Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Why Most Social Media Marketing Fails (And How To Fix It)



While this commentary isn't my own, it's far too important to pass by.

Originating from Maria Pergolino, Marketo B2B Marketing, she reports that a staggering 86% of B2B companies use social media. Further, B2B marketing spending on social networking sites is predicted to rise 43.3% in 2010.

However, Ms. Pergolino believes most B2B companies misunderstand social media or end up implementing tactics without any strategy. To fully utilize the power of social media, marketers need to understand some of the basic reasons why they fail and how to solve their problems. Ms. Pergolino then looks at some of the problems and solutions:

Lack of Engagement Strategy

Many B2B companies understand creating content, syndicating content from places like blogs and following up with prospects, but many lack an engagement strategy. To become successful with social media, you must engage with prospects and customers or they may be drawn to a competitor who does understand the value of engagement. It takes more than opening accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. It takes an overall strategy to listen and build relationships with prospects and customers. You have to listen to conversations going online while interacting and creating conversations with these same prospects and customers. Intead of always pushing out content, ask questions or comment on others' comments on places prospects and customers frequent.

Relying Purely on Social

Social media isnt' everything. It's just one part of an overall B2B marketing mix. No matter the amount of planning or engagement, a mix of both traditional and social media marketing will produce the greatest returns. Share data in both directions, maintain consistency across communication efforts and ensure that your marketing and sales teams work together.


Monday, December 13, 2010

Do people look at banner ads?




Do people look at banner ads these days? Do people click on these ads?


Recent research by comScore finds that only 16 percent of Internet users click on display ads and only eight percent make up the vast majority (85 percent) of all clicks. So, if hardly anyone looks at ad banner ads and even less people click on them, are banner ads effective at all?


After running over a a hundred studies, comScore found that people don't pay much attention to ad banners, but this doesn't mean they aren't effective. On average, web visitors exposed to ad banners had a +46% increased likelihood to visit the advertiser's web site; a +38% likelihood to conduct a search using the advertiser's branded terms; and are +27% more likely to buy the advertiser's product(s). This research consistently shows that display ads are getting through to their audience and affecting their future actions. Not bad when people supposedly don't pay attention to ad banners.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Vertical vs. Horizontal Marketing




Vertical marketing is a term used to define a company's approach towards targeting that focuses on specific industries. For example, a CAD/CAM vendor might say, "We concentrate on the following vertical markets: aerospace, medical, die and mold." Vertical markets are most often identified using the NAICS classification system (i.e. NAICS 336411 for aircraft manufacturing, etc.). One benefit to targeting a specific audience is that it's easier to establish brand recognition for your product(s).

Horizontal marketing is when you you single out a target audience that shares other characteristics, yet can be found in all industries. Common ways to horizontally market are by company size, geography or by job titles. For exampe, you could horizontally market to manufacturing engineering and production titles found in companies throughout North America. Here you're less interested in specific industries and more interested in the job functions. You can afford to do this kind of marketing when your product has a broader application and it's less dependent on the needs of certain industries.

One way to reach prospects in either vertical or horizontal markets is to follow their feet and eyeballs. Get to know which events their feet travel (trade shows, conferences, special events), or which media their eyeballs prefer (trade publications, web sites, e-newsletters). For example, vertical die and mold prospects will be reading Moldmaking Technology and attending Amerimold. Horozontal prospects will be reading Modern Machine Shop and attending IMTS.












Sunday, November 28, 2010

Why Branding Is Important



Brand Awareness Is Designed To Generate Customer Loyalty


It is the choosing of one brand versus another. Brand awareness and identity are components of a strategy to persuade a customer that its brand is reliable and trustworthy. Branding is no longer just the idea of logos, color schemes and a company's tagline of who they think they are. It is now tied into the perception of the customer and what they think and say about the brand.


What does your customer think about your company and brand? It matters what your customers are saying. Customers are using social media groups to share their thoughts about a company's products, services and brand. They are asking where they can get a particular product and getting answers back from tweets to Facebook posts. Is your brand being tweeted about, posted on Facebook or talked about on other social networks? It's not what you know, but it's who you know in today's social media marketing.


Why did you choose to purchase a Dell computer intead of a Gateway computer? Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Macy's, Tiffany's, Target and other companies are excellent examples of having the ability to win customer loyalty. Building brand awareness is more than providing a product or service. Customers want to purchase from reliable and trusted sources.


The customer's perception is an idea that they have or do not have about your company. All too often, companies strive for short-term results rather than long-term relationships that cultivate brand loyalty. A company that builds a strong brand is better protected from the impact of competitors. It also serves as a way to differentiate a company or product.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Wasting Money On Search Engine Optimization



In a recent report by a Conductor, a New York Company, that analyzes paid and organic search strategies, they found that Fortune 500 companies spend $51 million per day in aggregate on 88,792 keywords but only 20.8% rank in the top 100 of natural search results. This means that 80% of the $51 million a day, $40 million a day is completely waste.

