vAn Introduction to Inbound Marketing as a Service (IMaaS)

The Seven Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech Vendors Struggle with Inbound Marketing

Introduction

The term “Inbound Marketing” is a bit vague, but you probablyunderstand that the aim is attract customers to you and generate leadsusing the tactics of social, blogging, SEO, content marketing, emailmarketing and marketing automation.

I will explain the 7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech Vendors Struggle WithInbound Marketing in terms of the “creative right brain” and “logicalleft brain”. Presumably you are familiar with these terms.

Most tech marketers, like most people, can use both parts of theirbrains. But most tech marketers, like most people, are a lot morecomfortable using one side than the other. They tend to either favourbig picture vision, messaging and creativity: or detailed analysis, dataand processes.

The challenge with inbound marketing is it demands lots of both rightand left sided thinking that pushes most of us well outside our comfortzones.

Personally I am more comfortable with right brain thinking so if you area left brainer you will probably notice the bias in the following pages!

I am also going to introduce you to a term I bet you’ve never even heard of:Inbound Marketing as a Service (IMaaS).

Hector Taylorhector@martrain.co.uk

Since you work in the tech sector you will be familiar with terms like: Software as a Service(SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).According to Wikipedia the term “as a Service” (*aaS) refers to something being made availableover the Internet to a customer as a service. These services are enabled by cloud computingand they have become so popular over the last few years because generally they are a lot morecost effective than buying the equipment and hiring the people to do the work in house.Inbound Marketing as a Service (IMaaS) works on the same basis and I will explain why it is theright option for mid-sized tech Vendors .

Understanding the whole end to end inbound process is more leftbrain that right brain. This is kind of given away by the word“process”. The following infographic explains the process from theprospect’s point of view but it also gives you the key metrics to focuson at each stage.

The diagram makes the process look simple but it is staggering howmany tech marketers we see, from all different sizes of vendors , thatreally have no clear idea how it all fits together. Most struggle inparticular, with the technical parts that join the process like Calls toAction, Landing Pages, Nurture Tracks and Lead Scoring.

The problem is if you miss out one part of the process youcompletely undermine the effectiveness of the rest. For instance youmay do a lot of social and blogging and drive lots of visitors to yoursite but typically very few of them become SQL’s because you haveno mechanism to convert them into leads and then nurture themalong your sales funnel.

# 1 You have to understand the whole end to end inbound process

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With

Inbound Marketing

# 1

It isn’t that surprising, however, because the vendors that have sold them point solutions like Hootsuite, Marketo, Eloqua, Act-On etc only tell them about the stage of the process their technology addresses. Hubspot, although originally a Marketing Automation vendor, are the only supplier who address the whole inbound marketing process.

So unless you have the knowledge and technical expertise inhouse, which most mid size Vendors don’t, you won’t understand the full inbound lead generation process and you will spend a lot of effort getting minimal results. If you outsource it you can still get involved in the bits you’re comfortable with, whether its right brain content creation or left brain analysis of the results.

The key thing IMaaS will enable you to do is concentrate on what you are good at and give you the headspace to focus on the strategy and growth of the business.

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

# 1

You have 1000’s of prospects who have never heard of you. While they are trying to find the answers to their business challenges they become aware of you via social, blogs and SEO. The key metric is how many “visitors” get driven to your website.

100’s of these “visitors” turn themselves into “leads “ by giving you their contacts details so they can download your content which addresses these challenges. You can then start marketing to these “leads” using nurture emails. The key metric is how many visitors downloaded content and became leads.

AWARENESS CONSIDERATION

10’s of these leads download more content all the while considering the suitability of your solutions. Every time they download more content they give you more information about their business problems: their company turnover, their position, their budget, their timescales etc. In the process these leads are turning themselves into marketing qualified leads (MQLs). The key metric is how quickly leads move through your sales funnel.

End to end inbound lead generation process

10 or so of these MQL’s indicate the time is right to make a decision on your solution and engage with your sales team. Some of them are qualified out, however, by the information they have already given you. For instance their company is too small to afford your services. The key metric is how many MQL’s turn into SQL’s.

The rest have turned themselves into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) which your sales team can engage with. The great thing is they are easy to progress to “Opportunities” because you have all their contact details (like mobile phone numbers etc) and you also know all about their business challenges as they gave this information during the nurture process. The key metric is the number of SQL’s that turn into Opportunities

The result is these “Opportunities “ quickly become “Customers” producing revenue and driving the growth of your organisation. The key metric is the profit of your organisation.

