B2B Marketing Deadly Sin #4 - Underestimating the Power of Your Web Site

In our continuing series, the "Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing," let's look at Deadly Sin #4, which is: "Underestimating the Power of Your Web Site."

OK, you have a web site. You’ve kept it updated. So what? Is it driving leads and business to your company? Is it reducing the cost of your marketing transactions? Does it project a global image? Almost every B2B web site we see is an underachiever; not fulfilling its huge potential to deliver leads, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction. Don’t think of your Web site as an on-line catalog. Think of it as a strategic competitive weapon.

Today, the web site is the primary image maker for your business. It’s the first place a person goes to check out your company. In those precious seconds spent viewing your home page, prospects form the vital first impressions that will forever color their attitudes about your company. What does the site say about your firm? Does it convey the image and depth of a global industry leader? Or look more like the personal web blog of your teenage daughter’s boyfriend. A client once took a particularly candid view of his company’s site. “We look like the guy selling a $5,000 Rolex from the trunk of a ’62 Dodge.”

Your Web site also is a back door into your enterprise. People come in by the thousands, wander around, and search through your offerings in total anonymity. With no pushy salespeople, it’s a shoppers dream. A recent survey shows that 90% of all engineers and technical buyers use the Internet on the job; 42% for as much as 7 hours per week. Over half query search engines to find and specify products. Google and Yahoo now play a critical role in directing cyber-prospects to your web site. When buyers launch Internet searches for your products and services –and they don’t find your site – those are lost business opportunities. This is especially troubling when you consider the resources invested to build and maintain your Web presence. Optimizing your site to appear on the first pages of Google and Yahoo is critical in today’s electron driven economy. And buying paid keyword sponsorships on these search engines attracts even more leads to your company.

But an effective interactive marketing strategy involves more than driving visitors to your Web site. If they come and go incognito, like ghosts in the machine, you’re leaving money and leads on the table. Sending visitors through landing and registration pages for high-value content can generate scores of qualified leads. An automated on-line database can collect and distribute those leads to your sales force, supporting fulfillment and remarketing.

A successful B2B site might log 50,000 to 100,000 visitor sessions a month. That’s quality time a customer spends browsing through your offerings. Compare that to the effectiveness of your other marketing communications. Where else can you engage so many prospects at such low cost?

Have you visited your own Web site lately? Have you searched for your own products or services on Google or Yahoo? Your web site can become a low-cost, global, 24/7, self-service front-end for your company. And your smallest competitor can do it better than you.

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There are more Deadly Sins, of course. Stay tuned...

Or, if you can't wait, we've developed a free white paper to help marketing executives avoid these money-wasting, product-killing, and even career-ending mistakes.

Download a free copy of it, “The Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing,” from http://www.tizinc.com/DeadlySins. Or, call us at 781-793-9380.

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B2B Marketing Deadly Sin #3 - Overestimating the Power of Creative

In our continuing series, the "Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing," let's look at Deadly Sin #3, which is: "Overestimating the Power of Creative."

Don’t assume great creative will produce great B2B results; that reaching your sales and marketing goals are tied directly to the effectiveness of the creative. Sometimes creativity and success are mutually exclusive. Focusing purely on creative is like buying a great looking car without checking the engine. You turn the key, but it doesn’t go anywhere. The engine represents the goals, positioning, and value proposition that power the communication.

The creative is the body that delivers it.

According to our creative director, “The creative is so much better and effective if I understand the goal and the positioning. When I’m told to craft an ad and simply ‘do something creative,’ then I’m only superficially addressing the issue. The result is a highly subjective discussion on the ‘creativity’ of the concept.”

We’ve seen what some might consider creative-free advertising deliver almost unbelievable results. Our firm developed a fractional space ad for a client that simply offered an Insider’s Guide. No big creative hook employed here. In fact, these executions would have been laughed out of the Addy Awards. But the ad produced thousands and thousands of leads. So why does that happen? There must be other reasons that don’t revolve around the creative. In this case, the guide stimulated latent need in the marketplace that had not been addressed. And it was placed in media focused tightly on the target audience.

