Red On Marketing Blog

B2B Marketing Dealbreakers

How can it be that marketers – people who specialize in creating positive images – have such an image problem?

In my career, I have met a lot of marketing professionals. Hundreds? Thousands? And, on the whole, they're ok. Just folks trying to make a living.

But we also have more than our fair share of wanna-bes.

Spotting B2B marketing wanna-bes

Wanna-bes are difficult to spot until it is too late. They have great business cards, LinkedIn profiles, and brochures. But hook up with a chronic underperformer, and they can run your business into the ground.

The impact of chronic underperformance by a marketing consultant goes beyond the tens of thousands of dollars in wasted advertising, lost sales, and missed opportunities. It can also lead to lost customers, lost partners, a lower barrier to entry for competitors, and even PR crises for the organization -- not to mention a career crisis for the executive who picked the underperformer.

That's a dealbreaker!

Dealbreakers come in many shapes and sizes. Here are a couple to look out for -- I'll expand on these in future articles.

If your marketing consultant...

• Does cookie-cutter marketing, where every campaign is a variation on the same theme... that's a dealbreaker
• Has a "command-and-control" mentality, where the agency tries to tell the client what to do without listening to their needs... that's a dealbreaker
• Over-sells, meaning the agency is all bling and no cha-ching... that's the ultimate dealbreaker
  

This last bunch is especially irritating. They make lots of noise about design awards and awareness campaigns but say "it's just so hard to know" when prospects ask, "what did it produce?"

It is true, of course, that it is hard to know what marketing produced -- IF the marketer doesn't do closed-loop marketing. That's the sort where results from each effort are fed back into planning cycles. Indeed, deciding about future marketing efforts without a clear view of what's worked amounts to guessing. And guessing on the client's dime is not ok. It's... a dealbreaker!

More to come. Meantime, here are some related articles:

• Picking a Marketing Consultant: get what you pay for
• Corporate Logos — examples of what does, doesn’t work
• “Solution” is not the solution in B2B marketing communications
• Six Marketing Gotchas CEOs Can Avoid

B2B Lead Generation Results, By Source

Visits and conversions by source for www.b2bcommunications.com Sept 7 to Oct 6 2009

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Here is a screenshot showing the sources of our website traffic that converted to leads over the last month. Looking at the chart, I answer:

• What does this chart tell you about lead sources?
• How much did you invest to get the site working this way?
• We need to generate leads - what's the best way?

Visits and conversions by source (1 month)

This chart shows how different sources have driven visits, leads, and customers to www.b2bcommunications.com. The key on the right shows the sources tracked.

What does this chart tell you about lead sources?

To see our lead sources, we open our Hubspot account (more on this below) and go to the "Reports" tab and pick "Sources". There we have a chart showing visit to lead ratios by source:

Totals for Sep 7-Oct 7, 2009
Sources	Visits	Visit to Lead	Leads
Organic Search	590	0.68%	4
Referrals	265	2.60%	7
Paid Search	0	0%	0
Direct Traffic	547	1.50%	8
Email Marketing	0	0%	0
Social Media	86	8.10%	7
Other Campaigns	0	0%	0
Totals	1,488	1.75%	26

According to the chart, visitors from social media sources convert at the highest rate. A visit-to-lead conversion rate of 8.10% means that in the last month, eight out of ten visitors who came to the site via LinkedIn or other networking sites, responded. Visitors referred to our site from an article, blog, or website are the next most likely to respond.

How much did you invest to get these leads rolling in?

Hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars over several years. The site re-launched in 2007 and it's been an ongoing process to make it so visitors find what they need and take the next step. And there's still so much work to do! Meantime, we've been at blogging, search engine marketing, and social media marketing since 2007 - and public relations since 2001. We've tried to always close the loop (see below), so we know which B2B lead generation activities work and which to avoid.

What is Hubspot?

Hubspot provides advice and software that helps businesses get found on the Internet by the right prospects and convert more of them into leads and customers. We use it to build landing pages, attract traffic, nurture contacts, track leads, and connect records about leads and sales with records about marketing efforts.

We need to generate leads - what's the best way?

Here are just two of many ways to get started. Do both or pick the one that work for you:

Get a 60 Minute Internet Marketing Planning Session.

Try Hubspot - Use all the powerful features of Hubspot for B2B lead generation. Free for 30 days.

