Q:  What do you see is the role of a print magazine when it comes to reaching IT decision-makers?

A:  Our experience is that print is read by more senior levels in IT. As our prospects prepare to purchase, they eventually will need senior management approval. Therefore print advertising plays a small but important role in our sales process –and one where we may not be directly engaged .

Read the full case study on the value of print advertising, how Kace measures ROI and thier future plans.

Download PDF:  Marketing Case Study - Print Advertising

1. 40,000-fold increase in the number of websites in 15 short years, with 200 million plus websites today
2. Blogosphere is doubling between once & twice a year, with over a million blog posts daily
3. There is now more than 5 million tweets
4. Google gets over 2 billion queries and Facebook gets 700,000 new users A DAY
5. Half of the Top 10 US websites are between 5 and 6 years old

Book mark this Harvard Business post as it has all of the reference points you need to use in your presentations/explainations on why you need to continue to test and invest in emerging marketing mediums.

Bob Evans, SVP and Director of InformationWeek Global CIO

Join Bob Evans, Director, InformationWeek Global CIO as he discusses the Top Trends in Cloud Computing. This call is designed specifically for Tech Marketers!

• November 12th, 1pm EST
• Register Now

A recent InformationWeek Analytics report shows that more than 50% of IT respondents are either currently using or considering cloud computing – a clear indicator of corporate embracing of the cloud for the enterprise. 

Hear about:

• Anatomy of the Cloud:  Of the million different definitions of cloud computing, which does InformationWeek use and why.  What are the key technologies behind the cloud – and what are the other must-have pieces other than the cloud service itself?  What’s does the cloud ecosystem look like?
• Cloud players:  Who’s doing what and why?
• Cloud strategies:  What are the different approaches, and which are gaining momentum and which are dropping out?
• Cloud successes:  Which vendors are doing it right?  Which CIOs and user companies are implementing cloud successfully?

Register today and uncover how you can best market the cloud to CIOs.

There is a new ebook available, The Customer Reference Handbook, that provides insight into managing the process and best practices for creating solid customer refernces.   This is a low cost marketing strategy that will postitively effect the sales cyle and a must do for 2010!

Hurd offers a startling observation about how the roots of bad IT almost always reside in the corner office, and he explains how HP attempts to address the needs of both the CEO and the CIO.

By Bob Evans
InformationWeek
October 29, 2009 08:00 AM

 
Speaking to an audience of C-level execs, HP (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd said that when he hears top executives tell him that their IT is bad, his first reaction is that the real problem is probably a bad CEO.
In an interview/presentation at last week’s Gartner Symposium, Hurd was answering a broad question about the interplay between IT and business processes, and whether HP should be aiming its messages at CEOs focused on business outcomes or IT leaders focused (according to the question) on technology.

Hurd struggled initially with his reply—he clearly wanted the audience to know he and HP are big-picture folks who think about things that their customers’ CEOs think about, but he also didn’t want his CIO audience to think his standard practice is to go over their heads, and it took him a bit to tie all those threads together, and I’ll get to that in a moment. But I want to focus on a startling correlation he made about the role that customer-side CEOs play in situations where a company’s IT is bloated, backward, expensive, and ineffective:

“Because I’ll tell you, I don’t know how many CEOs are in the audience here, but when you show me bad IT—and I meet a lot of CEOs, and do a lot of talks in front of CEOs—and I get a lot of CIOs who tell me how bad their IT is. My first reaction—to be very frank—is it’s probably a bad CEO, as opposed to bad IT.”

That is a profound insight—I’ve never heard someone express that type of correlation so directly before: in 99% of the cases where bad IT’s an issue, the fall-guy is the CIO, right? IT is the CIO’s responsibility, so IT’s failure is the CIO’s failure, and the CIO’s failure means the CIO’s ouster, and the CEO is seen as a sharpy for rooting out the ineffective IT guy.  Read full article….

New Multimedia Online Site Organizes InformationWeek Premium and Analyst Content To Help IT Decision-makers Manage Technology Adoption Process

San Francisco - October 7, 2009 /PRNewswire/ — TechWeb, the global leader in technology media, today announced the launch of its redesigned InformationWeek Analytics site (analytics.informationweek.com), a significantly enhanced online destination for IT decision-makers who are actively evaluating, purchasing and implementing new technologies and solutions.

