Highly Competitive - software industry insights

Riding the Mobile Data Highway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image source:  cisco.com

 

Vendors and services providers for mobility management solutions can overly fixate on the vast array of software platforms and services for "corralling" mobile devices and ensuring secure computing. While these are vital areas, ultimately to enable successful organizations it can be far more important to provide services to amplify the value of what employees are doing with mobile devices. Particularly as businesses have become more mobile, the never-ending ebb and flow of data has made comprehensive data management a mission critical element both for business agility and for guaranteeing trustworthy, useable data.

Mobility adds a distinct flavor to real-time data management, particularly since mobile is a top source of big data. But data by itself – no matter the source – carries no value. Even worse, poorly managed data can cause real harm to organizations. Real value accrues when data sources are streamlined and cleaned up, when the processes that consume and create data are more responsive to business needs, and when business users trust the data they are using for decisions and work requirements.

Obviously business data is everywhere these days, as cloud services and mobile software offerings keep pace with worker preferences for tools. End-to-end task workflows may even take place on multiple platforms, off and on premises. The future of applications for mobile devices is ultimately about providing the workforce with the data they need, when they need it and where they need it. With a growing "mobile first" mindset for workers, organizations must enable as much functionality for their employees as possible while also ensuring data - and corporate - security.

One of the important changes for data management solutions is the demand for many different ways that integration processes can be created and used. Not only do data integration platforms need to be high performance, they must continue to innovate ways to connect to data where it lives, and then perform any number of actions to take data where it is needed. Added to integration and management imperatives is the ongoing battle to eliminate more data silos, to speed up access to the right data from mobile devices.

With 'speed to solution' as a crucial aspect of mobile data management, managed services can play an important role to provide what many organizations need, by applying expertise in mobility and cloud services to 'old school' data management processes and mindsets. True data mobility gives rise to data flows consistently and "effortlessly" (from the user perspective) between any points whether cloud or on premises.

Managed services have a natural fit with the management of the entire life cycle of mobile data and information. The objective is to keep up with changes regarding where data is created and stored, and where it needs to flow, to reach everyone in the organization who can benefit from such data. So mobile data management is as much about continuously creating and maintaining the right business processes as it is about data access and security.

Process-centric initiatives are often optimal approaches for the things that companies want to accomplish. Business processes make it possible to directly connect work to business outcomes that lend themselves to various metrics that provide clarity for business performance. It is through business processes that data can be mapped to business value.

Some of the difficulty for transitioning how enterprises derive value from business processes (and the data running through them) is the fact that most data-related initiatives have been driven by IT instead of by business-oriented roles. To enable better business outcomes, mobile data management initiatives need to bring business and IT teams together as symbiotic partners. Managed services providers can be the game-changing bridge to promote strong relationships between business and IT teams in order to best support a growing mobile workforce.

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM's PivotPoint. Dedicated to providing valuable insight from industry thought leaders, PivotPoint offers expertise to help you develop, differentiate and scale your business.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

One on One Engagement: Mobile Content Marketing

 

Mobile-first is a phrase often heard when discussing web and content design, as well as marketing strategies. The mobile-first focus propels companies into strategies that reflect the amazing growth of mobile usage for business purposes, both on smartphones and tablets. And we are likely to see more vendors move towards mobile-only strategies, as mobile becomes the core customer communications platform for their businesses.

Many reports show that B2C vendors are quickly taking rewarding advantage of marketing and selling through mobile channels. But B2B vendors greatly lag their B2C counterparts, continuing to miss out on a significant opportunity that brings distinct competitive advantage. B2B customers bring with them the positive experiences that B2C vendors give them on mobile – B2B vendors must engage well on mobile if they want to continue to gain and retain these customers.

The average person spends two hours per day looking at a mobile screen. Think about that. Two hours out of every twenty-four – 8% of an entire day – on a mobile device. That's more time than users spend watching TV or using a personal computer. Whether it's at home, at work, or in between, users seem to be inseparable from their mobile devices.   (Source: High Impact Prospecting )

For midsized vendors the message is clear: mobile is wide open right now for smart vendors to reach more customers in very direct and compelling ways – every day. It's time to jump in to create effective mobile marketing strategies and a creative approach to mobile content marketing.

 

Mobile Content Design

Mobile devices offer new ways to create and deliver content which opens up many new possibilities for content marketing teams. Content marketing strategies and content creation have to recognize how different mobile content is from content that is delivered on traditional computing devices. For instance, Google search algorithms are constantly updated to reflect the rising creation of mobile content of all kinds, so it's important for content marketers to develop the right mobile content that aligns with successful semantic search results.

                        

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile marketers also have to understand the mobile behavior of target customers: how do they use their mobile devices for different activities? Tablet usage is different from smartphone usage, so marketers need to segment user behavior by device. The available space on a smartphone is obviously premium real estate, while tablets offer a larger canvas for content. The wealth of information that comes from tracking and analyzing how people use mobile devices adds significant intelligence to correctly engaging customers one on one, in ways that they will accept.

Beyond the knowledge about how people use their mobile devices, marketers need to consider what these people are doing when they are consuming mobile content. They could be commuting on a train, plane or bus; in the office; or at home. In different settings, mobile content has to compete with all kinds of distractions. To grab and hold the usually brief attention of the mobile user, content should follow a mobile-smart model:

• Bite-sized content that quickly gets to the point
• High impact "wow" content
• Easy-to-spot actions to take
• Streamlined layouts
• Visual elements instead of text, whenever possible
• Easy-to-read fonts
• Vibrant colors for overall content

There are vendors experimenting with longer form content for mobile engagement. Instead of longer content as the initial view, it may be more effective to offer links to that longer content or to videos. This approach gives control to the mobile user who can then decide when to view additional content that can be time and resource consuming. Vendors can then track click through and conversion metrics to determine the success of longer form content approaches to learn more about customer desires and attention span, and to fine tune marketing efforts.

 

Mobile Content Marketing Strategies

Mobile content marketing is a component of overall content marketing strategies. It should fit well into a unified and consistent experience for customers, no matter what device / channel is used for engagement. And for some companies, mobile is becoming the dominant component, so content marketing strategies must reflect the growing significance of mobile for marketing and selling.

81% of mobile leaders say that mobile fundamentally changed their businesses    (Source: IBM )

Many midsized businesses lack any sort of mobile strategy, let alone planning for effective mobile content marketing. These businesses are missing tremendous opportunities to reach more customers and are likely giving away competitive advantage to other vendors.

  

Image source: Content Marketing Institute

 

This post was brought to you by IBM for Midsize Business and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit  IBM's Midsize Insider. Dedicated to providing businesses with expertise, solutions and tools that are specific to small and midsized companies, the Midsize Business program provides businesses with the materials and knowledge they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

  

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Shaping the Future of Customer-Responsive Marketing Automation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marketing automation has shown that it can be a smart tool (when done right) for shepherding and converting leads, and automating marketing processes. The near future role for marketing automation has begun evolving as MA technologies have become more sophisticated to deliver customer-responsive interactions on any channel. If this evolution continues, the name 'marketing automation' will become inadequate to describe what can be accomplished with these technologies when combined with customer-focused processes, practices and strategies.

Within the marketing realm, marketing automation capabilities are becoming an important component of integrated marketing and communications, for seamless interaction management on any channel and support for omnichannel customer experiences. Marketing automation is also converging with cross-enterprise customer-adaptive processes and 'sense and respond' models, both of which have been in practice for quite some time for various enterprise functions, with customer needs as a strong focus.

Marketing automation has growing relationships with 'anything customer', such as customer service and customer master data. Content marketing strategies and initiatives are essential partners for effective MA. To deliver better buying experiences, marketing automation integrated with other customer-focused systems can reveal a great deal about customer behavior, motivation, and needs. Organizations can interact more authentically with customers anywhere using such intelligence.

