'Business' Entries ↓
August 25th, 2008 — Business, Resources
Here was the LinkedIn:Answers question:
If you have any examples of a blog or other social media tactics that have worked with gritty B2B markets–particularly where complex buying processes are involved–, I’d like to hear about them.
If you have an opinion about the value of social media communications aiming to reach executives in the B2B sector, please share it.
Here’s my response:
I think that the biggest hurdle that you’re going to run into is the “chicken and egg” problem.
1) Typically a legitimately recognized expert is a pretty busy person doing “real work”
2) A new blog takes quite a while to build an audience without significant marketing expenses (in the B2B space that can mean a lot of off-line advertising in things like trade journals, etc.)
So now you’ve got the issue of trying to convince an expert at your disposal to spend a lot of time writing a blog that for quite a while no one is going to even be reading.
Yet without a lot of good, targeted content no one is ever going to find or read the blog!
It’s like having someone with the gravitas of Einstein giving a lecture to an empty hall.
So I’d say that if you really want to make it work in a B2B space you need:
1) A writer that people really are going to want to read
2) A significant marketing budget to “prime the pump” until the blog starts catching on it’s own.
The good thing about this is that if you are in a very specialized / targeted industry it should not take long for your particular blog/site to start ranking well due to the long-tail, niche nature of what you’re writing about.
For instance, I’ve been involved in e-commerce and internet/next-gen marketing in the motorcycle and powersports space for over 4 years. I’ve recently started focusing on providing consulting services on a more formal basis.
It’s a total B2B play where I’m writing to/for the OEM’s, disti’s, and retailers/dealers in that space.
Because of the sort of mom-and-pop nature of this market, I have the distinction of currently being sort of one of the only “experts” that’s focusing on this niche.
Good news: if you Google “motorcycle e-commerce” my site www.radicalpowersports.com is #1 after only like 8 months in existance
“Bad” news: there’s not a lot of people looking for this stuff now. So I sort of feel like I’m talking to an empty room. the upside is however that when someone does stumble across my little site, they are VERY targeted, and VERY interested.
But I also write for the leading offline trade publication for the motorcycle and powersports dealer community so I’ve got that offline leverage that helps drive qualified traffic.
So, there’s some general info from my own experience. Without more specific information on what market you’re looking to play in or what your specific goals are with regards to providing the information in question that’s about all I can offer now.
If you wanted to provide more information on what you’re looking to do specifically you might be able to get some more actionable ideas.
I’ve provided a link to a pretty good SearchengineLand post on B2B blogging that you might find useful.
Links:
Tags:B2B, blogging, consulting, LinkedIn-Answers
August 25th, 2008 — Business, E-Commerce, Resources, Search Engine Optimization
Here was the LinkedIn:Answers question:
Who is the BEST SEO Consultant out there?
I am looking for the best SEO consultant out there, to work with me on a content driven lead gen property we are working on.
This can be paid in Cash / Cash + Equity
This was my response:
There are some good recommendations here obviously, but I think it’s very important that you understand the scope of your question. I’m not trying to be pedantic, and if you already know this stuff then that’s great.
Fundamentally good SEO (and to a large extent SEM) is based around having a good site to begin with. That all comes down to having good content.
From there all the rest of the “stuff” comes into play:
-On page factors
-Intrasite link structures
-quality links to your site from outside with good anchor text
-Properly managed server infrastructure with all the appropriate redirects (if necessary)
-Good site hygiene (lack of duplicate content, etc. etc.)
In addition to that basic fact, SEO is VERY market dependent. If you are trying to compete in an area with highly sought after keywords, it’s a much harder row to hoe. If you are in a niche or long-tail market, it can be much easier. Obviously the nature of the market and the inherent difficulty of the SEO effort in each will determine how “best” you need.
Keep that in mind when you get recommendations as well. Someone with a niche site could have used Person X and gotten great results, but that same person in a more competitive market could have failed miserably.
As you’re evaluating an SEO consultant just be VERY careful of anyone that promises a certain result or rank. They can do all the “correct” work and it can still take a long time to see the results on your site.
