IaaS Marketing Planning Workshop

1 .IaaS Marketing Planning Workshop Kari Ruff | Azure Partner Marketing Strategist 

2 .The Cloud Buyer’s Journey 

3 .First three stages • Explore – looking for solutions to business challenges • Evaluate – comparing solutions and vendors • Purchase – making a decision and committing to terms and conditions 

4 .Latter three stages • Expand – opportunity to up-sell and cross- sell additional solutions & resolve any issues • Renew – when the customer decides to continue their relationship with you • Advocate – the customer likes you and the services you provide and would like to be your advocate 

5 .Mapping Content to Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey Explore Evaluate Purchase Expand Renew Advocacy Website SEO and Social media – Sales Website content Social media Social media content including blogs presentations Social media – Email Campaigns ROI tools Social Media – Email marketing Case studies including blogs including blogs White papers Telemarketing Case studies Case studies Telemarketing Public relations Web content Events – online or Offers and Proof of concepts Newsletters Referrals syndication in person incentives Social Selling Videos Proof of concepts ROI tools Account (Facebook, management LinkedIn, Twitter & Pinterest) Educational Product trials and Account Account videos demos management management 

6 .Do you really need a marketing plan? YES!!!! A marketing plan supports your business plan ▪ It will describe strategies and tactics for the next year ▪ Provides guidance to accomplish sales and overall business goals ▪ Should help generate high quality leads ▪ Partners with marketing plans are more successful 

7 .Before you start… ➢ Understand your target market ▪ Who are you trying attract as a customer? ➢ Define your unique selling propositions ▪ Why should they work with you? ▪ What can you offer them that other companies can’t? ➢ Think about what you want to communicate ▪ Tell your company story ▪ What business challenges can you solve for them? 

8 .Agenda for the Plan ➢ Goals ➢ Sales forecast ➢ Budget ➢ Marketing Tactics ➢ Editorial Calendar ➢ Executive Summary 

9 .Goals and Objectives ➢ What are the results you want to achieve? ➢ They should be clear, specific and measurable ➢ Examples of strong goals: ▪ Marketing will increase sales 20% by the end of the year ▪ In 6 months we will revamp our marketing materials so they have a consistent look and feel ▪ Cloud based solutions and services will represent 35% of our revenue mix 

10 .Sales Forecast ➢ Consult with the sales team ▪ Don’t just set numbers and forget about them, do periodic business reviews ➢ Reality check ▪ Are these valid numbers and goals? ▪ Do they make sense for your business? ➢ Start with a previous forecast ▪ Learn from actual results vs. plan 

11 .Set A Marketing Budget ➢ Do you know the marketing tactics you will be using? ▪ Associate costs with each tactic ➢ If you’re not sure which tactics you will be using ▪ Use a percentage of revenue ➢ How much should you spend? ▪ 5% of revenues to maintain your current status ▪ 10% of revenues to grow your business and gain market share 

12 .Inbound Marketing Tactics ➢ Used to attract prospective clients ▪ How are you going to “pull” in prospects? Blogs Social Media Podcasts Banner Ads Digital case Infographics Content Search engine studies and videos syndication optimization Any other methods used to attract prospects and clients to you 

13 .Outbound Marketing Tactics ➢ What are you going to “push” out to prospects and clients? Email Direct mail Telemarketing Cold-calling Print ads Radio and tv Tradeshows and Newsletters advertising events Any other methods of pushing out messaging and content to prospects and your current client base 

14 .Create an Editorial Calendar ➢ Detailed schedule of marketing activities ➢ Describes when to develop, write and execute ➢ Helps keep everyone on the same page 

15 .Executive Summary ➢The first part of the written plan is actually written last ➢Describes the key elements of the plan at a high level 

16 .Quick Review ➢ Now that you’ve learned about marketing – you need a plan ➢ What are your goals? ➢ What is your sales revenue plan? ➢ Set your marketing budget to accomplish your sales plan ➢ Determine your marketing tactics ➢ Create and editorial calendar ➢ Write an executive summary 

17 .12 Month Plan • Create a 12 month marketing template • Add all your big items on the calendar first • Work backwards so that all of your big items get taken care of before anything else • Fill your calendar in with other marketing activities 

18 .Questions? 

19 . Thank You Kari Ruff Azure Partner Marketing Strategist Ingram Micro Cloud/IaaS Kari.ruff@Ingrammicro.com