Since the beginning of the year, I have been spending time watching, listening and learning all I can about new media marketing. The trend of using Web 2.0 technologies for marketing your product and service is certainly catching on. It’s really easy to get caught up in the buzz surrounding new media marketing. Blogging and podcasting and social networks are being tested and incorporated in all the consumer marketing plans. Getting your customers to spread the word about your product, service or company via reviews and online conversations makes perfect sense.

But what if you are a B2B company? How does all this new media marketing fit into your marketing plan? Or does it right now?

In a Search Engine Land blog post by Jon Miller, What’s Wrong with Social Media for B2B Marketing?, he discusses the challenges the B2B marketer faces in getting visibility over those writing about trendy B2C marketing and the use of social media. He states that “But to B2B marketers, social media is just one tactic in a portfolio of techniques that best practice companies use to generate awareness, drive leads, and nurture relationships.”

If you are a B2B marketing professional, you do need to become familiar with the use of new media in your arsenal of marketing tools, but don’t lose site over those tried and true methods of building awareness and generating demand. PPC advertising and other Internet techniques, lead nurturing, customer case studies, and public relations still matter more than social media techniques.

So add these new media techniques to your marketing plan but not at the expense of traditional programs.

Technorati Tags: social media, b2b marketing

Setting up a PPC (pay-per-click) marketing campaign to drive demand for your products and services is a cost effective way to advertise. Setting up the campaigns, identifying keywords, and setting your bid strategy is one part of getting the campaign going. The second piece that is critical to your campaign is creating specific landing pages that encourage the visitor to take some action.

As a B2B marketer, it’s frustrating to try and pry prospect information from those visiting your Web site. Most people want to get something for nothing - a white paper, podcast, software - without giving something in return. I understand that mentality as I too, won’t sign up for something unless I’m very, very interested in purchasing the product or at least entertain a sales call. Plus I relish the day I find just what I’m looking for without having to part with my personal information.

However, it is our jobs to get that information. The following are tips on how to make your PPC landing pages more likely to capture this precious contact information:

• Use a landing page - Sending people to your home page is a waste of time in most cases. People click on your ad because they are looking for something specific and your landing page should only discuss what they are looking for.
• Keep it simple - Cluttered, overly long landing pages scare away a visitor. They don’t have time to read a lot of copy. If there are too many things to do on the page, they’ll get frustrated and leave.
• Match the landing page to the PPC ad - Generic landing pages used for all of your PPC ads is a waste (like sending visitors to your home page). Make sure your landing page matches the specific call to action you put into the ad itself.
• Make the call to action clear - If you are trying to collect contact information, make sure what you want the visitor to do is very simple and easy to find. Put the form where they can easily see it as soon as they get to the page.
• Encourage visitors to give you their information - Make sure your privacy policy is posted and visible. Also, if you are giving something away like a paper or free product, send the link to the fulfillment in an email rather than including it on the thank you page. At a minimum, you will get a valid email address.

Other sources of tips for developing a PPC campaign and its associated landing pages:

• Better B2B Landing Pages - A Case Study - Modern B2B Marketing Blog
• Six Elements for Effective Landing Pages - Marketing Pilgrim
• Matching Keywords to Landing Pages for PPC Pay Off - ECommerce-Guide.com

Register for a free workshop I am giving at the Enterprise Center at Salem State College (Massachusetts) on July 24th. The workshop is Marketing Basics for Business Growth.

If your marketing activities aren’t producing results, you may be spending your resources on inappropriate activities. Identifying your ideal customer and reaching them with the right marketing activities can be the difference between a good business and a great business. This workshop will arm you with the tools and information you need to develop a winning marketing plan that focuses your efforts and drives business success.

Came across this great post by John Jantsch called Maybe It’s a Problem With the Bowl. These words ring very true. If you want to grow your business, you have to think big, act big, and change what you are doing in order to realize growth.

Your marketing will reflect these changes as well. You may need to refresh your brand, increase the quality of your materials and develop marketing activities that project a size bigger than you really are in order to support your new thinking. Evaluate your marketing and see if it sends the right message to your prospects.

Small businesses seem afraid to write a marketing plan. Not sure if it is because the owner feels the business doesn’t need one or whether it’s because they don’t know how. A small business benefits from a marketing plan as much as a big business, and maybe even more.

Defining how you will attract and retain customers and how you can accomplish your goals within your resource limitations (people or budget) is a good exercise for all business owners. Writing your plan makes the goals and tactics more concrete, enabling you to stay on track and achieve results. Create a simple marketing plan that is followed, assessed, measured, and improved upon as time goes on. Unless you are writing a plan to attract funding, the following five areas of the plan are what you need to proceed:

• Defining your ideal customer (target market) - Think about the characteristics of your ideal customer - what is it you like about working with them and why?
• Understanding the competition and what makes you better (differentiation) - There are a lot of people who do what you do so what do you offer that others do not? What do your clients appreciate about what you do? Figure out what it is and lead with that difference in all of your marketing efforts.
• Knowing what you want to achieve with marketing (marketing goals) - Write down your marketing goals and make them specific. Pick one or two that are critical and make them the focus of your marketing efforts. According to statistics, if you write them down, you are 95% more likely to achieve them.
• Defining how you will reach your target (marketing strategy) - Pricing, packaging and promoting your products and services is the heart of your marketing plan. Look at all types of marketing activities that would most likely reach your target.
• Projecting the costs of the marketing activities (marketing budget) - Putting together a quarterly marketing budget for your business helps you keep track of what you need to spend on marketing without it getting out of control.

Here’s a marketing plan tool I developed to help clients put all the details of their plan in a single reference sheet. It reminds you of what you planned to do and keep you moving forward. Feel free to download it and use it but please let me know how it works for you.