NOTE: We are pitched weekly by companies looking for affiliates to rep their stuff. So far, we've partnered only with MarketingSherpa and Hubspot. In each case, we bought their stuff and recommended it to others before we were ever a partner. Now that we are a partner, we get a small % of sales we help generate. Just so you know.

Rebekah E. Donaldson ("Red") has led Business Communications Group since 2001. More >>

 

Picking a Marketing Consultant: Get What You Pay For

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You get what you pay for.” The truth is, sometimes you get a lot less than you pay for.

This is the first in a seven-part series of articles to help you get what you pay for when you choose a marketing agency. I’ll start today with a decision tree that shows the five key decision points. As the series progresses, I’ll show you a framework that CEOs can use to sort out the answers.  In later articles I touch on the various types of marketers in the industry. You’ll also find 11 questions to ask an agency – with an example of what counts as a good answer (“pass”), and what counts as baloney (“fail”), for each. And in my seventh article in this series I’ll give five warnings, each of which begins, “Why to watch out if you hear…“

Outsourcing marketing – opportunities and threats

On the one hand, you need effective marketing because of competition and economic conditions; on the other hand, you risk:

• Wasting money
• Wasting time
• Making a bad impression on customers and internal stakeholders if marketing poorly represents the company

The real risk of taking the wrong path

A lot of marketing-related companies are vying for your attention — and your money. Cash vacuums like Google Adwords. Thousands of marketers with consulting practices. Marketing automation software companies, web hosts, email marketing tools, graphic designers, online directories, multimedia companies, social media sites and dozens of other types of vendors.

Fig 1 - Picking a marketing consultant decision tree

Five key decision points – overview

After you resolve to do more effective marketing, you need to decide:

1. Do we need professional marketing help?

This decision is easy to overlook. After all, vendors like Google Adwords include campaign set-up and support, so why not take their free advice? Or, why not redouble your efforts with mailers and telemarketing, which produce a trickle of leads? That just requires bigger lists and more investment in the same types of marketing as before.

In this series I outline why not. And if you do need professional marketing help, you need to decide:

2. Do we need to outsource marketing or should we keep this in-house?

In 2009-2010, talent of all kinds can be had at bargain prices. But maybe you feel ambitious. Perhaps you’re up to managing marketing directly?

If you are interested in outsourcing, you may wonder:

3. Do we need a formal RFP process to look for a consultant?

There are some benefits to doing a traditional request for proposals. But that process can take months to complete.

If you can arrive at a short list more quickly and easily on your own using search engines, social media and referrals, what sort of professional marketers should make the list?

4. What kind of agency do we need — specialists or an all-in-one firm?

Specialists in marketing subdisciplines are critical to overall marketing success — but it’s risky to grasp at individual tactics (see also our Six Marketing Gotchas CEOs Can Avoid ebook). If you decide you need a firm to be accountable for helping you move the needle for your firm (not just hit marketing-centric numbers), you’ll need to decide:

5. Who should we pick — what do we ask to ensure we get the best agency?

Some folks grapple with what I think of as “early” decisions, like whether to outsource. Others skip the early decisions and go straight to weighing one resource over another.

Now that you see the path we’ll be following, we’ll start looking at the individual elements in more detail. If you haven’t already, please subscribe by email.

B2B Email: Your subject line can kill your pitch (or, Hi, I want to talk to you about … uh, stuff)

By Robert Celaschi

Something strange happens to people when they send marketing email. They’ll take a powerful, persuasive marketing message, and torpedo the whole thing by slapping a lousy subject line on it.

What makes it really strange is that the email might contain a press release or other message with a really great headline. The sender could have cut and pasted it. But no, instead they type a vague or garbled mess of words that makes me shrug and move on.

I’ll confess I’m sometimes guilty of sloppy subject lines. I’ve struggled and sweated to craft the right message. I’ve set the right tone. I’ve targeted the right people. I’m ready to press the “send” button and then — oh, yeah, gotta put some kind of subject line on this puppy. Zip-zip-zip, done. Instead, I should take even more care with those precious few words that may determine whether the email even gets opened.

Let’s look at a half-dozen real subject lines that real marketing people emailed to me in the past month.