The study measures the maturity of natural search efforts in comparison with the pay-per-click spending. The study also examines whether investments pay off for paid search terms made by Fortune 500 companies while looking at the top 200 and branded keywords.

"It remains alarming that more than the lion's share of pay-per-clicks are not showing up anywhere in search results for their most important keywords," said Seth Besmertnik, Conductor CEO. "As a group, the Fortune 500 continues to remain largely invisible in natural search results."

While your company isn't among the Fortune 500, are you too wasting money on pay-per-click keywords?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Integrated Marketing


Companies selling their products or services to manufacturing professsionals face the challenges that marketers in any industry do: determining who, exactly, the audience is and how best to reach them. These hurdles can be particularly complex in the manufacturing market, however, because business has rapidly moved online, and many marketers are struggling to keep pace. Because buyers are gathering so much information online, they're contacting suppliers much later in the buying cycle. By the time buyers contact them, they've probably filtered out a few companies. They've extended the buying process deeper without asking any questions.


This shift makes in-depth product information more important than ever. Many times, you're dealing with an engineer who needs very technical, specifications-based data. Is it big enough; fast enough; does it cycle this many times? There better be good information for them - and it better be within your web site.


Most important, marketers need to drive prospects to their web site. Marketers should be using an integrated approach that incorporates traditional media such as print advertising, as well as online tactics with vertical magazine web sites and search engine marketing.


You can't assume there's one best way to reach your audience. Even within a particular company, you might have one guy who's been there 20 years and is not getting online when researching products. But there may be an up-and-comer at the same company who's downloading podcasts and attending webinars to learn about things.


Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Don't Gamble With Content Marketing



Most marketers work hard to create great content that can be used to create sales leads, drive web site traffic, promote brand, and educate customers and prospects. Unfortunately, not all content is created equal. To get the most out of your content marketing efforts, you should follow these rules.

It is not promotional. Promotional materials will neither excite nor inspire -- both critical components of content marketing.

It is relevant. Generic materials that are not highly relevant to a prospect will not result in increased success. When writing content, you must make sure it will be useful to the end-user.

It closes a gap. Content marketing should answer a question or problem. Giving information about topics where there is no need will be a wasted effort. An added benefit of "useful" information is its ability to be used in lead nurturing.

It is relevant to your company. If the content does not support business objectives in any way, it is a waste of resources. Keep business goals in mind when creating content.

It gives proof. Since you write to support a business goal, your content may seem biased. Make sure that content you create gives proof either through quotes and testimonials or through actual metrics and statistics.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

More Myths About Branding


Myth No. 3: Branding is just fluff.


Brand equity can make or break a company. That's the reason people will pay three times as much for a white T-shirt at Nordstrom's than they would at Target. Brand translates into bottom-line sales when done effectively.

You shouldn't deny that if you build a strong foundation and communicate it to the right people at the right time, you will attract just the interested customers you seek. A strong brand guides all the other marketing decisions that drive your company's growth: where to advertise, whom to partner with, how to price your product.

Myth No. 4: Branding Works Immediately

Prospects need to experience your brand multiple times before it sticks. You have to have it out there, present in all your customer touch points, before deciding whether it works.

Branding is about awareness and "mindshare"--the spaces you occupy in people's minds when they see your logo or hear your name. That takes time to build. The Nike swoosh had no meaning during the first many months after it was introduced.

Avoid the temptation to change branding every few months in an effort to chase quarterly sales growth. Yes, if you get feedback that things are not working, you should made changes -- but, hopefully, you will have put the up-front thought and effort into the brand strategy and messaging before implementing it so that only slight tweaks are required.


Sunday, August 22, 2010

Some Myths About Branding




When business-to-business marketers think of branding, often they think of just a logo or business card. Or they think of the opposite extreme, such as Apple or IBM, so they assume they will never have the budget to brand effectively.

Although dazzling branding is more than just pretty pictures, it also is something that is easily attainable if marketers put the right thought and effort into it.

Myth No. 1: Branding is Hard

Branding is not rocket science. It simply requires focused thought about what you want your company to stand for and to whom, and then what commitment to communicate that message through everything you do visually and experientally. You need to constantly be vigilant and regularly do a "system check" on your materials, business practices, customer service, and messaging to ensure your brand is clear and consistent.

Myth No. 2: Branding is Expensive

Effective branding can be done on any budget whether it's $5,000 or $10 million. The real key to effective branding is making sure that you have defined, in detail, your ideal audience and that your messages speak directly to their needs and the benefits they value. Consistency and clarity in messaging, not how much money you spend promoting your brand, is what makes that brand effective and creates loyal fans and evangelists. You may not be able to do expensive ad campaigns, but with clear, consistent, and strong messages, you ensure that even those three or four activities you can afford to do are laser-focused.

