Brent Boswell, Vice President, EMEA, discusses B2B content marketing.

1. Brent Boswell, Vice President, EMEA
28th April, 2016
What Really Works in
B2B Content Marketing

2. 2
TechTarget – a global technology publisher
©TechTarget
140
websites spanning over 5,000
technology and business topics
235,000
articles, 15,000-20,000 added annually
300,000
social followers & 2.5m social posts
400,000+
content downloads annually
150m
inbound IT & LOB users per year

3. 3
Why Content is Important
©TechTarget
12%
average portion of the
buyer’s journey a
vendor owns
91%
of IT buyers
work in
teams
10
number of sources used to
research purchases
Despite hard work, Marketing
cannot reach every contact or
influence full buying team
4
Number of assets
downloaded to put
a brand on the
shortlist
Sources: CEB; TechTarget
Media Consumption CEB; CMI
70%
completed portion of the B2B buy cycle
without vendor input

4. United Kingdom
Last Budgeted IT Purchase – Study of 500
European ITDMs in 2015
When was this last budgeted IT purchase (i.e., one that required some degree
of research and comparative information) made?
4
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
Less than 3 months ago 3-6 months ago 6-9 months ago 9-12 months ago More than 12 months
ago
• 500+ completes
• 55% IT Manager+
• 50% Multiple Departmental purchase
• 45% renewal/upgrade
• 50% new purchase

5. United Kingdom
It takes a team to purchase technology: IT
buying teams often include 4+ stakeholders
How many people were involved in the buying process (i.e., the process of
researching and selecting the technology vendor/solution) for this IT purchase?
5
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
75%
1 2 - 4 5 - 7 8 - 10
Worldwide ROI Summit | © TechTarget

6. • Big data vendors should stop dissing
data warehouse systems
• Data visualization software deserves a
deep look before buying
The Team Owning BI/Business Analytics
Make sure content caters to each buying
team member
6©TechTarget
• BI architecture needs extensions to
meet new analytics demands
• Agile BII speeds development at Union
Bank
Reads articles such as:
• For many, glitter of BI process not yet
gold
• BI director needs strong blend of
business, IT leadership skills
BI/Analytics Program Manager
Cares about:
BI strategy and trends,
vendor selection, end-
user adoption, ROI.
BI Architect/Developer
Architecture and design
best practices, technology
functionality.
IT Manager Technology functionality,
systems management,
data integration

7. United Kingdom
Buyer short listing doesn’t come from one
asset download
How many pieces of content (e.g. videos, white papers, case studies, etc.) did
you download/view that was produced by the vendor you selected for your
last IT purchase?
7
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
1 2 - 3 4 - 6 7 - 10 More than 10

8. 8
Specific assets are more relevant to IT buyers
at specific times during the buying process

9. 9
Content created should be specific to each
buy cycle stage
©TechTarget
Awareness Consideration Decision
Educational, provides
technology overview
of, underscores need
Terminology:
• Troubleshooting
• “101”
• Overview
• Tips
• Definition/Defined
Provides an overview
of the vendor and their
technology offerings
Terminology:
• Provider
• Supplier
• Service
• Tool
• Device
Demonstrates client
value, showcase
solution as a viable
Terminology:
• Solution
• Versus
• Compare
• Review
• Tests

10. United Kingdom
Identify in all areas of the purchase cycle or
you’ll miss out on short lists
Did you download/view content that was created by technology vendors or
third-party experts/analysts (e.g., Gartner, TechTarget's Editorial Team)?
10
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
75%
Technology vendors only Independent third-party
experts/analysts only
I download/viewed content that was
created by both

11. 11
At TechTarget, 45% of content downloads are
from our independent editorial content
©TechTarget, TechTarget Media Consumption Study
45%
leads generated
from editorial
content
55%
leads generated
from vendor
content

12. United Kingdom
Relevancy is the key characteristic for buyers
when evaluating content
Which of the following characteristics are most important to you when
downloading/viewing pieces of content to assist in the research for your IT
purchase?
12
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Featured on a
website
relevant to my
research
Produced by
vendor with
whom I am
familiar
Was directly
relevant to my
IT purchase
The media
format of the
content
The length of
the content
piece
Produced by a
third-party
expert/analyst
Recommended
by colleagues
or experts I
trust
Worldwide ROI Summit | © TechTarget

13. Relevancy drastically improves performance
Worldwide ROI Summit | © TechTarget
General IT
Networking
active IT pros
Network
Mgmt
10G
Ethernet
Network
security
SDN
Active in last
90 days
Interest ID CTR Acq.
Rate
How
much
better?
General IT .2% .15% -
Tech Group (ie
Networking)
.3% .2% 50%
Tech sub-topic
- UK
.35% .25% 66%
Sub topic - DE .8% .4% 200%
Sub topic - FR .4% .3% 100%
Source: TechTarget Internal

14. United Kingdom
European buyers are 50% more likely to download native
language content, but above all else, relevancy of content
is important
Are you more likely to download/view a piece of content that is in your native
language than a piece of content that is in English?
14
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
Yes. I am more likely to download/view a piece of
content in my native language than a piece of content
that is in English.
It depends on the information that is featured in the
piece of content.
©TechTarget, 2013 Media Consumption Report; 2015 Media Consumption Report
2013
2015
2013
2015

15. 15
Top performing vendor content across EMEA
in 2015
©TechTarget
SDN 101: An Introduction to
Software Defined Networking
7 Keys to Deliver Apps Faster
Through Effective Business/IT
Collaboration
How to Gain Control Over Big Data
Projects
Creating workspaces for tomorrow
that work for your business
Top 5 data centre trends to watch in
2015
The Ultimate Guide to BYOD
The Top Ten Things Every IT Pro
Using Hyper-V Needs to Know
Securing Cloud Computing For
Enterprise Collaboration
Flash Storage For Dummies Five Fundamentals of Virtual
Server Protection
Top EMEA Vendor content

16. The greatest marketing crime is neglecting to
provide the ‘next step’
16©TechTarget
71%
Of content
has a basic
CTA at the
end or in the
footnotes
Marketer Takeaway
Add CTA’s throughout
content to give audience ‘the
next step’, increase prospect
initiated nurturing and drive
through the buy cycle to a
later stage asset

17. Enable buyers to communicate with each
other, and more importantly, with you
17©TechTarget, Source: TechTarget 2015 Media Consumption
45%
of buyers used click-to-
chat during the last buy

18. 18
Qualified ECM Project
© TechTarget
February
April
17
Editorial
Articles/Assets
March
8
Vendor
Whitepapers
13
Editorial
Articles/Assets
10
Vendor
Whitepapers
Project
Confirmed –
Qualified
Sales
Opportunity
7
Editorial
Articles/Assets
6
Vendor White
Paper
14
Editorial
Articles/Assets
• 75 activities taken
over 6 months from 7
different researchers
• 24 vendor white papers
downloaded
• 51 editorial articles
• Active ECM project
confirmed
May
• 7 active people in the UK
• Total of 75 activities

19. 19
Building a comprehensive content plan
©TechTarget
5 Markets/Products X 3 Regions X 3-4 Persona X 4-5 Assets =
# of Assets Needed

20. Best Practices Takeaway
20
● Be relevant and specific to your
target audience
● Have content for all phases of
buy cycle
● Leverage 3rd party content to
reach net new prospects
● Provide prospects a clear next
step within your content
● Localised content is key to
making serious progress in local
markets
● Remember, buying is about a
team, not an individual user
© TechTarget