Lead Generation in B2B Communities

Driving Lead Generation Through B2B Communities
George Krautzel, Co-Founder and President

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Contents
Toolbox.com Background
Trends in the Marketplace
Determining the Right Environment
Lead Generation in B2B Communities
Swing Thought – Where This is Going
Q&A

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Toolbox.com Background

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Who is Toolbox.com?

Mission
Provide an online platform that enables professionals to easily share knowledge with their peers
Existing communities
IT (11 years), HR (1 yr), and Finance (<1 yr)
More than 3.0 million monthly unique visitors
Over 2.6 million pages of practical user-generated content
Advertising services
More than 800 advertising partners, including: IBM, HP, Oracle, Microsoft, Dell

Where Toolbox.com Lives in the Media Space
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User-Generated

Content is communication, specific appeal
2-way conversations between friends
Personal experiences, socially driven
Content is communication, specific appeal
2-way conversations between peers
Personal experiences, best practices

Editorial

Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal
1-way conversation from experts to readers
News, consumer interests, and trends
Content is carefully vetted, broad appeal
1-way conversation from experts to readers
News, case studies, best practices

Consumer
Business

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Trends in the Marketplace

Shift #1: Increase in Consumption of UGC (Trend)
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Trend: consistent increase in social media consumption across IT job roles

How many hours during an average week do you spend online consuming or participating in the following media types?
Source: Toolbox.com/PJA IT Social Media Index, Wave 4, June 2009

Shift #2: Acceptance of Vendors as Participants
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More than 76% of community members believe it is important that vendors listen to their audience and participate in conversations

Which of the following statements best reflects your attitude about vendor participation in online communities? (Note: by "vendor participation," we mean the vendor may monitor or actively engage in conversations.)
Source: Toolbox.com/PJA IT Social Media Index, Wave 4, June 2009

Shift #3: Emergence of Brand Management (Company)
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Community conversation about the vendor and products
Background on the vendor
White papers, documents, and other research from the vendor
Connections with interested community members

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Determining the Right Environment

All Social Media is Not the Same - Communities
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Determiningthe Right Communities for Your Campaign
Content
Content
Context
Demographics

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Lead Generation in B2B Communities

Tactics to Utilize in B2B Online Communities
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Promoting Assets in the Long Tail
Building a Beachhead for Engagement
Nurturing Leads Within a Community
Creating Advocacy

Promoting Assets in the Long Tail
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Utilize tools to integrate your assets directly into conversations
With proper targeting, vendor information can provide further value to the community

User-generated content

Contextual Matching on Toolbox.com
Relevant information assets from advertising partners are matched with user-generated content
Advertising partners are integrated into conversations with target audiences

Relevant lead-generation assets from advertising partners

Building a Beachhead
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Go where your audience is
Build a beachhead
Establish a presence
Promote through various channels
Listen, listen, listen
Tailor your interaction to your audience’s needs
Starbucks’ Facebook Fan Page
4.3 million fans
Pushed beyond Coke as the most popular Facebook page in July 2009
Discovered what works for their audience (e.g., free pastry and free ice cream giveaway

Nurturing Leads Within a Community
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Opportunities exist to nurture leads within a “safe environment”
Increasing touches can improve quality
Possibility for more intelligent lead scoring
Toolbox.com Lead Nurturing Tool
Gives partners the ability to segment leads by demographics
Allows those leads to be nurtured further down the sales funnel through targeted messaging and higher engagement

Creating Advocacy
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Customers are your strongest brand champions
More demand generation will come from a smart social media presence vs. traditional direct marketing
Ford’s results (6 months)
4.3 million YouTube views
500,000+ Flickr views
3.0 million Twitter impressions
50,000 interested customers, not current Ford owners

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Swing Thought: Where This is Going

Relationship
Direct Results

Value: Web as a relationship management platform
Primary Goals: Engaging prospects and customers outside of their Web site
Secondary Goals: Lead generation, drive traffic, thought leadership and branding
Measurements: Cost of sales, customer retention, brand penetration and measurements from direct results stage
Marketing Tactics:
Vendor communities
Two-way ads
Messaging connections using trigger marketing
Successful tactics from direct results stage

Experimentation

Value: Web as a direct results platform
Primary Goals: Drive traffic and lead generation
Secondary Goals: Thought leadership and branding
Measurements: CPL, CPC, brand measurements confirmed through surveys
Marketing Tactics:
Search ads
Lead generation – white papers, webcasts
Branding - IMUs, larger units, microsites
E-mail – list rentals
Value: Web as a promotional vehicle
Primary Goals: Trial a new media concept, gain eyeballs, build brand and drive awareness
Measurements: Cost per impression
Marketing Tactics:
Branding – buttons, banners
E-mail – newsletters, list rentals

2004-2009
2010-2015
1996-2003
Evolution of Online Marketing
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Impact = Site visits/leads
Effort = Funding
Marketing ROI – Traditional Campaigns
Traditional Campaigns
With traditional campaigns there is a direct relationship between funding and results – once a campaign is over, that activity usually ceases (landing page visits, etc.).
VALUE
TIME
Source: Pauline Ores, IBM

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Impact = Relevance and engagement
Effort = Funding
Marketing ROI – Social Media Campaigns
Social Media Impact
Social media marketing requires continuous, steady investment to build and manage the network, with eventual value created as the network grows and becomes self-sustaining.
VALUE
Marketing through an online community allows advertisers to quickly engage and make an impact with their target audiences.
TIME
Source: Pauline Ores, IBM

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Q&A and Contact Information
George Krautzel
Toolbox.com Co-Founder and President