More myths with my blog next week.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Five questions for effective ads.


If you honestly evaluate your advertising using these five questions, if your adverting doesn't provide compelling answers, start to think about how you could change it so that it does.

Why are you bothering me?

Advertsing in an interruption. Your ideal prospects don't wake up in the morning, get out of bed, and say, "Wow, I sure hope someone advertises to me today." Your ideal prospects, however, get out of bed with business problems, goals, and things that are important to them. If your advertising doesn't grab their attention with a compelling reason that's important to them (not you), it will be ignored.

What does it have to do with me?

After you capture the prospects' attention, you must get their interest. You can do this by telling them waht the advertisement's information has to do with the things they consider to be important. Again, this is about what they think is important, not what you consider to be important. A tried-and-true way to capture interest is to state the biggest benefit or promise you're able to make to your target market.

Why should I believe you?

Decision-makers default to skepticism, not belief, about your claims. If you don't give your prospects powerful and compelling reasons to believe your claim in your advertising, they won't. If your advertising doesn't provide proof, get to work to add it in. My three favorites are testimonials, case studies and photographs.

What should I do about it?

Just having a phone number or website URL isn't enough. Have you given prospects a specific step to take to begin the process to becoming your customer? The key word here is "specific." Tell the prospects exactly what to do, how to do it, and what they'll get as a result.

Why should I do it right now?

A cute theory by many is that decision-makers will remember your company when it comes time to take action, even if they don't take action right away. But reality shows that notion to be utterly false. If your prospects don't take the action you want when your message is in front of them, it's highly unlikely they'll come back to it at a later date. Sure, they might file the ad in a pile of things to do, but the end result is usually that your message is put aside and forgotten. Your advertising must give prospects a compelling reason to act immediately. What will they gain if they do? What will they lose if they don't?














Customer Loyalty Matters - Part III



Three final tips to deepen relationships with customers, establish greater levels of trust, and build stronger customer loyalty...


What have you done for me lately?

One of the most common mistakes companies make is focusing primarly on the early part of the sale. They wrongly assume that once a customer is happy, that customer will stay happy and continue to use the product or service. Each customer's experience is the sum of every small experience that customer has while using your product or service. Ask yourself, if I were this customer right now, what would I really want in terms of product, care and service? Remember, your customer is always thinking "what's in it for me?" What you do (or fail to do) at every point during a customer's course of care makes an impression.

Never take loyalty for granted.

A successful marketing campaign will encourage buyers to try your product or service, but only good outcomes and an authentic relationship with you will keep them coming back. Customers' willingness to return to your company depends only partly on their need for your product or service. They can easily choose between other suppliers if they were not happy with what they experience with you, your staff or dealer channel. Never take loyalty for granted. Never underestimate the power and value of the one-to-one relationship customers have with your company. Customers return to where they fell connected, where they have a sense of belonging, where there is mutual esteem, where they are treated with respect, and where their care results in positive outcomes.

Word-of-mouth marketing isn't new.

Third-party endorsement or customer referral has long been a part of marketing. What is new is that the bar for what customers expect is higher today. Being good isn't good enough to get customers talking about you. Outstanding is the new good. Research repeatedly shows the quality of customer service is on the decline across industries. When you consistently exceed expectations, customers become "raving fans." Those are the customers who refer your company to other prospects.




Thursday, July 8, 2010

Customer Loyalty Matters - Part II




Three more tips to deepen relationships with customers, establish greater levels of trust, and build stronger customer loyalty...


Understand what customers are paying for,
We like to believe customers are paying for our expertise. Yet, most customers cannot evaluate our expertise. So they simply assume we are experts by virtue of our brand credentials. What customers can assess is whether they experience positive outcomes, if the relationship they have with you is meaningful, if they feel valued, and if they receive a high level of service.

Outcome matters.
Practicing good interpersonal skills and maintaining solid customer relationships ae important for developing customer loyalty. But what really matters to customers are results they can see, count on, and talk about. Customers might come to you a few times because you have the right product or service for their needs, but they won't keep coming back to you based on your business personality alone. Customers must trust you to help them. They must see results and learn something from you to make it worth their while to continue as your customer.

Integrity leads to trust, which leads to a relationship.
Integrity involves fundamental behavior such as keeping your word, being honest, providing a consistent level of service, and being reliable. Building trust requires a business to continually put the customer's interests ahead of their own and display a genuine "other' orientation. You demonstrate that by being interested reather than interesting, and by not treating every interaction as an opportunity to share your message. Without integrity, there is no trust. Without trust, there is no enduring relationship.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Customer Loyalty Matters



Customer loyalty matters as selling more to current customers is easier and cheaper than finding and selling to new ones. Loyal customers tend to buy more, more regularly and they frequently recommend your product(s) to others.


