The BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS BY Bob BlyTHE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Center for Technical Communication 590 Delcina Drive River Vale, NJ 07675 (201) 505-9451 [email protected] ANote to the Reader The Business-to-Business Marketing Handbook is copyrighted by the Center for Technical Communication. No portion of this manual may be reprinted or reproduced in any way without the author's express written permission, © Copyright 2013, by the Center for Technical Communication. All rights reserved. This is NOT a free e-book! Purchase of this e-book entitles the buyer to keep one copy on his or her computer and to print out one copy only. Printing out more than one copy—or distributing it electronically—is prohibited by international and U.S.A. copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000 PER COPY distributed. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 2THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Table of Contents Chapter 1 B2B Marketing: 1978 vs. 2008 .... Chapter 2 10 Tips for Increasing Landing Page Conversion Rates... Chapter 3. Are White Papers Dead?. Chapter 4 The 6 Key Components of Effective B2B Offers... Chapter S Should B2B Copywriters Avoid Jargon?... Chapter 6 5 Steps to Building a Large and Responsive Opt-In E-List of Qualified B28 Prospects... Chapter 7 5 Modern Myths of B2B Marketing... Chapter 8 Are Businesspeople Devoid of Emotion When Making Buying Decisions? ... Chapter 9 Marketing with Case Studies. Chapter 10 4 Simple Steps to Writing SEO Copy That Both Your Prospects and the Search Engines Love ... es Chapter 11 What Works Best for B2B Lead Generation: Inbound or Outbound Marketing? «sss Chapter 12 Using Web Analytics to Drive Online Sales...... Chapter 13. 5 Ways to Boost B28 Direct Mail Response Rates .... Chapter 14 A New Copywriting Formula: the 4C’s.. Chapter 15 What’s Working in B2B Marketing... Chapter 16 7 Rules for Content Marketers...... Chapter 17 Business-to-Business Headline Writing Clinic... Chapter 18 The More You Tell, the More You Sell Chapter 19 The Trouble with B28 Marketing ...... 14 24 34 39 49 54. 59 74 78 .. 82 92 Center for Technical Communication. ©2013THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 About the Author. Which B2B Medium is Right for You? 10 Ways to Improve Your B-to-B Catalog... The Power of Proof... Let’s Get Physical... What’s Working in E-Mail Marketing? .... sesso 112 Tactics and Tips for Marketing B2B Services .. The Evolution of B2B Marketing. 7 B2B Marketing Myths. Networking the Old-fashioned Way... QRCs and the Death of the BRC .. Mobile Marketing on the Move . Are These Marketing Trends Really New?... Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 4THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 1 B2B Marketing: 1978 vs. 2008 I started my career in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the late 1970s, and by the early 1980s, I thought | had a pretty good handle on the basics of B2B. Jalso didn’t see where B2B was likely to change much. So I believed I could continue to use the methods I'd learned during my first few years for the rest of my life, Boy was I wrong! First came along the fax machine...then the personal computer...then cell phones...then white papers...then the Internet...then search engines...then blogging...then Webinars...then social networks...and suddenly, B2B marketing had become a brave new world, one that few fully grasped and most of us struggle to keep up with Here, as I see it, are some of the biggest changes that have taken place in B2B marketing during the past three decades—and also, what has stayed relatively the same, 41—The death of “industrial marketing.” It used to be called industrial marketing, and the trade publication serving the industry was called Industrial Marketing. Gradually, Industrial Marketing changed its name to Business Marketing and then to BtoB. And today, those of us who market products and services to businesses are “pusiness-to-business” marketers, 2—From tactical to strategic, Before the Internet, B2B marketing had relatively few choices. So planning campaigns was simple and straightforward. You'd create a sales Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 5THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK brochure, run a trade ad, send out a few press releases, and try to get a feature article written about it in the industry trade pubs. Today, there are dozens of other marketing methods, and a number of the early communications tools have, in many instances, fallen out of favor and been supplanted by new media—everything from e-newsletters and Webinars, to podcasts and vertical search engines. Asa result, you have to decide how to divide your limited budget and time among these new communications vehicles. So planning a B2B marcom campaign is more complex, 3—The end of the “industrial film,” slide shows, and 35mm photography. When I worked at Westinghouse Aerospace in the late 1970s, I actually produced my, first A/V promotion on 16mm film. Soon after, film died, and everything was shot in video. We also had an entire department that did nothing but produce slides for presentations. Managers who wanted to speak with slides had to go to the slide department to get them produced. Now, everyone has PowerPoint and can produce their own slide shows on their PCs. Also at Westinghouse, we had a full-time photographer, Pete, a skilled professional who took photos of products, processes, and installations with a 35mm camera. Today, film has largely disappeared, replaced by digital photography...and everyone who owns a digital camera thinks he’s as good a photographer as Pete, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 6THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK 4—The dethroning of trade journals. The primary means of marketing business-to-business products was through the major trade journals targeting the industry or market niche you wanted to reach. Today, trade magazines still exist, but are hardly flourishing. They struggle to compete with the Internet, and play less of a central role—though are still important—in educating members of a particular industry or trade about new technologies, products, and developments. 5—The decline of print advertising. Whenever we wanted to promote a product, doing an ad for the product was a no-brainer. It was automatically assumed you'd advertise, The question was where, when, what size, how frequently, and with what budget. Today, print advertising is rarely the primary B2B marketing medium. For many B2B marketers, it's not even on the radar. More likely to be considere aid search, SEO, and e-mail marketing. 6—The effectiveness of planted feature articles. Writing articles for industry publications was such an effective marketing strategy, | knew a guy who had a boutique PR agency that did nothing but ghostwrite and place such feature stories for clients. Typically the articles were bylined by an engineer. Today, despite the supposed decline of the printed word, writing articles for trade publications remains one of the most potent B2B marketing tactics. Writing online articles for Websites and e-zines may generate more clicks and traffic, but in many markets, a bylined article in the leading industry magazine still has, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 7THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK more credibility and clout—and the reprints make terrific sales literature. 7-—The shrinking of PR. In the heyday of print, each industry was covered globally by too many trade publications and newsletters for most marcom managers to count. So they hired a B2B PR firm to make sure their products got as much coverage as. possible, But in the 1990s and 2000s, publishing underwent a consolidation, with the number of publications serving each industry declining by 50 to 75 percent or more. When marcom managers saw there were only a few publications in their market, many decided they could do PR in-house, and numerous small B2B PR firms either folded or saw billings decline. 8—The demise of the sales brochure, For many years, I made my living primarily writing sales brochures. These were slick, glossy affairs with expensive photography and high-end graphic design. It was not unusual for a client with a new product to want multiple brochures for a new product covering different applications or markets, each ranging from 4 to 16 pages or longer. Today sales literature primarily resides on the Web as pages accessible through the company’s Website and through search. Fewer and fewer print brochures are published, and they are shrinking in size, with the most common format the two-sided. 8% by 11-inch “sell sheet. 9—The rise of the white paper. The primary sales collateral today is the white paper, not the brochure. While the sales brochure focused on the product, and looked and read like sales copy, the white paper focuses on educating prospects about a Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 8THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK problem and how to solve it—and looks and reads like a how-to article or tutorial. 10—The critical importance of keywords and seareh. In the old days, the most important sales channel to cultivate was your inside sales force and your reps: the primary means by which prospects approached your company about buying your product. In 2008, the primary means of finding products is through Internet search. Therefore, the most important knowledge for the B2B marketer to acquire is not how to recruit reps (though that's still important). It’s finding out the keywords and phrases prospects search when looking for your type of product or for help solving one of the problems it addresses...and along with that, making sure your site comes up on the search engine's first page when prospects type in those keywords and phrases. ve only covered the tip of the iceberg as far as the differences between business- to-business marketing in 2010 vs. 1978. There's a lot | left out because of space limitations: e-mail marketing campaigns, e-newsletters, blogs, vertical portals, tele- seminars, social networks—you name it. And that, I think, is the point: I was wrong in 1978 to view B2B marketing as static and set. It’s dynamic and fast-changing, and for today’s B2B marketing professional, it's full-time job just to keep up. My objective in this new e-book is to help make keeping up a little easier, and bring you a steady stream of profitable new ideas for generating more B2B leads and sales, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 9THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 2 10 Tips for Increasing Landing Page Conversion Rates There’s lots of buzz about blogging, viral marketing, social networking, and other new methods of generating eyeballs and traffic online. But all that traffic won't make you any money unless you can convert those unique visitors to leads or customers. Depending on whether you are selling a product directly from your landing page, asking visitors to download a free white paper, or promoting a Webinar or demonstration, conversion rates can range from as low as one percent or less to as much as 50 percent or more. Here are 10 keys to writing landing pages that maximize online 1—Build credibility early. People have always been skeptical of advertising, and with the proliferation of SPAM and shady operators, they are even more skeptical of what they read online. Therefore, your landing page copy must immediately overcome that skepticism. One way to do that is to make sure one or more “credibility builders” are clearly displayed on the first screen the visitor sees. In the banner at the top of the page, use your logo and company name if you are well known; universities, associations, and other institutions can place their official seal in the upper left of the screen. Within or immediately under the banner, puta strong testimonial or three above the headline on the first screen. Consider adding a pre-head or subhead which Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 10THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK summarizes the company’s mission statement or credentials. At www.bnasoftware.com, the positioning statement is: “Expert Software for a New Level of Efficiency and Control’, 2—Capture the e-mail addresses of non-buyers. There are a number of mechanisms available for capturing the e-mail address of visitors who click on your landing page but do not buy the product. One is to use a window with copy offering a free report or e-course in exchange for submitting an e-mail address, This window can be served to the visitor as a pop-up (it appears when the visitor arrives at the landing page) or a pop-under (a window that appears when the visitor attempts to leave the landing page without making an inquiry or purchase). These are both blocked by pop-up blockers. A “floater” is a window that slides onto the screen from the side or top. Unlike the pop-up and pop-under, the floater is part of the Website HTML code, so it is not stopped by the pop-up blocker. 