Engaging IT Decision Makers with Content

2. 2 Buyers are highly informed, savvy, and demanding Source: CEB, “The Digital Evolution in B2B Marketing”, 2012 Through decision making process 60% First contact with brand

3. TECH COMPANIES 3 Tech companies risk being on the sidelines if they don’t educate and help Implications Less exposure to client and prospect projects Limiting long-term perception as a trusted partner and thought leader Decrease in lead potential

4. THE IT COMMITTEE They work cross functionally 50% + Work outside of IT They include individual contributors and managers 50% are individual contributors or managers These scarce influencers include more than the IT department and the Executive team Source: commissioned study conducted by comScore in the US on behalf of LinkedIn, Q3 2013 4

5. IT, Purchasing and Operations are the visible players… Purchasing Operations IT Business Development Engineering Support Sales Finance Project Management 5

6. The IT Committee Composition is Expanding 6

7. What motivates this diverse group of decision-makers? Proj. Mgmt. Finance Accounting Top Factors Driving Willingness to Engage IT Engineering Bus. Dev. Operations Purchasing Sales Support Bases: N=32-598, recent technology buyers (last 3 months) in key functions In general, how important are the following factors in your willingness to engage with sales professionals and other employees of [technology type] vendors? 7 Subject Matter Expertise Consultation/Education/Tools Business Model Costs/Business Impact User Adoption Know/Trust Product /Service Tier 1 audiences Tier 2 audiences

8. Marketers must leverage an Integrated Approach to reach the new IT Committee Source: Regalix State of B2B Marketing in 2016 Report (http://www.regalix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/STATE-OF-B2B-MARKETING-2016.pdf)

9. Events and Social are the Channels of choice Source: Regalix State of B2B Marketing in 2016 Report (http://www.regalix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/STATE-OF-B2B-MARKETING-2016.pdf)

10. Influence of Professional Social Networks is comparable to Events Source: Internal LinkedIn Study Q4 2016- Global ITDMs Question: Please distribute 100 points across the following channels in terms of how each influences your awareness of IT products and solutions to address your business needs Bottom of Funnel- Final Selection StageTop of Funnel- Awareness Stage

11. Specific types of Content Resonate Better with ITDMs.. Source: Internal LinkedIn Study Q4 2016- Global ITDMs

12. For the first time in the history of media you can engage with the world’s professionals in one place

13. 70M senior-level influencers 50M business decision makers 13M opinion leaders 9M C-level execs 32M Mass Affluent 7.5M IT decision makers 467Mprofessionals are on LinkedIn The largest global community of professionals

14. 9 billion content impressions / week 15X content vs job postings in the feed 57% mobile Professionals engage with purpose – and with content

15. 15 LinkedIn can help conquer the IT Committee Be where decision makers are – access to all buyer personas Powerful content marketing solutions to build relationships Analytics to help tie marketing efforts with sales strategy

16. Market to Who Matters: Get to the Right Professional Audiences Rich demographic data Job Function, Seniority, Company Name, Geo, Industry Interest-based targeting Group Membership, Skills, Field Of Study Persona targeting Job Searchers, Opinion Leaders, Mass Affluent, Business Travelers Your own audience data Target Account Lists

17. Organic: Build your brand and content On your Company Page Showcase Pages Through long-form posts On Slideshare Engage ITDMs with Content Paid: Reach a targeted, and broader audience In the LinkedIn Feed In the LinkedIn Inbox Early in the purchase process Through other native ad formats

18. Exceed marketer objectives Prove value through analytics & insights Simplify access to products & capabilities Target the audiences that matter Evolving our platform in 2017 to increase advertiser ROI

19. Further boost ROI Simplify your platform & provide better learning resources Provide better measurement and optimization Further your strength in targeting In-Ad Lead Forms New Dynamic Ads Formats Sponsored Content Beyond LinkedIn Autofill Account Targeting Website Retargeting Marketing Automation Contact Targeting Contact Targeting Conversion Tracking Expanded analyticsAPI Campaign insights and recommendations Campaign Demographic Reporting Help center revamp Programmatic Display Sponsored InMail for Self-Service University Pages Merge

20. Conversion tracking for LinkedIn ads Track all of your conversions right in Campaign Manager Record leads from your LinkedIn campaigns across desktop and mobile, whether members convert after clicking on—or even just viewing—your ads. Understand your ROI Measure the true value you’re getting from your Sponsored Content andTextAds campaigns, including return on ad spend, conversion rate, cost per conversion, and more. Optimize for the results that matter most See which specific ads, audiences, and offers are driving conversions for your business. Use this data to improve your campaigns at every stage.

