Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Sep 26, 2008
Red On Marketing blog followers, I owe you one.
I clung too long to a blogging platform that I could not get to work right for our business blog. You suffered through updates sans images - or even paragraph breaks.
So the Red On Marketing blog is relocating from www.b2bcommunications.com/red-on-marketing to http://blog.b2bcommunications.com — to ensure it is hosted on a more user-friendly WordPress.com platform.
We’ll move content and customize the CSS here to try to create a seamless experience and ensure a single access point for content.
Stick with me here. Pleeeeease! And thank you.
Andele! Andele!
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Sep 26, 2008
Some marketers I know sense, on a gut level, that the marketplace has experienced a significant shift in power. No longer are just vendors hunting prospects. Prospects, now, are experienced marksmen too.
What is your role now?
So… what now? What does this mean for B2B marketers? Should we change professions? Retool our company’s marketing?
Wait and see?
Fresh insights on Oct 29th
Laura Ramos, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research Inc., has invited me to talk with her on the Forrester teleconference “Why B2B Marketing Risks Becoming Obsolete” on Wed, October 29th, 8-9 am PT.
Among other questions, she will address:
- What factors increase the risk that marketing will become obsolete in B2B, high technology, and services firms?
- What is B2B marketing’s biggest challenge in light of these changes?
Worth 1,000 words
Having been to many a marketing seminar since 1995, I was impressed when I got the material for this Forrester teleconference. The insights are fresh – and my expectations were high. I’ve started referring to one of the charts in client meetings. And Laura’s graphic illustrating B2B marketing 2.0 is worth 1,000 words.
To learn more and register
http://www.forrester.com/rb/teleconference/why_b2b_marketing_risks_becoming_obsolete/q/id/5224/t/1
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Fri, Sep 19, 2008
Everyone is supposed to be nailing down their plans for 2009 marketing efforts. What should go in yours?
Let’s start with tactics to be wary of: Today executives resist cold-calls. People are using their Flash-challenged Blackberries to look at websites. And does anyone open promotional snail mail anymore? (Here come the angry emails from direct marketers…)
Other questions you may be pondering this season, and my ideas on finding answers:
Question: should we sponsor conferences?
… Should we fork over thousands to sponsor conferences? Should we pay $30,000 for space at that trade show? Or will we get through to people more often and for less money, if we focus on calling prospects directly? Should our CEO start a blog, or is that a fad that’s already fading?
Suggestion
1. Check out this blog’s Archive.
2. MarketingSherpa publishes a B2B Lead Generation Guide ($697 – sold out as of 9/16/08) that has data and guidelines that will help you make a good call on these questions. It’s got step-by-step instructions from beginning to end of lead generation campaigns; 150 case studies, tactics, and how-tos; 60 stats, data charts and eyetracking heatmaps; and 158 creative samples.
Study: B2B ad context matters.”
Question: is PPC a good marketing strategy?
… Should we take the plunge into pay per click ad programs or banner advertising? Can that really fill our lead pipeline and drive growth?
Suggestion
1. Check out this recent blog post, “
2. If you know you’re ready to add this tactic, you can find such answers in MarketingSherpa’s 2008 Online Advertising Handbook + Benchmarks ($397). It has objective data and samples that shows what works and what’s a waste of time.
Question: is email marketing effective?
… Should we switch to RSS because so much email is blocked now by corporate firewalls? Or does it still have the great bang for the buck qualities that it used to?
Suggestion
1. First check your email efforts agains the free checklist I’ve published, “Top 10 Email Marketing Mistakes“
2. Stay tuned for a new resource out next month, the 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide.
(price not yet available – probably around $400).
Question: why no leads from our website?
… Should we pay for updates to our website? Why does our website get a lot of traffic, but no one ever responds to us through our site?
Suggestion
1. Try to identify problems and fix them using the free checklist I’ve published, “Better website ROI: a 12-point checklist.”
2. Read the MarketingSherpa Landing Page Handbook ($497) for help rectifying any problems.
Question: scrap our website, or upgrade it?
… Should we start over to rebuild our website, in order to start showing up on Google results when clients look for us online?
Suggestion
1. Read the free article I’ve published on this, Effective Search Engine Optimization for how to tell when you’ve got a site that convinces human visitors and search engines that you’re the real deal.
2. Get ahold of MarketingSherpa’s new Search Marketing Benchmark Guide ($397) if you can (it’s a bestseller). It tells you what will work and what’s a waste of time, based on extensive research and with tons of examples you can copy.
Question: should we do webinars?
… Should we keep working on webinar registrations? Or are CIOs sick and tired of getting invitations to online seminars?
Suggestion
1. Assess how many new valuable contacts you gained last year as a result of doing webinars, and multiply that by the average value of such a contact.
2. Get a leg up with the MarketingSherpa Business Technology Benchmark Guide. It tells you what over 10,000 business technology buyers said and what 934 marketing professionals said, through 216 charts, tables, and eyetracking heatmaps.
I offer alot of free advice on this site… in past blog posts and the B2B Central area. But you may need more. The sort of information you’ll get in Sherpa guides can save you a whole lot of wasted money, effort, and credibility.
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Sat, Sep 13, 2008
There is a thought provoking sidebar in the latest print issue of Fortune magazine (Sept 15th 2008 issue, page 22). It’s about executives doing business email on Sundays.
The original article is not yet at Fortune’s site. (Does Time Warne delay e-posting of Fortune magazine content on purpose? If so, what a shame.)
Fortunately some of the upshots are summarized in Christopher Null’s post “Sunday becomes ‘catch up on email’ day.”