3—Use lots of testimonials. Testimonials build credibility and overcome skepticism, as do case studies and white papers posted on the Website. If you invite customers to a live event, ask if they would be willing to give you a brief testimonial recorded on video. Have a professional videographer tape it, get a signed release from the customer, and post the testimonial on your Website as streaming video. Require the customer to click a button to hear the testimonial, rather than have the video play automatically when the visitor clicks on the page. For written testimonials, customers may suggest that you write what you want them to say and just run it by them for approval, Politely ask that they give you their opinion of your product in their own words instead of having you do it. Reason: what Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 11THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK they come up with will likely be more specific, believable, and detailed than your version, which might smack of puffery and promotion. 4—Use lots of bullets, Highlight key features and benefits ina list of short, easy- to-read bulleted items. | often use a format where the first part of the bullet is the feature, and after a dash comes the benefit; e.g. “Quick-release adhesive system - your graphics stay clean and don’t stick together.” Online buyers like to think they are getting a lot for their money, so when selling a product directly from your landing page, be sure all major features and important benefits are covered in a comprehensive bullet list appearing on your landing page. When generating leads by giving away white papers, you don’t need a huge list of, bulleted features and benefits. But using bullets to describe the contents of the paper and the benefits that information delivers can raise conversion rates for download requests. 5—Arouse curiosity in the headline. The headline should arouse curiosity, make a powerful promise, or otherwise grab the reader's attention so he has no choice but to keep reading, The headline for a landing page selling a training program on how to become a professional property locator makes a big promise: “Become a Property Locator Today - and Make $100,000 a Year in the Greatest Real Estate Career That Only a Few Insiders Know About.” 6—Use a conversational copy style, Most corporate Websites are unemotional and sterile: just “information.” Buta landing page is a letter from one human being to another. Make it sound that way. Even if your product is highly technical and you are Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 12THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK selling it to techies, remember that they are still human beings, and you cannot sell something by boring people to death. 7—Incorporate an emotional hook in the headline and lead paragraph. Logical selling can work, but tapping into the prospect's emotions is much stronger— especially when you correctly assess how the prospect is feeling about your product or the problem is solves right now. Another effective tactic for lead-generation landing pages is to stress your free offer in the headline and lead, Example: Kaydon’s landing page shows a picture of its catalog with the bold heading above it reading, “FREE Ceramic Bearings Product Selection Guide.” ‘8—Solve the reader's problem. Once you hook the reader with emotional copy dramatizing her problem or a powerful free offer, show how your product—or your free information—can help solve their problem. For example: “Now there is a better, easier, and more effective solution to wobbly restaurant tables that can irritate customers and ruin their dining experience: Table Shox, the world’s smallest shock absorber.” ‘To maximize landing page conversion rates, you have to convince the visitor that the quickest route to solving his problem is taking the action indicated on the land page, and not—as you might be tempted to let him do—surfing your site. That's why I prefer landing pages to appear with no navigation, so the reader's only choice is to respond or not respond; there’s no menu of click buttons and hyperlinks to other interesting pages to distract him. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 13THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK 9—Make it timely and current. The more your online copy ties in with current events and news, the higher your response rates. This is especially critical when selling financial and investment information as well as regulatory compliance products in fields where laws and rules change frequently. Periodically update your landing page copy to reflect current business and economic conditions, challenges, and trends. This shows your visitor that your company is current with and on top of what’s happening in your industry today, 10—Stress the money-back guarantee or lack of commitment on the part of the user. If you allow customers to order products directly from the landing page, make sure you have a money-back guarantee clearly stated on that page. All your competitors give strong money-back guarantees. So you can't get away without doing the same. If your product is good and your copy truthful, your refund rates can be as low as one percent or even less. Ifyou are generating leads, stress that your offer—which might be a white paper, online demonstration, or Webinar—is free. Say there is no obligation to buy and that no salesperson will visit. Chapter 3 Are White Papers Dead? It’s often the case that when a marketing technique is overused, it gradually loses its effectiveness over time, When that happens, usage drops off, and prospects are consequently no longer bombarded by the technique. Example: the AOL CD mailings. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 14THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Ayear or so later, some smart marketer remembers the old technique, realizes it hasn't been used for a while, and decides to test it again. Sure enough, it works, because the market hasn't seen it for some time. Other marketers who use it also start getting good results, and the marketing tool becomes popular once more. In the consumer sector, sweepstakes is a direct marketing technique that varies in effectiveness over time, Now, in business-to-business, some direct marketers question whether white papers are running out of steam. The concern is that there are too many white papers—so that the offer of yet another one has lost its appeal. As one white paper skeptic told me, “Prospects already have too much to read; why would they ask for more?” Yet the numbers tell a different story: namely, that white paper marketing is alive and well and working, "The demand for white papers has never been higher,” says Michael A. Stelzner, executive editor of WhitePaperSource.com. “During business downturns, corporations rely more on marketing to help them acquire leads and establish thought leadership. White papers are the secret weapon for companies. Our organization has seen a major increase in white paper use among businesses of all sizes, but especially those selling costly or complex products: Ina survey of nearly 1,400 IT professionals, the majority said they were more likely to download and read white papers than product literature. Over the years, I've seen a number of direct mail and e-mail tests in which offering a free white paper or other free content increased response rates 10% to 100% or more. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 15THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK White papers work; more than half of IT professionals say white papers influence their buying decision. I do think, however, that we have to broaden our notion of how to use free content offers, which is essen ly what a white paper is: free information designed to educate our prospects and motivate them to inquire about our product or service, To begin with, I think it's not white papers themselves that are tiring but the name itself, “White paper” signals to some prospects a document that is an obvious selling tool, And with virtually every white paper in the world available for free, white papers have a low perceived value as a giveaway. The solution is to keep using white papers in your marketing but to call them something else. The mailing list broker Edith Roman used to publish a print catalog of mailing lists. But instead of calling it a catalog, they called it the “Direct Mail Encyclopedia.” Offering a free Direct Mail Encyclopedia helped generate more inquiries for their brokerage services. Copywriter Ivan Levison calls his white papers “guides.” Marketer David Yale uses “executive briefing.” 'm partial to “special repo! 2’ For consumer marketing, marketing expert Joe Polish suggests “consumer awareness guide,” and for a B2B white paper giving product seley n tips, I'd change this to “buyer's guide” or “selection guide.” For a white paper giving tips or instructions on a process, I might call it a “manual.” Ifyou publish a print version that fits in a #10 envelope and is saddle stitched, you can call ita “free booklet.