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Curious about how other business-to-business marketers are investing marketing dollars in 2009? Here is some info that will interest you. This comes from a study, “B-to-B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending,” conducted at the end of 2008 by MarketingProfs and Forrester Research. The study surveyed 656 marketing management pros in a variety of business-to-business companies.

Competition hangs tough.

With a bad economy weighing heavily on everyone, b-to-b marketers seemed willing to tough it out. 25% planned to increase their budgets in 2009 and 41% said their budgets would stay the same. You could think of it this way: 66% of your competitors aren’t going anywhere. 

B-to-B looks online.

Almost one half of the marketers surveyed (47%) planned to increase spending on company websites and search marketing. This is a very good move and one that we recommend to our clients constantly – first get your website in shape and then get visible to the search engines. Interestingly, only 13% of these marketers said they thought company websites were an effective marketing tactic. I must assume this is because most b-to-b websites seriously underperform. (Read about the 7 critical components of a high performance website).

Beyond the website and search marketing, 42% of b-to-b marketers said they planned to increase spending on online videos, podcasts or rich media; 41% planned to spend more on webinars; 39% were going to spend more on email. And 36% were preparing to increase spending on discussion forums, social networks and communities.

Offline loses.

Not surprisingly, the tactics that most b-to-b marketers planned to cut were in the offline world – what we think of as “conventional” marketing. This is a trend that has been going on for a while. The percentage of marketers planning to make cuts in this area looked like this: print advertising (55%), TV advertising (51%), radio (48%), trade shows and conferences (43%) and sponsorships (40%). 

Some tactics were projected to maintain the same level of funding: blogs (58%) inside sales/telemarketing (54%) and public relations (53%).

What should you do?

I’ve given my 3 steps for accelerating marketing effectiveness in previous articles on this blog, and they’re worth repeating again. We know they work because we implement them for clients day in and day out with substantial and cost-effective results.

1. Fix your website. I have two things to say about this: 1) your website is a critical part of your marketing program – it’s either helping you or hurting you, and 2) unfortunately, chances are high it’s hurting you. 
   
   
2.  Get visible on the search engines. Prospects are actively looking for you. They’re going to find your competitors. Shouldn’t they find you too? As more and more of your competitors pour online, this may become more challenging but no less important.  
    
3. Nurture the leads that aren’t ready to buy yet. Nearly every company I talk with has a collection of forgotten prospects – those website visitors or inquiries that weren’t ready to talk to a sales person. Many will buy sooner or later. You already know who they are; now do your best to make sure they buy from you. While others spend money generating new traffic, you’ll be ahead of the game.

The steps I’ve outlined here are not only effective, they’re also measurable – meaning you can tell exactly what you’re getting for your money. If you want some help getting started or getting to the next level, check out the website development, pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization and lead nurturing programs from Tatum Marketing. Or just give me a call.

Technorati Tags: b-to-b, business-to-business, online marketing, websites, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, lead nurturing, lead development

I’ve spent six articles talking about keywords for websites; however the question needs to be asked: are keywords the only factor that impacts the ranking of a website?

The answer is no.  Keywords are the foundation for getting a higher ranking on search engine results pages, but they are not the only factor considered.  Without good keywords used properly it becomes harder and harder to achieve good ranking.

What else goes into getting a good ranking?  There are a number of factors to consider, and I’ll go over each in detail in later articles, but let’s start with the basics.

Design factors for increasing ranking.

Search engines pay attention to where a keyword is located on the web pages and whether or not it is emphasized. Words included in titles and headlines or subheads, and words that are in bold or italicized text are seen by both humans and search engines as being more important than non-emphasized words in the body copy. It makes sense that search engines give text that has been treated this way a few extra points towards higher ranking.

You might be tempted to start bolding every other word, but you need to make sure that these enhancements to the text are properly integrated with the overall design and theme of the website.  It is far more important for human visitors to be able to read and use your website than it is for search engines to be able read it.  If text is difficult or challenging to read and use, your visitors will just hit the back button and possibly never come back.

