Do offline channels drive online search?

Press Release authors love numbered lists - example "1o things you should know about marketing", or "8 marketing tools you must use".  By putting an exact figure to any subject there is an implication that if you follow that advice, then success is ensured. We advocate the use of an appropriate mix of marketing methods integrated into a coherent marketing plan, not a list to  simply be ticked off as done. This includes a mix of offline channels as well as online activity. Writing about market research is another fertile source for PR people too, so it was interesting that Marketing News Flash, an e-mail newsletter published by Industrial Technology, selected a statistic from some previous research to support the value of advertising in magazines. Print advertising  rather than being in terminal decline, according to the research is the stimulus that prompts 30% of all online searches. The magazine's own research found that "76% of readers prefer magazines to keep up to date with new products and information relevant to their job. 66% also find out more information from a supplier after seeing an advertisement in the magazine".

However looking at the market research conducted in America in June 2007 by iProspect and Jupiter Research, further interesting figures emerge demonstrating the importance of offline marketing channels in prompting further search online. Television advertising at 37% was in top spot, but hot on its heels at 36% was word of mouth recommendation by a friend or acquaintance, then indeed 30% due to print advertising in newspapers and magazines. Perhaps of equal interest was that the company name or brand at 68% was the most commonly used keyword.

Although clients typically report that most of their sales leads come from their web site, what is very important is that more than two thirds are searching for a company or brand rather than a generic product category and most of them will have discovered their awareness of the brand offline. So perhaps it is premature to move all marketing investment to the Internet. Customers are still strongly influenced by the offline world and turn to the Internet as a convenient tool to learn more. At Technical Marketing Ltd, we help businesses put together and implement marketing plans that develop the brand message, raise top of the mind awareness and develop compelling content that provides the information your prospects are searching for. Informed people then make enquiries. 

Image: iProspect.

Are ordinary user recommendations more powerful than opinion leader endorsement?

Although the company web site is today probably  the primary source of enquiries and sales leads, there still needs to be some stimulus for prospects to take this route in the first case. They need to have at least an interest in the product or service you offer. This could be prompted either by need or recommendation by a trusted source. The recommendation format provides a personal endorsement that has long been used in marketing. This could be in the form of testimonials and case studies  typically given by recognised and respected opinion leaders.  Of course the recommendation could be more formally expressed in terms of a written specification issued by a consultant. Most marketing programmes recognise the need for favorable reviews and work hard to ensure influential people are on message.  But now just as the Internet offers the promise of a level playing field for small companies, so there is an opportunity for users of products to comment on their experiences. In fact some intermediary sales sites like Amazon invite users to write a review and Trip Advisor has become an important resource for travellers to benefit from the perspective of ordinary people who tend to be less glowing in their reviews than professional travel writers.

Social marketing sites allow companies to conduct a 'conversation' with users who now have the opportunity to comment and indeed exchange views. This has the potential to be a powerful new marketing tool but demands both a level of engagement and commitment of resources that few b-2-b companies have yet recognised.

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Market leadership credibility

Information has never been more universally accessible than now, in the Internet era. Turning to the Internet as a rich source of all knowledge has become the preferred starting point in the purchase cycle to research product/service options and to become better informed before entering into actual price negotiations. With the old business model  an enquiry would be followed by a sales call where the salesman had the upper hand due to superior and jealously guarded product knowledge. However the reluctance to share important information that can influence that final purchase decision is still kept back, at least on many company web sites. Yet that information, that unique knowledge or insight,  is probably what differentiates one company from its rivals. It is what establishes the company's credibility. The authority it commands within its specialist sector. A typical web site will show the company products and offer detailed technical specifications that can be downloaded, but then so do all the competitors. There is nothing to differentiate one product from another other than price!

What too few companies make use of is the White Paper. A document which can provide the essential background information that sets the product in context to the situation where it will be used. Not only can a White Paper be a valuable briefing document for the prospect, but it also establishes the company as an expert in that market, lends credibility to them as preferred suppliers and potentially, as a valuable business partner. Prospective customers will see beyond the headline price to a company that can also provide useful guidance and advice based on knowledge and practical experience. White Papers can provide checklists of what to ask for in a product, which specification points are essential, which are not and lead the prospect towards a product requirement that they are best placed to meet.  This may mean disclosing information that traditionally been withheld, but may also be the critical differentiator that wins a new  customer.

