1. What Did You Publish Today?
Copyright: Influential, 2012
2. 3 Essential Questions
1. What do your sales prospects need to learn or
understand about your company (from your content)?
2. How can the right content help bridge gaps or
roadblocks in your sales process?
3. How will content marketing help you achieve wider
strategic goals?
2011 B2B Content Marketing Report
Copyright: Influential, 2012
3. About Michael Teeling
23 years in tech marketing, 18 years in Silicon Valley
7th employee, agency management
Dave Duffield’s publicist
Geoff Moore’s book publicist
Dot-com director of marketing
Founded in 2001
Interim marketing executive for many clients
Copyright: Influential, 2012
4. What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing is the art of understanding
exactly what your customers need to know, when
they need to know it,
and delivering it to them
in a relevant and compelling way.
Copyright: Influential, 2012
5. 5 Goals of Content Marketing
1. Build greater awareness of your
company/product(s)
2. Appeal to each buyer persona’s
unique requirements
3. Generate interest and inquiries
4. Move sales prospects through
your buying cycle
5. Support all outbound & inbound 2011 B2B Content Marketing Report
marketing efforts
Copyright: Influential, 2012
6. The Old Model: Sales Funnel
Website
Press releases
News & analyst coverage
Trade show booth signage
AWARENESS Advertising copy
Speeches
Direct mail/promo copy
Corporate brochure
INTEREST Sales presentation
Product data sheets
White papers (vision, market)
(Analyst studies & reports)
EVALUATION
Competitive kill documents
Benchmark studies & shootouts
White papers (technical)
COMMITMENT Customer case studies
Customer case studies/ references
Copyright: Influential, 2012
7. The New Model: Your Buyer’s Journey
Content Strategy
Messaging Industry Content
Branded Content Sales Content
Influencer Relations Programs Content
Product Content
Customer Content
Copyright: Influential, 2012
9. Top 10 Content Marketing Trends
1. Ditch the Pitch: solve problems, answer Qs, deliver insight, have conversations
2. Customize content by persona, supporting their unique needs and discovery process
3. Map content to the buyer’s journey, in the customer’s context, bringing them along
4. Go cross-channel, but target only those social networks your prospects use
5. Atomize content into bite-size discrete pieces to repurpose, reuse, repackage
6. Focus sales content deeper on value and outcomes, leveraging customer advocates
7. Curate 3rd party content to aggregate “thought leadership” from industry influencers
8. Think like a publisher. Embrace a process orientation in content creation.
9. Try everything. Execute small, laser-targeted campaigns for quick payback
10.Monitor & measure effectiveness with the right metrics for your business
Copyright: Influential, 2012
10. Content Marketing firm for B2B technology companies
Offer content strategy, creation and execution
One-stop shop for complete project management
Integration with all inbound/outbound programs
We’ve serviced nearly 50 clients since 2001
Copyright: Influential, 2012
11. Under The Influence
Our Clients:
• Enterprise B2B software or service vendors
• Emerging, high growth startups ($1M-100M in sales)
• CMOs, VPMs juggling multiple hats
• End-to-end project management required
• Markets: BI/Big Data, ERP/CRM, IT services, networking,
application development, information security…
Average client tenure: ~ 2 years
It is our pleasure to offer relentless marketing execution and
deliver excellent results
We help our clients...
“Influence the Influencers”
Copyright: Influential, 2012
12. Content Marketing Services
Content Strategy
• Messaging Frameworks: corporate, product, brand
• Content Curation: gathers industry content that educates, informs,
entertains for thought leadership
• Content Mapping: aligns current inventory to the buyer’s journey, by
persona, by stage, by channel
• Content Atomization: fragments exiting assets for reuse, repurpose,
refresh, repackage
Content Creation
• Creative Services: full-service editing, writing, design, video, web dev
• Content Calendar: editorial board for content publishing that
integrates with marketing programs & events
Content Execution by deliverable, by project, by program
Copyright: Influential, 2012
13. How Content Atomization works…
VIDEO: Financial Institutions are at War
Joseph Menn, Financial Times Technology Writer,
Author of Fatal System Error
Atom 1 Atom 2 Atom 3
TWEET: LINKED IN: BLOG POST:
Criminals have a better Fraudsters invest more Economists vs. U.S. vs.
system than ours. Huh? in R&D than Banks. FT Foreign governments
Watch this video! <link> author explains… <link> on cybercrime war.
Copyright: Influential, 2012
14. How Content Curation works…
New Industry Research Report issued:
"Online Fraud Mitigation: Tools of the Trade“
October 2011
Today Tomorrow Next Week
TWEET: BLOG POST: PORTAL:
You can market fraud Right on! Here are 2 Download the report
prevention to your ways to not affect online from us! Here’s our
customers! <link> usability… take on what to do…
Copyright: Influential, 2012
15. Our Client Engagement Model
Project/Program Management
Finite, customized engagements focused
on delivering measurable results
Interim Executive Role
Fulfill 75% of FTE headcount position
retained for 3 to n months
Affiliate Network: Creative teams unite domain experts
Copyright: Influential, 2012
16. Analyst Relations Services
a.k.a. “Research Subscription Account Management”
Not “AR for PR”
Focus on maximizing ROI on your analyst spend
Focus not just on quotes of support, but also…
1. Analyst impact on sales cycle
2. Analyst feedback to product strategy, positioning
3. Analyst content creation
4. Contract negotiation and leverage
Quarterly planning, monthly activity reporting
Flexibility and scalability
Similar to internal AR role, not agency
Copyright: Influential, 2012
17. Clients Advised to Successful Exits
CygNet Software (acquired by Weatherford)
Fortify Software (acquired by HP)
CITTIO (acquired by Nimsoft)
ITM Software (acquired by BMC)
ClearApp (acquired by Oracle)
Codefast (acquired by Coverity)
Creekpath Systems (acquired by Opsware)
Bristlecone (acquired by Mahindra Group)
Copyright: Influential, 2012
18. How We Are Different
Seasoned storytellers
Brand building expertise meets technical acumen
Senior level strategic thinking + “get sh*t done”
Extensive software startup experience
One-stop single contract model
Affiliate network of marketing domain specialists
Range of service options: walk before we run
East coast attitude. Period.
Copyright: Influential, 2012
19. “When content programs fail, it’s usually not due to a lack of
quality content, but because of poor execution. That’s why a
Project Manager may be your most important content
asset… The Project Manager must ensure excellence in every
content marketing tactic, and assume responsibility for
accomplishing the goals of the project.”
The Content Marketing Institute
Copyright: Influential, 2012
20. Let Us Tell Your Story!
Copyright: Influential, 2012