The post Reaching the Right Audience: How Paid Campaigns on LinkedIn Connect IT Resellers with Engaged End Users appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>In today’s highly competitive UK market, IT resellers face challenges when it comes to expanding their client base and acquiring new end-user clients. The traditional approach of relying solely on cold calling and emailing has become increasingly difficult due to the overwhelming amount of marketing messages consumers receive and their resistance to unsolicited outreach.
In this digital age, potential clients have the power to find answers and solutions to their questions with just a few clicks. To capture their interest, it’s crucial to strategically position your brand in front of them digitally.
For IT resellers seeking genuine connections with potential end users who are actively interested in their offerings, paid campaigns on LinkedIn present a powerful solution. With precise targeting options and comprehensive advertising features, LinkedIn offers an effective platform to engage with end users in the UK who are specifically interested in the IT solutions you provide.
In this blog post, we will delve into the benefits of leveraging paid campaigns on LinkedIn for IT resellers. We will explore how these campaigns can help you reach your target audience, build brand awareness, and generate valuable leads from engaged end users. Discover how LinkedIn can be a game-changer in your marketing strategy and propel your business forward in the digital landscape.
- Precise Targeting Capabilities: LinkedIn’s paid advertising solutions allow IT resellers to define their target audience with precision. Through advanced targeting options such as industry, job titles, job functions, company size, and interests, you can ensure your ads are seen by the right end users in the UK who are likely to be interested in your offerings. By narrowing down your audience based on relevant criteria, you can maximise the impact of your campaigns and ensure that your message reaches those who are most likely to engage with your IT solutions.
- Engaging Sponsored Content: Sponsored content on LinkedIn enables IT resellers to promote their offerings directly to the news feeds of targeted end users. Craft compelling and informative content that highlights the benefits and value of your IT solutions. By leveraging LinkedIn’s targeting options, you can ensure your sponsored content is shown to end users in the UK who match your ideal customer profile. This approach increases the chances of capturing their attention, generating engagement, and driving them to explore your offerings further.
- Utilising Lead Generation Forms: LinkedIn’s lead generation forms seamlessly capture valuable information from end users interested in your IT solutions. You can simplify capturing leads and gathering relevant data by including lead generation forms within your sponsored content. When end users’ express interest in your offerings by clicking on your ad, a pre-filled form will appear, making it convenient for them to share their contact details. This allows IT resellers to generate high-quality leads from engaged end users who have already shown interest in their offerings. However, it’s important to note that many businesses often skip the initial stages of awareness and consideration, jumping straight to the conversion stage by focusing solely on the form. This blog post will highlight common mistakes and provide insights on optimising the entire ACC (awareness, consideration, and conversion) process. https://www.plexuscommunications.plexusdev.co.uk/the-top-5-mistakes-companies-make-when-using-linkedin-advertising
- Retargeting Engaged Users: LinkedIn’s retargeting capabilities enable IT resellers to stay top-of-mind with end users who have already engaged with their content or website. By placing a LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website, you can track and create custom audiences of users who have shown interest in your IT solutions. Utilize this feature to deliver targeted ads to those users, reminding them of your offers and encouraging them to take the next step in their buying journey. Retargeting campaigns help reinforce your brand, maintain engagement, and increase the likelihood of conversion.
- Detailed Analytics and Optimization: LinkedIn provides comprehensive analytics and reporting tools that allow IT resellers to measure the effectiveness of their paid campaigns. By analysing metrics such as impressions, clicks, engagement rates, and conversions, you can gain valuable insights into the performance of your campaigns. This data enables you to optimise your targeting, messaging, and budget allocation, ensuring that your ads are reaching engaged end users and generating the desired results. Continuously monitoring and refining your campaigns based on analytics helps improve ROI and maximize the impact of your advertising efforts.
Conclusion:
Paid campaigns on LinkedIn provide IT resellers with a powerful avenue to connect with engaged end users in the UK market. With precise targeting capabilities, compelling sponsored content, lead generation forms, retargeting options, and detailed analytics, LinkedIn’s paid campaigns empower IT resellers to effectively reach their desired audience. By leveraging these features, IT resellers can increase brand awareness, generate high-quality leads, and foster meaningful engagement with end users who have a genuine interest in their IT solutions. While LinkedIn campaigns cannot replace the role of a salesperson in building relationships and nurturing opportunities to closure, it does excel at identifying the right prospects and enabling sales teams to convert them into clients. If you’re interested in exploring how these strategies can align with your business, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s have a conversation about how you can leverage the power of LinkedIn to drive your business growth forward.
The post Reaching the Right Audience: How Paid Campaigns on LinkedIn Connect IT Resellers with Engaged End Users appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post Amplifying Your Reach: How Paid Campaigns on LinkedIn Drive Visibility Among Partners, Resellers, and End Users appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The Power of Paid Campaigns on LinkedIn for IT Channel Development in the EMEA Market
While organic strategies on LinkedIn remain essential for IT channel growth, recent industry data suggests that paid campaigns can boost brand visibility by up to 60%. This is a more cost-effective approach compared to traditional methods like hiring a direct team for channel development or bearing the high costs associated with distributors.
LinkedIn: A Game-Changer for Manufacturers in the EMEA Market
LinkedIn, with its advanced targeting and advertising features, has emerged as a formidable platform for manufacturers targeting the EMEA market. It not only allows showcasing of products but also facilitates connections with the right partners, resellers, and end users.
Key Benefits of LinkedIn Paid Campaigns:
- Precise Targeting Capabilities – LinkedIn’s paid advertising solutions are a boon for manufacturers. With the ability to filter by demographics such as location, industry, and job titles, brands can ensure their message reaches the right audience. In fact, 70% of marketers in the EMEA region found their ROI improved using LinkedIn’s targeted approach.
- Increased Brand Visibility – Sponsored content and InMail campaigns on LinkedIn have shown to increase brand visibility by 40%. Consistent appearances in users’ feeds enhance brand recall, making it a preferred choice for many manufacturers.
- Enhanced Lead Generation – LinkedIn’s lead generation forms have proven to be a goldmine. Manufacturers have reported a 50% increase in quality leads through these forms. However, it’s crucial to avoid common pitfalls, as highlighted in this blog post.
- Retargeting Opportunities – 80% of marketers believe retargeting is the key to online advertising success. With LinkedIn’s retargeting capabilities, brands can re-engage with interested individuals, increasing the chances of conversions.
- Detailed Analytics and Optimisation – LinkedIn’s analytics tools provide a comprehensive view of campaign performance. Brands have reported a 30% increase in campaign efficiency after optimising based on these insights.
In Summary
Paid campaigns on LinkedIn are reshaping the IT channel landscape in the EMEA market. With benefits ranging from precise targeting to enhanced lead generation, brands can now compete effectively in a region dominated by industry giants. The traditional route to market remains potent, but with technological advancements, there’s a paradigm shift.
This new approach not only brings brands to the market but also generates end-user demand. Dive deeper into this innovative method and discover how it’s revolutionising IT Partner Channel building in today’s competitive world. Learn more about it here.
The post Amplifying Your Reach: How Paid Campaigns on LinkedIn Drive Visibility Among Partners, Resellers, and End Users appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post Google v’s LinkedIn appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>Now, there is no such thing as Google v’s LinkedIn; they’re both great platforms with entirely different objectives. If you are reading this and trying to see the best platform, you need to step back and understand your end goal.
