Thinking about how to make the biggest splash with your next mega-launch? Think again. Emerging companies are getting smarter about how they “launch” and opting for a slower community building process that takes place over the course of months. Turns out it is not only less expensive but it proves to be more valuable over the long term.

The process involves getting out months ahead of your product availability and building relationships with key influencers, contributing relevant valuable content to your market and attracting a loyal following with a blog or community. We did something like this at BreakingPoint, although it happened in a far more condensed time frame, and it has indeed been very valuable for reaching our hyper-niche market.

There’s been lots of controversy on the topic of launching at Tech Crunch 50 vs. DEMO lately. Robert Scoble triggered a firestorm of commentary when he posted a blog series about how “companies launching at DEMO suck”. (Why is it that blog posts that include the word “suck” always generate so much buzz?) This triggered Paul May of BuzzStream to blog about the economics of launching a startup at TechCrunch 50 or Demo. According to Paul:

“The cost and time required for the traditional, big-bang, big conference launch adds up quickly…and yeah, I know, TechCrunch 50 is free, but the entry fee is just where your costs begin.  Let’s look at an example.  My co-founder, Jeremy Bencken, was invited to present at DEMO to launch Tenant Market a couple of years ago.  In addition to the entry fee, he calculated the following costs for even a bare-bones approach:

1. Devote 80 hours to prep time.  At $100 an hour, that’s $8K.
2. Speaking coach – $5K
3. Travel – three nights for three people – $6K
4. PR rep – $10k to $20K (lots of variation depending on the quality of the PR professional and the required retainer)
5. Booth, collateral, SWAG, etc. – $3K to $5K”

Wow, that’s a hefty price tag for a startup—bootstrapped or funded. Years ago when I launched a startup at Demo, it was well worth that investment. Why? Those were the early Internet Boom days when startups had to shell out $30,000 to $50,000 per month in retainers to PR agencies. We netted 17 pieces of very high profile coverage from our Demo participation in major trade publications and even The Washington Post. It was such a success that I actually considered going this year with BreakingPoint.

Today, however, most of those publications are no longer around—at least in print. Buyers get their information in different ways and focusing your efforts on laser targeted database marketing combined with a strong push for building a community using social media are the keys to success for startups. If you have a B2C play, those events may make sense for you. But for us, I had to pass.

So, back to the topic at hand: launching your company online. There’s absolutely no reason to wait until you have a product to launch to get started. Why not start engaging with your customers now? Reach out and conduct a little market research. Build tight relationships and a nice following for your blog. Funnel your money into building a detailed, role-based database of your target market. Hire an intern to discover the top thought leaders and start building tight relationships by interacting with them in social media circles.  Start generating a slew of inbound links so that you will rank at the top of the search engines when you introduce your product or service. The possibilities are endless.

For awhile now, B2B Marketers have been caught in a bit of a Catch-22. Our community of B2B professionals are very well represented on LinkedIn. And, it’s fairly easy to set up a topic-oriented group on LinkedIn. However, there’s not much you can do to spread the word about your group to recruit members.  And, worse, once you build your group, you can’t do much for them. There’s really no way to share information or gather feedback.

Facebook, on the other hand, offers a much more “social” atmosphere and once you create a group, you can not only spread the word but actually interact with your members. Seems sort of obvious. I mean, isn’t that what a group is for? Unfortunately, in my situation, test engineers and other IT professionals just  don’t seem to use Facebook. It’s been frustrating because we’ve seen our LinkedIn group grow very quickly without much recruiting, and it’s a very qualified group of the professionals but we simply cannot engage with the members as a group.

Well, at last, LinkedIn has responded with the ability to interact with the members of your group!  They just sent out this email to Group managers:

This Friday, we will be adding several much-requested features to your group:

• Discussion forums: Simple discussion spaces for you and your members. (You can turn discussions off in your management control panel if you like.)
• Enhanced roster: Searchable list of group members.
• Digest emails: Daily or weekly digests of new discussion topics which your members may choose to receive. (We will be turning digests on for all current group members soon, and prompting them to set to their own preference.)
• Group home page: A private space for your members on LinkedIn.

Thanks LinkedIn! Look forward to growing with you.

Google has captured the hearts and minds of most of the civilized world, so the company really doesn’t need to advertise. Although I, for one, wouldn’t mind if Google would reach out and update me on their latest “toys.” So, just what would a television ad for Google look like? Check out these hysterically funny YouTube videos produced by The Vacationeers, here is Part 1 of “The Googling” be sure to check the entire series.

Please note there are a few four letter words in the following video.

This video posted on the Fallon Planning blog is one of the funnier Marketing WTFs we’ve had in a while. I never thought I would commiserate with Hitler, but there’s nothing like Twitter to bring out the passion in its users. My absolute favorite moment is when the General nervously informs Hitler that “Twitter has been down since last night. Apparently Robert Scoble overloaded the servers.” Hitler, then clears the room of those who “think they’re too cool to use Twitter.” LOL – hysterical! Even funnier than the Tropic Thunder viral website at www.rainofmadness.com.