 

Speeding Past 'Sense and Respond' to "Predict and Act"

Retail and eCommerce take advantage of customer-adaptive processes to personalize and propel buying journeys. And supply chain management and retail have successfully utilized 'sense and respond', aka agile/lean or just-in-time management, to optimize supply chain functions while speedily fulfilling end customer requirements. For these models, important common denominators aren't just responding to customers more quickly and accurately, but also delivering more value to customers - on customer terms.

The increase in real-time multichannel communications and interaction touchpoints has brought 'sense and respond' processes to marketing. Mobile is a particular focal point for sense and respond, particularly with the increasing use of 'in the moment' marketing and buying opportunities. Touchpoints become more effective with sense and respond and customer-adaptive processes behind them. The customer intelligence attained through integrating data and analytics from marketing automation, customer service and other customer-focused functions will power smarter touchpoints that include faster, more customer-accurate responses. The implications for competitive advantage are clear.

The strategic combining of marketing automation with cross-functional integrations results in continuous highly personalized communications delivered to customers. Adaptive processes based on context continuously respond more accurately to every customer action on any channel. Marketing and other customer functions are now in the world of real-time, location-aware customer experiences, moving past the basic mechanics of interaction.

Predictive analytics behind both customer-adaptive processes and 'sense and respond' are moving organizations from analysis of past and in-process interactions to anticipation of near future activities in order to better understand and fulfill customer desires. The continuing transformation of marketing automation is rapidly changing to "predict and act".

But all of this takes strategic commitment, the right experts, much preparation and testing, improved processes, and a lot of hard work. Done right, there is much to be gained for nurturing and growing ongoing customer relationships. To achieve more valuable use of marketing automation, you have to start with thoroughly understanding customers, buyer journeys, trigger events and key touchpoints. This means a great deal of research, analysis and segmentation at sophisticated levels – all of which will have to be constantly refreshed.

    

Technologies as Evolutionary Tools

When marketing automation is first introduced into an organization it's easy to get caught up in the tunnel vision of how to use new technologies and the tactical tasks that can be accomplished. It's easy to fail to see the big picture of how all the pieces fit together to achieve higher level objectives and corporate strategies. Many are still struggling to connect these technologies to overall marketing functions, and larger objectives – and to add all of the right people: designers, marketing technologists, analytics experts, data managers, content professionals, and strategists of all kinds.

As marketing automation technologies have progressed to better manage multichannel interactions and an omnichannel customer experience, they're addressing the complexities of understanding interactions during buying journeys, accurate customer segmentation and better personalized communications. A comprehensive view of the customer requires more than what the marketing automation platform covers. Extensive integrations are essential with other systems and processes, such as CRM, content management, content marketing, and social media tools. Marketing automation works best when it includes bi-directional integrations with other customer and product focused systems to deliver the most accurate intelligence in real-time - to any function.

Business process design, automation and event processing must be done at sophisticated levels to respond to circumstances and participants that can change at any time. All of this comes into play to both manage and maintain response-ready processes for today's more complicated customer experience lifecycles.

 

Overcoming Organizational Obstacles

Like much in the enterprise, cross-functional collaboration and integration of business processes are key elements for successful outcomes. The entire organization must be empowered to make a strategic commitment to the customer and to nurturing improved experiences. Upper level management must ensure that the entire organization can focus on the customer first, with top notch execution of practices and processes.

Organizations that continue to see marketing as an add-on function will not achieve improved customer experiences. Organizations that allow functional silos to persist are equally destined for failure. Because of these organizational flaws, most obstacles to successful marketing automation and customer-adaptive processes are not directly related to marketing automation itself:

• Inadequate budget for all aspects of marketing automation and multichannel interactions
• Reluctance to invest in quality content creation for all customer interactions (which also impacts the content marketing strategy)
• Lack of the right staffing and skillsets -- and no budget to invest in them
• Poor cross-team integration and collaboration
• Lagging systems integration across the organization
• Deficient data quality and analytics processes
• Badly designed business processes across the organization

 

The Future is Now

The idea of the customer-focused organization has been around for a while, but there's still a lot to be done to do it well – and to earn value in the eyes of customers. Continuously positive customer interactions obviously create immeasurable return for an organization. Such experiences result in more resilient customer loyalty – but to achieve them requires sophisticated actions and orchestration of practices and processes across the organization. Non-integrated silos for communications, marketing, customer service, and product development cannot ever achieve a holistic customer experience that matters to customers.

The strategic potential of marketing automation isn't about a single campaign or even the marketing function, and it isn't about the technology platform. It's about customer experiences throughout the lifecycle of a customer with a particular organization. Customers and markets can change very quickly; agile and sophisticated technologies, processes and creative practices are needed to grow and sustain positive customer relationships. Marketing automation can evolve into a customer-focused platform that offers new possibilities as an orchestration hub for a significant portion of customer interactions and for nurturing improved customer experiences with a vendor.

Marketing automation has the potential to become an important catalyst for the multi-dimensional intelligence that is critical for digital marketing processes and many other corporate functions . To achieve this, not only is a change in the marketing mindset essential, but the overall corporate mindset where marketing objectives become an integral part of corporate strategies.

 

Image Sources   business2community.com      clarkstonconsulting.com

 

 

About the author: Julie is an independent consultant and industry analyst for B2B software solutions, providing services to vendors to improve strategies for customers and target markets, products and solutions, and future direction. Julie has expertise in several solution spaces including: data integration and data quality; analytics and BI; business process, workflow and collaboration; digital marketing, WCM and social media; and the pivotal importance of user and customer experiences. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

 

Mobile Marketers: Think More Like Mobile Developers

 

 

Business-related mobile apps are increasingly being created by organizations, large and small. There are an abundance of developer platforms, many as cloud services, that keep costs down. The same can be said for analytics tools that monitor the various aspects of mobile user behavior. Mobile marketing also benefits from such analytics, whether the marketing effort is related to specific apps, to products and services, or to the promotion of the brand.

The success of anything on a mobile device, particularly a smartphone, is completely dependent on fully understanding how individual people use the device. Different tasks can be executed in different ways, from user to user. These behavioral patterns dictate how mobile apps, websites and marketing communications must be structured in order to quickly engage potential users and customers. And mobile user behavior continuously changes.

Marketers will fail if they approach mobile as traditional online digital marketing accessed through desktops / laptops. In some ways, to be effective as a mobile marketer you have to think like a mobile developer – you have to get "up close and personal" with mobile users and their devices, to better understand how to engage them effectively on mobile terms. With the growth of in-app marketing, thinking like a developer has even more importance.

 

Instant Quality Experiences

Mobile is all about the user experience 24/7. When shopping, using apps or interacting with brands, the mobile user experience is an instant customer experience – and it had better be outstanding. People expect access to what they want when they want it – and they want the experience across mobile devices to be consistent. Mobile attention spans are miniscule so vendors must instantly open up remarkable experiences or the potential mobile customer is gone.

Mobile users are fast and decisive when it comes to shopping and researching products. 70% of mobile searches lead to an action within 1 hour, as opposed to 70% of desktop searches leading to an action within 1 month. Often the next action for a mobile searcher is a phone call – Spafax has found that "inbound phone calls are 15 times more likely to convert to customers than an inbound web lead that downloaded a White Paper or e-book".

 

Tracking User Behavior

For marketers, mobile not just a single channel – it's extremely multi-dimensional and complex. For mobile developers and marketers alike the complexity comes from the diversity of devices, interfaces, browsers – plus deciding between mobile web or mobile app as the means of interacting with users. The high value real estate of device screen size is another dimension of complexity – everything on the display has to be of highest value to users and exactly what they need.

Analytics tools are a must to better understand mobile user behavior. Behavioral analytics provide deeper understanding of the digital life of different kinds of mobile users. Different analytics track user activities on apps and sites (taps, time spent, engaging UI elements, action sequences, etc.); other analytics track higher level events like downloads and purchases.

Mobile phones come equipped with multiple sensors that provide valuable data to behavioral analytics. Of course privacy is a serious consideration, but more and more mobile users are comfortable with always-on location sensors and sharing personal information, whenever the vendor provides the benefits and value that they want. Marketers should leverage the mobile device itself as an organic marketing opportunity.

