In this chapter, David covers the basics of search engine marketing without getting into the technical details. He makes the great point that if you follow the New Rules, you will already be practicing search engine marketing.  It really is all about the content.  (Some of you may scoff that inbound links are most important, but I contend that great content is what draws inbound links.)

David covers a few tips on SEM but I want to highlight his tips on landing pages:

• Make the landing page copy short and the graphics simple.
• Create the page with your company’s look, feel, and tone.
• Write from the prospect’s point of view.
• A landing page is communications, not advertising.
• Provide a quote from a happy customer.
• Make the landing page a self-contained unit.
• Make the call to action clear and easy to respond to.
• Use multiple calls to action.
• Only ask for necessary information.
• Don’t forget to follow up!

Landing pages are critical to direct buyers to your content.  Well optimized landing pages can rank highly in organic search and produce high conversion rates.

That pretty much wraps it all up.  Now that we have completed The New Rules of Marketing and PR, the title of the final chapter sums it up nicely, “Make it Happen.”  David, himself, admits that he has not put into practice every idea presented in this book.  The point is to find what works best for you and your organization, put it into action and start reaping the benefits.  Best of luck!

This week’s focus on The B2B Lead seems to be social networking, not sure if we planned that or if it’s sheer coincidence.  Laura, Leigh Anne and I have been busy these past weeks building out our LinkedIn Profiles and making sure we are answering any of the LinkedIn Answers questions out there that apply to what we do on a daily basis.  So this chapter (19) is right on time for us.  Here’s a few new things we’re planning on doing or checking out in the coming weeks…

• Squidoo – Do you squidoo?  We don’t currently but we will be looking into it very soon.  If anyone is currently using Squidoo, we’d love to hear what you think?  Does it drive the right kinds of traffic?
• Max Pipeline – like Helga in the Volkswagen example – will be out there exploring the B2B Lead Generation world and will be sharing his findings right here on The B2B Lead.  Check him out on FaceBook and be sure to check back here for his updates.
• LinkedIn Groups – oh the possibilities here…

As you can see, we’re jumping in the social networking world with both feet.  If you’re just getting started or considering a social plan, here’s a few other tips David recommends to get the most out of your social networking sites:

• Target a specific audience – think niche market/long tail here
• Be a thought leader – provide valuable and useful information, remember this is not where you do company promotions
• Be authentic and transparent – just be yourself please
• Create lots of links – links “makes the web what it is”
• Encourage people to interact with you
• Participate – you can’t just put it out there and hope they’ll come, you have to engage with others in your space.
• Experiment – if what you’re doing isn’t working, try something new – there’s definitely enough choices out there.

What are you doing?  What have you learned?  Please share as this is a new world for most of us.  Making the leap can be scary but the benefits are there if you’re willing to work for them, right?

Podcasting and video can be very scary to use…buying new equipment and software, and then learning how to use it all. The procedure might be a little more difficult than just writing text, but the outcome of engaging your audience is worth it. And if that doesn’t sell you, then what David has to say about it will. It sold me!

“The potential to deliver information to buyers in new and surprising ways is greater when you use a new medium. And while your competition is still trying to figure out ‘that blogging thing,’ you can leverage your existing blog into the new worlds of audio and video and leave the competition way behind.”

Who doesn’t like to watch a short video (mostly if it is funny) while reading a blog post? I won’t speak for everyone, but I am willing to bet the majority does. And it might seem scary at first, but putting a podcast or short video together really is not all that hard. Luckily, David has some tips for us to use as well:

For Podcasting

• Show preparation -gather ideas and create a script
• Recording when you are near your computer -use a microphone that delivers audio into your computer (need software here)
• Mobile recording gear – is required if you are going to be moving around interviewing people at different places
• Phone interviews – require a digital recording switch device that connects to your telephone
• Editing your audio files – optional
• Postproduction editing – sometimes includes running a noise-reduction program and sound compression
• Tagging the audio -adding text-based information about the audio to make it easier for people to find
• Hosting and distribution – so people can easily obtain your podcasts
• Promotion – you must provide links to your show
• A companion blog – to discuss the content of each show, and will also help to be indexed by search engines

