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The Buyer’s
Journey is a Myth
Jonathan Vlock
Vice President, Client Marketing Strategy

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The Create Organization
 Born from a media company with over 30 years
of technology experience and complex marketing
campaign execution.
 A pioneer in the development of Demand
Generation best practices for BtoB technology
marketing
 A collaborative partner with the resources and
expertise to deliver the complete, scalable
solution that will meet your company’s business
and marketing objectives
Experience
― Developing best-in-class
demand gen strategies and
frameworks
― Developing award winning
global demand gen programs
― Integration with industry-
leading marketing automation
platforms
In 2013 Alone….
― Produced 2,600 programs for
330 clients
― Generated 800,000 leads
― Executed 50 lead nurture
programs
― Created 500 original content
pieces
― Hosted 225 custom events
with 17,700 registrants

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This Session
 How Customers Actually Purchase
• The Buyer’s Journey vs. Organizational Change
Process
 How to Align Content with That Purchase
Process
• One Dimensional vs. Comprehensive Content
Categorization
 Empower The Champion
 Sales and Marketing Alignment

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Caution Head Exploding Zone

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Myth #1
No Silver Bullet
Seeking a proactive approach to marketing
efforts that will maximize the effectiveness of
customer engagements

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Real Life Purchasing

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Myth #2
The Buyer’s Journey
The Buyer’s Journey is the active research
process a potential buyer goes through leading
up to a purchase

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Enterprise Purchase Decisions Involve
Up To 21+ Influencers
. 7.2
Average number of individuals
involved in the entire decision-making
process
6.7 months
Average time from identifying
business need to purchase decision
57%
Of the buying decision is complete
before that prospect’s first contact
with a supplier

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Organizational Change Process
The Greatest Opportunity For Influence Is In The Early Stages
Implement
How do we
successfully deploy
and manage the
selected system?
Approve
Does this really help
us solve our
problem? How will
we measure ROI?
Select
Which solution will
we use?
Evaluate &
Recommend
What are the
available solutions,
and which best fit
our requirements?
Define
Requirements
What are the
business, technical
and architecture
considerations?
Determine Need
What is the
business problem
we need to solve?
61% 58% 64%
46%
25%
44%

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The Change Process Begins When An Organization
Identifies A Need To Change. Be There.
We have to save on energy
costs—and running our
servers is a big part of the bill.
We want to integrate disparate
customer databases across all
of our different business units.
Our supply chain needs to be
more agile and responsive to
changing market conditions.
Business Need:
Financial Need:
Technical Need:
Understand Your Customers’ Pain
Points – And Deliver Solutions
You can better connect with buyers if you
address the issues and pain points faced
by companies in specific vertical
industries, with different organizational
sizes, or with different business models.

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Organizational Change Process
Multiple Roles, Varying Levels of Involvement
Implement
This process will
ensure the fastest
adoption
Approve
This investment
aligns with our
strategic objectives
Select
Which vendor will
we use?
Evaluate &
Recommend
What are the
available solutions,
and which best fit
our requirements?
Define
Requirements
What are the
business, technical
and architecture
considerations?
Determine Need
We need to solve a
problem or avoid a
future issue
ROLES/INVOLVEMENT

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Content Alignment

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Myth #3
Content Alignment
Content asset
types align to
individual
stages in the
Buyer’s
Journey.

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Content Alignment
Maximizing Performance Through Content Relevancy and Delivery
Demonstrate Technical
Superiority and ROI
Provide Technical Reasons for
Deficiencies
Highlight Risk of Maintaining
Status Quo
Introduce Optimal Path to
Overcoming Challenge
Messaging Intent
Solution Exploration Stages
Educational Stages
Vendor Selection Stages
Process Stage

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Empower the Champion

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Myth #4
Persona Based Marketing
Persona based marketing requires an
organization to develop individual campaigns
designed to attract, engage and convert each of
the different stakeholder types.

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Finding & Empowering the Champion
 What is the Champion?
• “A central stakeholder who is very
interested in new or different ways
of doing something, and is
determined to make changes
happen.”
 How to empower the Champion
• Providing that stakeholder with
the information he/she needs to
drive the decision forward.

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Empowering the Champion
Select
Which vendor will
we use?
Approve
This investment
aligns with our
strategic objectives
Evaluate &
Recommend
What are the
available solutions,
and which best fit
our requirements?
Define
Requirements
What are the
business, technical
and architecture
considerations?
Determine Need
We need to solve a
problem or avoid a
future issue
Executive Stakeholder
Information that
appeals to Champion
and will help make
the case to that
stage's "key”
stakeholder

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Sales and Marketing Alignment

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Myth #5
Marketing involvement ends with the sales
handoff

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Current Customer Engagement -
Disconnected Communications
LeadGenerationPrograms
Marketing
Engagement Sales Engagement
Enormous gap in customer
communications
Marketing Engagement
ends with sales handoff

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Future Customer Engagement – Consistent
Communications
LeadGenerationPrograms
Marketing Engagement Sales Engagement
Connecting the engagement between marketing
and sales produces a much more consistent and
effective customer engagement
Marketing Engagement
continues throughout sales
cycle

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Thank You!

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Relevant Content
Focus On The Things That Matter To Tech Pros – Deliver More Value
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Does not have 3rd party validation
Too great a focus on product features
Information is too long
Lack of real ROI metrics
Does not connect to business benefits
Lacks info depth
Lack of real world application and examples
Too much marketing "fluff"
16%
16%
19%
20%
34%
36%
44%
77%
Source: UBM Tech Buyers Research, March 2012
Q: What would you say are the biggest mistakes technology vendors make when producing information? (Check your top three.)

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The Realities of Technology Purchasing
Tech Customers Want Long Term Partners
 It’s A Journey, NOT One Sales Call…80% of customers
begin researching a technology solution at least 6
months before they make a purchase.
 Get On Their Radar Early, To Add Value Via
Content…95% would prefer to engage with tech vendors
when they are defining their technical requirements and
evaluating potential solutions.
 If You Wait, It’s Often Too Late…61% of stakeholders
get involved in the early stages but only 25% get
involved in the selection/ approval process

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Marketing’s Clear Charter – Drive Revenue
CMO and Their Teams Need to Re-Tool to Deliver
• Marketers primary role today is to drive
revenue by creating brand demand and
accelerating sales pipeline
• CMOs biggest challenge – ROI using
business metrics, not just marketing metrics
• 4 out of 5 CMOs anticipate a high or very
high level of complexity, but only half feel
ready to handle it1
• Technology marketers perform nearly 7
major marketing functions within their
organization2
• CMOs in the most successful enterprises are
focusing on relationships, not just
transactions1
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