 

With solid analytics results in hand, marketers can do more with targeted marketing on mobile devices -- including push communications -- via in-app and mobile websites. My next mobile marketing post will talk more about the value that mobile users gain from push communications – when done right.

 

Image source: technorati.com

 

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I've been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

 

About the author: Julie Hunt understands the overlap and convergence of many business processes and software solutions that once were thought of as "separate" – and how this impacts software Vendors and Buyers, as well as the strategies that enterprises implement for how technology supports the business and its customers. Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitiveand on Twitter: @juliebhunt For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategies for B2B Software Solutions: Working from the Customer Perspective

 

Content Marketing Strategy for B2B Software Vendors: Starring the ‘New’ White Paper

 

For the past several years, multiple studies by different research firms have been conducted to evaluate the most sought-out and influential content for B2B technology customers during decision-making buying cycles, and every time, in every study, the #1 preferred content is the White Paper.

The white paper is the #1 most influential piece of collateral that technology purchasers consult when making or influencing a buying decision for their company, according to a recent survey by Eccolo Media

However, many B2B software vendors still are missing the boat with their use of white papers and have not employed them in ways to engage potential buyers, let alone convert them to customers.

  

In The Beginning…

Technology white papers find their origins in government briefs that were called white books, alluding to the plain white binding that was used. With the transformation to the technology white paper, experts, lead architects, systems designers used these documents to provide authoritative discussions of key ideas or technologies to show thought leadership and future direction. The classic white paper was very technical and dissertation-like, rich with in-depth details and research results.

Then something happened to white papers when many software companies began to generate them as “product collateral”. White papers were hijacked by many product marketing and marketing groups to directly promote products. Content became thinly veiled product brochures extolling the virtues of the software offerings, highlighting information favorable to the vendor. White papers became just another item in the checklist of collateral to generate for a product launch. Little strategic thinking or advance planning went into creating white papers, including the recruitment of a top tech professional to write the white paper. Well, guess what: software solution buyers do not like that kind of white paper.

 When asked what most disappointed in a white paper, poor writing ranked number one.

 One surprise in the findings – the respondents said they're more disappointed when a white paper doesn't contain enough technical information rather than when a paper contains too much.

 

 What Potential Buyers Want In Effective White Papers

Quality Quality Quality

Customers continue to call out high quality writing with accurate and useful content as top values for the white papers that they want to read and use. They want plenty of details (tech / business), which means content has to be: tight, clear, compelling, authentic.

The survey also found that the quality of report writing gets noticed. Some 86% of respondents felt that high-quality writing was at least moderately influential and 51% ranked good writing as either very or extremely influential. By contrast, poor quality writing was the most frequent reason respondents gave for decreasing the influence of a white paper.

 

Less Time to Consume Content

A lot of great content is constantly published on the web, due largely to constant brisk evolution of business needs and corresponding software solutions. Customers would like to consume a large variety of content, so they prefer shorter lengths for white papers. Shorter white papers also allow vendors to generate a constant flow of new content that also keeps pace with business and tech changes. According to most of the studies cited in this article, the ideal length of a white paper is 4-8 pages. (Tech Marketing Best Practices Research Series on white papers states that 86% of tech buyers want white papers under 10 pages.)

 

Buyers are proactive in the use of white papers:

How to Maximize the Use of White Papers in Your B2B Marketing and Sales Process, released by InformationWeek in February 2009. Its survey of 542 professional buyers found that 93% of IT buyers pass along up to half of the white papers they read/download, and that 54% of those surveyed contacted a vendor for more information after reading a white paper.

 

No Registration Please

When marketing groups co-opted the white paper another marketing staple was added: requiring buyer registration to be able to download the white paper. There is a strong buyer sentiment that vendor websites should not require any information from the buyer for any content downloads.  After all, the sales engagement is buyer-driven, with the buyer deciding when and if next steps will be taken.

A recent survey done by Spiceworks (SMB IT management resource site) addressed the issue of having to register for white papers:

We also found a lot of people – more than 75% – DON'T sign up for papers requiring registration, which means the vendor is missing the opportunity to share and disseminate their knowledge.

         How many (vendors) stopped requiring registration as the result of your survey?

A handful so far. The results are pretty staggering. When you remove the "registration wall," downloads go way up. One white paper that was offered without registration was downloaded 500 times in three days!

  

White Papers and Content Marketing Strategies

Potential buyers visit B2B corporate websites with the intent of finding all kinds of information that will help with purchase decisions. Buyers also look for vendor information on other web venues. It is critical for any vendors who see web presence as a key to success to build a strategy for content marketing. A content marketing strategy for B2B software vendors should focus on providing relevant, compelling, and frequently updated information for target markets and customers/buyers. A high quality white paper is a significant business asset for content marketing: quality content holds its value for reusability, engagement, impact, and vendor credibility.

Adam Needles: Content marketing is the architecture behind information exchanged with the buyer before we can get them to ’sales ready’; it is the rationalization of what content that our prospective buyers need at various stages of the buying cycle and via what media and channels; and it is integral to the nurturing process.  Content thus has moved from tactical to strategic.

 

Many B2B software vendors could benefit greatly from building a content marketing strategy around white papers. Don’t just produce single white papers in a reactive fashion, as a product launch checklist item done in a hurry. Plan, create and publish excellent white papers well in advance of any product launches.  B2B software vendors should be publishing white papers with high frequency (since customers want shorter white papers): set the stage for what your company does now and will do in future. Show authentic thought leadership, clear understanding of various customer needs and real problem-solving.

Publishing sets of “companion” white papers is a good idea for vendors targeting buyers with different perspectives such as business and tech buyers, and biz-tech composites. Some white papers can be created to bridge the gap between business and tech, to encourage collaborative definition of needs and problem-solving. Series of white papers that break down a complex topic can be an interesting approach as well. These approaches will show vendor commitment to helping customers understand current technology trends as well as provide guidance for solving problems or for becoming more competitive.

Beyond publishing great white papers is the opportunity for vendors to engage customers in conversations through social media, wherever customers participate. There already is a social aspect to downloaded white papers – customers have a high rate of sharing white papers. Tap into social media for interactive conversations with potential buyers and industry writers. On download pages include links to communities and forums to encourage discussion. Schedule Tweetjams for topics covered in white papers. Comment on blogs that address the topics of vendor white papers, not to directly promote the white paper, but to add to the brainstorm and show command of the topic.

 

Value of white papers for B2B software vendors:

 
 

   

The Right Industry Professional to Create White Papers for B2B Software Vendors

Keeping in mind that customers have made clear that they want high quality content with extensive tech details, it would make sense to work with a software industry professional with strong tech experience, business smarts, and who can articulate complex ideas clearly and authentically. This would be a professional who has worked with customers, understands both business and tech, has the ability to hold the interest of these readers. And of course, this professional has to be a really good writer.

White papers will benefit from a professional who has decent smarts for several software solution categories and who has good hands-on experience on the tech side of software. The business-technology professional should contribute rich insight, produce creative content and original thinking, see unexpected connections and future trends. Direct customer experience enhances an understanding of how tech will help customer competitiveness, and will enable writing from the customer POV.

Another very useful attribute of the right professional would be one who is inter-connected to individuals throughout the software industry: analysts, practitioners, consultants, writers, vendors. A professional who is in constant conversations with other industry SMEs will be up-to-date on key topics and trends, and will have resources at hand for research and confirmation. Quality white papers will result if the professional regularly writes software industry-related articles and blog posts, participates in new product briefings from various vendors and start-ups, and continually monitors several software solution spaces. A business-technology professional who is well-connected in social media can also provide guidance to vendors for content marketing strategies that target white papers and social media.

