Vendor Profile

							                                                               Vendor Profile
  C AT E G O R Y: F I E L D M A R K E T I N G
  CLASS: L E A D G E N E R AT I O N / D E              V E L O P M E N T



Tippit
   Media company that leverages a group of targeted Web portals into a number of value-added deliverables
   Key offerings include lead generation/development, banner/event sponsorships, and prospect behavior analysis
   Pay-for-performance lead development model will be attractive to many
   Added value through prospect behavior can impact marketing messaging and demand creation strategy



T
       ippit is a full-service business media company that publishes    Tippit for one-off webcasts, banner ads or site sponsorship
       Internet-based content across a range of verticals to            opportunities are allowed to pay as they go. Buyer Loop and other
       engage, educate and qualify prospects. It uses content as a      buyer research programs are priced on a quarterly or per-project
springboard for demand generation, value-add analysis, and lead         engagement basis.
development services, rounding out these offerings with sponsor-
ship and banner advertising opportunities on its Web sites, and         SERVICES AND VISION
webcast services that provide clients with a wide range of              The presence of functionality is a dimension that SiriusDecisions
prospects from a qualification level perspective.                       uses to evaluate a vendor’s offerings; in addition, vendors must
     The Tippit network targets buyers of telecommunications,           demonstrate the functionality is capable, and have a vision for con-
human resources, IT services and security, and CRM products and         tinuous improvement. Our analysis of Tippit around these com-
services, with a focus on the SMB space. Each site (e.g. inside-        ponents follows:
crm.com, voip-news.com, hrworld.com, itsecurity.com) features
Tippit, vendor and third-party content, including product reviews              Services presence. Tippit refers to its overall approach as
and comparisons, market news and analysis, white papers and                 TEQ, or Target, Educate and Qualify. The Target component
newsletters. The company’s flagship offering, Highly Qualified              refers to Tippit’s targeted media portals, while Educate pro-
Leads (HQL), combines the placement of portal content with fol-             vides value-added content to portal registrants in the form of
lowup guidance and qualification by Tippit analysts. Other offer-           buyer’s guides, vendor comparisons and tutorials. Qualify gives
ings include Tippit Leads, which delivers leads through a combina-          site visitors free analyst advice on vendors and their solutions
tion of webcasts and with customized whitepapers; and Buyer                 through telephone, email or chat, while working to determine
Loop, which provides clients with daily reporting on prospect               the viability of a prospect, and whether they might be interest-
activity, behavior and requirements, and post-sale followup to              ed in speaking with a short list of vendors that match their
determine which vendor a prospect bought from and why.                      requirements. Purchased webcasts can either be exclusive or
     Both HQL and Tippit Leads use a pay-for-performance pric-              co-sponsored by other vendors, and are promoted through
ing model. Demand generation programs run between $15,000                   their respective portal, as are other content deliverables and
and $60,000 per month depending on the number and type of                   sponsorship opportunities (including banner advertisements).
leads. Prospective clients can pilot HQL using standard pay-for-
performance pricing for 90 days (for as little as $15,000) before             Services capability. Tippit’s goal is to deliver leads with a
entering into a longer-term agreement. Clients that want to use             range of buying interest to its clients, versus simply providing


                                     V   E N D O R      AT-    A   -G   L A N C E    : T    I P P I T

        CONTACT INFORMATION                                CLIENT ROSTER                                     OPERATIONS
               514 Bryant St.                                    Avaya                                  Revenue: $11MM-$25MM
         San Francisco, CA 94107                                Microsoft                                      Employees: 50
              (415) 318-7200                                    NetSuite                        International Presence: EMEA, Asia/Pacific
             sales@tippit.com                                    Nortel                          Key Industries Served: Business Services,
              www.tippit.com                                     Oracle                           High Technology, Human Resources,
                                                                                                           Telecommunications
                                                                                                                                              2

