Claudia Goeppel, Marketing Manager, EMEA Central, is responsible for strategic marketing planning, management, tactical execution, demand generation, brand awareness and measurement of marketing activities both direct and via the Ping partner community in EMEA Central (DACH, Nordics and Benelux).
Can you provide a little background on Ping Identity?
Ping Identity believes secure professional and personal identities underlie human progress in a connected world. Our identity and access management platform gives enterprise customers and employees one-click access to any application from any device. Over 1,200 companies, including half of the Fortune 100, rely on our award-winning products to make the digital world a better experience for hundreds of millions of people.
Does Ping Identity provide solutions globally?
Ping Identity is global in scope and provides services worldwide. The DACH region specifically covers Germany, Austria Switzerland, Netherlands and Nordics, and Russia and other eastern countries.
What types of programs are you running with TechTarget?
We run ongoing demand generation programs with TechTarget. Specifically, we do content syndication across different regions including UK, Benelux and Nordics and then DACH campaigns for German speaking countries using our German content. We have additional TechTarget campaigns planned for the UK, Netherlands Nordic and German speaking regions to keep up the momentum we have gained to date.
Can you share some of the ROI you have gotten from any of these campaigns?
Here are campaign results from a blended campaign we did in DACH, Nordics and Benelux:
- 76 Unique leads driven (127% to goal)
- 91 Activities taken within campaign
- Of those, 20% were from Priority Accounts
Do you use Ping Identity produced content and what language(s) is it produced in?
Yes. We have lots really good content we use in our campaigns that we localize for different regions. TechTarget provides ongoing content audits for us to make sure we have the right content to align with the various stages of the IT buying cycle. TechTarget has indicated to us that our content mix is, in fact, well balanced across the stages of the IT buying cycle which has helped strengthen our campaigns. We have everything produced in US English, German and French.
Can you talk about how working with Activity Intelligence™ has helped your marketing and/or what you’re able to pass over to sales?
In marketing, a big part of our job is to work closely with sales and arm them with quality leads and as much relevant information about those leads that we can. TechTarget’s Activity Intelligence helps us do that by providing deep dive intelligence with behaviors about IT buyers and what those buyers are researching and where they are in their decision process. It makes a big difference in how our sales teams follow up and their ability to engage more quickly and effectively.
We use the Activity Intelligence Dashboard to identify which types of prospects are engaging and with which types of content on TechTarget sites. That is then passed directly onto sales so they can be better equipped and more knowledgeable when talking with IT buyers. This level of intelligence we get from the dashboards is very useful not just for sales but it also helps us improve how we message to our audience.
What feedback has sales given you about Activity Intelligence that has helped their sales follow-up process?
In a recent discussion with one of our senior sales people, he described the Activity Intelligence as “really great stuff” and that sales’ is having far more relevant and useful conversations since using it and it’s really helping overall sales results. It’s also helping us save on resources and reduce the number of calls we have to redirect.
How would describe the relationship between marketing and sales at Ping Identity?
We are a small company and the relationship we have with sales is very strong. We collaborate a lot with our sales teams and involve them in our plans so we’re aligned in our goals and objectives. We work shoulder-to-shoulder and they rely on us to deliver the intelligence they need to sell effectively. While the decision to use TechTarget was a marketing one, we have a closed loop system with sales to make sure they continuously get what they need in their sales process. Activity Intelligence helps us do that. The feedback we’ve been getting from sales on Activity Intelligence is that it’s really helped them
What impact is having data intelligence in your marketing and sales efforts?
Marketing has changed a lot over the past 5 years. It requires having access to the right data and providing more in-depth understanding of our target audience’s behaviors, needs and buying patterns. TechTarget’s Activity Dashboard tells us where and what types of content IT buyers are engaging with on TechTarget sites. In the end, we can then target them in a much more relevant and intelligent way.
How is Marketing measured and what role is data having in that?
We are measured on the $$ pipeline that marketing creates with the emphasis on high impact revenue criteria. It is important we are able to measure and analyze based on data we receive and how our leads are converting so we have full visibility in what we are getting from our marketing investments. We rely heavily on data to help us understand all that.
Does your marketing philosophy support an “Always On” content strategy?
Yes. We try to run content longer term so our brand and solutions are in front of the audience we need to reach where they are researching which is on TechTarget sites. As much as we can, and if within our budget, we try to stay in front of buyers where and when they are actively researching.
What’s most important in what you look for in a media partner?
It starts with the relationship, but what really counts is the expertise they bring. For example, TechTarget has always done regular content audits with us so we know if we are balanced or if we need to fill in the gaps with additional content to help our campaigns perform better. This is one example that tells us we are in really good hands working with a partner who is interested in making sure we have all the right content at the right stages to be the most effective in our programs.
How has your experience been working with TechTarget solutions and the TechTarget team?
Working with TechTarget has been a very positive experience all around. They deliver the results they promise, do the analysis on the programs we run and are proven experts in their space. They have demonstrated over and over they know our business and know what they’re doing and is a partner who knows how to work with us to reach our goals and objectives.
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