First impressions count

When a new visitor reaches your web site what will be the first impressions they receive? There are just seconds to convince them that your web site is relevant to their search and that your company  could be a potential supplier, before they bounce out to review your competitors' sites. A professionally designed site is indicative of a professional company. Even the untrained eye can quickly distinguish between professional design and an amateur effort which subliminally conveys the impression that the company has cut corners and what does that say about your products? The other important  test is to convince the new site visitor that you can provide the product or service that he is looking for. Text that quickly gets to the point in describing your nature of business will be picked up by the search engine and will influence the decision to even go to your site at all. But having created a good first impression and established relevance and credibility, what will persuade your visitor to not only explore further, but to make an enquiry or place an order? 

We have identified five important areas of content:-

1. Explain clearly the products and services you offer and provide specifications and downloads where appropriate.
   
2. Provide reference to satisfied users through the use of third party endorsement and case studies that build confidence in your product.
   
3. Cite influencers - recognised opinion leaders in your field - who can provide expert testimony to your products and impart their credibility to your product.
4. Offer an 'impartial' guide to the market sector that establishes your expertise.
5. Provide calls to action that make it easy for visitors to contact you directly.

For many b-2-b companies products are not impulse purchases that are for immediate sale, but subject to specification processes, so it can be helpful to also provide information updates that both keep your prospects informed of new developments and keep your company name on their agenda for the time when they are ready to buy. News releases are a good way to do this and there are quite a number of options including eNews, RSS and blogs to name just three and at the heart of this strategy can be a Virtual News Office.

Does social media deliver for small businesses?

A recent survey reported by emarketer points up a gap between social media usage and effectiveness in creating sales leads for small businesses. The report also highlights an issue previously noted of the resource needed to operate blogs, tweets and facebook to mention just 3 from a rapidly expanding stable of social media sites. Previously we noted some possible b-2-b uses that some companies had found not only useful but effective - but to make it work needs a commitment and manpower resource. As a means for presenting a company's public face this is not an easy call when some 63% of respondents surveyed found social media 'not helpful at all' for lead generation and a further 13% thought it 'not very helpful'. By contrast just 3% considered it 'very helpful' and 9% 'somewhat helpful'.  On the other hand these are early days for small b-2-b companies  in the big social media pond, they will typically not be big brands individuals will rush to 'follow' either so both a reticence to invest time and disappointing response are not surprising .   Perhaps the best way into social media is smart repurposing of PR material that can be provided from an existing resource to gain experience and build followers and monitor results.

Do consumer marketing methods work for B2B?

There are probably far more similarities than differences between consumer and business-to-business marketing methods. One big difference is the size of marketing budget, so when new and inexpensive communication means are adopted in the consumer marketing space it is well worth taking note. It is often remarked that the Internet has enabled small businesses, through access to the same media as major global brands, to be on a 'level playing field'.  Whether small businesses enjoy the same visibility as their big spending competitors is another matter. So when consumer companies start claiming success with social media maybe it is time to discover what is working for them. Where web sites once caused businesses to clarify and detail more carefully exactly what they were selling, so the very nature of social networking will demand more openness - probably much more than many are prepared to concede. Businesses already unwilling or too nervous to publicise any reference to customers, projects and business initiatives will probably find this a step too far. In traditional public relations it is still customary for a press release to be minutely scrutinised for accuracy, legal concerns and customer approval for example. This can take some time. But Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter require not only a quick response, but a non-corporate one if  'followers are to be kept interested. So what is the benefit of Twitter when communication is restricted to just 140 characters? Well it seems some editors are actually asking for news to be sent this way on the grounds that if a news story cannot be made sufficiently intriguing in 140 characters, then it is probably not of interest to them. Twitter certainly offers a useful way of issuing not only news headlines, but also links to the full story which can reside on a blog or a Virtual News Office. It offers a far faster route to news publication than through traditional print media.  It can also be used for exclusive offers, coupons, discounts and promotions - the success of which can be measured. Other companies are finding Twitter useful for proposing solutions to customer problems and offering demonstrations. It seems with the advent of real time search and inclusion in Google search results, Twitter may be a useful addition to the b2b marketing portfolio. 