21. Lead Gen forms Built specifically for demand gen objectives with a focus on mobile where we have 80%+ of our Sponsored Content engagement

22. Matched Audiences: Website retargeting

23. Marketing automation integrations Matched Audiences: Email contact targeting & account targeting

24. Next gen website analytics, campaign insights, and dynamic recommendations Highly customizable reports to deliver insights and recommendations in real time Final product may differ from screenshots shown.

25. Summary Buyer behavior & buying process is consistently evolving Research tells us what motivates the buying committee Which leads to making integrated marketing approach an imperative Professional Social networks are key component of today’s B2B marketing mix LinkedIn’s content marketing solutions can help you engage the IT committee effectively

26. Thank you

Notas del editor

We all know that the buyer is in control. They own the process more than they have ever have before. In fact, studies show that they are 60% through the decision making process before they reach out to a brand. And that is what we are here today to talk about. How can you get in front of and influence these buyers before they get to the point of wanting to engage with a technology vendor. http://www.executiveboard.com/exbd-resources/content/digital-evolution/pdf/Digital-Evolution-in-B2B-Marketing.pdf
Because if you don’t develop a relationship with the buyer earlier in the process, you risk being left on the sidelines. The implications for not engaging early include: less exposure to clients and prospects a decrease in lead potential, and risk of not being considered a true partner and thought leader
Traditionally, when people think about this audience, they typically describe them as being within the IT department or being very senior at their company. When surveyed this audience, the key criteria was that they were substantially involved during at least one phase of the decision making process for their company. What we found was that these influencers extend beyond just IT. In fact 43% work outside of IT in departments like Finance and Sales We also saw that seniority went across the board. Half identified as being either an individual contributor or manager These influencers form a Tech Committee
IT, Purchasing and Operations are the visible players… But just beneath the surface are other key players..
The IT Committee evolves and expands- it used be be purely tech functions like IT, Operations and Engineering, but now other functions like BD, Marketing and Back office like Finance and Procurement play a larger role. Infact today Influencers of IT Decisions are not just Gen X-ers but Millenials as well While dominated by tech-focused functions, the buying committee has representation across a range of internal & external-facing groups
So what do all these players care about? What makes them interested in engaging you? Well, we asked them… They all want your sales team to be: Subject Matter Experts AND offer…Consultation/Education/Tools When it comes to your tier 1 audiences, Engineering and IT guys really want to make sure that they know you and trust you Plus they want to know that you understand User Adoption and how to ensure they’re a success These are the teams on the front end of the technology implementation – so they’re going to feel the most heat from users Then for many others – especially our non IT folks in Finance, Accounting and Operations – they also want to be sure you understand their business model And can effectively speak to the Costs/Business Impact your product will have for them Finally, Purchasing Sales and Support want to make sure you’re well versed on your products and services Purchasing wants to be sure you can arm them with the product information required to make a good decision. Remember: Engaging different functions requires understanding their priorities. This additional information can help give you an edge when talking directly to this audience – and can help inform your content strategy
To engage this diverse set of decision makers and drive business impact, Digital versus traditional marketing is no longer the debate; the way forward is to see both perfectly integrated into a unified whole. 82 percent of marketers said their digital and traditional marketing activities were either fully-integrated or partly-integrated and were in the process of being integrated further.
74 percent of respondents said they would increase spend on events in the coming year. When asked which digital channels will see an increase in marketing spends, after investing on their websites, advertisers indicated that spends on social channels saw an increase in 2016, followed by email marketing and events
As mentioned above, events and social networks are allotted a large share of IT marketing spends, so we asked over 600 ITDMs worldwide, to rate how events and social networks influence IT products/service awareness across the funnel. Overall the data shows that ITDMs need just as much of a presence through online professional networks as through events… if not more! For new IT products/services, professional networks like LinkedIn are just as influential to ITDMs as events are (and more influential than are personal networks like Facebook). ● When it comes to establishing awareness of new IT products/services for ITDMs, professional networks are closer in importance to in-person events than they are personal networks. This is true across regions. Numbers reflect ‘mean points distributed’ (out of 100)
Note to Sumit – Read the google doc from Neil where he has extensive notes on what ITDMs expect from large and small events and pick the most interesting data point you like (https://docs.google.com/a/linkedin.com/document/d/1dhDBSDT4_rltuwAwxesVFWwvhbQuSYJktPYSuMFstQY/edit?usp=sharing). One example below: The content that ITDMs find most influential is also the content they expect to see more from online professional networks than from events. ITDMs attend large in-person events in order to obtain industry information and form/nurture connections, all things that can also be done more consistently year-round through professional networks… and to some extent already are. Globally, 93% of ITDMs attend large in-person events in order to understand the latest trends in the industry, and 83% attend to hear opinions from experts and thought leaders. But 65% attend 2 or fewer of these events per year.