News bearing web sites

Several years ago it became apparent to the team at Technical Marketing Ltd that much of the content for a company web site was pretty much static. The products, services and stuff about the company itself, didn't really change that much, or that often. What did change was news. 

News can be about company results, investments, acquisitions, appointments, contract wins and  projects.  Or new product announcements, exhibitions, events, market research findings and comment on industry issues. The problem we recognised is that the PR people who were schooled in copy deadlines, embargo dates and other timing issues didn't run the web site. The IT guys did web sites and often it was pretty low on their priority list as well. If they had to fix payroll software then it could be a couple of weeks before they got round to posting news items if they bothered at all. 

All that changed, for our clients at least, when we rolled out the Virtual News Office. With a VNO, stories could be published online as soon as they were ready to go. In fact every story can be published rather than end up in some editor's waste bin. Although our goal at the time was to provide a service that got company news accessible through the company web site we soon realised it was also getting indexed by search engines and because the news story actually resides on the VNO server it was creating relevant links to the company web site, in turn improving ranking of that site.

I have written before on the inevitable shift of emphasis from print to Internet as the place where news is published and consumed. The print business model based on advertising revenue and free distribution is under threat and many publications now charge for news publication and in doing so forfeit editorial control over the news pages. Not only does this degrade quality, but some magazines now resemble a notice-board patchwork of press releases. Whatever journals do they cannot match the immediacy of the Internet. However the sustainable business model for online aggregated news sites is taking time to emerge, as generally these sites offer free news and have no subscription revenue. Interestingly, in the industrial and engineering sectors, industry web sites that are mainly news oriented, or as someone called it today - 'news bearing' - are emerging as important resources for enquiries for engineers or architects. 

Because such industry sites contain so much relevant content about a product category an engineer searching for a component will most likely find the that site higher up the search results than any one manufacturer of that component. So what he reads initially is a press release that in turn provides links to the supplier. And online aggregated new sites are becoming more selective, only publishing interesting news and carefully monitoring how many hits each attracts. The most popular news suppliers find their news items featured and fed to Google News and other participating sites. So this trend once again emphasises the importance of news creation and news delivery and increasingly as a direct source of sales leads.   

Marketing to a budget or on a budget?

In these times of economic gloom sound marketing advice, based on research, is to maintain the marketing activity while the financial management tendency, based on prudence, is to cut marketing expenditure. 

Research by Harvard Business School has shown that it is essential to maintain marketing spending, even more so in a recession and to emphasise core values. “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain customers need the reassurance of known brands.”

In the last blog I talked about the importance of a Marketing Plan and closely linked to the plan is the Marketing Budget. As with the marketing plan - a statement of intent, a manifesto and plan of action - time should be spent on carefully building the accompanying marketing budget. Companies without a budget seem to be more easily tempted to buy special advertising offers and buy into all kinds of special deals than companies who have planned ahead and purchased at more advantageous series rates for marketing services that are core to the plan. Not only are the bargains not always appropriate but it is amazing how quickly the costs mount up and without apparent benefit. 

I have frequently referred to the engineering philosophy behind technical marketing. Take the case of purchasing a new machine or piece of equipment. It is regarded as an investment that will be justified on the benefits it will bring - lower costs, improved productivity, better quality. We look at marketing as an investment, an investment that should deliver valid returns. Just because there is often a significant creative element does not devalue the investment benefit. Equally there should be benchmarks and goals set that are measurable.

Another more subtle way of cutting the marketing budget is to cut quality. Where marketing is not valued by a company, then purchasing marketing services cheaply can be tempting. The problem with this interpretation of budget is that the downgrade in quality that usually accompanies becomes apparent to customers. They start to perceive the company as a 'budget' brand and lower their expectation of both the quality and value of that company's product accordingly. Interestingly people buying marketing services at a budget price might think otherwise in their day to day lives. They would probably opt for experience rather than trainees or amateurs and recognise that experience may appear more expensive but is actually the safe option. The same people that wouldn't let a student do their hair or fix their teeth will happily let a relative or man they met in a pub have a bash at their web site, design a brochure or photograph products. Although professional marketing advice might come at a higher hourly rate it can prove a wise investment in doing things right and helping the company build credibility.