I know, I know, “Web 2.0” sounds sooooo cliché but the so-called Web 2.0 world has really changed everything when it comes to marketing including those traditional activities like Webinar marketing, email campaigns, and direct marketing. Now, Jeff Pulver posts some wonderful advice on avoiding email marketing mistakes in Marketing 103: e-mail Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in a Web 2.0 World.

I encourage you to forgive him his “web 2.0 world” reference (we’ve all made them) and read this great post. Most of his advice is focused on formatting the email to look as if it is personalized. But he does offer a few tips that many marketers may not have considered such as:

” – Be ONLINE and AVAILABLE.
The sender of the email marketing campaign should be plan to be online and responding to messages as they are received from people asking questions from the email they just received. The more available the sender is, the higher the probability the success rate will be higher. Avoid going dark if you can avoid it.

– KNOW the DEVICE and Platform being used by the recipient to read their messages. This continues to be the BEST way to increase the chances your message will be seen in a way you intended it to be seen. The information about the default device/platform used to read e-mail can have a tremendous impact on the future effectiveness of future e-mail marketing campaigns.”

By following Jeff’s advice and investing in a great database and email automation tools, you can make your email marketing campaigns less of an intrusion and see an increase in click throughs and conversion rates. However, I recommend you take Web 2.0 a step further and offer up a number of options for communicating with your customers. Make sure you give them the choice of receiving an email, RSS feed, or Twitter updates. You can increase the frequency of your outreach to customers and reduce the investment you sink into building an email marketing campaign by leveraging these social media tools to build a network of followers. At BreakingPoint, we’ve built a rapidly growing following on Twitter that is paying off in terms of web visitors, leads, and loyal followers who help us spread word of mouth about our products. Curious about how we did it? Follow our corporate feed at www.twitter.com/breakingpoint. Or, if you want to get updates on The B2B Lead stories follow the bloggers at www.twitter.com/poneal, www.twitter.com/lawallace and www.twitter.com/ahawthorne.

Search engine marketing just got a little bit more complicated. According to a story in the New York Times today, former Google employees have just launched a new competitive search engine called “Cuil” which is pronounced “cool” that is supposed to be easier to use and more comprehensive than the search giant. If this takes off according to expectations, B2B Marketers could have another search engine to consider when optimizing their websites. With Google’s domination of the search market, it seems unlikely to be a huge threat, but many experts are touting its advantages. According to the Times story:

“This is the most promising thing I’ve seen in a while,” said Danny Sullivan, who has followed the online search business for more than a decade and is the editor of Search Engine Land. “Whether they are going to threaten Microsoft, much less Google, that’s another story.”

Mr. Costello, a former researcher at Stanford, said that with 120 billion Web pages, Cuil’s search index is larger than any other. The company uses a form of data mining to group Web pages by content, which makes the search engine more efficient, he said. Instead of showing results as short snippets of text and images with links, it displays longer entries and uses more pictures. It also provides tools to help users further refine their queries.

I think Cuil has many nice things going for it although my initial attempts to use it yielded mixed results – poor recognition of long-tail terms, and some performance delays (probably a result of the New York Times article and subsequent load.) But the things I like most about it are the categorization and formatting of results, the 3 column view and the ability to configure it. What’s more, BreakingPoint’s SEO seems to be working on Cuil as our rankings seem to be fine (unlike our leading competitors). Maybe that bodes well for the future of our SEO efforts. I hope so, as I am certain the complete lack of advertising on the site will appeal to my target audience so SEO will be the only option.

Overall, I’m happy to have another streamlined, high performance option for search and hope that Google will get a bit of competition. So, despite the fact that Google is a pervasive presence in my life, I think I’ll continue to use it despite the un-cool name.

What do you think? Will this be good or bad for Marketing and SEO?

Yes, you read that right, I did actually use the words “Blog” and “ROI” in the same headline. But this isn’t a post about how to calculate the ROI of your blog. If that’s what you are looking for, reading further will be a frustrating exercise.

Whenever I speak about social media and blogging, the questions always follow the same path from cynical challenges to reluctant how-to questions. Sort of like the 5 stages of grief (disclaimer: I am not a clinical psychologist and really have no idea if these stages are even accurate):

Shock – “Is a blog right for my audience?”
Denial – “How can I justify the value of a blog, I can’t measure the ROI, can I?
Bargaining – “How can I justify investing in such a time-consuming exercise? Isn’t my time better spent elsewhere?”
Anger – “Where do I even start? Social media is out of control.”
Acceptance – “How often do I have to post?”

Just like death and taxes, blogging is inevitable. It helps you establish a closer relationship with your customers. It gives your company a face and a personality letting you share your evolving philosophies and lessons learned with your readership. And, it helps with search engine optimization so that buyers can find you. For all of these reasons and so many more, you will eventually be forced into embracing blogging. I mean, when was the last time a journalist or blogger wrote a wildly exciting post linking to your web page? Not happening? You’re not alone. People don’t get excited by web copy. But they do get inspired and passionate about blog posts—if they deliver value.