Here are three tips to help deepen relationships with customers, establish greater levels of trust and build stronger customer loyalty.

Understand the true purpose of marketing.

Effective marketing is in large part about building trust and developing relationships. The purpose of marketing is to create and maintain a strong feeling with customers so they are mentally predisposed to continually choose and recommend your product(s). Successful marketing also requires being relevant and unique.

Identify and build your brand.

This isn't just about your logo, marketing look or tagline although you should have those tools in your marketing kit. Branding that builds genuine customer loyalty goes beyond what the eye can see. It's branding at the emotional, sensory and gut-feeling level. Your brand is what your company is known for, how you engage with customers and what people can depend on you to consistently deliver. It's a compilaton of your most importan strenghs. Identify you brand and leverage it to see customer loyalty and referrals increase. Don't be shy about showcasing your uniqueness and strengths.

Tap into what customers want.

To appeal to a customer's needs or desires, you must first understand their motivations, values and priorities. Each customer has unique needs and wants. Being tuned in to what customers want and being sensitive to their evolving needs will help you become more resourceful and innovative over time. That is an excellent way to set yourself apart from other businesses and help you build memorable, lasting customer relationships.

More tips with my next blog.

Source: MarketingProf's

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Listen To Your Customers



Understanding customers' unique challenges and recognizing the solutions they need is an essential element of any business-to-business strategy. After all, if you aren't honing in on what customers want, you're likely losing them to competitors. Fortunately, there are more tools available than ever before to support customer feedback practices.

Listening. Conversations are being conducted about your products, your brand and competitors on various digital channels throughout the web. Develop a comprehensive listening strategy to hear what's being said and why. Use this data to help drive decisions going forward.

Asking. Traditional phone polls by customer services representives, sales people, etc. have evolved to include additional marketing channels, including email and social media. Whether through a Twitter poll, blog comments or a website poll, there are more vehicles than ever to enlist customer feedback regarding what your organization is doing well and where it could improve.

Analyzing. Much can be determined by customer actions -- not simply customers' words. Website and email analytics give a clear view into whether or not you are providing the information or solutions that customers need.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Want more web conversions?


Reduce your visitors' anxiety.

Quite simply, concerns about the quality of your products (or service) and credibility of your company can lead to visitors' anxiety as they visit your web site. Does anxiety emerge as vistors ask, "Who are these guys?" or "Why should I consider them experts?"

If your conversion goal is to get visitors to reach out for more information by email, a web inquiry form or even by phone, how can you double or triple conversion by alleviating visitor anxiety?

There are several things you can do to relieve anxiety caused by questionable perception of the quality of your products or service:

* Testimonials

* Third party ratings and awards

* Higher quaility photos if appropriate

* Satisfaction guarantees

* Helpful answers to frequently asked questions

But I'm still not too sure about your company.

As visitors want to know who they're buying from, consider the following:

* Clearly displayed phone number and business address

* An "About Us" page

* Third party press coverage

* Photos of physical offices and executives

* Associations, affiliations, organizations

* A landing page that offers thought leadership papers

Remember, anxiety is just on of the factors for improving conversion. Just remember the end objective -- to systematically increase your conversion rate to get a greater return on your hard earned search traffic. Rather than just counting numbers of visitors to your web site, adopt conversion principles and methods to relieve some of your visitors' anxiety.















Tuesday, May 25, 2010

The Sales Process



Unlike business-to-consumer companies, B2B companies are regularly faced with long, complicated sales cycles. Ofen, it takes months after initial contact to close a sale. This cycle can initiate online, but it will go through several different stages and forms of contact, many of which occur offline. That's where print advertising shines.

It begins with developing a message that speaks clearly to your prospects. That message should be integrated into both print and online communications, enabling one to reinforce the other. A prospective customer is logically more inclined to initiate contact online with a brand they recognize, such as those they've encountered through print and vice-versa online.

The need for brand awareness.

Creating brand awareness is a key step in promoting a company or product. This is especially true in the B2B industry where products and services are typically more customized and complex. A high level of customization inevitably results in a multi-faceted and long-term relationship. If customers are going to enter into that kind of relationship with you, they need to feel comfortable with your company. They need credibility...and so do you.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

It's all about relevance.



Marketers looking to optimize their web efforts must follow a recipe to become more relevant to visiting prospects.

Listen to your prospects and customers. Effective use of intelligence gathered from existing behavioral actions and expressed interest can make or break a web site. Marketers who establish listening posts will ensure that they're arming themselves with the knowledge to become relevant.

Automate tactics. Online relevance does not rely on chance. It requires data-driven technologies embedded with foresight and automation to trigger actions at precise moments in the prospect life-cycle.