Engineering marketing plans

When major engineering projects go wrong it is usually very public and serious. Bridges that oscillate, high speed trains that fail in snow, cars recalled for brake failure; problems where rectification can often be lengthy and expensive. What happens when marketing goes wrong may be less dramatic although there have certainly been some very public campaign failures, but the more likely outcome is damage to the reputation of a brand, customers going elsewhere and sometimes the problems are difficult to fix once the damage is done. 

Common to successful engineering projects and successful marketing is the importance of planning and testing first. Our technical marketing philosophy helps engineer marketing solutions that support and aid delivery of company objectives. Starting at the beginning of the planning process is the marketing plan. Very few companies actually seem to have one any more than they have a formal business plan. There is too often the impression conveyed that the only marketing plan is to repeat last year's pattern of expenditure - usually the last several years - which makes it difficult to find budget for new concepts. All at a time when marketing is rapidly evolving. The usual reason given for not having a formal marketing plan is lack of time. But what is the point in spending money without knowing why or having any benchmark to measure whether it is successful? We recommend not only reviewing the marketing plan at least annually, but also setting the budget that will help deliver the results and company objectives. 

Research shows e-mail still popular with buyers

Although a  much older marketing tool than social networking sites, recent market research by Marketing Sherpa found that "32% of buyers said email was their favored method for receiving product/services information, compared to 20% of marketers who believed email was a buyer’s favored method."  The research was conducted by asking a group of buyers and a group of marketers the same questions and discovering a gap between buyer behaviour and what the marketers believed it was. 

e-mail is  very cost effective marketing tool (particularly when numbers are high) compared with postal mailings, although these still have their place, . To some extent e-mails can be tracked to see who opened them and response action can then be picked up if they clicked through to a landing page. However there are a lot of factors involved so it is usually best to regard the figures as indicative not absolute. Experience shows that with a compelling offer people take action on receipt of an e-mail. So what can be done to boost that response rate? 

Well, the research yielded 4 main insights:

1. Buyers rely on e-mail more than marketers think.
   
2. Provide offers that direct readers to take the next step.
   
3. Personalised sender information can increase engagement
   
4. Appeal to buyers, personal not just organisational motivations.
   

Of course e-mail is not the whole answer, but used as part of an integrated marketing communications strategy it remains an important method for not just communicating sales offers but also explaining news ideas. Third most important motivator for opening an e-mail cited by buyers was "An area I want to learn about."

Who sold you this then?

Asked about his dislikes,  a person being interviewed on the radio this morning answered without hesitation, 'any company that offers a telephone menu'. 

I am sure we all have horror stories of calling Mumbai to try to sort out an account query and being faced with a series of options read out by a disinterested recorded voice, probably after you have already listened to some stuff about calls being recorded for training purposes. At this point you don't have any idea how many menu items there might be, or if the next one might be more relevant to your enquiry. So you repeat the list and opt for the most hopeful option. Unless you are hands free, this often involves removing the phone from your ear to access the key pad. Then you might get a sub menu - and even more levels - before another recording announces that 'we are experiencing very heavy traffic today and you are in a queue'. Some might helpfully add you are number 43, with occasional updates in between bursts of tinny music. And you may even be invited to key in a 15 digit account number before they will talk to you. By the time you reach a robotic sounding agent you are already irritated, more so when they usually are not empowered to resolve your enquiry, before brightly asking, 'is there anything else I can help you with today?' implying they have already been of some assistance. Worse still, increasingly a text message arrives shortly after inviting you to provide feedback on the call.

Today's questions are - who decides to buy and install these systems and does marketing have a say? Does anyone care what the customer wants? Oh and why so much interest in recording calls for training purposes?

It is very likely the customer would prefer to be connected to a contact, someone with both  a christian name and surname, who can answer questions or find out the answer and call back if it requires some research. Someone that is more interested in what the customer wants and not totally absorbed with post codes and first line of address before deigning to talk at all. Research shows that customer retention is far more cost effective than recruiting new customers. So why instal systems that show total disregard to building and nurturing customer relations? Creating a rapport with customers builds trust, confidence and opens the opportunity to pitch products that could be of benefit to the customer. Repeat customers who have a good service experience can be useful advocates for your business - word of mouth recommendation is a powerful marketing tool. It makes sense to make it easy for customers to talk to you - not introduce barriers to communication that give a poor experience.

