Businesses are thrashing with content, social media and professional networks, struggling to find compelling new ways to initiate and progress business relationships. This brief introduces a digital engagement strategy, framework and methodology that enable an organization to quickly establish and rapidly accelerate their ability to engage with target audiences via social channels and the latest marketing practices, through the generation of a Digital Industry Network.

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Innovation Brief .
© TechMarketer 2015 – All Rights Reserved. Questions to Andy McCartney andy@techmarketer.biz
Agile Strategies for Digital Engagement:
“Digital Industry Networks”
Progressive and high-growth organizations are continually exploring
innovative ways to generate new business, competitive advantage and
customer value.
Many have responded to the extraordinary change in buying and decision
making cycles that are increasingly self-service and incorporate peer
sourced information and opinion. Vendors and services providers are
attempting to trigger and engage in those digital conversations that occur
within their target market segments, hoping to increase awareness,
reputation, thought leadership, online connections and lead origination.
Being visible and credible in the industry segments across the media
networks and channels where your target audience interacts is now a
necessity of modern business. Many organizations do not have the
understanding or capability to effectively deliver this, and others are simply
too slow to execute the precise strategies and tactics that capture the
window of opportunity to return wide ranging tangible benefits.
Organizations Struggle with Transformation and Agility
As businesses attempt to transform their operations and processes around
modern customer journeys and 24x7 multi-channel interactions, many
struggle with the culture shock and complexity of integrated sales and
marketing, automated prospecting and the latest social and data driven
engagement practices.
High growth businesses must execute at speed to maintain advantage, and
are open to emerging mechanisms for increased agility. Larger enterprises
are often unable to overcome their own inertia to ever attain first mover
advantage, but would also consider credible practices for enhanced agility.
This brief introduces a digital engagement strategy, framework and methodology that enable an organization to
quickly establish and rapidly accelerate their ability to engage with target audiences via social channels and the
latest marketing practices, through the generation of a Digital Industry Network.
What is a Digital Industry Network (D.I.N.)?
A D.I.N. is tightly controlled multi-channel professional network,
comprising a custom configured conversation zone, information
sources and communication feeds. Target audiences are able to
interact with peers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and industry
thought leaders in order to progress their knowledge around a
high value trending industry topic.
A D.I.N. is agile because it is developed at speed in order to
maximize the potential of a fast moving topic, event or threat,
where first-to-market movers attract critical early thought leader
and share-of-voice advantage.
Businesses are thrashing with
content, social media and
professional networks, struggling
to find compelling new ways to
initiate and progress business
relationships.
Being able to rapidly develop
online business networks that
promote engagement around
trending industry topics delivers
real first mover advantage when
it comes to capturing
conversation market share.
And as more digitally savvy
professionals reach senior
decision making roles, there is
an expectation for peer sourced
information and a new reliance
on social channels to assist with
buying decisions
1
.
These are real and present
challenges that are addressed in
this research brief.
Sample Digital Industry Network
1
85% of B2B buyers rely on social channels – 2013 Forrester Report “How B2B Marketers Use Social Now”
Andy McCartney, Chief TechMarketer
andy@techmarketer.biz

