This is your chance to get up close and personal with thought leaders and channel visionaries as they share critical insights, leading edge solutions and best practices to turn up the volume of your channel programs.

Check out our events page to find out when we’re coming to a city near you! Just click the Set Up a Meeting Button to schedule a time to meet with our team. In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter and check in with Channel Chatter often to see what’s happening at the shows. We look forward to seeing you in the front row at these exciting events!

ZIFT’S SUMMER & FALL TOUR DATES

Channel Partners Evolution

August 14-17^th
Washington, DC

XChange 2016

August 21-23^rd
San Antonio, TX

Channel Breakthrough Live

September 7^th
Austin, TX

Oracle OpenWorld

September 18-22^nd
San Francisco, CA

SiriusDecisions Summit 2016 Europe

September 26-27^th
London, UK

MAPI Marketing Council Meeting

October 6-7^th
Atlanta, GA

Channel Visionaries Cloud Channel Conference Series

October 25-26^th
San Jose, CA

Allbound CO:LLABORATE

November 2-3^rd
Phoenix, AZ

Baptie Specialized Channel Focus

November 8-9^th
Denver, CO

SiriusDecisions Technology Exchange 2016

November 16-17^th
Austin, TX

The post Zift’s Tour Rolls On: Find Out Where You Can Join Us & Turn Up the Volume on Your Channel appeared first on Zift Solutions.

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I didn’t grow up with Social Media and, to be honest, it took me a while to get on board.

As the primary marketing resource for GreenLight Group, I already had a lot on my plate. I wasn’t entirely convinced that Social Media was worth the time and energy it would take to develop new content, manage multiple platforms and keep up with Social Media activity. But as the buzz around Social Media began to build, particularly among channel marketing and sales professionals that were using Social media to connect with customers and drive sales, I knew it was time to step up to the plate.

Furthering Our Commitment to Education – And HPE

GreenLight Group takes our commitment to educating our customers very seriously. Even though we have a small team, sharing insight with prospects and clients about what they can do with emerging technology and ensuring that they understand exactly how to use the solutions they’ve purchased to their fullest extent is extremely important to us. I knew that we could use Social Media to extend that educational mission but, in light of other things on my to-do list, Social Media felt overwhelming at first. Thankfully, HPE provided us with access to Zift Solutions seven (7) years ago, which allowed GreenLight Group to step into the Social Media arena with confidence. We’ve been incredibly impressed with the results and so has HPE.

Establishing a Strong Social Media Presence

Today, we’re using Zift’s Content Syndication with Email Marketing and Social Media Syndication to engage our customers more often. Zift has been instrumental in helping us establish our Social Media presence, saving us more than 20 hours per month by providing us with direct access to HPE materials perfect for Social Media outreach. Everything we need to manage Social Media is at our fingertips and we now have the ability to leverage HPE content and assets to effectively maintain our online presence without straining resources.

In fact, members of the sales and engineering team have gotten on board by developing their own brief tech videos to promote specific products that we can post on our social platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I only spend about ten minutes on social per day and the difference it’s made was apparent from the start. We’re hearing from prospects, customers and from our HPE reps about how often they see our content online and it has even opened up international sales opportunities.

Download the Greenlight Group Case Study

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read the recent case study we did with Zift. It tells our story in more detail and may provide just the push you need to start or expand your Social Media efforts without worrying that you’ll have the wherewithal to succeed.

READ THE GREENLIGHT GROUP CASE STUDY

The post Stepping into the Social Media Arena with Confidence appeared first on Zift Solutions.

That, my friends, is retargeting in action.

If the campaign setup and strategy is really effective, you may have even directly experienced just how impactful these banner ads can be on your purchasing decision.

Here’s how it works (click to enlarge image):

Naturally, you may now be thinking, “ok, that’s somewhat interesting…but why should I care?”

Fair question.

Well, the first thing to note is that retargeting is not limited to B2C companies. Secondly, for a number of years, B2B companies have been taking advantage of retargeting as a way of accelerating sales pipeline and improving their win rate. 

It’s time for all B2B companies, large and small to catch up.

How Not To Be Creepy

I won’t lie to you. Retargeting is not a magic fix.

Technology is evolving at an incredible rate (faster than we can even realize) and therefore your audience changes as a result. They’re spending their time in different places; different channels.

As a result, one tactic alone is not enough to secure a deal. It’s the combination of different tactics that produce results and the emphasis on which tactics and channels depend on your company, strategy and industry.

But what retargeting can offer is a different dimension to your strategy.

Not only are you reaching and engaging your prospects in their inbox, in social channels, at trade shows and possibly on search engines, but you can now also visually capture their attention on the business, news, and entertainment websites they visit. This is true multi-channel marketing.

And no, it doesn’t have to be creepy.

Marketing that gives off that vibe is marketing not well thought out.

When your marketing (and more specifically the content) is helpful, your audiences’ perception of your brand value increases. So does their loyalty.

Therefore, it’s important to focus on how your ad retargeting campaign is setup. Here are just a few basic tips to get you started for Display ads:

• Frequency Capping: Be sure to configure the number of times your ad is shown (impressions) to each audience member. This is crucial. Without that, your banner ad could be popping up all day, every day for your audience. That is creepy.
• Call to Action (CTA): Because the sales cycle is much longer, it’s generally a better retargeting strategy to focus your banner ads on providing useful resources as opposed to a direct response “buy now” type ad. These can be gated or ungated – but be sure to test.
• Geography: Are you targeting zip codes, cities, states or regions that align with your business and/or campaign?
• A/B Testing: Your research may show that an orange colored button produces the highest click-through rate, but have you actually tested that hypothesis? Remember to test assumptions and create a variety of banner ad sizes.
• Experiment with Membership Duration: This is simply how long a particular member of the audience remains in the audience (before the cookie expires). If your sales cycle is long, you may want to keep the person that has been “cookied” in the audience longer. For example if, on average, your sales cycle is 90 days then try setting your membership duration to 90 days and test.
• Leverage Conversion or Burn Pixels: Vastly underutilized, these pixels allow you to exclude members of your audience who have reached a specific page (e.g. confirmation page or checkout page) to save money and avoid displaying a message that’s no longer relevant to that person.
• Rotate Creatives: From time-to-time, it’s wise to rotate creatives to avoid “banner blindness“.

