Episode 9: How to Turn Your Proprietary Index Into a Powerful Marketing Tool with Steve Lafontaine

Steve sits down with Steve Lafontaine, Senior Director Of Marketing at Granicus, a software company which provides the first and only civic engagement platform for the public sector.

Trusted by over 6,000 global government agencies, the platform connects people and government with a unified experience that integrates website, online services, digital communications, and more to serve every resident equally and inclusively.

Listen in as Steve explains the ins-and-outs of working with a B2G (Business-to-Government) company, and knowing when it might be beneficial to all parties to publish data that your company exclusively owns.

Creating a proprietary index can be an invaluable marketing tool, particularly if tailored to the top 20 players in your industry. When creating this index, Steve recommends the hub-and-spoke model, with an emphasis on the hub. The meatier the hub, he says, the more opportunities you have to recycle and reuse content.

Ultimately, it pays to be strategic about which data or content to withhold and which to freely share. Exclusivity for its own sake does not automatically translate to more dollars. Being cognizant about the value you bring to your ideal client, as well as the most appropriate way to present that value, is what distinguishes the best B2B marketers from the rest.

Key Takeaways:

• Content becomes truly powerful when an organization is uniquely positioned to produce unique content based on data that they exclusively possess.
• Marketing as a service can be a very powerful approach in B2B. As a seller, if you want to take an account-based approach to your market, go find your 20 biggest fish and build an industry-leading index that they won’t be able to resist.
• It’s important to get clear on how your data translates to dollars. Use CMS with a linear attribution model to tie contacts to campaigns and programs to pinpoint those high-value opportunities that you simply won’t be able to spot with “random acts of marketing”.
• It’s not a matter of “to gate or not to gate?”. It’s not all-or-nothing. If you have eight amazing pieces of content, gate half and don’t gate the rest. Be strategic about the best way to give value to and receive value from your target market.

Connect with Steve Lafontaine on LinkedIn.