The powers of links:

Links – both internal and external – are another important factor in assessing ranking.  Internal links should always be in plain English (another good place to use keywords) and should be designed so that search engines can follow them.  The types of links that search engines hate are computer gibberish such as “www.mysite.com/00023994/objcet=2&type32”.  It is much better to use one that looks like this: “www.mysite.com/business/software/”.

Fancy Java script or Flash menus, while attractive to humans, can be a problem for search engines.  They are generally unable to follow these links because the links require a mouse click to activate them; thus they don’t show up for search engine spiders.  If you choose to have Java or Flash menus on your site, plan on including text links to duplicate the links elsewhere on the page.  Simple text links are also a good backup for customers experiencing connection problems as they don’t have to wait for the website to fully load in order to get to the page they want.

External links have a huge impact on a website’s ranking.  The sheer number of outside websites linking to your site is important, but do not assume that one link is just as good as any other. Some links will have more of an impact on search engine rankings.

Links coming from ‘trusted authorities’ will increase your website’s ranking more than many other actives.  What is a trusted authority?  That is a lengthy topic, but basically it comes down to websites containing similar subject matter as your site.  A link from a humor site, for example, will help increase your ranking more if you have a humor site than if you have a banking site.

Is your site up to date?

Another ranking factor is the age of the site and its contents.  Paradoxically, the longer your website has been around the better your ranking, but the longer it’s been since you’ve updated the site, the lower the ranking. This is another good reason to plan on updating your site on a regular basis.

You don’t have to totally redesign your whole site. Just keep the content fresh and up-to-date. You can do this by always including breaking news and the latest product or company information.  Make sure that any outdated content is removed.  Outdated content is like missing a button on your suit jacket. It may not seem important, but people notice when you’re not looking your best.

Are visitors returning to the site?

Another seldom-mentioned but important factor towards ranking is the site’s popularity.  More people coming to a site will help increase its ranking.  Yes, this does sound like a catch-22, because most companies invest in SEO to get a higher ranking so that more people will see their site on Google and come for a visit.

Older sites often have an advantage because they have built up repeat visitors over time, and these repeat visitors count as traffic. In order to build your traffic numbers, become a site that people come back to again and again.  You want to be a bookmark that they click on regularly.

Depending on your business and your audience, there are many things that can be added to your website to increase repeat visitors.  For example: user manuals, training guides, resources and blogs generally help keep people coming back.  Don’t be afraid to go the extra mile and put more information and more tools on your site. Think about turning your website into a useful tool instead of just a brochure or storefront for the company.

Is that all that needs to be done?

The items above represent some of the major factors that impact search engine rankings. Search engines use complicated 200+ factor algorithms to determine rank, and there are many other small things you can do to slightly increase ranking. However, using good keywords as a foundation and following the steps above will build the frame to successful website structure.  Without these major steps the smaller steps will have almost no impact at all.

Building a successful website is just as complicated and rewarding as building the rest of your business, and with a large number of people turning to the internet as their first choice to find any business, your presence on the web requires as much investment in your time and budget as your storefront or office.  Your website is often the first thing potential customers see of your business, so spend the time to make a great first impression.

Technorati Tags: seo, search engines, ranking, keywords, algorithms, websites, visitors, traffic

One of the most interesting things about marketing is that it constantly offers a multitude of choices and options. There’s never a lack of things to try or things to improve.

Sometimes that leads to paralysis. Marketers and business owners just don’t know what to do next.

But some decisions are really no-brainers. Here are three. I’ve mentioned these all many times before. But judging by the questions I get from clients, they’re worth repeating.

1. Fix your website

I’m not going to bore you with stats that I’ve already posted on this subject. Suffice it to say that you’re never going to achieve a high level of quality lead or traffic generation if your website is lame.

That fact is pretty obvious if you sell online. A bad site repels buyers. It may be less obvious to those of you who don’t sell online, but it’s equally true.

If you don’t believe your prospects are looking at your website think about your own buying habits. When was the last time you bought a complex or expensive product or service without taking a look at the company’s website?

That just doesn’t happen much these days. Your website is often the first – and last -  impression.