LinkedIn presents a truly unique opportunity for brands. It’s the first time in the history of media you can engage with the world’s professionals in one place. With LinkedIn, you’re targeting a quality audience in a professional context. And, you can engage them in a very meaningful way: by sharing valuable content through products tailored to how professionals engage. By doing so, you become part of your audience’s conversations and education on the platform.
So, LinkedIn is where by far the largest number of professionals gather to stay connected and informed, advance their career and work smarter. Over 467 million professionals are on LinkedIn. These are the decision makers, influencers, the leaders of today and tomorrow -- the people you want to target, all in one place. On LinkedIn, we have <customize these stats to your audience> 61 million senior-level influencers 40 millions decision makers 10.7 million opinion leaders 6.8 million C-level execs 3 million MBA graduates 22.8M Mass Affluent 6.3M Small Business Owners plus 1 customizable vertical-specific slides (e.g., 4.1 million IT decision makers)
Professionals are not just coming to LinkedIn in huge numbers, they’re engaging with a unique purpose. They’re coming specifically to connect to their networks, brands and opportunities by engaging with high quality content across the LinkedIn platform. This is a very different mindset and intent from other social media platforms, driven by our members’ professional aspirations. And this mindset has led to the incredible growth of content on the LI platform: 9 billion content impressions every week (content impressions in the feed = 1) articles 2) rich media - photos, videos 3) activity of other members such as likes & comments e.g., “your connection commented on this” 4) ‘Other’ which is a lot of smaller categories like a) the content generated by members themselves - status updates, profile updates, etc. b) posts/discussions in groups c) job changes - e.g. "so and so has changed jobs, congratulate them!” d) member anniversaries, etc. 9 billion weekly content impressions in the feed means there are 15X more content impressions vs job postings served in the feed each week And the majority of this engagement is mobile. More than 57% of the time, they’re accessing this LI content over their mobile device.
Understand the journey: Be responsive to the requests of the buying team, but never lose site of their long term content and communication needs. Broaden your targeting: Be sure you’re reaching and guiding all of your buyers through their journey; if your brand is with them every step of the way, you have a better chance of making it to the short list. Use the data: Learn more about your extended targets, craft content that caters to their interests and motivations. Content is the anchor of your strategy: There is significant need for brands to deliver content and communication at every stage of the buying process and make sure your content is aligned with your sales and support teams.
With your specific end goal now in mind, our targeting is the core of what enables your success on LinkedIn. The authentic member-generated, first party data on LinkedIn is more accurate and highly differentiated in the market noise of audience data. We make it easy for you to segment and reach your audience by offering: Rich demographic data our members include in their LI profiles (Title, Company, Industry, Seniority, etc.) Interest based targeting (e.g., Group membership, skills, Companies followed, etc.) Persona targeting (Job Searchers, Opinion Leaders, Mass Affluent, Business Travelers, etc.) Integrating of Your 1st party audience data (e.g., targeted account lists to support ABM) to identify these high value audiences on LinkedIn
<Based on your discovery with the client, consider pulling in specific product portfolio overview slides from the Appendix after this slide> Based on your goals and the metrics you’ll use to grade success of your programs -- and given how members engage on the platform, you can take advantage of a mix of organic content and paid advertising opportunities. Organic: As you look to build your brand and content presence on LI, you can do that on your Company Page, or specific ShowCase Pages. Through long-form posts, or uploading content to Slideshare. And, as you start building your organic presence, in parallel, you can begin investing in a range of paid opportunities to reach the right people on LinkedIn, and engage them at scale in the LinkedIn Feed and beyond (Sponsored Content); in the LinkedIn Inbox (Sponsored InMail); Early in the purchase process (Display Ads); and through other native ad formats (Dynamic Ads, Text Ads); on mobile or desk-top; On mobile or desk-top To peel the onion a bit, as we’ve been discussing, content plays a huge role in driving prospects from one stage to the next across the long purchase process. So, to set the foundation for LinkedIn Program, LI Sponsored Content let’s you get your content directly in the LinkedIn feed, where you’re essentially capturing people’s attention where they’re most engaged – while consuming information shared with them by their professional network. Sponsored Content is foundational in that you can think of it as arguably our most versatile product in that you can design your program to serve upper funnel branding and awareness objectives….or lower funnel, direct response, leads goals, depending on your content approach. Sponsored InMail is a game changer in terms of taking email marketing effectiveness to the next level. Sponsored InMail is the most direct way to engage your prospects on LinkedIn. Our customers use Sponsored InMail to drive tangible DR metrics – leads, CPL, pipeline. And, they do that by delivering targeted, personalized messages and content right into their LInkedIn inbox. LinkedIn Display Ads gives you a powerful way to make sure you’re getting on the radar early and building brand with the right audiences --in the premium context of the world’s largest professional network. LinkedIn Dynamic Ads (e.g., Follow Company, Spotlight) gives you a way to accurately target your audiences with highly relevant and customizable creative on LinkedIn.com. It’s a dynamically generated ad format that leverages info from LinkedIn member profiles so is highly engaging, and is very effective at driving traffic to your website or company page.
