Marketing Matters

Why hire an outside agency or consultant to do your marketing or at least work with your current internal marketing department? A good question, and one for which I regularly find real world examples. Let me start with one of the most important reasons…objectivity.

Brenner Associates recently redesigned a website for a software/services company. They were flabbergasted that we recommended NOT mentioning the name of their flagship product anywhere on the home page (with limited room for text). Instead, we suggested substituting the product name with important key phrases that clearly explain the benefits and value of this product.

To someone inside the company, the product name is everything. While under development, the product – and its name – was everything to the employees. They lived, breathed and dreamt about it for months if not years on end. So when it came time to market their new widget, it seemed obvious that the company’s website homepage should scream the product name upfront and center.

Too bad the rest of the world did not have the same pre-launch experience. Potential customers never head the product name before and don’t care, at this point, what it’s called. However, what they DO know is that they have a problem that needs solving. And they have a general idea of what terms to use to look for solutions.

For example, say your company has just launched a new product called MoraleCentral, a new online tool that gives users tips on how to solve employee morale issues. 

Chances are, potential customers – those with employee morale problems – would go to the Internet and Google such terms as  “employee moral”, “moral boosting”, “improving employee productivity” or “teamwork tips” But unless they are already familiar with the product itself, chances are zip that they would search for “MoraleCentral”.

More importantly, once they found your website, its important that they instantly know that they’ve came to the right place. If you don’t catch their interest in the first second or two, they are just a click away to the next site.

So, what would be of more value to have highlighted on your homepage? The term MoralCentral or the words “Solve Employee Morale Problems Now”? The product title means diddly to them. But when they see the “solve employee moral” highlighted, they know instantly that they’ve come to the right place.

For the guy who has been working on MoralCentral for the past year and a half, this might seem counter intuitive. For an outside marketing pro, the choice is obvious.

It addition, MoralCentral will certainly have no SEO value whatsoever. The phrase used to highlighting the problem/solution, however, will have been chosen based upon its proven track record for driving viewers to websites. What’s the point of highlighting anything if no one will ever see it?

Another case in point

Several years ago, Brenner Associates was working with a top printer manufacturer. The internal marketing team was quite excited (and anxious) because the company was about to launch a new printer, the XPT 3000 (not the real name). The reason this was such a big deal to the printer company and its employees is because the new XPT3000 was about to replace the company’s best selling printer to date. If this new printer wasn’t a success, it could really hurt sales.

So Brenner Associates looked at the new product and at the competitive landscape and at customer demand and decided that the best thing about this new printer was that fact that it was, by far, the fastest printer under $100. And that is what we led with our press release headline – AJAX Introduces The Fastest Printer Under $100.

The internal marketing manager was upset. Why didn’t we mention the name of the printer or that it was replacing their most popular printer?

He wanted a headline that read AJAX Replaces Popular XPT1000 With New XPT3000.

To you and me (outsiders) it should be obvious. But it wasn’t so clear to the person that had been living and breathing XPT3000 for the past six months.

Then I asked the manager, “what if Frigidaire was about to replace its best selling refrigerator with one that was twice as big for half the price. Should the headline be Frigidaire Replaces Its Best Selling Refrigerator With New One or Frigidaire’s New Refrigerator Gives You More For Less ?

This was easy for him to answer correctly.

He was an outsider looking in.

Objectivity.

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As a PR pro, I am often asked to review and comment on existing websites. In many cases, a company has just plunked down thousands of dollars on a website makeover only to find the results disappointing (at best).

No wonder. Websites are often designed and created by HTML or PHP experts, not marketing pros. The end result is a site with lots of animation, java-run menus and clickable pages. It may also have a smattering of imbedded SEO code or even an associated blog. Unfortunately however, coding experts rarely have the marketing expertise to ensure the site’s success.

With that in mind, here are some things to consider when developing a website for your B2B business.

1. Home Page: Websites are like a book.

Is This Your Home Page?

If you were looking for a book to read, would you pull one off the shelf and immediately jump in to the middle and start reading? Of course not. You would first look at the cover. Then perhaps you’d glance at the back of the book or the inside jacket to see a picture of the author.

In the same way, a website’s home page must be inviting. Pictures are good – especially of people. Words are ok but white space is better. Most importantly, it must clearly tell the visitor that he has arrived at the right destination.

2. Messaging: Still the real gold of any marketing effort.

Decide who you (your company) are, what value you provide and how you differ from the competition. You may have only seconds to grab a visitor’s attention so be sure your positioning and key messages are concise and clearly visible on the page. Have someone from OUTSIDE your industry proofread the copy on the page. If they don’t get it right away, chances are, there is too much industry jargon being used.

3. Clarity: Bullet points and highlights.

Messages get lost in long worded paragraphs. Whenever possible, make each web page easy to scan. Use bullet points. Highlight important words or concepts. Repeating keywords is not only an SEO strategy – it also helps underscore your messages.

4. SEO: It’s not just inserting keywords.

Marketers have always relied on PR pros to create effective copy. Now that copy must also provide SEO value. Putting these two requirements together – sharp inviting copy AND SEO-rich content – is a real craft, but essential. Nailing this requirement will have a real impact on the effectiveness of the site.

5. Video: An enormously effective sales tool.

There is a reason why imbedded video has become such a hot item in the world of web marketing. It works. It can add a human element to a cold site. It can also serve as the perfect vehicle for quickly explaining complex concepts. Video testimonials from current customers or product users can be invaluable. Best of all, it doesn’t have to be an expensive proposition. In fact, today’s esthetics oftentimes favor sincerity over polish.

6. Conversion: Finally, a way to measure success.

Measuring marketing success has never been easy…until now. By building in to your site smart conversion strategies you not only measure how many people visited your site, but how many of these visitors turned into actual customers. A conversion page on an e-commerce site is easy – it’s the page where they order product. But on a B2B site with no shopping cart, you will have to be a bit more clever. Perhaps you track those that went from a product page to a contact page – or maybe you offer a downloadable document that provides sales lead information.

The bottom line is that a successful website must have more than information. It must be inviting and provide convincing messages in an easy to scan format. It must be enjoyable to visit and easy to measure. And that takes more than proper coding.

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