Steps to writing good White Papers

Hey gang,

Here are 5 Steps to writing a good white paper :

1. Focus on the target reader, not the company. A white paper primarily presents the company's perspective on an issue or technology. Do not focus too much on the company, but the target audience who will read the paper. Present useful information that keeps the reader interested and meets their concerns. Does it solve a problem for the reader and how?

2. Make it clear, precise, and engaging. Keep it simple. Convey in the paper why the reader should be interested. Overly long sentences, convoluted syntax, and complex words can make the paper seem incoherent and academic. Write direct and simple, and you'll create a white paper that is engaging and understandable.

3. Do not load it up with technical jargon. Some marketers feel the paper will not be effective without the latest trendy and technical words. Too much jargon can be confusing, can miss the meaning of the topic and key message of the paper, and make it appear like another sales pitch, turning readers away.

4. Know your audience. Do not try to make one paper be all things to all people. Business executives have different concerns about a product purchase than the IT staff or end user. Sometimes, a separate white paper is needed to meet these audience's objectives and better support the sales process. Within the paper, use of subheads and sidebars can isolate and address the different audience's concerns.

5. Make it accurate and error free. Errors of facts or omissions can cause legal problems. The information must be accurate and have proof to back it up. Forgetting a statement, a feature, or making claims of a benefit without proper proof can be a costly mistake. Have the engineers, sales, and marketing departments check over the white paper thoroughly before distribution.

Try these steps and I bet your white papers will be good and well received.

Don't think so? Then let me know. Comments are welcomed.

Stop back by for more B2B Marketing Communications steps and tips. Thanks.

White Papers in B2B

Hey Gang,

Businesses are using White Papers now more than ever.

White Papers are electronic books (e-books), technical reports, or large Subject Matter Expert (SME) articles that describe a product and service.

The use of technical white papers as a marketing tool has grown tremendously in the last few years—not only for selling information technology (IT) and other High Tech industry offerings, but also to promote a wide range of products and services beyond computer hardware, software, and high tech devices.

A company with a product in any high tech sector or business can take advantage of a white paper.

White papers are one of the leading sources of sales lead generation.

White papers require all information related to the product's description, performance, and purpose. For example:

• What are the product's features and benefits?
  
• How well did it perform under load?
  
• What were the performance and benchmark numbers achieved?
  
• What does the product do? What problems does it solve? What is its purpose in the industry market?, etc.

Basically what is the product all about, how well it functions, what it solves, and why? makes up a white paper.

Three categories of content that should be included in a white paper are:

1. Content that directly enhances the effectiveness of the white paper in achieving the marketing objective.

2. Useful tips or how-to information.

3. Content that compares the various options for solving the problem and steers the reader towards the product.

Do not add too much content to a white paper. If it is too large, the reader will put it aside. Leave out interesting but irrelevant information.

Effective white papers contain between 3,000 to 4,000 words. If the paper is less than 2,000 words, it may be best suited as an article, not a white paper.

White papers are generally written on non-glossy paper in a report type format and contain very few graphic images if any. They include the name of the product, the name of the company, its logo and contact information.

Businesses use copywriters to work with their technical and engineering departments to gather information for these white papers. They also work with the marketing and sales departments for input and distribution.

For more information including steps to writing effective White Papers, keep checking out my Blog or go to my websites.

Let me know what you think. Your Comments are welcomed.

SEO in Business to Business (B2B)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in Business to Business is needed more and more as companies want their name, their products, and company web site to be found whenever an internet search is done using search engines such as Google or Yahoo.

Keywords, phrases, and name recognition embedded in the company web site content, found by search engines, make up the building of SEO projects. This is quickly becoming an industry in and of itself and marketers as well as copywriters can make a career earning 6 figures or more for this niche specialty.

Copywriters write web site content and embed keywords in the company web pages that show up in search engines. This allows the web site to be listed towards the top of the search list when the search engine is tasked to look for a particular word or phrase.

A successful search engine optimization campaign will contain:

• Content, which is what drives the users to the website.

• Simple Site Design, which makes it easy for them to find the content.

• Well written Meta tags, which written with compelling keyword phrases and content will make the users click to the site from the search engine results.

Here are 5 Mistakes to avoid in Website Optimization:

1. Lack of targeted keywords. If a user goes to the search engine and types in a keyword or phrase, and these are not on the website copy, they will not find you.

2. Poorly written content. Content badly written, never updated, or not relevant, makes the site not search engine or user friendly. Users will quit going to the site.

