• You don’t know how to
• You don’t have the time to
• You don’t think it will benefit you

These are reasonable responses to the question of “why?” but with a little further research, I think you may just change your opinion as many businesses have, including us!

It can be a little difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel, especially in a business to business scenario. There are several benefits, so maybe now is the time to jump in!

You don’t know how to – It can be a little overwhelming if you don’t have an understanding of what it takes to get involved in social media. The best thing to do is search for one of your clients on these social media platforms, or even one of your competitors to see what they are doing and how they utilize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Word Press, LinkedIn, etc. Read, read, and read… it will give you more insight in how to join the online world as well as keep you up to date on what is going on in your industry. Who knows, maybe you will have something to say right away. Commenting on other businesses blogs and pages are great ways to introduce yourself and share your knowledge on the web.

You don’t have the time to – You don’t have to dive into everything at once. Maybe you are already more familiar with Facebook than any other site. Start there. If not, just pick one to start with for the first few months and you will gradually gain the confidence to implement others. Setting up a Facebook or Twitter account will not take you long to accomplish, just get it done and you can do some tweaking later. There are actually a lot of great blogs out there that will walk you through the entire process of creating these accounts.

The best in the business are posting and tweeting multiple times a day. They most likely have the resources to have an employee dedicated solely to social media. You should shoot for at least once every couple of days and if you start up a blog, try to start by posting relevant news to your company or your industry once a week, or at a minimum, bi-weekly. The more you do it, the better you will get and thus, take less of your time to create frequent posts.

You don’t think it will benefit you – It is true that social media is more effective for B2C companies but that doesn’t mean that it is not beneficial to B2B. The idea behind social media is to first of all, create more brand awareness on the web. The more websites your company is listed and active on, the easier it is for people to find you, understand you and learn what specifically sets you apart from the rest. These sites show up on general searches through Google and other search engines, so if you post quality content, rich in industry keywords, you will get a higher ranking. It’s all about posting good content as regularly as you can to try to get people involved in your business and your industry. Start a dialogue, talk to people that you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to, drive businesses to your website, and ultimately make a positive impact on your business. We’ve seen it work.

Remember— If you do want to get into social media and even after your research you don’t think you will be able to pull it off, you can always outsource it to a trusted company.

15 Benefits of Social Media:

• Create brand awareness
• Reach beyond your own prospect list
• Drive more traffic to your website
• Stay informed of the goings on in your industry
• See what people are saying about your company
• Get your news out there in real time
• Gain a higher ranking on Google and other search engines
• Show your existing and future clients you are willing to stay up to date
• Show your existing and future clients you care about your brand
• Show your existing and future clients you care about them
• Ability to provide immediate customer service
• Post job opportunities instantly
• Track website and social media performance with Google Analytics
• Generate more sales leads
• Oh yeah…. It’s FREE

A Few Points on Social Media Sites

Facebook

• This is the most universal social media site.
• This site allows you to post videos, pictures, links, polls, etc.
• You can customize your landing page to entice a visitor to “Like” it.
• You post relevant news to your “fans”
• Join industry or company specific groups and join the discussions.

Twitter

• This is the most real time social media platform, where the majority of serious “tweeters” will post multiple times a day.
• A great way to post latest news, other peoples relevant “tweets” (retweet), post and reply to job opportunities.

LinkedIn

• This is the best site to stay in touch with key contacts from specific companies of your choosing.
• Offers group discussions in several industries.
• Lets you introduce and be introduced to mutual business contacts in your industry.

WordPress

• This is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog for your business.
• A blog is a great way to increase the content and size of your website which will help to get you a higher ranking on search engines.
• Helps to bring visitors to your site regularly.

YouTube

• People love to watch videos.
• A great link to have on your website.
• If you have no desire to create videos, you can still set up a channel for your business, like relevant videos to your industry as well as post comments.

Google Analytics

• Not a part of social media but an essential tool to track the effectiveness of your website and social media.

Does anybody know where this economy is going? Not really. But one thing is for sure… in the next few years marketing is going to play a bigger role in growing your business then ever before. We’ve seen it happen for us and our clients in the last half of 2010. Business opportunities are increasing through well developed websites that incorporate the latest SEO techniques. By developing a message that really cuts to the chase about who you are and what you do, more potential customers are finding you…instead of you having to pound the pavement to find them.

Today, you can accurately measure the results of your marketing through increased rankings on search engines. By benchmarking your current web activity through implementation of Google Analytics you can receive easy to understand reports that measure your progress and increased exposure through the web.

I would encourage you to look at what’s happening in the marketplace. Is the image presented by your competition making you look “old school” by comparison. Are you communicating a message that rings true with who you are today? Are your service strengths clear and pronounced?

