• Sales people can start to focus on selling instead of being glorified order takers (especially for companies that have large catalogs)
• Operational costs are reduced by lowering call volume in customer service centers
• Increased frequency and size of transactions

B2B organizations are starting to get pressure from their customers to rethink their online channel.  Most of this pressure is being built by the fact that your customers have expectations online as a result of their personal buying experiences.  We all know that businesses use the web to research products and services, but they also have expectations as a result of recent experiences buying something from a retail store online or using social media for personal reasons.  If you are considering creating an eCommerce site for your B2B company, here is a place to start:

• How will you get your customers to actually use the site (Customer adoption) – crazy as it seems, most B2B companies get their biggest ROI from having their customers actually use the site.
• What tools beyond simple navigate, search, and shopping carts will strengthen and deepen your relationships with your customers
  • Quick Order
  • Previous order and product searches
  • Open A/R – from all of your channels
  • Ability to pay all open A/R online
• Consider public access to your catalog (SEO will love you for it) – even if you make the user login to see “their” price
• Don’t under estimate the value of a unique customer experience built with your customers needs in mind.  BTW – that means actually talking to customers not just the sales staff
• Create a model by which to measure the success of your site – you have to measure this channel, so start off by picking something to measure against.  For example – % decreased customer service calls, % customer adoption or increase in transaction size.  And please – give it time.

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1. B2B Marketing Funnel: a purpose for B2B sites
2. Hand in hand – traditional and interactive marketing

I am sure that you have heard of Usability testing, and you might even understand the value proposition that Usability brings.  8 years ago I saw my first Usability test and was sold on why we should do Usability testing even though the testing identified an large amount of problems with the site (that I worked hard to build).  The end product was a vast improvement over the user experience we originally created.

For some reason there is a perception out there that Usability testing is primarily for Business to Consumer sites.  User validation is a global concept that should apply, possibly even more, to Business to Business organizations.  Usability testing provides:

• Robust user and customer experience
• Validation of user personas
• Reduction or elimination of any catastrophic concerns
• Discovers the real needs of customers
• Creates a competitive advantage
• Tangible evidence for recommendations for content strategy, information architecture, taxonomy and design
• Continued validation

In addition for organizations that sell B2B, Usability testing can provide validation of the user experience for your e-catalogs, search tools, quick order forms, lead capture activities (landing pages).

It is a fascinating (and sometimes painful)  experience to watch users interact with your site, and the issues that this process identifies is incredible.   Page upon page of recommendations along with wireframes correcting problems come out of these sessions.  We have moved beyond Usability testing for just “go-live” and are now implementing these services at all stages of your online channel including:

• design phase – testing wireframes and concepts
• pre-launch – functionality and customer experience
• post-launch – continued improvement

Here is  a great graphic that shows our lab in Beachwood, OH.

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2. Business-to-Business Marketing in a Recession
3. Hand in hand – traditional and interactive marketing

I love images that assist to understand and this chart has resonated with my clients lately.  As the folks from Marketing Sherpa recently stated, the sales and marketing sales cycles are important, but as an interactive marketer, I work to move users through the stages – focus on the transitions.  Some key principles of this model:

• Understand your potential customer ‘s buying process and what stage it is currently at in the process
• Value proposition needs to be strong and relevant to targeted customer profile. Make sure value message is mapped to proper roles
• Create clear definition of a sales-ready lead
• Sales and marketing activities are measured and coordinated with shared goals.
• BE FLEXIBLE / TEST, MEASURE, AND OPTIMIZE CONSTANTLY
• Quality leads are better then quantity of leads
• Assign a financial model to each stage of qualification
• Concentrate on moving prospects from stage to stage

O/R = Offer / Response

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1. Hand in hand – traditional and interactive marketing
2. Business-to-Business Marketing in a Recession
3. B2B Marketing Funnel: a purpose for B2B sites

In order to connect B2B marketers, here is my current list of B2B marketers.  Feel free to add your name by commenting or @ me on twitter.

@jonmiller2

@collincanright

@sazbean

@chuckwilkins

@Darrin Grella (B2B recruiter)

@kimleonard

@Jeff Cohen (dgtlpapercuts)

@Lance Godard

@Joe Franz (Cup_of_Joe)

@Nancy Myrland

@MichelleBB

@Megan Maguire

@SocialMediaStat

@b2bCommunicate

@jeffwoelker

Twitter group for B2B at http://twittgroups.com/group/b2btweets.

Twitter B2B feed

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Motivating your Audience to your Goal Interactively with great Content.