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 16THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK All of the above are variations on the free content offer. Direct marketers refer to free content offers as “bait pieces,” because they are used to “bait your hook” when you g0 “fishing” for sales leads. Does what you call your bait piece really matter? I think it does, because calling it a report or guide creates a perception of greater value—after all, thousands of publishers actually sell special reports and booklets for prices ranging from $3 to $40 or more, | often put a dollar price for the guide or report in the upper right corner of the front cover, which strengthens the perception that the freebie has value; | don't think this would be credible on a document labeled as a white paper. What about the complaint that prospects already have too much to read? Iam reminded of a quotation from Rutherford Rogers: “We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” There is more information on the Internet than you could process in a thousand lifetimes. But good white papers don't merely present information; they offer solutions to business and technical problems. Virtually every B2B sale you make is because someone thinks your product or service is the solution to their problem. A white paper can help clarify the problem as well as convince the reader that your idea or method is the best of many options for addressing it. Every marketing campaign has an objective, yet if you ask most managers what the objective of their white paper is, they probably couldn't tell you, Too many see white papers as an opportunity to merely collect and publish a pile of research material they found on the Web using Google, To make your white paper successful, you must define the marketing objective before writing a single word, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 17THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK For example, a manufacturer found that consumers were not buying their do-it- yourself (DIY) underground sprinkler kits, because homeowners perceived installing the irrigation system by themselves as too difficult. Solution: a free DIY manual on how to install an underground sprinkler system in a single weekend, Clearly written and illustrated, the manual overcame the perception that this was a tough project, making it look easy. In the pre-Internet era, bait pieces were mainly paper and ink. Thanks to the PC and the Internet, bait pieces can now be produced as PDF files and instantly downloaded online, But at the receiving end, they are usually printed by the prospect and read on paper. Itmay be that what's wearing out is not free content, but the standard white paper format: pages of black ink on 8% by 11-inch sheets of paper. To make your bait piece stand out, consider using alternative formats: DVDs, CDs, audio cassettes, podcasts, Webinars, tele-seminars, flash cards, stickers, posters, software, games, and slide guides. A slide guide is a cardboard promotional item with a moving slide or wheel that allows the prospect to perform some simple calculation, eg, convert inches to centimeters or determine the monthly payments on a mortgage. Most white papers are 6 to 10 pages—about 3,000 to 4,000 words—but you are not locked into that length. You can go shorter or longer, depending on the content you want to present and the marketing objective of the bait piece. The bait piece can be as. short and simple as a list of tips printed on one side of a sheet of paper. Or it can be as long as a self-published paperback book. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 18THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Free content offers have been used effectively in marketing for decades, and rather than tiring, they have been given new life, thanks in part to the information- oriented culture spawned by the Internet. “Every organization possesses particular expertise that has value in the new e-marketplace of ideas,” writes David Merman Scott in his book Cashing In With Content (Information Today, 2005, p. 8). “Organizations gain credibility and loyalty with customers, employees, the media, investors, and suppliers through content.” Chapter 4 The 6 Key Components of Effective B2B Offers How important is the offer in business-to-business marketing? Answer: very. | have seen numerous tests in which a simple change of offer has increased the response rate by 25% to 900% —dramatically improving ROMD (return on marketing dollars) for the advertiser. The best of these winning B2B offers share six common characteristics...and to lift your response rates, your offers should, too. Winning offers: 1—Are different or unique. The best offers are fresh and new. When copywriter Bill Jayme wrote the direct mail packaged that launched New York magazine, he proposed a sweepstakes, Sweepstakes have long been used to sell magazine subscriptions, but none has ever offered the prize Jayme dreamed up: dinner at Gracie Mansion with New York City’s mayor. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 19THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Most investment newsletters offer free special reports as premiums. The Sovereign Society, a newsletter on offshore investing, offered something different: a free Swiss bank account—a gift not given by any other investment newsletter. Most business magazines offer either discounted subscription rates or standard premiums like special reports, tote bags, or calculators. Advertising Age had a successful control where the premium was a ceramic coffee mug, Coffee mugs are nothing special. But this one was imprinted with a mock-up of an Ad Age cover. If the subscriber was Jan Smith, the headline on the mock issue of Ad Age was personalized to read: “Jan Smith Chosen as Marketing Genius of the Year.” 2—Have a high degree of desirability. An unusual offer only works if it’s something people really want. A publisher was selling a loose-leaf service on how to manage Novell NetWare local area networks. Response rates doubled when anew direct mail promotion offered adisk with free software—a collection of utilities for Novell networks. ‘The 100% increase in orders confirmed that these software programs were tools network administrators obviously wanted to get their hands on. The outer envelope teaser read: “Yours FREE! ~ 5 Powerful Programs to Help You Manage Your Novell NetWare Network More Efficiently and Easily ~ See Inside for Details on This Special Time-Limited Offer.” On the other hand, a financial newsletter mailed a renewal promotion that offered as a premium a pack of playing cards with the editor's picture on them, Not surprisingly, it lopped: who would want that? Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 20THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK 3—Have a high perceived value, especially in relation to fulfillment cost. Free software has traditionally worked well as a premium. Software has a high perceived value in relation to the cost of goods. You know that purchased in a store or online, software packages can easily sell for $49 to $300 or more. Yet a CD with code on it can be duplicated for about a dollar. But how much do you pay for a deck of playing cards at your local stationery store? About a dollar, right? Therefore, the perceived value of the playing cards given as a renewal promotion by the financial publisher mentioned earlier is only a dollar— hardly a financial motivator to renew a newsletter subscription that costs $79 a year. Ina promotion tied in with their sponsorship of the Olympics, IBM offered a special IBM Olympic pin as a premium. In reality, the item probably only cost and was worth a buck or so, But the mailer copy hinted that the item could become a collectible, creating an impression of potentially high value. 4—Dramatize the brand or USP. The Sovereign Society is a newsletter about offshore investing. The symbol for offshore investing has long been Swiss bank accounts. Therefore, the offer ofa free Swiss bank account with a subscription to The Sovereign Society supports and dramatizes the newsletter’s USP (unique selling proposition): making money and increasing privacy by investing offshore in things like Swiss bank accounts. Even when the offer does not at first glance seem closely related to the product, a clever copywriter can find a connection. Example: years ago, Newsweek offered a free radio as a premium for new subscribers, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 21THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK It would seem that, on the surface, a radio is a poor choice of premium: in the news area, radio and magazines compete with one another. But copywriter Milt Pierce used the differences between these media to make a logical connection between the premium and the product: Dear Reader: What's the fastest way to get the news? It's on the radio. That's why Newsweek wants you to have = as an introductory gift for new subscribers - this superb AM/FM radio. But what's the best way to get the news? You won’t get just headlines and a rough outline of the news, with Newsweek, you'll get the news in depth .. 5—Are easy to take advantage of, You should make it as easy and convenient as possible for the prospect to accept your offer. How? To begin with, offer multiple response mechanisms: toll-free phone number...fax number... hyperlink to a landing page (see www thelandingpageguru.com)...e-mail ... even (gasp!) a postal address. Different prospects respond in different ways Create response mechanisms. In a direct mail package, enclose a fax-back form or business reply card (BRC) with your letter. If you want customers to enclose payment with their order, or privacy is a concern, also include a business reply envelope (BRE). Ina print ad, consider including a coupon or a bind-in BRC opposite the advertisement. On the Web, landing pages should ask for the minimum information from the prospect when collecting leads. Ifyou are building your opt-in e-list, ask for name Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 22THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK and e-mail address only. When you have multiple fields for the user to complete, use an asterisk (*) to indicate which are mandatory, and make as many fields as possible optional. Conversion rates decline incrementally for each additional field you force the prospect to fill out. The ease and convenience of accepting the offer can even be highlighted in the copy as a benefit, In a letter selling the Board Report, a newsletter for graphic designers, copywriter Sig Rosenblum makes a benefit out of the fact that the reply element is a BRC: Please complete the card enclosed and drop it in the mail today. It's already addressed. And the postage is paid. 6—Minimize the buyer’s risk and obligation. Do whatever you can to minimize sales pressure on the prospect. If you follow up leads by phone instead of with the field sales force, say in your copy “No salesperson will visit.” Ifyou do not follow up leads by phone, say “No salesperson will call.” When offering anything free—a white paper, a Webinar, even a brochure—say that itis free, Do not substitute the weaker “complimentary” when writing to a high level business audience because you think “free” is not professional or will offend them, Itwon't. Everybody wants free stuff, and businesspeople and professionals are no exception, A health care agency sent a direct mail piece inviting doctors to attend a symposium, They did an A/B split test of two versions; the only difference was that B offered a free pocket diary as a gift for attendance. Version B, offering the free gift, out- Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 23THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK pulled version A—with no free gift—six-fold. Busy doctors were persuaded to give up an afternoon bya free pocket diary that costs about a dollar! Does the buyer have to agree to sit through a presentation or demonstration, or complete a survey? Ifhe is not required to take further action once he accepts the offer, note this in your copy by saying: “There's no obligation...nothing to buy...and no commitment of any kind.” Chapter 5 Should B2B Copywriters Avoid Jargon? Almost universally, the great writing teachers tell us to avoid jargon, and to use small words instead of big words. “We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon,” writes William Zinsser in On Writing Well: 25th edition (Quill, 2001, p. 7). And in The Art of Readable Writing (Harper & Row, 1991, p. 127), Rudolph Flesch warns: “keep away from fancy words because you never can tell what they mean.” But in copywriting, there are certainly exceptions to this rule—times when a bigger or fancier