3. Black Hat SEO techniques. Black Hat includes techniques that are unethical and frowned upon by search engine spiders, the text based computing process that travels the internet looking for a match to the search. Keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, etc. do raise the sites' search ranking, but search engine spiders recognize this as “Black Hat” and the search engine can ban the website.

4. Meta Tags not used or used improperly. These include title, keywords, and description tags. Make sure to include these on every site page and tab.

5. Poorly designed site. This includes lack of clear navigation, bad page frames, and large load-intensive graphics that will block search engine spiders from the site. If a user can't find what they want quickly on the site, they will move on.

A website can always be improved to increase traffic to the site, provide better customer satisfaction, and produce a higher search engine ranking.

There are many more items to discuss in this topic including the steps to creating a successful well optimized website using SEO. Check my blog soon for some of these steps.

Let me know what you think. Your comments are welcomed.

7 Steps to Writing Effective Newsletters

7 Steps to Writing an Effective Newsletter in Business to Business (B2B):

1. Publish regularly. It is vital to keep the commitment to the readers. If the newsletter is distributed the first Tuesday of the month, then meet that date.

2. Provide catchy and descriptive headlines. The newsletter may feature a very interesting and well written article, but readers will skip over it if it is boring and non-descriptive. “CEO Expects Company to Double in Size within 5 Years”.

3. Use different size Headlines. If all the headlines were the same type size, none of them would stand out. Different size headlines help the readers prioritize the order in which they should read the articles, from most to least important.

4. Write strong lead sentences. After the headline, the first sentence, or lead, is the most important part of the article. Write the article so the most important information to the reader is listed first. “Blue Moon CEO Roy Jones unveiled plans on increasing the company size in 5 years at the annual shareholders meeting in Miami.”

5. Keep consistent type styles and fonts. Keep the newsletter uniformed. Use the same text style and fonts for all the articles. If the text is too long in an article, do not reduce the type size, cut some words out to make it fit the allowed space.

6. Lay out articles on the page one-column wide. Layout all the articles on the page in a one-column width section. This may consist of 3 columns per page; left, middle, right. For example, top of the page article covers all 3 columns across the page and halfway down. Another article covers 2 column sections in the bottom left, with a 3rd article in a 1 column space on the right bottom of the page. This makes the newsletter visually interesting.

7. Use photos. Photos are the best way to draw-in readers and make the newsletter visually exciting. If a computer system is involved in an article, show a picture of the system too.

The layout and format of the newsletter is like a newspaper article. It could range from upwards to 2000+ words. Newsletters are generally 1-3 pages long.

There you go. Try these steps and let me know how they worked for you. Your comments are welcomed.

Frank Eaton is CEO of Frank B2B Communications, a business to business marketing and consulting company CG4HBD5A4AE7

More Successful B2B Viral Marketing Steps

Hey Gang,

As promised, here are 4 more steps to doing successful Viral Marketing in business to business (B2B)

1. Make Sequels, but sparingly. When the video gets people's attention, act and give them more immediately. Make sequels and make them more exciting; a behind the scenes look, a secretary using the product as precise as an expert, a blog about the process, etc. But do so sparingly. Do not make sequel after sequel. This may tire the audience and drive them away.

2. Allow sharing, downloading, and embedding. Sharing is what viral marketing is about. Everything to make that easier is going to improve the campaign. Download the content in a usable format (MPG, JPG, etc.), let users embed the content in their sites, keep bandwidth at a minimum, provide a link to the content, publish it to YouTube and other social networks, and allow people to bookmark it.

3. Connect with the Audience. Provide comment fields on the website for viewers to respond after seeing the video. They are excited and ready to talk. Let them. The best viral marketing campaign creates a strong emotion. Even in business.

4. Never restrict access. Viral marketing is about the campaign getting a life of its own, spreading like a virus. In order to become “viral”, it needs to be free. Do not provide secured materials on the video that require viewers to login, register, become partners, require special software, enter codes to “unlock”, or go through many tabs to get to the right link, etc. It is never about exclusivity, it is getting it out there for everyone, every business to see.

Put these four(4) steps together with the three(3) steps I provided in my previous Blog, and you have 7 Steps to a highly Effective and Successful Viral Marketing campaign in Business to Business (B2B) as well as Business to Consumer (B2C).

Let me know what you think. Comments are welcomed.