The keys include:

• Motivation—absolutely essential to get others drawn into the story you’re trying to tell;
• Audience—understanding that you need to get the customers’ attention before disclosing your intention;
• Goal—explicitly calling those hearing your story to some type of action;
• Interactive—engaging all of the senses and really fostering a two-way conversation; and
• Content—which can be found through your own experience, observations, history, metaphors, and analogies.

Marketing is about dialogue and conversations.  Great conversations are sparked by great stories.  How are you telling stories?

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Adam Cohen (Partner, Consumer Products & Retail Vertical) A Thousand Cuts – Social Media & Web Strategy

Chris Boggs (Manager, SEO Practice) Search Engine Watch Columnist

Darrin Grella (Recruiter) The Art and Science of Recruiting

Mark Taylor (Managing Partner, Technology Services) Technology in Marketing

Keep up the great content guys!!

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As Thanksgiving rolls around, I want to do more then just give thanks.  I want to do more then just say words, I want to back my talk up with actions.  So whether you are consultant, a B2B marketer, a colleague or a friend, this blog is about a dialogue, but moreso a dialogue of action.  When I post other things, I post about ideas that we are putting into action, and I can’t think of a more significant idea to put into action then helping and serving others.

Growing up, the night before Thanksgiving my parents would have a meal of just rice to signify that there are others in the world that only have a little to eat.  My dad and mom practiced what they “preached” – they often took in single mothers and gave them a place to stay and demonstrated to us what it is like to serve others.  Now, my mom and dad (a successful graphic designer) showed action again when they moved half way around the world to Asia to serve the people there.  They are doing retirement in style and demonstrating again what it means to not just talk, but to act.

{ Be intentional this Thanksgiving,
figure out ways to serve and give back }

Obama or McCain, Biden or Palin, Bailouts or no bailouts, even our poorest are richer then most of the world.  This Thanksgiving I have a lot to be thankful about.  But, I want to do more then talk and give thanks, I want to give back.  I want to teach my kids what it’s like for their father to show grace and mercy to others and to serve people – I want them to see me be intentional with my time and my money.

This Thanksgiving, what can you do to help and to serve?  I will be taking my oldest 2 (of 4) daughters to deliver meals on Thursday morning with our church.  We will hopefully deliver meals to 40 – 50 people that day – mostly families.  I know it’s not big, but it’s an intentional time to serve other people and hopefully will be a great teaching time for my kids.  I also know, that if we just give during Thanksgiving it’s a little hypocritical, so I want to make giving and serving part of my daily life.  I want to be like my dad – who gives of himself daily, and I want my kids to want to be like me.

I would love to hear creative ideas that you are doing by yourself or with your family.  Let’s move from dialogue to action together.  Comment away.

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“I have a friend who owns a successful window installation business. I asked him how business was going and he replied that it was going great. Stunned by his answer, I asked him, ‘Isn’t there a housing crisis and economic slowdown? How could business be going great?’

My friend replied, ‘I heard about that, I’m just choosing not to participate.’”

-Dave Ramsey

{ “I heard about that, I’m just choosing not to participate” }

What a great line.  How are we as marketers changing our message to fit the times?  I wrote earlier about being excited about 2009, and I am definitely excited.  However, we are going to have to work really hard to differentiate ourselves and change our message so that it fits where we are all at.   As B2B marketers we know how to compete on price and value already – we do that every day.  We know how important it is to build our network and that we have to concentrate on our lead pipeline.  But often, we don’t remember that just a slight change in messaging can change the future of our business and it’s sustainability.  Home Inspectors become “Home Energy Auditors” and New Home Builders become “Home Remodellers”.

Change your message, and you may change your future.

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1. Nothings figured out – We on the B2B side are a little further down the long tail then the rest.  We have a lot to figure out this year with some great models from our brethren on the B2C side.  But it has to be different – more measurable, more edgy, more applications, and in the end more revenue.  Nothings figured out and I am looking forward to participating.
2. Commerce – I know you probably expected to see Social Media at number 1.  But, Commerce is where I am focused.  B2B e-commerce is still not defined, and there is still a lot of work for those of that are passionate.  And I like to follow the money.  I think there is a lot of money for B2B organizations to leverage in B2B e-commerce.  I also think that like in B2C, B2B marketers are going to start getting more involved in commerce.  The user experience needs to be dictated from marketing, and not from IT.
3. Social Media – Twitter acceptance, Facebook wild fire spread, LinkedIN building applications, and all the others will start to penetrate B2B – especially for communicating and thought leadership.
4. Acquisition Marketing – As B2B marketers we know SEO, e-mail marketing and white paper syndication.  I think this is the year of figuring out PPC and Online Display advertising leveraged for B2B AND viral.

I can’t wait.  We are ready to go, and ready to start thinking outside of the box.  Commerce and Social Media will be my focus.  What is yours?

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