 

The ‘New’ White Paper:

• Reflecting studies cited: high quality and accurate content, plenty of deep details (tech / business), 8 pages or less which engenders content that is tight, engaging, well-written, inspiring
• Often written from the customer POV, using customer language
• Covers trends that matter: new solution segments – transitions of solutions
• Real takeaways that benefit customers whether they buy the vendor solution or not - vendor is associated with insight to solving problem, doing things in new way that is useful
• Inform, educate at sophisticated level to provide real depth
• Create companion white papers when different customer roles come into play for the topic (business, tech, hybrid/composite)
• Passion in the treatment: blogging has shown that writing about software solutions is more engaging if the writer inserts personality into the work – apply this to white papers when appropriate
• Provoke thought about the solution space: new thinking for addressing needs; provoke desire to find out more;  provoke a conversation that will lead back to the vendor
• Look into employing variety of buyer scenarios to connect customers to relevance of topic
• Infographics, tech details, guidelines, suggested reading, links to other resources (not necessarily on vendor site) – all add to value in buyer eyes
• Format for readability, flow, quick-scanning, engagement
• Publish on the distributed web – not just on corporate site but share on sites frequented by buyers
• Stir the pot: encourage social media conversations through blogs, Twitter, forums, communities, Facebook; also actively contribute comments on relevant blogs
• Not self-serving brochure-ware solely touting vendor offering – but can address issues that matter to buyers that generally could be solved with vendor’s offering

 

Related Links

SMB / Mid-Market B2B Software vendors - Findability + web presence + social: attracting the “customer as buyer”

I have a confession to make: I am a Hybrid

Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework?

 

  

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Strategic Product & Market Intelligence Services

 

Time Travel Required: Finding WEM in the 2010 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management

 

A few days ago while reading through various articles about the future of websites and web presence, I came across a post by Thomas Baekdal that started off with a look back to the beginnings of web design:

 Back in 1998 designing for the internet was all about 3 things:

Design for the desktop, where the vast majority was using 800x600, with their browser maximized.

Design a website, a place where people could come to you. With emphasize on getting traffic and have them stick around as long as possible.

Optimize for the many search engines, because that was the primary way people would get to you.

But if we fast-forward to today, none of these really matters anymore. You still need them, but they are no longer the best things to do.

  

The reference to 1998 immediately brought to mind the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management: while the MQ does cover concepts newer than Baekdal’s 1998 list, the basic approach for this MQ is very 1998: it’s déjà vu all over again…

Then I recalled this passage in Jon Marks' post on the 2010 MQ:

Most of these little yellow dots haven’t drifted very far in a year – the report is pretty similar despite the M&A activity that has kept us bloggers busy. So pretty much a repeat of last year.

If I were a police officer, I would be repeating:  Move along, nothing to see here. No offense to most of the vendors in the benchmark, but this MQ does nothing to excite us about the future of websites / WEM / web presence nor does it do much to stimulate buyer interests for finding the right-fit solutions for business needs.  

  

Redux: Moving Beyond WCM - Web Experience Management Software Solutions and Markets

 So I decided to take a look at an article I wrote almost a year ago about understanding WEM (web experience management) markets and solutions: the article includes a reference to the 2009 Gartner MQ for WCM. I wanted to see how many of my reactions to the 2009 MQ would now be different >> answer: none. Which sadly means that not much has changed with this new 2010 Gartner benchmark for providing value to vendors and buyers: 

When it comes to how to select the best-fit Web Content Management (WCM) software, a great deal of confusion continues to haunt vendors and customers alike.  Industry analysts have done little to make this any easier by perpetuating these mistakes:

• Frequently lumping together disparate offerings that target clearly separate customer segments and customer needs
• Failing to segment WCM offerings into solution categories, such as:  Web Experience Management (WEM) for Enterprise, basic web publishing for internal business processes/intranet, mid-market solutions for e-commerce, and so on
• Persisting with the pointless notion that WCM is a functional subset of Enterprise Content Management (ECM), especially in light of the speciousness of the ECM platform; such a notion is even more off-target when considering WEM solutions
• While understanding that WEM solutions are directly tied to interactive/digital marketing initiatives, analyst reports and benchmarks fail to use this understanding as an essential tenet of such reports

  

Looking for WEM?

Web Experience Management has come together as a segment of WCM software solutions and reflects current directions for websites and web presence for certain companies and organizations:

It has been mainly customers who have helped to propel the WCM industry into providing the sorts of capabilities that are really needed for external-facing websites that are central to strategic business objectives.  So a significant segment of the overall WCM market has evolved into Web Experience Management (WEM), for which a much larger solution ecosystem has come together.  Most Web Experience Management platforms have little to do with basic content management or basic web publishing (à la WordPress and TypePad), and even less to do with the so-called ECM (enterprise content management) platform. 

A more complete WEM solution description includes:

• Understanding of solutions for B2B, B2C web/marketing initiatives
• Sophisticated digital / interactive marketing strategies
• External-facing web presence / multi-channel content delivery
• Website essential to corporate business strategy
• Ecosystem of ancillary tools to complete end-to-end solution for customer objectives
• Savvy use of social media, well-integrated into website and marketing plans
• Alignment with interactive/digital agencies

So a Web Experience Management solution is really a composite of several “markets”: 

• WCM solution suite, with usability both for business users and IT personnel (includes behind-the-scenes “content management”, workflow, design tools, and so on)
• Enterprise-quality portal / presentation management
• Recommendations-like technology for social search and personalization
• Web analytics / testing / content monetizing tools
• Rich media and video content management (monetizing components as appropriate)
• Social collaboration / social marketing capabilities
• Extensive integration / interoperability capabilities at several levels of the enterprise infrastructure

 

For buyers in search of WEM software solution vendors, it’s going to take some work to find them in the 2010 MQ. While the 2010 MQ dances around a number of the above capabilities, it never directly addresses WEM solutions, preferring to stick to more of a “classic” (1998?) description of WCM:

Gartner defines WCM as the process of controlling the content to be consumed over one or more online channels through the use of commercial, open-source or hosted management tools based on a core repository. We exclude products such as portals and e-commerce engines even though these technologies have overlapping functions in areas such as personalization, content management and content delivery.

 

(Originally the MQ for WCM 2010 was here - Gartner demanded the deletion of the diagram. JH - 6/12/2014) 

 

 

The Inside-Out Corporation

This particular MQ report for web content management seems to epitomize the work of a corporation more interested in its own goals, and one that is not operating from the customer POV, even though a lot of its revenue is customer-driven. And this particular MQ seems comprised of artificial parameters that only benefit a Gartner agenda. Drawing on my 1998 flashback, this benchmark also seems to be advocating “old school” decision-making processes for tech purchase decisions, focusing on IT rather than business/marketing decision-makers, and on recession scare tactics by primarily advocating big vendors to make the “safe” decision.

In a recession economy, for a company to effect growth, risks have to be taken, and business should be conducted in new ways with new technology paradigms. Companies must make tech purchases based on business goals and needs that contribute to success and competitive edge. Corporate websites and web presence are critical to the success of many businesses: to connect to potential customers wherever they are on the web; to engage buyers - whether B2C or B2B. How a company effectively uses the internet is constantly changing, so corporations need forward-looking solutions – unfortunately we aren’t finding guidance for such solutions in this Gartner MQ.

Evaluations of WEM / WCM solutions are somewhat unique in that they must consider two levels of customers: one is comprised of the buyers of the technology to build websites and manage web presence, and the other is comprised of the target customers that the original tech buyers want to attract/engage with their websites and web presence. Since WEM / WCM solutions impact two levels of buyers, we must look at the technology as a means to an end – it is the “end” that really matters and must be foremost in the minds of solution buyers. Unfortunately this Gartner MQ is not very focused on either the direct buyer of the technology or the customers that the WEM solution buyer hopes to attract.

  

Vendors Offerings Are Part of the Problem

WEM / WCM vendors also own responsibility for the failure of analyst benchmarks to provide clear guidance for buyers. Most vendors adhere to the vague domains of “WCM”, or worse, “CMS”, hedging their bets with offerings that are too horizontal to know if they truly align to the needs of buyers in search of specific WEM capabilities.  WEM is one of few truly segmented solutions in the larger mass of WCM. It’s time for vendors to shake off non-differentiated, broad offerings, to declare real solution segments and target markets (by working with specific industry scenarios and revenue segments). By doing so, vendor solutions will only get better at meeting the needs of specific markets and customers.