Client and agency ethics under strain

Suppose you owned and had title to a valuable painting, maybe a work by Piccasso, Rembrandt, Turner or Constable, does that give you ownership of the copyright as well? What if you commissioned a talented artist to make a copy of this painting you owned, would that be OK? If you tried to sell the fake then the police would probably take an interest, so when is it OK to copy somebody else's work you have bought and when is it not right? Whatever the legal interpretation there is a question of ethics. Because you have instructed an agency to design you a brochure, an advertisement or a web site is it ethically right to then re-use or plagarise the design. And do you have a right to the work in progress files that were used to deliver the final result? For example the deliverable maybe a stack of print, or if the client opts to organise printing, then a high resolution PDF. But does the client have the right to demand the Quark files and image files too? This does seem to becoming a more common issue and smaller agencies are coerced into compliance at the risk of losing the client altogether. Before the advent of computer generated artwork this never happened, because there were too many stages in the arcane process of moving from design to print for a client to either want, or be able to get involved. Many clients fail to realise that these programs are tools for trained designers that require a skilled user if the original design is not to be downgraded. Sadly some neither notice or care. Would they be so indifferent about people reverse engineering their products? But how about ideas, how are these valued? For small businesses there are neither the funds or time to protect concepts especially in the fast moving world of the Internet. So what is to stop a client picking up an idea and setting underemployed staff to create an in-house solution? Well, not much really so it is always a fine balance between pitching an idea and explaining how it benefits the client without disclosing too much.

Marketing a new concept

Many new products or services  have evolved from previous models, but what happens when something genuinely novel comes along? Inevitably customers will start off being unaware of the product's existence, so they won't be searching for it on the internet. They may not even appreciate there is a need for this product and so will not recognise any benefits at this stage. The first marketing task is to develop an awareness amongst the target audience that you now have a better answer to products with which they will already be familiar. This may not be just a better product, but a new way of achieving something. The next step in the process is to develop comprehension so that they not only know you have a new product, but what benefits it offers them. There is an educational job to be done now in either changing the current market perceptions, or developing a whole new market. Some innovations can change entire industries such as the introduction of quartz based clocks displacing clockwork movements and the impact this had on the Swiss watch industry. The music industry has recently had to face not just a change in format such as the move from vinyl to CD for the delivery of the product, but digital delivery through downloads that bypass the established route to market. As a pioneer in a new market it is important to identify and target the early adopters and opinion formers - in short those that others will follow through recommendation or imitation. This stage of the marketing task is about both reaching the right target group and in delivering the educational message in the appropriate form. These tools can be many and varied from seminars and training to strategically placed informative articles, press briefings and white papers. But education is still not the end of the story as potential customers need to convert their new found understanding into a conviction that your product is right for them and then to take some positive action in contacting you as a prospective customer. The Ralph Waldo Emerson assertion that 'build a better mousetrap and the world will beat  a path to your door' depends on your prospective customers knowing you have a better mousetrap and your location. And this is where a well planned and executed marketing plan is essential.

Are social networks appropriate for B2B marketing?

It can hardly have gone unnoticed that the Internet today has evolved way beyond e-mail and web sites. A whole new raft of applications wrapped up under the umbrella term of web 2.0 are actively expanding and opening new communication channels and the sharing of information at an accelerating rate. Plus a whole lexicon of new terms that go with it. According to Wikipedia the term "Web 2.0 describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs and folksomomies." 

Perhaps the biggest question to B2B marketers is whether phenomena like Facebook are a passing fashion - not long  ago the talk was of MySpace - or a genuine new communications channel they should be using. Then what about Twitter where communication  is limited to just 140 characters, or the professional networks such as Linkedin and Plaxo? Or of course YouTube. The next question -  recognising that millions are using these systems and increasingly through mobile phones and netbooks rather than sitting at a PC workstation - is,  are our customers using them anyway? Of course in the conventional marketing world ABC circulation figures and readership data would guide advertisers in the choice of media. In fact traditionally canny advertisers would not commit to a new title until it was established and circulation certified, rather than gamble client money on an unproven idea. Most SMEs are careful with money because they need to be and I suggest there won't be many with a line item for Facebook in their marketing budget, however compelling the opportunity seems. Using any of these appealing new tools demands time - either of internal staff members, or outsourced - and time means money. It is often assumed that additional tasks can simply be managed in house. The reality is existing staff should already have a full time job - if not, then what are they doing? It does of course require company knowledge so a sensible approach might be to work collaboratively, allowing a team  including external agencies such as PR, to deal with their specific job function but additionally using an appropriate web 2.0 channel as one of their communication tools. 

Future blogs will consider how social network sites can provide a communication channel for customer relations, news delivery, prospecting ad even sales.