Subj: New Dilemma For Small Business Car Leases After Unemployment

Huh? Let’s see: I gather that there’s a new dilemma of some sort. For whom? Small Business Car Leases After Unemployment. Uhhhhhhh, sorry, does not compute. This one would work better with a simple colon after “Business.” Not great, but better. The story is about businesses transferring the leases on company cars, because they’ve laid off so many of the workers who used to drive them.

Subj: Non-Profit

That’s it, just “Non-Profit.” There are a lot of nonprofits out there. They do a lot of different things. I had to dig way, way down to discover that this nonprofit is a foundation that helps children. They are holding a fund-raiser this month in Miami. If I hadn’t picked this as an example for the blog post, I wouldn’t have bothered to find out any of that.

Subj: Survey: A Quarter of Firms Scaling Back Training

A direct hit. Tells me everything I need to get started. Now I’ll open the email and find out the details. Whoops — turns out that while 26 percent are cutting back their training programs, 28 percent have expanded. But, hey, they got me to read it.

Subj: Boston – Social Media Capital?

I don’t like questions for subject lines. Why are you asking me? Don’t you already know? If not, go do some more research and get back to me.

Subj: Time for Change in Credit Card Game

Maybe it is indeed time for a change in the credit card game, but since I have no idea what this means, it’s hard to say. The easy fix here would have been to condense the first line of the enclosed press release: Consumers now can say “no” to credit card interest rate hikes.

Subj: July home sales increased 12 percent; median home price declined 19.6 percent

This one delivers. I feel like a double winner, because I learn about sales volume and about price. This is about the California housing market, by the way. Bad news if you are a seller with a fat mortgage.

Your turn!

OK, you get the idea. Now take a look at the email you’ve sent in the past month. If someone didn’t already know your message, would they get the right idea from the subject line?

Robert has been a business journalist for 22 years, both as a reporter and an editor. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.

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Corporate Logos — examples of what does, doesn’t work

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

One of the big laughs in the fake documentary film Spinal Tap came when the band took to the stage to sing of Stonehenge. The set was supposed to feature a replica of a section of Stonehenge standing an imposing 18 feet tall. Due to a miscommunication problem with the set designer, it shows up at a ridiculous 18 inches tall.

Here’s a story about one of my own screw ups, some tips from the trenches of corporate logo design — and 5 corporate logos that help illustrate how a logo can help — or hurt — its owner.

When it comes to your corporate logo, you want something that works no matter what size. Sticking with the music theme for a bit, consider how graphic designers have had to adapt as the 12-inch LP jacket gave way to the 5-inch CD cover, and finally to the tiny icon that shows up on an iPod. A recent issue of Wired magazine gives examples. Your logo has to work as tiny square icon in a browser address bar and as a 50-foot long banner hanging from the ceiling of the Cow Palace… and also on business cards and in email marketing…

Creating corporate logos: when pros make mistakes

In 2007, I was trying to update our logo within two weeks. I considered lots of things before signing off on a final pick, but I didn’t test it in all contexts. Then when we applied the logo to our website, we had to use the logo in reverse — as white text on a blue background. The logo text looked a bit wispy and puny in this context — so we doubled back and doubled the letters’ width. I wasted some time and money fixing things because I skipped the step of testing the mark in a range of contexts.

Tips from the trenches of corporate logo design: factors to check

1. Is the name and tag line descriptive? Is the tag line credible?
2. Is the logo memorable? Attractive? Legible when tiny? Still strong when reversed?
3. Do customers instantly grasp the symbol, graphic or mark next to the logo’s words?
4. Can the logo fit inside a square? On one line if need be? In a column?

Compare the following corporate logos of companies trying to position themselves as on the leading edge of their fields. Symbols at right tell my opinion — I think three of them need updates to make them work. What do you think?

Bulldog Solutions’  logo meets all the criteria above.  The tag line, “Lead Generation Unleashed”, is small when logo is 150 pixels wide, but short and powerful like a bulldog. The dog can be shrunk to icon size and still convey just the right tone: tenacious, fierce, and loyal… with a wink of humor. The company actually uses a blue paw print for their browser icon. The name is clever but not too clever — together with the tag line it’s descriptive and compelling. Truly a brand identity helps its owner.