We regularly speak to our advertisers and agencies and through that research and feedback, we’ve developed a roadmap that’s aligned around 4 themes to ultimately exceed advertiser ROI when working with LinkedIn. We’re focused on providing solutions that exceed marketer objectives, prove value through analytics and insights, simplify access to our products and capabilities, and target the audiences that matter Themes 100% based on top purchase drivers… Need to analyze campaign performance against objectives Requirement for campaign value and effectiveness Desire for improved platform usability Ability to target audiences
As we focus on launching new products and features that help improve advertiser ROI, in the coming year here are some launches you will see. Conversion tracking and autofill are already available. Few others I’d like to highlight are in-ad lead forms, advanced re-targeting options like website and email contact targeting. Happy to chat more about these 1:1 in the break or post the conference
Conversion tracking lets you easily measure leads from your campaigns -- right down to the ad and audience level -- using your Campaign Manager analytics. At a glance, see how many people converted after clicking on, or even after just viewing, one of your ads -- whether those conversions occurred on desktop or mobile. Monitor a suite of relevant metrics from conversion count, cost per conversion, and conversion rate, and use this data to improve your ad targeting, creative, and more. Conversion tracking is an onboard measurement capability in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. It lets you track leads from your LinkedIn ad campaigns, understand the ROI of your spend, and more easily make intelligent optimization decisions based on things like which audiences and creatives are converting. With conversion tracking, you have the most relevant data at your fingertips in the same platform that you use to launch and manage your ads. This makes it easier than ever to get even better results from your LinkedIn marketing, using information about the metrics that matter most: Leads, content downloads, purchases, signups, and more.
Built specifically for demand gen objectives with a focus on mobile where we have 80%+ of our Sponsored Content engagement The problem is that we convert about 5-6x better on desktop than we do on mobile today… this product is going to help turn our mobile ads into a lead generation machine. Early results have improved our mobile conversion rates by more than 3x, which means we’re going to be driving far more leads for our customers at much better ROI. HUGE… GA is early march. Drive leads from your Sponsored Content with only a couple of clicks Improve your mobile conversion rates and generate even more leads with lead forms that are pre-populated with members’ contact and professional demographic information. Members can fill out a form with just a couple of clicks in the LinkedIn app. Collect high-quality, professional lead data With a couple simple clicks on your ad, members can instantly connect with your content or offers and send you their professional information like name, email address, industry, seniority, and more info from their professional profile. Access your leads directly in Campaign Manager Measure the impact of your leads, including lead form completion rate, cost per lead, and more.
Matched audiences refers to a suite of targeting capabilities that includes website retargeting, account targeting, email contact targeting, and support for marketing automation lists. With our website retargeting release, we’re going to enable our customers, through their insights tag, to retarget their own website visitors when they visit LinkedIn. Given the higher CTR that we see here in addition to combining with other lead capabilities like Leadgen Ads, we expect this to be a significant improvement to advertiser ROI and it will also have another interesting impact in that it will drive higher revenue per ad slot, effectively creating inventory. If you think about it, we actually waste about 99 out of every 100 impressions because most of them don’t get clicked on and most of our revenue is CPC. Anything we can do to drive CTR up effectively increases our inventory. We’re seeing very good match rates so far in our pilot and are excited to bring this offering to market later with a GA date of 4/15.
Building off website retargeting, we will also be enabling email contract targeting and account targeting. These capabilities will allow our customers to activate account-based marketing efforts to reach key prospects as well as decision markets and influencers at important accounts. We are excited to give customers the option to integrate their marketing automation system at launch and to upload a .CSV file later this year. As we’ve previously shared, we will support marketing automation integrations with 4 major vendors at launch - Marketo, Eloqua, Live Ramp, and even Acxiom for financial services companies. We should be the leader in ABM activation and this launch will put us in place to finally own this space. Again, slotted to launch as a holistic platform on 4/15.
In 2017, we will enable in-product insights that will simplify customers ability to optimize their campaigns. We will also position our customers to track in Campaign Manager their own website traffic with demographic data that is unique to LinkedIn. Separately, we’ll be adding viral metrics into Campaign Manager. All this work is geared towards helping us both prove and increase the value we deliver our advertisers.
In 2017, we will enable in-product insights that will simplify customers ability to optimize their campaigns. We will also position our customers to track in Campaign Manager their own website traffic with demographic data that is unique to LinkedIn. Separately, we’ll be adding viral metrics into Campaign Manager. All this work is geared towards helping us both prove and increase the value we deliver our advertisers.

Engaging IT Decision Makers with Content

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Engaging IT Decision Makers with Content

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