From the PartnerOn Team

Building a successful channel program

November 30, 2021 by Jeff Mesnik Leave a Comment

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?

Take a deeper dive into networking and exploring your SMQLs through social media, email, and your CRM

November 29, 2021 by Brittnie Cole Leave a Comment

Recently we released our new feature, Reactions, to help our users identify social media engagement, data, and marketing qualified leads. In our latest article, Social Media Reactions- how to use your dashboard to engage with buyers, we described a bit about why we think this feature is going to be a huge help in identifying leads; but today we want to take a deeper dive into how this feature can be incredibly useful.

Social marketing qualified leads (SMQLs) are a great way to make new connections with people who are interacting with your social media posts. As we have stated in our previous article, “Social Marketing Qualified Leads (SMQLs) are people you could potentially be doing business with in the future.” We truly believe that through human interaction and connection, you can curate leads that will help your business grow! Taking a deeper dive to really analyze your SMQLs can make an impact on your social media outreach.

Helpful strategies for analyzing SMQLs:

-Identifying your leads

-Understanding what they’re looking for

-Providing consistent content

-Having open communication

-Measuring the success of engagement

The strategies above are just a few that our team thinks will be beneficial when exploring all you need to know about Social MQLs. We want to break these tactics down for you and help you take a closer look at your social media audience to identify who could turn out to be a successful business lead for your company.

Identifying your leads: There are a few ways to identify leads within the platform.

One way leads can be received is through social media. Who is reacting to your posts? Commenting on them? Sharing your posts to their own feed? Are the people interacting with your posts already following you? Are they your friends? Family? Business connections? Do they frequently interact or only once in a while? What kind of reactions are they giving? Celebrate? Likes? Applause? Identifying who is reacting, how they are reacting, and what they are reacting to can help you break down what you should be posting more of or how often you should be posting.

Another way leads can be received is by using the “Build Your List” assets through the “Share This” or “Email This” functions. To learn more about receiving leads, please read How to view leads and where they come from, and Build Your List Items. Once a potential prospect fills out a Build Your List form, you will receive that lead’s contact information in an email, or you can have it come through to your CRM solution. To learn more about using your CRM system to manage leads, please read Integrating Your Hubspot CRM. Identifying your leads is fairly easy because you can have them all remain in the same place by funneling them to certain contact lists in the platform, or in your CRM. Use their contact information to identify who they really are and what they’re looking for. Hubspot allows you to create contact fields and have that field populate with the Build Your List Item they are interested in. What piqued their initial interest?

Understanding what leads are looking for: Figuring out what your leads are interested in can be broken down pretty easily.

The most important thing to look at on social media is what posts your audience is reacting to. Is your audience reacting more to HPE content? Do you find more people are sharing your Red Hat content? Is your audience reacting to more straightforward posts about products, or do they like when you make funny puns and clever side remarks in addition to the post? Figure out what is getting the best reaction from your audience and run with it.

When using email or a Build Your List item, take the time to find out what Build Your List Item your lead was interested in. Was it a general form submission about wanting to learn more, and if so, what vendor was it related to? Was a lead filling out a form to receive gated content like a whitepaper, or an ebook? Do you find your audience filling out Build Your List forms more for one vendor over another?

With both social media and through Build Your List forms, try reaching out to your new lead to find out more about what they are looking for. Ask them things like; What part of the vendor’s content piqued your interest? Were you hoping to find other vendor content? Do you like learning more about physical products, or offered services? What else would you like to see on your social media timeline or in your received marketing materials?

Provide consistent, relevant content: Once you figure out what your prospects are interested in, it is important to post consistent and relevant content to maintain their interest level. Reach out to your contacts and Social MQLs to find out what they are interested in seeing. If they filled out a Build Your List form for IBM content, what do they want to see from there? Information about Cloud? Power? Security? Ask if there is other vendor information you can provide, and send out weekly emails. Post a few times a day on Twitter or LinkedIn. Make sure you are feeding your followers content they are truly going to connect with. Remember what your audience likes and tailor it to their personalities. If you see your audience engaging more with posts that have witty statements, try to add your own spin on the given message! This can lead to other prospects becoming interested from word-of-mouth, or finding your content through your audience’s social media engagement with you. Creating a community and listening to your prospects can lead to attracting a wider audience.

Open communication with your audience: Make your presence known and visible. Reach out and engage with your audience as often as you can. Make your space welcoming for all prospects whether they are new or old prospects. Let it be known that you are willing to listen and provide what your audience is looking for. Providing open communication and a welcoming virtual atmosphere will allow both you and your audience to maintain a relationship and collaborate on what works best for both parties. This can be done by reacting to prospects’ social media posts who have reacted to yours in the past. Throw them a “Celebrate” or a “Like”. Engage back by asking questions in the comments of your posts! Hey, I see you liked this post! Is this something you’re interested in learning more about? Take the time and become “Mutuals” (mutual connections, friends, etc.) with the users who interact with you. Don’t be afraid to “Follow” your potential prospects on Twitter, or add people as connections on LinkedIn. If someone shares your post, ask them what interested them in the post enough to re-share it. Is this type of content they can see themselves sharing again in the future? It is great to be open and honest with your interactions on social media, after all, social media is for being social! Take some time and create new, ongoing, relationships with your potential prospects. Networking is one of the most important things in the corporate business world!