The new InformationWeek Analytics site currently provides more than 850 paid and free resources offering advice on adoption of specific technologies and practical analysis of product, technology and market trends, with new content added on a continual basis. These professional resources, presented in an easy-to-download format, include exclusive Analytics Research reports with in-depth analysis (typically 30 to 50 pages); Best Practices reports featuring actionable advice (typically 15 to 25 pages); Informed CIO reports featuring previews of emerging technologies with buying guidelines (typically 15 to 25 pages); and a vast library of technology briefs (typically 8 to 10 pages). Exclusive Analytics Research reports include Windows 7: The Prodigal OS Returns and A Database Administrator’s Guide to Security. Featured briefs include InformationWeek 500: Relentless Innovation and The Public Cloud: Infrastructure As A Service. IT professionals who are looking for practical insight can purchase premium content reports as well as access free content by registering as a member of InformationWeek Analytics. The new multi-media site also offers instructional, how-to videos and an intuitive interface that presents content categorized by technology and IT management topic; this enables busy IT decision-makers to quickly find technology insights and advice. TechWeb membership (registration) is required to access InformationWeek Analytics. Premium reports can be purchased on the site now, and by subscription in the near future.

Recognizing the trust, value and respect IT professionals place on peer perspective, InformationWeek Analytics content is provided by an analyst team that includes a fusion of practicing senior IT professionals and InformationWeek’s world-class editors. This combination of quantitative research for IT decision-makers and real-world analysis by practicing IT professionals has made InformationWeek Analytics the premier source for expert advice on how enterprises can adopt the most critical technologies to achieve business goals.

“Amazing report,” says one reader of our recent Analytics research report on mainframes. “I can’t believe you hit all the points you did … bravo, I have had this job for three years, and your summary/analysis is remarkable.”

“IT managers and CIOs need actionable, practical information to make smart buying decisions,” says Art Wittmann, Managing Director of InformationWeek Analytics. “The theoretical, reactive information they get from typical analysts just doesn’t cut it anymore. The new Analytics site delivers insights from practicing IT professionals. This peer-analyst approach is what IT decision-makers are constantly requesting.”

“InformationWeek continues to put the IT decision-maker at the center of everything we do, and InformationWeek Analytics is a strategic part of our content delivery strategy,” says John Siefert, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher of the InformationWeek Business Technology Network. “Our investment in this new site reflects the tremendous growth we’ve seen in our Analytics business and will serve to further enable advances for this business.”

InformationWeek Analytics also offers technology marketers fully integrated marketing communications programs to engage and activate volume buyers of their products and services. Underwriters of premium content will enjoy the contextual relevancy of their message. TechWeb’s performance marketing programs scale from thought leadership and editorial alignment to highly targeted lead-generation focused on specific topics and technologies. For more information, please contact Martha Schwartz, Vice President, Group Sales, at mschwartz@techweb.com.

For more information about InformationWeek Analytics, please visit analytics.informationweek.com.

Whether their data center is a couple of servers stashed in a closet or a gleaming, state-of-the-art climate-controlled facility, today’s SMBs (defined as companies with under 1,000 employees) are facing unprecedented IT challenges: keeping the IT lights on while controlling costs, taking advantage of new technologies to stay competitive, and positioning their companies for an uncertain economic recovery in the midst of historically tough times for IT.

To handle all that, SMBs, must quickly define their data center strategies and identify specific applications and technologies even as they struggle to organize, store, and manage a massive increase in electronic information driven by the compliance mandate and the rapid move to digitizing all information. bMighty.com and InformationWeek editors have teamed with industry experts to share a unique mix of battle-tested best practices, experience-earned tips and new ideas and innovations to help SMB IT and business professionals do more with less. 

The InformationWeek bMighty.com SMB Data Center Virtual Event agenda will focus on:

• Identifying the physical challenges of building and maintaining a data center that can scale and adapt to changes in SMBs
• Tips on how to “green up” the power and cooling environment to save real money, no matter how big — or small — the data center is
• How server virtualization can save money and time for companies of virtually any size
• The best way to create the business applications that run in the SMB data center
• Network and trade tips with presenters and peers
• Receive data center solutions and guidance from the leading providers and sponsors

“We have pulled together a talented group of data center experts to inform and equip SMB professionals on practically defining, deploying and optimizing a data center,” said Fredric Paul, Publisher and Editor In Chief of InformationWeek’s bMighty.com.  “Using InformationWeek’s unique virtual event environment, attendees will be able to use their time efficiently getting info they needed to make smart decisions from a variety of experts.”

Sponsors of the virtual event include Oracle and Thawte.

For more information and to register for the event, please visit, http://techweb.com/bMighty.com-virtual.

But for some reason, when it comes to white papers, we just start writing.  Few of us spend time crafting arguments for different audiences.  And even fewer craft different arguments for different stages of the sales cycle.

I was shocked last week after doing some informal research.  I downloaded 20 white papers and found less than five had a clearly stated ideal reader – a missed opportunity for 75% of the papers I read.

When a single, well-marketed white paper could generate six-figure advertising reach, why don’t we target our white papers with the same fervor?

