Content Marketing: when kibitzers strike!

When kibitzers strike, the challenge is content consensus

By Robert Celaschi

When it comes to content marketing, the worst kibitzers are people with imposing titles from other departments.

Plain English Guide Helps People Learn About Quality Health Care

National Business Group On Health publishes “Choosing the Right Hospital” toolkit with our help

By Molla Donaldson, DrPH, MS and Rebekah Donaldson

With all the talk of health reform, one issue that keeps coming up is that people should have access to affordable quality care. But how can we know what quality of care is when it is so complex? Part of the answer is to make quality of care information publicly available. Another part is to take the language of quality (“mortality” “risk” “variation” etc.) and translate it to plain English.

B2B Lead Generation Results, By Source

Visits and conversions by source for www.b2bcommunications.com Sept 7 to Oct 6 2009

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Here is a screenshot showing the sources of our website traffic that converted to leads over the last month. Looking at the chart, I answer:

• What does this chart tell you about lead sources?
• How much did you invest to get the site working this way?
• We need to generate leads – what’s the best way?

B2B Copywriting: Wide Load Ahead

Have pity for the poor sentence that is asked to do too much

By Robert Celaschi

I did promise not to get all grammatical in these blog posts, and I’m not going to bring out the chalkboard today. I’ll only make a quick mention of nouns and verbs.  You can say a lot with just a pair of nouns and a verb.

You probably remember: A noun is a thing, and a verb is what the thing does.  If you have a company — for instance, Niftycorp — that’s a noun. If you introduce a product, “introduce” is a verb. And “product”? That’s another noun.

Now, in a product announcement you need a few additional words or else you’ll sound like Tonto: “Mmmm, Kemosabe. Niftycorp introduces product.” But watch out when you start loading up the sentence with details.

2010 Marketing Planning – Facts From MarketingSherpa

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Everyone is supposed to be nailing down their plans for 2010 marketing efforts. What will go in your 2010 marketing plan?

As I write this, MarketingSherpa’s 6th Annual B2B Marketing Summit 2009 in San Francisco is winding down. And I don’t want it to be over. Every session, every speaker, and every piece of content was focused on helping attendees conquer the challenges of B2B marketing.

Here are links to get some of the facts you need for smart 2010 marketing planning.

Picking a Marketing Consultant: Get What You Pay For

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

We’ve all heard the phrase, “You get what you pay for.” The truth is, sometimes you get a lot less than you pay for.

This is the first in a seven-part series of articles to help you get what you pay for when you choose a marketing agency. I’ll start today with a decision tree that shows the five key decision points. As the series progresses, I’ll show you a framework that CEOs can use to sort out the answers.  In later articles I touch on the various types of marketers in the industry. You’ll also find 11 questions to ask an agency – with an example of what counts as a good answer (“pass”), and what counts as baloney (“fail”), for each. And in my seventh article in this series I’ll give five warnings, each of which begins, “Why to watch out if you hear…“

B2B Email: Your subject line can kill your pitch (or, Hi, I want to talk to you about … uh, stuff)

By Robert Celaschi

Something strange happens to people when they send marketing email. They’ll take a powerful, persuasive marketing message, and torpedo the whole thing by slapping a lousy subject line on it.

What makes it really strange is that the email might contain a press release or other message with a really great headline. The sender could have cut and pasted it. But no, instead they type a vague or garbled mess of words that makes me shrug and move on.

Corporate Logos — examples of what does, doesn’t work

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

One of the big laughs in the fake documentary film Spinal Tap came when the band took to the stage to sing of Stonehenge. The set was supposed to feature a replica of a section of Stonehenge standing an imposing 18 feet tall. Due to a miscommunication problem with the set designer, it shows up at a ridiculous 18 inches tall.

Here’s a story about one of my own screw ups, some tips from the trenches of corporate logo design — and 5 corporate logos that help illustrate how a logo can help — or hurt — its owner.

“Solution” is not the solution in B2B marketing communications

By Robert Celaschi

I won’t buy your product or service if you don’t tell me what it is.

B2B website design: 9 must-have qualities

By Cris L. Rominger

What are the 9 must-have qualities of a user-focused B2B website design?

When approaching a re-skin or redesign of your company’s website, it’s helpful to keep in mind both branding goals and user goals.

SEO services and SEO software – friends or enemies?

NOTE: A big thank you to Jep Castelein of LeadSloth on Demand Generation for his contributions to this post.

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Say you are a CEO paying for search engine marketing services — also known as SEO services or SEM services. What result are you seeking?

Qualified leads, of course.

Today’s article is about the cheapest, most direct route to that result.

In particular, do you really need SEO consulting from people like me, if you can get SEO software for less?

Copywriting marketing materials? How to speak prospects’ language

By Robert Celaschi

Copywriting marketing materials? The challenge is to ensure prospects are informed, not befuddled. An expert marketing copywriter gives tips on speaking their language.