Google – Growing your business today
LinkedIn – Securing your business a future
Google finds people that are actively looking for something specific, either to buy something or fix a problem they have right now, so are potentially already in a buying mode. LinkedIn on the other hand is about educating a targeted audience of your product, or solving problems before the audience even knows they have a need.
Only a small number of people will ever be ready to buy right now, but everyone, if targeted correctly, will buy at some time in the future. It Is called Demand Generation, create demand for your offering, get it in front of the right audience and tell them where to buy from before they even need to start looking.
What is the difference between Google PPC and LinkedIn PPC
Google PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and LinkedIn PPC are advertising platforms that differ significantly.
Google PPC is an advertising platform that displays ads on Google search results from pages and other websites that are part of the Google Display Network. Advertisers bid on specific keywords that users might search for, and when someone clicks on their ad, they pay a fee. Google PPC ads can be targeted based on a user’s location, device type, language, and other factors.
On the other hand, LinkedIn PPC is an advertising platform that displays ads on the LinkedIn network. Advertisers can target LinkedIn users based on their job title, company size, industry, location, and other professional factors. LinkedIn PPC ads can be in the form of sponsored content, sponsored InMail, or display ads.
Here are some of the key differences between Google PPC and LinkedIn PPC:
- Target audience: While Google PPC targets people based on their search queries, LinkedIn PPC targets people based on their professional characteristics.
- Ad formats: Google PPC ads are primarily text-based, while LinkedIn PPC ads can be sponsored content, sponsored InMail, or display ads.
- Cost: The cost of Google PPC ads varies based on the competition for keywords, while the price of LinkedIn PPC ads is based on a bidding system.
- Conversion rates: Google PPC ads have a higher click-through rate, but LinkedIn PPC ads have a higher conversion rate because they target a more specific audience.
Targeting Power
Google PPC casts a wide net, targeting users based on search queries. On the other hand, LinkedIn PPC offers precise targeting based on professional demographics such as job title, company size, and industry. LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities may be your secret weapon if you’re focused on reaching a specific B2B audience.
Cost Efficiency
Google PPC generally offers lower costs per click, making it a budget-friendly choice for many businesses. However, LinkedIn PPC’s higher costs are often offset by the quality and relevance of its professional audience. Investing in LinkedIn can lead to higher-quality leads and better ROI in the long run.
Intent and Funnel Stages
Google PPC excels at capturing users who are actively searching for a product or service and ready to make a purchase. It’s ideal for the bottom-of-the-funnel approach. Meanwhile, LinkedIn PPC shines in building brand awareness and nurturing relationships with a professional audience at the top and middle of the funnel. It’s the perfect path to create consideration and engagement.
Goals and Objectives
Consider your campaign goals. Google PPC may be your go-to option if you’re seeking immediate conversions or sales. LinkedIn PPC can elevate your strategy and generate long-term results if you’re focused on expanding your brand presence, thought leadership, or targeting specific professionals.
In the end, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Evaluate your business needs, target audience, and campaign goals to make an informed decision. Remember, combining both platforms could also be a winning strategy, harnessing the strengths of each to maximize your reach and impact.
The post Google v’s LinkedIn appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post Google Analytics 4 – What You Need to Know appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>Google Analytics has been an essential tool for marketers and website owners to track and measure their online performance. With the introduction of Google Analytics 4, or GA4, marketers now have access to a new suite of features and capabilities that can help them gain even deeper insights into their website visitors and better understand their customer journey.
What is GA4?
Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s analytics platform, which builds on the capabilities of the previous version of Google Analytics, Universal Analytics. GA4 is designed to be more flexible and adaptable to the changing needs of businesses, as well as provide a more accurate picture of user behavior across multiple devices.
Key Features of GA4
1. Events-First Data Model
The new GA4 is based on an event-driven data model, which means that it focuses on user interactions with a website rather than page views. This allows for a more detailed understanding of user behavior, including clicks, scrolls, and other actions on the site.
2. Machine Learning Capabilities
GA4 is equipped with advanced machine learning capabilities that can help businesses make data-driven decisions. With machine learning, GA4 can identify patterns in user behavior and make predictions about user intent, making it easier to identify opportunities for growth and optimization.
3. Cross-Device Tracking
One of the biggest advantages of GA4 is its ability to track users across multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and desktop computers. This provides a more comprehensive view of the customer journey and helps businesses understand how users interact with their website on different devices.
4. Customizable Dashboards
GA4 provides a more flexible and customizable dashboard that allows businesses to create their own reports and visualizations. This enables businesses to better tailor the data they collect to their specific needs and objectives.
5. Integration with Google Ads
GA4 is fully integrated with Google Ads, allowing businesses to better understand the performance of their ads across all devices and platforms. With this integration, businesses can optimize their ad campaigns to better reach their target audience and maximize their return on investment.
Why You Should Switch to GA4
If you’re still using Universal Analytics, there are several reasons why you should consider switching to GA4. For one, GA4 provides a more comprehensive view of user behavior and allows businesses to better understand their customers’ journey. Additionally, GA4 offers advanced machine learning capabilities that can help businesses make data-driven decisions and optimize their performance.
Another advantage of GA4 is its ability to track users across multiple devices, making it easier to understand how users interact with a website and which devices they prefer to use. With customizable dashboards and reports, businesses can tailor the data they collect to their specific needs and objectives, providing a more accurate picture of their online performance.
Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool that offers businesses a more comprehensive view of user behavior and a better understanding of their customers’ journey. With advanced machine learning capabilities and cross-device tracking, GA4 can help businesses make data-driven decisions and optimize their online performance. If you’re still using Universal Analytics, it’s time to consider making the switch to GA4 and start taking advantage of its advanced features and capabilities.
Google GA4, as a marketer
As a digital marketer, staying on top of the latest updates and changes in the field is crucial for success. And the new GA4 update from Google is no exception.
The GA4, or Google Analytics 4, is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform. It was released in October 2020 and boasted a range of new features and improvements designed to help marketers make better decisions about their campaigns.
One of the most significant changes in GA4 is its focus on user behaviour tracking instead of session tracking. This means that the platform will now collect data on individual users, allowing marketers to see how they interact with their websites over time. This new focus on user behaviour tracking is a big step forward for Google Analytics, as it allows marketers to understand their audience better and make more informed decisions.
Another significant change in GA4 is its integration with Google Ads. This integration makes it easier for marketers to track their advertising campaigns and see how they impact their website’s performance. Additionally, GA4 now includes a range of predictive metrics, such as churn probability and purchase probability, which help marketers make data-driven decisions about their campaigns.
But the most significant advantage of GA4 is its improved cross-device tracking. In the past, Google Analytics struggled to track users across different devices, making it difficult for marketers to understand their audience entirely. However, the new GA4 now uses machine learning to track user behaviour across devices, making it easier to see how users interact with your website on different platforms.
Overall, the new GA4 is a significant improvement from its predecessor. Its focus on user behaviour tracking and predictive metrics, combined with its improved cross-device monitoring, make it a must-have tool for any digital marketer. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to switch to the new GA4 and take advantage of its powerful new features.
