Lately, when we talk to prospective B2B clients, I see increasingly divergent views on B2B blogging. On the one hand, there are those who lust after success stories involving other social media (e.g., Twitter) used to drive high amounts of immediate, short-term traffic to a business blog. Many times, these people are so eager to jump into the promise and immediacy of Twitter, LinkedIn groups, and Facebook to drive traffic to a blog, that they give little consideration to developing the meaningful, valuable content required to attract interest in the first place. On the other hand, there are [...]

Filed in: Strictly Business

Running effective PPC campaigns in B2B markets is a competitive task that can be extremely expensive. That’s why it is so important for search marketers to run efficient campaigns that create maximum value for those high-cost clicks. So what can you do to be more competitive and increase ROI even as these tough economic times are shredding your budgets?

Filed in: How To: PPC, Strictly Business

To say that 2009 has been a challenging year for B2B marketers would be an understatement at best. Over the past twelve months, we have seen conversion rates drop as searchers do more and more research, but aren’t quite ready to do business. While everyone is hopeful for economic improvement next year, there are measures that B2B marketers can take in their search campaigns to increase the chances of success. As you start planning for 2010, consider the following three tips on how to improve your search results. Explore reporting options Understanding your total revenue or acquisiti [...]

Filed in: Strictly Business

For B2B companies, exhibiting and participating in trade shows can be a significant expense.  TradeShow Handbook estimates that the average cost of exhibiting at a show is $10,000. This might be an underestimate if you bring in a full team of sales and marketing personnel to work the show. You can use this online trade show cost calculator provided by Meetings and Conventions Magazine to estimate your own costs. That said, trade shows have proven to be a cost-effective method of generating leads and closing sales. Meetings and Conventions Magazine provides a quick summary of findings from [...]

Filed in: Strictly Business

As explained in my last article — search engines can tell you a lot about your customers. Specifically I shared a few tools that enable marketers to identify buyer needs, emerging market trends, and competitive threats. Today I’ll cover another (free) tool that can help you understand your customers’ entire search process, and the best ways to capitalize on this data to improve marketing results.

Filed in: Strictly Business