Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Feb 13, 2009
By Rebekah E. Donaldson
If a prospect clicks your ad, does that mean “your advertising works”?
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What's wrong with this Adwords ad?
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Is a click that takes a prospect from a paid ad to the advertiser’s website a case of advertising working?
Google Adwords says yes. I say heck no. So I’ve posted an illustration of how I think we differ at our site, in “What’s Wrong with this Google Adwords Ad?“.
What do you think?
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Wed, Feb 11, 2009
Today we rolled out fixed-price marketing services packages — and have been asked by a number of colleagues why in the world we’d show our hand this way. Here’s my two cents.
Value is a ratio – it’s not just about benefits
Doesn’t providing entry-level packages with clear pricing attract the wrong sort of prospects?
No. The best prospects know that value is a ratio… a ratio of benefits received to investment made.
To make good decisions about value, they need to know about both.
Paradox of success
And, paradoxically, the better we’ve become at earning status symbols like valuable inbound links, speaking engagements, top Google rank, and the like, the more anxious our best prospects become about whether they can afford our expertise.
Anxious is bad. So our new packages are designed to provide an anxiety-free context in which to think about going to first base with us.
No fear
For marketing consultants, price is the elephant in the room. Marketing Directors and small business CEOs need to know fees in order to make good decisions.
So we’re calling it out. We provide killer value, so we try to have a “no fear” approach to information sharing.
This is the first published guide I know of re Sacramento marketing services. Am I missing something else out there? Please weigh in.
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Mon, Feb 09, 2009
Today Cris Rominger and I published a free B2B marketing e-book (550KB PDF) called The New Rules of Outsourcing B2B Marketing: What Marketing Directors need in a B2B marketing consultant today.
In it we discuss how the shift to inbound marketing affects Marketing Directors; the 5 essential traits your B2B marketer needs and why each is important; 10 questions to ask a prospective B2B marketing consultant; how to cut ROI guesswork; what B2B buyers are looking for; and why B2B marketing differs from B2C.
We’re hoping to hear feedback. Please weigh in. (Tip: to comment, scroll down to the bottom of an article.)
We started this e-book in the summer of 2008, and finished it… well… every time I open it I start tinkering. My file name for it is currently ”Outsourcing ebook FINAL v7″. But give birth we must.
My hope is that this blog post could work as a discussion area for the e-book. To try to get things rolling, here are some questions for you readers:
Premise: Changed marketing landscape
1. We argue that the marketing landscape has changed. Did we get it right? Leave anything out?
Premise: Specialization not enough
2. We argue that because of a changed marketing landscape, it takes special skills to see and seize opportunities. Did we get that right? Leave anything out?
To engage decision makers today, our view is that B2B companies need to:
- Prove their value through a strong business case
- Build sites and other communications vehicles in a way that fosters trust
- Pull in prospects
… and that doing it requires specialists in both new and traditional marketing disciplines. Still, it’s your B2B marketing partner’s job to see all the options and how they can work together.
Premise: higher bar for B2B marketing consultants
The e-book is really about what it takes to help Marketing Directors reach and engage today’s savvy B2B buyers without breaking the bank. We’re trying to articulate a standard to which Marketing Directors should hold us and other B2B marketing agencies.
Are there parts of the e-book you particularly agree or disagree with? We’re hoping to hear feedback. Please weigh in.
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Feb 06, 2009
To engage decision makers, B2B companies need to prove their value through a strong business case, build sites and other communications vehicles in a way that fosters trust, and pull in prospects rather than chase them. Helping companies get that done requires special skills.
B2B marketing consultant must-have qualities
If you’re a Marketing Director at a company that sells products or services to other companies, I think you need a team that:
- Focuses on B2B marketing. Because buying committees expect a powerfully built business case.
- Has a systematic approach. Because that’s the only sane, reliable way to project and get marketing results.
- Covers all major marketing disciplines. Because you need the right tool for each job.
- Excels in internet marketing. Because 92% of B2B buyers use online resources when looking for products and services.*
- Tests and reports. Because you need help to show others and steadily improve your marketing ROI.
Profile of an even stronger B2B marketing partner
There are other important traits. For example:
- Your B2B marketing consultant should be a trainer, because you need to build capacity.
- They should be able to bury you in proof of performance, because you need consultants to back up their fabulous claims.
These qualities are not on the list of ‘musts’ because building capacity is not job one, and you always vet potential hires. It’s hard enough to find companies that fit the profile outlined in the bullets above. Let’s not make this mission impossible.
We argue in a forthcoming e-book called “The New Rules of Outsourcing B2B Marketing” why these qualities are must-haves. I hope to post it in the coming week. (Yes! David Meerman Scott’s ”New Rules of PR” e-book inspired our book’s title…thank you DMS.)
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Thu, Feb 05, 2009
Fans of Cision’s Navigator newsletter and website can look forward to a new version soon. Editorial director Kim Roberts says we’ll soon be able to rate articles, access new sections on social media, and dialogue with article authors and other readers.
These days it’s called Cision’s Navigator. Longtime readers might remember when it was Bacon’s Navigator. By either name, it has been a place to find media news, profiles of media contacts, placement opportunities and in-depth articles from industry experts.
The new platform brings The Navigator into the Web 2.0 world. Readers will be able to rate articles and carry on a dialogue with Cision, PR professionals, and the media. Cision also expects the relaunch to increase daily readership of its free RSS feeds, providing updates on editorial changes in special interest communities including health care, technology, lifestyle, business and finance.
Experts in a particular field can contribute bylined articles. Cision is interested in topics such as media relations, the intersection of public relations and Web 2.0, press release writing, public relations technology, consumer marketing, branding, event planning, product marketing, search engine optimization, writing and speaking skills, best practices, strategies and trends.
But Cision will consider any topic, Roberts says, as long as it offers insight, advice or intelligence for The Navigator’s audience of public relations, marketing and communications professionals.