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Innovation Brief .
© TechMarketer 2015 – All Rights Reserved. Questions to Andy McCartney andy@techmarketer.biz
Who Are the Targets for a D.I.N.?
An organization looking to originate a D.I.N. may already be active in
social and professional networks. Successful vendors like SAP and
VMware already have established large online communities, based
around broad subject matters, many being product based.
However, a D.I.N. should be focused on a high value trending
industry topic, and provide a credible and trusted resource for its
participants to engage in peer conversation, ask questions to subject
matter experts, access non-promotional content, and easily reach out
to service/solution providers for assistance as and when needed.
The D.I.N. should consist of a leader, or evangelist, who is the focal
point for connectivity and the managing of invitations, content and
conversations, as well as the recruiter of key influencers for that
topic. He or she should not be perceived in any way to wear a sales
or vendor hat, but to be an impartial, driven and qualified catalyst for
a valued industry networking group.
What is the Value to the Originator of the D.I.N.?
Whereas SAP and VMware spent years investing and cumulating online communities, a D.I.N. rapidly establishes a
highly focused, engaged and managed network of targeted professionals who are motivated, impacted, and
influential. Spammers and competitors can be locked out, enabling originators to develop relationships via quality
conversation and information provision. By following the framework and methodology below, owners of digital
industry networks are able to realize several business development benefits oriented around the selected industry
topic and related market segments:
Branding and awareness
Thought leadership, reputation and credibility
Growth of network and contact database
Demand generation and lead origination
Lead nurturing via pain diagnosis/solution discovery
Well-crafted conversations and the subtle offering of non-
promotional content such as industry surveys, risk/reward
calculators, SME video/audio interviews, infographics and
breaking news alerts, all provide top and middle of funnel
accelerators. For conversion, conversations can be directed
offline as needed by the evangelist, and any sales and
business development personnel who are in the network.
Superior Velocity and Conversion?
Monitor and benchmark the quality-oriented metrics of
leads as they progress through the funnel. Motivated and
impacted D.I.N. participants are often regarded as ‘AAA prospects’, with high velocity through the stages of inquiry,
research and qualification, and up to10x waterfall conversion compared to other sources.
Benchmark D.I.N. sourced leads against other channels and sources to compare how many inquiries it takes to
close 1 deal. A well aligned, devised and nurtured digital industry network may be regarded as the holy grail of
modern business, displacing cold calls, promotional campaigns, traditional business development and many face to
face engagements. Review the framework and methodology below to guide your D.I.N. initiatives.
Sample D.I.N. Topics
 Exploring Point of Sale Data Breaches
 Cuba’s Digital Infrastructure Opportunity
 2015 Healthcare Legislation CPA Threats
 Berlin Growth Cluster Feb 2015 Launch
Rapid Growth of Target Market Network

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Innovation Brief .
© TechMarketer 2015 – All Rights Reserved. Questions to Andy McCartney andy@techmarketer.biz
Digital Industry Network Framework and Development Methodology
To be successful with a D.I.N. it is necessary to execute many of the tried and tested practices of modern
marketing, from audience insights to decision journeys to content mapping to social engagement to data driven
optimization. To be agile it is necessary to streamline this process, to select a high value industry topic for your
target market, and to apply accelerated growth practices to establish the desired degree of network participation,
activity and authority within weeks.
A framework has been developed to focus on the key success drivers, which are oriented around four categories:
Context – Ensure the selected topic is high
value/impactful for the targeted audience, and
aligns with organizational goals and markets.
Community – Select appropriate config-
uration of social channels and information
sources, and ensure the evangelist, influencer
and participant combination is synergistic
within the context of the chosen topic.
Cadence – Determine the optimal frequency
and types of conversation and content that
resonate with the audience.
Agility - Apply appropriate growth resources
to reach network effect tipping point, in both
network size and engagement levels.
A ‘1 month methodology’ has been created that stages the D.I.N. development process into 4 steps, as follows:
Insight – Perform research on
topics, value, audience targets
and network community structure.
Design – Formalize design of
community, channels, content,
calendar + growth mechanisms.
Prepare – Create target lists,
invitations + initial content assets.
Launch – Execute invitation
campaign sourcing contacts from house lists, existing networks and social channels (e.g. LinkedIn). Execute week
1 welcome track, establishing value and education of topic/network breadth.
Conclusion
In today’s highly competitive markets, agile competitors are able to leapfrog laggards for mind and market share. It
is now imperative to grasp the full array of emerging business, social and technical models to enable customer
value and competitive advantage. D.I.N.s allow organizations to reduce and divert budget away from telemarketing,
advertising and other promotional activities to the more compelling ROI of originating and nurturing business from
high-value target market industry networks. Develop business relationships using the power of industry knowledge
and a desire to share opinions, content, experience and your network of qualified connections. This is the new era
of collaborative business development.
Digital Industry Network Framework2
Digital Industry Network Methodology2
2
For more information about the framework and methodology, refer to the TechMarketer D.I.N. content on Slideshare