The PartnerOn Marketplaces are one of the largest publishers of technology content in the world, communicating to over 10,000 partners, who in turn help create over 10 million impressions and over 70,000 consumer clicks every month. Each click is a new potential business opportunity. 

The publishing engine not only creates reach, but offers unique data insights for both partners and suppliers alike. The story the data tells is one of interest, engagement and market predictions. For example, a study of 1,000 partners from one of our Content Marketplaces compares partners to consumer interests.  This first chart shows content selected and published by partners. 

This chart demonstrates that this select group of partners are most interested in content from Palo Alto Networks, followed by Red Hat, IBM Cloud and Dell. 

We can then overlay that data with what the consumers engaged with and we can see a slightly different story.

While Palo Alto, Red Hat, Dell, and IBM are still in the top four, the percentages get a lot closer, and Dell and IBM Cloud have traded places.  We have similar studies from other marketplaces where we have seen a clear interest in content about hybrid work. This demonstrates what we predict is the long tail reaction to Covid.  

As the PartnerOn audience continues to grow, content will start to focus on unique industries and challenges faced by target audiences. From this we plan on building a model to help suppliers and vendors focus their marketing efforts. 

While publishing data is not new, the idea of being able to easily parse seller and consumer data together is a unique opportunity that only PartnerOn Content Marketplaces can offer. Become part of our content marketplace today, as either a user or provider of content, and be part of the future.

-ABP – Always Be Publishing with PartnerOn

Every time a new salesperson starts there are often standard quotes and phrases that the head of sales uses to help motivate new team members.  In the old, and very much outdated movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, they use some iconic quotes. Such as:

“Coffee is for closers!” and “Always be closing” 

But what would the head of sales say to their team today to help them understand the secret to success? Perhaps:

“LinkedIn is for winners” 

“Always be engaging!”

“Content is an absolute, where do you get the content?”

These quotes represent a new paradigm in which buyers are not on a clear journey. They are not waiting for the phone to ring and oftentimes they are not picking up the phone to make a call. In fact, according to a study by Gartner Research, buyers spend only 18% of their time talking to a salesperson. 

So where does the journey start, and who is leading it?

This chart is a telling tale of the buyer’s experience…

Take notice that 27% of a buyer’s time is spent doing research independently online, and 22% of their time is meeting with the buying groups. So how is the journey of the buyer happening? I see it as a scatter graph.

Remember how group projects in school were divided up? Each person would run in different directions to research and retrieve the assigned information. Everyone would then return to the group and share results. At that point, the group would piece them together for the final outcome.

The scatter strategy for group projects is more reflective of a buyer’s journey today. If this is the strategy then how are salespeople supposed to close deals?

 

It requires the seller to become an educator and to build trust among the consortium of buyers, not just the one. The best way to do that is through sustained content marketing, content marketing that supports the multi-dimensional approach to solution development and procurement. 

Content marketing performed at the local level (or by the seller) offers the buyers who are scattering a unique opportunity to bring together all the data they researched from a single source. In turn, that source becomes the trusted source most likely to close the deal, and following the lead of Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross, earns themself a cup of coffee.  

That is why ParterOn has become such a powerful ally to the sellers. What is your motivational quote? PartnerOn is for winners, remember ABP -Always Be Publishing. 

This past year has been one of tremendous growth for us at ContentMX. We have seen products and services shift to accommodate the hybrid office, and more need for partners to meet customers and prospects virtually. Most importantly, users of our platform have positioned themselves as resources to their networks, and in so doing are in the forefront of buyers’ minds when making purchase decisions. This past year we explored what it means to be a social seller, the value of a content marketplace, we took deep dives into what interests partners and consumers, and explored how to parlay social reaction into sales. We accomplished a lot, and we are excited to do even more in 2022! 

New Unique and Powerful Features

Your account features are always growing to bring you new ways to turn content into business opportunities. In addition to unique features like Active Lead Reports and Buy Signals, you can enjoy our new Social MQLs and integrations to CRM platforms such as Dynamics, Hub Spot, and Salesforce. 