What you should know about Google GA4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google’s web analytics platform, which was released in October 2020. Here are some key things you should know about it:
1. User-Centric Focus: GA4 is built around a user-centric approach, rather than a session-based approach. It uses machine learning to track and analyze user behavior across multiple devices and platforms, which helps businesses to better understand their customers and create personalized experiences.
2. New Event Tracking Model: GA4 uses a new event tracking model that enables marketers to track specific actions that users take on their websites and apps. It provides more granular data on user behavior, making it easier to understand how visitors interact with your site.
3. Integration with Google Ads: GA4 integrates with Google Ads, which enables marketers to track their advertising campaigns and see how they impact their website’s performance. This integration also provides new insights into user behavior and makes it easier to optimize campaigns for maximum ROI.
4. Predictive Metrics: GA4 includes a range of predictive metrics, such as churn probability and purchase probability, which help marketers make data-driven decisions about their campaigns. These metrics enable businesses to anticipate user behavior and make adjustments to their marketing strategy in real-time.
5. Improved Cross-Device Tracking: GA4 uses machine learning to track user behavior across different devices, which makes it easier for businesses to understand how users interact with their website on various platforms. This cross-device tracking provides a more complete picture of the user journey and allows businesses to create more effective marketing campaigns.
In conclusion, GA4 is a powerful tool that offers a more comprehensive view of user behavior and enables businesses to make data-driven decisions to improve their marketing efforts. With its focus on user behavior tracking, new event tracking model, integration with Google Ads, predictive metrics, and improved cross-device tracking, GA4 is an essential tool for any digital marketer looking to stay ahead of the game.
Is GA4 replacing Google Analytics
Yes, GA4 is the latest version of Google Analytics and is intended to replace the previous version of Google Analytics, which is known as Universal Analytics. However, Universal Analytics will still be available for businesses that want to continue using it.
Google has stated that GA4 will eventually become the default version of Google Analytics, so businesses are encouraged to begin transitioning to GA4. This is because GA4 offers more advanced features and provides a more comprehensive view of user behavior, which can help businesses make more informed decisions about their marketing strategies.
While GA4 is still in its early stages and may not yet have all the features of Universal Analytics, it is important for businesses to start using it now to ensure a smooth transition in the future. Google also provides resources and support to help businesses with the migration process.
In summary, GA4 is intended to replace Universal Analytics and will eventually become the default version of Google Analytics. Businesses are encouraged to begin transitioning to GA4 to take advantage of its advanced features and gain a more comprehensive view of user behavior.
How does GA4 work without Cookies
GA4 uses a new approach to data tracking that reduces its reliance on cookies. This approach is based on machine learning and allows for more granular tracking of user behavior across multiple devices and platforms.
Instead of relying solely on cookies, GA4 uses a combination of user identifiers and event tracking to collect data on user behavior. User identifiers are unique identifiers assigned to each user, and they allow GA4 to track individual users as they move between devices and platforms.
GA4’s event tracking system allows businesses to track specific user actions, such as clicks or purchases, rather than just tracking page views. This approach provides more detailed insights into user behavior and allows businesses to make more informed decisions about their marketing strategies.
Additionally, GA4 includes new privacy controls that allow users to opt-out of data tracking, which is crucial for businesses that want to build trust with their customers. The privacy controls also make it easier for businesses to comply with data protection regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA.
In summary, GA4 uses a combination of machine learning, user identifiers, and event tracking to collect data on user behavior without relying solely on cookies. Its new approach provides more detailed insights into user behavior, improves privacy controls, and makes it easier for businesses to comply with data protection regulations.
The post Google Analytics 4 – What You Need to Know appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post What is the total cost of a marketing team in 2022? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>Earlier this year Gartner published the results of their annual CMO survey which captures the state of marketing budget and strategy in 2022. This survey indicates that budgets have recovered yet still lag pre-pandemic levels. The technology sector reported the largest increase in budget year over year, jumping from 5.0% of total revenue in 2021 to 10.1% in 2022. As enterprises work hard to focus on growth within a backdrop of financial and geopolitical uncertainty the marketing function needs to be more agile than ever before. It needs to be able to flex and adapt, as and when customer journeys inevitably change. Gartner’s report states that 61% of CMOs lack the in-house capabilities to deliver their strategy. In this article we will review the labour costs of hiring a comprehensive in-house marketing function, and touch on some of the top capability gaps that CMOs are currently experiencing.
The changing role of marketing in the digital age
The skills required to execute a comprehensive marketing strategy have always been diverse, ranging from creative professionals skilled in graphical and motion design to talented copywriters, and more recently, social media and digital experts, all guided by a strategy leader that must have deep industry expertise and a knowledge of customer personas. Marketing technology has moved forward at an incredible pace in recent years, shifting the role of marketing to that of a technologist foremost in order to navigate the tools available, and utilize paid channel algorithms for maximum return on investment (ROI).
What marketing skills are most lacking in 2022?
CMOs responding to the 2022 Gartner survey reported that they were confident in their capabilities to manage brands, but strategically important capabilities gaps persist. Not surprisingly, marketing technology featured highly, supporting our assertation that the role of marketing is now very much technology led.
- Marketing technology – 22% of CMOs placed in the top three.
- Marketing data and analytics – 26% of CMOs placed this as a top three capability gap.
- Customer understanding and Customer Experience (CX) management – 23% of CMOs placed in the top three.
Marketing is experiencing an unprecedented surge in talent demand in 2022 such that prioritizing the resource mix should be a top priority for all marketing leaders. A balance between in-house and outsourced marketing capabilities has for a long time been the norm within the technology sector, however, with changing skills-sets and the current talent shortages, this balance and the overall costs of a marketing function now needs careful consideration.
Safeguarding your marketing talent pool from staff attrition and turnover
Staff attrition and turnover is the departure of employees from the organization for any reason (voluntary or involuntary), including resignation, termination, illness, or retirement. The recent pandemic and shift to remote working for many industries has fueled The Great Reshuffle, with many people seeking to change roles or career path entirely. Marketing is no exception, with LinkedIn reporting 618,000 marketing job departures in 2021, plus a 31% growth in job changes among LinkedIn members year over year. Loss of talent pool through attrition and turnover is costly for any organization both from a recruitment and training perspective. With the Plexus Way model you are effectively safeguarding your talent pool since we cannot be headhunted, nor will we be looking to abandon you like a job hopper merely out for a better salary or benefits package.
Calculating the cost of your optimum marketing team
Hiring an internal marketing team that can cover EVERY function you require can be incredibly expensive. Very often companies start by hiring a marketing manager with great hopes that this individual can cover many bases, or hopefully build and guide a strong team. According to Glassdoor, adding a senior marketing manager to your staff in the UK will cost roughly £65K/yr. in salary, not including benefits.
Unfortunately, your perfect marketing team will require more than the skills of one person, hence establishing a strong team is critical for ensuring success. Let us explore in more detail the expected salary costs for a team consisting of roles such as social media managers, PPC managers, graphic designers, copy writers, web developers and more senior roles such as CMO or marketing directors that are required if you are a larger organization.
Chief Marketing Officer/Senior Marketing Director
Role: A CMO oversees the marketing management team guiding the creation of business plans and marketing strategies that will help the company reach its goals. CMOs are the company’s consumer voice throughout and must be outstanding leaders.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £117K/yr.