DECISION DELIGHT

End to end inbound lead generation process

= £

Personas and customer journeys are the bedrock of effective inbound marketing and while you are probably familiar with the terms, how well do you really understand them?

Personas are fictional representations of typical customers and when you create them you are forced into viewing your website and offerings from their perspective, rather than your own.

In other words you look at things from the point of view of their challenges, keeping in mind their knowledge of the subject area and their decision making process. This is in contrast to your perspective, that already fully understands the subject area, and in particular wants to focus on the products and services you offer.

# 2 You have to understand personas and customer journeys

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With

Inbound Marketing

# 2

Creating personas is arguably a right brain activity as you are using your imagination to see things from someone else’s point of view.

The “customer journey” sounds like quite a simple concept. In basic terms someone becomes aware of your solution; they then consider its merits compared to competitors; and finally they decide to buy it based on factors like trust, reputation and price. All fairly straight forward for a right brainer like me.

Unfortunately in the digital age you need to consider the digital customer journey and that gets very technical and left brained. The customer journey for complex high value B2B solutions will have on average 12 digital interactions per individual. The decision making unit may have 5-10 people in it all trying to evaluate the solution. So suddenly you have a combined customer journey of 60-120 interactions.

My left brain is hurting just thinking about it!

By outsourcing inbound marketing you will be guided through the creation of personas and the customer journey, no matter how complex. With IMaaS your personas and customer journeys will grow in maturity, sophistication and most importantly, become more effective at producing qualified sales leads.

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

# 2

SEO is essential so prospects can find you online and become aware of your services. You have to start from the persona perspective and work out what terms they are using to find the answers to the business challenges your solutions address. Again a right brain activity.

# 3 You have to understand SEO

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With

Inbound Marketing

# 3

But in SEO very quickly things become complex and left brained. You maybe familiar with the term “keywords” and even its offspring “long-tail keywords”. But once you get your head around those you move onto keyword ranking, difficulty, CPC, PPC… the list goes on.

And by the time your left brain has understood all the technical intricacies you have got to get your right brain to write something coherent and interesting using all these keywords! And you have to write a lot – an effective inbound process for a high growth mid size company involves daily social activity and between 2-4 blogs a week.

You can hire an SEO specialist but they are unlikely to understand the rest of the lead generation process and you will be in the typical scenario where you get lots of visitors but they don’t convert to SQL’s.

Outsourcing the whole inbound lead generation process solves these issues – you don’t have to learn the minutiae of SEO and you don’t have to satisfy the exhaustive word count. IMaaS enables you to direct activity strategically and measure the growing number of visitors and SQLs going through your sales funnel.

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

# 3

You would assume that anything to do with content involves right brain activity because you need creativity to write and design interesting material. But when it comes to a “content strategy” that is wrong.

In digital marketing a content strategy is less about what you are going to say and more about how you are going to say it. It entails planning how you distribute and leverage content through the various channels across a 6-12 month period. You need to create a process or mechanism of timely distribution so the prospect can access the relevant information for their stage of the customer journey. You have also got to make sure the content is accessible via whatever medium the prospect chooses at any given time (mobile, video, downloads, printed material, webinars, workshops etc).

If building a content strategy sounds technical that is because it is, and it demands a lot of left brain activity. We find with our bigger clients that as their organisation does more digital marketing, content editors and copywriters are asked to come up with a content strategy. Generally these people really struggle with this. The reason is they are more comfortable with right brain activity like devising messaging and making an impact. They don’t understand the inbound process and the technology the content strategy sits on, so it is really difficult for them to create an effective content strategy.

# 4 Creating a content strategy is a lot different from creating content

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With

Inbound Marketing

# 4

To create a successful content strategy you need the left brainers to set out the framework of the strategy and then the right brainers to flesh it out with the messaging and impact. Very few mid size Vendors have this sort of expertise in-house, and even if they do, they are very unlikely to realise they need this joint approach around content.

The final challenge is the amount of content you need to fuel a inbound marketing strategy. Apart from the daily social activity and between 2-4 blogs a week, high growth Vendors should create 4-8 pieces of “conversion content” a year. Conversion content is the gated content that prospects feel is valuable enough to give you information so they can download it.

So the challenge of creating a content strategy and the content to fulfil it is another big reason to outsource your inbound marketing. With IMaaS you will still have input into the content and get involved in creative projects, and you can measure and tweak the strategy, but the hard graft will be done for you. This leaves you time to focus on strategic issues like core messaging and how you position your organisation.

# 4

You probably think of it as predominantly right brain activity – you get peoples attention, communicate with them and create an impact by posting pithy comments and interesting images.