2. Get visible online.

Unless you’re one of very few companies that have a truly unique solution to a problem no one has thought of yet, your prospects are looking for you online. They’ll find your competitors with or without you. Which would you rather it be?

Personal referrals still top the list of the best lead generation sources for business-to-business products and services, but buyers also search. If nothing else, they’ll look for solutions to compare the referred product or service to. More likely they’ll be compiling a list of vendors to consider.

This means you need to be visible on search engines and websites where your prospects hang out. Otherwise you’re missing your best prospects – the ones who are actively seeking a solution.

3. Start with Google.

Achieving visibility on Google may be harder and more expensive than becoming visible on other search engines, but let’s face it – Google delivers the bulk of the traffic. Last April, Hitwise found that Google’s marketshare in US searches was 67%. Yahoo (at 20%), MSN Search (at 5.25%) and Ask.com (at 4%) – although not insignificant – trail far behind. Google’s dominance is even greater among business searchers.

Even if you can’t afford the click costs on Google, it’s the best testing ground because the heavier traffic allows you to figure out what works best faster.

So there you have it. Three marketing decisions you can make and act on without a lot of agonizing over whether or not it’s the right thing to do.

Technorati Tags: websites, seo, search engine, visibility, google, lead generation, traffic

When I was just starting out, I admit I was taken aback when my first big prospect (who came to me through a referral) called and started his conversation by saying, “Yeah, I was looking at your website…” Fortunately, I had put enough information out there so he could finish his sentence with “…and it looks like you’re right up our alley!” Whew, I thought, as the knot in my stomach started to unwind.

It was at that moment I realized just how important websites are. Even if you’re not interested in generating leads online, prospects will want to check you out before they call, and the way they will “get to know you” is through your website.

Essentially you want prospects to hear these three underlying messages when they visit your site.

#1: I’m Credible
While the mere presence of a website does help establish you as a legitimate business, it does not prove credibility.

Aside from having relevant, useful content on the site, testimonials, success stories, client lists, past projects, and information that demonstrates your industry experience all help plant the seed of trust.

One word of caution though: Testimonials and success stories need to be backed up with real names, including title and company name. If you can’t get a client to go on record with their testimonial, it’s not worth publishing, because prospects (myself included) will view any generic testimonial as fiction, rather than fact.

#2: I’m Different
Why are so many companies stuck regurgitating the same old marketing messages they see on their competitors’ websites? Unless you’re selling a commoditized product, your website should scream, “I’m different!”

How? For starters, stop talking about you, your features, and your benefits.

To differentiate, think (and write) in terms of your customers. State their pain. Give them literature, worksheets, or online calculators that help them quantify the real costs associated with their pains, and the value you’ll bring to their business. Provide a product comparison that isn’t feature-focused. Offer material that helps prospects sell your solution to higher-ups within their organization. And don’t be afraid to go head-to-head with your competition by creating a “Why Us” section that tells prospects exactly where other solutions fall short.

#3: I’m a Real Person
People do business with people, not companies, so don’t hide behind a vague “Contact Us” web page that invites visitors to send an e-mail to a nameless info@companyname.com address.

Create a web page that personally introduces you and your management team to your prospects. Share with them your background, industry experience, and motivations. Let them see what you look like (yes, pictures!), and don’t be afraid to reveal a little personality or share personal interests.

Remember, it was the information on my own “About eVoice” page that got my first big prospect interested in hiring me, and even now, it continues to be one of the most visited pages on my site.

If you keep these three messages in mind when building website content,  you’ll not only stand out from the crowd, you’ll also stand a better chance at winning over the most cynical prospects.

P.S. One final Twitter reminder: If you’re a high-tech firm that has derived tangible business benefits from your Twitter investment, I want to hear from you. Share with me how you’ve worked Twitter into your marketing plan *plus* the specific, measurable results you’ve achieved since its introduction, and in return your company could earn a prominent spot in an upcoming Twitter story I’m writing.

Summarize your real-life Twitter experience in a short e-mail sent to sanderson-at-evoicecommunications.com, and don’t forget to tell me how I can reach you for a follow-up interview.