New Features Coming: Custom branded video intros!

Soon we will feature new connections to Instagram and Pinterest, “Meet with Me” appointments, and more! In particular, we are excited to announce custom branded Intros and Outros. With this feature, every video you share can include a short clip with your own personalized introduction and an optional follow-up at the end. Now you can have an even greater impact on your customers and prospects!

Your Account, Your Data

Remember that with your account, your data remains your own. Your account is for you alone, with all your data stored securely by ContentMX in a vendor-agnostic marketing platform.

New Content For Everyone!

Our marketplace of content streams is growing every month and we have lots of new streams planned for 2022. Keep your eye on the Now Streaming section of the PartnerOn Journal to learn about new highlights and check your dashboard to see all the content streams available to you.

As the host of the largest content marketplaces for the channel, we at ContentMX look forward to continuing to provide the top-level marketing support you deserve from the best technology vendors in the world – all while keeping your data and your marketing tools under your control.

How are you building your channel program? 

“We didn’t talk to the channel, we are building them a better solution”

”We want the partners to tell us who the customer are they are working with”

“We have a challenge since we have fluctuated between direct and indirect selling”

These are all things we have heard from vendors. Sound familiar? Have you been a part of a program that didn’t take the time to understand the audience, what motivates them, and how to give them what they want? 

Building an effective channel enablement solution requires understanding the requirements of the three audience segments- the vendor, the partner, and the end-user- and defining where they converge. 

At ContentMX we define success as allowing the following: 

• Create a behavior based on setting and meeting expectations
• Provide a process that is easy to consume
• Offer results that improve business

Set expectations.

Weekly episodes set up expectations that not only are being delivered to partners, but to the consumers who grow to expect the content being shared by the partner.  As the content is made available in multiple formats and locations it becomes easy to consume and engage with. In the end, consistent programming drives results. 

The solution was built from the ground up, we worked to understand the decision process for the consumer, how and where they engaged with the content, and we studied what type of content was most favored by the consumer. 

Make it easy.

Next, we surveyed and worked with the partners to understand what would trigger them to engage with the application and the content enclosed. A key behavior that we wanted to align ourselves with is that people will set aside time to perform specific tasks if it becomes predictable. One user told us: 

”This has created a new behavior for me, every Monday I receive notifications about the content, which triggers me to set a weeks worth of marketing in 5 minutes”

We realized the importance of providing support and marketing training to our users in order for them to feel empowered to keep using the platform. Here are some things partners have said…

“I’m really excited about the new social reporting. That is going to help with leads.”

“This is pretty self-explanatory. One big thing I like is all the support in the resource library, the videos and articles as well as access to support.”

“Thank you for helping me learn about hashtags and social media.“

And with our ears to the ground, we are able to take the feedback we are given and use it to help us continue to invest and evolve as a company:

“I want to know how to locate the content by topic like Prisma for Palo Alto Networks. “ 

There was a need for customizable messaging, so we provided it, and the feedback we received was just what we hoped for:

“The combination of custom messaging and the microsite is going to transform a boring tab on my website into an attention-grabbing page. Thank you, this is great.”

Results keep the program running.

The last step was understanding the needs of the vendors or suppliers. They want to know how we tie real business results to our program. In other words, what content grabs the attention of buyers and how is the content that is being shared related to deals that are closed.

Keeping that in mind ContentMX has continued to add methods of reporting back real numbers.  Surveying partners on the phone and online about actual closed deals. 

“We closed a $40,000 deal of M365”

“We closed a $125,000 deal for Dynamics TMS Business Central Cloud”

We also want to provide information about how well the content was received by the consumers, and we measure that from a few points including clicks and Social MQL’s which are identified reactions to content. For example, we can see that a video from IBM Power received over 70 Social MQLs and that an analyst paper from IBM Security received 50 Social MQLs. 

This type of data can be converted into named opportunities that the vendors/suppliers can use to co-sell solutions with the partner.  We are providing real actionable business results. 