Be relevant in more ways than one. Profiles change, intentions fluctuate, prospects are fickle. Relevance tactics must span both historic behavior and real-time activity. Customer profiling builds relationships. Rely on unique user profiles to increase relevance. Encourage prospects and customers to identify their unique preferences. This minimizes the risk of alienating them with misaligned targeting and opens access to more meaningful interactions.

According to Jupiter Research, on average, prospects visit three-or-more web sites during their research and 2.5 sites as they narrow a search for a supplier. For most, research starts with a web site visit, search engine query or promotional email.

Relevance tactics will improve your chances of capturing prospects' attention and driving them toward sales conversions.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Getting Relevant




If your web site isn't delivering relevant content to visitors, you may want to make it a top priority.


Targeted content drives activity.

Research show that content and messaging delivered with contextual meaning for your web site visitors (derived from session activity and historic profiles) constantly outperforms one-size-fits-all content. You can accomplish this relevant content by mining customer intelligence data to calculate buying intentions and identify web site browsing behavior that indicates a visitor's readiness to act.

Meaningful experiences begin with relevant landing pages.

Deep-linking visitors to relevant or customized pages within your web site is not only a good practice...it's a key benefit. Relevant experiences should start immediately upon arrival. This strategy minimizes the risk of alienating visitors with a difficult to navigate web site while it opens access to more meaningful interactions. Advancing relevance requires marketers to maintain distinct data profiles about their known users and marry these identifiers to real-time session activity...to inject content at critical decisioning junctures.

Segmentation builds relationships.

Segmenation ranges from basic to highly complex but helps marketers target differences between visitor types by collecting explicit information with every visit. Perhaps you try for a job title and industry segment with the first visit; a job title and company name with the second visit; an email address with the third visit; and so on.

Simply identifying with web visitors through segmentation provides fuel for increasing relevance. By identifying with what your prospects are searching for, you can give them what they want, when they want it, to ultimately increase your conversions.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Web or print or both?






Thinking about the difference between the Internet and print, I would say the Internet has vast, virtually unlimited, amounts of information, but searching, sorting and evaluating information is the job of the user. Print media presents a much smaller volume of information in each issue, but content has been selected, evaluated and formatted to meet the needs of an identified community of readers. That is what editors do.

While there are a number of web-based publications that select and tailor their content to an identified readership, they are relatively few. There are also specialized search engines that help users navigate in specific subject areas. Still, the volume of information can be daunting.

Print publications have the duty to be compelling, useful and current sources of information to lead the way to finding additional, related and supplemental information on the Web. Almost all have online editions along with searchable archives. They may also include directories of suppliers, forums, blogs, late-breaking news, tutorials and more. Whatever the specific functions, the aim is to assist visitors to find more in-depth information first found in the print magazine. In fact, the benefits of print are to draw readers to visit the Web.

A print magazine plops down on your desk, fits into your briefcase and beckons readers to peruse with focused, constant content. Print helps to take that same focus onto the Web to save time and confusion searching for related information. The value of print media is then increased by the Web, not challenged.








Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Pain Relief




Many times in a buy/sell situation, the buyer does not know what his pains are, just symptoms of the pain. Typically, he knows he wants to rid himself of the pain but needs more information to determine what it will cost him to do that. Cost comes in many forms: time commitment; effort to be made; or monetary investment to solve the problem.

Our inate drive to maintain our compfort zone directly effects how and what we purchase. Pain versus pleasure, similarity versus unfamiliarity, are feelings and emotions that impact most facets of our lives. How we deal with such emotion directly affects our motiviations to buy things that make us feel better.

A skilled sales person must systematically qualify the prospect to find answers to the following questions:

What are the prospects pains?

Can my product or service effectively eliminate the defined pains?

Is the prospect truly motivated to eliminate pains?

Does he have the financial resources to proceed?

Does he ultimately make the buying decision?

Many sales technique training programs emphasize product or service features. Potential prospects want to know about the features but first want the sales person to understand their problems, how long they've had them, what it's cost them and what they've already done to try to fix them. A prospect needs to do this before they can full digest any form of potential pain relief.








Friday, April 16, 2010

Finding The Pain



Earlier this week, I met with a marketing pro for a sales call. As we started our meeting, he talked about tough times for their telemarketing people. While they have been able to reach buyers, they're rarely able to find a pain threshold to grow interest in their product.

No doubt, our rough economy is part of the problem. I wonder too, if they don't know their prospect needs, how can they make a compelling offer?

Needs assessment is the part of the selling process in which you learn in detail what your prospect needs that your company may be able to provide. Needs assessment is a central and critical part of making the sale.

Qualifying a prospect is about identifying the pain. It uncovers details about the pain, the source of the pain, and the elements of the solution that can eliminate the pain. Many prospects have pain but do not know the source. It is also possible that they think they know the source but are wrong.

