Juniper Networks' EMEA Partner Marketing Day Two Review

So we received lots of positive feedback about day one of the first Juniper Networks' EMEA Partner Marketing Academy, people wanted to know when the next event was happening and they hadn’t even attended the second day! Wow! This says something when people are interested in attending another event even when the current event is still in progress – what a positive reaction! The following highlights the best bits of day two:

Richard Robinson of Google kicked off the second day with some pretty amazing statistics he said there are now 2.4 billion people connected online, that’s amazing considering there are just over 7 billion people on planet earth. With this connected world every company, every person is now a media owner. We all create our own content and distribute across the content networks and social channels. Richard also said that there are 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute. So, bearing this in mind third party content creation is a big challenge for brands and how they utilise and verified this content is challenging. It is impossible to keep up with the flow of content created without investing in resources and effective monitoring tools. I loved this thought from Richard “if a picture is worth a 1000 words, then how much is a two minute video worth?” This is really thought provoking and we should be thinking about putting a value on the marketing content we create. If this is my only take away from Richard’s session, then video has to be fundamental to content creation. I would urge our partners to think about inserting video into their marketing communications, it is perfect for getting across messages and is so effective in delivering content.

The second part of Richard’s presentation was focused on how more emotional elements are now coming through in B2B buying. As B2B marketers we need to think about emotional connections in our marketing communications. What was most surprising was he said that the emotional connection with B2B brands is much stronger than with B2C brands due to risk, which means our professional reputation and jobs are sometimes on the line when making critical business decisions. Essentially as guardians of brands we need to try to make that emotional connection with our customers and prospects and think beyond the brand and more about the people element, which is often neglected

He closed his session at #JNPRMA by reminding us to think about feature and function within the customer journey.

Next up was Bill Crowley of TechTarget talking about integrating sales and marketing through social media. He stressed that alignment is key to being a successful social enterprise. He advised assigning sales representatives and SEs to engage with customer and prospects within the popular social networks and industry communities, eventually this should become part of daily work practice. It is important to convert sales teams to be digitally engaged with their prospect and customers, who can communicate directly in non-marketing jargon, speak.

He then continued to say that buyers are demanding different buying experiences from vendors and the channel; there is a need for appropriate content to be created. Although, you need to take on board that it is not just about building content for the buyers’ journey, you must stitch that journey together for maximum effectiveness. By using prospect and account behaviour to guide priorities and communication strategy. Therefore those vendors and partners who get to the intersection of vision, value and solution first will win that market.

After the morning presentations we then broke into workshops for the partners to learn and share their unique experiences on Social/Digital Marketing, Inbound Marketing and Outbound Marketing. The partners were buzzing with lots of thoughts and ideas during these sessions.

Finally, Lutz Klaus then closed the event and thanked the presenters, organisers, production staff and attendees for making the gathering a success. He announced that he looked forward to seeing everyone at the next Partner Marketing Academy.

Wow, what a packed two days! I’ll post a blog shortly on some of the feedback I have received from those who attended this event in Berlin. Watch this space for more information!

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