SALES - MARKETING
Marketing activities.
The what and the how.
Marketing Activity Framework
To generate demand for API management, we recommend setting up a marketing campaign that gives prospects the right level of information according to their maturity.
The next few slides will take you through a high-level view of our best practice recommendations and examples to help you when planning and implementing your campaigns. We will focus on the first and second stages in the buying cycle: awareness and consideration. Why not start by getting a better understanding of your target audience here?
Digital ads. Customer reference Email campaigns In-person events
Social activity Online events
Blogs
Industry events
Target audience: who are we talking to?
Executive decision makers. People who drive the digital platform vision.
Example titles:
CIO
CTO
Chief Digital Officer
VP (of IT, of digital)
The owner of API projects.
Example titles:
API Product Manager
Director/Manager App Development
Director/Manager of Product
Developer Evangelist
Director of IT
Architects (Principal, integration, cloud, solution)
Titles with mobile, ecommerce (B2C companies like retailers), omnichannel (B2C companies like retailers) API Product Managers (still an uncommon title but these people are both technical and have a stake in the business KPIs - an ideal mobilizer)
Ads: search and display
Advertisements are key to generating top funnel leads, so aim for a healthy split across advertising channels. Web banners promote key messages to a wide audience, while Search allows for a more targeted approach.
Best practices:
- Know your target audience and customize your message.
- Test and optimize.
- Keep ad copy short.
- Focus on one key message.
- Include a clear CTA.
- Use a striking image to draw attention if possible.
- Use ads to drum up interest early on in a campaign.
- Give too much information upfront.
- Just create one-size banners - you need a variety for different platforms.
Verticalized Assets
Share a 1 pager brief about Apigee. For Event giveaway and customer email/meeting follow ups.
Retailers
Elevator Pitch: Deliver delightful shopping experiences, improve store operations and unlock new revenue channels with an API-first architecture built on Google Cloud’s Apigee
Banking
Elevator Pitch: Apigee is the industry leading solution that is built to support the digital transformation of banks with an API-first architecture that delivers scale and flexibility.
Media & Entertainment
Elevator Pitch: Future proof your content and delight consumers via expertly-delivered, personalized content with an API-first architecture built on Google Cloud’s Apigee API management platform
Healthcare
Elevator Pitch: Apigee is built to support Healthcare & Life Sciences and its ecosystem as the standards and solutions change.
Telecommunications
Elevator Pitch: Apigee is the industry leading solution that is built to support the digital transformation of Telcos with an API-first architecture that delivers scale and flexibility
SEO
Please note that Google does not provide consultation on improving your SEO. There is guidance available online to help, including via the below link.
Email campaigns
Even though emails are not as effective nowadays, it’s still an efficient way to communicate with your database to nurture, invite people to events, share recent announcements, and so on. They can range from a simple text-based format to being very content rich.
- Make the email too long.
- Forget to follow up if needed.
- Over target contacts with lots of emails in a short space of time. It’s often best to wait at least seven days between comms.
- Keep subject lines under 70 characters.
- Include a clear CTA.
- Use emails as an opportunity to build trust.
- Consider the tone of the copy.
- Use email comms to launch the campaign.
Social activity
Social activity is an easy way to promote your campaign with a wide reach. Organic and paid social posts should be considered to boost your message to the right audience.
- Use a mix of static and animated assets.
- Keep the copy simple to catch attention with a strong CTA.
- Upfront research to identify target pages/groups.
- Use an original hashtag to create buzz and track event activity.
- Share highlights after the event to showcase success.
- Encourage your speakers to promote the event to engage with their followers as well.
- Forget to monitor interactions to follow up interest and address any questions.
- Post only sales-pitch content. Share relevant content in a thought-leadership capacity to get your audience engaged and excited to attend.