If you ask the right questions, you may be able to help your prospect find better solutions to their probems. If you do, chances increase that they will buy from you. In this case, you are no longer a salesperson but a problem-solver, a consultant, a real asset for the prospect. You are not only offering a product or a service but you are helping the prospect understand how to apply your product or service to meet the pressing need and to relieve the pain that may not have been fully understood before you came along to help.

Selling is really a painful process.










Monday, April 12, 2010

We surf the Internet. We swim in magazines.



If you haven't already seen this ad message, it's recently published in Sports Illustrated and will soon appear in many other magazines created by the Magazine Publishing Executives. The message is compelling. I couldn't resist adding it to my blog.

The Internet is exhilarating. Magazines are enveloping. The Internet grabs you. Magazines embrace you. The Internet is impulsive. Magazines are immersive. And both media are growing.

Barely noticed amidst the thunderous Internet clamor is the simple fact that magazine readership has risen over the last five years. Even in the age of the Internet, even among groups one would assume are most singularly hooked on digital media, the appeal of magazines is growing.

Think of it this way: during the 12-year life of Google, magazine readership actually increased 11 percent.

What it proves, once again, is that a new medium doesn't necessarily displace the existing one. Just as movies didn't kill radio. Just as TV didn't kill movies. An established medium can flourish so long as it continues to offer a unique experience. And, as reader loyalty and growth demonstrate, magazines do.

Which is why people aren''t giving up swimming, just because they also enjoy surfing.

My conclusion: Don't drown yourself in the Internet.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Long Live Print




If you're like me, you've probably noticed that some magazines are getting thinner. They have fewer editorial stories and ads. Some companies are moving out of print to online. Online, with the ability to track impressions and clicks, seems to be the holy grail of advertising. You only pay for what you get. Google even allows you to pay only when someone clicks on your ad.

Actually, print is where words go to live. The Internet is wonderful when you already know what you're interested in. Print, however, is the perfect introduction to an informed debate and to the deep resources of the Web. The words and pictures in print or on the same magazine's web site become the basis for searching, linking, talking and ranting for those with the time or inclination to do so. The Web is the friend of print, not its killer.

With that said, I believe print is a viable advertising medium, especially when considering a business to business audience. So here goes, my top five reasons to continue using print.

1. Audience - There is a business magazine for every industry and job function. Publishers spend a ton of money developing and auditing a targeted circulation. They continue to be one of the best sources for reaching a targeted audience.

2. Editorial - Publishers still provide great editorial and have credibility with their audience. This editorial is where your targeted audience turns to for insights and knowledge. Much of this editorial can eventually be found online, but print is still the initial source for quality editorial.

3. Availability - Many companies limit their employees' use of the Internet. Your prospect may not be able to go to web sites where you are running your banner ads. However, they are free to read business magazines.

4. Brand Awareness - The print platform still builds brand awareness. Studies continue to show that ads in magazines actually boost search engine traffic. Seeing a print ad often prompts prospects to visit web sites, or do searches for products or services offered in an ad.

5. Mobility - People still like to take paper with them. Just look around the next time you're on an airplane or at the doctor's office. You'll see people reading magazines.

In 20 years, ink on paper will survive as trust is still king.












Thursday, April 1, 2010

Seven Basic Tips To Improve Your Web Site



Web navigation should be flushed out during the design phase.

The back button is a huge indicator of bad design.

Don't be too proud of the amount of time visitors spend on your web site. They might simply be lost.

Users don't read web sites. They scan. Words are not as important as visuals.
Images, from photographs to videos, can bring your company's values to life.

Never say you've finished your web site. It should evolve. Remove anything redundant, outdated, or trivial on an ongoing basis.

Fixing problems in the development phase or redesign process costs ten time more in the design phase. Addressing problems after the release can cost 100 times more than in the design phase.

Finally, get top management buy-in to your web site by having them participate in the usability testing.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Branding and Search Advertising



Branding and direct response are integrally related, but they're often positioned against each other.

Search engine marketers are often focused on a basic direct-marketing objective: conversion and outcome. They measure their search advertising by direct-response metrics. Google and other search engines measure conversion. They haven't taken the time to do any research on what happened to the people who saw the company listing but didn't click on it. Most of the people buying search are buying clicks. So they haven't measured the brand at all.

Some online marketers forget branding's importance as a search engine marketing component. When they regard search advertising as direct-response marketing, they believe they save money by paying only for conversions. They don't realize how much greater click-through and conversion rates would be if their brands were recognized and trusted by that same search audience.

These search marketers believe simply being in front of a motivated buyer, at the moment they're considering a buying decision, is enough to help them achieve success. That's often not nearly enough.