Let’s make this even more relevant to you and see how it can be applied to channel marketing.

Applying this all to the Channel (and how to automate)

With all other variables being equal and if you were a channel partner (perhaps you are), who would you gravitate towards? Who would capture your mindshare?

1. The supplier that provides retargeting
2. The supplier who doesn’t

When this tactic is applied to the channel, it becomes a competitive advantage for both parties. Offering retargeting to partners gains mindshare and increases engagement. Being supplied with easy-to-use retargeting campaigns allows you to gain an advantage over your competition.

Imagine this:

• Supplier XYZ sells through the channel
• One of their resellers is Partner ABC
• A Prospect visits one of Partner ABC‘s webpages. For example, a product showcase page.
• Statistically speaking, 98% of those visitors will leave Partner ABC‘s website without converting.
• Banner ads are shown on BusinessWebsite.com with a resource advertised and call to action in order to help reignite the attention of those 98% of visitors and drive prospects back to a landing page on Partner ABC‘s website. They fill out a form to access a white paper.
• Partner ABC begins (or continues) to nurture these prospects with their other marketing tactics and vastly increases their chances of closing a deal.

Interested in making this available to your channel and automating it? Look for a channel marketing & management platform that allows you to automate this process.

—

Have you used retargeting? What’s your experience been?

Would you like a follow-up post at some point with more advanced tips?

The post Adapt or Die: How Retargeting Is Helping to Evolve Channel Marketing appeared first on Zift Solutions.

When channel partners clamor for content, Content Syndication can seem like a quick and easy fix. By embedding your own content right into partner websites, you can indeed ease the burden of continuously developing content for resource-stretched partners.

However, Content Syndication can and does go wrong when it’s not approached and implemented with care.

Partners lose the value of joint marketing efforts when their own message is overshadowed by generic content from even the best-intentioned suppliers. Too much supplier content and messaging can quickly warp a partner’s website, alienate prospects and weigh down a partner’s own unique message with an overabundance of info specific to your own products and services.

Keep in mind that Content Syndication is not about loading up partner websites with as much content as possible. Far from it.

Instead, Content Syndication should be about delivering high-quality content that is truly relevant to your partners and their prospects.

Before you start rounding up assets or scrape your own website for generic content to feed a Content Syndication program, take time to hone your partner Content Syndication strategy.

By following these 3 simple steps, you’ll not only solve the content conundrum but will empower partners with content that actually strengthens their position in the marketplace.

Step 1: Define Key Goals

First and foremost, you need to work with partners to define clear goals for Content Syndication. This entails asking yourselves some direct questions, including whether certain content is right for syndication. Ask yourself and your partners whether your primary goal is to:

• Drive net-new or mid-funnel leads?
• Increase overall website traffic or specific product page views?
• Generate brand exposure?
• A combination of these?
• Something else entirely?

Agreeing on specific goals from the start will help you determine what types of content and which assets should be syndicated – and make it easier to adjust the content and assets included in your Content Syndication program once it’s underway.

Step 2: Keep It Fresh

Much of the value of content lies in its relevance. No one wants their site littered with outdated materials or stale messaging. So, keep content fresh and exciting. Make sure that the content you’re syndicating to partners fits their needs and is staying on top of – if not in front of – current topics and trends. Content Syndication is also not a “set it and forget it” technology. Continually check in with partners and use analytics to measure how well your content is performing on their sites.

Step 3: Tailor Your Content

Be sure that you’re syndicating content that is relevant to partners as well as end customers. Prospects and clients are already bombarded with product-specific content, so be careful not to add to that load.

Content should be tailored to provide value and insight to readers, and should also position your partner as a knowledgeable industry leader. If it doesn’t, it’s likely that potential customers will seek info, as well as products and services, elsewhere.

Dynamic Content Syndication, which automatically adjusts content based on a website visitor’s needs, interests, online behavior and personal characteristics, makes this much easier and goes a long way toward increasing conversion rates (upwards of 50%).

Conclusion

By defining your goals, keeping content fresh and tailoring it to meet partner needs, you’ll be well on your way to creating a cohesive, strategic Content Syndication program that highlights your joint value proposition, increases partner adoption rates and ultimately drives more sales through your channel.

Over to you…

What are your thoughts? Anything you would add?

The post 3 Simple Steps for Solving the Partner Content Conundrum appeared first on Zift Solutions.

The continuous noise of emails, banner ads, telemarketing calls and paid search is deafening. But great content—whether in the form of an article, a whitepaper or an email—stands above the buzzing to interest, engage and convert leads into customers.

We’ve all heard it before: Content is the key communication conduit. Content is our voice in a world where customers stay incognito as they look to research a problem or create a better way of doing something. Content is how we brand and tell our story.

Whether you’re creating content or curating pieces to repurpose or reuse—make sure it’s personal, provides valuable information, and speaks directly to your customer. Align the content to the needs and pain points of one persona. Addressing more than one persona in a piece of content is no longer personal. And if it’s not personal and if it does not provide valuable information, customers are not getting the experience they expect, and you will lose them.