Here’s another example. In probably the most successful ad campaign we’ve conceived, the marketing strategy was highly creative, not the ads themselves. And the client spent less than $100,000 on the media. Yet the campaign repositioned the competition as yesterday’s technology, turned the marketplace upside down, and put a hundred million dollars on the client’s top line.

An agency colleague once said, “The role of the client is to define the problem, and creativity is problem solving 101. The myth is thinking that the creative is the design and copy, when in reality it’s the entire solution.”

In B2B, it’s the message, not the medium. Sure the creative is important to grab attention. But you’re not selling toothpaste or hotel rooms. I know what a hamburger does. But I’m a little hazy about process optimization software that will lower my catalytic cracking costs by 3 cents a barrel. Spend more time on the positioning and messaging. The creative will take care of itself.

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There are more Deadly Sins, of course. Stay tuned...

Or, if you can't wait, we've developed a free white paper to help marketing executives avoid these money-wasting, product-killing, and even career-ending mistakes.

Download a free copy of it, “The Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing,” from http://www.tizinc.com/DeadlySins. Or, call us at 781-793-9380.

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Deadly Sin of B2B Marketing #2 -- "Thinking Tactics First, Not Strategy"

In our continuing series, the "Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing," let's look at Deadly Sin #2, which is: "Thinking Tactics First, Not Strategy."

In today’s, slash-the-budget, reorganize-daily marketing world, most ads, brochures, web sites, and PR campaigns bear little connection to the company’s business plan. Why? Poor management communication, revolving leadership, dynamic markets, mid-year adjustments, you name it.

A colleague once lamented, “I've found that 90% of the time, the vice president of marketing and the vice president of sales aren't talking to each other, and some times it’s the same person.”

Next time, pull out the strategic or annual business plan before developing a campaign. Make your tactical decisions within the strategic framework. Engage the management team early in the process to gain alignment on the approach and to facilitate approvals. Achieve consensus on the target audiences and key buying decision drivers.

A clearly articulated positioning platform with a unique value statement and key customer benefits builds a strong strategic foundation to implement your messages. Creating information architecture for your company helps you choose the most effective marketing tools.

And understanding the channel strategy and selling cycle helps deliver the communications with maximum impact. Develop a consistent tone and image for your campaigns that optimize your positioning. Enjoin customers in an ongoing conversation and move them to your value proposition.

As our creative director Fred Martins says, “a strategic plan is a great document that helps risk-averse people make decisions to move forward” – a key enabler in today’s corporate organization.

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There are more Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing, of course. Stay tuned...

Or, if you can't wait, we've developed a free white paper to help marketing executives avoid these money-wasting, product-killing, and even career-ending mistakes.

Download a free copy of the white paper, “The Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing,” from http://www.tizinc.com/DeadlySins. Or, call us at 781-793-9380.

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Tiziani Whitmyre Announces Three Interactive Marketing Appointments

SHARON, MASSACHUSETTS – January 6, 2009 – Tiziani Whitmyre, Inc., a Boston area-based marketing services and public relations agency, today announced three appointments in its Interactive Marketing Division.

Ellen McGowan joins Tiziani Whitmyre as media planner/buyer, with responsibilities for developing and purchasing client’s online and print media campaigns. In addition, Ms. McGowan will support Web search engine optimization programs, search engine marketing, and paid-keyword campaigns. She previously was Marketing Manager and Sales Assistant at Intelligent Power Solutions NE in Mansfield, Mass., and was assistant to the vice president/controller at Hill, Holliday, Boston. She received a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of South Florida.

Christopher Martin has been appointed senior web developer. Mr. Martin will focus on Web site development, maintenance, and testing, He joins Tiziani Whitmyre from Internet Production, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., where he was a senior web developer. Mr. Martin also served as a web developer at Quikpages, Minneapolis, Minn. He received a bachelor’s degree from Macalaster College.

