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Identifying and Leveraging your Business-to-Business Influencers in a Web 2.0 World

In an era where formerly robust marketing approaches are being shaken to their foundations and customers are more sceptical of marketing claims than ever, this IDM B2B Council event explores the potential of Influencer Marketing in the social media age.

Duncan Brown, Managing Director of Influencer50 Ltdexamines how leading marketers have adapted to a new and rapidly changing landscape by reaching out to newfound Influencers, increasing their reach, credibility and sales potential. He’ll also reveal steps you can take to identify and leverage the Influencers who impact most on your target audience.

What’s an Influencer?

Influencers could be sophisticated consumers taking an active role in their forum of choice, but more likely they are individuals with keen insights into the inner workings of your industry. These third parties can exist either within your supply chain system, or they may be valued members of your business community holding the ear of key decision-makers, a segment you’ve possibly never before considered. They could be a government regulator, a sourcing provider, an industry lobbyist, or a leading commentator with valuable experience to draw from.

With greater cost-efficiencies by engaging with fewer people to yield your valuable business insights and increase payback, targeting influencers can be practical as well as effective.

Duncan’s presentation will draw on specific, recent influencer marketing campaigns conducted with prominent Global 500 companies, and will demonstrate the importance of:

• understanding the primary motivation for engaging with market influencers
• realising that influencers are not just consumers, but are found in the whole spectrum of supply-side relationships
• practical ways to enhance existing engagement with your influencers
• the key influencer marketing tools and their application, with case studies demonstating impact on the business
• how to contribute readily to your sales strategy with better lead generation and retention in the days and months ahead.

Duncan will be joined by client-side marketer, Lisa Hutt, EMEA Programs Director at salesforce.com who will give examples of projects where it has introduced influencers to the marketing mix. Lisa will discuss how to use influencers to raise awareness in the press, increase attendance at events, increase traction of e-newsletters and white papers, and how to align influencers with sponsorship of events. As well as explaining activity involving influencers, Lisa will present the results of these initiatives.

Agenda

Detailed joining instructions will be provided by email seven days before the event.

Speakers

Duncan Brown, Managing Director, Influencer50 Ltd
Duncan Brown is on a mission to change marketing. He thinks that most marketing is doomed to failure because there is too much of it, it all sounds and looks the same, and customers don’t believe much of it anyway. “Customers hate being marketed to,” he says, “but they do like to talk about ‘stuff’.” Duncan thinks that if marketers can identify the people that create and shape conversations, they can join and influence those conversations. “Just be honest and open when you do it,” he adds. Duncan is European Director of Operations at Influencer50, a pioneer in Influencer Marketing. He advises client firms on marketing strategy, and his client list includes most of the major technology and telecoms vendors, such as Microsoft, IBM, Orange, Nokia and Salesforce.com. He has also advised enterprises in banking, manufacturing, automotive, pharmaceuticals and government sectors. Duncan is the author of the widely acclaimed Influencer Marketing: Who Really Influences Your Customers? (2008), described as "A thought provoking book that challenges the way we think and who we target. A must for any skilled marketer wishing to beat his competitor."

Prior to Influencer50 Duncan was Director of Consulting at IDC, and previously an industry analyst. Originally a software developer, Duncan has an MBA from Henley Management College, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and holds chartered practitioner status from the British Computer Society.

Lisa Hutt, EMEA Programs Director, salesforce.com
Lisa is responsible for demand generation at salesforce.com and manages the regional and integrated campaign teams that deliver marketing programs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since joining salesforce.com in 2007, Lisa’s responsibilities have included driving high return on marketing investment and incremental business growth in cloud computing solutions through tactical and strategic campaigns, lead generation, pipeline maturation and customer success. Lisa is an advocate of global marketing, sales alignment, closed-loop lead management and influencer relations. Lisa’s marketing career was developed in corporate marketing communications roles at Dell, Intel, Epson, Sybase and Monster.

The IDM B2B Marketing Council

The IDM B2B Council aims to push back frontiers of knowledge within B2B, give it an infrastructure of learning, and opportunities to share best practices. It aims to raise the profile of B2B marketing, give the discipline the recognition it deserves - and B2B marketers a specialism to be proud of. If you would like to put yourself or a colleague forward to join the council, please email karensmith@theidm.com.

Sponsor

Our thanks to Cyance for sponsoring this event. Cyance is a dedicated B2B specialist, working closely with clients to deliver innovative and achievable B2B solutions.

Venue

Our venue will be the Crowne Plaza London - St James, 45-51 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AF.

Networking

Your joining instructions will include an invitation to submit your photograph and details of your company prior to the evening. On the night, you will receive an attendee list and delegate directory to help you network more effectively.

In the meantime, here are just some of the companies who have been represented at previous events:

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Attending this event contributes two hours under the "Event participation" category towards your annual IDM CPD Award. This event also qualifies towards CIM, IPA and other CPD schemes and we are happy to provide supporting evidence for your records. Contact the membership team on
+44 (0)20 8614 0277 or email membership@theidm.com after attending the event.

Secure your place now

To book your place(s), click on the icon in the top right-hand corner of this page.

The small print

• Prices for this event are subject to VAT
• A replacement delegate is always welcome - just inform the IDM. Non-members will be charged at the full delegate rate if replacing a member
• You may cancel your place up to 5 working days prior to the event without charge. Thereafter the full ticket price will be payable
• Joining instructions are distributed by email seven days prior to the event
• The IDM reserves the right to cancel an event, change the venue, amend the dates, fees or speakers at any time without prior notice

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