Five Tips for Great Content

• Keep it tight and on-topic: Wandering through a variety of thoughts in a single piece makes it difficult for the customer to find the solution they are looking for and to stay engaged.
• Speak in the voice of the customer: Using acronyms and phrases from your industry or organization can cloud the meaning. For example, if your content contains words like “improved throughput” and “optimized resource usage” but your potential customers are talking “reduced cycles” or “increase server capacity” the chance of activating the lead is reduced. Think about it from their point of view. Use their terms, and apply them to the problem your company solves.
• Great content educates: Content explains how to solve a problem. Shout your benefits, not the features and functions of your service or solution. Benefits create an emotional response in our brains and are what we remember later.
• Content that engages doesn’t sell your product or service: Selling negatively impacts the customer experience by turning off the buyer who is researching solutions. Have you ever run a webinar during which the audience remained engaged until the presenters started speaking about their specific products? Boom! The number of attendees will drop off as soon as they sense a sales pitch.
• The format for your content doesn’t make it good or bad: But some formats are more commonly used for example whitepapers, solution briefs, e-books, and infographics. Use formats that resonate with your customers. Multiple formats make content accessible to a wider array of customers than if the content is only published in one medium. This is because customers engage differently with different formats.

Great content:

• Generates more inbound traffic
• Increases engagement with target customers
• Generates more leads
• Increases sales
• Builds organic popularity
• Creates brand awareness
• Positions you as a thought leader

Simply put: Great content helps you be heard above the noise of other (weak) content.

What are your thoughts?

Where do you struggle when it comes to content marketing?

Did I miss any tips?

Please share your experiences in the comments below!

The post Content Marketing: 5 Quick Tips For Producing Great Content appeared first on Zift Solutions.

We recently dug into the powerful impact of social media with this infographic. Among its most striking facts: Nearly 90 percent of SMBs say that social media helps their business and, after spending just 6 hours per week on social media, 74 percent of brand marketers see an increase in website traffic.

Side Note:

If you haven’t started already, it’s time to take social media action. Be sure to read 6 Steps to Getting Started with Social Media, which is packed with easy-to-understand insights you can use to kick off your social media outreach.

OK, let’s continue…

To Post or Not to Post? Your Cadence Determines the Answer

Once your social media efforts are underway, you may find yourself asking the question: Just how often am I supposed to be Tweeting, blogging or posting to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites?

Too few posts and your message may not reach its intended audience. Too many and you run the risk of annoying prospects and customers, which can actually damage relationships and undermine your outreach efforts.

What to do?

You need to build trust with your audience by consistently providing high-quality, relevant and engaging content – and you must set a social media cadence. Cadence is simply the timing frequency of your social media outreach. Establishing a social media cadence will help you determine the right number of posts and Tweets for your business.

The Answer Lies Within

I’d say that’s a tad bit dramatic.

But, while the resources below will prove useful in setting your social media cadence, no one knows your audience or business better than you. Take time to determine the best social media cadence by measuring interaction levels, such as likes, comments, shares and more from your audience.

A Guideline for SMBs

As well as the infographic below from SumAll and Buffer, which serves as a great guide for SMBs, the marketing experts at HubSpot also recently published an informative blog post around their 2015 Social Media Benchmarks Report. The report sheds more light on the metrics associated with social posting, following and social engagement specific to company size, industry, etc.

What have you seen with your social media accounts? What works best for you? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post How Often Should SMBs Post to Social Media appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Overcoming Familiar Marketing Challenges

Here at Orasi software, we continually face a few challenges that anyone working in channel marketing will likely recognize. The fact is, generating new leads and nurturing leads through to sales are ongoing and familiar hurdles that can stand in the way of channel sales success. With Zift Solutions, we finally found the answers to those nagging questions, “How do we get more leads?” and “How do we nurture those leads to close once they are in our systems?”

The Power of Pay-Per-Click

To capture new leads, Zift has helped us capitalize on the power of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) online advertising. A recent nine-week PPC campaign supported by tele-qualification added more than $325K to our sales pipeline and achieved a 48:1 return on investment. The campaign allowed us to expand our reach, generate new leads and create more opportunities without overburdening our team.

Multi-Touch Campaigns – With a Little Help from Our Friends

We’re also nurturing leads with a little help from our friends at Zift through Managed Services. We recently launched a multi-touch email campaign series that generated 148 new leads with 112 leads qualified by sales. The multi-touch campaigns provide us with the pre-approved content that we need to promote our solutions and services – and move leads through the sales process faster. Zift’s Managed Services serves as an extension of our marketing team, providing us the resources we need to manage those campaigns.

With Zift Solutions, it’s easy to solve the channel marketing conundrum of generating the leads you need and nurturing them through to close.

Check out these brief yet informative videos featuring Chris to learn more about Orasi Software’s success with Zift Solutions.

The post Generating & Nurturing Leads Through to Close appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Facing Familiar Challenges

While ResultsPositive is focused on creating a difference for customers to help them meet all of their business goals, we were facing a few challenges that are likely familiar to many channel sales and marketing organizations:

• An inefficient lead management process was slowing us down and undermining collaboration with our primary vendor, HP.
• Our inside sales team was spending too much time going to different portals trying to track down leads and capture the information required to turn leads into actual sales opportunities.
• In-house content creation was overwhelming. While we dedicated hours to creating content, by the time we were done with a campaign, our content was often outdated and we were forced to recreate content and campaigns to match the needs of the current market.

