B2B Marketing Blog

In the “olden days”, a web site was part of an SMB’s collateral; you had one because it equaled credibility, or because everyone said you had to have one.  It was part and parcel of the main “all or nothing” goal of marketing; get them to call your phone number.  You were sceptical of anyone who came near you wanting to talk about Web Marketing because the ROI from your website was terrible.

Since the “olden days” Google has fundamentally changed the landscape.  How many of us recycle the last version of the yellow pages unopened when the new one comes out?

The study found an overwhelming number (85 percent) of business buyers go online during the purchasing process, and 83 percent found the vendor from which they eventually purchased online. Of those using the Internet, over 70 percent start with a search engine.[source]

So the new goal is to get found by Google through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), driving potential customers to your website.  Other tools drive traffic to your site; PPC and banner ads, email campaigns, link referrals, and drip or nurture email campaigns, are all ways to increase the number of visitors and eyeballs looking at your website.

But instead of just pushing these visitors to do what the brochure of old asked them to do (call your business phone number), a new breed of software – Marketing Automation Software -  is letting your website be much more than a brochure.  This new breed of Marketing Automation software, of which ActiveConversion is one example, uses a well designed SaaS based solution as a heart rate monitor, measuring which of your potential customers have a faster pulse.  By faster pulse I mean which ones spend a lot of time on your site and visit a lot of pages vs those that see one page and leave.  Which are so interested that they come back a second time, and execute goal clicks, calls to action, or fill out forms?  Which among your anonymous visitors exhibit the same behaviours, and are worth cold calling?

This class of SaaS based solution keeps a long-term history of the heart rate read-out for your website, they spot trends, show buy signals by showing historical click streams, and announce when a potential customer is worthy of one of your limited sales cycles, worthy of a phone call from you, instead of passively waiting for them to contact you.

Strap a heart rate monitor on your website!

You’ll now see the addition of some B2B Marketing blogs on the site  (right hand side of the website). These are blogs we regularly read and contain great insight for the B2B and SMB market. I’m sure you’ll find them of value, just as we have. We’ll continue to manage the blog roll as we monitor and find new and interesting B2B Marketing blogs …. Keep it tuned here.

Anything Goes Marketing
http://www.anythinggoesmarketing.blogspot.com/index.html
http://twitter.com/chadhorenfeldt
Chad Horenfeldt – The concept of Anything Goes Marketing is simple: Don’t let theories or best practices restrict you when it comes to marketing – specifically B2B e-marketing. We all know that in marketing, anything goes and if you don’t, it’s time that you did. Expect to find tips and tricks to improve your online marketing skills and some harsh comments for poor campaigns, articles and posts that I come across – beware!

B2B Lead Generation Blog
http://blog.startwithalead.com/
http://twitter.com/brianjcarroll
Brian Carrol – CEO of InTouch, part of MECLABS Group (MarketingExperiments, MarketingSherpa, InTouch) and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale (McGraw-Hill 2006) and the B2B Lead Generation Blog with expertise related to B2B marketing, lead generation and complex sales.

B2B Marketing Confidential
http://www.b2bmarketingconfidential.blogspot.com/index.html
Andy Hasselwander – B2B Marketing Confidential is published by a ten-year veteran of B2B Marketing who has worked with over 20 Fortune 500 companies. It aims to provide an unfiltered view of the craft from the perspective of a doer, as well as aggregating and analyzing major news from across the B2B marketing landscape.

Business-to-business (b2b) and industrial marketing blog
http://www.b2blog.com
Dave J. – I am a marketing manager for a manufacturing company. I started B2Blog to have a place to talk about the dramatic changes in industrial marketing. Because I am writing a personal blog about my professional life, I prefer to keep my exact identity and employer on the QT.

Customer Experience Matrix
http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/draab
David Raab – is a consultant specializing in marketing technology and analysis. Clients have included major firms in financial services, retail, communications, and other industries. Mr. Raab has written hundreds of articles for DM Review, DM News and other industry publications.

Duct Tape Marketing
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/
http://twitter.com/ducttape
John Jantsch – has been called the World’s Most Practical Small Business Expert for consistently delivering real-world, proven small business marketing ideas and strategies. He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network.

The Funnelholic
http://www.funnelholic.com/
http://twitter.com/funnelholic
A blog for those of us who live and work at the top end of the b2b funnel: Demand Generation, Lead Generation, Online Media, B2B Sales and Marketing, Marketing Automation, DRIP, Lead Nurturing, and Fun.

LeadSloth on Demand Generation
http://www.leadsloth.com
http://twitter.com/jepc
Jep Castelein – B2B marketing is moving online big-time: print advertisements, trade shows and direct mail are losing out against online advertising, email marketing, webinars, blogging and website optimization. We see new marketing automation tools popping up that help marketers cope with this change. But it’s a challenge to find the right tools: there is not a lot of information available online, and some tools are hard to classify.