Measuring the success of your engagement: This can be done in many ways, both statistically on paper, and as an abstract concept. You can measure your success by checking out the “Reports” tab on our platform. Here you will find Activity by Posted Item, and Activity by Email. If you notice the number of opens and clicks on your emails going up, you can probably deduce that you are getting a higher rate of engagement. The same goes for looking at stats for social media posts; if you notice you are getting more reactions, shares, comments, and views, your audience is most likely becoming more engaged and interested in what you are posting. Our new Activity by Posted Item layout is a great way to measure engagement as you can see who is commenting, liking, and reacting all in one place. Take a look at our Viewing Your Social Reactions article to learn more about how to use our platform to find who is reacting to your posts. Is your contact list expanding? Check to see how engaged people are with the Build Your List assets. Along with statistics, you can measure success using more abstract concepts. If you have open communication with your audience, can you determine what tone they are using? Are they showing compassion and positive reactions? Do you notice people asking more questions? Are they re-sharing information you’ve provided to them? Are there more conversations rather than just likes or impressions? Analyzing the behaviors of your audience can also help you determine how successful your marketing campaigns are turning out.

Next Steps

Now that we have gone through some key factors in analyzing your social outreach, the next step is figuring out what strategies are going to work best for you. Is your audience mostly on social media or email? This will help you determine where you want to be more active. If you’re not as active on social media, try posting more often and interacting with your audience more. This may help you gain more leads all while identifying who they are.

Take a look at our Knowledge Base and get well acquainted with our resources on Viewing Your Social Engagement Reactions. Check out our Quick Tip Video: Social Engagement Reactions to brush up on the new feature and learn about the terminology we use within the platform to help you with social media. View our Hubspot Integration Video or learn about Build Your List Items. Feel free to reach out to support@contentmx.com if you still have questions!

Happy Posting!

Social Media Reactions- how to use your dashboard to engage with buyers

November 15, 2021 by PartnerOn Journal Leave a Comment

by Jeff Mesnik and Brittnie Cole

When you post on a social network what are you looking for? Reactions and comments? It is a game of sorts, apparently, I am never nearly as funny as I think I am, as my personal jokes and comments go a bit unrecognized on Facebook. But there is a feeling of success when people acknowledge that my post was worthy of a thumbs up or even better, a laugh or a comment. A reaction translates to interest, and at times validation, but I will leave that to my therapist to decipher. In our last newsletter, we announced that we will be tracking both reactions and the type of reactions a post receives. Let’s take a look at why this is so important and how we are making it easy for you to act upon and drive sales through social media.

In the business world, as we all stroll through the different business networks, a reaction has a different meaning. It not only offers agreement, but engagement with the post you made, and can be the start of a conversation. We consider this a buyer offering up intent to engage with you.

So, how do we help take this engagement and move it through the validation points? Well first, we should not let a comment or reaction go unnoticed. We need to track and respond to any reaction because it is an expression of intent. We see a strong percentage of intent-based reactions convert into opportunities when followed up upon. That is why our application now actively captures and reports this intent, and we refer to this as a Social Marketing Qualified Lead.

The next level of sales enablement

Social media reactions are a great way for you to identify new potential leads. Social Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL’s) are people you could potentially be doing business with in the future. Reactions are an important indicator of customers and prospects that are engaging with you, which leads to those prospects becoming Social MQL’s. Our platform now gives you a way to view your reaction statistics and provides you with a method to actually view who they’re coming from!

In our dashboard, under Reports, you can head over to the “Activity by Posted Item” section to view the data of your reactions, comments, shares, impressions, and clicks. Here, you can view how much traction you are receiving on social media and gather data to inform decisions on where your marketing strategy is headed. In addition to viewing and analyzing your data, you can be taken directly to your social media post to view and interact with those who engaged with your content!

Take your marketing strategy to new heights by engaging with those who react to your posts. Gaining MQLs has a lot to do with networking and paying attention to your audience. Do you have a follower who consistently interacts with your posts by liking them? This would be a chance to become what social media refers to as “Mutuals”, or in other words, create a mutual connection with that follower. Follow them back, and engage with their posts. Dig around social media and look at the content that your followers/connections are posting. Are your social media posts relevant to them? Should you start posting about a certain topic more or less frequently? Are your connections engaging more with videos or blog posts?

Use our new reaction feature to dive into who your connections are, follow up with MQLs, and get acquainted with your audience!

Check out our Knowledge Base to learn more about Viewing Your Social Engagement Reactions. Watch our newest video to learn more about this feature and take advantage of knowing who your audience is and how they interact via social media.

Making Social MQLs work for you.

October 29, 2021 by Jeff Mesnik Leave a Comment

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.

Here is an example of one of our reports.

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.

Sharing the soapbox with Hubspot

October 29, 2021 by PartnerOn Journal Leave a Comment

As a content marketing company, we know how crucial content marketing is to successful B2B selling. That’s why we are happy when Hubspot stands on the same soapbox! Check out 10 Benefits to Consistent, High-Quality Content Marketing, which reiterates the fact that content marketing should play a major factor in your sales process. Aren’t you glad you have access to a platform that makes content marketing easy?!

The Transformation of Social Posts

October 18, 2021 by Jeff Mesnik Leave a Comment

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.

First, we can examine clicks by types of content being shared. The number of posts relates to the number of users that selected a type of content to share, which is then aggregated into impressions and clicks. As you can see the top three types of content that garnished the best CTRs are Solution Briefs, Thought Leadership, and Analyst Reports.

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.

Partners are promoting secure remote work first over all else. That top promoted article called “Work remotely, stay secured” was promoted the most, and received a .6% click through rate.
The Red Hat product guide was a highly used piece of content and that received a 1% click through rate.
The highest rated customer topic across the board (based on click through percentages) was content referencing Security Solutions and Edge/Hybrid Computing models.

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:

Shorter social messages
Messages without links to content outside of LinkedIn (we believe the LinkedIn algorithm favors content that doesn’t click out).
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.