word, or jargon, can command the reader's attention and persuade him more effectively than everyday prose. The first except is the use of big words to create a perception of enhanced value, For example, Mont Blane doesn’t call their product a “pen” in their catalog. They Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 24THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK sell “writing instruments.” Reason: people will pay $150 for a writing instrument. But they can buy a perfectly functional pen at CVS for a dollar. Ina similar vein, almost no one sells used cars any more. Today a used car is called a “certified pre-owned vehicle.” Vehicle sounds more impressive than car. Pre- owned removes the stigma of used. And who certified your pre-owned BMW or Lexus? BMW and Lexus, of course. Direct marketers know that the words you use do matter, Consultant Gary Hennerberg says that when Collin Street Bakery changed the name of its main product from “fruitcake” to “Native Texas Pecan Cake,” mail order sales increased 60 percent. Another reason to use jargon is to create a sense of affinity between the writer and the reader. You want the prospect to feel that you are part of his group, or at least know and understand him and his kind. But don't use insider jargon when writing to non-specialists, Sociologist Susan Brownmiller defines jargon as “language more complex than the word it serves to communicate.” Similarly, when editing the massive Oxford English Dictionary, James Murray's rule was that a definition could not contain a word more complex than the word being defined. For example, a pilot may tell a flight attendant to instruct the passengers to deplane. But when the flight attendant passes this information on to passengers, she should just say “get off the plane.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 25THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK The third application of jargon is in writing about technical topics, and a huge number of business-to-business marketers sell technical products to technical audiences. Is it safe—even advisable—to use jargon in these situations? “Have you ever listened to two computer programmers talk to each other? Or two engineers? Or two doctors?” asks copywriter Bob McCarthy. "They all have their ‘own language—or so it seems. Their conversations are peppered with technical terms, abbreviations, codes and acronyms that make sense for the people involved.” ‘These jargon-filled conversations are not for show either, says McCarthy. They are for expediency. They provide useful shortcuts that move the conversations along more quickly and more efficiently. “In short, it’s the way they talk,” concludes McCarthy, ind it’s the way we need to write if we are writing on their behalf.” When writing about technical products or marketing to a technical audience, it’s important to note the difference between technical terms and jargon. Technical terms are words that precisely describe the technology, process, or idea we want to convey. “Operating system” is a technical term, as is “broadband network.” We should use them. They are familiar to our readers. And to avoid them would require substituting lengthy and unnecessary descriptions. Technical terms were invented to concisely and clearly communicate technical information to audiences with varying degrees of education and experience, Jargon, on the other hand, is language that is unnecessarily complex—more so than the idea it is meant to convey. The advantage of using jargon is that with some audiences (e.g. IT professionals), it creates an affinity with the reader. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 26THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK The disadvantage of jargon is that, aside from sounding pompous, itis not as clear or direct as simpler substitutes. And therefore, your reader may wonder what you really mean, describing a material handling system, I wrote that the equipment dumped the material from a storage silo into a bin. The product manager crossed out “dumped” and changed it to “gravimetrically conveyed.” When his boss read this, he asked, puzzled, "What's a gravimetric conveyor?” Ahealth care ad agency showed their client, a manufacturer of dental products, a Web page for a new splint. The splint is a metal band attached to the back of the teeth; the strong, healthy teeth in the mouth help keep the loose ones from moving, The agency had written that the splint “keeps loose teeth in place.” The client changed this to say that the splint “stabilizes mobile dentition.” Self-important jargon? Or appropriate use of legitimate technical term? You tell me. What about acronyms, an insidious subcategory of jargon particularly rampant in certain industries, such as telecommunications? The rule is to write out the term in the first use, with its acronym following in parentheses; eg, short messaging service (SMS), electronic data interchange (EDI). However, this rule is typically not applied when using acronyms that have become so commonplace, the initials communicate your idea more quickly and clearly than the term spelled out, Examples include DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), EST (eastern. standard time), scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus), laser (light Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 27THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK amplification through stimulated emission of radiation), cop (constable on patrol), and tip (to insure promptness). You can minimize confusion when using acronyms by being consistent in your usage, Don't randomly jump from USA to US to U.S.A. to US of A; pick one and stick with it throughout your document. Even when using legitimate technical terms and acronyms, don't overdo it. A sentence packed with too many acronyms and technical terms seems cold, inhuman, and almost unreadable, The optimal ratio is no more than one technical term for every ten words in the sentence. Spell checkers valiantly attempt to keep up with ever-changing industry jargon, and fail miserably. Therefore, when writing B2B copy, keep a dictionary covering your industry close at hand. For telecommunications, the standard is Newton's Telecom Dictionary; for medical copywriting, it's Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary. B2B marketers worry about the level of technical language in their copy as. follows: “If the copy is too technical, some readers won't be able to understand it; but if the copy is too simple, some readers will feel we are talking down to them, and we will insult them.” This may be accurate, but here's another rule of thumb to guide you: if you have to make a choice between making your copy too simple or too sophisticated, err on the side of making it too simple, Reason: in my nearly 30 years of writing business-to- business copy aimed at engineers, scientists, programmers, and other techies, I have never once heard a prospect complain, “This brochure is too easy to read.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 28THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 6 5 Steps to Building a Large and Responsive Opt-In E-List of Qualified B2B Prospects Many B2B marketers want to cut marketing costs by shifting more of their marcom budgets from traditional direct mail and paper newsletters to e-mail marketing and e-newsletters. But if you want to ramp up your online marketing program, you should start building a large opt-in e-list of customers and prospects now. Why? Because without a significant online “house file” (list of opt-in subscribers), you can only reach prospects in your niche by renting other marketers’ opt-in e-lists, which is hardly cost-effective: each time you want to send another message to your industry, you have to rent the list again—at a cost that can easily reach into the hundreds of dollars per thousand names. Some marketers buy databases containing e-mail addresses of business prospects in their niche market. This can work if you are sending highly targeted e-mails on extremely relevant topics and offers to narrow vertical e-lists. But when you send e-mail messages to non opt-in lists, you are mostly asking for trouble. CAN/SPAM does not prohibit e-mailing to people who have not opted in. But people on non-opt-in e-lists are much more likely to register SPAM complaints than those on legitimate opt-in e-lists—and far less likely to buy from you. So the best online strategy for B2B marketers is to build your own opt-in e-list of subscribers. Doing so eliminates the cost of renting opt-in lists while preventing the Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 29THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK SPAM complaints and lower response rates typical of non opt-in purchased or rented lists When you own an opt-in e-list covering a sizeable percentage of your target market, you can communicate with your prospects and customers as often as you desire or think is appropriate at minimal cost. Being able to send an e-mail to your target, market with a few mouse clicks makes you less dependent on costly direct mail, print newsletters, and other paper promotions. By using a double opt-in process that requires new subscribers to verify their identity before being added to your e-list, you help minimize SPAM complaints and bounce-backs. Owning large opt-in e-list of target prospects also decreases marketing costs and improves lead flow and revenues. So how do you build a large and profitable opt-in e-list of qualified B2B prospects in your field? Here are five ideas: 41—Dedicate a portion of your online marketing budget exclusively to list- building. Most B2B marketers drive traffic either to their Website home page or landing pages relating to specific offers (eg, free Webinar registration, free white paper download, purchase a product). And a lot of the traffic they drive to these pages is existing customers and prospects who are already on their e-list. You should spend a minimum of 20 percent of your online marketing budget on building your house opt-in e-list. That means getting qualified prospects in your industry who have not yet opted into your online subscriber list to do so. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 30THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK There are many online marketing options that work well for e-list building programs, These include pay-per-click advertising, postcard marketing, banner advertising, online ads in other marketer's e-newsletters, B2B co-registration deals, video marketing, viral marketing, editorial mentions in trade publications, online article marketing, affiliate marketing, and social media—to name just a few. 2—Calculate your maximum acceptable cost per new subscriber. When evaluating marketing methods for e-list building, you have to weigh the cost of acquiring the new name vs. the value that new name has for your business. To determine value, divide total annual revenues generated by your online subscriber list by the number of names on that list. Example: If your 20,000 online subscribers account for $600,000 in annual sales, your subscriber value is $30 per name per year. You decide how much you are willing to spend to acquire a subscriber worth $30 per year. If uncertain, use this rule of thumb: list building campaigns should ideally pay back their cost within three to six months. Therefore, if your names are worth $30 per year each, you can afford to spend up to $15 per subscriber to acquire new names. Say you drive traffic to a landing page where people can sign up to your e-list. The conversion rate is 50 percent, so for every two unique visitors you drive to your registration page, you get one new opt-in subscriber. Using Google Ad Words, you can drive traffic at a cost of $7 per click. Can you afford that? Yes, because that means you get one new subscriber for every two clicks you buy, which works out to $14 per subscriber—within your $15 per new name limit. