By Nettie Hartsock
KeyITSolutions.com is a relatively new player in the white paper syndication market and was founded in 2003 by UK-based INSIGHTS, Ltd. The site is aimed at technology buyers and covers the globe with a major emphasis on the US, UK, Germany and other countries leading in technology.
The site’s demographic profile is made up of 22% upper-level corporate executives, 35% technology management executives and 15% IT managers with the rest being developers and analysts.
The site holds just over 15,000 white papers in its research library, according to David Godchild, sales director of KeyITSolutions.com.
White papers can be submitted f*r-e-e of charge for the next six months. Godchild said, “With over 4000 unique visitors each month and the majority of the visitors being technology buyers, we are eager to have as many white papers as possible posted and marketed for f-r-e-e in our library.”
When buyers tap the resources in the library, they have to specifically request to be contacted by a selected number of vendors based on their needs and requests. The company touts its ability to enable vendors to reach IT buyers in the “buy” cycle. KeyITSolutions.com only sends qualified responses from technology buyers who are anticipating a follow-up vendor call by request.
Using the site and posting papers is f-r-e-e of charge and lead generation for the site is automated with the buyers initiating the process themselves.
In the future, Godchild said a vendor can generate an unlimited amount of leads through advertising for the base price of $959 per year.
Vendors are not charged for receiving qualified sales leads, and technology buyers are able to contact a vendor by clicking the “initiate contact” link, which then provides the buyer a form to transmit their request. Once users register, they can also use the “keep me posted” link for specific topic notification. To view a white paper on the site, you have to be registered, a f-r-e-e process.
“Unlike other sales lead generation companies, we don’t pass our buyers’ details on to you unless the buyer initiates it based on a specific need. This way, rather than getting thousands of unqualified sales leads in a year, you get hundreds of qualified buyer-initiated sales leads,” Godchild said.
But the information library is definitely still in its infancy. The research library is relatively lean and unimpressive. For example, an advanced keyword search for “Microsoft” turned up only one two-page product brochure on virus software.
The library comprises a light venue of main sections including: business solutions, system management, IT infrastructure, software development and web services. (See this link for the full list of subheads as well: http://www.keyitsolutions.com/catlist.asp.) Many of the white papers featured are European-based providers and most of the subdirectories are still empty. For example, a subdirectory on CRM only had two papers.
The site does offer paid sponsorship placements. According to Godchild, the cost for being a featured sponsor is $2999 for 12 months, and includes cover banner advertising, featured sponsorship and email marketing to the technology buyers.
The company does not currently have a way to track leads that turn to sales after they turn them over to the vendor, but Godchild said he expects the buyer-initiated sales process to have an 80-90% range of leads to converted sales. The facility to track sales will be implemented within 12 months, according to Godchild.
White paper marketers who rely on garnering additional exposure from site discussion forums or email newsletters will find this site’s offerings less than ideal. The site also does not have the audience reach and breadth that larger sites like ITPapers and KnowledgeStorm offer.
Bottom line to marketers, keep in mind the site is still in very early stages of growth and the growth is key to the site being a viable player in the market.
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