A Powerful Solution

We began using Zift Solutions in 2013 and it has proven itself to be a powerful solution for ResultsPositive. Leads are now generated and distributed directly into our CRM, Salesforce.com, so inside sales reps don’t have to hunt for leads or manually enter lead data. Actionable activity information accompanies each and every lead, which improves follow-up and lead nurturing. We’ve eliminated content development demands with Zift’s Content Syndication solution, which provides us with pre-built HP-specific content we can use across our website and in marketing campaigns. And, we’re using Zift as a centralized hub for all lead activity, which enhances visibility and empowers collaboration with HP.

Dramatic Results

Within the first 6 months of using Zift, we’ve seen dramatic results, including:

• Over 2,100 leads distributed directly into our CRM system
• A burgeoning sales pipeline – with over $1M in our current pipeline
• Significant reduction in lead distribution time
• Actionable background information that turns leads into sales opportunities
• Enhanced visibility and collaboration with HP

Check out our video interview with Brent to learn more about ResultsPositive’s success with Zift Solutions:

The post Turning Leads Into Opportunities With Zift appeared first on Zift Solutions.

The post Introducing the Most Amazing…Glossary appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Hopefully you’re nodding. If not, let me show you how you could be benefiting today.

PPC allows you to target your online text and image-based ads to your audience on critical websites such as Google® and LinkedIn®.

While some may warn that PPC is too time consuming, PPC actually offers a host of benefits B2B companies can’t afford to pass up. By using PPC, you can:

• Gain Immediate Visibility: As 97% of executives are on LinkedIn and 93% of B2B buyers use search engines to begin their buying process, PPC allows you to reach your audience immediately.
• Generate Targeted New Leads: Go beyond email marketing and company websites to reach a larger, targeted market with PPC. Both LinkedIn and Google Ad Words allow you to target new prospects by a variety of professional categories and key words.
• Educate your Audience: Provide helpful resources to solve buyers’ problems, generate awareness, shape perception and interact with your community using PPC within the online destinations your prospects and customers already trust.

Watch this new video, 3 Reasons Why B2B Companies Should Use PPC to Grow Sales, for even more insight and best practices for using PPC within turnkey multi-tactic campaigns to drive sales. Then, share with us some of your experiences with PPC to grow your business.

The post 3 Reasons Why B2B Companies Should Use PPC to Grow Sales [VIDEO] appeared first on Zift Solutions.

In what is sure to be a compelling session, Ken and a round table of other successful entrepreneurs share their expert insights and lessons they’ve learned along their journey. So, if you’ve been lucky enough to secure your pass, join Ken and these other leading entrepreneurs on Wednesday, November 13th at 10:00am:

• Chris Baggott – Previously Co-Founder of ExactTarget, CEO & Co-Founder, Compendium
• Poornima Vijayashanker – Previously Founding Engineer at Mint.com, Founder of BizeeBee, Founder of Femgineer
• Rick Rudman – President & CEO, Vocus.com

For more information on Internet Summit 2013, go to: http://www.internetsummit.com

You can also follow the event on Twitter @Internet_Summit and use #isum13.

The post Zift Solutions CEO to Share Entrepreneur War Stories as Part of 2013 Internet Summit appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Tap into your channel partners network using social media

Think social media doesn’t apply to channel marketing? Wondering how to justify spending time and energy on developing a social media strategy? Get the latest stats on how social media – when extended through your channel partners – can help you broaden your reach and drive interaction with a previously untapped audience.

The post Social Media – The Root of Modern Marketing [Infographic] appeared first on Zift Solutions.

The Challenge

Like many channel partners, Macabe Associates has limited marketing resources. We have always had a hard time staying in front of our customers and getting them to contact us when they have questions or interest in Sage software applications.  While we tried multiple tactics to attract prospects and drive customers to our website, we were unable to generate the traffic and engagement we desired.

Complementing vs. Competing with Sage

One of our biggest problems was staying up to date with Sage’s dynamic messaging, branding and product changes.  We had limited visibility into the marketing programs Sage was conducting.  This often resulted in the delivery of inconsistent messaging to customers, which conflicted with our goal of complementing – rather than competing with – Sage marketing.  Plus, we were wasting time, effort and money developing our own webinars, blog content, newsletters and email campaigns with no easy way to demonstrate activity or provide metrics to Sage.

The Solution

With Zift Solutions, we’re able to better leverage the Sage brand to drive growth and attract and nurture customers.  Zift has allowed us to save 25% on marketing and Macabe is now out in front of customers four times more often using Zift Solutions.

Our Four Main Successes

Our four main successes demonstrate why it’s essential for channel marketers to find the right solutions to effectively leverage their supplier’s brand. 

1. Marketing Automation is saving us 25% in time and marketing costs while co-marketing of Sage and Macabe webinars from our website dramatically increases visibility.
2. Syndicated Content allows us to deliver consistent key product information and easily. personalize the message to demonstrate Macabe’s value and better meet customer expectations.
3. Newsletters are simple to develop and provide detailed metrics.
4. Targeted Email Campaigns keep key messages in front or our clients and ultimately generate more leads.

To hear about Macabe’s results – listen to our interview with Mary below:

The post 4 Reasons to Leverage Your Supplier’s Brand appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Zift Solutions was recently named a “Cool Vendor” in Technology Go-to-Market by Gartner, Inc. in a report published on April 17. Needless to say, we’re all very proud of this achievement and excited about the innovations we have planned for our product roadmap.

The report highlights companies who are able to help IT vendors get more from their sales and marketing investments.

What’s Cool About Being a Cool Vendor?

So, why should you even pay attention to Gartner’s report? For almost 10 years, Gartner has evaluated over 1,400 cool vendors, and it’s stamp of approval has been good indicator of a recipient’s future success. Here’s why:

• 70% of those companies named are still operating today
• 21% of those companies named have been involved in mergers or acquired

Gartner’s definition of a Cool Vendor is a company offering a technology or product that is:

Innovative: It enables users to do things they couldn’t do before.
Impactful: It has or will have a business impact; it’s not just a matter of “technology for the
sake of technology.”
Intriguing: It has caught our interest or curiosity during the past six months or so.