Bluewolf’s brand identity could work harder for its owner. The logo is clutter free, which is great. But what is a blue wolf? Why expend energy to figure it out? Their tag line doesn’t help me figure it out. It reads, “Success. Gauranteed.” Success at flipping burgers? The 100 meter dash? Fixing space stations? Also the logo is roughly 4 times as long as it is tall here. A 2×1 ratio is more versatile. Too, I’d add a unique mark their team could use when confined to teeny tiny spaces. (Indeed, I don’t see an browser bar icon when I visit their site. Warning: you’re forced to watch Flash if you visit. Heavy. Sigh.)

Rubicon Marketing Group’s red logo stands out — in a good way. In the browser bar they use a red capital “R” for their mark. The tag line “Marketing IS sales” is interesting – when I read it I think, “no B.S. here — tell me more!” Roughly 2×1 proportions make the logo versatile. There’s a bit of incongruity between the conservative traditional font and the hip modern out-with-the-0ld, we-are-pushing-the-envelope positioning statements. But otherwise a good example of a logo that helps its owner.

Verticurl’s logo has been updated since I started this post several months ago. Happily, now it has roughly 2×1 dimensions, has different type treatments to convey the distinction between the first and second parts of the word, and the tag line was moved below the logo and is pretty clear. Still worthwhile to consider a distinguishing mark. And for sure, someone needs to put a few minutes into the site banner, where the logo shows up blurry/pixelated. Good example of a logo that could work harder for its owner.

Pedowitz Group’s logo is most troubling. The graphic to the left of the words says to me “blue pizza!” and ”homemade logo! ” while the tag line text says: “The Leader in Web 2.0 Marketing” and their latest press release touts the company as “the world’s largest and most experienced provider of marketing automation services…” Oh no! The blue pizza is in the browser bar when I visit their site! (Flash in the site banner! Boo Hiss.) I recommend an upgrade for the logo, positioning statement, website, and marketing materials. The logo is hurting its owner’s brand.

Corporate Logo Checkup

There are certain kinds of corporate logos that won't help you - and others that will hurt your brand. Get our help checking your corporate logo design to make sure it's helping you in our Web 2.0 world.

“Solution” is not the solution in B2B marketing communications

By Robert Celaschi

I won't buy your product or service if you don't tell me what it is.

Fun and games!

Here’s a fun game:

Guess what each company is selling, using these lines from their press releases.

“…an expert in the image solution arena.”

“This is a result of an improved customer focus and strong actions to improve our solution competitiveness.”

“… delivers business-aligned solutions

“… a provider of mobility solutions”

And my favorite of the moment:

“… a trusted solutions provider to customers in manufacturing, health care, financial services, public safety, transportation & logistics, and other industries.”

Believe it or not, these companies sell specific things: elevators, servers, computer consulting services, camera phones, iPhone applications.

Drifting off message

I know how we got here. Back in the mists of the 20th century, some truly brilliant marketing folks got the idea that their company did more than push a product out the door; the product actually solved a problem for their customers.

“Mr. Customer, we aren’t just selling you a widget polisher, we are providing a solution to your scuffed-widget problem.”

But somewhere along the way, companies got so fixated on “solution” that they forgot to say what they are selling.

Think about the marketing material you are writing right now. When it falls into my hands, it may be the first time I have run across your company, and I’d really like to know what business you are in. But I don’t have time to play detective. Tell me the specific product or service, preferably near the start.

If you want to call it a “solution” later on, that’s fine.

Reality check

Here’s your homework assignment: Pick up some of your marketing materials and look at them through the eyes of someone who never heard of your company. Is it clear from the start what you are offering? Or are you merely providing vague “solutions” for an undefined problem?

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Copywriting marketing materials? How to speak prospects’ language

By Robert Celaschi

Copywriting marketing materials? The challenge is to ensure prospects are informed, not befuddled. An expert marketing copywriter gives tips on speaking their language.

Fans of Steve Martin might remember his plumber joke, supposedly told for the benefit of all the plumbers in the audience. It’s actually a joke about the disaster of using language that people won’t understand.

The joke

“This lawn supervisor was out on a sprinkler maintenance job, and he started working on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom seven-inch gangly wrench. Just then this little apprentice leaned over and said, ‘You can’t work on a Findlay sprinkler head with a Langstrom seven-inch wrench.’ Well, this infuriated the supervisor, so he went and got Volume 14 of the Kinsley manual, and he reads to him and says, ‘The Langstrom seven-inch wrench can be used with the Findlay sprocket.’ Just then the little apprentice leaned over and says, ‘It says sprocket, not socket!’”