For less than the price of a single trailer, you can create the foundation of a comprehensive marketing program. Whoever your vendor is in this area, set up a meeting and get the ball rolling. It takes 3-6 months to start seeing a return on this kind of investment. The sooner you sew the sooner you’ll reap!

Lee’s quote for the day

“At some point running an older truck down the road gets more expensive then buying a new one. The same thing goes with your marketing. At some point, not investing in proper marketing will cost you more than the marketing expense you’re trying to avoid.”

I gave our team the following objectives, stepped back and let them loose. You can be the judge of how well these have been achieved. A taste of our new marketing is featured in the February 2011 issue of CT&L and we needed to coordinate our new web with that release date. The directives were as follows and can act as a helpful guideline for anyone in the process of updating their site.

Message first - It’s great to be clever but it’s critical to communicate…if you can combine the two it becomes memorable and creates impact

Front door message-  Lead with your strength which in our case is 22 years of experience marketing  the transportation industry. It’s important not to cast too wide a net and weight your product offerings so that people get a real sense of who you are and what you do…in short order

Side door message - Leave the door open to other opportunities which for us is the fact that our process works for any industry. You need to back that side door message up with hard facts to make it believable.

Easy to navigate - With the help of Google Analytics you can track how customers are reacting to your site through a number of metrics. Most come to your site to get contact info and get an overall impression if this is a company they want to deal with. Ease of navigation is a key element.

Warm and personal – Our clients are becoming directly involved with a higher proportion of our staff. It’s a function of running lean and streamlining communications. In general terms, we believe it is important that your web has a personality that reflects your company. A few real shots mixed in with a stock library can help accomplish this. Yes people leave but the web can be updated very easily. It’s a more dynamic and flexible media that you can measure a return on.

Assess the brand – Take a look at your brand elements. Do they need a tweak. Is your tag line unique and does it help establish a persona for the company. In B2B you can change elements of your brand without so much as a ripple in the stream. Be open to subtle change. It can breathe new life into your marketing.

Incorporate social media – We continue to experiment in this area. Our blog efforts have shown the most return. You need a champion to lead this charge. Anything that brings fresh content to your site helps promote your company and raise your ranking on search engines

Engage SEO (search engine optimization) – There is an expense to this and it varies on the size of the site and how deep you want to go with. We plan on taking it all the way. Why? It works and you can clearly measure the results (With Google Analytics) and fine tune it for even greater benefit in the future

Meet the Deadline - It’s important to set a date and work towards it with diligence. You get a certain flow that takes the project to a higher level. When too much time goes by where the project is parked on a shelf, it’s increasingly hard to get it off the bottom of the pile and successfully launched.

Lee’s quote for the day

“Change is good and engaging proper SEO powers your site like fuel powers your vehicle. Doing one without the other doesn’t make much sense or get you any further down the road”

1.  Give your web some personality.
   Many companies put website development in the hands of their IT department. Although they certainly play a big role, there should be a second set of eyes directing your look and message to the marketplace.
2. Take a message first approach.
   Don’t keep what you do best a secret. Make sure your value proposition is front and center. Narrow your focus and increase overall results by speaking specifically to your 80% strength and customer target.
3. Use an effective combination of Flash and HTML text in your web layout. Too much of one or the other can leave the viewer either frustrated with download time or bored from lack of effective design and text heavy layouts. A “picture is worth a thousand words” applies to websites too.
4. Optimize your site.
   Having a site without SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is like having a hot dog without the bun. Proper SEO can dramatically change your presence on the web through increased rankings.
5. Keep your news or blog category current.
   Having original news and/or blog content will increase rankings and customer interest, while copying others verbatim and having out of date entries can work against you. The more you update your site, the more reasons search engines such as Google will have a reason to visit.
6. Attention to detail is important.
   Use quality photos and well written and proofed text. Make sure your logo and tagline are reproduced consistently and correctly throughout your site and please avoid extended “under construction” postings.
7. Make your site customer centric.
   Make it easy to navigate. Tell your message quickly and concisely. Have applicable customer log-in portals front and center. For new visitors, the majority are looking for contact info so make it easy to find.
8. Benchmark your activity before and after.
   Use Google Analytics to better understand traffic demographics. Review regularly and make changes to your site based on the data received. Set targets to better capture your viewers’ attention and increase frequency and lengths of visits in the future.
9. Use a combination of push and pull strategies to increase your web presence.
   Don’t wait for business to land in your lap. Push out your information. Promote your website to customers and prospects.
10. Use one capable marketing provider. Your results will be more cohesive, cost effective and less demanding on your time. Taking a “too many cooks” approach (within your company and by using multiple vendors) could result in poor overall delivery and lack of consistency with your branding efforts.

 Lee’s quote for the day,
“To catch the big fish, your marketing needs to have the right hook, line and thinkers.”