That said, if you have the bank account to support it, the two heavy-hitters I’d look at are:
Bruce Clay (www.bruceclay.com)
Stephen Spencer (www.netconcepts.com)
Both of these guys/companies have a much more comprehensive outlook and toolset than a lone SEO consultant can provide not to mention the years and years of man-hours of experience that they can bring to bare on your problem.
I don’t work for them, and I’m not paid to shill for them. I’ve just seen them talk numerous times at shows like Search Engine Strategies, Internet Retailer, eTail, etc. and I’m always blown away by their presentations, and I’ve yet to meet a client of theirs that was not amazed with their results.
I write for and consult to the motorcycle and powersports market (www.radicalpowersports.com) which is a pretty niche space, so perhaps my outlook is different than say a large consumer goods space.
But I’d suggest starting with these top guys and if they don’t work for you, I’m sure they can point you a good, trusted company that would fit better for you.
Good luck, and my the Google gods smile on your efforts!
Links:
Tags:consulting, LinkedIn-Answers, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO
May 29th, 2008 — Advertising, Business
I just read an article in the June 2008 Motorcycle Product News magazine titled: More Than A Free Lunch by Dean Kelly and Chad Wiggen. The basic premise is that motorcycle and powersports retailers need to start running more events and to be more creative in how they run them.
Amen. But I want to take it even further. Like to a whole new level!
I came to the same conclusion a little over a year ago when I started doing marketing work in addition to running e-commerce for the dealership that I’m responsible for.
When I was asked to take over marketing and advertising I looked at the budget, and I looked at what they were already spending and decided (in typical Radical fashion) to do something outside of the box. I said to myself, “Self, you need to get people into and involved with the dealership. We don’t have anywhere near the budget to do that via traditional advertising or marketing tools, what else can be done?” I had run a few open houses and they were huge successes. What would it be like if there was an open house every month? I had also started doing some social networking outreach (forums, blogs, etc.) and could imagine that they were going to be useful. However, all of that stuff took a lot of time. None of it took a lot of money however. So I had the epiphany that I was going to essentially use a huge chunk of the advertising budget and spend the money on a full time position to do all of this stuff.
I pulled all but the most non-essential advertising, left enough to allow us to match CoOp funds and set out to create the position of Community Relationship Manager.
It was the single most successful initiative that the dealership had ever seen. Obviously most of the success came down to getting an outstanding superstar for the position that embraced it and made it her own. [Aside: At the risk of being non-PC or running afoul of the EEOC, I recommend staffing this position with an outgoing, attractive, female that rides and is passionate about all things motorcycles (or powersports, watercraft, whatever your niche is). Facts are facts. Most motorcyclists are men and most men like talking to women especially when the woman is an avid rider herself. Let the nasty e-mails flow :)] But the fact remains that using money that we would have pretty much wasted by advertising like everyone else does and doing something radical and creative (at least for the vast majority of the motorcycle industry).
This position handles setting up interesting and engaging events every month and using word-of-mouth marketing techniques to get the word out. Blogs, forums, e-mail marketing, local clubs, etc. And when we do our larger open houses they are even more large and even more grand because you have a person that can dedicate all their time and energy to seeing that they are huge.
This position is now the public face and persona of the dealership. People now know the dealership is serious, and real, and personal. It’s a place that does more than just sell stuff and do service. It’s a place that participates in a real and personal way with the local motorcycle community.
Tasks for this position include but are no limited to: chamber of commerce involvement, social networking (FaceBook, MySpace, YouTube, Forums, Blogs, e-Mail) adminstration, dealership representation and participation in any and all motorcycle/powersports clubs and events in the area.
It’s insane how successful it is and it’s amazing that every 20 group leader out there is not making this the number one priority for every dealership out there! It’s even more insane that I’m letting this out of the bag for free and not getting a huge consulting fee for offering up what could be the single most successful thing you will ever do in the marketing and advertising area! I’m just feeling generous today I guess! 
Stop throwing money away on TV ads, full page newspaper ads, direct mail, etc. etc. when for way less money they could have a Community Relationship Manager dragging people in off the street. In the nicest possible way of course.