Many search marketers believe they can pop in front of a prospect, screaming, "Offer! Offer!" A wiser strategy may be, "Brand, brand, brand, offer!"

Successful marketers know they must brand before they offer.

Branding occurs every time your brand is placed in the path of prospective customers, preferably when they're somewhwere along the buying cycle. You cannot expect a lot of prospects to come to your web site in order to be sold. You have to sell them around the periphery -- with print media ads, PR, at trade shows, with email blasts and ad banners. Not just online.

Ever notice how the number of prospects who query your brand name increases immediately after you publish a PR or article? How many more search click-throughs your site receives during and after an ad campaign?

Evidence of brand lift? Definitely.

If a prospective buyer hasn't heard of you until he's ready to make a purchase, you're not perceived as very different from your competitors. You're probably already losing.

If you can increase brand awareness, recognition, favorability and favorable brand associations, you will be able to increase the quantity and quality of click-throughs from existing paid keyword ads.

Reach your audience several times. Allow them to get to know you before you present an offer.


Friday, March 19, 2010

You don't have the time. You don't have a system.



I recently came across these statistics abut how frequently sales people follow up with their prospects. Frankly, the statistics are depressing.


48% of sales people never follow up with their prospects.
25% of sales people make a second contact with their prospect and then stop.
12% of sales people make three contacts with their prospects and then stop.
Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts with their prospects.

Reading further:

2% of sales are made on the first contact with a prospect.
3% of sales are made on the second contact with a prospect.
5% of sales are made on the third contact with a prospect.
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact with a prospect.
80% of sales are made between the fifth and twelfth contact with a prospect.

If you (or your dealers and resellers) are a part of the 90% who are not adequately staying in touch with prospects, you probably have a myriad of reasons why you are unable to do so. And those reasons are probably not because you don't know that you should. You're probably not following up with prospects because:

You don't have the time. You don't have a system.

As more-and-more marketers now measure ROI for their advertising investment, you may want to find the time and a system to improve your sales follow-up. Doing so over time, it will likely lead to a higher ROI.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

It's all in the content!



Billboard marketing is fine on Route 66, but it’s all wrong
on the information superhighway.


Your job as a marketer is to make it easy for your buyers to buy from you. But making it easy for them may be hard for you, unless you can execute an effective content marketing strategy.

Content marketing is the art of understanding exactly what buyers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way. This extends way beyond product information into the realm of best practices, case studies, success stories, and more.

Why? All the rules have changed. You will need to relearn the marketing game with a brand new marketing mindset. Those that can adapt will flourish. Those that don’t…well… think of the fate of the dinosaurs.

Buyer behavior has changed dramatically in the past decade. Your buyers are busy on the Internet becoming more knowledgeable about everything they want to buy. They aren’t wandering around aimlessly hoping to be influenced by marketing messages that arrive out of the blue. And they are not sitting around waiting to hear from you. They have no time to waste–and resent the onslaught of unwanted advertising messages. In short, buyers don’t want to be sold. They want to make up their own minds based on their own information gathering.

Understanding the New Breed of Buyer is Essential

Buyers today make their own informed decisions about what they want to buy and whom they want to buy from. Technology advancements, particularly the pervasive use of the Internet as a buying tool, have put the buyer in control. They can learn most of what they need to know about a company and its products before they ever contact vendors they will consider. By the time they are ready to talk to you, they will be armed with information about your company, its people, and its products. Whether you are selling Mazdas or industrial equipment, you need to use traditional media to build brand awareness, to invite inquisitiveness…to then drive buyers to relevant content within your web site.

This is actually great news if you take an enlightened approach to these newly empowered buyers. The even better news is that your company is empowered too–thanks to seamless and integrated technology that enables you to talk with prospects in more and different ways than had ever been possible.

Benefit from this new buyer behavior by executing an effective content marketing strategy

You know that prospective buyers will have done serious homework before they contact you. This presents a great opportunity.

Educate them about your industry, about possible solution choices, about best practices, and about the right questions to ask. Do this before they ever call you. In this way, you have already begun a relationship that will make it easier for them to buy. That’s what content marketing is all about.


By delivering content that is vital and relevant to your target market you will begin to take on an important role in their lives.

How do you deliver great online content that will attract and retain loyal customers?
That’s easy. Simply start thinking like a publisher.

What does it mean to think like a publisher?

When you boil it down, publishing is simple to explain:
• First, define a critical group of buyers.
• Second, determine what information they really need and how they want to receive it.
• Third, deliver that critical info to that core group of buyers in the way they want it.
• Fourth, make sure that your content is both relevant and compelling.
• Fifth, continually measure how well you’re doing and adjust as you go

For a marketer who begins to think like a publisher, success means attracting and retaining lots of customers.

Is selling to a consumer different than selling to a company?

Should you develop ads that are different and compelling to stand out among all the bland ads in their targeted trade publications…or ads with the typical copy points and photos?

