Meet an iconoclastic data publisher, Sharon Gillenwater.

Sharon Gillenwater, Principal and Founder, Boardroom Insiders

Sharon will be speaking at DataContent, and her mission is to tell us why scale does not matter, at least for her business, Boardroom Insiders. Her willingness to challenge conventional wisdom is why we named her a Model of Excellence for her start-up, Boardroom Insiders, in 2009. Back then we wrote, “In terms of the depth of its data and its hand-tooled creation, you might think of a “Hoover’s for executives.” In terms of its deep mining of the web for background information, you might think of ZoomInfo, but with researchers, not machines, building the profiles.”

Three years on, Sharon is satisfied that she has proven that customers want – and will pay for – quality. In her session, Excellence Revisited, she’ll make clear that her “think different” strategy was based on a deep understanding of the market, not just a bold attempt to be contrarian. In fact, Sharon is an expert in marketing strategy, account-based marketing and CXO programs. For more than a decade she operated her own consulting firm, San Francisco Group, creating marketing strategies and programs for Fortune 100 technology companies. In response to her clients’ increased focus on CXO engagement, she founded Boardroom Insiders to provide the most in-depth executive profiles on the market today, and now counts Dell, Accenture, UPS, McKinsey, Juniper, Cisco, Avaya and ConAgra among its many clients.

While so many companies were chasing company data, Sharon will tell us how Boardroom Insiders staked out a claim to high‐end executive data, a market where the need is large, the pockets are deep, and selling is based on relationships, not software.

Ten lessons I have learned since 2009:

1. There are no silver bullets–for anything
2. Business model/pricing is the biggest challenge and needs constant tweaking.
3. Failure is not bad–it just means you can cross that tactic off your list and stop wondering “What If?”
4. SEO is the smartest marketing investment you can make.
5. Google AdWords is a waste of money for B2B publishers with limited budget.
6. The best editorial model is offshore researchers + onshore analysts/editors + automated tools.
7. Best business model is subscription plus custom…but keep the custom simple and for subscribers.
8. Keep your product and offer simple. Complexity = sales obstacles.
9. Own your customer relationships. Channel partners (content aggregators) are nice to haves–not must haves.
10. Scale doesn’t matter. Customers are discovering that quality trumps quantity.

Join Sharon and close to 200 data producers gathering at DataContent to explore the intersection of Data, Communities, and Markets.

At DataContent, you’ll get a clear understanding of where data fits in your future. Most importantly, you’ll leave with an understanding of the trends that are the most profitable AND the contacts and know-how to incorporate them into your own business.

Our sessions go beyond the data hype—we’re assembling the people advancing, transforming, and disrupting the industry to give you straight talk on why the data business is the hottest segment of the information industry and why it will continue to grow.

At DataContent, you’ll get a clear understanding of where data fits in your future. Most importantly, you’ll leave with an understanding of the trends that are the most profitable AND the contacts and know-how to incorporate them into your own business.

Attend DataContent Oct. 9-11, 2012
Register today

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