Are your readers switched on?

Website content discussions have been pervading the internet marketing blogs recently. The use of video clips on websites is becoming more common and research in the USA is showing a trend towards greater response rates for sites enhanced with video clips. Video has been used for years very successfully for educational purposes; teaching computer programs, how to service technical equipment, how to prepare and bake apple pie. 

But video clips on websites, albeit more visionbite than expensive TV advertising featurette, are gaining converts – partly because of small, very cheap handheld hi-res digital cameras and YouTube links. However, as targeting marketers, rather than getting swept away with the latest web techniques and gizmos, we also have to consider our audience. There are many people who positively despise any movement on screen – even simple animated gifs can make their blood pressure rise – so they meticulously switch off all browser support for anything other than basic text, and with it your message. 

The sexy flash-driven websites with super smooth image transitions are works of art on suitably advanced browsers, but if you need to grab a supplier’s telephone number from their website en route using your mobile phone, a Flash site will simply suggest you download the latest FlashPlayer (unless there’s another basic site living behind it and a savvy server). Even time-honoured HTML marketing emails can get short shrift from those with options switched off in the dungeon of their mailer’s preference files. 

So although there are many exciting marketing resources available in internet-land, it is vital that both the message and its delivery method are matched to the needs, and ability to receive, of your target audience. 

B-2-B slow to change marketing priorities

This morning I was prompted by an e-mail article on business blogs  to look back at some of the early blogs from the time when this Technical Marketing Diary started in August 2006. Our blog was launched without fanfare, more as an experiment over 3 years ago, which already seems a long time in the life of the Internet. We discussed RSS which we had already been using for more than 2 years, but Twitter and Facebook were yet to make their mark. So it is not surprising that  blogs frequently discussed change - the arrival of new marketing opportunities and equally the possible decline of other more established technologies, such as print. Accompanying the Internet developments came an increasing number of niche disciplines and experts ready to advise and consult on the intricacies of everything from search engine optimisation and usability testing to social media marketing. 

But despite an avalanche of advice from the collective experts that the Internet is the place to be and the marketing task is no longer to stand out from the crowd in busy media, but now to get visitors to your web site and retain their interest, anecdotal evidence suggests for many b-2-b companies this is not the case. Display advertising in the traditional printed media is still likely to attract the biggest portion of the marketing budget, possibly followed by exhibitions.

 As a generalisation it can be said b-2-b marketing has been slow to appreciate the business benefits of these new Internet based opportunities and continued to support the established and traditional communication tools. As long as companies warily watch their competitors and continue to advertise in the same media and exhibit at the same trade shows as each other, the media owners and exhibition promoters have an on-going revenue stream fueled by the fear of not being there, rather than a realistic marketing analysis.

The year of video?

Market research in the USA suggests greater response for web sites using video compared to sites without video. Further, that investment in online video was expected to have  grown by 45% in 2009 and to continue at a similar rate over the next 4 years.  

Arguments advanced in favour of adding video to web sites are that the medium of video has the power to engage visitors quickly and to effectively introduce a proposition and lead them into the web site to discover more, or to contact the company directly. With the popularity of sites such as YouTube many web site visitors can be expected to express a preference for video content over text and images alone. It is argued that online video offers the same benefits achieved by TV advertising with the added benefit of tracking response using web analytics. And how often do you see TV text and graphics only commercials. Now the technology allows video to be integrated remaining competitive will require companies to develop this within their marketing plans.

Clearly video has enormous scope, not just to promote interest in products and services, but also to provide instruction and demonstration of how things work. However it is unlikely many businesses will have budgeted or planned for producing video content. Although it is relatively easy to produce video footage, what may be acceptable for news stories will lack the quality to make a key statement on the home page of the company web site. Presentation and editing call for professional quality. A scene setting video should not be too long either - 45 seconds at the most. At the end of the video it is useful to include a call to action and indicate the path to follow to explore the web site.

Press release work for social media too

Although press releases lack the newness and novelty of social media what is basically an old idea actually works well in these new communication channels. In fact the news content is no longer just for the press as an intermediary but can be aimed straight at customers and prospects.