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 31THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Would it make more sense to base the allowable acquisition cost per new name on the lifetime customer value (LCV) of online subscribers rather than just the average one-year revenue per name? Theoretically, yes. But you can only do that if you've been marketing online long enough to have reliable numbers on which to base LCV estimates. Until you do, stick with the revenue per year per name figure as the baseline. 3—Publish a free e-newsletter. The best way to build and regularly communicate with an opt-in list of B2B prospects is to publish and distribute a free e- newsletter on a specialized topic related to your product line and of interest to your target prospects. Publishing a free e-zine gives you two important benefits for your online marketing efforts. First, it gives you a standing free offer—a free subscription to your e- letter—you can use in your e-list building efforts. Second, having the e-newsletter insures that you communicate with your opt-in subscribers on a regular basis. This regular communication builds your relationship with your online prospects while increasing the frequency of branding messages and online marketing opportunities. 4—Build a “free-on-free name squeeze page.” With a staggering number of free e-newsletters on the Internet competing for attention, ‘snot enough to have a simple sign-up box on your home page for your free e-newsletter. You should offer a bribe as an incentive for visitors to subscribe. The best bribe is a free special report the visitor can download as a PDF file in exchange for opting in to your e-list. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 32THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK For instance, if you sell supply chain management software, and publish an e+ called “The Strategic SCM Partner,” offer a short bonus report “7 Steps to Improving Supply Chain Management in Your Enterprise” asa premium for new subscribers. Drive traffic not to your home page or standard subscription form, but toa special “free-on-free name squeeze page’—a landing page highlighting this offer. We call ita “name squeeze page” because it extracts or “squeezes” new names for your list from Web traffic. “Free on free” means you are offering free content (the report) as a bribe to get the visitor to accept your primary free offer (the e-newsletter subscription). For an example of a free-on-free squeeze page see: www bly.com/reports, 5—Capture the e-mail addresses of site visitors who do not buy, subscribe, or register. Put in place one or more mechanisms for capturing the e-mail addresses of site visitors who do not buy a product, download a demo, subscribe to your free online newsletter, or take other actions that opt them into your e-list. Going back to our example for supply chain management, when the visitor attempts to leave the site without purchasing or registering, have a window pop-up to capture his e-mail address. The headline says, “Wait! Don't leave without claiming your free special SCM report!” Short copy explains they can get a free copy of your special report “7 Steps to Improving Supply Chain Management in Your Enterprise” by typing in their e-mail address in the blank space and clicking submit. Ifyou are not proactively making an effort to capture e-mail addresses of site visitors who do not otherwise register, you are leaving money on the table. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 33THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK For more ideas on building your e-list and capturing the e-mail addresses of site visitors, go to www.thelandingpagegurn.com Chapter 7 5 Modern Myths of B2B Marketing There's a lot of misinformation out there about what works in B2B marketing— much of it spread by highly paid consultants with a new technology or channel to hype and an axe to grind, With that in mind, here are five of the biggest lies being told about B2B marketing today and the truth about each: The myth: The Web has made print obsolete. The reality: Many people still prefer to read words on paper instead of on a screen, and many marketers are still heavy users of catalogs, brochures, and other print collateral. “We still market our various niche services with brochures,” says Norman, Freeman, President of Associated Global Systems, “Since we have been around for 50 years, we tend to favor print, Young professionals may agree, however, that print is not now needed if the information is available online.” “I don't believe print media will die,” says B2B copywriter and consultant Joan Damico. “Instead, it has been downsized to serve as a complement to electronic media. “There's also been a shift as to who's doing the printing. The consumer is doing a larger share of the printing from the PDF files they download from your Website. It’s Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 34THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK still easier for many people to print and then read and annotate later, than it is to boot up a laptop and do the same electronically. But that will change too as more print pieces are designed for mobile electronic devices such as PDAs and cell phones.” The myth: Social networks are the most important and most widely used B2B marketing tools of our time, and have overtaken Websites in importance. The reality: Millions of people have embraced social networks—and millions of others don‘tuse them at all. Yes, social networking—along with mobile marketing and SEO—is clearly one of, the “hot” marketing methods, gaining a disproportionate share of media attention. But the truth is that many of your customers don’t participate in these social sites, and have to be reached through conventional Websites and other traditional B2B marketing methods. “Social media has yet to prove itself as a medium that can out-monetize a Website,” says copywriter April Parcher. “When prospects are searching for something specific, they don’t turn to LinkedIn or MySpace first. They Google it and hunt up the Websites in that category that seem to be most relevant to their search—and that provide the most valuable content.” “Your Website is your office, the formal place of your business,” says copywriter Susanna K. Hutcheson. “Your blog, Facebook, Twitter—these are the water cooler and the lunch room. Informal places where you make contacts much like the golf courses and country clubs of the 1950s.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 35THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK “Social networking sites are certainly a new ‘feather in the cap’ of many business operators and marketing professionals,” says marketing consultant Fiona Fell. “But | do nt in time that they outweigh the power of a Website for a business. A Website provides a place of solidarity and ‘permanency’ to an online business. It gives your ‘tribe’ and ‘raving fans’ a place to call home, and to drop in to find out about you and your offerings.” The myth: Direct mail is dead as a B2B lead generation tool. The reality: Direct mail is still very much alive. Despite the prediction that e-mail would make snail mail obsolete, the Winterberry Group reports that spending for direct mail marketing in the U.S. was $58.4 billion in 2007, a five percent increase over the previous year. “although much B2B lead gen has moved online, direct mail is still very effective,” says copywriter Ed Gandia, “In fact, in working with clients on lead generation strategy and campaigns, I've found that response to direct mail campaigns can sometimes be higher than that of e-mail. Also, I find direct mail to be extremely effective in lead nurturing efforts— often much more so than e-mail.” How could this be so? According to Gandia, with so many B2B marketers rushing online over the last five years, a strong, personalized direct mail piece actually stands out, And pieces that stand out often get read, which leads to greater response and high return on marketing investment—even higher than many e-mail and social media efforts in some cases. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 36THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK “In the end, you need a little of everything. Direct mail alone won't save you,” Gandia admits. “But DM can be a crucial part of a successful B2B marketing mix, regardless of what might be more fashionable or hip at the moment.” The myth: E-mail marketing is an old-school online marketing channel and, with SPAM filters and firewalls, doesn’t work anymore. The reality: It does, despite the challenges of e-mail deliverability. Marketing theorists dismiss e-mail marketing as outmoded push or interruption, technology. Their belief is that prospects shun communications sent to them, and instead respond only to communications they initiate and control, like social media, blogs, and online search. But research shows that people still pay attention and respond to their e-mail. A study at Loughorough University found that users take action on average in less than two minutes upon being notified that a new e-mail is waiting for them. The most effective e-mail marketing, however, may not be renting outside e-lists of B2B prospects. Two reasons why it doesn't work so well: it’s expensive, and people tend not to buy from strangers online. Abetter strategy is to build your own opt-in e-list, typically by offering a free e- newsletter subscription or other valuable free content. According to a report by Forrester Research, opt-in lists (such as e-newsletter subscriber lists) retain 49 percent of their subscribers over time—more than double the retention rate of compiled or harvested e-lists. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 37THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Myth: White papers are old hat—a transparent marketing ploy masquerading as real content that today’s sophisticated B2B prospects see right through. Reality: Free content—and that includes white papers—has never been a more effective marketing tool than itis today. Web 2.0 evangelists champion blogs over white papers, presumably because blogs are user-generated content and therefore more unbiased, while white papers are company-generated content and therefore promotional. However, in my view, when it comes to quality and value of content, white papers often trump blogs. Many blogs are unfocused ramblings of an individual whose credentials are unknown or unproven. White papers, though they may havea marketing objective, are carafully crafted to deliver valuable content—because without good content, they won't achieve their marketing goals. “Social media, blogs, and user-generated content are of great value yet have one major shortcoming,” says white paper writer Michael Stelzner. “They require constant innovation and fresh content to transform lookers to prospects. Alternatively, the single well-crafted white paper can deliver a steady stream of quality leads for literally years. “Given shrinking marketing budgets and greater pressure to perform, | would stick with what we know works.” Stelzner notes that a recent study by TechTarget places white papers number one among buyers, more so than other marketing materials. