After developing robust Content Marketing at ADP and Convergys, I developed my most successful thought leadership program for Vantiv. Like the others, it centered around primary research on customer experience within the industry – in this case payments. A thought leadership program builds the brand, positions the company as a “value-added” consultative provider, generates substantial inbound leads, and provides the sales team with substantive content for client/prospect conversations.
Vantiv Insights Series 2011-2014
Download Award-Winning Vantiv Insights White Papers 2014
In February 2012 I selected Mercator Advisory Group to help me conduct primary research on customer experience with payments in the U.S. We asked a representative sample of U.S. consumers about how they currently make payment at point of sale and how they expect to do so in the future. Based on this data we developed the Vantiv Insights Series, including quarterly campaigns and tools to help merchants and providers identify areas of opportunity in payments. All this information is available at Vantiv.com/research, with registration required so that Vantiv can nurture, collect and funnel leads to Sales.
Program Goals:
> Improve Vantiv’s brand awareness
> Position Vantiv as an industry thought leader
> Generate qualified leads and start client conversations that lead to contracts
> Provide the Sales force with high-quality content that becomes integral to the Sales process and corporate messaging
Each January we repeat the consumer research, reiterating some questions and asking about new trends. In 2013 and 2014 we added additional research, surveying merchants about their payments needs and collecting data on how third-party providers serve them. We also conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with industry executives to gauge how they interpret changes and trends. The result is a 360o data-driven view of the payments ecosystem and how it is evolving. The content developed from this research has proved to be valuable to Vantiv’s target markets, and the program is showing a 1000% ROI.
- Top 10 Payment Trends
- From eCommerce to Omnicommerce
- The Omni-Integration Imperative
- Omnicommerce and the Customer Experience
- Mobile Payments and the Omniconsumer of the Future
- Executive Thinking on Payments
Selected Results From Vantiv Insights Series (Year 3)
- Marketing Qualified Leads: 37,195 (biz users)
- Total Successful Leads: 2,193 (completed form)
- Newly Acquired: 903 (not invited–found us)
- Total Opportunities: 1,576 (from MQL)
- Revenue Pipeline Created: > $6M
- Plus brand-building impacts from social media, PR and media coverage
- *Not including all the Sales-generated opportunities in which Vantiv Insights content played a part (>$30M)
- Average annual program costs = $600k with Revenue =>$6M* = 1000+% ROI
This program is repeatable and can be effective in any B2B industry. If you’re interested in learning more, let’s talk!
Leading With Content 