The old model of writing a press release and distributing to the traditional press list has changed only slightly in so far as the method of delivery is by e-mail rather than posting out printed releases and glossy photos. From this point on selection for publication remains within the decision of the editor. But the web enables press releases to be sent directly to anyone and also offers the opportunity for comment. 

The most established of new options is the blog. This can afford to be less formal than a press release allowing the news content to be addressed directly to the reader rather than aiming to grab the attention of an editor or journalist. 

RSS has also been around for a while and is really a neat solution that provides headlines and opening text of recent news items allowing readers to keep informed quickly and easily of news streams that interest them.

For those for whom even this is too much, then Twitter provides a useful medium to publish just headlines or short links to longer stories. And if followers like the story they can 're-tweet' to their followers.

Let's not ignore putting news on your own web site as well - a Virtual News Office provides a great solution and includes RSS as an option and eNews as an additional communication channel.

 

Not only does this multiple approach give readers plenty of options to choose from but it also leaves a trail of activity across the web that will assist with search engine ratings. To discover more about how these powerful web based strategies can help promote your business, contact Technical Marketing Ltd.

Press Releases are good for search

A recent article titled, How Press Releases can be great for search, provides important endorsement for the value of online press releases - not only for conveying their own intrinsic news message, but the benefit derived from driving web site traffic and search. The article draws on case studies that demonstrate increases in web site traffic following a news release. The point is made that journalists are actually searching the web for news and advise that " you're out there where the journalists are looking." Another important item of advice from the article is "to include your press releases on your own site". " Your site should have a section for press releases".

We have been operating Virtual News Offices for clients for several years now and discovered the benefits of search early on for news content. Because the VNO is integrated with the client web site but hosted on our own news server, not only does this provide searchable content, but all important in-bound and highly relevant links to the client web site. News stories often provide useful search results for alternative terms. For example a press release about a company's role in a new project may be discovered by search on the project name. Say this is a prestigious new building that interests architects, then your company could well be identified as a potential supplier for work they are commissioned to do. Or if the press release is about an upcoming event, again your listing will be found when searching for details of that event. 

When it comes to content marketing, then news is an important tool that is a regular source of new content. To learn more about Virtual News Offices, you can download a PDF Guide.

Looking back at marketing in 2009

Looking back across Technical  Marketing Diary blogs in 2009 certain themes can be seen to emerge, in a year that was one of unrelieved economic gloom and one still with no obvious signs of recovery. An early theme was a reminder that cutting marketing budgets was probably the worst thing to do. But true to form that is what many businesses did. Despite well documented evidence from previous and arguably less deep recessions, marketing budgets were cut simply because it is both easy and does not involve cutting staff. Feeling the crunch were the publishers of printed media in a long running print v online debate. The fact is that in the b-2-b world advertising has been leaking away from display media in print to pay for other marketing activities for years and despite predictions of the end of the printed word a significant number of publications still operate. Of course print has evolved too, both in the technology of CTP and mass customisation that offers interesting new cost effective mailing tools to marketers. In terms of company literature few companies are bothering to print data sheets and technical documentation, leaving it to customers to download and print them. Is this an acknowledgment that sellers have kind of lost control of the buying/selling process? Such small details as the presentation of company material, nicely printed and packaged is switching to data output on someone else's cheap ink jet printer. Because the advantage in evaluating purchase options has shifted to the buyer, it becomes essential that the information on which your product or service is being judged is accessible, easy to use and clearly presenting the benefits - i.e. what's in it for them.

 In general online news publication has remained free and supported by an advertising model rather than moving to a subscription service. However expect this to change for the big news organisations that have reporting staff to support unlike many b-2-b publishers that simply publish, at a price, news supplied to them. In the b-2-b sector any business can publish their own news, both directly through their own web site and on industry web sites. Content whether in print or online remains a crucial marketing tool. 

Probably the most interesting Internet marketing development is the rise of social media. It is a topic that has echoes throughout the year. Will, what some consumer marketers are apparently successfully achieving by joining the 'conversation' with consumers work in the b-2-b space? There are certainly some enthusiastic advocates and blogs, Twitter and Faceboook offer interesting possibilities. But as with anything else, the company needs to commit resource and effort to get a return and this may best be achieved through an external marketing agency.