Example
Assets
Blogs and articles
Great as a thought-leadership pieces, blogs are ideal for building trust and can feature third-party opinions as further proof points. These dos and don’ts and examples are designed to help you write your own blog posts on API management. Articles on Medium are also really effective.
- Ensure the content is right for the audience level.
- Proof the content before publishing.
- Try to include customer references and quotes where possible.
- Promote over social.
- Consider a blog series to keep your audience engaged.
- Forget to monitor engagement with the blog and answer questions.
- Make the blog too content heavy - include images, stats and graphs to engage the audience by pulling out key points.
Industry events
Industry events are a great opportunity to showcase product benefits first-hand, as well as to build trust and give an opportunity to network with peers.
The ones that typically work well are relevant to APIs or API management, ex. APIDays, API conference and so on.
Best practices:
- The audience should primarily be ITDMs (developer conferences don’t work well for lead generation when it comes to API management).
- Get a package with a booth and a speaking slot.
- Having a customer’s testimony on stage strengthens your session.
- Check which events Apigee is planning to be part of to make sure that there is no double investment.
Example
Both design
Assets
Customer references
Customer references are key assets for demonstrating real results in real businesses. Case studies can be used to build email campaigns, nurture, use in presentations at events, as a slideshow at the booth at industry events, and more.
Want to create a joint customer story?
We have an evolving library of case studies for you to leverage, but if you have a stand-out customer you think would be a great addition, you can submit the details for review via our request form and we can work jointly on it.
Checklist for a good case study candidate:
(See typical interview questions here):
- Did Apigee have a clear impact on the customer’s solution?
- Does the customer have substantial results that they can share?
- Why was the use of Apigee necessary for the customer?
In-person events
With a number of formats available, in-person events are a great opportunity to showcase product benefits first-hand, as well as to build trust and give an opportunity for networking with peers.
- Create a bill of materials/matrix to ensure progress can easily be tracked.
- Ensure you give attendees enough time to register and save the date.
- Define your agenda early on.
- Contact your Apigee representative in advance of the event (at least six weeks before).
- Get caught out with timings by leaving things to the last minute.
- Leave anything to chance - test all equipment before and on the day of the event.
- Forget to follow up post-event emails and phone calls with both attendees and non-attendees.
Example
Get inspired to run your own events with the assets that we have prepared for you
Hosting Events at Google Offices
Hosting partner events at Google offices is subject to meeting space availability and approval.
The 10 guidelines:
- Reach out to your Partner Manager at least 2 months before the event date, they will review the request and notify you within one week. Approval of request is at discretion of Google.
- You must gain approval from your Partner Managers prior to sending out invites to customers.
- Personal emails should not be used for registration, a company email must be used instead.
- There must be a minimum of 40 registrations and 20 attendees (an expectation of 50% drop off rate).
- The Partner Manager needs to be informed if any attendees are from government organisations.
- The Partner Manager must receive a copy of the presentation deck three weeks prior to the event date for review and amendments.
- If catering or technical equipment is required, it has to be organised with the Partner Manager at least three weeks prior to the event.
- The registration list must be completed four days prior to the event date, and is to be shared with your Partner Manager for badge printing.
- As a security requirement, all external parties must wear a Google guest badge at all times in the Google office.
- No external parties are to walk around the Google office alone, including partner attendees.
Requesting a Google Speaker
Google Speaker is a subject to speaker availability and approval. Approval of request is at discretion of Google.
Submit your request to Partner Manager at least 2 months before the event and include the following information:
- Event name
- Date
- Location
- Size
- Target Audience
- Profile requested
Online events
Online events are ideal for global get-togethers where time zones and locations prevent in-person meetups. They can also be executed on a lower budget and are a great way of informing customers and answering questions.
- Ensure you test the platform ahead of time.
- Record the event for non-attendees to watch on demand.
- Encourage interaction with a Q&A session.
- Forget to follow up post-event with attendees and non-attendees.
Example
Get inspired to run your own events with the assets that we have prepared for you