I’m frustrated by the continuation of terms like WCM / ECM / CMS – these vague terms just blur a “solution space” that is populated with scores of products from very basic to very complex. Lately there has been a superficial debate that WEM is yet another meaningless vendor buzzword. To the contrary, overly generalized terms like WCM and CMS are the buzzwords that have no real meaning anymore because they include everything and define nothing. WEM is an actual solution with clear purpose and defined capabilities. Whether or not a particular vendor provides an authentic WEM solution is another issue – but to assume none are providing WEM is ridiculous.

 

Back to the Future

Web presence and the various purposes of websites have changed dramatically and will continue to do so. In this MQ, Gartner seems to have overlooked the importance of distributed web presence and new approaches to marketing on the web. New solutions are evolving that are not necessarily based in “classic” WCM.

But what may be the most important factor for a lot of companies is a strong emphasis on the customer-focused web presence for the company. And this may mean that company web presence will show up on other websites, instead of on the corporate website. Additionally a WCM/WEM software platform may only be one of the components of a new management framework for all web presence (management of web content still matters but may not be tied to a specific website anymore).

Content is extremely important to a lot of web marketing plans and strategies, and content is the meat of most social sites, whether it is a conversation thread, a video, a blog post, and so on. So look for WEM solutions themselves to continue to evolve as the means of managing and delivering any kind of content for sites anywhere on the web, through any channel.

Web marketing and customer relationship strategies are changing (and improving) – companies need new solutions and practices to manage the new world. More companies have come to understand that first they must build the web marketing / presence strategy that will accomplish their goals. Then they have to figure out how to achieve the goals of the marketing strategy, which will involve preferred practices and processes, as well as technology.  With web presence evolution, marketing strategies should include orchestration of web presence via other sites, and how to integrate with conversations and content from those external sites.

 

To find significant forward-looking thinking regarding the future of web presence and websites, it may be best to look at the many talented writers and practitioners for website design and WEM solutions technology who understand the evolution taking place right now.  Many writers and practitioners for marketing technology, digital marketing and social media also contribute valuable insight for the future of web presence. Here are a few suggestions to get started:

Web Content, Website design:

A List Apart

Ian Truscott

Paul Boag

Stéphane Croisier

Aral Balkan

Aarron Walter

 

CMS Wire has been featuring many talented writers and recently added a WEM focus (in CMS Wire WEM is “web engagement management” but the capabilities and intent are the same)

 

Interactive Marketing – Social Media:

Jeremiah Owyang and Altimeter Group

Hubspot

Chris Brogan 

David Armano and Edelman Digital       

 

  

Related Articles:

Moving beyond WCM - Web Experience Management software solutions and markets

Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework?

The Effective Intranet – Engaging the Employee as Customer

B2B WEM / WCM Software Vendors Targeting Mid-Market customers: stay where you are!  

SMB / Mid-Market B2B Software vendors - Findability + web presence + social: attracting the “customer as buyer”

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services

Disclaimer: Julie Hunt occasionally contributes articles to CMS Wire.

  

Influential Moving Target? -- Edelman’s Top Tweeting IT Analysts List

Jonny Bentwood of Edelman recently unveiled an example of Edelman’s approach to measuring influence on Twitter, utilizing the Edelman-branded TweetLevel tool. The list of Top IT Analyst Tweeters, initially published on July 21, consists of the top tweeters among the IT analysts who are active on Twitter. These analysts include individuals from large and small firms, consultants, SMEs, and even some firms and brand names.

 

A Curt Monash post, So who is an analyst anyway?, contributes a fine discussion of analyst services for technology vendors and buyers in a professional world that includes newer venues like social media. Monash also explores the notion of what qualifies a tech professional as an analyst. One point from Monash has particular relevance to the Edelman TweetLevel influencer work:

 

You need flexibility in how you deal with influencers.  Everybody is different

 

 

I conjecture that Edelman / Bentwood view this list of top tweeters as a test case / work in progress where they are fine-tuning calculations - and assumptions - while processing reactions, analyses and feedback.  They deserve props for jumping into the fray by publishing a list that results from evaluating a class of tweeters using their “influence” meter (TweetLevel). With so many calls for metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of many aspects of businesses, here’s a starting point for trying to determine levels of influence. It may evolve and mature into a useful tool -- if tested, tweaked and nurtured thoroughly. 

 

 

How do the calculations work?

 

The backbone of calculating the ratings of IT analyst tweeps is TweetLevel. TweetLevel can take daily influence temperatures that are tied to Twitter presence, based on 4 high-level attributes (as explained by Bentwood below):

 

1. Influence (What you say is interesting, relevant and many people listen)

2. Popularity (How many people follow you)

3. Engagement (You actively participate within your community)

4. Trust (People believe what you say)

 

 

Per Edelman, what constitutes a “top tweeter”, and potentially a top influencer, is described in the overview that explains the calculations on the TweetLevel site. The formula behind each TweetLevel rating for anyone on Twitter looks like this:

 

 

 

 

Jonny Bentwood comments on the calculations:

 

…as it happens the formula is all about being transparent. I can’t stand measurement tools that purely focus on popularity so have tried to be as open as possible about the inner works of how tweetlevel works. There is some real science and hard-core maths behind this if you want to dig deeper.

 

The full Bentwood post provides much more detail on the calculations, weightings of scores and methodology.

 

 

Anyone who tweets may visit TweetLevel to calculate current ratings based on the four attributes of Influence, Popularity, Engagement, and Trust. TweetLevel also provides comparison profiles to people included in an individual’s ecosystem of “friends”.

 

 

Personal Snapshots and Fluctuations

 

When first published July 21^st, the list stood at 1000, but two days later Bentwood added at least another 150 individuals, and then re-ran the TweetLevel ratings, which of course reset positions for many individuals. This change suggests the possibility of continuous updates for this list, perhaps on a daily basis. Such a list is dependent on the daily fluctuating nature of TweetLevel ratings, in turn based on the daily fluctuations of each participant’s Twitter activity. If maintained in this fashion, the Top Analyst Tweeters list would be in continuous flux, to a certain extent.

 

I’m in the list and was surprised by my inclusion. I’m a one-woman show for my consultancy, and while many years of a software industry market intelligence practice qualifies me as an analyst, I never really thought a lot about whether or not I’m an “influencer”. For a small consultancy, the Edelman list may help with visibility – to connect to more colleagues and potential clients. But am I a “top influencer” due to my presence on Twitter, or even through my professional writing and interactions? – I’m asking this while looking at the many very talented heavy-weights in the Top Tweeters list. Thorough study of Michael Wu’s marvelous work on influence would be quite helpful here.

 

After Bentwood replaced the original list of 1000 with the second version, and as I began to understand more about the nature of TweetLevel-measured “influence”, I decided to track my “TL influence” temperature over several days:

 

 
  
 

Like a game of musical chairs, the individuals in this list could continuously jostle one another for somewhat different positions relative to one another. Barring some major career-changing event (positive or negative), most of the participants may continue to hover in predictable plus/minus ranges near where each one is currently on the list, if Bentwood does not continue adding new individuals.

 

 

Analyst Influence On A Daily Basis?

 

How often should these ratings be rerun and published? Is that a helpful activity or just muddying the waters?

 

The flux of the TweetLevel approach is problematical but also to be expected for a work-in-progress. With this list of top IT Analysts on Twitter, we are not tracking a relatively shorter-lived entity like a Justin Bieber, where day-to-day popularity seems to matter. Bieber is currently the #1 TweetLevel “influencer” of all Twitter users, a position he has held for a while; Bieber’s overall influencer score is 95. The person in the #1 position on Bentwood’s list of top analyst tweeters is Jeremiah Owyang with an influencer score of 76.6.