                                      V       e       n        d          o    r              P        r       o       f        i     l        e
   a list of names, telephone numbers and email addresses often               format that can be imported into their CRM systems, a step all
   common from other IT media publishers. Roughly 80 percent                  clients should take to track and act upon the leads Tippit pro-
   of its site traffic is driven through organic search (the compa-           grams generate. Tippit will automatically import qualified leads
   ny continually engages in search engine optimization activities            into any CRM system for clients who continue an engagement
   to keep its sites in front of possible buyers who enter a wide             beyond the initial 90-day period.
   range of search terms into their engine of choice), and it pro-
   motes site stickiness by offering content that is continuously                Training. Once engaged with a customer, Tippit analysts go
   updated and available via online syndication (such as RSS                  through an “immersion process” in which they are trained on
   feeds). When a site visitor registers and downloads content,               a customer’s marketing collateral, market dynamics, strengths
   they gain access to Tippit analysts trained and proficient in              and weaknesses in relation to the competition, and how it typ-
   each sponsor’s offerings. These analysts are responsible for               ically wins deals, and will also share best practices on lead fol-
   qualifying prospects and gathering detailed buyer require-                 lowup and reporting. The process is typically completed in a
   ments before offering advice about specific vendors. The web-              two-hour conference call, although additional training can be
   cast offering is turnkey in nature; Tippit will promote, host and          arranged if needed. Potential clients should carefully oversee
   moderate the event, and retain it in on-demand format for                  this process to ensure the level of training is sufficient to prop-
   three months. Qualified leads are passed directly to the cus-              erly communicate its messaging and market positioning.
   tomer’s sales force and include demographic information (e.g.
   name, title, email address, telephone and organization size) as               Support. Tippit’s Client Services Group helps clients define
   well as confirmed intent to purchase a product or service in               campaign elements and objectives, determine best practices
   the customer’s target market. Tippit’s relationships are not               and set ROI goals. Tippit client managers monitor campaign
   exclusive in nature; leads may be passed to more than one                  effectiveness, provide suggestions for optimizing campaigns,
   software or telecommunications vendor, for example, which                  and provide post-campaign analysis and recommendations.
   gives prospects options to choose from and is essential to                 Support is included at no charge for all Tippit clients.
   Tippit’s role as a third-party media and analyst company.
                                                                                 Best practices. Tippit delivers best practices to its clients via
      Vendor vision. Tippit’s service is unique in that it couples            its research platform, which is constantly gathering data from
   value-added content and analysts educated in specific technol-             active buyers in each of the industries served by Tippit’s media
   ogy areas (a la Gartner or Forrester) who are also                         properties. One example is the Tippit Buyer Loop, a service to
   teleprospectors able to position vendor offerings. By doing so,            help optimize customer sales and marketing processes by pro-
   Tippit can target potential buyers and qualify them by tracking            viding feedback on products, sales execution and competitive
   their behavior through Web site behavior and telephone dia-                issues based on buyers’ experiences. Although Tippit does try
   logue that is transparent to prospects. Its pay-for-performance            to engage with marketing to optimize demand management
   model is also uncommon in this space, which offers an advan-               and lead nurturing, we would prefer such an offering reach
   tage over other teleprospecting vendors that charge by blocks              back into the marketing function more aggressively to discuss
   of activity rather than results. By continually gathering histori-         message efficacy and deliverable quality in order to optimize
   cal information on prospect behavior, buying tendencies and                the demand funnel from end to end.
   marketplace requirements, Tippit has the ability to coach ven-
   dor companies on what messaging and deliverables may res-                      Vendor viability. Founded in 2005, Tippit is privately funded,
   onate better for specific audiences and products/solutions.                and currently lists more than 50 large and midsize technology
   Tippit recommends that sales and marketing management are                  and services vendors as its clients. While pay-to-play analyst
   both involved in its services to ensure that the disposition of            shops abound, Tippit uses an innovative approach to offer its
   leads passed directly to sales and the success of overall pro-             clients more demand generation services than a typical
   grams are captured in the CRM system; without this oversight,              “whitepaper for hire” company. Tippit believes the difference
   there is a potential for lead waste if no lead recycling/nurtur-           is in its results; it currently offers a number of customer refer-
   ing program has been developed to manage disqualified leads.               ences that have experienced a 15 percent to 20 percent close
                                                                              rate of qualified leads.
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS
As important to features and functionality is a vendor’s ability to       THE SIRIUS DECISION
deliver and implement its solutions. Our analysis of Tippit along         Tippit offers a compelling demand generation service for technol-
this dimension that we call “essential elements” is as follows:           ogy vendors that want to reach business and IT decisionmakers
                                                                          throughout the buying cycle. Its combination of targeted content,
      Integration. Tippit does not market or sell technology;             vertical analysis, sponsorship and webcast services can help organ-
   clients in the 90-day pilot phase receive leads daily in a flat-file   izations qualify prospects with a confirmed intent to buy, and the



Copyright SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved.
                                                                                                                                        3

                                     V       e       n       d          o    r             P       r       o       f       i     l       e
follow-on offerings allow for unique insight and access into the        may be too steep for highly transactional, low-price-per-seat
mindset of buyers. Tippit’s rapid growth suggests it is filling a gap   offerings, and the fact that leads are non-exclusive may be off-put-
in the demand generation landscape by bringing offerings of dis-        ting for some, many others will gravitate toward Tippit’s holistic
creet vendors – including analyst firms, media sites and                approach to demand generation.
teleprospectors – together under one roof. While its per-lead cost




Copyright SiriusDecisions. All Rights Protected and Reserved.