Building the Ideal B2B Website

When we started Minds On nearly ten years ago we still had to convince some people that their businesses needed websites. Almost everyone has caught on by now and we have to do less evangelism about websites and ecommerce (although the preaching has now shifted to Social Media).

But just having a website and an online store isn’t enough to make your business successful. I find that when I sit down to talk with business owners or marketing managers,  they’re uncertain about what to do with their websites and don’t have a clear picture about what will work for them.

Here are six things areas that you should think about for your B2B website (most B2C would benefit from this approach as well:

1. Professional Appearance - As the face of your company, the way that your website looks at first glance is extremely important. Think about it this way: If you have a customer visit you at your office, what impressions do you want them to take away from seeing your facility? Your website should do the same thing. It’s probably time to take a hard look at your site design and compare it to your top competitors. If your design is more than three years old, it’s probably looking dated and ready for a fresh approach.
2. Customer-Centric Content – You need a reason for customers and prospects to spend time on your site. And you need a reason for them to come back. Building a content strategy with a strong brand voice and communicating with them in ways that they understand is essential. Make sure your product or service categories are relevant to your audience; limit acronyms and use visuals, images, video and other content types to engage and inform your audience. And provide lots of clues and indicators that you frequently update your content. How often? Every day is ideal, but multiple times a week will probably provide a minimal effective return rate.
3. User Experience – How easy is it to find your way around your website? Most websites find that nearly three quarters of visitors view only your home page and then leave immediately. Does your site and home page help people quickly and easily see that you have what they need? Does it show lots of recently updated information? Is there a easy way for customers and prospects to self-identify and follow a path for information targeted just for them? And do you have a strong search feature so anyone can find anything instantly?
4. Showcasing Analyst Relations and Customer Testimonials – For B2B sales this is very important. You need to show that you are a credible product or service provider, not by claiming so yourself, but by pointing to known authorities and customer testimonials. Highlighting good reviews and detailing how experts feel about your company is very effective, especially to a first-time customer. 
5. Product/Service Information – For many businesses, this is the entire site. Some call this “brochureware” sites, and this type of site is frequently regarded as uninteresting and of limited usefulness. Since the point of your web presence is to increase sales and awareness, having your product/service information available online is a valuable asset to your company. You should have detailed information here, including white papers and materials that help position your product or solution in the industry and directly address the problems that your customers are facing. But don’t limit yourself to text. This is a place to showcase your product or service by having video demos, white papers, research, presentations or free trial offers. 
6. Interaction with Customers – Do you have a way for people to easily interact with you? Can they easily spread the word about you? Links to your social media accounts, blog, RSS feed, or subscription to a newsletter is a great way for previous and potential customers to stay in touch and gain more information about your company.

There are lots of other things to focus on, including your ecommerce strategy (we’ll talk about that in a future post). But if you focus on these six items, I believe you’ll find that your strategy for your website can come together quickly and easily. I’d love to hear about your website plans. And I can talk to you about what I see successful businesses doing (many of them are our customers!). Give me a call or drop me a line.

Is Your Marketing Campaign Part of the Living Dead?

There are zombies everywhere you look.

Seriously, if you take a look around you, you can find examples of things that are dead and should have been buried and forgotten long ago.

I’m not talking about your Uncle Stewie. I’m talking about marketing campaigns that companies are using that have long since stopped being useful and productive. When was the last time that those “caveman” commercials for Geico were actually funny? And what about company names based around the 800 number?  These undead campaigns are actually hurting the companies they were designed to help.

You are probably plagued with zombies, too. Why is that?

I can give you a few reasons. Marketing is hard work. It’s difficult to come up with really productive methods to carry your message. And integrating a new marketing campaign across your entire company can be expensive. But perhaps the biggest reason is this: people are attached to campaigns that were once successful and point to that past success as the reason to keep pushing on – even when the campaign is no longer working.

Every marketing campaign has a lifecycle. And that means at some point you have to retire EVERY campaign.

And that means two things:

1. You need to be creating and testing new campaigns continuously.
2. You need to constantly test and measure the results of your current and active campaigns.

The best way to do this is to form a real partnership between sales and marketing and plan from the very beginning the lifecycle of a campaign, when it will be kicked off (born), and when it will be retired (die). Marketing can drive a campaign if it has continual and real-time feedback from sales. You’ll know what’s working and be able to do more of the same. And you’ll know what’s failing and be able to try something else.

One of the worst things that can happen is to have a successful campaign become very successful, and then set it on eternal autopilot. When you turn your back and stop measuring results, stop planning new replacement campaigns, you’re destined to failure.

Your marketing program should focus on creating new campaigns on a regular basis, continually measuring their effectiveness, and actively killing off those that are no longer producing at the level you need.  You can’t get attached to anything, including your company name and logo. Take a look at the Apple logo and name across the years. They’ve had three logos and dropped “Computer” from their company name. They can be ruthless about their marketing, creating big campaigns, letting them run as long as they’re successful, and then replacing them with new ones as soon as the old ceases to be effective.  Notice that the “I’m A Mac” commercials are gone? But look at all the iPad commercials.

When was the last time you took a hard look at all of your marketing? It can be scary, but it has to be done. Your marketing is too expensive and too critical to let it remain shuffling around, killing your potential in the market. I’d be happy to join you on the hunt. Drop me an e-mail or give me a call and I’ll show up with my shotgun (OK, no firearms. I’ll bring my iPad) and we can hunt down and kill your zombies and find new life for your marketing needs.

Blurring Lines – Social Media Refuses to Stay inside the Box

Like a lot of people I know, I’ve tried to set up the way I use social media to both help me grow my personal and business network while trying to maintain some semblance of privacy.

I set things up this way:

• Facebook for personal friends and family connections
• LinkedIn for business contacts
• Twitter for broadcasting information and gathering information
• Blogging for expressing thoughts in depth

And I bet you’re thinking, “How’s that work’n out for you?”

Let me put it this way. It ain’t easy.

People I meet want to be friends on Facebook, even though our dealings are all business. Family members want to connect on LinkedIn, which is more than a little strange. And some really interesting conversations take place by exchanging tweets. I’ve also found that my most personal posts on this blog are the ones that get the most traffic.

I completely get it when someone replies to a friend request and says, “I reserve Facebook for friends and family, but I’d love to connect on LinkedIn.” But, on the other hand, I’ve connected and made more new customers through Facebook than any other form of social media. It’s that personal touch, that sense that I’m a real, authentic person and completely passionate about my business, as well as the community that people respond to. It lets even cynical business people move beyond the cold dollars and cents equations and decide if they’d like to do business with Minds On based upon someone that gets it, not just anyone that’s cheap.

So yes, more people know how I spent the weekend or where we went to dinner last night than I use to be comfortable with. I think I could get by with a little less of that, but I have to admit, it’s all just so darn useful.

So what about privacy? Here are a few tips:

1. Get to know, in depth, Facebook’s new privacy settings and use them. Restrict who every message and posts go to. Be selective.
2. Set up a Facebook page for your business – a fan page. Be sure to post and respond often to make it useful and interesting.
3. Be yourself. If you only use social media to release faceless PR and business bits, you’ll generate very little interest. But share a bit more of yourself and people will respond.

You don’t need to share everything. Learn what’s TMI (Too Much Information). Eventually you’ll find that balance, perhaps living a bit more in the open, but retaining enough privacy to be comfortable.

So blur those lines and let’s connect!

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin

Better yet, I’d love to talk with you about how you combine all of the elements of social media with your company marketing. Are you getting the most impact from what you’re doing? And would you like to explore combining social, interactive, and conventional marketing? Give me a call or drop me a line.