 

Instead of tracking pop culture figures, Bentwood’s list of Analyst Tweeters covers highly-qualified and respected technology professionals whose influence and credibility emanates from a lot of work that occurs outside Twitter. Edelman’s TweetLevel measures Twitter attributes that are also impacted by influence earned elsewhere, sometimes subtly, from other actions and interactions involving these analysts. Yes, Twitter presence and worthwhile tweets are part of the story - but many people may follow these analysts on Twitter because of who they are and what they write in blogs or accomplish in client projects, not because of what they do each day on Twitter.

 

Does a particular analyst really have less influence during a day or even week of less activity on Twitter, than during the many days and weeks of constant activity? Not really. Call it “residual kharma” –  just because a well-known analyst that is a frequent Twitter contributor has taken a week or a month off, it doesn’t mean that all of the previous tweets suddenly have no influence. Nor does it mean that the anticipation of future tweets doesn’t carry influence across the break. Only if the analyst / influencer is absent from Twitter for a long periods of time, is influence likely to ebb a bit, until the analyst begins anew with tweets.

 

 

Vetting and Influence: Interested Parties

 

Who will be looking at a list like this? Most likely: buyers, vendors, other analysts, AR professionals, writers, consultants – pretty much anyone looking for guidance, assistance and forward-looking thinking regarding different segments of the technology industry.

 

®   While the notion of influence may matter more to AR professionals and vendors, a lot of people will still consult a list like this to understand more about whose work they want to follow or whose experience they want to enlist.  People and companies who are more attuned to Twitter may take this list more seriously, while others may think it trivial.

 

®   Does this approach help vendors identify analysts with influence?  In a very limited fashion, depending on the tweeting ability of each participant, there is a certain element of influence associated with analysts on Twitter. But to really assess “influence” and “reach”, there are lots of factors, including significant qualitative ones, that have to be evaluated as a whole.  Context of expertise for each analyst is the starting point – goals of the vendor also matter. There are great analysts who are influential but don’t make a lot of noise on Twitter.

 

®   From the buyer’s POV, are these fluctuating ratings helpful or distracting?  A list like this will draw buyers to look at certain analysts or consultants, but as for vendors above, many factors come into play to help buyers to decide on tapping a particular analyst for assistance.

 

®   AR Professionals are definitely interested in influence - take a look at a recent #archat on Twitter. I can see this list as particularly useful for introducing “new” players who are sharing information and opinion on Twitter. AR maestro Carter Lusher of Sage Circle has posted his take Technobabble 2.0’s Top Analyst Tweeters provides useful insights into visibility, but does not show who is influential where he concludes:

 

Bottom Line: Analyst influence is a complex condition that is the result of the interaction of business objectives, visibility, opinions expressed, client base, and so on. While a generic, mechanically-created list can provide useful input into a formal analyst list management process, such a list cannot measure actual influence.

 

 

Influence is still largely subjective and ephemeral. Reliability, credibility, expertise, integrity, top-notch work – all are probably more easily measured – but not necessarily as characteristics of Twitter presence. And reliability, credibility, expertise, integrity, and top-notch work are essential qualities of technology analysts and consultants who really make a difference for their clients and readers. To determine the ability of any analyst as a fit for a particular purpose requires looking at each individual’s body of work, knowledge and talent, original thinking, relationships to significant entities, and then evaluating how these attributes map to client needs and objectives.

 

 

 

Additional thoughts regarding influence, analysts who tweet, tech industry analyst practices:

 

§  Michael Wu’s series on Influencers

 

§  Twitter-based #archat on Influence, Analysts and AR professionals – transcript for the conversation

 

§  Vinnie Mirchandani - DealArchitect: More tenets for the next-gen analyst

 

§  Ray Wang: 7 Tenets of Building a Star Analyst Firm

 

§  Barbara French & Gideon Gartner: Advisory Industry Competition: Pushing Past ‘Business as Usual’    Part 1   Part 2    (also read the comments in each Part)

 

 

 

Related posts:

I have a confession to make:  I am a Hybrid

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished software industry analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services

 

 

 

B2B WEM/WCM Software Vendors Targeting Mid-Market customers: stay where you are!

 

Here’s a piece of advice that very few B2B software vendors of any sort ever follow: 

Vendors: If you have been targeting Mid-Market customers – then stay where you are!

Ignore the siren song of the high-end Enterprise.

 

This advice is especially meaningful for B2B vendors for Web Content Management (WCM) and Web Engagement Management (WEM).

 

From my experience, many of the WCM / WEM / CMS vendors seem to do very little market intelligence research and analysis to understand what exactly they are selling and to which customers/markets. Most WCM/WEM/CMS vendors seem to be milling around with no clear indication of how each vendor aligns to clearly defined solution, customer and market segments within a go-to-market matrix.  The main focus of most of these vendors is on feature sets, and not on delivering authentic solutions for specific industry scenarios and business problems.  When any sort of Mid-Market B2B software vendor persists with very horizontal solutions, it is in danger of “disappearing”.

 

The mid to upper tiers of the Mid-Market provide a fertile market for B2B vendors who are themselves SMB or Mid-Market companies. For the mid to upper tiers of the Mid-Market, annual revenue runs from $250M to just under $1B. Vendors will do better if they segregate this range into two segments ($250M-$499M and $500M-$999M respectively).  Within those two segments, vendors should then select and learn a lot about specific customers and various solution scenarios that matter to those customers.

 

I’m specifically calling out Mid-Market customers for WEM (rather than “classic SMB”), due to the higher cost of implementing digital marketing solutions based on WEM platforms, which are likely out of reach for classic SMB companies. Once a vendor is committed to targeting Mid-Market companies, the next phase is to very specifically target segments of customers for mid-market offerings. 

 

 

Drifting into the High-End Enterprise Usually Ends Badly for Smaller Vendors

I’ve seen too many SMB / Mid-Market software vendors lured by potential big money and big deals in the high-end enterprise; after taking the plunge, very few of these vendors do well or even survive. It is near-to-impossible for smaller software vendors to compete against large vendors when providing high-end solutions. When trying to compete with the “big boys”, sales engagements frequently deteriorate into pricing wars that can destroy the well-being and income of the smaller vendor. After crossing over, the smaller vendor spends all the time on “me too” development for what the high-end vendors are already doing. The smaller vendor becomes snarled up in feature bloat that leads to the bastardization of its original offering. And worse, the smaller vendor ends up alienating its original target markets of mid-market companies and loses their business.

 

The high-end enterprise is a very tough place for smaller software vendors: there is a much smaller field of potential customers, fierce competition for those customers, plus larger software vendors already have established extensive relationships in these enterprises. Large enterprise customers are also harder to please, bring on longer sales cycles that include more chances to fail. Even when a smaller vendor wins an initial deal with a large enterprise company, it is usually displaced by a larger vendor very quickly.

 

Conversely, when targeting the Mid-Market, very few high-end vendors go very deep into this overall segment (and rarely into SMB). For the most part, large enterprise software vendors still don’t really know how to win Mid-Market business or provide the right-fit solutions. And it’s not just about price but about understanding how Mid-Market buys software solutions . On the other hand, a Mid-Market vendor already has decent affinity for some of the concerns of its potential Mid-Market customers, simply by reflecting on what matters to the vendor’s own success.

 

 

Vendor-performed Segmentation Is Essential to Build WEM/WCM Solutions for Mid-Market

Mid-Market (and SMB) customers are overwhelmed by the large number of CMS offerings of all kinds and are not well prepared to figure out which ones are appropriate for WEM or even just WCM. WEM vendors targeting the Mid-Market have to do a much better job of marketing and engaging specific segments.

 

Vendors must take action to properly position themselves in segmentation to differentiate their solutions form the mass of WCM/WEM offerings. They must put focused thought and time into identifying and understanding specific customer segments in the Mid-Market. Then vendors must undertake further understanding of what the vendor solutions need to provide the best support for target customers. Vendors need to be clear on what the solutions are not, to avoid “market sprawl”. It will make a huge difference if vendors put good time into a conscious and rigorous go-to-market strategy that is continually fine-tuned. 