SEO Specialist
Role: A CMO oversees the marketing management team guiding the creation of business plans and marketing strategies that will help the company reach its goals. CMOs are the company’s consumer voice throughout and must be outstanding leaders.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £117K/yr.
Web Developer
Role: The development of Internet applications using a client-server model is the responsibility of a web developer. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are among the common coding languages used. Since most developers will specialize in a particular type of coding, multiple developers may be required to accomplish a single organization’s objectives.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £36K/yr.
Web Designer
Role: A web designer oversees organizing and styling all web page content. Web designers need to be aware of how to create websites that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional from a Customer Experience perspective.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £30K/yr.
Graphic Designer
Role: A graphic designer is a visual communicator who can either manually or digitally develop ideas. Their core function is to inform, captivate and inspire customers while guaranteeing their output precisely mirrors the organizations brand style and brand objectives.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £30K/yr.
Copywriter
Role: A copywriter specializes in creating pertinent text for websites, such as articles and page content. To maximize marketing efforts, a great content writer will also be familiar with keyword-based SEO. Additionally, copywriters will support other departments in producing text for press releases, social media, graphics and possibly data sheets and user manuals.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £31K/yr.
Social Media Manager
Role: The upkeep of an organization’s social media strategy falls under the control of a Social Media Manager. Most of the time, social media managers will oversee development of growth strategies for an organization, communicating with target audiences, and creating a stream of content that is engaging
Glassdoor Average Salary: £35K/yr.
Database Administrator
Role: An organizations database security and upkeep will be overseen by a Database Administrator, or DBA. This member of the team will frequently be involved in the creation, troubleshooting, and planning of databases to meet the requirements of the business and to ensure the smooth operation of information throughout the entire organization.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £39K/yr
Full-Stack Developer
Role: A Full-Stack Developer must combine front-end and back-end development skills, frequently taking on multiple projects to deploy a digital solution. App development and website development are two examples of the work done, with this role being particularly important for organizations that host an ecommerce website.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £50K/yr.
Software Architect
Role: Software Architects have extensive technical expertise. This role often serves as a liaison to assist business operations staff and any necessary technical teams in working toward a shared vision for both back office and customer facing applications.
Glassdoor Average Salary: £79K/yr.
The staggering cost of a 360° marketing team
If we now accompany our initially lonely marketing manager with a full team based on the current Glassdoor reported average salaries listed above, we reach a grand total of £545K/yr. (£45k/pm), not including benefits, and not including the huge array of software tools and monthly platform subscriptions they need to perform their day-to-day roles.
Luckily there is a better way to secure a marketing team
A monthly cost of this level is beyond the reach of many smaller companies and start-ups trying to enter the market. The team at Plexus knew there had to be a better way to make marketing more accessible for the technology sector. That is why we developed The Plexus Way model of outsourcing which provides the skills of an entire team for the cost of a single senior hire. The model relies on the fact that skills requirements constantly change during the execution of any marketing strategy. For instance, graphics, motion design and copywriting have heavy requirements before the launch of a brand or new product, whereas digital social and PPC management skills will be required at launch, followed by PPC refinement and account-based marketing (ABM) as the campaign progresses, moving customers through the journey of brand awareness, solution consideration and ultimately sales conversion.
Within any organization there are periods where certain elements of the marketing team are under-utilized. This results in inefficiency which cannot easily be rectified. By using the Plexus Way model, organizations can enjoy continuous marketing efficiency at a fraction of the cost of an internal team.
The Plexus Way – taking the risk out of marketing outsourcing
The beauty of The Plexus Way model is that clients can choose exactly how much or how little of our services they need to meet their current goals or objectives. Our service can be scaled up or down depending on requirements, and what types of services are needed at any given time.
The average monthly cost for the Plexus team to deliver all the functions listed above is around £5K, instead of the £45K you would expect to pay monthly if you hired a full in-house marketing team. Your monthly costs may be even more if you hire a marketing manager who then must outsource to multiple agencies to cover various skills gaps. The £40K monthly saving is a significant amount of money that could fund PPC media spend and business development to supercharge your sales pipeline.
With The Plexus Way you can be assured that we will never be looking to leave you, neither can we be poached from you, all that will happen as more clients adopt our model is that our team will grow, further diversifying the range of skills that will be at your disposal.
For any questions, please get in touch through our contact form, the Plexus team are always ready to help, or at least point you in the right direction.
The post What is the total cost of a marketing team in 2022? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post The Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make When Using LinkedIn Advertising appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>LinkedIn has become the largest professional social media network on earth with over 810 million monthly active users and upwards of 57 million companies on board1, making it especially appealing to B2B advertisers. Having launched its advertising platform in 2005, it has grown in a remarkably short time to rival paid search advertising on Google. LinkedIn’s big advantage over its key competitor, and the reason it is now snatching the lion’s share of so many marketing budgets previously reserved exclusively for paid search engine marketing (SEM), is its ability to target specific audience demographics such as job title, seniority, interest groups, industry, and location. When used correctly, LinkedIn advertising can deliver new opportunities in far shorter time and at a significantly lower cost than the traditional new business sales team working behind email campaigns and cold calling.
With such impressive statistics, why do so many companies lose faith in their LinkedIn advertising exploits and fail to achieve the return on investment that could have been available to them. We often hear “We tried LinkedIn, but it didn’t work”. Let’s take a dive in and share our experience of the top 5 mistakes we see companies making when using LinkedIn for B2B advertising.
Technology can find the needles in the haystack, but to remove them you must provide a thread
It is a common misconception that having the ability to easily reach a very defined audience means that you can skip the basic brand building stages that are essential to move prospective customers along the purchase decision pipeline. This conceptual pipeline has been defined in many ways, but at a simplistic level the following three steps cannot be skipped just because you have access to highly targeted marketing communications.
Awareness: Any potential customer needs to gain awareness of your brand as a solution provider to problems they are trying to solve. Through these initial engagements you need to portray core brand elements such as values, identity and maybe personification to drive emotional connections with your brand.
Consideration: This next level of engagement aims to move your brand into the subset that the customer deems as ‘viable’ solution providers to their current situation. During this stage the customer will be comparing options, so they will require more detailed information, and pull from available additional resources such as case studies, independent reviews, and peer endorsements. It is important to provide valuable content that is ungated (free to download) during this phase.
Conversion: We are defining conversion here as the point at which the prospective customer is engaged enough to share their contact information in exchange for a gated asset such as a detailed download document, or other resource of value that we are providing. Many agencies like to classify prospects reaching this stage as ‘leads’, however we prefer to consider them as ‘opportunities’ at this early stage as no specific sales qualification has yet taken place.
Mistake No.1 – Don’t jump the gun.
Because the Cost Per Click (CPC) on LinkedIn can be higher on average than Google, first-time advertisers often have little patience and decide to run campaigns with gated content from the outset. As outlined above, you must first build awareness and trust in your brand as both a viable solution, and as a provider of valuable trustworthy content before you can expect a prospect to part with their contact details in exchange for information. Despite the power of LinkedIn’s prospect targeting algorithms there is no secret formula or special trick you can use to create endless customers at the push of a button, so do not try to use LinkedIn to jump ahead in the customer purchase decision pipeline.