I recently read an extremely interesting post by Phil Baumann’s entitled Blog ROI: It’s About Value, Stupid!, in which Phil makes an excellent case for why hospitals should have a blog. His reason: “value.” According to Phil:

“Until someone establishes a standard measure of Blog ROI, I think it’s helpful to focus our lens on a fundamental question: What information is needed to decide whether a blog is worth its cost. There’s probably a complicated answer to that question, one which depends on the economics of your particular organization. In its place, I’d like to offer up three simple intuition pumps:

1. Value drives ROI
2. Price is a function of Value
3. Value-Multiplied is replacing Value-Added”

Now, here’s the real genius behind Phil’s post. He claims that: “Value-Multiplied is Replacing Value-Added” – And that’s where intelligent applications of social media come into play. Can you think of a better way to multiply the shared values of your going concern? Word-of-Mouth (WOM) was always king. But know the kingdom of WOM has come. Know thy king. He’s a little different this time around. He’s wearing new clothing: a crown of truth, a cape of respect and a staff of democracy. In fact: he’s you! If you lay down the tracks for your customers’ value-train then ROI will come chugging along.

Ready to get started delivering value? Check out Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop Blogging for tips and resources.

Experiencing new media fatigue? Lost in a sea of links on the Interweb? Unsure of which blog name to drop during your next conversation? Here’s all you really need to know about what’s what in the blogosphere. Vanity Fair has gone and published this nifty Gartner-esque quadrant view of the top blogs today. http://gawker.com/tag/blogs/?i=5015947&t=the-blog-matrix.

Sadly, my interests seem to fall closer to the Scurilous/Opinion corner.

I’ve been thinking a lot about direct mail lately, pondering whether it could possible work again, or if it has simply become an unforgivable sin against the environment. You see, using email for acquisition just seems awfully risky these days with increasingly stringent CAN-SPAM laws. And, I’m just not comfortable blasting out an email to an unscrubbed list.

Before I would ever feel comfortable sending out a direct mail or email campaign, I would have to come up with a killer creative idea and offer that would compel my target audience to take action. And, I would need a precision database to ensure high response rates and minimal waste. But that’s another post.

And, I confess, I’m at a loss for inspiration. The last creative direct mail campaign I saw was at least 4 months ago, and it wasn’t even addressed to me. I was in my boss’s office and I spotted an unusual relic sitting on top of a stack of papers. No, the relic wasn’t just a direct mail brochure, it was a floppy disk!!! Can you imagine? I had not seen one of these since I was, erh, merely an infant.

Anyway, the floppy disk was imprinted with a custom URL based on the primary domain of www.areyouobsolete.com. Wow! It was the perfect combination of incredibly creative, environmentally friendly (recycling old floppies), and it sparked a curiosity so strong that I was compelled to run back to my office to type in the URL. And, to blog about it.

When I reached my office and typed in the URL, I was greeted with a “We’re Sorry, we do not recognize the URL” message because I had not typed in the personalized URL. Sadly, the folks at Progress Software who designed this ingenious campaign, had neglected to consider that the campaign might just be so clever that it would stimulate strong Word of Mouth and intrigue other possible buyers to visit and learn. A simple catch-all page at www.areyouobsolete.com would have been very helpful.

As a potential prospect for Progress, I might also suggest that they build out a database with all of the buyers in the buying process and send the floppies to each of them. You see, my boss had no interest in following up and he didn’t have time to indulge his curiosity. By sending the mailer to each member of the team, they would increase their odds of success.

Got any great direct mail success stories to share with The B2B Lead? Use the comments field to brag about your recent successes. I’m in dire need of inspiration.

Ever notice how people will go way out of their way and wait in the longest lines to be part of an exclusive group or the first to experience something new, then word spreads and a frenzy ensues? Witness the iPhone phenomenon. Here are a few techniques for stimulating your own frenzy of trade show traffic.

In my last position, I wanted to call out all of the stops at one major industry event to take our booth traffic to new levels and stimulate huge buzz to raise brand awareness. I decided to leverage word of mouth techniques to accomplish this goal. So, my team produced an exclusive, invitation-only after hours party at a swank club in Las Vegas immediately following the close of the show floor.

We gave a small number of invitations to our customers and partners who were attending the event and they helped us generate so much buzz for the event that we had attendees lining up at the booth for a chance to get an invite to the party. Once inside the party, we lavished our guests with food, drinks, attention and gifts—one of which was a killer t-shirt that many wore to the show the next day which led others to visit the booth.

The event has now become an annual affair for NetQoS which more than 500 attending the last party in Anaheim. The event is no longer exclusive, but it does have a widespread reputation as the must-attend event at Networkers.

So, take a tip from New York club promoters and offer exclusives to get people excited about you and stimulate WOM. Invite your customers and partners and encourage them to spread the word for you.

Oh, and here’s another related tip for driving booth traffic: sponsor a keynote drop. What’s a keynote drop? Some trade shows enable marketers to produce cards or flyers that are placed on the seats at the Keynote presentation. It’s more targeted than a hotel drop and instantly actionable. If the trade show does not offering a keynote drop, that’s even better. Contact the show organizers and offer to sponsor it exclusively! They will be happy to have the additional dollars and you’ll be the only game in town.