Best Practices in B2B Demand Generation - demandblog

Selling Power Interview

I did an interview with Selling Power for their Salesforce.com newsletter, talking a little bit about Demandbase, Vertical Response, and general ease of use and the depth and breadth of partner applications available for Salesforce.com users. Registration is required, but it's free. Here is the desciption from the newsletter:

CUSTOMER INTERVIEW: How Demandbase Uses AppExchange to Increase Lead Generation Efficiency
Customer: Jason Stewart Title: Senior Manager, Demand Generation
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SP: What is Demandbase all about?
JS: Demandbase is an online, pay-as-you-go marketplace for business contact information. We've partnered with some leading data providers, such as Hoovers, D&B, Business Watch Network, and LexisNexis to create a place where B2B salespeople can purchase business contact information (often including email address) without a subscription and without a minimum purchase....read more.

Innovations in B2B Marketing

Demandbase is launching the first issue of our newsletter tomorrow, Innovations in B2B Marketing.

This free quarterly newsletter highlights best practices and innovations for B2B marketers, culled from leading publications and bloggers in the B2B marketing space. In our debut issue, we focus on the benefits of a target marketing and tips for budgeting in the face of a slowing economy. Check out a sneak preview here, and find links to our new case study and white paper as well...

Search Optimization for Press Releases

Demandbase has a press release coming out next week, and we asked our PR firm (Marketing Alchemist) to do a little research on optimizing our release for the search engines. In a shameless bit of cut and paste, I thought it might be interesting to share the email I got back summarizing their findings from a variety of sources, with links to the original materials. Here you go...

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• How to optimize your release for the search  engines
• Research  keywords for your target audience/subject matter
• Add keywords to the press release to create keyword-rich content
• Add  keywords to your H1 header tag
• Add  keywords strategically within your press release copy
• Add  keywords in links back to your site
• Make  sure density levels are appropriate (I recommend an 8-15% overall density)
• Make  sure your optimize the first 250 words of your content
  
  
• Case study of WineZap.com July 2004 SEOed press  release:
• Major differences were made in the most critical spot - the headline
• Use of wine related search phrases in their release
• Also  incorporated a call to action and discount coupon for those who clicked through from the press release to a special landing page with newsletter sign-up
• "Sweet spot of 400 to 500 words" as the ideal press release length
• Recommends  experimentation to determine the right keyword density
• Critical terms were included only once each, but were each included in the short 400 word release.
• Important  keyword phrases were hyperlinked within the text and the release posted to PRweb.com site press release archive.
  
  
• Tips from “industry friends” of SEO professional  Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog:
• Write a pithy (80 character or less,) descriptive headline that includes important  keywords.
• Use the language that your audience/potential customers use when searching for or discussing topics related to your product or industry
• Link your strategically important search keywords to deep relevant pages in your site, not the front page.
• View creating a press release as compiling a mini web page on the news or topic being written about.
• Add an audio link such as a podcast or product announcement into your press  release. If you have an RSS feed associated with your releases, you can direct Apple iTunes to pick up the audio automatically and include it in a freely available channel on iTunes.com.
• Consider choosing a newswire which will allow “external” multimedia content hosting. For example, YouTube for video or Flickr for photos. These sites are spidered by the major search engines as well as being searchable “social” directories within the site. YouTube is the third largest search engine.
  
  
• All Aboard! Inbound Links for SEO - SEO Press Release deliverables will generally include:
• 450-500 word press release; optimized for a core search term and 2 to 3 niche terms
• Release incorporates anchor text; based on search term associated with target web page
• You often have your choice of distribution
• Access; to view statistics about how your news release performed over a 30-day period
• RSS  feed and paid inclusion distribution
  
  
• SEO Myth: Press releases for SEO - Online press release optimization needs to focus on three things: Presentation, position, and performance:
• You have to write the most interesting, compelling copy you can. You are only be newsworthy if you show people there is a new angle to your story. Announcing your new product is not news in and of itself with compelling information on why it is different.
• Press release positioning is also critical. If you think all you have to do is submit a press release to eMediawire or PRWeb, get out of the press release business.
• Press release performance should be measured and adjusted meticulously. If you’re only writing one press release, you take your best shot.

Source Articles

• General Tips: http://www.pandia.com/features/pressrelease.html
• Case study of WineZap.com SEOed press release in  July of 2004: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2004/11/22/press-releases-new-seo-back-door-to-top-rankings
• Tips from “industry friends” of SEO professional  Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog: http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/11/press-release-seo-tips/
• All Aboard! Inbound Links for SEO: http://www.searchengineguide.com/paul-bruemmer/all-aboard-inbound-links-for-seo.php
• SEO Myth: Press releases for SEO: http://seo-theory.com/wordpress/2007/06/22/seo-myth-press-releases-for-seo/

Google Can You Hear Me?

Many of you may know about Google's tools for webmasters already, but if you don't (and you have responsibility for search engine optimization of your website) you go take the tour and then have your webmaster set it up.

Here's just a few questions you'll be able to answer about how Google sees your site...

• When is the last time Googlebot crawled my website?
• Did it find any dead links and what were they?
• Are there any changes I should make to descriptions and metadata to help improve my search rankings?
• Which natural search queries most often returned pages from my site, and which of them were clicked?
• How is my site indexed by Google, and which pages are indexed?
• Which other sites point to my site?