As 2009 draws to a close with the coldest pre-Christmas weather for years in Britain, Europe and North  America with heavy falls of snow causing traffic chaos, spare a thought for the people marketing global warming in the face of contrary indications. Maybe 2010 will be the year when environmental and green issues become more popular in industrial marketing too. We noted that some industrial magazines are planning 'green' issues for the new year and suggesting what product features would render a product green. Perhaps the trick is to use these green credentials as part of the social media conversation.

Saying what you mean

Estate agents were at one time renowned for the ability to describe properties that others would consider a ruin, or tiny with such glowingly positive descriptions as 'has great potential' or 'charming bijou residence ideally located for shops/school/station'. Legislation was introduced to limit the flamboyant descriptions to have greater affinity with reality.  Marketing and PR however are not exempt from generous descriptions of their client's products. Outrageously high ticket items might be described as 'reassuringly expensive' to allay any concern that the published price is an error and to hint at a delicious sense of exclusivity. One company preferred to describe products as 'inspiringly priced' to pre-empt price objections and eliminate the risk of bargain hunters thinking they were going to get a budget priced product. One blog this week obviously felt the need to provide a series of translations for advertising agency speak. Examples of agency code speak include, 'the product as hero is old hat' and 'it blew their minds in research' translating to, 'we think the product is crap' and 'consumers think the product is crap too'. Other codes are budget related - 'it's highly campaignable' translates to 'we can make even more in production' and 'it'll work in the press' as code for 'they can't afford television'. Then there are engineers writing sales copy. They are not all as extreme as a public lecture given a few years ago by an eminent scientist whose opening line was reported as, 'let me start by assuming everyone is familiar with double differential integration'. But in general few buyers are actually interested in whether the product is a marvel of engineering excellence, instead they prefer to know that it works, is reliable and if necessary can be fixed easily if it goes wrong. Most of all they want to know what is in it for them? In short why would they consider buying the product? That's where marketing is essential, not only to ensure that the product was developed to meet a market need in the first place, but to explain in simple terms why it will enrich their lives. Working in partnership with a technical marketing agency that can speak engineering and marketing language is something that many successful businesses have recognised - and one of the reasons they are successful.

Marketers as publishers

Content Marketing, the subject of the previous blog, discussed how the Internet had moved in favour of marketers to the detriment of media owners. During the current recession there have been many job losses in journalism and a trend towards journalists working on a freelance basis and delivering their work via a blog rather than submission to a sub editor. But the media still has an important role to play. Although a company can now publish anything it likes on line, there is still a need to apply some basic criteria to judge the value of the content. For example, is the story actually news, something that the target audience will find of interest? Matters the company may find all consuming might appear as irrelevant internal politics to readers. Is the story written in a style that is clear, consistent and authoritative? Is there a persistent theme through all stories that uniquely positions the company in its market sector? In short there is expertise required in dealing with these and other issues best dealt with by a PR specialist. So while actually writing the piece has its own challenges reaching the target audience is still an area where the traditional media has an advantage. It is far easier to pick up a magazine or visit a web site that covers the whole industry than visit various company web sites. There is also the question of independence and objectivity. Readers of trade publications are used to the benefits of news aggregation and will place more credibility on stories that appear in their pages than those in a company specific publication. It is better to use company published news to impart expertise that is not easily found elsewhere and establishes their credentials in a market. So although there are many tools available for the self publisher, to be successful they should be deployed as part of an integrated marketing strategy. This is where the experience of a marketing agency can be a good investment, to take an independent view, mix traditional and new media into a cohesive programme that delivers results at a number of levels. Technical Marketing Ltd has years of experience in developing and implementing integrated marketing communications plans that provide the right balance by selecting from the tools available and tailoring to each company's unique situation.

