Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Community Insight for Marketing...

Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Community Insight for Marketing Technology ProcurementRussell Rothstein, IT Central Station Keith Burrows, Lattice EnginesAndrea Ward, Oracle Roland Smart, Oracle

Oracle OpenWorld - September 30, 2014

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Safe Harbor StatementThe following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

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Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 39/30/2014

Russell Rothstein@RussRothsteinIT

CEO and FounderIT Central Station

Andrea Ward@awatpa

VP of MarketingOracle Marketing Cloud

Keith Burrows@DemandGenMavenSenior Director of Alliances

and PartnershipsLattice Engines

Roland Smart@rsmartly

VP of Social and Community Marketing

Oracle Technology Network


We’ll answer the following questions (among others):

How have online communities changed the ways in which marketers evaluate and buy IT?

If you’re a marketing technology decision-maker, how can you use community knowledge to make better IT decisions?

If you’re a decision-maker, how should you balance different opinions about competing solutions? • For instance, a community of end-users might have different

product opinions than your own employees.

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The BigShiftPractitionershavegained moreand moreinfluence inthe softwareacquisitionprocess.

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Third-party as well as owned communities help the marketing technology buyer…Do product research, validate assumptions and promises, and have honest conversations.

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"80% [of B2B technology buyers] use vendor support forums or discussion forums on vendor or brand websites."

"Over 40% of business technology decision-makers indicate that support forums, discussion forums, and professional social networks influence them throughout their online journey."

80%

40%Sources: forrester.com/The+Social+Behaviors+Of+Your+B2B+Customers/fulltext/-/E-RES99721 + blogs.forrester.com/kim_celestre/12-11-28-jump_start_your_online_community


Q: If you’re a marketing technology buyer, what tangible value do you get out of using

peer-to-peer resources such as IT Central Station (which you’ve previously called the “Yelp

of IT”)?

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Other External Communities Include:


Q: How do a vendor’s community members help a technology buyer make better IT decisions?

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Helping you and your practitioners understand a product’s record of innovation

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Helping your employees become better at their jobs over the long term

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Q: If you’re a marketing technology buyer, how do you balance competing advice and

feedback (from your direct colleagues, frontline employees, third-party reviewers, etc.)?

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2013 LinkedIn/ComScore Study on Software Buyers• “Not all IT Committee members are senior

level. Individual contributors and managers account for 50% of the IT Committee.”– 39% Manager reporting to an executive– 12% Individual contributor– 23% Senior-most decision-maker– 26% Executive

Source: “The Social Bridge to the IT Committee.” LinkedIn/ComScore/Starcom MediaVest Group/Mashwork study. https://bitly.com/1Dm1Miy

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Many Stakeholders, Many Competing Voices

IT Exec:Needs to cut

year-over-year spend by

10%

Marketing Director:

Needs investment to wrangle fragmented

customer data

Community Evangelist:Claims that

product provides an effective

one-stop marketing system.

Third-Party Reviewer:

Recommends that you patch

together point solutions instead.

INTERNAL EXTERNAL


Thanks! Other Questions?Roland: @rsmartlyAndrea: @awatpaRussell: @RussRothsteinITKeith: @DemandGenMaven

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How Do Buyers and Marketers Think About Community?

Software Buyer Software Marketer

Does the presence of a community indicate a good product?

Can I promote my product on third-party communities?

Maybe this vendor has a good reason (legal, privacy-related) for

not having a community? Is building a community

too risky?

Are they hiding certain product limitations?

Are we meeting our customer communities’ business and

support needs?

Is community a better way to talk to this vendor’s customers?

Is community a better way to unleash the value of customer references?

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Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Community Insight for Marketing...

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