Training Marketer

With the rise of Second Life and Web 2.0, business is finding new and innovative ways to use the Internet. Virtual trade shows offer an opportunity for businesses to meet and share ideas on a completely new platform.

The benefits of virtual trade shows are obvious - no airline tickets to buy to attend the show, no annoying booths to set up, and no wasted hours spend waiting for people to approach your booth.

The goals of virtual trade shows and in-person shows are the same - to come away with quality sales leads, connect with potential business partners and bump into some key media organizations while you’re there.

Online trade shows have an added goal to minimize cost while delivering the same benefits as their offline counterparts. With tight budgets, the push to show a positive ROI is harder than ever.

Deciding which offline trade show to attend and then convincing business leaders in your organization to pay for it is a difficult process. Those at The Lonely Marketer ask the question: “Are Trade Shows a Waste of Time and Resources?”

In the post, the authors devised a metric to help capture the costs and benefits of attending a show. Comparing the metric of an online trade show to that of an offline show could paint a compelling picture that virtual events are the more cost-efficient option.

While face-to-face conversations are tough, connections at online trade shows can still be made. Online chats and emails can help you get the materials you want and connect with potential sales leads.

Virtual events and trade shows can attract an average of more than 1,500 people who spend longer than two hours in the show, according to a report by FactPoint Group. With those numbers, online conferences and trade shows seem to be a growing trend.

If you’re comfortable with working and communicating online, virtual trade shows may be a less costly and more efficient way to achieve the same goals you would face-to-face.

I came across a great post today from Paul Dunay at Buzz Marketing for Technology about how business to business marketers can use social media to spark lead consideration.

“A prospect reading a blog entry doesn’t mean they want to buy anything, but it does mean they have engaged with your brand.”

Engagement is the first step, and many times the hardest, when developing leads. Tools like blogs and podcasts can initially engage customers with ongoing and relevant conversation.

Social media helps business to business marketers, who are faced with selling complex products and services, by asking the customer to simply consider their brand. Once a visitor considers your business as a possible source to buy from, you can then start the lead nurturing process.

Dunay also has some good advice on how to measure social media success -

“Don’t measure your teams on page views generated from a campaign. Measure them on how engaged they can get your leads with your content and turn them into sales.”

Revamping your newsletter can help you transform stale old leads into fresh new prospects. MarketingSherpa released a case study today with tips on how you can also bring your newsletter and old lists back to life.

The study followed a technology marketer in their quest to increase weak open rates and clickthroughs. What began as a challenge to improve their newsletter, turned into a complete overhaul of everything from design to content. After the process, open rates increased by 52% and clickthroughs were up 1315%.

(I’m not lying on the figures, read the full case study to find out.)

The company used a six step process to achieve the outstanding results. Here’s what they did:

1. Designed a new template. The company did away with their old, excessively busy layout and adopted a more streamlined two-column design.

2. Improved content. Instead of straight advertising, the company decided to create content that positioned their brand as a thought leader in the industry.

3. Approached old leads with caution. Some of the company’s leads were three years old. Instead of annoying any of them with a barrage of emails in their inbox, the company first tested the newsletter on a rented list that had never heard of the company before.

4. Shortened subject lines. The company standardized subject lines to 30 words or less - “Business Insights - January.”

5. Stuck to a regular schedule. They committed to send the newsletter during the last week of every month on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

6. Used pre-populated landing pages. When a reader clicked through a link requesting a demo or information, they landed on a page with the newsletter title at the top and four fields below, partially filled in with their email address and first name.

The results:

• 52.3% increase in open rates
• 1315% increase in clickthrough rates (from 1.3% to 17.1%)
• 18.3% of clickthroughs requested a demo or meeting on the landing page
• 2% increase in overall sales

Read the full case study at MarketingSherpa.com.

Business to business web sites are generally focused on two things:

1. Generating leads
2. Trying to get as much information into as little space as possible

That strategy is a huge mistake according to the authors over at the Portent Interactive blog.

Why is it wrong?

Most people land on web sites by using search engines. Original content helps your site’s rankings on top search engines like Google. More pages with original content = higher search rankings = more visitors.

Fundamental marketing practices still apply on the web. You must gain your customer’s attention and trust first, then move to selling your product or service.

“Instead of asking how you can get more message into less space on your B2B web site, ask how you can expand your content to make it worthwhile to more people and earn greater respect from the search engines at the same time.”

Some ideas:

• Break products and services down into smaller pieces. Segment by product and service, different industries you sell to, and add supplemental information like video demonstrations.
• Create online publications, white papers and webcasts to publicize trade shows or events and build reputation. Add educational content or an industry news section to position yourself as an industry leader.
• Create a customer support area full of manuals, FAQs and forums.
• Add sections to your site listing your B2B customers’ customers, your suppliers, investors as an information center for stakeholders who are not leads or clients.
• Add a section for media and press, fill with informational materials about your company.