Content marketing

Many companies will have gone through several iterations of their web site over the years, but how many have really revisited the content? Too often it is the same material in a new wrapper. In the Internet era so much has changed, much of it in the favour of b-2-b companies  and away from traditional media owners. Company information pre-Internet took a number of well established routes to reach customers and prospects - advertising, press releases, exhibitions, mail shots and brochures - and still does. Pretty much all of this can now be done online, although arguably not the face-to-face experience of exhibitions in quite the same way. Companies used advertising in publications to reach their target audience by selecting magazines with the relevant readership profile because this was the only way. The magazines built the readership by providing fresh content each month through a mix of reporting, features and by editing press announcements. Generally both traditional media publishers and company marketing people have been slow to recognise that everyone can be a publisher now. Think about the most common question customers ask when you see them on an exhibition stand or when making a sales call - "tell me what is new."  Showing a new product or service is what salesmen use to get an appointment, it is a door opener. Now think about the company web site. Does this highlight what is new? Many do not. Just as customers are reluctant to see a salesmen without something new to say, so web sites need to be constantly evolving to retain the interest of returning visitors. You may not always have new products, but you can have something new to say about them and visitors need to know this once they reach your site. Little details such as displaying the current date rather than saying last updated 2007 are simple clues that the site is regularly maintained and the product information is likely to be up to date as well. That is why we advocate putting news right there on the entry page. Not only does it show there is content that they have not seen before and is worth looking at, but indicates the site is being kept current. You would not pick up a magazine you had read before would you? So marketing content is essential these days.  A simple answer is to add a Virtual News Office linked to your site with RSS feeds and teleprinter style headlines on the home page.

Who owns news content?

With the means of publishing news shifting from print to the Internet there are new challenges to copyright, no doubt ultimately motivated by the value attributed to content and how access is charged or funded. But while few b-2-b businesses will  be selling news through their own newspapers, magazines or web sites, legal rulings on copyright could still have an impact on what they can do. While major organisations challenge copyright laws to publish books online, copying news published about the company itself, providing links, headlines and extracts is also coming under the scrutiny of organisations seeking to extract  a licensing fee.

 Related to this is the concept of subscribing to news resources. We have become used to free access to news online and the rise of free newspapers. Recently the London Evening Standard decided to become a free newspaper with the result that the existing free circulation evening papers folded. Meanwhile reacting to declining advertising revenues News International outlined proposals to charge for access to their news web sites. So the business models are being revisited. The issues surrounding copyright of news has also recently been highlighted by the aggressive sales methods adopted by an organisation operating on behalf of newspapers publishers and pursuing b-2-b companies to take up licenses.

From the other end of the news process consider how most businesses create news. In short the news item is written by the company itself, or by a PR agency acting on their behalf and issued as press releases or articles that are submitted to journals for consideration to publish. Few trade journals actually employ journalists to write content, but use managing editors who fill a large part of the editorial content selected from press releases. So the company or PR agency may feel they retain ownership of the copyright especially if they pay for publication, which is increasingly the case. Providing copies of published news as a service to clients might therefore seem entirely reasonable. But it is in this very area where demands for a license to do so are being made. The Newspaper Licensing Agency  advises that PR agencies providing press clippings to their client require a license to do this. Furthermore access via web links appears to fall within the scope as well. Not surprisingly this has given rise to debate within the PR and indeed wider web community, right up to the likes of search engines that pick up and publish extracts from online news in the search results and also of course provide links. Expect to hear more about this complex subject.

Green marketing industrial products

Green marketing suddenly arrived on the agenda for some clients this week. But what does green marketing mean in the b-2-b space?

Industrial Technology magazine has just invited editorial submissions for a special issue 'dedicated to "green" technologies' scheduled for January. Bidding for government or public sector work may require compliance with ISO 14001 and the ability to demonstrate compliance with various 'green' issues for one client. Another client  released news of its 'green credentials' last week. So what is 'green marketing'? 'According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.' 

The thing is 'green' issues can embrace a whole gamut of activities and there is plenty of confusion with environmental issues, sustainability, renewables, carbon footprints, energy-saving, recycling, eco issues, organic and other socially responsible activities.

 

Of course  many of these initiatives are not new but collectively they do seem to be progressing up the marketing agenda. So how should b-2-b businesses present green issues? The presumption is that green marketing is a good thing, but as with any other marketing initiative it has to be based on factual information. Just climbing on the green bandwagon and declaring products and processes green will be perceived as  spin and undermine trust and confidence in the company. It is a no good using marketing to disguise the reality if there is not a real and demonstrable process in place, any more than over stating the case for poor products.

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.