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.

Last week we had the opportunity to hold our second TechTarget Online ROI Summit. I am glad to report that close to 300 TechTarget IT customers/marketers attended, all eager to absorb our collective experience set related to IT online marketing as well as network with one another. In a nutshell, most technology marketers find it challenging to stay on top of ever-changing online marketing practices and look for very specific examples of what to do and not do to stage effective online campaigns and prove subsequent ROI.

As a result of surveying our attendees we learned some valuable things with a couple of key data points worth passing on to this audience…

• •  Related to the tightening economy, only 56% cited marketing budget decreases due to economic conditions
• •  Of those 85% cited online spending would increase

The interrelationship of these two responses begs for some interpretation so I’ll take a stab at it. Even for IT enterprises cutting back their marketing spend the majority of the budget remaining is intended to increase in favor of online investments. This may have everything to do with how truly “accountable” management has come to see the role of online, in that it is a quantifiable medium, one that can be used reliably to measure response, conversion to sales opportunities, traffic to sponsoring websites and much more. And most importantly in IT, online research is where the action is when it comes to the IT buyer’s need to use it to research and seek out solution providers during their buying process.

The steady decline of print advertising in the face of online growth further substantiates how valuable interactive “online” information sources are to buying audiences. For the marketer this should come as somewhat of a blessing in that there is a reliable medium to continue to stage major marketing efforts and promote one’s brand to IT audiences. To online publishers like TechTarget, the reality is that there is a strong future for online venues to provide advertising opportunities to marketers looking for ROI.

Given the current IT marketing environment - reduced or locked down budgets, the transition from print to online media, and other factors - it’s no surprise that the demand continues to grow for conferences and events providing information on how to maximize and prove the results of online marketing expenditures.  But how can you be sure that these events are really designed to deliver actionable recommendations that can be applied directly by marketers against the most pressing and relevant issues they face?

If you really want to make certain your IT marketing conference or event covers the most relevant and timely industry topics, you really can’t do any better than having a client advisory board of industry experts to provide insights and recommendations.  At TechTarget, we have put together an advisory board that includes representatives and perspectives from leading IT companies like OMD, Business Objects, HP/PolyServe, BEA, Liquid Machines, DataFlux, Microsoft’s Windows Server Business Group; and EMC Corporation, a good way to assure your event will include the right topics presented the right way.

That’s what TechTarget did with its first Online ROI Summit which was held in San Francisco last fall and attended by 250 C-level and management-level IT marketers representing the world’s leading IT companies.  The subjects and areas of concern identified by TechTarget’s advisory board (pardon the pun) didn’t just hit the target; they all truly hit the bull’s-eye, covering the “must know” topics for every senior IT marketer, including: Proving the ROI of IT marketing investments; Web 2.0; and Closed-loop Lead Management.  All of which reflect TechTarget’s unique perspective and expertise as a leading provider of proven branding and lead generation programs to over 1,000 of the world’s leading IT companies.

Another factor contributing to the success of the 2007 TechTarget Online ROI Summit was the high quality of the attendees.  To strengthen its client relationships TechTarget focused its efforts on assembling only the key decision makers from its leading client companies for this event, with over half of attendees at the CEO/CMO/VP/Director level; 30% managerial-level; and the balance consisting of IT marketing generalists and agency representatives.  As a result, the Online ROI Summit actually delivered the often touted - but seldom delivered - high-level peer networking opportunity in an event setting.  The 2008 Online ROI Summit will offer “Bird of a Feather” networking activities designed to facilitate and enrich peer relationships among the leading IT marketers.

The 2008 TechTarget Online ROI Summit - coming to the Northeast April 24 at the Boston Marriott Newton - will feature a number of improvements and enhancements, including a second day - April 25 - of intensive workshops on topics identified as “critical” by the TechTarget ROI Advisory Board, attendees of last year’s event, and recent client survey results: Web 2.0: The Latest on “New Media” Performance and How They Deliver ROI; Selecting Content to Match the Buying Process; and Life after Lead Generation: Best Practices on Why Lead Generation is No Longer Enough.    

But perhaps the most compelling reasons to attend the 2008 Online ROI Summit are summarized in the attendee feedback from the 2007 Online ROI conference.  You can read even more actual client feedback on this Marketing Interactions blog. 