 

Take time to properly segment target customers and markets for solutions:

· Know the target customer size – usually based on revenue ranges

· Identify who should use your solution and why – what problem(s) does it address (be very specific) – stay far away from the massive horizontal pack of “CMS” offerings

· Research and select one or two industries you’d like to work with; then select a segment in the industry that is a good bet for WCM/WEM solutions

· Analyze and build out specific industry scenario solutions that really work – again focus on real target customers and real customer problems/needs

· Keep in touch with the customers who are using the scenario solutions: fine-tune, improve, evolve into other focused solutions

· Assess the success of the above to make decisions about new go-to-market strategies that will add growth to the company

· Truly support customers throughout the lifecycle of the customer experience

 

 

No Illusions – Price is #1 Criterion for Selling to Mid-Market

I’m just calling this out plain and simple:  for most Mid-Market customers, price is the first requirement to be met by prospective vendors. Most Mid-Market companies have very clear parameters for what they are willing to spend on software. But the Mid-Market also wants value for price. When I say price, I mean the total cost of the end-to-end solution that will be up and running and working properly – so price includes money, time and people.

 

Many Mid-Market companies have small IT groups, so the following capabilities are essential: ease of implementation, low maintenance, ease of use for non-techies, good to great performance, delivery on vendor promises. When selling to Mid-Market companies, publish honest prices on your corporate website. Revealing pricing is a part of marketing to and engaging the customer-as-buyer when dealing with the mid-market. Remember: Mid-market companies have no time or patience for long sales cycles and complicated pricing schemes.

 

 

Strategy for Providing and Selling WEM to Mid-Market Companies: keep it simple

Vendors must take the time to research, analyze and understand what comprises a WEM solution for target mid-market companies. They have to take a look at the overall WEM capabilities of their solutions, and then reconcile which capabilities matter to their Mid-Market target segments. CMSWire has had a recent series on WEM solutions that is a good starting point to help vendors with mapping a solution to the needs and requirements of desired customers.

 

Where WEM is heading for the Mid-Market:

· Product/solution capabilities that meet Mid-Market requirements

· Capabilities that support marketing strategies of most Mid-Market companies

· Inclusion of social media capabilities and/or integrations with social media and Social CRM apps

· Monitoring trends related to desires/needs of target markets and specific industry scenarios (identifying what Mid-Market segments need, not what big enterprise companies need)

· But continue to monitor Enterprise trends to watch for trickle-down effects – this is where vendor smarts and market intelligence must come into play

 

 

Innovate With Real Solutions for Real Markets

Smaller vendors for Mid-Market WEM solutions are frequently more agile (carrying less legacy and expensive baggage) when it comes to pursuing innovation that will benefit target customers. These vendors are better positioned to move quickly to embrace future trends that define where solution markets are heading.

 

Vendor success comes from continuous innovation that makes sense for its Mid-Market customers:

· Engage in continuous market intelligence processes to monitor target markets / customers, and what they want for future success – many sources for this information

· Innovate specifically for Mid-Market target customers – perform excellent research/analysis to understand which are the best markets/customers/solution scenarios

· Conduct continuous conversations with current customers, and with companies wanted as new customers – embrace Social CRM practices for better conversations, listening

· Keep an eye on what the marketing teams of Mid-Market companies’ will need from WEM solutions

· Monitor enterprise-level trends for WEM to determine if the trends are meaningful for Mid-Market companies; also follow WEM trends for consumer marketing for new ideas – but choose wisely for real market strengths

· Don’t follow in the footsteps of big WEM solutions just to land where they are now

o    Jump ahead to new trends that make sense for target Mid-Market segments

o    Pick innovation that is right for target customers and for the vendor: real differentiation will result

 

 

Jeremiah Owyang on Future of the Corporate Website

Recently at the Gilbane Conference 2010 in San Francisco, and on his blog, Jeremiah Owyang has set out some compelling predictions for the evolution of company websites and the potential new world of distributed web presence. He sees social sites driving far more customer connections and brand awareness than the traditional corporate website of past years.  This is the sort of innovative thinking that vendors for Mid-Market WEM/WCM solutions should be monitoring. 

 

 

A couple of Jeremiah’s slides from Gilbane Conference 2010 San Francisco:

 

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/05/19/slides-roadmap-for-integration-of-social-into-your-corporate-website/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related Posts:

Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework?

 

SMB / Mid-Market B2B Software vendors - Findability + web presence + social: attracting the “customer as buyer”

 

B2B Social CRM for Software Vendors and the Lifecycle of Customer Experience

 

Moving beyond WCM - Web Experience Management software solutions and markets

 

Selling Software Solutions to SMB Markets – Who and How To Target

 

 

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished market intelligence analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights for the software industry. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side  to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services

 

 

Disclosure:  From time to time, I contribute articles to CMSWire.

 

 

Goodbye Corporate Website – Hello Web Presence Management Framework?

Future of tools for managing web content and web presence anywhere

 

 

Recently a colleague was exploring options for improving the web marketing capabilities of the company that he works for. He started his efforts by looking at “traditional” Web Content Management (WCM) software, with an eye to Web Experience (Engagement) Management platforms. But since his company is itself a mid-market-sized company, he was very uncomfortable with the options – and not just because of cost and time to implement. As conversations with his company management evolved, my colleague realized that he was not satisfied with a WCM / WEM solution because it didn’t seem to be the right platform for their web marketing strategy and business goals.

 

These days, companies of all sizes have tired of the expense and complexity of many WCM / WEM solutions, and would dearly love agile alternatives. And, yes, there are lesser expensive options. But what may be the most important factor for a lot of companies, is a strong emphasis on the customer-focused web presence for the company. And this may mean that company web presence will show up on other websites, instead of on the corporate website -- which leads to the notion of whether or not the “corporate website” is becoming obsolete for many types of companies.

 

Web marketing and customer relationship strategies are changing (and improving) – companies need new solutions and practices to manage the new world. More companies have come to understand that first they must build the web marketing / presence strategy that will accomplish their goals. Then they have to figure out how to achieve the goals of the marketing strategy, which will involve preferred practices and processes, as well as technology.  With web presence evolution, marketing strategies should include orchestration of web presence via other sites, and how to integrate with conversations and content from those external sites.

 

 

B2C or B2B – Which Organization Needs A Corporate Website?

Whether or not a company should have a corporate website can depend on many factors. For both B2C and B2B companies, content still matters and has to be located somewhere. The B2B company has the greater need for a corporate website, but must now evolve the corporate website to a social / customer hub. B2C sales and marketing goals might be less about content per se and much more about customer conversations and brand awareness that take place anywhere on the web. Jeremiah Owyang points out that the corporate website is less and less the most likely place to connect with customers.

 

 

B2C – Time to Get Rid of the Monolithic Corporate Website?

Is the corporate website obsolete? Most corporate websites do not work well for customers. The sites are designed from the corporate POV, with too much useless content that is hard to find anyway. Frequently corporate websites become money pits, requiring too many resources over time compared to the benefits received.

 

Particularly for B2C businesses, new thinking is that the corporate website might be completely unnecessary for customer interactions and brand promotion.  Going where the customers are, i.e. social sites, seems to be an effective way to better connect. Monitoring web presence and participating in conversations on other sites help companies reach out to current and new customers in ways that matter to these customers and can bring effective results to companies.

 

Current thinking is that social sites are taking sales endeavors to a new place since customers can now participate in spreading the word to potential customers through forums, communities, ratings, reviews. On the flip side, corporations have the responsibility of finding and responding to concerns, complaints, feedback, and requests posted on social sites, hopefully to resolve problems, to engage and attract customers through answers, and to learn from customer POVs.

 

 

B2B Companies Still Benefit from Corporate Websites, With Social Improvements

One approach to introducing more web presence into corporate websites is to add improved social capabilities that interact well with customers and potential buyers. This approach appeals to companies that want a measure of control over customer “conversations” and also makes sense if the company is using social capabilities as part of a customer relationship and support strategy. Content still matters for B2B websites – B2B are customers still looking for a lot of different kinds of content that they want to easily find on the corporate website.  However, many potential B2B customers are also influenced by interactions and content on external social sites – the savvy B2B company had better understand the importance of such sites.  Integration with and monitoring of social sites are key.