Thanks in advance for your help and insight.

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

I’m fortunate because as I writer I learn so much from the people I interview. A few weeks back I had the pleasure of speaking with an incredibly down-to-earth CEO for a SoftwareCEO exclusive that’s in the works. Clate Mask runs Infusionsoft, a company that helps small businesses increase sales through automated follow up.

During our interview Clate told me one of his biggest mistakes was not recognizing the value of a good website. Using the Wayback Machine one can follow his company’s evolution from a custom development shop to a software firm who first targeted the mortgage industry before realizing they could go horizontal with their offering.

Clate said he didn’t really understand how much a website said about his company so he didn’t really invest in his site for the first five years.

Many companies, I believe, still think like Clate did, but here’s a few statistics that might make you re-think your strategy:

• A joint study conducted by Enquiro Research and MarketingSherpa revealed that 63.9% of B2B buyers start their search online with general-purpose engines like Google or targeted B2B engines.
• A Forrester Research excerpt published during 2007 reported that 78% of CIOs and IT decision makers rely on websites when making product decisions.

Clate’s website isn’t pretty, but it doesn’t have to be.  What makes his website effective  is content. It’s a leadgen machine that reads like you’re talking to Clate — so much so — that by the time him and I met via phone, I felt like I already knew him.

Online prospects get to know you long before you get to know them, so put your best foot forward. Create content that shows your personality and starts a conversation.

Many B2B sellers tell me their goal is to get prospects to call, but if all you have to offer is another “me too” website filled with marketing buzzwords, what reason have you given them to pick up the phone?

Sue Anderson
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Websites generate a large number of statistics and it can often be confusing.  Today I want to focus on one important statistic called bounce rate.

The concept of this is fairly simple. It measures how many people come to a single page of a site and then hit the back button.  No matter how someone found your website, the bounce rate tells you how many people left your site after one quick look.

Clearly every website owner wants to have the lowest bounce rate possible, but just how low can cause many arguments among people. I personally like to see fewer than 40% on the bounce and anything lower than this is very good.  Because this means that people have found want they were looking for and are willing to look at other pages of the website.

But what if your website has a 50% or higher bounce rate?  In this case you should review carefully what people expect to find when they come to your site. For example, take a look at your listings on a search engine.  Does the description text that shows up on the search engine accurately describe your website or does it give false impressions of what the visitor is going to find? If it’s the latter, you’ll probably want to change your description. In most cases, it does no good to drive traffic to your site if it’s just going to bounce.

This is also the time to look at the contents of your homepage. Analytics applications such as Google Analytics allow you to see what is being clicked on — buttons, links and so on.  If only a few buttons are being clicked on and the other links have no clicks this clearly indicates that some changes need to be made.  The changes don’t have to be drastic.

Let’s say you have a button on the home page to download a document, but no one has clicked on the link.  A change of the document description could help attract people to take a look at it.  If you change the description and people still ignore the document, you’ll want to consider removing that button and using the space for something else.  This is especially true if the document is also available on another page of the website and it is being downloaded from that link.

In the next few months bounce rate might become even more important than it has been in the past.  Rumors have been going around the past few months that Google is going to do a major modification of their filters and make the bounce rate more important.  This will have an impact on a website’s organic ranking, with a high bounce rate dropping it from the top of searches.

From Google’s point of view this makes sense. They are trying to give people relevant results. If people keep bouncing off a website this means that people are not finding what they want when they type in their keyword search.  So these failed searches might pound a website down to the bottom of the ranking.

Even if Google does not make the rumored changes, it’s still worth it to drive down your bounce rate.

Next week I will talk about pageviews.

Technorati Tags: search engine optimization, analytics, seo

One of the great things about web marketing is the ability to measure and track what people are doing. This means you don’t have to guess at what’s working and not working.

I thought I would start the new year with a back-to-basics look at website statistics. These statistics are available from analytics applications – such as Google Analytics – as well as from your website itself.

Back in the early days of the World Wide Web, people were obsessed with how many ‘hits’ their website was getting.  I’m not going to go into the technical side of what a ‘hit’ was measuring and why it was not an accurate count of how many visitors the site had.  Suffice it to say that “hits” doesn’t tell you anything valuable from a marketing perspective.