Mistake No.2 – Content is king but avoid overpromotion
Each stage of the customer journey requires different levels of content. Certainly, within this journey specific details of your product or service will be required to help the customer make their final selections, but these details need to be provided at the right time and in the right measure. Promotion is of course a significant part of LinkedIn, but it is not all the platform is for. If you overpromote your business, you risk pushing away potential customers who become tired of seeing repetitive marketing practices highlighting product features, rather than useful information that can assist them with informed decisions. It is incredible how often the Pareto principle applies within areas of sales and marketing strategy, and we firmly believe this rule should be followed regarding self-promotion. 80% of the time, you should provide interesting industry related information, with the remaining 20% dedicated to promoting your products and services.
Mistake No.3 – Avoid late sales cycle non-content offers
LinkedIn is inherently a content feed were B2B consumers go to find educational content. For that reason, valuable content offers such as white papers, eBooks, industry reports and best practice guides generate much higher engagement compared to late sales-cycle calls to action, such as free trials, online demos, or 1:1 consultation offers. The relatively high cost of LinkedIn advertising can influence many marketers to want their LinkedIn campaigns to generate only highly qualified leads that are close to the end of the buyer journey but attempting to use LinkedIn in this way is counterproductive. These late-stage offers are best kept for the closing stages of your Account Based Marketing (ABM) process, which leads us nicely into mistake No.4.
Mistake No.4 – Do not hide behind digital marketing, close the loop with a well-structured ABM process
We are a firm believer that digital marketing has its place, but conversation builds relationships. We see so many sales and marketing teams that appear to hide behind digital marketing, reporting with great enthusiasm the click-through statistics of the campaigns they have running; yet they have no ABM strategy in place to develop and nurture these engagements. LinkedIn campaigns will provide a digital footprint of members who react to a campaign in the form of likes, comments, or shares. Then, when we reach the conversion stage, we receive both a digital footprint and the email address of any member who has opted to receive our gated content. Both levels of engagement should be entered into a well-structured ABM process which ideally should be linked to a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that allows tagging and lead scoring to be set in place.
What is vital here is the nature of the approach made to LinkedIn members who have engaged with our campaigns. We recommend that campaigns should have an individual from the sales organisation selected as a key stakeholder who is responsible for sending connection requests to any LinkedIn member that has engaged with a campaign. However, the nature of that initial connection request and subsequent follow up, if accepted, is vital. We have all received those LinkedIn connection requests which after viewing the requesting members profile appear to be a potentially beneficial extension to our professional network, only to be hit with a sales pitch message immediately after we accept the request. This is an absolute no. We must remember that LinkedIn members who have reacted to our campaigns are not leads, they are not even sales opportunities, at this early stage they are nothing more than industry peers who have shown an interest in our content. When we reach out to members with a connection request, we have the option to add an accompanying note of up to 300 characters (correct at the time of writing although this may be reduced in the future). We highly recommend that these characters are used wisely. Under no circumstances should your accompanying note resemble a sales pitch. Your connection note should thank the member for their engagement and suggest that a connection may be beneficial due to your common interests, and the potential for engagement in the future. For further guidance on establishing an ABM process for LinkedIn campaigns download our LinkedIn ABM process flowchart.
Mistake No.5 – Don't quit before the race is run
As Walt Disney once said, “the difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.” That’s how you become unstoppable. We often hear from clients who have started their LinkedIn advertising journey in the right way but have underestimated the amount of time required for prospects to gain trust in the brand to reach the conversion stage. As stated previously, there is no fast track when building a new brand or solutions offering. LinkedIn advertising does not accelerate your brand building process, but it does provide powerful campaign algorithms that learn from all the interactions made with your campaigns as you progress. However, algorithms require data, and the more data they receive the more accurate are the outcomes, and all of this takes time. Never pull the plug on a well-structured campaign which has been performing above benchmark due to impatience before you have reached the conversion stage. If you have gone as far as the consideration stage with successful ungated content, you are in a great position where gated content will start to provide valuable contacts that can be moved into your ABM process.
In Conclusion
LinkedIn has the potential to be the most powerful B2B marketing engine for any organisation if used correctly. It allows for granular budget control, geo-targeting, cost per click optimisation and conversion tracking, but the main benefit that differentiates LinkedIn from its competitors is the demographic targeting capabilities. These are incredibly specific, allowing you to focus your targeting many ways, for example, only employees from a specific company, by seniority level, years of experience and much more. Hopefully, our top 5 list of mistakes has illustrated that, although the LinkedIn algorithms are incredibility smart and powerful, they are not a fast-track formula to brand superiority and sales success. Customers have not changed the way they react to brands, neither has their need for different levels of information and they progress through the sales cycles, it is just our targeting tools that have improved massively. If you have embarked on a LinkedIn advertising journey that failed to deliver results, or you are about to start with LinkedIn, get in touch with the team here at Plexus, we are always open for an informal chat with honest and impartial advice.
The post The Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make When Using LinkedIn Advertising appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post Did I hear you say LinkedIn Marketing doesn’t work? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>If we had £1 for every time, we have heard this:
‘Yeah, we’ve tried LinkedIn but it doesn’t work.’
We would be a VERY rich!
LinkedIn for #b2bmarketing is hands down the go-to platform. Yes, it is expensive, but there is a reason for that. In fact, there are many reasons:
1 – The targeting abilities – imagine being able to reach your ideal audience target down to Job Title or function, this is incredibly powerful.
2 – Read point 1 again.
3 – Read point 1 again.
4 – Read point 1 again another 5x.
Be confident and invest in your strategy, toe dipping will not succeed
Do not approach lead generation on LinkedIn with £500, it will get you nowhere – and if anyone says it will, it won’t. They’re lying.
You absolutely must invest in your strategy, and that strategy should not be setting up a campaign to a completely cold net-new audience demanding their details via a lead form – you may as well walk over to your office shredder and shred that £500 the good it will do you.
Stop. Sit down, sketch out your objective, your strategy and what you will offer your target audience to reach that objective.
The objective is nearly always ‘leads’, which is fine, but you need to position your product/service in a way that drives demand for it.
So, you offer an accountancy service…. boom, so do 32,000+ other businesses on LinkedIn.
Content remains King
To generate demand, give away downloadable content, that has substance and provides information of value to guide their decisions throughout daily operations. Generate that curiosity in your audience. Then, do the same thing again with another piece of content, and again, and again – all the time utilising demographics reports and refining your audience to increase engagement content piece after content piece.
After a couple of months, you will ‘feel’ when the time is right to serve up your thought leading piece of content behind a gateway – that gateway is a LinkedIn Lead Generation Form.
Don’t be a dummy, approach LinkedIn the correct way.
#linkedinadvertising #b2b #strategy
If you are planning to start using LinkedIn paid marketing or have had poor success in the past, please get in touch through our contact form, the Plexus team are always ready to help with free advice.
The post Did I hear you say LinkedIn Marketing doesn’t work? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post Marketing never gets easier, but 2020 changed the game. Were you ready? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>For many small to medium companies the mainstay of execution for building a sales pipeline has, for many years, been an internal (or maybe outsourced) cold calling sales team, supported by email and organic (non-paid) social platform marketing campaigns.
For many, the simple premise of getting the right message to the right audience at the right time had been getting harder and harder, but the events of 2020 redefined that challenge faster than many organizations could respond.
We see many companies react to a decline in sales pipeline by seeking to hire more salespeople when the core of their problem is centered on ineffective marketing plus a lack of internal expertise in using the latest social platforms to reach a buying audience. A new sales hire that is not supported by solid brand exposure and effective marketing communications is destined for failure.