You can also make sure Google knows where your site map is, and is crawling it. And if you don't have a site map, go build one and then subscribe to the webmaster tools, which is completely free to use.

The Path of Least Resistance

I read a really nice post today from Direct Connections (one of the blogs I recently mentioned) about direct marketing best practices. It's called Direct Marketing: Rules vs. Laws.

The one sentence to remember is this one..."But there’s also a law that comes into play, a law any high school physics student knows: the law of inertia. Simply put, audiences want to take the path of least resistance." Bingo! The less you require of your prospects, the more likely they are to do what you want.

You need to do everything you can to microtarget your campaigns and qualify your prospects before you market to them. And then, if your offer is good enough to get them to one of your landing pages, make it so easy for them to convert that it becomes a no-brainer.

At the very least reduce the number of fields on your form to the bare minimum, and eliminate anything you can't find out with a quick search on your own. If possible, provide pre-populated forms so that data entry requirements are minimal. Otherwise, consider creating drop-downs with choices in them that can conform to your data requirements and help with any sort of lead scoring you have in place. Your conversion rates will improve, guaranteed.

What the B2B Marketers are Reading

In response to my question about what you were reading, I got these blogs and publications back (in no particular order)...

B2Blog - Business-to-business (b2b) and industrial marketing blog.

Lonely Marketer - a discussion for the small business marketing manager. I like this one too, and wish they posted more...

Internet Marketing Report - news and insights on how executives are using the internet to drive business objectives.

Micro Persuasion - explores the impact of digital trends on business, culture, media and marketing.

Small Business SEM - because not everyone can throw thousands of dollars at the ‘How do we market ourselves online?’ question…

Marketing Experiments - Real-time data, insights, answers, and advice from the analysts at MarketingExperiments.com.

Ernan Roman - Relationship Marketing Insights Newsletter.

Rimm Kaufman - search, marketing and musings.

I'll be adding all these to my Google Reader to see what the fuss is about. Some other marketing blogs that are already there...

Seth Godin - always entertaining and insightful, never forgets that customer service can be the key to a successful business.

Vertical Response - Janine knows email marketing.

Brand Autopsy - I've been enjoying his ""Would you miss...?" series a lot, asking if you would miss companies like Pizza Hut or UPS if they just disappeared.

Direct Connections - Howard has a tremendous amount of Direct Marketing experience and shares some great insights.

Duct Tape Marketing - This is an award winning blog I only just started reading, so far so good.

Search Engine Round Table - SEM can change so quickly it's good to read these guys to keep up.

Please, continue to share your picks in the comments section...

Marketing Advice for the Slow Times

I belong to a group on Facebook called "What I Saw at the Direct Marketing Revolution" which sends me periodic emails and updates with thoughts and discussion about what is working (and not working) as the marketing landscape changes. Yesterday a bulletin went out to the group that was really interesting, and I hope they don't mind if I publish it here:

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Subject: Recessionary Direct Marketing

Okay – we may not be in an actual recession, but the economy is clearly slowin’ down and lots of direct marketers are hurtin’.

Here’s some advice from a guy who founded a direct marketing shop during the 1989 recession and survived the post 9-11 "depression” (yep, that would be me):

- Don’t panic. This too will pass.
- Use what you know about accountable advertising to justify the continuation of profitable direct marketing.
- If something must be cut, let it be the stuff that isn’t measured and doesn’t produce a damn thing.
- If you allow your new business pipeline to dry up, it may take a long time to recover even after the economy improves. But if you play your cards right and run smart direct marketing, you’ll be among the first to participate in the recovery.

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This email hit home for me on a number of levels. As many of you know, one of the first departments to get cut when a company is struggling is marketing. This was because it is so hard to quantify the value of marketing and the return on your marketing investments. Without being able to prove your worth, you become vulnerable.

No more.

Get a proper CRM tool in place, with good reporting. Use it in combination with a marketing campaign strategy involving mediums that lend themselves to proper monitoring like pay-per-click, webinars, email, and a solid series of landing pages with web forms that send information to your CRM about the source of every new lead. Make sure your CRM system is the same one sales uses to track their pipeline, and make it a requirement that all selling opportunities are credited to the marketing campaign or lead source that brought them the lead. Reward sales for doing it properly, and make sure they understand that they will make more money in the long run if they are diligent and honest about where the leads come from. Then sit back and watch with a stronger sense of security as you are able to selectively spend money only on the marketing campaigns that are actually driving revenue, and not just creating leads.

And best of all, you'll be able to prove it.

B2B Marketers ... What Do You Read?

I am having trouble finding good content lately. It seems like a lot of the usual go-to publications in the business-to-business marketing space have lost  their edge. Sure, Marketing Sherpa  always has very informative content, and up-and-comer Demand Gen Report has been publishing some really strong pieces as well ... but I find myself deleting more B2B e-newsletters than ever lately because I feel like I am being consistently let down by the content of many of the providers I always went to in the past. I mean, how many more pieces do I need to see about the rift between sales and marketing?

I would love to know what you think, but more importantly I would love to know what you are reading. Blogs or magazines or online publications focusing on B2B marketing...please share in the comments section.