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 38THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 8 Are Businesspeople Devoid of Emotion When Making Buying Decisions? There are two schools of thought concerning marketing to business and technical buyers. The first school says, “Copy should be as short as possible, direct, and to the point. Bullet lists are better than sentences and paragraphs. Don't do any selling, Just give business buyers the facts, data, and specifications they need to make an intelligent decision about buying your product. No need to state the benefits. They already know they need the product and why. You just have to convince them that your brand is superior to other products in the category you compete against, and that your product satisfies their application's requirements.” Advocates of this “rational” school of B2B marketing believe that business prospects, at work, are largely rational beings that make logical decisions based on facts, They strive to keep written communications as short as possible, in the belief that all businesspeople are extremely busy with no time to read. “Business-to-business copy should be completely fact-based,” says LT, a veteran B2B marketer, “And the less there is to read in your copy, the greater your response rates will be, Long copy in B2B gets tossed in the trash,” LT also advises that copy written for B2B audiences should sound professional rather than conversational. “These are educated people,” he says, “and you must talk to them on their own level, which is high.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 39THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK The other school of B2B marketing is the “emotional” school. Their philosophy was articulated to me by HF, who owned a successful industrial ad agency in the 1980s. HF said: “The business prospect doesn't stop being a person when he sets foot in the office. He is a human being first, and an executive or engineer second. Therefore, the same psychological factors motivate him as a human being whether he is at work or at home.” The emotional school of B2B marketing uses copy and design that reads and looks more like consumer advertising than technical writing, The copy style is personal and conversational, tapping into the prospect's needs, concerns, fears, and desires, “Because business customers are persons, communications to them should try to connect on a personal level,” says B2B copywriter Ken Norkin. “That means starting out by conveying an understanding of the customer's situation and in particular the problem that your product is going to solve. You not only need to present the data but tell your readers what it means to them.” Now, most marketers divide the marketing world into two segments: business- to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing. The “rational” school of B2B marketing says business and consumer not at all the same. The “emotional” school says that B2B and B2C marketing are more alike than they are different. But | actually think there is a third segment, real but rarely recognized: hybrid marketing (see Fig, 1). Hybrid markets are those that exhibit characteristics of both business prospects and consumers. Hybrid prospects are consumers who exhibit many of the behaviors shared by business prospects or vice versa. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 40THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK An example of a classic hybrid market is SOHOs—small office /home office businesses, These are for the most part self-employed people working at home or a small rented office. Typically they work alone. Some have a small staff. Technically, since they are business owners, selling to SOHOs is B2B marketing. But SOHOs often behave more like individual consumers than corporate executives, engineers, or IT professionals. For a corporate middle manager, the purchase of an expensive color digital printer may indeed be a largely dispassionate decision: one of my tasks she must contend with that week. The SOHO is more likely to agonize over this purchase decision. The expense of. the equipment is much more of an emotional issue, since it is coming out of the SOHO’s pocket: he may have to decide between buying the printer vs. sending his kid to camp that summer. In addition, the SOHO may cultivate a personal excitement from this, purchase (having coveted but never owning office equipment this high-tech or costly before) that the corporate employee does not feel. Farmers are another hybrid market. The family farm is their legacy and livelihood, and there are few issues more emotionally charged than keeping it as a growing concern and passing it on to the children. Yet, a farm isa business, and therefore farmers are, strictly speaking, a B2B and not a consumer market. Jam unaware of any authoritative study on whether business-to-business marketing (and marketing to hybrid markets that exhibit some B2B characteristics) works better when it is reduces to the bare essential facts or written on a personal and Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 41THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK emotional level. So I can only relate what I have found during my three decades as a B2B copywriter. And based on that long experience, here is what I believe works in B2B copy asarule: >> Business-to-business prospects are far less dispassionate about their jobs and. industries than is often imagined. For example, | attended a technical seminar years ago where two telecommunications managers both turned red in the face and nearly came to blows in a heated argument about whether TDMA or CDMA was the better platform for wireless communications, >> The business prospect buys not only for his company but for his own personal benefit, and the two are sometimes at odds. Often a prospect will specify a product that may not be the optimum solution for his company’s problem if he believes it will personally make his life easier or his employment more secure. This is why for years the maxim in IT was no IT manager ever got fired for buying an IBM product that didn't work. Even if another brand had superior features or better price/performance, IBM was the safer choice for IT buyers who answered to senior management. >> While B2B prospects can be engaged and sold emotionally, once that engagement takes place, B2B prospects require much more rational evidence to support their buying decisions than consumers. So the answer to our question “Are B2B prospects devoid of emotion?” is decidedly “no.” On the contrary, and despite what they themselves may say, much of B2B buying is motivated by emotional reasons rather than logical facts. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 42THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK However, the emotion in B2B marketing typically comes in the front-end of the sale, which involves attention-getting and engagement. This is the place in the B2B sales cycle where emotion-driven consumer advertising techniques maximize marketing effectiveness. An example is the current TV campaign for Macintosh vs. Microsoft, where Apple computers are positioned as cooler, friendlier, and problem-free. Once emotion hooks the B2B prospect, and he begins a serious evaluation of your product, logic and intellect take over. He gradually shifts from an emotional buyer (though residue of his emotional reaction to your marketing stays with him throughout the sales cycle) and increasingly toward a rational mode of decision-making. At this stage, the prospect is performing due diligence. He has to make sure the product can perform the functions required, fits the application's requirements, is compatible with his current infrastructure, has the proper specifications, and can handle the buyer's application. Here is where traditional informational, fact-based, content-rich B2B marketing—data sheets, brochures, white papers, podcasts, and Webinars—are most useful to buyers, because they contain answers to the buyer’s due-diligence research questions. Fig. 1. The three markets: B2B, B2C, hybrid. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 43THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 9 Marketing with Case Studies According to copywriter Heather Sloan, case studies are often more effective than brochures and traditional sales collateral. Why? “Everyone loves a story,” explains Heather. “An old adage says, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ Never did this wisdom ring truer than in sales conversations and marketing pieces. Stories paint pictures. Stories evoke emotions. Stories are memorable. Stories give your presentations sticking power. The easiest way to tell a marketing story is by case study.” Accase study is a product success story. It tells how a company solved a problem using a specific product, process, method, or idea. As with other marketing techniques, case studies fluctuate in popularity: while almost any company can profitably market with case studies, an informal survey of B2B Websites shows that most companies don’t take full advantage of the power of case study marketing, While case studies need not adhere to any one formula, here are some guidelines. The average case study is relatively brief: one or two sides of an 8% by 11-inch page, or approximately 800 to 1,500 words. More complex or in-depth case studies can run 2,000 to 2,500 words. An effective case study makes the reader want to learn more about the product it features, It's a soft-sell proposition designed to compel your prospects to request more detailed information. If you've mirrored the reader's problem successfully, the case study will propel them deeper into the sales funnel and closer to buying. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 44THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK For the most part, case studies are not overly technical: they are written ina style similar to that of a magazine feature article. The intent of a case study is not to present in-depth minutia and analytical data, but to briefly describe how a product or service can effectively address and solve a particular problem. You needn't be creative or reinvent the wheel when creating a case study. Most case studies follow some variation of this time-tested outline: 1, Whois the customer? 2. What was the problem? How was it hurting the customer's business? 3. What solutions did they look at and ultimately reject, and why? 4, Why did they choose our product as the solution? 5. Describe the implementation of the product, including any problems and how they were solved, 6. How and where does the customer use the product? 7. What are the results and benefits they are getting? 8, Would they recommend it to others and why? “We don't have formal guidelines for case studies,” says Mark Rosenzweig, editor~ in-chief of Chemical Processing, a trade publication that has been running case study articles for decades. “Generally we're looking for a relatively recent installation, say within the last two years, of innovative technology. What issues prompted the installation? What did it involve? What results have been achieved? We're generally looking for 1,500-2,000 words.