[Worried pause.]

“Were these plumbers supposed to be here this show?”

Hitting the mark with marketing materials

When you are putting together materials to market your company, think about the audience you are reaching out to. When you talk about “plants,” will they assume you mean botanical or manufacturing? When you mention the AIA, will they know which AIA you mean? There is an American Institue of Architects, an Aerospace Industries Association, and other groups going by the same initials.

If your target audience is new to your product or service, help them get on board. They won’t be impressed if you dive right in with details about Langstrom wrenches and Findlay sprockets. They’ll be baffled, and they’ll go looking for some other company that they can understand.

On the other hand, your target audience may know more about Findlay sprockets than you do. In that case, they’ll appreciate you using their language. If you oversimplify your pitch, they might think you don’t respect their expertise.

Marketing copywriter’s reality check

There’s no standard formula for finding the middle ground between talking down to your audience and talking over their heads. But there’s one good test to see whether you’ve hit the mark: Ask them. Show a rough draft to a few people in your target market and ask them what they think.

Have you tested your marketing materials with someone in your target audience? Are there times when you need separate materials for the newbies and the veterans in your audience? Please comment.

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B2B marketing ROI of a blog – with traffic and leads chart

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

I talked with Sacramento Business Journal senior reporter Kathy Robertson this week about the return on investment from the Red On Marketing Blog. Her questions got me thinking about why I do it, and this post is the result. 

To ground things in real world and tangible results, you’ll see a screenshot showing where our website traffic and leads came from this week.

I’ve written the Red On Marketing Blog since Fall 2007. Yes, one reason I started it was to market our company. Another is that we help our clients with staying at the top of certain search results in Google, and social media (which includes blogging) is part of how we do it. We need to walk the walk.

We track everything with lead management software. Social media has tangibly helped us. Leads are up 400% this quarter over the same period last year. We have new leads every day – many from our website. So social media might sound like a fad or B.S. to some CEOs. But it’s moved the needle for our company.

Referrers — week of June 15 2009

Of our current clients, most found us online. For example, one Sacramento CEO found us when he searched “Sacramento search engine optimization”; another when he searched in LinkedIn for “B2B marketing Sacramento”; and so on.

Blogging is part of Social Media

The Red On Marketing Blog is intertwined with other efforts. It doesn’t stand alone. I’m active on LinkedIn – mostly I try to answer questions – and on Twitter. Sometimes, helping in those forums means pointing to B2B marketing articles, and other B2B Communications resources.

One realization I’ve had is that a marketer’s mindset can backfire with a blog or other social media participation. When I started blogging, I thought about it in terms of

1) Make a calendar of article topics.

2) Chip away at the calendar.

But that can lead to really boring blog posts. And everyone hates boring.

You Said WHAT?

Before starting the blog I’d been reading other people’s blogs for a couple of years. People like Josh Bernoff and David Meerman Scott publish edgy stuff that gets people talking (and pisses off some readers – a cost of being interesting).

The threads of comments after they post are crazy – dozens and dozens of smart people write in to respond.

I really wanted to do that.

Stirring Things Up

Fortunately, I have strong opinions — especially when it comes to cases of marketers getting things terribly wrong.

When I gave stronger opinions, you (readers) did too. Example: “From the Shocking Marketing No Nos Department.” When I published that piece, our blog lit up with comments and backlinks. It was referenced in many more places online. The lesson to me was: Speak up! Call it like you see it!

So after that I co-wrote an ebook. It took 9 months and was like having a third baby. Kind colleagues promoted it with social media (thank you Dianna Huff, David Meerman Scott, Peter Kim, Peter Caputa, and other colleagues).

Behind the Scenes Battles

One behind-the-scenes struggle I have is over topics appropriate for the blog. On the one hand, there is value in publishing about basic marketing techniques and issues. In fact, my colleagues at B2B Communications keeps reminding me that some of you may want intro material . But I fear you’re bored with the same old stuff like ”segment your audience!” “get the word out!” It seems like recycled, regurgitated truisms. (Who’s right? Please comment.)

Girl’s Dream Comes True

One thing that surprised me was that our blog helped us become a MarketingSherpa Affiliate. (MarketingSherpa is like Consumer Reports for marketers – loads of objective data that helps you make good decisions.) I think we’re the only one in Sacramento, California and surrounding regions. It gives us a lot of credibility – most marketers really admire Sherpa – as well as access to their material and the ability to pass along discounts.