One point I continue to stress with everyone I speak with is to be consistent in marketing your business. Ad hoc marketing produces ad hoc results.

Just as you need consistent fuel for your health, your business needs consistent fuel for its health and future success. Fuel for your business is leads, prospects and clients. Without demand generation, your pipeline eventually dries up and your business falters. I realize that sounds logical but sometimes it just doesn’t seem to resonate with business owners. I continue to see them spend money on marketing tactics that are not well planned and result in a disappointing return on investment. This type of behavior leads business owners to believe that marketing is an expense that is easily cut in difficult times. Just the contrary.

Small businesses need to think seriously about making marketing a consistent, long-term activity for their business, develop a plan and budget and stay on course. It’s the only way you can continually stay ahead of your competition and build visibility for your products and services.

I couldn’t agree more with John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing blog post Are You Investing in Long Term Marketing?, where he discusses the types of seeds you need to plant and nurture in order to develop your business’s long term growth. Balancing the today with your investment in your business’s future is crucial to long term success.

Fundraising for charitable organizations is a marketing function, not one that I specialize in but I do know a few people that do have those skills. When you are running a fundraising event, using the power of the Internet and social networking can help get the word out effectively.

My colleague in Vista Consulting, Bob Rentsch, is on the Board of the Greater Worcester Habitat for Humanity and is running an auction to raise funds to help them achieve their mission to “build simple, decent, affordable homes to give low-income families in Central Massachusetts the opportunity for homeownership”.

Last week he found out that his online auction website was one of two dozen that is eligible for a donation from the company that makes the auction software. They will award a $2000 donation to the auction website that gets the most votes in an on-line poll.

Bob’s challenge - to get the word out about how to vote. “Friends and family” emails work, a posting on the website is good too, but Bob was searching for a way to get the message out to supporters. This is the perfect time to use social media marketing to communicate the message in a timely basis and engage the audience to help build momentum.

If you want to help a good cause, help get the word out as well. Plug the contest and send them to the auction web site link to vote for the Greater Worcester Habitat for Humanity. Some family in Central Massachusetts will be forever grateful.

There are two types of people: those who have something to say and those who have to say something.

I heard that statement in the context of people’s behaviors in meetings. Having observed many blog posts and their associated comments, I have to say that this statement holds true in the blogosphere as well. Some people have brilliant insight into a topic and their comments to a post are clear and interesting. There are others that seem to comment just because their feel the “have to” or to get the link back to their site.

Engaging people in conversation is a back and forth exercise of comments, commentary and opinion. In person it is stimulating. Via a blog it should be the same. In an in-person conversation, there will be those that listen and not contribute for many reasons. In the blogosphere, the same holds true.

I have not started leaving comments on other blogs yet (although I was tempted to at Matt Cutts blog post on his cat Ozzie). I will in time, but I’m watching, listening and learning the culture of blogs. I’m sure some post will compel me to leave a comment, but for now I just enjoy absorbing all the knowledge of people who want to share it.

Joining the conversation and sharing your knowledge is important, but it is also just as important to listen. By listening to what is being said, you will learn a lot about your customers, prospects and partners. They will appreciate having your ear for a while. Give it to them and then do something that delights them.

What do you think? Should you comment just to comment? Or do you listen, learn and comment when appropriate?

June marks the end of the Spring tradeshow season. Two of my clients are tradeshow bound within a week of each other and getting them ready with booth signage, updated collateral, announcements, pre-show mailers and show logistics deadlines are keeping me busy. And although tradeshows aren’t as popular as they once were, both of these clients are attending shows that focus on their particular technology segment and are well attended by their prospects. For an exhibitor, there is value in attending a show or conference if you plan and execute the event properly.

People attend conferences and tradeshows primarily for the seminars and presentations that are offered to educate the audience on key trends in their particular industry or discipline. And although they are not attending the show to purchase product immediately, most are there because an upcoming project requires they do research into vendors who offer solutions. The vendor exhibit area gives them a chance to meet vendors and see first hand the products and services that they offer. Attendees are evaluating your company from many perspectives. Everything you do, say and show at the conference is being inspected by those visiting your booth. You must project complete quality across the board - display, attire, presentation, demos, and marketing collateral. You get to make a lasting impression -don’t miss the opportunity to impress your audience. Take this opportunity to show them more about your company, products and services than what they can get researching your solutions via the Internet.

If your traditional tradeshow plan is order signs, book travel and hotel, and show up, it’s time to change your ways. Planning and executing a well integrated tradeshow plan that incorporates different methods of pre-show and post-show marketing will help you make the most of your time at the show and turn leads into qualified prospects. For more information on how to develop a tradeshow marketing plan that attracts high quality leads, read the article Tradeshow Success Starts with a Plan.

MarketingVOX reports that according to AdWeek, the Forrester Wave report indicates that the demand for quality web design work continues to rise and that it is not a one-time peak. This is due to the realization that the Internet is playing a major, central role as an information resource and your company’s presence on the Internet is being critically judged. Companies have finally realized the importance that brand and image on the Web plays in their success and have increased their budgets to ensure they stand out. The result is an increase in revenue of at least 20 percent at most shops working in that space. The largest Web agencies, Forrester reports, have seen 40 percent top-line growth.

What does this mean for the smaller companies trying to compete?

It means you must take your image seriously and treat the effort with the same importance as all of your marketing efforts. It is time to stop undermining your marketing efforts by ignoring your brand. There are really good designers and Web developers available that can work within your budget. Don’t assume that the cost is out of reach. Speak with a smaller firm about your needs as many are willing to work with you and help you get what you need within your budget. Seek out someone who can help you break up the work into a plan that can be rolled out over time. It is actually better to start with a good design and build on top of it later.