The thing that got me excited about the mini-sidebar is the distinction made in it between quality and quantity…
Fortune reports that, according to ExactTarget, open rates may be much lower on Sundays but that time spent with the issue is much higher.
Christopher Null suggests that,
“…for now it’s probably bad etiquette to start hassling your employees or pestering clients on their day off. But for more thoughtful issues like posing brainstorming questions or positing questions for extended mulling, Sunday may just be the best time to engage your colleagues since they aren’t overloaded with the daily pressures of work.”
Stepping back a moment, I have to admit that part of what got me excited is the fact that Fortune picked up this story. The insight itself is exactly the sort of thing MarketingSherpa brings customers in each year’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide.
The sixth annual edition of MarketingSherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide will be completed by October 2008.
But for now – since it IS Saturday afternoon – I’m raising a glass to a great little sidebar in Fortune.
If you someday spot the original article at their site, please post a link below.
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Wed, Sep 03, 2008
Enquiro recently wrapped up primary research, comissioned by Google, that shows business to business (B2B) ads ”relevant to their context” can be 30-40% more effective than those that aren’t.
The 6 pages of highlights Enquiro has posted about its findings in “Display Advertising – Does Contextual Relevancy Make a Difference?“ are well worth a read. Enquiro requires pretty painless registration at the landing page, then immediately returns the PDF.
For example, one of the pages shows why, “With Contextually Relevant B2B Ads, you are 28% more likely your Brand will make the cut and be shortlisted.”
What’s a real world example? Take yesterday’s post in this forum, titled Sherpa Cool-Aid Proves Nutritious. There you’ve got a B2B marketing communications story involving MarketingSherpa that includes a link to buy Sherpa offerings. Verdict: relevant.
Now take today’s post where we’re ruminating again about what works and what doesn’t in B2B marketing communications again.
Only today you encounter this pitch:
I do recommend Sutter Health, and this is a useful site, and you may well be in the site’s target audience, but… what is the pitch doing here? Verdict: not so relevant.
Still, Sutter might benefit because it is a big brand. According to Enquiro’s latest report,
“Contextually non-relevant ads may improve immediate ad recall, but only big brands can possibly benefit as offline brand perception and awareness are carried over…”
Enquiro’s results will be particularly useful for organizations already segmenting their publications, site sections, and other communications into narrowly defined groups.
TMCnet, for example, has added microsite upon microsite to target each hot button topic its audience cares about. From a search standpoint, there are clearly upsides to this approach. From an advertising standpoint, there are clearly upsides to this approach. From a human standpoint, have they taken it too far?
Then there are not-for-profit “good guys” who can make a stronger case than ever using Enquiro’s independent research.
National Public Radio has long been able to show prospective underwriters that their content gets and holds the attention of the business decision makers demographic better than commercial counterparts do. Now add Exhibit E (for ‘Enquiro’) showing an Abbott or a Genentech why they might consider credits during Science Friday as potentially more valuable than those even PM drive time.
Posted by Rebekah Donaldson on Mon, Sep 01, 2008
I think I bought my first MarketingSherpa handbook in 2004. I bet customer records at Sherpa show exactly when it was. But whatever the date, I recall being floored. I used up a sticky pad entering placeholders, and used up a highlighter marking key points. And when I'd absorbed it's content, I started viewing some of my pre-Sherpa work with chagrin.
Why Marketing Sherpa for b2b marketing advice
Since those earlier days, I’ve frequently referred to — and at least tried to apply — Sherpa advice in the context of every marketing campaign. I’ve used the Landing Page Handbook practically every week since I laid hands on it. I steer each team member to relevant Sherpa guidance during campaigns and projects. And I often ask clients to review specific pages of Sherpa content before I come onsite to guide them through marketing planning.
In 2007, my team started preparing for a 2008 relaunch of the Business Communications Group website. This wasn’t just a refresh. We were moving to a new domain, www.b2bcommunications.com, new site architecture, new keywords, new design, and new search-optimized content.
Throughout the project team members traded references to sections of the Search Marketing Benchmark Guide and Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide, in an effort to avoid any blunders called out in those pages.
Those were not our only sources of advice on what works – there were many others. Planet Ocean was another big one. But Sherpa was a major resource – a major influence.
Our site relaunched in Feb 2008. And, while it’s far from perfect (oh let me count the flaws and loose ends…), it’s risen in organic Google rankings (the free ones on the left of the results) to top 5 ranking for our top keywords. Today (8/29/08) we are #1 out of 290,000 sites for ”B2B marketing consulting company”. On 7/18/08, for the phrase “B2B marketing communications” we were sandwiched among some of my heros: Dianna Huff, BtoB magazine, and Mac MacIntosh. We were ranked #5 out of over 3 million.
But what about really moving the needle? We’ve seen 500% growth in warm unsolicited inbound qualified leads. And those leads are converting more quickly to sales than before the site relaunch. In one case, we got a project request call from a big 5 consulting firm after they googled the phrase “B2B marcom firms,” followed our link, and were engaged by our site.
If I consider just what we’ve invested in Sherpa benchmark guides, handbooks, and the value of business won since June ‘08 from web-generated leads, I’d say we have 9800 % ROI.
Project MVPs
Special thanks to Cris Rominger for applying to the project her bleeding-edge expertise on today’s best practices in B2B website architecture, usability, optimization, content management, and submission to key engines. Thanks to Chris Roebuck Lee for generating excellent design comps and patiently adapting and tweaking until we arrived at the winner. Thanks to Robert Celaschi for supplying what I view as perhaps the crispest marketing communications copy on the planet. Thanks to Min Davis for supplying a dynamite new business identity system earlier this year, including the logo you see on our site and coordinated suite of materials. There will be more of his work going up on the site soon.