One of their big decision criteria was around the quality of guidance we provide through our blog. They looked and said we were doing a great job. So the blog helped us stand out among much bigger agencies. It’s also led to interviews, invitations to speak, and other exposure with organizations like Forrester Research and Hubspot. Each of those organizations reaches tens of thousands of subscribers with their updates. The blog is also one of our top sources of search engine traffic and exposure for our services.

Most importantly, it’s sparked interactions with hundreds of small business owners and business to business marketers.

Keeping it Real

Still, even if we didn’t get the business benefits I’ve listed, knowing what I know now, I would still write a blog. Blogging helps keep things real. It makes me stay abreast of new data and ideas, instead of throwing up my hands because there’s too much. It makes me a better thinker, a better listener, a better writer, and a better salesperson.

Your turn

My hope is that, if you’re one of those business folks who has been blogging, but doesn’t know if it’s worth it, or you’ve held off because you don’t think anyone wants to read a blog written by you, maybe hearing about my experience will help you keep at it or get started.

Do you blog? Why or why not?

Six marketing gotchas CEOs can avoid

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

In a normal year, alot of missed opportunities can hurt sales. This year, they can kill a company. So it’s time to get deadly serious about avoiding marketing mistakes.

Are there patterns in the marketing mistakes small to midsize companies make? I think so. In particular, I’ve noticed at least six ”gotchas” when it comes to CEO-led decisions about marketing. In a new ebook called Six Marketing Mistakes that CEOs Can Avoid and a series of blog posts here, I’ll describe each one’s telltale symptom… and outline a better way.

Combining CEO + CMO duties

If you are going to be Chief Marketing Officer as well as CEO, you need to take the shortest, least expensive route to:

• Get found by the right people
• Start meaningful conversations
• Alleviate worries about buying

If you’re already doing all three things well, you win a prize: a pipeline full of great leads!

Sidestepping six marketing “gotchas”

If you are falling short in any of those areas, very likely you are making some marketing mistakes. In a normal year, those mistakes merely hurt sales. But this year, when it seems like every other company is either failing or already belly up, marketing mistakes can be fatal. So it’s time to get deadly serious about avoiding them.

1. Gotcha: Tactic Tunnel Vision
2. Gotcha: Hiring Specialists Too Soon
3. Gotcha: Awareness – The Red Herring
4. Gotcha: Push Marketing
5. Gotcha: Coordinating Specialists
6. Gotcha: Me-Too Marketing Plan

In a new ebook I try to describe each one’s telltale symptom and why it’s a problem — and outline an alternative route.

It’s called Six Marketing Gotchas that CEOs Can Avoid — and I hope to hear from readers in this forum about what I got right and what I got wrong. (The publish date is 6/15/09 but you blog readers are getting access early.)

Fire away!

B2C versus B2B – do B2B buyers feel more risk?

As featured in web marketing and e-commerce portal WebMarketCentral.com

Whether you’re marketing to consumers or business decision makers, you’re still marketing to a human being – right?

Yes — but decision makers may feel more risk when it comes to the average buying decision.

 

Perceived risk is generally higher for B2B buyers

We wrote an e-book that covers how B2B marketing differs from consumer marketing, called What Marketing Directors Need in a B2B Marketing Consultant. But here is a short version.

In business to business (B2B) marketing, a purchase of professional services may impact the company’s customer service, productivity, operations, legal issues, reputation, sales, and/or the bottom line. The perceived risk of a wrong decision is high. In B2C decision making the level of perceived risk is typically relatively low, because most consumer purchases can be returned or exchanged.

Purchase decision anatomy

Enquiro surveyed 1,000 B2B buyers to learn what the top influencers are in the purchase decision. They found that “respondents across all phases indicated that the website of the vendor” was the top influence on buying decisions. The upshot: if you’re a B2B company, get it right when it comes to your online presence.

Prospects are looking to educate themselves, do their own comparisons, and create their own short lists. Charts comparing solutions, suggested decision criteria, ROI calculator tools, case studies, testimonials, certifications, awards, affiliations, and executive profiles all help diffuse fear of making a wrong decision.

Agree? Disagree?