For Video

• Posting to video-sharing sites – like YouTube, just shoot and upload
• Developing an online video channel – usually used with a unique URL
• Attempting stealth insertions to YouTube – dangerous, YouTube will find inauthentic video
• Vlogging – “video blogging” by embedding a video into a blog post
• Vodcasting – a podcast with video tied to a syndication component
• Inviting your customer communities to submit video – to help generate viral marketing interest

Our friends over at HubSpot recently posted a really funny video about imbound vs. outbound marketing that was a real success. They told us it only took an afternoon to come up with idea, write it, shoot it an edit it. See…worth it!

This is a fantastic chapter for anyone thinking about or embarking on starting their own company blog.  I have blogged about this subject quite a bit in the past but I want to pull out a few great tips from David (and one of my own) that I have not covered before.

Following the ethical guidelines for blogging David outlines is very important.  Here are the high points:

• Transparency - Let readers know that the blog is tied to the company, don’t try to pass it off as a third party.  When commenting always leave your real name and don’t comment for someone else.
• Privacy - always ask for permission to blog about anything that could be considered private.  If a customer emails you to share their success using your product, be sure to ask permission before sharing it on the blog.
• Disclosure - Always disclose any connection you might have to what you are blogging or commenting about.  If you are recommending a product be sure to reveal that they are a partner.
• Truthfulness - Don’t lie, period.
• Credit - It is very common practice to read someone else’s blog post and write about it on your own blog.  This is fine but always give credit to the source.  (Tip: be sure to add some new idea to the topic and don’t just regurgitate their ideas)

Another tip David suggests is password protecting your blog in the beginning so you can get input from those you trust before opening it up to the entire online world.  I would add that it is a good idea to build up a few posts before you begin promoting your blog so that visitors can get an idea of what your blog is all about.  When we launched The B2B Lead, we wrote about ten or fifteen posts before we actually posted a single one. That way it was easy in the beginning to post something everyday.

One of the best reasons to start a blog is for SEO, but keep in mind you will be not be ranked #1 on Google your first day.  From what I understand (and please correct me if I am wrong) Google searches sites only every few months.  When it notices that content changes have been made it will crawl that site again sooner that a site with no or only minor content changes.  Your blog should have lots of new content so you want Google to crawl it everytime you have a new post.  Over time, Google will recognize that it it a site to be checked frequently, but there is a way to “train” Google  to crawl your site frequently.  You can submit a new site map to Google everytime you post.  I am not a technology expert so my advice is to ask your webmaster how to do this in your blogging software.

For more blogging tips, check out these posts:

Blogs – Don’t Underestimate Their Reach – ReachForce Book Club

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Corporate Blog

Keep Your Blog on Track to Support SEO and Other Business Objectives

Page Titles are Important

Blog Basics

The Web, of course, has made getting in touch with the media much easier. However has anyone had luck with emailing a journalist (you don’t know) a story and actually get published? If so, what is your secret? In most cases however, (in the words of David) “PR people are spamming journalists with unsolicited and unrelenting commercial messages in the form of news releases and untargeted broadcast pitches.”

Don’t worry, David is here to help with The New Rules of Media Relations:

• Nontargeted, broadcast pitches are spam.
• News releases sent to reporters in subject areas they do not cover are spam.
• Reporters who don’t know you yet are looking for organizations like yours and products like yours-make sure they will find you on sites such as Google and Technorati.
• If you blog, reporters who cover the space will find you.
• Pitch bloggers, because being covered in important blogs will get you noticed by mainstream media.
• When was the last news release you sent? Make sure your organization is “busy.”
• Journalists want a great online media room!
• Some (but not all) reporters love RSS feeds.
• Personal relationships with reporters are important.
• Dont’ tell journalists what your product does. Tell them how you solve customer problems.
• Does the reporter have a blog? Read it. Comment on it. Track back to it (send a message whenever you blog on a subject that the reporter blogged about first).
• Before you pitch, read (or listen to or watch) the publication (or radio program or TV show) you’ll be pitching to!
• Once you know what a reporter is interested in, send her an individualized pitch crafted especially for her needs.

