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IT channel sales and marketing strategy for the digital era
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It starts with a sales and marketing strategy
'Word of mouth' can only get you so far in business. Take the first steps toward building a sales and marketing engine that can drive your channel firm to the next level. Read Now
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Digital marketing methods at your disposal
What does customer engagement mean in today's world? These digital marketing techniques are essential for any channel firm, whether you're a newbie or marketing pro. Read Now
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The makings of a well-honed marketing plan
Answering these three questions will better define your marketing roadmap. Read Now
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How to tap into MDF dollars
If your marketing budget is tight, look no further than your vendors. Market development funds can help pay for a portion of your initiatives. Read Now
Editor's note
We've entered into a new era where IT channel firms must have a strong, and digital, sales and marketing strategy in place if they hope to grow, if not survive, in the industry. Customers, increasingly Web-savvy, prefer to conduct their own research to find partners, putting greater importance on the image and message you convey about your company through your website, collateral and social media platforms. For channel executives coming from mostly technical backgrounds, crafting a sales and marketing strategy can seem like a daunting responsibility -- but, if there's one thing we're trying hammer in throughout this guide, you can't afford to avoid it.
With the importance of sales and marketing in mind, we've organized a comprehensive series of articles to modernize your approach. You'll find an overview of the steps you'll need to take to develop a solid sales and marketing strategy for your company, as well as the tools and techniques for generating leads. And importantly, throughout the series, you'll find a multitude of valuable tips to help you execute your plan.
1Know thyself: Tips for establishing your brand
Your company brand, while an important concept that runs through the pieces featured above, warrants closer inspection. In this section, Jennifer Anaya, vice president of North American marketing at Ingram Micro, zeros in on several aspects of branding (and rebranding) your firm. Read through these tips to learn how to create a concise and compelling branding strategy that best reflects your company identity.
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The rebranding process in four steps
As your company evolves, you'll have to repeatedly update your image and message. Here's how to rediscover and deliver your brand promise. Read Now
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How specialization can punch up your brand
YouTube stars show us a powerful tactic that can benefit all businesses: Try to be great to someone special, not the entire world. Read Now
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Business expansion: Keep a clear-cut message
Companies juggling multiple brands often convey a muddled message to customers. Learn why a branded house approach makes more sense. Read Now
2Organizing your sales staff
If you're selling managed and/or cloud services, it's your responsibility to ensure your sales talent understands the nuances of recurring revenue deals. Read through these pieces for advice on how to set your sales staff up for success.
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Hiring 'farmers' to sell either managed or cloud services
When transitioning your company to a recurring revenue model, you'll need to employ salespeople that offer a particular skill set. Read Now
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MSP sales recruitment: How to find the right talent
Hiring expert Michael Schmidtmann explains what to look out for when screening potential salespeople. Read Now
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Retaining sales staff during a business model transition
How do you align legacy sale staff with managed services offerings? Invest in training, adjust compensation models and make some tough decisions. Read Now
3Sales and marketing terms
Get au fait with the language and speak like a true sales and marketing strategist.
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Definition
age of the customer
Age of the customer is the concept that consumers are more empowered than ever because they can access information about products and services over the Internet in real time. Read Now
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Definition
brand
A brand is a product, service, or concept that is publicly distinguished from other products, services, or concepts so that it can be easily communicated and usually marketed. Read Now
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brand equity
Brand equity is the perceived value a company gains by having a known name, logo or other identifier. Read Now
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Definition
content marketing
Content marketing is the publication of material designed to promote a brand, usually through a more oblique and subtle approach than that of traditional push advertising. The essence of good content marketing is that it offers something the viewer wants, such as information or entertainment. Read Now
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Definition
customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is the combination of practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth. Read Now
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Definition
customer segmentation
Customer segmentation is the practice of dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests and spending habits. Read Now
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Definition
digital marketing
Digital marketing involves the various efforts by a company to connect with customers through digital and online communication channels, including email, geolocation and mobile marketing, social media, online customer communities, webinars and other video-based content. Read Now
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Definition
direct email marketing
Direct email marketing is a format for email-based campaigns in which standalone advertisements are sent to a targeted list of recipients. Read Now
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Definition
go-to-market strategy
A go-to-market strategy (GTM strategy) is an action plan that specifies how a company will reach target customers and achieve competitive advantage. Read Now
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Definition
inbound marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers, or leads, via company-created Internet content, thereby having potential customers come to the company rather than marketers vying for their attention. Read Now
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Definition
lead
A sales lead is a potential sales contact, individual or organization that expresses an interest in your goods or services. Read Now
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lead generation
Lead generation is the use of a computer program, a database, the Internet, or a specialized service to obtain or receive information for the purpose of expanding the scope of a business, increasing sales revenues, looking for a job or for new clients, or conducting specialized research. Read Now
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Definition
lead scoring
In the B2B industry, lead scoring is a methodology used by sales and marketing departments to determine the worthiness of leads, or potential customers, by attaching values to them based on their behavior relating to their interest in products or services. Read Now
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Definition
marketing automation
Marketing automation is a type of software that allows companies to effectively target customers with automated marketing messages across channels including email, websites, social media and text messages to generate sales leads. Read Now
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Definition
market development funds
Market development funds (MDF) are a resource that a vendor grants to its indirect sales channel partners to help the channel with sales and marketing programs. Read Now
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Definition
marketing-qualified lead
A marketing-qualified lead (MQL) is a website visitor whose engagement levels indicate that he is likely to become a customer. Read Now
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Definition
multichannel marketing
Multichannel marketing is the practice of businesses interacting with their customers through many different channels, meeting customers on the platforms that they prefer to use. Read Now
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Definition
online customer community
Online customer communities are Web-based gathering places for customers, experts, and others to discuss problems, post reviews, brainstorm, and engage with one another. Read Now
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Definition
outbound marketing
Outbound marketing is a traditional form of marketing and in which a company initiates contact with potential customers, or leads. Read Now
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Definition
opinion mining
Sentiment analysis, also referred to as opinion mining, is an approach to natural language processing (NLP) that identifies the emotional tone behind a body of text. Read Now
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Definition
relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is a customer relationship management strategy designed to encourage strong, lasting customer connections to a brand. The goal is to generate repeat sales, encourage word-of-mouth promotion and gather customer information. Read Now
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Definition
sales funnel
A sales funnel, also called a purchase funnel, is the visual representation of the customer journey, depicting the sales process from awareness to action. Read Now
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Definition
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an area of website development that seeks to improve the way content is ranked by search engines. To put the focus on the website visitor, its been suggested that acronym SEO should stand for search experience optimization. Read Now
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Definition
social media
Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction and collaboration. Read Now
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social media analytics
Social media analytics is the practice of gathering data from social media websites and analyzing that data using social media analytics tools to make business decisions. Read Now
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Definition
social media marketing
Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. Read Now
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Definition
solution selling
Solution selling refers to the philosophy or practice of uncovering a customer's pain points and then providing products and services that address the underlying business problem. Read Now
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thought leader
A thought leader is a person who or organization that is widely recognized as an expert in a given field and whose opinions are in high demand. Thought leaders use their influence to change their fields, to make money and to add value to the people and organizations that seek their expertise. Read Now
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Definition
transactional marketing
Transactional marketing is a business strategy that focuses on single, "point of sale" transactions. The emphasis is on maximizing the efficiency and volume of individual sales rather than developing a relationship with the buyer. (Continued) Read Now
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Definition
viral marketing
Viral marketing is any marketing technique that induces websites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users, creating a potentially exponential growth in the message's visibility and effect. Read Now