So what have we learned? Channels need collaboration at all levels from researching and understanding the consumer up to the vendor.  So, how are you planning your channel programs? 

Last issue, we discussed driving engagement with social posts. We refer to these as Social MQLs (Social Marketing Qualified Leads). We are working to accomplish this by testing different types of content, and different methods of delivering the content. As we mentioned we will offer short messages without an attached link, questions associated with linked content, and at times, humor will be used. As we develop these reactions, we recognized the need for reporting on activity related to these kinds of posts. 

We are excited to announce that we are now tracking both reactions and the type of reactions a post receives.

So what does this mean for a business or a sales person? Insights like these allow users to dive deeper into their customers’ and prospects’ social profiles to learn about who they are, what they are interested in, and how that connects to the content just shared.  

Diving into profiles to gain more insight into what else is of interest to them.

To maximize the value of this, once a reaction occurs, a salesperson or marketer can follow that up with a comment, a direct message over LinkedIn to the person, or a call or email, if they have the contact information. This allows users to continue engaging with their audience. If we follow the flywheel model it both furthers a prospects’ advancement to becoming a customer but also continues to delight and engage current customers. After all, it isn’t just about closing a deal anymore, it’s about keeping your current customers feeling like they are in good hands and coming back for more.

Q: Why did the computer show up late to work? 

A:  It had a 
hard drive 

Have you noticed that the posts on social media that stand out often ask a thought-provoking question or even use humor to catch your attention? They are posts that make you stop and think, are something you can relate to, or something you can respond to. If so, you have discovered what many companies know is important- social engagement!

Social engagement is the final frontier. We are on a voyage to understand how to help convert the world of social from being just billboards in the cloud to builders of unique opportunities. Of course, there are a number of thoughts on this. If you Google creating social media engagement you will get many answers, from adding humor to beautiful photos to asking questions. But, what is the answer that can help technology resellers?

The Current State of Affairs

The best that we can do is share with you our experiences straight from reports that are generated from the over 24,000 users who share content through our application. Our audience is B2B companies that provide solutions for improving the workflow of a business’s data and information. 

We also can look at the top topics of interest.  First, what partners want to share, and second what customers are most interested in reading.

Leveling up

Currently, we are working on taking the content to the next level to generate more than just clicks. Our goal is to now create reactions. Reactions help us identify who is interested in the topic as much as it shows us the user is receiving information they need.

Here are the tactics we are testing:

1. Shorter social messages
2. Messages without links to content outside of LinkedIn (we believe the LinkedIn algorithm favors content that doesn’t click out).
3. We are going to publish content that asks for a reaction to get the consumer to participate in the conversation. The reaction could be based on getting a like, or a celebration, or a posted conversation.

As we test these tactics the goal is to provide the users access to the data that demonstrates interest from the consumer. These tests will create what we call the Social MQL, and will help the users of our application convert more content into opportunities and sales. And yes, as we test these different content types we will test humor…

Three Database Admins walked into a NoSQL bar. A little later, they walked out because they couldn’t find a table.

An SEO couple had twins. For the first time, they were happy with duplicate content.

A computer engineer, a systems analyst, and a programmer were driving down a mountain when the brakes gave out. They screamed down the mountain, gaining speed, and finally managed to grind to a halt, more by luck than anything else, just inches from a thousand-foot drop to jagged rocks. They all got out of the car.

The computer engineer said, “I think I can fix it.”

The systems analyst said, “No, I think we should take it into town and have a specialist look at it.”

The programmer said, “I think we should push it back up the hill and see if it does it again.”

Why not capture the attention of your customers with some humor? Let’s face it, we could all use a break to stop and smile. Whether it’s through humor, or a thought-provoking question, if your post can get a reaction, that is valuable information you can use to better understand your audience and what they relate to. It’s like the interests section on your resume- it’s there in order to help your audience connect with you. Living in a world of virtual handshakes, these types of connections are crucial to business success.