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 45THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Because case studies are presented in a story format, readers are naturally more inclined to take interest—especially if the story has some sort of benefit to them. Unlike sales presentations, case studies are all about showing how a product or service works, rather than telling, Since the product benefits are extolled by an actual user—and not the manufacturer—the claims are more believable. By using a satisfied customer as an example, a case study essentially demonstrates how well your product works. Rather than present a pile of facts and figures, you tell an engaging story that vividly shows your product's effectiveness. An equally strong selling point is the level of empathy a case study creates between your prospects and your satisfied customers. People tend to identify with people like themselves. Prospects feel far more at ease listening to their peers. They relate better, because they often share the same issues and problems. The reader also believes case studies more than other sales literature. They are skeptical of ads and find brochures full of puffery, and even podcasts and company blogs self-serving. But in a case study, a customer who has no motive or financial incentive to praise the product does so, creating instant credibility. What makes case studies so attractive to marketers and B2B prospects alike is that they're based on real-life experiences, Case studies are viewed as credible, third- party endorsements that carry a high degree of believability. That gives case studies a big advantage over traditional advertising, which consumers often view with skepticism. Asurvey by Forrester Research Inc. shows that 71 percent of buyers base their decisions on trust and believability. Relating your customers’ positive experiences with Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 46THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK your product is one of the best ways to establish credibility in the marketplace. Giving your customers confidence in what you're offering dramatically increases the likelihood they'll do business with you. One of the best sources of candidates for case studies is the sales force. However, salespeople prefer to spend their time selling. They are often indifferent to marketing communications and view participating in case studies as an aggravation with no direct reward to them. You can get salespeople excited about finding case study candidates by offering them tangible incentives: the sales rep gets cash, merchandise, or a travel incentive if her candidate is chosen and profiled in a case study. When offered a nice incentive, the sales force suddenly gets excited about the case study candidate search. The incentive does not have to be huge, but it should be desirable—a new iPod, for example. To prepare the case study, a writer interviews the person in the customer organization who is most involved in the application. For a small business, this may be the owner; for a larger company, it could be a plant manager or engineer. Before the writer calls, the vendor salesperson or account manager handling that customer should call and make sure the customer is willing and even eager to participate. Case studies written about reluctant or hostile users are difficult to create and rarely successful. During the interview, get as many good quotations as possible, Use these quotations in the case study text and attribute them to the person being interviewed. Reason: the quotations in published case studies can do double duty as testimonials. Tip: Ifthe subject is not saying exactly what you want him to say, use the "So are you saying” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 47THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK technique. Say to the subject, “So are you saying that...” followed by the statement you want him to make. Ifhe answers “yes, that’s what | am saying” you can attribute your phrasing to the subject. Often prospects are vague with their answers, and itis up to the interviewer/writer to wring the specifics out of the interview. Whenever possible, get the subject to give you numbers, so claims and results can be specific. For instance, if the subject says the product reduces energy costs, but can't say by how much, pin him down: "Did it reduce energy consumption more than 10 percent? More than 100 percent?” He will give you a guesstimate, which you can use as an approximate figure; ie,, “The XYZ, system reduced plant energy consumption by over 10%." Before the case study can be released, the subject of the case study—the person you interviewed—must approve and sign off on the case study. Keep these releases on file. Ifthe subject takes a job with a different company, you may lose track of him. So you can't afford to lose track of his signed permission form. Otherwise, if your authorization to use the case study is questioned, and you can’t produce a signed release, you may have to remove that case study from your site Ask subjects of case studies whether they are willing to serve as reference accounts, That way, a prospect whose needs relate to a particular case study can in fact speak with the product user featured in that case study, Check your reference account list periodically to make sure names and numbers are current, and update as needed. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 48THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Chapter 10 4 Simple Steps to Writing SEO Copy That Both Your Prospects and the Search Engines Love It's ironic: SEO/SEM consultants are springing up all over the place, like dandelions in spring, Yet none of them seem to agree much on the best practices, methods, and standards for optimizing Websites. Asa result, I've found that the worst thing about optimizing my Website for search engines, which I am doing now, is the often conflicting and even contradictory advice | get from the various SEO specialists I hire or talk with, For instance, one SEO consultant who looked at the Website for my freelance copywriting business, www.bly.com, gave me these very specific guidelines for writing a page about my freelance copywriting services optimized for the keyword phrase “freelance copywriter.” Specifically, his instructions were: > Freelance copywriter should be the first words on the page. > Freelance copywriter should be included near the beginning of the first sentence. > Freelance copywriter should be near the end of the second paragraph. > Freelance copywriter should be in a subhead between the second and third paragraph. > Freelance copywriter should be near the end of the third paragraph. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 49THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK > Freelance copywriter should be in a subhead between the third and fourth paragraph. > Freelance copywriter should be in the fourth paragraph. > Inthe last paragraph, freelance copywriter is in the first sentence and at the very end of the last sentence. The SEO consultant told me that to follow these specifications would result in a home page that search engines would like. But as a copywriter, I could easily see that any copy written to fully conform to these rigid guidelines would sound incredibly stilted and awkward, making me look incompetent. So I asked a few of my colleagues whether the above guidelines are in fact right or as nutty as I believed them to be, “My advice is always to write for people, not search engines,” says copywriter Dianna Huff. “Yes, it's good to place the correct keywords in the body copy, and yes, it's correct to place your most important keyword at the beginning of the title tag and in the headline of the page. “However, you don't have to do this to achieve high rankings. And you certainly should not do it if your copy ends up sounding spammy. If you want a site to rank well, you do have to optimize it, but not at the expense of the marketing objectives. Copy should be written for people, not search engines.” “Over the years, the tactic I found that works best is to have the most targeted keywords towards the top of the page and work your way down, like a reverse pyramid,” says Internet marketing consultant Wendy Montesdeoca. “The entire page Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 50THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK should be keyword dense, and there can be some repetition, but from my understanding of search engine spiders, they like more organic content. “So what | found that works is to make a list of the top 10-15 keywords and use that naturally, organically, and reader friendly in the content. And of course use your top five keywords in the alt, meta, and title tags. For instance, if there's a picture of Bob, don't just have ‘Bob Bly'—have ‘Bob Bly, freelance copywrite Adds Montesdeoca: “There are many variables that affect SEO, and keyword density is just one. There's also infrastructure (ie. site maps, robots.txt, etc.), proper and unique tagging with relevant keywords, relevant content, relevant inbound and outbound links, internal links, link variety (i.e. Websites, blogs, forums), videos on Website, special tags (H1, bold), and registering the site with directories. On Wendy's advice, we just added a site map to wwwbly.com. She says that Google ranks glossaries high, so we also posted a new glossary of Internet marketing terms to my site specifically for SEO purposes. “In my opinion, although algorithms change, it will most likely always be the same core elements,” says Wendy. “Just the weight the search engines place on each element will vary. For instance, sites using WordPress get spidered by search engines more quickly.” Do you want to write Web pages that sparkle with style, persuade your prospects, and please search engine spiders all at the same time? Let me share with you asimple 4-step SEO copywriting process that has worked for me: Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 51THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK 1—Keyword research. The first step is to come up with a list of keywords and phrases for which you want to optimize the page you are writing. These should be the keywords and phrases people use when searching for your product or service on the Internet. You can brainstorm what these words might be, then use any number of online tools to find out which ones are the most popular. | use www.wordtracker.com. For detailed instructions on how to conduct keyword research and discovery visit www,thekeywordmoneymachine.com. 2—Write the best copy you can, for the human reader. Just sit down and write the best damn copy you can about the topic. Don't even think about keywords as you write. Concentrate 100 percent on sounding like one human being talking to another about a subject he is enthusiastic about and wants to share. 3—Insert keywords from your keyword list. Now go back and insert keywords from your list into the copy, wherever and as frequently as you can, without disturbing the style, tone, meaning, and persuasiveness of the copy. If forcing a keyword in disrupts the flow of the copy, don't do it. For instance, on wwwzbly.com, one line of the original home page copy read: “Call on freelance copywriter and Internet marketing strategist Bob Bly.” [like the sound of strategist. But our keywords research showed that people search for Internet marketing consultants, not strategists. So we changed the copy to read “Internet marketing consultant.” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 52THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK In another paragraph, we talked about my experience as a copywriter, saying that I know “how to craft landing pages that drive conversions through the roof.” Once again, Hike the variety of using “craft” as a verb, But to optimize the sentence with the keyword “copy,” I changed it to “how to write potent, compelling copy for landing pages that drive conversions through the roof.” Another keyword phrase that came up in our research was “inake money online,” and so we added that to the sentence: “landing pages that drive conversions through the roof—and make more money online.” One of the keyword phrases that ranked highly in our research was “online copywriting.” Anytime you can replace a non-keyword phrase with a keyword phrase, with no harm to the copy, you should. So we changed “they call on Bob Bly to write their most important online marketing campaigns” (people were not searching for “campaigns’) to “they call on Bob Bly when they need online copywriting that sells.” 