Company’s heads are in the cloud. Now more than ever companies are increasing their cloud infrastructure. According to DigitalOcean’s most recent Currents Report, cloud spending is one of the top three concerns of SMS, and 62% said that they have expanded or upgraded their cloud usage.
Salespeople should be asking companies; “Is your infrastructure in the cloud? Are you trying to create a flexible working environment that is secure, fast, and reliable? Is your goal to have a highly collaborative team that may all be in different locations? Is there data that you want to keep on-premises or data that needs to be shared across multiple cloud environments?” The challenge is offering cloud solutions to all of these questions and more.
As you know by now, we believe in the power of content, and telling stories through content that satisfies a company’s needs. So, how do we know what content is needed to help move the cloud buyers from interest to purchase?
SpiceWorks Ziff Davis surveyed 500+ decision makers about their cloud buying process. The third section of their report covers content- how, when, and what are important for decision makers. So we decided to compare their information with what we have found through the usage of our content marketplace.
As you can see from their infographic, SWZD deems five types of content that lead buyers through the sales process as important: demos/ walkthroughs, technical specs, how-to guides, hands-on labs, and product reviews.
I would argue that these types of content are great for selling a public cloud, but if you were to dive into selling usage of the cloud-based on more complex systems you may find that content needs change. So, to help round out the analysis provided by SWZD we took a look at three content streams we currently offer.
Here is a look at the most popular content on each stream:
IBM Cloud:
- How-to video on engaging in the hybrid cloud
- Why go hybrid video
- Case study on organizations who have created hybrid solution
Azure for Enterprise:
- A story about creating and leveraging deeper analytics from Azure
- Leveraging AI in the cloud
SYNNEX Stellr:
- Top Business and Technology Trends of 2021
- Hybrid cloud with HPE Greenlakes
- Why it’s time to start a Cloud Practice with Azure
Having insight into the most popular content allows us to gain perspective on what solutions are sought after. But it’s important to take it a step further and following SWZD’s report, remember that different job functions within the same company will be interested in different aspects of a solution. As a partner and salesperson, the question becomes, how do you provide relevant content that satisfies the way each job function perceives the problem? While one person in an organization may be seeking product specs and technical implementation information, another person may be interested in the scalability of the solution, or the ROI.
SWZD’s report is quite important in understanding the buying process. By melding usage analytics from our content marketplace, with their process report, you can create a comprehensive content story that covers all aspects of the buying process and builds a better experience for customers.