For more information, please click here to read the press release.

The post Zift Solutions Named “Cool Vendor” By Gartner appeared first on Zift Solutions.

David will be a regular contributor to our blog, so we recently spent a few minutes with him to learn more about his background and what brings him to Zift Solutions.

Q. What about Zift Solutions drew you to this role?

A. Zift Solutions works with some of the most respected brands in the world of channel marketing. The success of those organizations is reliant on the relationships they have with their partners and they are always looking for new and innovative ways to ensure their success.

Zift Solutions provides the platform needed to drive channel sales through three key areas: Co-branded Marketing, Sales Collaboration and ROI Analytics. We’ll be sharing more about each of these areas in upcoming posts.

Q. What you will be doing in your role as vice president of marketing?

A. I will be responsible for all aspects of marketing including strategy, tactics and programs needed to create interest, demand and recognition for Zift Solutions. In addition, I look forward to working closely with our suppliers and their partners to improve the effectiveness of their marketing efforts leveraging the Zift Solutions platform.

Q. Can you share any ideas or programs that you hope to implement at Zift Solutions?

A. Currently I am still getting to know our products as well as understanding the unique needs of our customers. I am very impressed with the collaboration among the various teams and how they work closely with the suppliers and their partners.

Ultimately our goal is to provide the very best platform that drives more visibility, more engagement and more revenue for the suppliers and their partners. My goal is to expand our communications with our community and share best practices that will help everyone be more successful. This starts by ensuring there is an open line of communication.

I will be attending some upcoming industry conferences including Baptie Channel Focus Conference and SiriusDecisions Summit, so I look forward to meeting many of you (our customers and others in the industry) soon. If you are planning to be at any of these events, please stop by and introduce yourself.

Be sure to continue to check back here as we continue to share more insights into partner marketing. You can also sign up to receive the latest updates via email.

The post Meet our new VP of Marketing! appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Not too long ago, the direct sales teams, internal to the vendor, were receiving far more attention than any indirect/channel business. Vendors are starting to realize that using a direct sales force is prohibitive in comparison with the cost of using channel partners. So vendors are now investing huge resources into channel partner marketing.

Partner channels are very complex and in order to understand them, channel marketers have to base their decisions from real numbers and not rely on trial and error.

[Enter Analytics: Stage Left]

All website owners understand the value of website analytics, but in the world of channel marketing, how can it be leveraged to benefit both the channel marketer and the channel partner?

A Different Animal

Your normal analytics platform will provide data about activity on that website such as number of visits, time on site, bounce rate, exit rate, pages/visit etc. But, what about who was visiting? Who took that action? Not only that, but as a channel marketer I’m flying blind if I have zero insight into how my channel marketing efforts are really playing out.

Here’s how shared analytics through a partner demand center can help you gain the visibility needed to help your partners:

1) Understand How Your Money is Used

According to Forrester’s recent forecasts for 2013, approximately $1,357B will go through the IT channel and about $63B is allocated towards channel marketing. That’s an estimated 30% increase in spend for this year. But did you know that an estimated $25B will go unused?

WOW.

Vendors pump cash into their channel without seeing how it’s really spent. How can you understand your expenditure without have a 360 degree view of how it’s been used?

Channel partners need support with their marketing and need up-to-date product information, so leaving them to their own devices does not work. But using a platform that helps them market more effectively and helps you understand if they’re using the funds is a god-send!

Bottom-line: Shared analytics provide you with simple data that shows how engaged your partners are and if they are using your funds in an effective manner.

2) What Marketing Resources Work

Are you able to scale marketing resources for your entire partner network? Well, that’s another post in itself. But, if you are using a partner demand center then what resources, that you have provided, are being used? Do you know what resources are right for your industry and partners? If so, what are producing results?

Bottom-line: Unless you have a system in place to see which of your resources or tactics are effective with your partner community, then you’ll continue to waste money in areas that do not produce ROI.

3) See KPIs

When time is of the essence, high level statistics are all you’re able to work with – so channel marketers will look at key performance indicators (KPIs) to give them a quick overview of how their program is performing. In some instances, you’ll want to dive in deeper to understand what is and what’s not working.

Bottom-line: Shared analytics provide an excellent way for channel marketers to see all statistics as well as those KPIs for measuring performance and growth.

Until you have these systems in place for your channel program, you’re not really able to understand your ROI. It also limits your ability to automate information sharing as a channel marketer to your channel partners.

We would love to know your thoughts on shared analytics. Would it benefit you? How else could it be used? Let us know by using the comments section below!

The post 3 Ways Shared Analytics Helps Gain Control & Visibility into Your Channel appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Don’t fret, we’re here to help. Here’s a list of easy SEO tips for you to implement today.

1) Social Media

If your business (no matter what size) is not engaged in social media, then you’re missing a trick.

Social networks allow you to connect with you audience and initiate conversations, rather than talk at them – allowing you to quickly react to potential customer questions, PR issues, and conversations related to your industry. Furthermore, it allows you to become the thought leader on the subject matter, develop your brand and humanize your company.

From an SEO perspective, many believe it is increasingly influencing rankings. In particular, Google+, is a fantastic network for all small businesses to setup and take seriously. Google’s +1 feature influences search results and serves as another excellent way of connecting with your audience. However, because relevant links back to your webpages are one of the biggest factors in SEO – the fact that you’re able to share your content with you audience – means you’ve got a good chance, should it be valuable, to get a link back to your article.