4—Write keyword rich meta tags for each Web page. The most important, meta tags are the title and description tags. The title tag is what your visitors see at the top of their browser windows when they visit your site, as well as what they see in their bookmark lists. Failure to put strategic keywords in the title tag can result in pages being poorly ranked When your Website comes up in a Google search, the description tag is what the user sees on the search engine results page (SERP). It should incorporate strategic keywords and clearly communicate what you offer, who it is for, and the key benefit. Your major keywords should also be placed in the keywords meta tag, though Google pays less attention to the keyword meta tag than to the title and description tags. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 53THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK When you go to wwwbly.com, you will see that I violated the rules of SEO copywriting by not having the keyword “copywriting” in the headline, But not revealing what you are selling in the headline can be an effective way to engage the reader, so in this case I chose the human reader over the search engine spider. You can visit the site and decide whether it works. Chapter 11 What Works Best for B2B Lead Generation: Inbound or Outbound Marketing? Which works best for business-to-business lead generation—inbound or outbound marketing? By inbound, we basically mean prospects contact us “out of the blue,” as it were, because they somehow know about us or find us. Qutbound marketing requires us to actively reach out and touch prospects proactively; e.g., with a postcard, telemarketing call, e-mail, or magazine advertisement, The question of which marketing—inbound or outbound—generates the best leads can’t really be answered authoritatively, because it’s too broad. If we say the winner is “inbound,” does that mean every type of inbound communication produces better leads than every type of outbound communication? Such is not the case. A better way to approach the question is to examine each inbound and outbound marketing channel, and evaluate the quality of leads produced on a case by case basis. In table 1, list the major marcom methods of business-to-business lead generation, indicate which I consider inbound vs. outbound, and rate them on a scale of Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 54THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK 1-5 (1=low, 5 = high) for quality of leads and ROI (you may disagree with some of my choices and ratings). “Quality of leads” mainly measures whether the marketing communication attracts prospects that fit your customer profile, have a need for your product or service, and are predisposed to buy from you instead of your competitors. “ROI” measures whether the leads turn into orders, generating revenues far in excess of the time and money spent to obtain them, Note: these ratings are my own and are to a degree subjective, based on three decades of experience in B2B marketing; they are not based on statistically valid research. The biggest controversy in lead generation is traffic generated by organic search. Some marketing writers erroneously tell us that organic search leads are the best leads. They reason that prospects would not be searching your keyword unless they were researching a product purchase, Therefore, organic search brings you good prospects: those in shopping mode, The quality of organic search leads depends, however, on the keywords being searched, We find that searches performed on broad keyword terms (eg, ‘limousines”) attract visitors who are in the early stages of product research, and therefore not hot leads. When a search is performed on highly specific keywords (eg, “used Lincoln Continental limousine for sale in New York area”), the prospect is most likely farther along in the research process and closer to making a buying decision. The reason I do not rate organic search leads higher in Table 1 is that, while these prospects may be predisposed to buying, they are in no way predisposed to buying from you. Indeed, the very fact that they are doing a Google search on a generic keyword Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 55THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK probably means they have little brand loyalty. Asa freelance copywriter, some of the worst leads I get are people searching for freelance copywriters on Google. These prospects often view copywriting as a commodity service and are likely to choose low price over experience and quality, as many Internet shoppers do in numerous categories. Conversely, the best leads service professionals get are typically people who call or e-mail us because they know us by reputation and may even be fans of our work. By far the most qualified leads | get are prospects who have read my books and articles, or heard me speak at a seminar, conference, or workshop. Creating and disseminating content related to your product or industry is a proven technique for establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field or niche. Therefore, a prospect who is an avid reader or student of your writings and talks is predisposed to doing business with you, because they consider you a guru or expert. Irated social networking a 4 in lead quality. Networking has always produced good leads, and social networks are basically networking moved online. So far, however, most B2B marketers have been unsuccessful in establishing hard metrics to measure social media ROI. Some argue that the ROI has to be high because social networking is virtually free. But they neglect ROTI, return on time invested. A survey by Michael Stelzner of White Paper Source found that experienced social media users spend two to four hours per day using it, which means an investment of up to half their work week. Direct mail has long been considered the “work horse” of lead-generating B2B marketing communications. Ten years ago, I would have rated the lead quality a 4, Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 56THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK because postal list selects enable narrow targeting, so you can mail only to prospects who fit your ideal customer's profile. I downgraded direct mail lead quality from a4 toa 3, because lately in B2B, I find prospects with more urgent needs respond to electronic or phone marketing, while those whose need is not as immediate are more likely to mail back a business reply card requesting your catalog, brochure, or white paper. ROI of direct-mail generated leads is a 4, because the leads you do close often make significant purchases in the multiple thousands of dollars. You can as a rule get from 10 to 25 percent or more of DM leads to take the next step in your buying cycle, whether agreeing to see your rep or sending you a purchase order. Direct mail that's working usually generates a positive and significant ROI, producing revenues many times greater than the campaign cost. E-mail gets a3 in lead quality. You can target the right prospects, But Internet users have an element of distrust for e-mail, so a single e-mail isn’t going to move prospects very far forward in the buying cycle. ROL is a5. That's because e-mail marketing is so cheap, even a few orders can give us an ROI equal to many multiples of the promotion cost. When you are renting opt- in e-lists, your cost per thousand can be $200 or more. E-mailing your own list, depending on what service you use, is a fraction of a cent per name. Lalso gave public relations an ROI rating of 5 because the cost is so minimal that any business generated usually pays for the PR campaign many times over. Lead quality of PRis a 4, because people believe and trust editorial content more so than marketing copy. Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 57THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK The point is that in the debate of outbound vs. inbound marketing, you simply cannot make a sweeping generalization about which is better. You must evaluate the ead quality and ROI of each marketing channel individually. Table 1 is a starting point. But the quality and ROI for each medium can vary greatly from industry to industry, even from company to company. My recommendation: test them, track results, do not repeat those that fail, and do more of the ones that do work. Table 1. Marketing channel lead quality and ROI. Key: 1 = low, 5 = high Marketing channel | Category Lead quality ROI Articles Inbound 4 4 Blogs Inbound 4 3 Books Inbound 5 4 Direct mail Outbound 3 4 E-mail marketing Outbound 3 5 Organic search Inbound 3 3 Pay-per-click Outbound* 4 3 advertising PR Inbound 4 5 Print advertising Outbound 4 2 Seminars, live Outbound 5 3 Social networking Inbound 4 2 Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 58THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Marketing channel __| Category Lead quality ROI Telemarketing, Tnbound 5 + inbound Telemarketing, Outbound 2 3 outbound Tele-seminars Outbound 4 4 Trade show exhibits _ | Outbound 2 2 Yellow Pages Outbound 5 3 Webinars Outbound 4 4 Websites Inbound 3 3 White papers Inbound 4 3 rrank pay per click and other advertising as outbound because you are proactively placing advertisements to attract new business. Chapter 12 Using Web Analytics to Drive Online Sales Here is a conversation | have at least twice a month; Client: “I want you to write copy to generate more orders on my Website.” Me: “What's the conversion rate of the page?” Client: “We aren't really sure.” Me: “Why not?” Client: “We don't really measure it.” Me; “Then how will you know whether our new copy has improved it?” Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 59THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK Client: [Dead silence] Lord Kelvin, inventor of the Kelvin temperature scale, said: “When you can measure something and can express it in numbers, you know something about it.” Web metrics are the numbers that let you know something about your Website's performance and ROI, and Web analytics are the software that lets you measure those numbers, In the early days of the Internet, Websites were the online equivalent of sales brochures or general advertising: pages posted online to disseminate product information, establish an online presence, and help position the company in the marketplace. Today’s most successfull Websites are the online equivalent of direct response marketing. They have specific marketing objectives and business goals, and their performance and sales can be precisely measured. Measuring Web metrics is a critical step in determining whether a Website is producing a positive return on investment (ROI) and serving users in the manner intended, Web analytics is the study of user interaction with a Website by collecting information about what the visitor does. This data is tabulated and refined into reports and visual presentations to help analysts understand whether a Website is achieving a set of desired results. There are dozens of different ways to measure Website performance by tracking metrics, Here are just a few of the key metrics marketers and Webmasters routinely measure using analytics tools: Center for Technical Communication. ©2013 60