Now your rate of getting noticed will hopefully be much more successful when you use these tips. And now let’s fast forward a bit, you have used the New Rules and started building relationships. How do you pitch to these journalists now? David has a few tips on this as well…woo hoo!

• Target one reporter at a time.
• Help the journalist to understand the big picture.
• Explain how customers use your product or work with your organization.
• Don’t send e-mail attachments unless asked.
• Follow up promptly with potential contacts.
• Don’t forget, it’s a two-way street-journalists need you to pitch them!

Mainstream media is still very important and hopefully you will follow the New Rules and tactics to start getting noticed. To close the same way David did, “you need to be smart how you tell your story on the Web-and about how you tell your story to journalists.”

Next week we will cover chapters 17 and 18 on Blogging to Reach Your Buyers and Podcasting and Video Made, Well, as Easy as Possible.

This chapter couldn’t have come at a better time.  Leigh Anne and I were just talking about this.  We need to update our ‘News’ page on our site.  It feels so old school and is really due a 2.0 update.

David opens the chapter with a very important message – “…all kinds of people visit your online media room, not just journalists.  Your buyers are snooping around your organization by visiting media pages on your Web site.  Your current customers, partners, investors, suppliers and employees all visit those pages.”  He goes on to say, people go to the online media room to know what’s current about the organization.  I totally agree.  If there’s no updated news does that mean the company isn’t doing well or is stagnant?  Maybe.

As we are about to take on a site overhaul, here’s some of the best practices David suggests that we’ll be implementing:

• Needs Analysis – Before the reconstruction begins we’ll be identifying persona of the people visiting this new media room.  Once identified we will then be sure to include content that meets the needs of each persona.
• Optimized news releases for searching and browsing – gone are the days of the aged list of press release headlines.  When updating we must always consider SEO best practices.  This spot has a wealth of good information, we’ll be sure to leverage this.
• Background Information that Helps Journalists Write Stories – This is often called a press kit and typically includes – company history, executive bios, investor profiles, board of directors, product and service information, analysts information/coverage and links to recent media coverage.
• Multimedia content – some like to listen, some like to read, some like to watch and listen.  We want to make sure we have what their looking for.
• List Executive appearances, conferences and tradeshow participation – we want to be sure the journalists know where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going.
• Don’t forget the bloggers – all news releases going forward will include bloggers distribution lists as well.
• Avoid Jargon, Acronyms and Industry Speak – we’ve covered this in an earlier chapter.  Everyone sees through it and would appreciate us all just speaking in common terms we all understand.

Are we forgetting anything here?  All of these ideas are great, right?  For more ideas for a great media room, check out Hubspot’s Press Room.

In Chapter 5 we learned the New Rules of News Releases and how news releases should be written for your buyers. Building off of the New Rules, after you have written for your buyers, now you need to reach them. David gives tips on how to develop a news release strategy in order to reach buyers directly.

Here are some of his tips:

Write about pretty much anything that your organization is doing.

• Have a new take on an old problem?
• Serve a unique marketplace?
• Have interesting information to share?
• CEO speaking at a conference?
• Win an award?
• Add a product feature?
• Win a new customer?
• Publish a whitepaper?

Publish news releases through a distribution service.

• Business Wire
• Market Wire
• PrimeNewswire
• PR Newswire
• PRWeb

We have been using PRWeb for our latest news releases and have gotten descent response. What service have you had success using?

Use RSS feeds.

• Many distribution services provide this to make your news release available to other sites, blogs, journalists and individuals.

Simultaneously publish news releases on your web site.

Link wherever possible.

Focus on the keywords and phrases your buyers use.

• Think about your buyer personas.

Include social media tags.

• Like Technorati, DIGG and del.icio.us

Tell the media, your clients and your prospects.

• Repurpose content for all audiences.
• Example: Tweak content for use in company newsletter.

I’ll close with what David said about the importance of reaching your buyers.

“Implementing a news release strategy to reach buyers directly is like publishing an online news service – you are providing your buyers with information that they need in order to find your organization online and then learn more about you.”