The Lonely Marketer
http://www.lonelymarketer.com/
http://twitter.com/PatSchaber
Patrick Schaber – My focus for this blog is writing about and generating discussions on a variety of current marketing trends. Everybody wants to talk Social Marketing and search engine optimization. I do to! We’ll talk plenty of online marketing as well as other aspects of marketing.

Marketing Crackerjack: Lead Generation and Nurturing Nut
http://www.marketingcrackerjack.com/
http://twitter.com/cdubia
Carson Poppenger – Marketer & Founder – Urban Response, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Marketing Operations at Work
http://mopartners.typepad.com/marketing_ops_at_work/
http://twitter.com/mopartnersceo
Gary Katz – CEO and founder of Marketing Operations Partners, Gary is a visionary and thought leader in the emerging Marketing Operations field.

If you’re like most SMB’s, you probably do a substantial amount of your business locally.  Traditionally, people used local phone books or yellow pages to find services like yours.  However, people are now turning to Google to find local service providers, and therefore you’re at risk of losing to your competitors if your business is not listed in the Google Local Business Listings.

Google Local Business Listings typically show up when the user types a service oriented business followed by the city for their search.  A Google Map appears alongside with up to ten URLs including phone numbers for each business. Google’s Local Business Listings are becoming even more important since they are being displayed more often in search before organic listings even start. As a result, they often get most of the clicks from users.

Google uses Yellow Pages and other business directory information from third party providers to generate the basic local search results. If your business is already in Yellow Pages, it’d likely be listed in Google local business listings. However, the information is often limited and usually does not take advantage of the new features that are available on Google.

Here are a few things you can do to take advantage of Google Local Business Listings:

Create your free listing or claim ownership of an existing listing by going to Google Local Business Center. When you register your business, Google will send an activation code to your mailing address. You can also activate by having Google call your registered number and entering the PIN number displayed on the screen.

Include photos of something interesting at your business. This adds a whole new dimension to local business listings on Google Maps. Add as many photos as you can and a company logo.  Floral shops often include enticing photos of special arrangements.

Make sure you select the proper categories of your business. If possible, use keywords in the categories as well as the company name and brief description.

Take advantage of Google printable coupons is a good way to attract more business. Google allows printable coupons to be added to your listing. You can also track the conversion and effectiveness of the listing by adding coupon that are exclusive to your local listing.

Remember to review your local listings from time to time. Google continues to add new features to the local listing, like the ability to integrate YouTube videos.   Using Google Local Business Listings and its features will keep your listing exciting and attract more visitors to your website.

All too often I find myself talking to a marketer and end up in a conversation on measuring ROI for a trade show. We’ve all heard, or even made the argument around “waving the corporate flag, so we’re not expected to get a return …. It’s all about building brand awareness and collecting the odd lead”.  Well those days are long gone.

CES 2009

SMB organizations will spend tens of thousands of dollars on activities associated with their trade show booth, thousands on airfare, hotel, meals and entertainment, and most don’t even factor in the costs associated with having employees attending the show versus back in the office. Yet have no concrete plan on generating a return from the show. Most initiate a promotional giveaway at the booth in exchange for a scanned card and attend a conference networking event and exchange business cards. Having collected hundreds, maybe thousands of leads ….. Now what?

Fact: Leads go stale! You are only one of the many companies that a lead will have met at the trade show. They in turn will probably have forgotten about you, so a quick follow-up is imperative. Industry practice recommends that you follow-up with the leads within five business days of returning from a trade show. Reality is that most leads end up going stale as organization aren’t discipline enough, or don’t have a process to contact all of them in a timely manner. The other ugly fact is that some percentage of the contacts you collected were just looking for your promotional giveaway, yet you and your team will expend effort trying to contact every lead given no sense of priority or interest with the collected names. The likely scenario is that the team ends up frustrated and questioning value of their time as they make their way through the list and abandon the effort with other business imperatives taking priority. The end result … lost opportunity.

So what’s the answer? A Marketing Automation solution will give you the tools to address the lead base and prioritize those that are truly interested now, from those that are not. The remainder are put on a nurture program and when they display an appropriate buy signal, like a return visit weeks later to your pricing page, they then can be assigned to sales for follow-up. Statistics show that the majority of the leads will not be in a buy position within the first 90 days, and may need 3 to 12 months before they are ‘buy ready’. A returning prospect is seven times more likely to turn into a customer so knowing when they return to your website is extremely valuable.

The Irony: Organizations will spend tens of thousands on a single trade show, yet wrestle with investing hundreds per month into a marketing automation solution that will easily address the trade show example above and further allow for ongoing automated marketing efforts. With a Marketing Automation solution you are able to drive an integrated marketing program across your organization, while monitoring and tracking down at the campaign level and understanding your marketing ROI.

Measure your marketing ROI and understand where the true value is for your marketing spend.