Popular social networks include LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest and Quora.

For more on the subject, read our post on social media marketing for partners.

2) Blogging

A blog is an excellent way to target long tail keywords, improve SEO, and boost your website authority – especially if you have an active reader base that likes to comment on posts. If you do have an active community, it’s important to respond and continue those conversations.

Blogging also allows you to generate fresh content on relevant topics around your line of business. When people are engaged by your content, they’ll be far more likely to return, share your content and develop trust for your brand.

3) Title Tags

Probably the single most important on-page element in terms of SEO, with the exception of actual content. A title tag helps to describe what the page or document is about, and appears at the top of the browser or within a tab.

More importantly, it appears in the search engines. If the user has searched for keywords that are included in your title tag, then it will appear bold. This will help attract visitors and improve click through rates. It’s important to bear in mind the user experience. Make sure the title is helpful to visitors.

Remember, the title tag should be no more than 70 characters (in order to appear on both Google and Bing without being truncated) and avoid duplicate titles. You should also include the most important keywords within the tag (especially towards the start of the tag).

If you’re brand is extremely powerful, then this could be included first in the title. For example, if you’re a channel partner, using your vendor/manufacturer brand would be a great idea. In most cases the keyword comes first, and if there’s space, the brand at the end.

4) Meta Description

Although this has no bearing on SEO, it is great for user experience. The description is also displayed in search engines and helps to explain what that page is about. It should be about 155 characters long.

By writing compelling copy, you can dramatically improve click through rates. For example, eCommerce companies could include “Free Shipping,” B2B companies could include “Free Demo.”
Like title tags, avoid duplicate meta descriptions (for user experience reasons).

5) Alt Tags

Search engine bots are becoming very intelligent, but they cannot see (yet!). So it’s important to include this tag in order to describe to Google, Bing etc what exactly that image represents. This is another vital on-page element.

6) Navigation

Search engines love websites that are easily navigable. It allows them to read it quicker, but also allows users to find what they’re looking for.

A good way to see how visitors interact with your website is to have someone unfamiliar with your website look for something in particular and provide you feedback. Alternatively, you can use services such as CrazyEgg, Usabilla, KISSMetrics and Tobii.

Sensible use of internal linking is definitely recommended. This allows visitors to find more information about a particular subject and search engines to discover new content.

A final tip is the use of breadcrumbs. You’ve probably seen these before where, towards the top of the page, you see this sort of structure:

Home >> Partner Marketing >> Features

This allows users to see how they’ve navigated to that particular page, what subject or topic it comes under or where they are in a wizard/process (e.g. shopping cart).

We hope these tips prove to be useful. Let us know in the comments below if they have helped you and what questions you may have!

The post 6 Easy SEO Tips for Channel Partners appeared first on Zift Solutions.

In this post, I would like to go over the important landing page elements needed to improve the user experience (UX) and the number of conversions.

So, if you looking for ways to increase B2B or B2C leads/sales from your landing pages, while improving the impression your visitors have upon your brand – then consider these tips:

1) Watch your word count

Don’t overwhelm your visitors with huge paragraphs of information. It’s difficult to say how much text is optimal, but for B2B I suggest a sentence or two followed by bullet points. However, you should A/B test, as every industry and audience is different.

After you have generated a submission, you can then go into more detail as an additional resource on the confirmation page or throughout your nurturing process.

2) Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

What is the prospect going to get or what is going to happen once they click the button? Make sure the color contrasts with surrounding and background colors so that it stands out. You only have a matter of seconds to suggest a next step – so make sure it’s clear and attractive.

3) Length of form

This is dependent on so many factors, e.g. your business, industry, the stage of the marketing funnel, the value of the offer, what information you’re requesting etc. In general, you’ll generate fewer, better quality leads with the longer form and a shorter form will likely generate more leads, but just not as qualified.

4) Include images

This helps to make the page far more engaging, and if you have a picture of the product or white paper – a much more attractive and enticing offer.

5) Relevance

It is imperative that you have multiple landing pages for one campaign. Quality Score from both Bing and Google looks at relevancy factors that ultimately affect your cost. Not only that, but your visitors will leave if the content does not reflect their search term.

Although it is not exactly clear what on-page factors Google or Bing prefers in regards to PPC/SEM landing pages, I always try to include alt tags, H1/H2 tags, and title tags.

From an email marketing perspective, the same applies. Although you will not be judged on quality score, the same basic principles of relevance still apply.

6) Transparency

From a user experience and security point-of-view, visitors want to be reassured that their information is safe. From a Google AdWords and Bing Ads perspective, they will suspend your website from serving ads if you do not include contact information and a privacy policy.

7) Video

We’ve seen great results by implementing landing page videos. A video can boost conversion rates by as much as 80% and we’ve seen it firsthand.

8) Testimonials

Did you know that 70% of people trust reviews or opinions from people they don’t even know? Testimonials definitely help with conversions and if it’s relevant, include them.

9) A reason to stay

If you haven’t got what they’re looking for, visitors will bounce. For B2B, provide prospects with a valuable white paper, report, webinar or video that is highly targeted to their search term or the email marketing campaign.

10) Steps of the process

Be honest and demonstrate the various steps of the landing page(s), if applicable. For example, if they’re purchasing something: Step 1: Shopping Cart, Step 2: Addresses, Step 3: Review & Purchase, Step 4: Receipt.

11) Social Trust/Sharing

Allow people to share your content. This may result in future leads and brand exposure. Social buttons also serve as proof of the quality of your content.

12) Security

This point ties into the transparency point above, but addresses a different aspect.

If you are asking prospects to submit secure data (credit card information, social security etc.) then place your SSL logo close to your submission form.