Do You Really Know Your Reader?

Who is your ideal reader?

Many of you just said “Well, it’s my target audience, Ryan, duh.”  But that isn’t always the case, as the target reader is simply the person you want to read this particular argument.  Sure, it may be your target buyer.  But it might also key a key technical influencer, or the decision maker on a large purchase.

Understanding your white paper’s ideal reader is the critical to your paper’s success.  To maximize the probability of your success, make you clearly understand the following:

• Key demographics (age, gender, company size, title and responsibility)
• Psychographics (type A/B, busy or free, know-it-all or willing to learn, closed- or open-minded)
• Topic knowledge (how much do they about your topic?)

Don’t Know the Ideal Reader?  3 Reasons You Should

No Affinity, No Page Turning
As a white paper writer, your first priority is to get the first page turned.  You want your first page to scream “I hear you.  I hear you and I am listening!”  But you can only create this if you create a connection with the reader.

How do you create affinity with your readers if you’ve never identified them?

By specifically identifying the reader, you dramatically improve your chances of creating this connection. Using phrases like “for security directors at Global 5000 companies,” you make it very clear who will get the most from your paper.  By combining this identification with a clear statement of the reader’s challenges related to your particular topic, you will exponentially increase the readership of your white papers. 

Untargeted Messaging is Poor Messaging
A common writing trick is to constantly review your work through the persona of the ideal reader.  This ensures that you are writing for them and have not strayed off-path when creating your arguments.  Unless you have a clear picture of the ideal reader, you will not be able to read the paper from their perspective, and you risk a loose paper that doesn’t quite hit home.  Bottom line: every word of your paper should be written for the ideal reader.  Anything less is wasted copy and potentially distracting copy.

Over Educating the Reader is a Turn Off
How many times have you read a paper about a topic in which you are familiar, and the first five pages about what you already know.  If you are like most readers, you either quit reading or you discredited the topic as being remedial.

You have a unique opportunity if you understand the topical knowledge of your ideal reader.  Why?  By providing the proper amount of educational background, you align yourself with the reader.  If you don’t know your reader and you guess their topic knowledge, you risk two very real situations.  If you over-educate the reader, you risk losing them as I mentioned in the example above.  Busy people don’t like to read things they already know.  If you under-educate the reader, you risk losing them and end up building a poor foundation for your arguments. 

Choosing a Writer Who Knows Your Reader
If you use outside writers for your white papers, make sure you spend time understanding how they identify the ideal reader of their papers.  If they don’t have a specific response, process or set of questions they use to identify the ideal, you should consider finding a writer who does.  There is just too much to lose in getting it wrong.

I had a phenomenal time presenting to these brilliant students, who seemed quite engaged, as was evident with the intelligent questions that regularly punctuated my delivery. Many of the audience members were keenly interested in asking questions of me, of TechWeb, and the innovative programs we do, and how we continually and uniquely drive value to leaders in the business technology space. 

I thought of sharing with you some of the impressions I came back with:

• This audience does not like being sold to aggressively.  Everyone agreed that content is what they are most interested in, and that the conversion or opt-in will happen if content is sufficiently compelling and descriptions are accurate, concise, and engaging.
• Some students were perturbed by websites that seem to capture user information, sometimes in a concealed, almost mysterious fashion. Many said that they perhaps didn’t mind volunteering information - but it should be an open, direct request for such data, and that sites should stop taking advantage of the naivete’ of users.
• We knew it already, but to re-iterate - this audience spends a significant amount of time in the social media universe: Twitter, LinkedIn, You Tube, Facebook.      
• I had a lot of questions concerning my daily workflow, how I perform within a team, and what compromises I may have had to make when working in a team for the larger interest of the group. Like most stellar MBA curriculums across the nation, Binghamton too has a team-based MBA program.  The students were quite curious to learn of the team dynamic in the real world. Perhaps working in a team in school was taking its toll on them.
• A student wondered if HR folk actually Google candidates and if his guitar performances on You Tube would impact his impression on a prospective employer negatively. 

The discourse was full of passion and several students asked me how they could write better, and wanted to know the formula to writing well - to writing for engagement.  And I gave them my cherished secret: keep writing… and reading.

My expectation, or hope, was to open their minds to the exciting field of digital marketing.  But, in the end, I felt it was perhaps I who gained the most in the process, by learning a few things from business students about user motivations in the digital space.

A key eliment in choosing a content syndication partner or in any lead generation campaign is to evaluate the quality of the audience and where IT Buyers look for high value content.  Large numbers are attractive, however in the long run quality leads will always drive more revenue which equals a better ROI on your marketing dollars.  Check out our White Paper research for more infomration on what business technology buyers want in a white paper and what sources they use to find content that will effect thier buying decisions.