From my perspective, there is no shortage of marketing related topics to write about. I find it somewhat therapeutic as a matter of fact and enjoy putting my digital pen to paper as a regular part of my weekly ritual. At this point, we haven’t seen direct comments in response to our blogs but they are being read and shared. As we gain more experience in this venue and with time, we hope our efforts will be helpful to others and that eventually we’ll get more interaction and collaboration on the various subject areas posted.

This past 4-day week we had two sales leads that materialized as a direct result of our web marketing. One where we weren’t the right solution (company was looking for canned newsletter content) and one that was right up our alley and turned into an appointment. Not all that significant maybe, except that 1 branding/web appointment for us can turn into 20-50,000 dollars of immediate work and a customer for life.

In the B2B environment, I believe getting your web ranking higher organically is (at a minimum) like having another full time sales person on the road and at a fraction (3%) of the cost. Similar to adding a new sales person it takes time to see the results. In this past economy it can be 6-9 months before you see the benefit…but there are soft benefits in the meantime. Now more than ever, the purchasers of your services are forming opinions of your organization based on your presence on the web. Your message needs to be clear; your look professional and when someone searches, ending up on the first page in your category doesn’t hurt.

Our business, like many others has experienced a major and likely permanent shift away from who we were, to who we are now. In our case, we have reduced our dependence on print and promotions and dramatically increased our capabilities in the areas of branding, web development and search engine marketing. As a result, we’ve added creative personnel and reduced administrative staff to match our new business patterns.

As painful as it is to let people go, the reality is business today cannot run fat and be sustainable. We need to be in tune with our company’s dynamics now … more than ever.

For those going through similar restructuring I would offer this encouragement. As tough as it is, I would suggest you may experience some unanticipated benefits in reducing your numbers in certain departments and possibly adding in others. In our case, we have achieved a better balance of work and resources. We have significantly improved our operation through streamlined communications and have very noticeably created a tighter, more unified team.

We need to summon the courage to take the steps we need to, yet fear the most. Slay the dragon that defends “no change” in your company by issuing this proclamation, “Starting today, the words I’ve always done it that way are officially banned from our company vocabulary!” It’s an interesting exercise that moved us forward many years ago.

In short, the more we listen, the more we learn. The more we learn, the more we grow. The quicker we accept the difficult steps we need to take, the more decisive we’ll be in making the next difficult decision. And each move we make in the right direction brings us closer to the leaders we need to be to ensure our company’s future success.

What does this mean in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Well, the answer is quite simple, you should primarily focus on optimizing for Google above all others, but don’t forget about Yahoo and Bing, because if the market shifts unexpectedly, it means that you have your bases covered. We all remember when AltaVista was king back in the late 90’s, only to be driven into irrelevancy by its failed portal attempt and the rise of Google. Whatever SEO marketer you choose, make sure they optimize for Yahoo and Bing as well.

Many of these spam comments are posted with a link, that links to the site in which the author is trying to drive more traffic to. There are potential consequences for both the spamming comment poster, as well as the site where the spamming comment is being posted on. Many search engines like original content – content that was explicitly written by you, and not repeated too many times anywhere else. For example, the more original content your website has, the higher it will rank on Google. If you allow comment spamming on your site, you run the risk of making your website less relevant to searches, because the content of your site (the spam comment) is duplicated across many other sites. The other consequence is that to the spam comment poster, in that they run the risk of getting their site delisted from the search engine indexes.

So time now for some tips. First off, don’t approve any comments that you may come across on your blog. Go through all of them with a fine toothcomb, and only approve the ones that address specific items in your blog article. Secondly, if you’re going to post comments on other blogs, make sure they’re unique, well thought out, and well written. Don’t do a copy and paste job, cause it will hurt your blog in the long run.

For comment moderation, blogging software such as WordPress come with an anti-spamming plugin called Akismet. All you have to do is enable the plugin by getting a WordPress.com API key. The majority of the time Akismet will find 99% of comment spam automatically. It’s not enabled by default, so make sure to turn it on.

Happy Blogging from Palmer Marketing …

So when analyzing your seasonal data, you’ll have to compare the statistics with a previous holiday season in order to gain a better understanding if the number of visitors to your site have increased.  If you’re using Google Analytics, you’re in luck because there’s an easy way to compare the two metrics. In your analytics dashboard, you’ll find a date range selector (Blue) which will allow you to select a range which your website statistics will be based upon. If you check the “Compare to Past” box, you’ll  be able to select a secondary comparison metric (Green), and compare both of these metrics at the same time.

By default, Google will show the amount of visitors for the past month, so you’ll want to select a different date range (ie; 01-12-2009 to 31-12-2009), and then a past date range (ie; 01-12-2008 to 31-12-2008). Now you’ll be able to see and analyze the statistics from the different holiday seasons.