Also, badges from other organizations such as Better Business Bureau (BBB) and McAfee Security help to reduce visitor anxiety.

13) Limit navigation

Another best practice for landing pages is to keep your prospect focused. By removing product/service navigation from your template – you’ll help focus the attention on your call to action. It also allows you to have better control over what the prospect sees and interacts with – so you can center specific content, images and ideas around your specific email or SEM campaign.

14) Logo

Brand your landing pages with your logo, or co-brand marketing campaigns to increase recognition and industry authority.

15) White Space

Avoid cluttering the landing page with extra information. Stick to what’s vital and compelling to your goal. Especially when it comes to a call to action, you often see landing pages that include far too many elements that stand out.

16) Above the fold

Often times, the visitor is looking to act quickly. They won’t read everything and won’t always scroll to see what else is included. That’s why you must, must, must have your call to action above the fold.

Every one of us has experienced landing pages – so think about your experience. Often, you’ll click an advertisement or land on a page via a link and quickly decide whether or not it’s valuable to you. Guess what? That’s what YOUR prospects are going to do too!

What else have your own tests shown to positively or negatively affect your landing pages? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post 16 Landing Page Tips to Improve UX and Conversions appeared first on Zift Solutions.

According to the B2B Content Marketing report, conducted by CMI and MarketingProfs, 33% of B2B marketing budgets are now dedicated toward content creation. For 2013, this is expected to increase 54%. So…how’s your plan coming along?

The following data, collected by HubSpot on its 7,000+ B2B/B2C customers, helps reinforce the need to invest in content by demonstrating the impact of webpages, landing pages, blogging and social reach. Today I want to look specifically at webpages (in the report, this is referred to as website content). To clarify, a webpage tends be an informative page on a website – for example, a page for products, services, FAQs or blog posts.

So, What Does This Really Show?

If you look at this graph and say, “I need to create more pages of content”, then all I can say is good luck! Using only this data, I could see how one would come to this conclusion. But, there are other factors that need to be considered to acheive success by increasing your content output.

Improving Your Approach to Content and SEO

Everyday I come across website owners that write content or design their website for search engines, rather than for the use of humans.

This does not work.

“Spammy” pages are decreasing (although not quick enough for most people’s liking), and sites that are generating traffic and increasing rankings are more visually appealing, easier to navigate, contain high quality content, and are recent enough to stay relevant.

Not only are the search engine algorithm updates and rankings reflecting this – but if your content is what the visitor is looking for – then good content results in social sharing, customer retention, customer acquisition, branding, leads and ultimately sales. So, pay attention to the quality of each page by only supplying valuable, relevant and current information to your audience. Focus on creating one (quality) page at a time.

For those people who don’t have the resources to generate 100’s of articles – content syndication is an efficient way to deliver quality messaging to your audience. This allows websites to display fresh, relevant and consistent content to prospects, without sacrificing essential on-page optimization elements or rankings.

So what are your content marketing plans for 2013? What have you done to improve your content output recently? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Have You Changed Your Attitude Toward Content Creation & SEO Yet? appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Pages often contain too many distractions, and if the goal of your page is to have a visitor perform a specific action (e.g. download a white paper, contact you, sign up for a webinar, etc.) then the path to the goal must be crystal clear. 

Landing pages are targeted pages created in mind to achieve a specific goal and for a specific channel (e.g. PPC, social media, email, etc.) Instead of directing a prospect to your homepage or contact page, steer them in the direction of a landing page.

In a recent study by HubSpot, they measured how the number of landing pages impacted lead generation:

As this graph shows, it’s important to increase the number of landing pages in order to improve your flow of leads. It sounds obvious, but often times it’s underutilized. In fact, according to the report, “companies see a 55% increase in leads from increasing landing pages from 10 to 15.”

Although landing pages are often used in SEM and email campaigns, most webmasters allow them to be indexed by search engines. In some cases it may be wise to exlude them from appearing in the search engines, but they offer an excellent opportunity to not capture leads organically. It also adds a whole lot of SEO value by providing optimized and relevant content on your website that can help you in the SERPS.

How to Increase the Number of Landing Pages on Your Website

1) Become more granular with your landing pages

Providing specific landing pages that really presents content that prospects are looking for. For example, if someone searches for, “Tennis equipment,” then create a separate landing page that presents tennis equipment, rather than sports equipment. If someone searches for, “tennis rackets,” then only show tennis rackets rather than general tennis equipment.

By making more relevant landing pages, I guarantee that conversion rates will increase.

2) Become more granular with your campaign setup

Structure your campaigns in a way where you segment by interest, keywords and/or questions. According to MarketingSherpa, segmenting email marketing campaigns can increase clicks up to 50%.

As a best practice for search marketing campaigns, it’s important to be granular with both your campaigns and ad groups. By structuring it in this manner, you’re able to target specific keywords with relevant ad copy. For example, if I search for “channel marketing software,” then I want to see an ad that closely relates to that search term – rather than just “marketing software.” This results in a better CTR, a better quality score, higher conversion rates and pre-qualified leads.

3)  Generate more content for your audience

This will involve new campaigns that allow you to capture more leads by offering a variety of assets (for example) for various channels. Perhaps you are promoting webinars via your email marketing campaign, offering a free white paper via SEM or free industry specific tools via your social media.

More and more companies are now employing teams dedicated to creating valuable content that attracts prospects and turns them into leads. If you’re unable to afford those kind of resources then consider finding someone internally who’s looking for the responsibility and who has experience in content creation. It’s important for them to consult with subject matter experts (SMEs) on content before posting it.

An excellent and easy way to offer content to prospects is to repurpose content. For example, powerpoint presentations, interviews, webinars, a blog post on the top posts of the year, or updating content that you’ve previously produced.