“I want to thank you for a great presentation and a fantastic conference.  We learned so many valuable online marketing strategies and we are putting together a list of recommendations for our management team.  Thanks again and I look forward to attending other events in the future.”

-Manager of Lead Generation

“The people I met at your Summit were of the highest caliber - it was quite a group. I’ve also been blogging about it and talking it up to friends - hoping you’ll have one again next year. It was wonderful to hear firsthand from C-level panels who spoke candidly about how they do business and what they want.”

-B2B Marketing Strategist

Will we see you at the 2008 TechTarget Online ROI Summit?

On September 20 and 21, TechTarget had the opportunity to host our first Online ROI Summit, and for those of you unable to attend, the discussions, presentations and the feedback were excellent. You can see a couple of our attendees’ independent, post-event blog posts here: PushtoTest: The Cohen Blog and The Scrappy Software Marketer

My intent for the event was to assist our technology vendor customers in understanding the latest online marketing best practices and to help them meet the ongoing challenge of proving ROI.

We got great validation on our overall content direction from the post event survey. It reinforced that IT marketers need help and guidance on how to customize their campaigns to effectively reach their specific technology market.

Both the market-specific breakout sessions, where we received 100% positive feedback on a survey, and the individual comments expressed great appreciation for explaining the specific differences between each technology market - such as Storage, Information Security, and Enterprise Apps.

Additionally, technology marketers are challenged by how to use “new” media and integrate them into their ongoing efforts.  Finally, and no surprise, the struggle to generate leads and get them through a useful sales pipeline persists and is as strong as ever - check out Brian Carroll’s presentation on nurturing leads through your sales pipeline. We specifically adressed the new ROI metrics that cover new media and emerging media.

As deeply immersed as my team and I are in online media, it was partly amazing to us that marketers still need as much support and guidance as they do.  But, in all these areas, I believe we delivered quite strongly and the survey feedback agrees with us.

Feel free to check out any of our presentations and see what the discussions were all about. We’d love to hear your feedback on this content too.

View them all here: TechTarget Online ROI Summit Presentations

The conference we are planning for our customers next fall, namely the TechTarget Online ROI Summit, is keen on addressing a pain point for marketers that is getting continual attention.

Since the advent of online as a viable marketing venue, marketers have been tasked with proving ROI on their online expenditures. For better or worse, proving ROI is now a key consideration as the web adds the dimension of exposing who visits, or clicks, or responds to our ad messages - something not as easily or readily accomplished with traditional media.

As a result there is an ever-present pressure on marketers to demonstrate what the exact performance of each online media investment is - especially when it comes to generating leads.

At the TechTarget Online ROI Summit, our goal will be to showcase to marketers what the benchmarks for acceptable performance should be on old and new media online, as well as set them up with information that will help them transcend the constant scrutiny of proving ROI.

If you have any specific frustrations related to this subject that you would like to share-please do.

Through the years, the one advertising medium that has evolved significantly is face to face events.  A few years back, events were very large, noisy, high traffic conferences that were used primarily for networking by the exhibitors.  They were limited to no filters for attendees and if your competitors were exhibitors, then you were an exhibitor.

Now the focus is more with events as lead generation vehicles that are designed to highlight “ROI” and “time to value” more efficiently with a smaller, more controlled audience.  These invitation only events, road shows, and seminars are now becoming major parts of marketing budgets.  Events of today offer a higher qualified audience who are typically further along in the buying process.  Is there more value in getting 3rd party analysts in a room with your potential customers than launching a seminar with your top notch product marketing team and executives?

What event strategy has worked for you?

Many companies look for ways to position themselves as a thought leader in their market.

There are many ways to build your reputation as a thought leader – press releases, public speeches, and differentiating yourself through content.  I had a client in the CRM space looking to position themselves as a thought leader that offers a service that no other company offers.

My answer was to run a banner roadblock to create initial buzz. To maintain consistent presence the campaign followed up with an integrated online campaign that included banners, e-newsletters and print.  They started with a white paper offer followed by a webcast offer in order to educate and raise awareness for their user experience monitoring solution.  Insightful content (webcast/white paper) is extremely important in how the company differentiates themselves in the market place.  This client used a 3rd party expert to write the white paper and to participate in the webcast.  They also included prominent, easily recognizable companies as case studies to lend credibility and strengthen their case.  The results of the campaign were very successful. This is one example, of positioning a company as a thought leader - Does anyone else have other suggestions?