We’ve talked a lot about writing best practices here on The B2B Lead.  B2B Marketers out there, pay special attention to this chapter.  Gobbledygook words – that’s what David calls jargon-laden phrases.  Words like groundbreaking, industry-stand, and cutting edge are good examples of gobbledygook words.  David goes on to say that business-to-business technology marketers are the worst offenders.

Here are some interesting findings from a study David highlighted in this chapter.

388,000 press releases were analyzed over a 9 month period.
74,000 of them had gobbledygook words
9895 of them used the words next generation
over 5000 of them used words like flexible, robust, world class, scalable, easy to use
between 2,000 and 5,000 used words like cutting edge, mission critical, market leading, industry standard, turnkey and groundbreaking

WOW!  And isn’t the goal of doing a news release to stand out in the crowd?  Well we’re not if we’re using these words.

Here’s a few more tips – another study highlighted in this chapter, this time a survey of general business and trade editors.  These are these people that we sent out announcements to.  Are you using these words?

• “Leading” (used as an adjective) – 94% of editors feel it is overused
• “We’re excited about…” – 76% of editors feel it is overused
• “Solutions” – 68% of editors feel it is overused
• “…a wide range of…” – 64% of editors feel it is overused
• “Unparalleled” – 62% of editors feel it is overused
• “Unsurpassed” – 53% of editors feel it is overused

David does a great job of summarizing the importance of writing for our buyers, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to steal a couple of lines for the book to close this as well.

“Your online and offline marketing content is meant to drive action, which requires a focus on buyer problems.  Your buyers want this in their own words, and then they want proof.  Every time you write, you have an opportunity to communicate and to convince.  At each stage of the sales process, well-written materials combined with effective marketing programs will lead your buyers to understand how your company can help them.”

If you’re worried about your use or overuse of gobbledygook words in your news releases, check out Hubspot’s Press Release Grader.  This free tool helps you make sure you are getting the most out of every news release you write.

I love that David is now giving us actionable things to think about for our own businesses.  So many times we read business books with a lot of commentary but no real action items or ideas on how to incorporate these things into our existing strategies.  In this chapter he lists 8 ideas on creating thoughtful content.  Here’s a few I really liked –

• Do not write about your company or products.  Thought leadership is not advertising.
• Based on your goals, decide whether your content should be free or behind a form.
• Write for your audience.  Use examples and stories.
• Choose a great title that grabs attention.
• To drive  viral marketing effects, alert appropriate reporters, bloggers, and analysts that content is available for download.

Are you already using some of these ideas or is there anything else to add to the list?

Next week we will be discussing chapters 12 and 13 on how to write for your buyers and how web content influences the buying process.

“What are your organization’s goals?” For most B2B marketers the answer is increasing revenue. David says that leads and website visitors are the wrong things to focus on. I have to disagree. At ReachForce, we are all striving towards the same goals (proven by the fact that all of our bonuses are tied to revenue and bookings goals). But, each department sort of reverse engineers what they individually have to achieve in order to meet those goals. We measure everything, so I know exactly how many new leads need to be delivered to sales in order to for them to reach their bookings numbers. I cannot make a sale or generate revenue directly, so I have to focus on goals I can achieve.

I think a great question you have to ask is “what is the goal of my website.” I touched on this some in my last post, but it is even more relevant for this chapter. Is the goal of your website to:

• educate buyers about your products or services?
• get buyers to download a white paper, eBook, webcast, etc?
• get buyers to contact you?
• get buyers to request a demo?

Most executives will say that they want all of the above. In my opinion, you can’t have it all for every persona. Your website should lead buyers down a path. The better goal may be that you have a different goal for each persona. That way your website is reaching all of these goals but each persona is traveling down the best path for them. Now I would love to tell you to check out the ReachForce website as a great example, but I don’t think that it is. Check back in a few weeks though because we are making lots of changes in this direction.

David spends a lot of this chapter talking about personas. Our own Pam O’Neal has blogged about personas before. I find that the best way for me to think about my different buyer personas is defining the different members of the decision making unit. I already segment my database that way and have different offers for different roles, shouldn’t my website be the same?

Anyone had any success using personas to drive their web design?