Business Marketing Online (BMON): Google AdWords Management » B2B Insights Blog http://www.bmon.co.uk Google AdWords management for industrial and scientific companies Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:00:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 How to find out which promotional buttons to presshttp://www.bmon.co.uk/2011/12/how-to-find-out-which-promotional-buttons-to-press/ http://www.bmon.co.uk/2011/12/how-to-find-out-which-promotional-buttons-to-press/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:00:45 +0000 Chris Rand http://www.bmon.co.uk/?p=4288 It really isn't that hard to take a sample of a few hundred customers or prospects and ask them what you could do which would have an impact.

How to find out which promotional buttons to press

]]> When we study marketing at college, we're taught how marketing is a service for the sales department and a driver for product development, feeding back the research from the real world which should define the next generation of products. That's great in theory, but I'd guess that for the vast majority of you, the idea of having an input into product development is about as likely as having the casting vote on the chairman's salary for next year. However, understanding the prospect and customer base is still an essential role for marketing, because without it, how can we know which promotional buttons to press? For too many companies, the choice of where and when to advertise seems to be based on the fact that "it looked nice, the last time we did it", or even "the sales rep was convincing". With the tools available to us nowadays, this is absurd. It really isn't that hard to take a sample of a few hundred customers or prospects and ask them what you could do which would have an impact. They can reply in seconds, and enough of them will do so if you keep it simple enough. With that in mind, here's a nice set of tips for use when surveying your prospects or customers. The Art and Science of the Ideal B2B Survey on the B2B Insights Blog looks at, er, the science and the art of the survey, and emphasises that it's always "important to take a step back and try to look at the survey from the point of view of someone who’s just received it." Well worth a read.

How to find out which promotional buttons to press

]]> http://www.bmon.co.uk/2011/12/how-to-find-out-which-promotional-buttons-to-press/feed/ 1 It's never too late to start your email newsletterhttp://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/04/its-never-too-late-to-start-your-email-newsletter/ http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/04/its-never-too-late-to-start-your-email-newsletter/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:00:25 +0000 Chris Rand http://www.bmon.co.uk/leadgeneration/?p=675 The most common sentiment I hear nowadays from companies which don't do email newsletters for customers and prospects is along the lines of "well, we've never done one", implying that "we wish we had, but it's too late now". That …

It's never too late to start your email newsletter

]]> The most common sentiment I hear nowadays from companies which don't do email newsletters for customers and prospects is along the lines of "well, we've never done one", implying that "we wish we had, but it's too late now". That makes no sense whatsoever. You're not in competition with anyone!

Look at it this way. Do you wish that you (or your predecessors) had set up an email newsletter for customers and prospects years ago, so it would have built up a really nice circulation by now? Well, if you do nothing, in 2019 you (or your successors) will look back and wish you'd set one up in 2009. And as I've pointed out before, a huge chunk of the circulation turns over each year anyway, so there'd be very little circulation left from 1999 now, even if you'd had the foresight to set a newsletter up back then.

Once you get an email newsletter going, the circulation will start to build itself, as long as you take every opportunity to promote it. In E-newsletters – Maintaining Awareness. Building Base on the B2B Insights Blog the importance of updating your web site to include standard links to sign up for the newsletter is emphasised. You probably get dozens of anonymous potential customers visiting your website each day – a good email newsletter may be the hook some of them need to reveal themselves to you.

It's never too late to start your email newsletter

]]> http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/04/its-never-too-late-to-start-your-email-newsletter/feed/ 0 Reaching out by emailhttp://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/02/reaching-out-by-email/ http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/02/reaching-out-by-email/#comments Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:00:30 +0000 Chris Rand http://www.bmon.co.uk/leadgeneration/?p=425 Where do you turn for email marketing lists? I hope you have developed your own "opt-in" customer and prospect list over the years, but what if you want to reach a wider base? In Choosing the Right B-to-B Direct Mail …

Reaching out by email

]]> Where do you turn for email marketing lists? I hope you have developed your own "opt-in" customer and prospect list over the years, but what if you want to reach a wider base? In Choosing the Right B-to-B Direct Mail List on the B2B Insights Blog, some of the best options are discussed, including trade association lists, exhibition attendees and magazine circulations, all of which are often available for hire. What have you found useful in the past? We've heard some good things about the list rental offerings from trade publisher IML, which publishes magazines covering several vertical sectors (contact Neil Whitaker on 01732 359990) but I'd like to hear any recommendations you may have. Then of course there are the circulations held by online publishers such as Pro-Talk* which aren't available for rental for your own mailings, but which do their own regular mailings which you can take space in. These are easy to work with, and can have an impressive reach.

* Disclosure: Pro-Talk is the company I founded in 2000 and which I left amicably last year!

Reaching out by email

]]> http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/02/reaching-out-by-email/feed/ 0 PR? Don't mention keyword researchhttp://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/01/pr-dont-mention-keyword-research/ http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/01/pr-dont-mention-keyword-research/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:00:39 +0000 Chris Rand http://www.bmon.co.uk/leadgeneration/?p=399 Are you going to be cutting back on your press releases and article writing this year? With budgets tight, it's an obvious candidate for reduced expenditure, as PR in general is hard to get an accurate return on investment for. …

PR? Don't mention keyword research

]]> Are you going to be cutting back on your press releases and article writing this year? With budgets tight, it's an obvious candidate for reduced expenditure, as PR in general is hard to get an accurate return on investment for. But if you want to defend this part of your marketing budget, there are a couple of good arguments in Should You Preserve Your PR Budget? on the B2B Insights Blog. You may find them useful.

I reckon that generating content for the media is as valuable as ever – but only if it's done with a view to effective online publication. I read an article the other day which began: "Obviously every press release you write begins with using a keyword tool…" and went on from there. And I wondered: how many press releases issued in the UK are written without any thought whatsoever to scoring well on important search terms? Most, I'll bet.

If you use a PR company, ask them if they think online coverage of their press releases is important. They'll answer yes. Then ask them if they write them to work well online. They'll answer yes again. Then ask them how they do that. See if they mention keyword research. If they don't, ask them if they've ever heard of it. Oh, I'm just being mischievous now. But it's your money.

PR? Don't mention keyword research

]]> http://www.bmon.co.uk/2009/01/pr-dont-mention-keyword-research/feed/ 2 Time to get to the pointhttp://www.bmon.co.uk/2008/11/time-to-get-to-the-point/ http://www.bmon.co.uk/2008/11/time-to-get-to-the-point/#comments Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:00:16 +0000 Chris Rand http://www.bmon.co.uk/leadgeneration/?p=215 Should you continue promoting your company in a business downturn? Of course you should, even if it has to be at a reduced level, because a dip in the market is the easiest time to increase market share, history has …

Time to get to the point

]]> Should you continue promoting your company in a business downturn? Of course you should, even if it has to be at a reduced level, because a dip in the market is the easiest time to increase market share, history has taught us that. But should your marketing message change? In Ten Tips for Effective Creative in Difficult Times on the B2B Insights Blog it's suggested that you make more effort to understand the situation in which your customers find themselves (and I should add that their situation might just be "Crisis? What Crisis?"). In addition, reduced resources might mean you have to get to the point more quickly – and, to borrow a grammatically-challenged slogan from Apple, you need to Think Different.

Time to get to the point

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