Post on 12-Sep-2021
Insider Strategies and Tips:
B2B Marketing, Sales and
Distribution
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Contact Info
Lee Perlis
Sr. Marketing Manager
Blackboard
Follow me: @lperlis
lee.perlis@blackboard.com
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Agenda
• Blackboard International Marketing – Direct and indirect channels
– Sales & marketing strategy
• B2B Marketing Overview – Demand Gen Waterfall
– Marketing Automation/Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
– Sales Enablement Strategies
• Social Marketing
• Resources
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Blackboard At-A-Glance Key Facts:
• Revenue: $500M+
• Employees: 3,000+
• Users: 25M+ on Blackboard Learn
• Clients: 9,300
• Global Presence: EMEA, Asia-Pacific, Latin America
• Key industries served: Business Services, Media,
• Financial Services, Healthcare, High Tech/Internet,
• Life Sciences, Higher Education, Government/Mil
Partial Client List
Key Partners
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Blackboard International
• Direct Channel (Blackboard Employees)
– Canada ,UK, Amsterdam, ANZ
• Indirect Channel (Resellers)
– Over 45 resellers in South America, LatAm, EMEA
– Tiered program
• Data Centers
– US, Canada, Australia, Amsterdam
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Blackboard International
• Sales and Marketing Structure
– President of International - based in UK
– 3 Sales RVPs
– 15-20 Sales Reps, Sales Engineers
– 1 Marketing VP, 1 Director, 5 marketing managers
– 45 Reseller Partners managed by Sales VPs
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Blackboard International
• Working with Resellers
– Networking
– US Commercial Service (http://www.trade.gov/cs/) –
trade promotion arm of Dept of Comm. We pay a fee
and they have posts around the world.
– Take a look at GDP growth and see if there is potential.
We interview and pick partners, sometimes multiple
partners per country.
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Blackboard International
• Key Sales & Marketing Challenges – Domains
– Consistent messaging/images
– Need to train all resellers at once
– Local /Regional language/Translation
– Pricing
– Time Zones – Escalated Sales and Support
– Go to market – strategy may differ per country
– Need an office in certain countries to do business
– Dedicated sales and marketing contacts
– Local Press – if not in you’re not important.
(Ex. company sponsored event)
– Face to face goes a long way
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Blackboard and SENA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgrbqEqOrcU
B2B Marketing Overview
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Look familiar?
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The SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall
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The SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall
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Who can help?
CRM (Customer Relationship
Management)
• Salesforce.com
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Oracle CRM
• Siebel
• Sugar CRM
Marketing Automation
• Eloqua (Oracle)
• Marketo
• Pardot
• Hubspot
• Constant Contact
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Demand Created Asset –
Content Quadrant Website
• Relevant content served
across the digital and
sales experience
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Sales Enablement
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What is Social Media?
• Over 4.5B people are on social networks
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Get Your Company Going –
Outbound Strategy
•Create a Social Media Policy/Guidelines
•Wordpress Guidelines/Blogging Best Practices
•Get your CEO on board
•Create a social calendar
•Agency Help – Beekeeper Group
(beekeepergroup.com)
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Get Your Company Going –
Inbound Strategy
•Listen to what your customers are saying about
you or your products
•Set up a social command center
•Display your company’s social feeds on large
monitors within your HQ
•Determine a policy for responding
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Why Use Social Media?
• Brand Management
• Crisis Management
• Media Relations
• Thought Leadership
• Search Engine Optimization
• Low cost / ROI
• Building community
• Humanizing
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Who is Listening?
• Journalists
• Bloggers
• Amplifiers
• Industry Leaders
• Potential & Existing Customers
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Define Success!
•Set goals:
• Click-throughs
• Newsletter sign-ups
• Leads / Sales
• Event attendance
• Relationships
•Quality over quantity
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Blogging Success
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Leave a Comment!
• Virtual Handshake (build relationship before
you have an ask!)
• Show Your Expertise
• Get Attention From Readers
• Be Part of the Conversation
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What is Twitter?
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Twitter Terms
•Tweet - A short update of what you are doing in 140 characters.
•Followers - People who are subscribed of your updates or fondly known as
Tweets.
•Following - People you are interested for following by subscribing to their
updates or tweets.
•Direct Message (DM) - Sending a Direct Message to your followers.
•At (@) - You can use this when you are referring him/her in your updates.
You can prefix their username with @ to display his/her Twitter account in the
update.
•Re-Tweet (RT) - You can relay a tweet or update by a Twitterer or Tweeter
to everyone who are following you.
•Hashtag (#) - When you want to tell something specific about some issue or
subject, you can prefix your subject with #.
•Tweet - Up - When a group of Twitterers or Tweeters arranges a meeting for
a social interaction or for some bloggers meet and so on.
•Source: http://www.hellboundbloggers.com/reviews/websites-reviews/twitter-definitions-for-newbies
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Why Use Twitter?
• Share news and information
• Ask Q’s / Get feedback
• Connect with others (humanizing)
• Shorter and faster than blogging
• Build presence in case of crisis
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Personal vs. Professional
• Personal
• Identify in bio
• Team account
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Distributing Content
Across Teams
• Twitter Lists
• Internal Twitter Distro Email
• Chatter
• CC’s and DM’s
• Create hashtags around events
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Twitter Best Practices
DO: • Complete your bio
• Be yourself!
• Engage and interact
• Share accomplishments and information
• Be transparent & consistent
• Create a hashtag for your event
• “Tweet others how you want to be tweeted.” –Reverend Run
DON’T: • Overpromote
• Overshare
• Overtweet (and run)
• Only tweet links
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What is Facebook?
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Why Use Facebook?
• Visibility
• Maintaining Contacts
• Promoting brand/products/issue
• Your friends, colleagues, business partners,
affiliates, customers, and amplifiers are there.
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What is YouTube?
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The 5 W’s of Online Video
Who? YOU!
What? Keep it simple. Bio’s, events, interviews
Where? Conferences, volunteering, meetings
When? Viewers can watch whenever. Always
catch media moments!
Why? Powerful, inexpensive, engaging
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YouTube Success
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What is LinkedIn?
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LinkedIn Success
• Update your profile
• Update your company
profile
• Participate in user
groups and discussions
• Social Selling
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Get started
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Next Steps
1) Monitor –Google Alerts –Twitter Search –Identify relevant blogs
2) Engage –Leave comments –Email –Link from your site
3) Network –Facebook –Twitter –YouTube
4) Conversation –Consistency –Quality –Transparency
Resources
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Resources
CRM (Customer Relationship
Management)
• Salesforce.com
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Oracle CRM
• Siebel
• Sugar CRM
Marketing Automation
• Eloqua (Oracle)
• Marketo
• Pardot
• Hubspot
• Constant Contact
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Analysts
• SiriusDecisions (BtoB marketing)
• Gartner
• Forrester
• Industry specialist
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Tools the Pros Use
• Seesmic – Social Media Aggregator
• Tweet Deck – Time your tweets
• Radian 6 (now Salesforce Marketing Cloud) – Social
analytics
• Google Analytics
• Technorati (Blog Search Engines)
• Google Blogs (Blog Search Engines)
• BlogPulse (Blog Search Engines)
• Slide Shark (by Brainshark)
• Prezi (wicked cool powerpoint)
• Slideshare
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Contact Info
Lee Perlis
Sr. Marketing Manager
Blackboard
Follow me: @lperlis
lee.perlis@blackboard.com