Learn the social media secret handshake at IMU

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

Vendors and job applicants pitch B2B Communications each week. So far in 2009, about 1 in 4 indicate familiarity with social media. About 1 in 100 have engaged with us first through social media.

How can busy professionals get a grasp on marketing 2.0 — and start to engage and contribute? I recommend Inbound Marketing University as a foundation. After that, social media mentoring or coaching might be in order.

B2B marketing ROI of a blog – with traffic and leads chart

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

I talked with Sacramento Business Journal senior reporter Kathy Robertson this week about the return on investment from the Red On Marketing Blog. Her questions got me thinking about why I do it, and this post is the result. 

To ground things in real world and tangible results, you’ll see a screenshot showing where our website traffic and leads came from this week.

B2B content: search and destroy

By Robert Celaschi

You want your marketing materials to carry a wallop, right? So don’t waste words. Here are three words that are almost always a waste. Take a few extra seconds to get rid of them, and nine times out of ten you’ll improve what you just wrote. 

Six marketing gotchas CEOs can avoid

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

In a normal year, alot of missed opportunities can hurt sales. This year, they can kill a company. So it’s time to get deadly serious about avoiding marketing mistakes.

Are there patterns in the marketing mistakes small to midsize companies make? I think so. In particular, I’ve noticed at least six ”gotchas” when it comes to CEO-led decisions about marketing. In a new ebook called Six Marketing Mistakes that CEOs Can Avoid and a series of blog posts here, I’ll describe each one’s telltale symptom… and outline a better way.

B2C versus B2B – do B2B buyers feel more risk?

As featured in web marketing and e-commerce portal WebMarketCentral.com

Whether you’re marketing to consumers or business decision makers, you’re still marketing to a human being – right?

Yes — but decision makers may feel more risk when it comes to the average buying decision.

B2B ecommerce: best practices in 2009-2010

If you’re looking for practical, best-practices marketing advice on what works and what doesn’t, you can’t beat MarketingSherpa’s research. Nothing but tried-and-true findings straight from the trenches. The recently released 2009 Ecommerce Benchmark Report is full of new information to help drive sales. Here’s why I’m a fan…

Cris Rominger joins Red On Marketing Blog contributors roster

I’m pleased to introduce Cris Rominger as a contributor to this blog. 

In a world where 92% of B2B buyers turn to the web first when looking for service providers, effective internet marketing is essential. Cris will be writing about web marketing, search engine optimization, writing for the web and search engines, usability, conversion optimization, and user-focused design.

Cris’ insights are based on what works in the real world. Her 20 years’ communications experience spans web development, information architecture, user-interface design, usability, web copywriting, and search engine optimization.

Cris joined Business Communications Group in 2007. She helps our clients build B2B websites that engage business decisions makers, get to the top of Google search results through advanced SEO, and, through it all, stay focused on what it takes to build trust with savvy buyers.

Check out two of her recent articles posted at our company site:

• Website Content Tips
• Writing Web Content for the Online Reader

Someone always pays

By Robert Celaschi

By now almost everybody has heard the Internet mantra that “information wants to be free.” What it really means is, “I want someone else to foot the bill.”

Robert Celaschi joins Red On Marketing Blog contributors roster

I’m pleased to introduce Robert Celaschi as a contributor to this blog.

Robert has been reporting and editing business stories since before there was a Web. He spent many years on the editorial staff of the Sacramento Business Journal and is a former managing editor of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. He joined Business Communications Group in 2005.

For this blog he’ll be contributing items about effective ways for a business to talk about itself, and how to get others talking.

This he knows. He has helped our clients produce dozens of clear and consistent case studies, press releases, contributed articles, executive profiles, blog and newsletter content, and in-depth guides.

So don’t worry, he won’t be giving grammar lessons. It’s all about what works in the real world.

Please stay tuned!

B2B lead generation: Bye bye, list biz?

When a local list broker asked me for career advice last month, I realized that a human element is often missing from discussions about marketing trends and forecasting.

I realized too that inbound marketers can learn from the performance of companies like Harte Hanks — a company that essentially wholesales data to channel partners like list brokers (in addition to selling directly to its client base).

Using social media: copying others doesn’t work

It’s no secret that social media have become part of the mainstream culture: blogs, YouTube, online forums, networking sites and so on. We’ve been writing about the topic for a while, such as the impact of social media on B2B marketing and tipping points for business participation.

The secret is how to master these new tools for B2B marketing. There are few success stories out there, and copying others doesn’t work, according to Forrester Research Inc.

From the Shocking Marketing No Nos Department

A high profile marketing automation company assuming permission — in an email with subject line “B2B marketing best practices”? Sounds too ironic to be true.

What’s wrong with this Google Adwords Ad?

By Rebekah E. Donaldson

If a prospect clicks your ad, does that mean “your advertising works”?