It is much more accurate and useful to look at website “visitors” for both search engine optimization and website performance.

Most statistical software can now do some form of filtering to separate the number of computer spiders which ‘ping’ websites from the number of humans coming to the site, and the software usually calls humans “Visitors”.   The first thing to look at within the data is how the visitor numbers are broken down into “Total Visitors”, “New Visitors” and “Returning Visitors”.

“Total Visitors” is a much more accurate measurement than hits.  A word of caution though. For website owners who are used to looking at “hits”, the number of “visitors” can be frightening or depressing because it is a much smaller number. It also suffers from greater fluctuation in the daily numbers.  Weekends and holidays can cause massive drops in the number of visitors to many websites but they will return Monday through Friday.  I often have to calm business clients when they look at site statistics on weekends.

Beyond “Total Visitors” the numbers breakdown into two groups usually called “New Visitors” and “Returning Visitors”. People often jump on how many new visitors a site gets, but the returning visitor statistic is important too.

“New Visitors” are not necessarily people visiting your site for the first time.  Depending on the setup of the data collection from the website some people could be counted as ‘new’ if they only return once every few weeks.  They can also be counted as new if they delete the cookies your website or Google has placed on their computer.   Still, the number of “new visitors” can provide you with valuable information, especially if the company has started a new marketing campaign or made any changes to the website designed to increase the search engine placement.

While it is important to attract new visitors to your website, the returning visitors should also be appreciated. A high number of “Returning Visitors” means that people like your site and are coming back on a regular basis.  “Returning visitors” show customer loyalties and indicate there is something on the website worth coming back for again and again.

I also like returning visitors because I think that if people keep coming back to the website the odds are good that they are telling their co-workers and friends about the website.  For some companies and websites a “refer to a friend” button can be a very powerful feature, allowing people an easy way to tell others about your site.

Next week I will continue looking at statistics by looking at “bounce rate”.

Another in a series of articles on Search Engine Optimization and Web Marketing in Plain English from Eric Gerds.

As we come to the end of 2008 it is important to look back not just on friends and family but to also review your website.

The first question to ask yourself is when was the last time that you totally reviewed your website?  If the answer is “never” or longer than six months ago, I suggest your first New Year’s Resolution should to setup a schedule to review your site at least four times a year.

Under this review, make sure all information on the site is up-to-date, especially contact information! Nothing can give a bad impression to someone looking at a site faster than outdated information.  Worse still is to have outdated prices, product details, or buying information.

Old newsletters, articles and blog-like comments can be moved off the main pages.  If they are over a year old, dated 2007 or earlier, these are the things that should be archived.  If information in them is important and popular then consider repackaging them in a “best of” article to give it a fresh new look, or just rewriting the information to make sure you don’t have dated language or outdated technical jargon.  If there is enough information then consider bundling it all together and offering it on your site as a free download. This could be very attractive addition to your 2009 website and an easy way to get more use out of the same content.

Also under this review, check all links and buttons to insure that they work.  This includes all internal links and any external links.  Nothing is more frustrating to people than to try to click on something and then nothing happens.

Be sure to click on ALL buttons from each page. This includes the master buttons that are part of the headers at the top of each page.  Do not assume that because it worked on the home page that it would work on every page.  Technically speaking while it looks like the same button on each page, it’s not actually the same button, which is why they all need to be checked.

Going beyond the basic function of the website, you also need to find out whether or not your website is backed up.  If it is backed up do you have a copy?  Is the copy updated regularly? Do you have the passwords to reinstall the backup?   All computer system should be backed up on a regular basis and this includes your website.  This backup should be safely stored, in your control and away from your other computers systems.

You don’t think that backups are important?

I was just at a party where a webmaster friend of mine describe the problem of his new customer.  This company had been using the same web firm for years.  They went to contact the web firm to make some changes and discovered that the people had gone out of business without bothering to inform their clients and left my friend’s customer, and others, high and dry.