Time to Debunk

This is a common occurrence that happens in conference rooms across the country every day. It's not that there's anything inherently wrong with copy points and product shots, but there seems to be a powerful gravitational pull towards the bland in business-to-business advertising. The reasons, I believe, are because of a handful of persistent myths that permeate the industry's thinking. Here are a few:

B2B is different. This is probably the most common misunderstanding—that somehow the rules of everyday marketing don't apply in a business-to-business context. Sure, selling to a company is different than selling to a consumer. But it's no more different than selling toothpaste is to selling paint, or even than selling wine is to selling beer. In each case, you're trying to win over a unique group of people with an existing array of preconceptions and a distinct set of needs. No two marketing assignments are alike, yet every marketing assignment is subject to the same fundamental and unchanging principles (see below).

Information trumps emotion. Anybody who has spent time working in business-to-business advertising will hear this refrain (or some variation of it): "Make the product the hero," or "Get right to the point," or "Just make sure it has a strong call to action." It's as if the people who read B2B ads don't buy Nike shoes, attend Cirque du Soleil, or shop at Target on the weekends. Or if they do, they somehow disengage the right sides of their brains Monday through Friday.

That's not to say that information isn't important, and especially so when you're dealing with purchases that can run into the thousands or millions of dollars. But the bigger the purchase (typically), the longer the sales cycle. This affects the role that an ad can be expected to play.

In most advertising—consumer as well as B2B—it's the job of the ad to open the sale, not close it. And just because you want your prospects to know something doesn't mean they want to hear it. At least not at first. There's a saying that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, and there's truth to that even in advertising. First you must demonstrate that you understand the challenging world in which your prospects live, and then perhaps they will be willing to listen.

Creativity isn't important. This myth is less likely to be articulated but still widely held. It's why ads in trade magazines tend to be riddled with bullet points. There's nothing wrong with making advertising for even the most mundane products tasteful and aesthetically appealing. Even people who wear pocket protectors enjoy a good wine, a well-crafted movie, or a beautiful piece of art. The prospect isn't a robot; he is your neighbor.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

"You don't know who I am."

McGraw-Hill Publishing created the following two commentaries way back in 1958. They still apply today. I've just modernized them with new illustrations and fresh endings.









You don’t know my title.
You don’t know where I work.
You don’t know what I do.
You don’t call on me.
You don’t even know that I exist.
But – I can make or break your sale.”

MORAL: You make more friends than you know – with print media advertising.

"I don't know who you are."








"I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s record.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.

Now, you want me to click on your link with my Google keyword search…
or link to your company web site?”


MORAL: Selling starts before the Internet – with print media advertising.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

WINNING TIPS FOR TOP ADVERTISING PERFORMANCE

Casual data reveals ad response is quite variable. Some companies report good to excellent results. Yet others say their advertising is consistently disappointing. Poor results often follow from the same basic mistakes.

If you're wasting money on ads, you can turn that around and make space ads work hard for you.

How well do you relate to the "sad ad" story?

Let's say, as an example, you're buying ads in a B2B magazine. You can pick from optional sizes and features. Perhaps you're buying a bigger ad or premium placement. You hope for at least the average response, though past performance makes you skeptical. But after the issue gets published, you don't get any phone calls and your web site traffic perks up only a little bit. You may feel disappointed or angry about wasting your advertising budget. You then ask, "Is there a way to win the ad game? Do space ads work for anyone? How can I get a decent return on my investment.

Winning the ad game.

What you really need is a way to distinguish your ad, to make your message more powerful. The way your ad is written makes all the difference. Great copy makes a visually plain ad more appealing and effective. It's the sales message that entices prospects to make a phone call or visit your web site. Visuals surely matter, but they usually can't deliver a persuasive sales message all alone. Take visuals out of an ad that has powerful copy and it still sells. To power up your ads, make sure the copy sells effectively.

Take a close look at any ads you've run, or planned, with a critical view. For each ad, ask key questions:

What is the selling message and how is it stated?

If you were a prospect, would this ad motivate further research about your product?

Do you see a corny cliche, slogan, or empty claim, but no real selling?

Does the message rely on hype or exagggeration?

Does the ad try to be funny but ends up silly, stupid and insulting?

Is there now selling copy at all?

Ask, "So what?" to every statement in the ad. Is the copy relevant to your prospects?

You'll soon see patterns of wretched ads for yourself. Often an ad is dominated by a company name and logo, when actually your prosects couldn't care less. They have a problem. They seek a solution. They don't care about you. Unless you're running a brand awarness campaign, ads should sell product, not market brand. An ad can only do one thing and do it well.

MY OBJECTIVE:

To share common sense lessons learned with 40-plus years experience in marketing, sales and as a B2B publisher.

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