-term sales are not the only problems associated with highly filtered campaigns.  If all or most of your competitors are also implementing this kind of limited marketing program — focusing on the exact same demographic profile at the exact same stage of the purchase process (ready to buy) — you are all competing for a limited universe of leads.  As a result, the volume of leads generated by campaigns will be smaller, the cost per lead will be higher, and everyone will be competing head to head for the attention - and dollars - of this limited group.  Under these circumstances, IT marketers should considering relaxing their demographic criteria to reach a broader group of potential customers engaged in the earlier stages of the purchase research process.  It’s also a good time to expand the range of content (broad industry-oriented, topic/issue-specific, product focused, etc) and the content types (white papers, Webcasts, Podcasts, downloads, etc) you offer to meet to the information needs of all the different decision makers involved all stages of the research and purchase process.

The upside of a down economy?  Current market conditions also offer companies - particularly smaller, less well-known ones - an opportunity to take market share away from their larger competitors.  In tight economic times at major companies, very often, the first marketing budget item to be cut or reallocated is branding.  If your company has had problems competing against bigger names — now is the time to get out there and seize market share by increasing your branding efforts.  If your competitor’s campaigns are focused on generating short-term results, focus your efforts on creating campaigns that will deliver consistent results over the long term.

What impact has the down economy had on your marketing campaigns and programs?  Is upper management questioning your budgeting decisions?  What due diligence actions are you taking to make sure your lead pipeline stays filled and delivers short- and long-term sales?  Let us know what you’re experiencing and seeing out there. 

We have been discussing the ongoing shift in power in information technology purchasing from seller to the buyer in this blog for some time now. In this new era, a potential IT buyer can fully educate themselves about a company’s technology offerings and formulate purchase consideration before ever speaking to a sales rep. Therefore, it is no longer the IT marketer’s job to generate demand, but to facilitate demand. Facilitating demand is making certain that you are providing potential buyers with all of the content and information that they need to educate themselves about what you have to offer. Which means your marketing efforts will go only as far as the content you can provide.

In order to ensure you keep up with IT buyer demand for information, you need to get the most out of every piece of content you produce. For example, if you create a webcast, transcribe it and turn it into a white paper. Or edit the audio portion and turn it into a podcast. Or take your broad white paper and create multiple versions targeted to industries you work with/sell into. Possibilities are endless. This approach will allow you to most effectively use multiple distribution channels to capitalize on prospect media format/information consumption preference and maximize interaction opportunities. Also, do not be afraid to offer content in different formats together. Recent campaigns we have run that promoted a webcast and podcast on the same subject together have seen very low duplication rates.

At TechTarget, we have spent a lot of time in 2007 gathering data from our ongoing research and developing marketing best practices around the IT buying process.   Recently, evidence surfaced that both the type of content (i.e. webcast, white paper, podcast, trial, etc.) and the topic of the content (analyst review, case study, product comparison, benchmarking study) determines whether the user is in the awareness, consideration, or decision phase of the IT buying process.  

With our recent acquisition of Knowledge Storm (a top-ranked search resource for technology solutions and information), we now have a complete product offering of both targeted, “push” promotion along with “pull” or broad based search strategies.  With that said, when implementing search engine optimization strategies, where do those leads generated fall into the IT buying process? 

In a recent post on www.searchengineland.com, Patricia Hursh highlights research that shows business buyers use search engines in the “awareness, research, and selection phases of the b2b buying cycle”.  At this point, I’m not willing to place leads generated through SEO in any particular part of the IT buying process.  Although I would like an opportunity to review more research, I suspect that search strategies can get more highly target content, such as events and seminars, in front of the right audience.  They aren’t just used for awareness building.  A lot of the success depends in how the content is catalogued and what search terms are used when syndicating the content.

Can you share any experiences or evidence that shows the influence SEO strategies have on all phases of the B2B or IT buying process?