Michael Sheldon joins Tiziani Whitmyre as Web application programmer. Mr. Sheldon will focus on Web-based applications and database development. He was previously a Web developer at M.L. Duggan Communications, East Providence, R.I., and performed interactive marketing work for Advanced Interconnections and Hytex Industries. Mr. Sheldon is a graduate of New England Institute of Technology.

“These appointments will support the our company’s rapid growth in developing Interactive Marketing programs for our clients,” said Robert Tiziani, Chief Executive Officer, Tiziani Whitmyre, Inc. “They provide us with an exceptional combination of technical and creative skills that will enhance our clients’ internet marketing, online advertising, search engine optimization, and database marketing efforts.”

About Tiziani Whitmyre
Tiziani Whitmyre (http://www.tizinc.com/) is a Boston area-based marketing services and strategies agency that builds brands, generates sales leads, and delivers an ROI which maximizes payback on any marketing communications budget. Services include Internet marketing online (including search engine optimization, affiliate marketing, website design), public relations (PR), advertising, direct marketing, graphic design, and corporate branding strategy.

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B2B Marketing Deadly Sin #1 - Forgetting About the Audience

by Rick Whitmyre,

president and a principal,

Tiziani Whitmyre, Inc.

During an agency lunch discussion, our focus turned to a subject that brings tears to the eyes of marketing executives: mistakes. Not minor gaffes; but money-wasting, product-killing, even career-ending mistakes.

As we shared our war stories in this highly therapeutic session, some major themes emerged. Much of the marketing waste and carnage we’ve observed has revolved around one of five fundamental problems.

Together, we called these blunders the "Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing." From that luncheon discussion, we developed a free white paper for marketing and public relations executives to download, review, and think around. You can download your own copy at http://www.tizinc.com/DeadlySins.

In the meantime, we'll use this blog to outline the "Five Deadly Sins," as discussed in our white paper, one at a time -- in the hopes of stimulating additional thought and comment.

Let's begin.

Our first entry, appropriately enough, focuses on Deadly Sin #1, which we've identified as "Forgetting About the Audience."

In fact, didn’t a former president say, “It’s about the audience, stupid?” Maybe I’m stretching the paraphrasing, but repeatedly we see B2B campaigns created with little understanding of the target audience, market, or customer.

A common complaint we hear: “Our CEO wants to communicate with one group while the sales manager is focusing on another.”

It’s agonizingly difficult marketing and selling to the customer’s corporate bureaucracy.

Scores of people are involved in the purchasing cycle: from manufacturing managers, IT professionals, and purchasing agents to vice presidents and C-level officers. Team-buying initiatives have created empowered armies of evaluators that put your product or service under microscope.

Who are these decision makers? Who are the key influencers? The answer can be anybody or everybody.

At one industrial client, when we discussed the target audience with a product manager, he was thinking about an engineer. But when asked the same question of the Chief Marketing Officer, he viewed the customer as a plant manager or vice president of manufacturing. Shop-floor sell or executive sell? Or both? A common dilemma.

We witnessed one client successfully market its solution to a customer’s plant engineers, only to have the deal killed when senior executive approvers had never heard of their brand.

Does your organization just assume it knows who is buying its products or services? Before launching the next campaign, take the time and discipline to map the customer’s buying process. Identify the key influencers and decision makers. Determine the customer’s buying drivers. Understand why they choose one product over another.

Gone are the days when could carpet bomb the entire market with advertising and direct response. With B2B marketing resources shrinking to nano-dollar proportions, defining the audience is critical. Target precious resources with pinpoint accuracy at the decision makers buying your products and services.

We've developed a free white paper to help marketing executives avoid these money-wasting, product-killing, and even career-ending mistakes.

Download a free copy of it, “The Five Deadly Sins of B2B Marketing,” from http://www.tizinc.com/DeadlySins.

Or, call 781-793-9380.

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