# 5 You need to get social media

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With Inbound

Marketing

# 5

The problem is in a B2B context getting people’s attention, being retweeted or liked, and growing your followers doesn’t directly produce sales leads. What does produce sales leads is when prospects click thru the links on your social posts and blogs that lead to your website, and then they download gated content. Only then are you able to get their details and push them through your sales funnel.

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

So in social the only metric that really counts is how many people are driven to your website. Everything else are what are known as “vanity metrics”. They sound impressive and indicate lots of activity. But they don’t create sales leads and drive your business forward. And guess what – in B2B the sole purpose of marketing is to support sales, whether through social or any other channel.

As a mid market company you can probably afford to hire a millennial to do social for you, but unless they get the whole lead generation process, and where social sits in it, you won’t get the sales leads you’re paying their wages for.

By outsourcing social as part of Inbound Marketing as a Service, it will be integrated into a larger lead generation engine. Best practice is to create a library of social ready collateral that has links back to gated content on your website. This collateral is made accessible to your whole workforce so the social enthusiasts are able to amplify everything marketing does.

# 5

Imagine you have a shop which you refurbish so everything looks contemporary and up to date. Right brain activity for sure. Then, despite what is selling well and what isn’t, despite any new trends and products, you keep the display stands and stock levels exactly as they are for the next two years.

Guess what – your shop would have a closing down sale. A good retailer constantly optimises the displays and stock levels depending on customer demand.

# 6 You need to be able to continually optimise your website

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With Inbound

Marketing

# 6

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

# 6

After a B2B website gets a redesign it will typically get no major improvements for the next two years.

The reason for this is you have spent so much time and money with the design agency getting the website right in the first place that you have to get back to the day job. Also the design agency saw your project as a one off and it is expensive to get them back in to make ongoing improvements.

If you are aiming to grow by over 20% a year you should be creating 6-8 new conversion offers a year. In other words 6-8 new pieces of gated content that converts visitors into leads and moves leads along your sales funnel. You should be A/B testing constantly on your inbound activity to optimise the flow of qualified sales leads. To be able to do this you need to be able to create new offers, landing pages, thank you pages and nurture streams. This is left brain technical activity which few mid size Vendors have in-house.

But if you outsource all your inbound marketing to an agency that follows the “Growth Driven Design” philosophy all the updates and analysis will be done for you on an ongoing basis without a big upfront design cost. With IMaaS there is no big redesign at the beginning. Initially we build the inbound lead generation process around the content and brand you already have. Then we work with you to gradually refine the messaging and create new content based on what is actually converting the customers – not what we think looks good.

# 6

Download the Martrain Guide to

Growth Driven Design

One of the main KPI’s for inbound lead generation is good nurture emails. These are the personalised regular emails that get sent automatically to the visitors that became leads when they gave their email address to download your gated content. Their purpose is to get the leads to go back to your site, give you more information about their challenges and download more content. In this way they are propelled along your sales funnel.

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

To send these emails you need to use marketing automation software and there is no shortage of vendors for the mid-market; Hubspot, Act-On, eTrigue, Silverpop etc. But the software is complicated and takes a lot of left brain technical skill and planning to get real value from it.

Also the other problem with these vendors, apart from Hubspot, is they aren’t interested in how well you do the end to end inbound process so it will be down to you to integrate marketing automation into all the other tools you use like Salesforce, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, GaggleAmp, Tweetdeck, Demandbase, magic robot… the list is endless.

# 7 You need to be able to use a marketing automation platform

7 Reasons Why Mid-Size Tech

Vendors Struggle With Inbound

Marketing

# 7

It is very difficult for a mid size company to hire someone who knows how to use the marketing automation software as it is all pretty new and there are very few people with that type of experience. You can get an agency to run it for you but unless they take responsibility for the whole inbound lead generation process you won’t get optimal results.

So once again it is a good idea to outsource the whole inbound lead generation process so you can track the effectiveness of the emails but you won’t have to manage them yourself. Using IMaaS the nurture emails will be integrated seamlessly into the rest of your inbound marketing engine so they drive the maximum amount of high value nurtured leads.

Why mid size Vendors should

outsource Inbound Marketing…

# 7

Next Actions

If you have got to this page hopefully you are convinced that you are better off outsourcing all your inbound lead generation.

If you would like to find out how Martrain can help you set up your business to take full advantage of inbound marketing, please get in touch.

We look forward to talking to you. I am confident we can demonstrate the value of our services and transform your inbound marketing into a lead generating engine that will drive the growth of your company.

Hector Taylorhector@martrain.co.uk