Tags:community-marketing, events, MPN, radical-idea
May 28th, 2008 — Books, Business
I’m about 1/3 of the way through Groundswell 
, and unless the book goes seriously off the tracks I whole-heartily recommend that anyone that wants to get a clear(er) picture of how all this MyFaceSpaceInBookWikiBlog stuff works, relates, and impacts your business buys this book and reads it ASAP.
May 23rd, 2008 — Business, E-Commerce
I just read a blurb about a company called Cartfly in the E-Commerce Times. After checking it out it seems that a concept that failed the first time around may have another chance at life.
It’s fascinating that the old adage that everything old is new again, even if in the internet age that progression happens more quickly, is as alive as ever!
It seems to me that what Cartfly is doing is in many ways very similar to the concept that was attempted by a company that I worked at as a sales engineer/evangelist during the dot-com boom/bust period. That company was called CrossCommerce [RIP] and their idea was to take e-commerce out of the walls of a typical “store” and instead embed buying opportunities within content-rich sites.
The concept was called “contextual commerce.” There were all kinds of studies that showed that the conversion rates were much higher for products that were displayed inline with interesting content. For example, if you ran a site about snowboarding and had a story about a recent trip, you could display small product display “shelves” in the story that would allow people to buy the products you were talking about right then and there.
It was a compelling idea, especially at the time, because for the most part there was nowhere near the opportunity to monetize a content rich site other than banner ads. It was before Google’s AdSense had established the strangle-hold on the ad world. This was back in the day of roll-your-own banner advertising, or relying on folks like DoubleClick.
One of the hugely significant things about CrossCommerce that was different was that a large portion of CrossCommerce’s operations was taken up with developing the business relationships with the OEM’s and distributors of literally millions of products. From the old stand-bys like CD and Videos to golf and sporting equipment.
It was literally a one stop shop for content producers. Once you had an account with CrossCommerce (which was free as CrossCommerce made money off a vig/transaction charge) you would go to your CrossCommerce site, choose the products you wanted to sell from the massive catalog, create the little shelf, copy the javascript code that was generated and put that code in your content where you wanted to the products to appear.
In my opinion, it was bloody brilliant (which is why I worked there and stayed around too long even after the writing was on the wall, the rats were leaving the ship, etc. etc.)! It was one of the few ideas to come out during the dot-bomb time that was actually a really, really sound idea. And it worked! CrossCommerce was even developing methods that would scan the page that held the shelf and based on that content analysis automatically generate appropriate products. AdSense, but with products instead of ads. And again it actually worked!
Now why in the world would such a brilliant idea, that was backed up with an actual working execution, built on an insanely robust and expensive technology platform, with strong implementation with product suppliers (which even handled the drop-shipping and logistics!), and financed to the tune of like $60MM+ fail?
Well, for one thing this all happened around 2000. The dot-com bubble was bursting so there was a general downward momentum. What was amazing to witness first-hand as I was on the front lines in sales was the number of these content sites that had zero plans on how to make money and as far as I could tell didn’t care if they ever made money! It was pure insanity and obviously most of them died unquiet deaths.
Next, this was before blogs and other sources of easily-generated content. It was still the days of build your own websites or large, expensive content management solutions. So there were nowhere near the number of sites looking to make money with a completly turn-key, self administered e-commerce solution. And it also did not have the amazing phenominom of the social-networking tidal wave going for it either.
Then the complete and total mis-management of just about every possible opportunity that came up didn’t help either. Ego and hubris don’t work well during crisis times. I won’t go into that in any more detail because it was the same story pretty much as every other dot-bomb during that period of time that was run by people with more money that sense. That and people that were promoted from being receptionists in a prior job to a VP of such-and-such. that never helps either.
So anyway, I hope that Cartfly can make a go of it. I believed then, and I still do, that the idea of embedding buying opportunities within content makes an amazing amount of sense. And now that you have the opportunity to leverage the relationships created via all the social-networking platforms, I can see why Cartfly is feeling like they’re onto something big!
Tags:cartfly, contextual commerce, social-networking