Here we will outline some of the challenges facing many sales teams today, and look at how you can keep your marketing function effective and ahead of the game.
The new challenges for the Cold Calling Sales Team and Email Marketing
The cold calling sales technique has always been a tough challenge. There have been many methods and strategies evangelized over the years to help salespeople get past that switchboard gatekeeper, or to ensure your opener has the best chance of engaging your lead in a meaningful conversation, without a closed question bringing everything to a rapid end.
A telemarketing team comes with a huge price tag, wages are just a part, when you think that maybe 5% of cold called new prospects will be interested in what you have to say and a fraction of those will close, you better have a very high margin product.
Before the Covid pandemic telemarketing was hard enough, you really had to have your contacts direct dial number (DDI) at a minimum, with the mobile number being the holy grail. Of course, very many people hide behind a voicemail system, only answering numbers they recognize. Certainly, many of you will also have had the scenario where you have a prospects DDI, you call the number but a different person answers in what sounds like a busy office. If the colleague who has answered is good, you will be asked your name, company, the nature of your call and whether your prospect should be expecting your call. After that exchange you are placed on hold where you start to visualize the facial expressions going on across the open office partitions. You are eventually told that your contact is in a meeting and the best thing to do is send them an email, while the image in your mind’s eye has them sat at their desk finishing a bag of crisps.
With the current home working policy looking to become the norm for many companies, that noisy office exchange has also been crossed off the list of outcomes for your eager sales team.
Generally, that closing suggestion to ‘send them an email’ is irritating because the key reason for your call is because your marketing automation had indicated they had interacted with your email campaign. So, let us now look at some of the recent changes hindering email marketing.
Machines have hijacked your Email Marketing analytics
GDPR challenges aside, it is the advent of spam filter technologies which has thrown a spanner into the quality of email campaign tracking and reporting. Once an email campaign has been sent, any automated email platform worth its salt should provide details of open rates, click through rates, click to open, and click to send rates. Email tracking also monitors unsubscribes, soft and hard bounces to name just a few more metrics that can be used to measure the effectiveness of campaigns. Ultimately, email tracking can provide a tremendous amount of data regarding marketing efforts and help to build your strategy for remarketing and campaign improvements going forward.
In recent years we have seen a rise in the number of spam filters that are clicking all the links in marketing emails to verify that they are safe for the receiver of the email to click on. Of course, this is a good thing from the recipients’ point of view, but it has created an industry wide problem for the interpretation of email marketing analytics because open rates and click through rates are being inflated. This skews the results leading to false data for marketing automation users to work from.
Regardless of what email software is being used, or what server you are using to send out your tracked emails, there is no way around the impact that these spam filters have on the metrics being sent back. To the uninformed, the results will appear to indicate that your recipient has opened and clicked through to all your content, but usually the time stamp for these events will show that it was a machine doing the work; no human could open an email and follow the links so quickly after delivery, unless they happen to be a Rubik’s cube world champion.
By process of elimination, you can filter out these immediate opens and click throughs, but what if your email platform only reports back on the initial interaction made by the recipient and does not track any subsequent and genuine prospect interactions. In this case the spam filter will have removed any actionable metrics that you may have received. There are horror stories of companies falling foul of these spam filter actions when they had implemented ‘One-click Unsubscribe’ into the body of their marketing emails.
There are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of spam filter activities. The obvious one is to create a list of recipients that appear to have spam filters opening their emails and exclude these from your database, not a great outcome for your marketing reach but at least your ongoing metrics should be valid. A good way to ensure you are selecting the spam filter effected emails is to include a ‘fake link’ in the HTML of your email that only the spam filter can see. Unfortunately, no solution is perfect, and each instance will depend upon the characteristics of your email platform and its reporting mechanisms.
Email marketing has been under pressure from the many social platforms that form a big part of the B2B and B2C marketing landscape, such that the design of your subject line is probably the most important element that will influence the likelihood of the recipient opening your message. This hits on a key point, mass email marketing offers very little scope for marketing message personalization. Unless you already have some very recent specific insight into the interests and buying behaviors of your audience you can do little more than target them with the same headline message. Effective audience segmentation with email marketing is just not feasible. This is where social platforms provide a massive advantage by allowing expert users to pinpoint prospects and reach them with the right message at the right time. Unsurprisingly this golden pathway to buying customers does not come for free.
Digital Marketing: It is all about the algorithms and machine learning
We come across many companies who believe they can rely on the organic growth of their social platform presence to help drive the sales funnel. Of course, organic growth is a good thing, and we should all try to work as smartly as possible by taking advantage of ‘free’ marketing opportunities, but you must step back and take a reality check when it comes to organic social following. For example, a company may be proud to have reached 2000 followers on LinkedIn, but you must ask how many of that list are employees, competitors, existing customers and random others that the page administrators have invited from their own connections. The obvious issue here is that anything you post to your organic base is not reaching net new prospects. All social platforms survive from paid advertising so it should come as no surprise to hear that algorithms are in place to even limit the extent by which your organic subscribers get to see your posts.
It is the clever algorithms and machine learning within the paid marketing options (Pay-per-click PPC) on today’s social platforms that can reach new customers better than any email and cold calling team could ever imagine.
Our old attempts at creating a customer journey for them through email marketing automation sequences of our own design is dead. It assumes that the buying process is a production line which is miles away from our current reality where consumer intent can change with the sudden trending of a hashtag. It is beyond the capability of any one of us to foresee or predict the future, let alone analyze search trends and buying behaviors from thousands of transactions and truly drive incremental sales. Machines are far better at finding the patterns that matter in the vast ocean of consumer activity, enabling you to get far closer to presenting the right message to the right people at the right time.
Marketeers now need to be Technologists foremost
Creating and managing a successful PPC campaign requires many skills and this is where the role of marketing has changed massively over the past five to ten years. Marketing has always been about understanding consumer behavior in order to create the right message to drive sales and brand preference, but that role is being assisted today by the latest marketing tools and social media advertising platforms.
Marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most technology-dependent functions in business, so today’s successful marketeers must become technologists foremost in order to navigate the tools available to derive actionable insight from the mountains of consumer data now available.
PPC platforms offer a huge amount of configuration and customization, and once a campaign is launched the platform algorithms get to work testing the campaign reactions and performance in ways us mere mortals never could. The skill then required is in interpreting this machine learning and fine-tuning campaigns for even better results.
Expert management of multiple PPC platforms with an understanding of their individual nuances and areas of best practice is a science in itself. For many companies it is a skill that will take them a lot of time and investment to develop. Outsourcing this function can be the quickest way to derive new business from these increasingly powerful platforms while internal skills are coming up to speed.
The new way
Here at Plexus, we believe this new way of conducting business development is far more cost effective than the costly cold calling team of old, but technology can never replace the skills and knowledge of a human, well not yet. PPC marketing if implemented correctly will certainly provide a return on investment by finding the people who are searching on the internet for solutions to the problems you can solve. Your cold calling team can then be put to far more effective use through building relationships with these warm prospects, without having to be intrusive and burn through endless hours of unfruitful calling.
We can help you to use technology to find the needles in the haystack with a marketing strategy that is underpinned by an expert PPC campaign design team, plus all of the services around that which are required to build an effective marketing strategy in this changing world.