What other ideas do you have to share? Are you struggling to come up with new content? Let us know in the comments section below:

The post 3 Effective Ways To Increase Leads & Conversion Rates appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Today we would like to welcome Denise Lee Yohn as our guest blogger. Denise is a brand-building expert, writer, and speaker, who spoke at our recent Success Summit and works with world-class brands including Sony, Frito-Lay, Burger King, and Nautica. Read more by Denise on her blog which was named among the Top 25 Blogs Marketing Executives Actually Read.

Many VARs and channel partners are small businesses which face significant brand-building challenges.  Their primary objectives are to get on people’s radar screens and establish trust with new customers who have probably never heard of them before.  Vendors, who often enjoy all the benefit of a strong, established brand, have the opportunity to help these small businesses build their brands.

Here are three ways you can help:

Integrate Your Brands

Don’t dominate and subjugate the VAR’s brand by insisting your brand be the lead brand.  Think horizontal, not hierarchical in terms of visual branding elements like the treatment of logos or verbal branding messages.  By the very fact that yours is an established, bigger brand, your branding will register more saliently, so don’t worry so much about the size of your logo.

And integrate your value propositions.  With the developments in cloud computing and mobile applications, the way customers think about and want to buy services and software is changing. The line between the two is becoming blurred – so rather than seeking to clearly delineate what each party contributes, look for ways to seamlessly integrate what you do and communicate an integrated value proposition. Doing so may actually increase value perceptions for both companies.

Engage Your VARs As Customers

Of course, they’re your partners in selling to and supporting end users, but vendors who have the most successful relationships with their VARs think about them also as customers and serve them as customers. If you practice the disciplines of VAR customer intimacy, you will be able to better meet your VARs’ brand-building needs.

For example, rigorously collect, integrate, and analyze customer insights.  Seek to understand them, what makes them tick, what keeps them up at night, how they decide among vendors, what they need to serve their customers better.  Also consider fostering community among your VARs.  Instead of one-way, vertical communication from you to them, develop horizontal dialogue among your VARs.  Provide forums through which they can share with and learn from each other.  You’ll benefit from being seen as the instigator and facilitator of all the benefits they derive from such interactions.

Teach Your VARs

Finally, teach your VARs how to market and sell your products.  Don’t assume they know how.  They might not have the knowledge, experience, bandwidth, or finances to do marketing right.  Proactively provide marketing education and sales training, and give them thought-leadership that they can repurpose as their own.  Marketing certifications, sales playbooks, and customer content will help them develop stronger brands – and of course, your sales will increase as they develop greater competence in these areas.

You can use your power as a large established brand to require your VARs to do business with you on your terms, or you can use your power to produce a rising tide that lifts all boats.

The post Create a Rising Brand that Lifts Your VAR’s Boat appeared first on Zift Solutions.

Today we would like to welcome Rick Wilson as our guest blogger. Rick is a distribution strategy expert, writer, educator, advisor, and speaker.

A new generation of marketing automation tools is not only improving the efficiency and effectiveness of established channel ecosystems, it’s creating fresh opportunities for long-frustrated manufacturers to re-think how they go to market, and put in place higher-performing distribution channel structures without sacrificing cost or profitability gains.

Let’s consider the once mature analog circuit market that is experiencing a renaissance in growth as a new generation of smaller industrial and medical device makers seek out new chip components for their innovative products.  Like many markets in the current environment, the routes-to-market for analog chips are highly consolidated around a small handful of low-cost national distributors with little capacity or incentive to provide hands-on, high-touch product expertise and customer assistance to these smaller customers.

The information required by smaller customers is relegated instead to online ‘data sheets’ of technical specifications. But after years of focus on digital chip technology, current device development engineers at small- to mid-sized manufacturing customers lack a deep understanding of analog technology just as they find themselves buried under a long-tail avalanche of technical promotional materials.

This customer knowledge gap means most product and purchasing engineers at smaller manufacturers simply default to familiar legacy brands or suffer through costly trial-and-error component selection. For them, the analog chip supply chain is cumbersome, risky, time consuming and inadequate. What they crave instead is a more effective way to tap into analog product engineering information, expertise and support with the same level of hands-on assistance that small, local value-added resellers have long provided in other technology markets.

Innovative circuit manufacturers investing in new analog product differentiation recognize this need to change the end-customer’s buying experience, but feel trapped by current large-scale, commoditized distribution channel options. Conventional wisdom has long held that the demand creation capacity and competence a more fragmented network of locally-based, high-touch distribution channel partners would provide to smaller customers is simply unaffordable and a strategic non-starter. While not the whole story, today’s new Marketing Automation solutions are a big part of how a forward-looking chip manufacturer looking to change the rules of engagement could streamline the economics of complex information dissemination through a new system of smaller, more local distribution channel partners.

Critical application- and vertical-market specific technical content, along with promotional campaign design and structuring would still be centralized at the manufacturer for low-cost development. But new promotion automation tools would be leveraged to certify and incentivize specific channel partners to match with each application, promote the marketing program itself for ease of channel adoption, and orchestrate end-customer online search optimization and retargeting mechanisms that drive new leads and incremental higher-margin demand opportunities to the best partner with the right services and expertise. In this new scenario, the follow-on promotional activity of an army of local channel partners would be leveraged to rapidly expand the chip manufacturer’s earned media clout in a confusing and crowded analog marketplace. Mindshare with channel partners would climb naturally as they experienced more profitable demand generation through the manufacturer’s marketing programs.

But best of all, end-customers would learn about and select the product manufacturer’s solutions in a more efficient and effective way. At the end of the day, smarter use of technology to create more customer-driven distribution will always win.

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