Today there’s an important shift with ERP buyers, the buying process, the products (in the cloud, for example), and consequently, in marketing. If your organization doesn’t believe in the importance of investing in marketing, you’re likely to be heading for that “perish” category of resellers who can’t/won’t adapt to a changing buyer.
Face it – today’s SMB buyer really doesn’t need you to educate them on the product features, show them a demo, or even provide pricing anymore. They can find all of those things online by either simply going to the publisher’s website for a test drive, a free trial, and videos, or doing a few online searches. So now that the prospect has much of the product, technical, and pricing information before they even start looking for a partner, how are you going to attract that (somewhat) qualified prospect to your website? And what will they find when they get there?
Today’s buyer knows as much, or often more than you do, about their industry-specific needs and the many options to solve them (and they know the new players in the game, including at the low-end, Xero and FreshBooks). According to a DemandGen report, 51% of B2B buyers said they formed a short-list of candidates before they contacted anyone. That number is sure to grow in the years ahead.
If you haven’t made a concerted effort to ramp up your inbound marketing strategy, then you’re far behind the competition. Join me on Monday, July 28th at 6:15pm at Sage Summit in Las Vegas to learn how your marketing strategy can take advantage of this fundamental shift and the top five best practices other partners have employed while innovating their marketing organizations to attract and convert new buyers.
Presented by Cheryl Strege from The Partner Marketing Group, providing marketing strategy, execution, content creation, and social media resources for Sage VARs and ISVs.