It is ironic that we seem to have come full circle. We are no longer in a world where were segmenting using categories such as age, location or job function are successful; we are in a one-on-one world where we must talk in a personalized way to everyone. It means we are back to where we were in the beginning of the 20th century, where salespeople knew their customers all by name.
If any of the above resonates with your current situation, please get in touch for an informal chat to determine how we can help you fast forward to meet today’s marketing challenges.
The post Marketing never gets easier, but 2020 changed the game. Were you ready? appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post The Plexus Channel Strategy Framework appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>At Plexus we can deliver all of your IT channel marketing needs, but unlike many agencies we have an in depth knowledge of IT channel go-to-market strategy, so we can help you with everything from business development, partner selection and on-boarding through to sector specific campaigns.
In our last IT channel article, we looked at the challenges for a new or growing IT vendor in gaining mindshare within the traditional 2-tier channel model, which is so heavily dominated by the technology giants. This time we are switching gears to give you an overview of The Plexus Channel Strategy Framework which is a model designed to guide vendors to success in the channel based on our decades of practical experience.
The IT Channel can provide the ultimate extended sales force, but for many vendors the experience can be a frustrating one
Unless you are planning to hire a huge global direct sales team the IT channel is the obvious route to gain an army of sales people across the geographic regions and markets that you wish to serve. When the channel is working well it can provide the perfect vehicle to grow your business, however for many vendors the path to channel success can be a rocky one with many never reaching the business outcomes they had hoped for. In adopting the IT channel as a route to market you are essentially having to align your business model and modes of operation with that of an external organisiation, who may have very different business practices and objectives which could be in conflict to your own business goals.
In order to navigate the complexities of channel engagement we developed the Plexus Channel Strategy Framework which focuses on 5 key areas of channel engagement with the intention of surfacing any barriers to channel success. Our framework can be applied to any route to market whether that be a distributor, reseller partner or an OEM customer. Like any business strategy framework its usefulness will rely on the accuracy of the information gathered regarding the business environment, with regular reassessments being a key to continued success. No strategy framework offers all the answers to a complex engagement but our model sets out to challenge assumptions and set in place points of reference that are so easily overlooked in many IT channel partnerships.
Let us now look at the 5 keys areas of the Plexus Channel Strategy Framework and some of the questions that need to be answered to give your channel strategy the best chance of success.
1. Internal Business Alignment Factors critical to Go-To-Market Success
The starting point and core of The Plexus Channel Strategy Framework looks at alignment of key sales leadership and business management functions to ensure that outcomes such as revenue goals, compensation plans, training requirements and target markets are agreed and facilitated at the highest level. We have seen many examples where a channel engagement has failed to meet revenue expectations simply because the distribution or reseller sales team were operating under a compensation scheme that did not recognise product sales from the vendor. Having the correct incentives to sell is paramount for channel success and it is often overlooked. We see this regularly when a smaller vendor attempts to form an alliance plan with a tier one manufacturer only to find that the channel sales team are not incentivised in any way for products included in a sale that are outside of the tier 1 vendor’s price list. This is just one type of barrier we regularly surface during the Internal Alignment assessment, other key actions and areas for consideration include
- Performing stakeholder analysis and mapping
- Identify product champions
- Establish peer-to-peer executive alignments
- Establish and agree revenue targets
- Determine structure of sales force compensation plans to gauge motivation to sell
- Surface tensions that may hinder proactive selling
- Identify training needs and plan delivery
- Develop trust through demonstrating commitment to joint initiatives
- Regularly review the relationship trust cycle through peer-to-peer engagements and proactive communications
2. External Competition
Within this section of the framework we focus on the competitive solutions addressing the markets that our go-to-market partners are planning to sell into. The outcome of this analysis should determine if we need to do anything to improve our product messaging to ensure our channel partners can demonstrate a competitive advantage by offering our products to their customers. There are several parts to this. Firstly, we need to understand who the purchase decision makers are likely to be for our products and what each of these personas will be trying to solve through our solutions, more on this later. In addition, we need to analyse our competition and in particular the alternative vendors that our channel partners do not carry within their line card. We must ensure we have provided the best competitive sales tools to help them win with our solutions. Branding can play a very big part here, especially for a relatively new vendor who has not yet set in place an effective end user demand generation plan. Branding is a massively important area that many new vendors fail to address sufficiently. Even if we are looking at an OEM agreement rather than a pure channel play we still need to articulate ways in which our products can strengthen the core values of an OEM partners brand. Some key actions and areas for consideration within this section of the framework include
- Identify the partners market segment(s) and their key competitors
- Develop messaging and sales tools to assist the partner in establishing competitive advantage through our product offerings
- Continuously monitor the competitive environment with the partner to determine necessary changes to positioning strategy
- If the partner has branded our product determine the core values behind their brand identity
- Look for synergies that will enable our offering to further strengthen their brand values and co-develop appropriate messaging
- Perform brand contact audits with customers
- Create joint marketing communications plans based on brand audit results
3. Internal Competition
In many cases we will find that our channel partner does carry one or more of our competitors on their line card. In this instance we need to be strategic in our approach to ensure that we fully understand the history, current status and future direction of our channel partner’s relationship with our competitors. For example, if the channel partner has a long established and healthy ongoing relationship with a competitor and we have been taken on-board to simply provide a second source for their customers, then we probably do not want to run a sales floor day handing out damning leaflets and attempting to upstage any SPIFF programs our competitors may be running. Competitor relationships need to be discussed within stage one of our framework to avoid misunderstandings and internal conflict. The best strategy will invariably be to focus on training the partner in a value selling approach for your products to position them where they will provide greater value to the customer’s solution. If you are a smaller vendor with what appears at first glance to be a like-for-like solution you will most likely lose a price match against that larger incumbent vendor. However, you may find you have been taken on-board as the new golden child to displace an incumbent who are failing to meet expectations, in which case the gloves can come off. Key actions during this analysis will include:
- Identification of incumbent line card competitors
- Determine the channel partners long term strategy in relation to incumbent competitors and their current/future expected % contribution to overall revenue
- Develop sales tools and training to educate sales teams of your solution value positioning against incumbents and longer term ROI for end users
- Build trust through demonstrated commitment to joint initiatives. Start small, deliver, and build towards seamless relationship marketing
- For incumbents that form part the of the customers ongoing strategy develop covert messaging that presents superior values without creating conflict
- Ensure sales teams are compensated correctly to sell your products
- Use MDF as required to create incentive programs
4. Vendor Alliances
Forming a technology alliance can be an excellent way to gain pull through for your products, especially if you are aligning with a well-established market leader who contribute a major portion of your channel partner’s revenue. However, vendor alliances are a complex area worthy of a dedicated article as many of the Internal Alignment factors listed in section 1 come into play, there is always a high risk that you will expend a lot of resources into an alliance project for very little return. It comes as no surprise then that many vendors invest in an alliances management team. For the best chance of alliance success your product needs to offer a unique and valuable customer solution that provides your alliance partner with incremental sales opportunities. This could be achieved in several ways such as allowing entrance into new vertical markets, providing cross sell and up sell opportunities, or enabling the solution to integrate with additional technologies. Again the key to success is having a unique proposition that provides value to the end customer. If your solution merely provides the same add-on functionality as can be found from several other vendors, then you could very well spend months if not years trying to convince a technology partner to use their internal resources to add you to their qualified solutions matrix. Even if the certification process appears to be a trivial undertaking you may struggle to gain any executive level buy-in to commit their stretched resources to complete your certification. Vendor alliances is a broad topic but initial actions should include the following:
- Identify all external suppliers, ISV, IHV and also customer in-house product developments
- Look for synergies to create added value through supplier collaboration relevant to end user needs
- Look for suppliers who contribute significantly to the partners % of revenue who we may utilise to facilitate pull-through for our products
- Consider joint messaging and collaborative sales tools with partners
5. End Customer Focus
In our earlier article we spoke about the importance of gaining brand recognition and driving end user demand as a new vendor who does not yet have the clout of a tier 1 vendor in the IT channel. In order to deliver an effective message that will drive end users to seek out a way to evaluate and hopefully purchase your solution, a wide range of things need to align. Firstly, you need to ensure that your product or service provides a solution to a problem which they recognise as being strategically important to their business. We see so many vendors who have developed a wonderful solution to a problem very few people have. Next you need to identify what job functions will form part of the decision making unit (DMU) responsible for selecting the type of technology solution you are offering. Each member of the DMU will have different needs so your messaging needs to cover all bases. With Cloud based and as-a-service models, technology is no longer the exclusive realm of the IT department, so you will need an in depth understanding of the customer’s market environment, the DMU personas and the problems they are each trying to solve. Even if you are not an expert in a particular vertical market with a little research you can start to develop content that uses the ‘language’ of that sector, and if you then start to reference industry events that have specific relevance to the solutions you provide, or quote from relevant analyst reports you will start to gain recognition for your brand as a very viable provider for that vertical market. Of course, if you can align with a channel partner that has expertise within a specific vertical sector all the better, but in most cases you will need to do the heavy lifting yourself at the beginning.