Because the web firm controlled everything, the customer had no passwords to the website, no information on the coding or databases of the site and could not even move it to a new web server.  The customer trusted the web firm and now need to pay a new company to rebuild their site from the ground up.  A full backup, even without the passwords, would have quickly solved many of these issues.

So as a final task for yourself this year take a good look at your website and give it a review.  The three starting points listed above should get you started.

Eighth in a series of articles on SEO and website marketing appearing every Thursday.

We have talked about what is important for search engines but it is also important to talk about what is important to customers.  Anyone who comes to your website is a customer or a potential customer.

There are three things that are highly important to customers to the point of which they tend not to even think about them.  If you have them then you’ll do fine, if you don’t then you need to rework your site immediately.

You might be shocked by what I think is the most important thing to customers: loading speed.

That is correct; loading speed is the most important thing to the viewers of a website.  In other words can the customer download the page and bring it up quickly.

Don’t believe me?  Think back to how many times you have gone to a website and you waited for graphics and or a flash intro to load and it has taken so long that you hit the back button.

Let’s face it; people today have zero tolerance for waiting.  If they have to wait on your website they are going to leave.

The second most important thing is to insure that the site is clear with what it is about.  The website should not be a guessing game of what it is about.  A home page or landing page should not be crammed with unrelated information, such as logos of partner companies, anniversary of employees or other negligible information.

Humans coming to the website want to know what the website is all about as quickly as possible with as few distractions as possible.  A confusing site will drive people away in droves.

The third most important thing is easy of navigation of your site.  This is not just links and menu items, it also means can the customer find the information that they are looking for. Here’s an example: if the price of an item is hidden / buried under many pages how long do you think before the customer will give up trying to find this information?

What do these things have in common? It can be summed up by saying people want…. SPEED! If they can’t find what they are looking for quickly and easily they will leave before you can say “back button”.

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, web site, website, web marketing, b2b, business-to-business

Most of the articles so far have been about how to get Google to find and place your website higher on the search list. This is very important but another factor needs to go into creating a website and that is the human element.

If you use Google Analytics you will see a statistic called bounce rate. This is how many people come to a website and then leave without going beyond the first page. What is the point of getting a high placement of a website on Google if people do not stay and look at the website?

I have seen many companies become obsessive with becoming number one on Google but have a 90+% bounce rate. From my perspective, I would rather have a company be number two on Google but have higher sales.

How do you know what humans are doing with your website? Again using Google Analytics check out section called Content Overview, this section will help you find out what the humans are up to on your website. Let’s take some time and explain some of this sections information.

The statistic of “Pageviews” is how many humans come and visit your site. This number can be deceptive because if a person hits reload they can be counted more than once. While this number should be tracked one should not assume that it completely represents a true number of people coming to the site.

“Unique Views” is all human visitors who are visiting the site for the first time during a fixed time frame. If your report is set for a two week period and the same person comes back in three weeks they will be counted again as a unique visitor. If they come back within those two weeks then they are counted once as unique and the second time they would just be added to the page views.

“Bounce Rate” is what it sounds like. It measures the percent of visitors who come to the webpage and then rather than go to another page of the site just leaves. A high number means that you are attracting a lot of traffic for a very general keyword. But only a small proportion of these visitors will be looking for your particular product or service. This will create a very high bounce rate.

A low bounce rate can be created artificially several ways. For example a site can have a splash page with a link to click on to go to the real home page. By having the visitors go to this second page it creates a lower bounce rate but does not give an accurate view of how may visitors the site really retains.

The final section of “Content Overview” is the “top content” of the site. This portion lists the main pages and the number of visitors each pages has. Google only lists a few of the top pages most web servers can generate statistic for all pages on a website. It doesn’t matter if you use Google or your own statistics, but the list of the most popular pages of your site can help you figure out what people are interested in. It can be used to map what order people are going to on the website.

No single statistic should be taken as the sole criteria for the condition of a website. However, if the site constantly gets high bounce rates and it secondary pages have a very low page count it then clearly the website is not interesting to humans ..

Technorati Tags: website, web site, seo, search engine optimization, analytics, b2b, business-to-business