 

Hubspot - inbound marketing and social media advisors::

Your website may very well be the most powerful tool in your marketing kit. Not only is it the place prospects and clients go to learn more about you and your services, but it has a huge impact on their ultimate purchase decision.

The Hubspot post goes on to discuss a survey conducted by RainToday.com that looked at buyers of professional services and the amount of influence that corporate websites exerted on the purchase decision:

According to the survey, 74% of buyers report the service provider's website holds at least "some influence" over their ultimate decision to buy services from the provider. This is 23 percentage points higher than in 2005 and represents a significant increase in the importance of websites.

 

B2B corporate websites need web management solutions not only for creating and maintaining more social and interactive experiences for customers visiting the site, but to monitor and participate in the conversations that take place on other sites. Other sorts of off-site social-related analytics need to take place, such as sentiment analysis. The results of monitoring and analytics must be used to fine-tune product and marketing strategies, and to help corporations better serve customers.

 

 

Jeremiah Owyang on the Future of Corporate Web Presence

Owyang throws out some compelling assertions: In the not-so-distant future, he states that there will be no “old school” corporate sites. There will only be sites assembled on the fly based on social data, a sort of dynamic personalization mashup of content and social engagement.

 

 Today, I’m pleased to see that the thinking –and technology, has emerged, where we’re finding a variety of companies that are integrating social technologies right into the corporate website, bringing the trusted discussions closer to the corporate site.

 

Although the highest state of nirvana (seamless integration) doesn’t yet exist, we should expect there to be very little difference between social technologies and corporate websites as content will assemble on the fly.  I predict URLs won’t matter, as content will be dynamically assembled around the buyer and their context in a variety of devices.  Sure, that’s far out thinking now, but that’s why we have several other stage gates that companies must first go through.

 

Owyang continues on the new social web presence:

1. Although it’s a new and experimental medium, brands should plan a roadmap.

2. The future of web experiences will be based around people – not products. 

3. Take inventory of all corporate web assets and identify where they are in the framework.

4. Next, identify the desired state, and then build a plan against it. Start small and slow, and be sure to have a strategy.

5. Don’t arbitrarily jump into the social marketing space without measurable KPIs. Be deliberate in your actions.

 

Owyang’s thinking is important especially for vendors of WCM / WEM software solutions since he may be pointing the way to future web presence solutions (a future that is not that distant). 

 

 

Should WCM / WEM Software be The Hub -- or one of the components?

Some vendors of “traditional” web content management solutions have been transitioning their offerings to WEM platforms where managing and enhancing the web experience or engagement of the customer is the central purpose. The current WEM platforms focus mainly on customer and social capabilities existing in the corporate website, and are in very early stages of supporting integrations with external social sites.

 

Those supporting the notion that WCM/WEM Platforms should manage web presence and continuation of corporate websites include:

Brice Dunwoodie of CMSWire is What is Web Engagement Management:

It's how you create and manage content, including primary web content, multi-device content, blogs, forums and wikis. Your WCM platform is also the hub of your social media integrations and increasingly the dashboard by which you view your brand's conversational world.

 

Further expansion on the WEM platform from Barb Mosher, CMSWire: The 5 Pillars of Web Engagement Management

1. Content Optimization: analytics, content and experience personalization, multi-variate testing, optimization and SEO.

2. Multi-channel Management:  delivering same message/experience to customers across devices and channels both online and offline – new mobile web

3. Conversational Engagement:  corporate website-based communities, UGC, commenting, trackbacks, micro-blogging, social media integration, analytics, social media monitoring and sentiment analysis.

4. Demand Generation:  customer engagement/experience through targeted marketing - increasing the number and quality of relationships, through need recognition, relevancy enhancements and engagement triggers.

5. Sales Automation: two-way CRM integration, social CRM; e-mail or other campaign integration with the content platform.

 

As described by CMSWire, WEM platforms would provide capabilities and monitoring of brand and customer conversations on corporate websites, as well as bi-directional communication extensions to external social sites.

 

On the other hand:

If the customer experience of a particular brand is taking place on external social sites, then there is now a distributed model for managing a brand’s web presence; the web experience/engagement for the customer is now remote from the corporate website.  So there is even more need for tools/solutions to monitor, listen, act, engage…for customer-focused purposes, as well as for corporate business goals (which should lean heavily towards the customer).

 

A WCM/WEM platform may not be the hub for the overall solution, but instead one of the components of a new management framework for all web presence (management of web content is still important but may not be tied to a specific website anymore).  But content is also integral to a lot of web marketing plans and strategies, and content is the meat of most social sites, whether it is a conversation thread, a video, a blog post, and so on. So look for WCM/WEM solutions themselves to continue to evolve as the means of managing and delivering any kind of content for sites anywhere on the web, through any channel.

  

 

Future Web Presence Management Solutions – What Could They Look Like?

A Web Presence Management Framework may be the best approach for monitoring and supporting a distributed web presence. With an emphasis on Management: the orchestration of all pertinent activities on social sites external to a corporate site. And the management of: marketing to / connecting with customers, monitoring and listening, responding, acting, analyzing, more acting. The Management Framework would be agile, timely, dynamic, flexible, open.

 

A starter list (high level) of potential capabilities and attributes for a Distributed Web Presence Management Framework:

· Sophisticated, agile management / orchestration capabilities

· Web presence “mashups”: dynamically creating personalized sites for each customer

· An evolved WCM/WEM component: delivery to external sites, advanced support of corporate site if still in play, handling of relevant content/conversations published on external sites

· Support / interoperability for content curation as well as content management

· Management of all types of “conversations”: Auditing - Listening - Capturing - Integrating

· Multiple kinds of analytics, including convergence with “traditional” data analytics

· Dashboards for different internal roles

· Agile, context-sensitive Search / recommendations-like technology to contextually filter content/search

· Integration is big (lots of API support)

· Orchestration and Integration with multiple kinds of “external solutions” that are in play for distributed web presence

· Usability for business as well as tech teams

· Workflow and automated processes for WCM, CRM, SCRM practices, other corporate systems

 

· Company roles will also evolve:  we’ll see new marketing technology roles, product marketing and product management roles for “caretakers” of company web presence on external social sites, among the possibilities

 

· Segmented customer advisory groups will also play much more interactive roles with management of distributed web presence

 

· Eventual alignment with semantic web, link management – for reach throughout the web. Here is a current view of opening up content to anywhere on the web:

Forget the fancy names of "semantic web" or "linked data." Associating structured data with your content assets lets you take advantage of Open Graph, Google RichSnippets, Yahoo Search Monkey, and a new generation of agents such as Siri. Disseminating your content with metadata through APIs enables developers to spread the seeds of your brand in a variety of mash-ups and apps. Sharing your data sets in collaborative venues such as Factual and Infochimps helps build relationships with the world of analytic power users, improve your data quality, and turn those dusty data silos into tools for advocating ideas and brands. (from Chief Marketing Technologist blog)

 

 

 

OK, WCM / WEM vendors of all sizes: should your current plans for your solution for corporate websites go forward unchanged, or should you start now to create a Management Framework for distributed web presence?

 

 

 

Related Posts:

SMB / Mid-Market B2B Software vendors - Findability + web presence + social: attracting the “customer as buyer”

 

B2B Social CRM for Software Vendors and the Lifecycle of Customer Experience

 

Moving beyond WCM - Web Experience Management software solutions and markets

 

 

 

About the author: Julie Hunt is an accomplished market intelligence analyst, providing strategic market and competitive insights for the software industry. Her 20+ years as a software professional range from the very technical side  to customer-centric work in solutions consulting, sales and marketing.  Julie shares her takes on the software industry via her blog Highly Competitive and on Twitter: @juliebhunt   For more information: Julie Hunt Consulting – Market & Competitive Intelligence Services

 

Disclosure: From time to time, I contribute articles to CMSWire.