Perspectives & Strategy

For the last couple of months I have seen advertisements by Ziff Davis for a new service they are offering, the Enterprise Build ROI Program, and I thought I had to take a look at some point. The thinking that started my looking was was a publishing company offering consulting in this unique area?

Build ROI is based on the premise that “No matter the size of your company or budget, you can increase your ROI” It is focused on solution providers maximising their marketing potential. It is a pay program with the first tier starting out at $5,000 right up to tier 3 that is focused on creating a dominant presence in the marketplace.

So what  does your money get you?

According to Ziff Davis “Tier 1 program offers a variety of multi-media marketing vehicles – from print and on-line advertising, to contextual sponsorship offerings, to proven lead generation”. For the service provider or software vendor it is providing access to services used by their readers use on a daily basis, this is a subscriber base of over 4 million readers. Tier 2 is “designed to get you closer to your prospects… solutions provide intimate and contextual reach that accelerates your pipeline growth” and tier 3 “Create a dominant presence in the marketplace… long-term lead generation programs, lead nurturing and scoring options, strategic consulting services, international programs and a variety of other impactful vehicles.”

I have adopted the mindset of a CEO of a small software company in assessing these offerings. My first thought is that I would have loved to have access to the readers of publications like eWeek, BaseLine, and CIO Insight. There is a difference between having access to readers through RSS feeds, pod-casts etc and developing a direct connection with a prospect. I am then questioning how much value solution providers can drive via other means, e.g. access through Social Media channels. It is always possible that they could be complimentary. Tier 1 can certainly be a useful marketing tool, however to me one of the most important components of the program the “Business Value Calculators” are costed seperately from the main program offering, which is such a pity because this has the potential for being the most powerfull of all offerings.

One of the interesting things about the sight is the availability of free material in the BuildROI Resource Centre. Much of this material is very useful and can certainly be leveraged by anyone researching As with many American based sites it does forget that places do exist outside the USA, when filling in the registration form it requires that I enter a State, but does not include my Canadian province (but does accept Canada as the Country). All of this is a little odd when the report is delivered by email.

At the end of the day there will be IT suppliers that will find the program has a lot of use. I see this as an attempt by Ziff Davis to guarantee a revenue stream in these hard times, not necessarily a bad thing. However where budgets are tight I would think that many will think twice before joining the program.