- Identify vertical markets addressed by your channel partners, or markets where you believe you solutions can offer great value
- For each market identify buyer personas and their needs and any recent compelling events in that sector
- Consider how your product can address the needs of identified buyer personas in a differentiated way that will reset their thinking and bring your brand to the table as a new and very viable solution provider
- Determine opportunities for collaborative end user messaging with your channel partner
- Brainstorm possibilities for vendor alliances to create unique value and competitive advantage in solving end user risks
This article is longer than we would typically set out for our blog section but hopefully if you have reached this far you have a vested interest in the IT channel. If any of the issues highlighted above resonate with your recent or current IT channel experience, then please get in touch. Hopefully we can offer some ideas or resources to keep you on the right track to IT channel success.
Contact us today if you would like to have a deeper dive into the Plexus Channel Strategy Framework.
The post The Plexus Channel Strategy Framework appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>The post AI – It’s Full Steam Ahead in the Cloud Contact Centre! appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>Artificial Intelligence is certainly not a newcomer to Contact Centre operations but it is the power and flexibility of cloud computing that is really delivering advances in both Customer Experience (CX) improvements and a reduction in the cost per contact for service providers.
Here we will take a look at ways in which AI is reaching areas of contact centre operations and some of the most important considerations for any company looking to embrace this technology for the first time.
The Cloud Based Contact Centre Technology is driving Customer Understanding
Since the 90’s Interactive Voice Response (IVR) has been the key mechanism to provide skills based agent routing within the call centre. IVR is only effective in providing call centre efficiency and improved customer experience if we fully understand the most common reasons our customers need to contact us. Analysis of customer intent is just one key area were AI is providing valuable insights that can improve contact centre efficiency and customer experience.
First let’s quickly look at the technologies driving the application of AI in the contact centre and their key ingredients for success. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and subsequently Natural Language Understanding (NLU) underpin the current advances in contact centre operations, which as their names suggest, provide the ability to analyse human speech, whether that is presented in textual form or converted to text by analysis of a recorded, or in fact, a live conversation. The combination of NLP and NLU set out to interpret meaning, intent, sentiment and emotion within human language which can then be analysed to provide a wide array of benefits. NLP is certainly not new having generally started in the 1950’s, but it is the advances in processing power and in particular powerful parallel processing devices such as the GPU that have enabled complex AI models such as these to enter the mainstream and offer near real-time actionable insights.
NLP not only requires a lot of data in order to train its internal models to understand human language, but it thrives on receiving huge amounts of customer and contact centre agent transcripts to mine for patterns that can drive informed AI based decisions. Of course this requires both large amounts of data storage and processing power which is where the Cloud Contact Centre model steps in to enable these resources on demand. There is no longer any need for major on premise computing investments in the actual call centre. So the Cloud Contact Centre model is vital for anyone looking to embrace the full benefits of AI.
39% of Companies consider AI as the #1 emergent technology to impact CX1
AI technology has evolved rapidly in the last few years leading to a rise in adoption, so we believe it is very important for our customers to not get left behind.
Contact centres in particular are the perfect place to start implementing AI solutions as they are the source of enormous quantities customer data, impossible to process manually, and where implementing AI solutions can bring real benefits to efficiency and employee performance.
However, there are still barriers that block companies from the results that might be achieved with effective AI deployment. These include the lack of visibility on benefits and applicable use cases, disorganized and scattered data approaches and the inability to adapt the workforce to new technologies, tools and job requirements.
Below are some of the key use cases areas of AI application available today from our leading CCaaS partners.
Real-time Agent Assistance – Using AI to transcribe live conversations and then push knowledge to the agent in real-time to help solve customer issues. Effectively a real-time virtual training tool that can also greatly help new hires get up to speed.
Speech Analytics – Listens and transcribes every customer interaction, using AI to identify key moments of the conversation, topics and sentiment. Allowing for easily identify business trends, agent coaching needs and ensuring call quality.
Virtual Agent Technology – similar to the principles behind IVR, Virtual Agent platforms require a period of training based on analysis of common customer support requests so we recommend you use this for internal employee service first, then deploy to your customers for after-hours support and then, as your organisation is ready, deploy it for those redundant service requests your agents routinely get that can be easily handled by a virtual agent. Our key advice aims to help you deploy AI in a way that protects your CX while enabling you to take advantage of the benefits of AI now.
AI Powered Knowledge Base – Contact centres struggle to make sure agents can easily find and deliver the right answers to customers on a consistent basis. The reality for many companies is that information and data are located in a variety of places and maintained by different teams making it difficult to deliver to those who need it. The latest AI Powered platforms can connect to any external content source and enable any user to create, modify, publish and curate knowledge. The built-in AI assists administrators by identifying content gaps, suggesting improvements to existing content and suggesting better search queries to find the right answers. The AI knowledge base would typically provide the engine to empower the Virtual Agent and Real-time Agent Assistance functions previously described.
As you can see, the application of AI in the contact centre is an exciting and rapidly evolving area of technology that is driving down the cost per contact, increasing revenue and most importantly improving CX for those companies would are embracing the benefits correctly. It is a vast topic but hopefully we have wetted your appetite with some of the key functions that you can start to implement today with the leading Cloud Contact Centre providers.
Contact us today if you would like to have a deeper dive into AI in the Contact Centre or better still to schedule a demonstration to see some of these functions in action.
The post AI – It’s Full Steam Ahead in the Cloud Contact Centre! appeared first on Plexus Communications.
]]>