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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1. Customer loyalty through B2B eCommerce
2. Business-to-Business Marketing in a Recession
3. Hand in hand – traditional and interactive marketing

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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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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1. Objectives and metrics for B2B e-commerce
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3. Top B2B commerce challenges

Free is not a business–it’s zero-cost marketing for a business. And it works best at the largest scale: a small percentage of a big number is a big number.

In the new Web 2.0 economy and what I am overusing as B2B 2.0, how can we apply “Freemium” to scale for our businesses.  I guess it depends, doesn’t it?  If you are a manufacturing company where most of your target audience knows who you are and buys from you one way or another, this plays a lot differently then if you are a software firm launching a new product into the marketplace.  Both very B2B, but very different in their approach.

But for the majority of businesses out there that don’t have their customer base “locked up”, the question of “What’s a free customer worth” should be tackled.

Problem is, convincing the regular customer to be a part of this model is difficult.  So, let’s start basic:   When you figure out where your thought leadership is, give at least some of it away for free.  Track the heck out of it and get some information from them (name, email), but give it away.  Establish yourself as a thought leader in your specialty area, start creating relevant content, and give it away.

Anderson goes on to talk about the 4 types of free:

• cross subsidy – get one thing free for buying another
• subsidized – third party ads support free
• freemium – a few support the majority (basic “free” version)
• gift – given away for non-monetary rewards

I really like the idea of doing zero cost marketing.  Marketing to the masses by offering a freemium product and getting a small percentage to subsidize the masses.

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1. 6 strategies to make your content relevant
2. A practical example of creating a relevant dialogue

It’s been a rough couple of weeks, as many are contemplating survival techniques.  We have seen marketing budgets shrink considerably, but luckily businesses continue to move into interactive marketing so our plans remain steady.

Here are a couple great tips from that Marketo post.

What does all this mean? It means that now, more than ever, marketers need to:

• Maximize conversion of their advertising dollars into prospects by optimizing their landing pages.
• Stop wasting leads that aren’t yet sales ready and start using lead nurturing to build relationships so that when they are ready to buy, you’ll be positioned to win. In a recession, new prospects are less likely to be looking to purchase right away — which means they are less likely to want to talk to a sales rep. Lead nurturing is even more critical in a recession to ensure you convert the precious dollars you spend acquiring prospects into revenue.
• Use lead scoring to identify the best leads and help the sales team prioritize where they spend their time
• Prove the impact their marketing activities have on revenue and pipeline

What kind of conversations are you having?

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1. A practical example of creating a relevant dialogue
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3. A model for closed loop marketing

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{ I started thinking though that I need to develop
my own personal positioning statement }

For those of you that don’t know what a positioning statement is, here is a quick walk through.

Positioning template
For (target audience), (product, company name) is the (frame of reference) that (benefit / point of difference).

It’s easy – all you do is fill in the brackets. Yeah, right – do this with a committee of 10, and you will be there for hours.

• Target Audience: The attitudinal and demographic/firmographic description of the core prospect to whom the new product or service is intended to appeal
• Frame of Reference: The category in which the product or service will compete
• Benefit/Point of Difference: The most compelling and motivating benefit that the new product  or service can own in the hearts and minds of the customers relative to the competition

It did take me quite a while to come up with my personal brand positioning statement – even though it was just me.  i had to fight to keep it authentic!!

{ For b2b organizations, Justin King is the web strategist that can help you
create, manage and grow relationships with your customer base
using the online channel }

Do you have a positioning statement?  Share it if you don’t mind…

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Partnering
We are working with the companies traditional agency of record, as they have no true interactive marketing capabilities.  This has been an excellent process, of which I would like to dedicate another post to.

Research
Together with the traditional agency, we did quite a bit of customer research, talking to prospective customers, conducting online surveys, and talking to editors of trade magazines.  Through the research we found that the customers of this new product had some significant challenges in front of them.

• the economy is affecting their business tremendously especially with the slow down of new residential and renovations
• green and energy efficient is on everyone’s minds, but most don’t know how to take advantage of it
• because of the economy, contractors are trying to find new ways to sustain their businesses

What we found
In our quest to be relevant, we also faced challenges.  What was easy to do for the client was to create a microsite with the typical features | benefits | case studies information.  As I probed deeper and deeper, we kept asking the question what does your customer care about.  The answer was simple – the customer wants to be able to make more money in this down economy.  They are not sophisticated enough to determine ROI – they just care about the R (Revenue).  Therefore our content that we provided needed to be focused around solving this core problem of making more money for the contractor.

Lead generation
The goal for the product launch was to create a lead engine that could attract prospective buyers and in the end create sales-ready leads that were ready to be engaged by a salesman who could close the deal.  To get those leads, we knew we had to give the contractor something of value so that we had the right to ask for a name and email address (simple forms for landing page optimization).  Going back to our research, we decided to create white papers and eBooks around “How to make more money in a down economy”.  We are now going to tailor those to each primary segment and personality profile that we have identified.  So we will have “4 ways for HVAC contractors to heat up your business in a down economy” and elements like that.  The information is simple, not product focused and has a lot of value – no marketing propaganda.

What’s next?  We are now working on the nurturing approach to turn them from leads to sales-ready prospects.

Creating a relevant dialogue is critical.  Here are a few practical strategies to keep your content relevant.

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“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.“  Wayne Gretzky

I have been using this phrase a lot with clients lately (as a result of a colleague using it in a pitch).  With the economy in turmoil, it is important to look into the future and figure out where you need to skate to get to the puck.

Referencing my simple B2B philosophy, point number two is “Meet your customers wherever they are at”.  I should probably add to that and say “Wherever they are going to be”.  Once you understand your customers, how they buy, why they buy, what their perceived needs are, and who is meeting those needs, you can then start asking where are my customers at?  Once you know where your customers are at and where they are going, you can put a plan in place to go out and meet them.  Meeting them is action and requires you and your organization to mobilize and invite them into a relevant dialogue with your organization.

In my own conversations lately, I keep asking the question of where are your customers and where are they going?  It’s a basic question, but the answers are critical to determining what we are actually going to do online.

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1. A practical example of creating a relevant dialogue

Here is an example of the one that I use above.  If we begin to understand our customers, we can then understand how they buy?  One of the first things I encourage my customers to do is draw out the marketing funnel / buying process of their customers and then validate and test that theory.  It’s just a start to understand how they buy, we also have to understand why they buy, triggers, and how to relate to them throughout the buying process.

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