I went to a seminar put on by Thomas Register this morning. I’ll provide a detailed report of what I learned later this week. One presentation was on what TR is doing with the web and what they have learned, and the second regarded more general web marketing info. It was interesting to look around and see the number of people writing down the word “usability”, although there was plenty of material for a web-geek like me.
What's happening to B2B trade magazines
That’s an easy one…they are dying. According to this article, 150 have died in the last year, and ad pages are down 30%. B2B marketing is information rich, a natural for the web. That’s why I spend so much time in this blog discussing issues regarding my company’s website.
Improve your site for $200
Jakob Nielsen is the guru for web usability. Finally, he writes a usability article for us small-time marketers. When all your competitors have websites that are three or more years old, you can really stand out if you spend some time fixing things up. Your users will notice. My additional advice…listen to your salespeople.
Usability For $200 (Alertbox June 2003)
Who's in charge here anyway?
I just stared and stared at this paragraph because it spoke the truth, especially for me and my company. No one is in charge of the product, no one is going to analyze customer needs. It’s more like a tree growing, than an organism that has a brain.
Adroit Consulting – summary of presentation at BMA conference
We will be making the argument that in B2B companies Marketing should own Customer Relationship Management and assume a P&L role. Marketing is the rightful steward of the customer lifecycle, but in many mid-sized, B2B companies, Marketing is being marginalized and is becoming strictly a marcom function with no upward mobility path. Whoever owns customer data and insight into customer behavior has the opportunity to improve the profitability of customers. But with ownership comes accountability for that improvement.
In the email I received from his consulting company, Stan Martin also makes the additional point that by knowing the customer, marketing is better prepared to control product marketing.
A good b2b marketing laugh
Check out this company’s explanation of their name, Forced Potato. Read on and find out the even funnier explanation of their parent company’s name, Pempek. This is even too wacky to be called a Purple Cow.
Beyond the guestbook call to action…
This article from ClickZ covers some good advise beyond the typical search optimization, but suggesting you think like your client. The author does mention ‘vertical’ lead sources such as Thomas Register, too.
Things get sophisticated, though: When measuring, managing, and optimizing a campaign, you may want to set blended objectives that go beyond a simple “contact us” lead form or a phone call. In other words, for a visitor not ready to contact you, can you create another objective for them to achieve on your site that will help move the sales process forward? A download or a demo, for example?
A new directory to watch
I received a call from LabX, to get me to advertise on their website, which seems to be mostly a used equipment auction/classified ad site for scientific instruments. Our target market isn’t the ‘scientific’ market, but I did find one of our models for sale used.
It maybe a good way to generate traffic to our site with people actively shopping for what we offer. I’ll be investigating. In my mind, it sounds like another angle on the GlobalSpec model, but for bottom feeders.
Internet Marketing Conference
I have signed up for a conference on internet marketing put on by my local Thomas Register reps. The keynote speaker is an Aaron Kahlow, plus subjects like: search engine optimization, website development, internet tracking, and (of course) TR internet initiatives. I promise a full report after the seminar, coming up in two weeks.
Useful stuff for web marketing
This article gives you seven basic items to review to make sure your site visitors become leads. Check out the author’s weekly column on “ROI marketing”
In summary:
Message Must be Relevant (Identify the benefits and value your products or services confer)
No Jargon
Don’t “We” All Over Yourself (The first rule of online success is it’s never about you)
Keep It Need-to-Know (Ask for as little information as possible)
Help Them See It (Evaluate text scannability)
Qualify Better (Let visitors know briefly who you are, what you do, and what you offer)
Test, Measure, and Optimize
How do you respond?
We spend a lot of effort creating a website, but how much effort is spent responding to those who contact your company via the website? This survey and analysis by Boyink is basic, but is a good dose of reality. I’m going to add a feature to allow the sender to copy themselves on their request, which was one of his suggestions.