Successful B2B Viral Marketing Steps

Hey Gang:

Here are a few Steps to Successful Viral Marketing in Business to Business (B2B):

1. Make the Viewers excited. The video should create a strong emotion, draw an opinion, express an idea, and get their blood pumping with excitement.

2. Do something unexpected. Forget about promoting the product as being great, everybody does that. If the campaign is to be noticed, then make it the most effective viral advertisement ever by being unique and different. For example: to promote BlueTooth, show a guy jumping out a plane and talking on his Bluetooth cell phone ear clip, as opposed to just standing on the street talking on his cell.

3. Make advertising that sizzles. Clients think that viral marketing is advertisements that people share. Wrong. They do not need a celebrity showing off the product and how good it is. That helps. But viral marketing is all about a good story. When an auto maker produced a viral video on their cars, they put out a story of excitement and how good the driver felt driving. Any car model they made fit that story.

There you go. Come on back and get more of these steps to successful Viral Marketing in my next blog.

Let me know what you think about these. Comments are welcomed.

Using Newsletters in B2B

Hey gang!

Newsletters are used in business to business (B2B) to provide to the subscriber and recipients information sharing on the company, their products, their offerings, their promotions, and other information that sparks interest in the readers to anticipate the next issue.

Newsletters are distributed in print form through the mail or electronically via email in a monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly format.

With today's economy, copywriters are needed for these newsletters, mainly because the company does not have the workforce or time to create and distribute them on a scheduled basis. It is more easy for them to pass this responsibility over to a dedicated copywriter.

Using a newsletter as a marketing vehicle is a great tool for many businesses. However, an effective newsletter design is not just a big ad for the business. It should include information of interest and value to the recipient, whether or not they buy the company's products or services.

Tip #1: A good newsletter has the content that meets the needs and expectations of the reader.

Tip #2: A good newsletter design creates interest and maintains readability through consistency, conservation, and contrast.

Have a consistent look and design to the newsletter. Be conservative by using boxes, clip art, and photos sparingly per page. Build contrast using bold typeface fonts, white space to counteract dense text, and enlarge a single piece of clip art to make a statement.

Tip #3: Make sure the newsletter contains the company contact information, the logo, who to call to find out more, and when the next newsletter is scheduled to be distributed.

There you go. This is what a newsletter is. Come on back and I will provide some steps on writing effective B2B newsletters. Stay tuned.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Viral Marketing

Viral Marketing and viral advertising refers to marketing techniques that use social networks to produce company products and brand awareness, product sales activities, and other marketing methods though viral replicating processes. It is “word of mouth” advertising via the internet; email, websites, YouTube, etc. It facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.

Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, flash games, ebooks, brandable software, images, and even text messaging and other forms of getting the message out.

Video, audio, written, and email marketing are the most common forms of viral marketing. If a client can create something of real value and spread the word within the industry, there is a very good chance the rest of the marketing will be done for them.

Viral Marketing is often chosen as a way to promote a company, product, or web site because it is easy compared to direct mail or search engine marketing. It also cost less than direct marketing or pay per click marketing.

Instead of spending large amounts of money on newspaper ads, TV commercials, or banner ads, clients could spend next to nothing creating a viral marketing campaign, and let the business world do the work and advertising for them.

Some Viral Marketing web sites and services reach over 40,000,000 people in key markets and over 2,000,000,000 unique viewers per day. [Source:The 7thChamber.com]

Case Studies in B2B

Case Study is a product success story of what one company did for another company in a sales or problem solving activity. For example: “ABC Company just solved a major on-line access problem by installing XYZAccess application from Data Traffic Monitor, Inc. The net results was 90% improvement in on-line productions.”

Case Studies are among the most powerful sales tools because they are the most credible. Rather than presenting marketing hype, they demonstrate how actual customers have succeeded using the company's product(s).

Marketers and copywriters write these like short story articles announcing the success of what the product did for a certain business or company to solve an industry problem they were faced with.

The story includes the companies logo, contact information, and precise numbers and proof of this interaction between the two companies. Often they include endorsements from both companies.

Case Studies generally are written in 8 ½ x 11 handout paper form and may be included on the company's web sites.

Marketing departments of both companies involved should write the Case Study together. Request other groups involved in the study that can contribute to the story. This includes senior management that may provide a quote to use in the story.

Both companies that make up the Case Study will now have separate write ups. However keep the content the same. This will allow "spreading the wealth" around to each company's clients and prospects and provide instant references to backup the story.

Case Studies become sales brochure like collateral for the sales reps to pass on to their clients and prospects. They contain between 1000-3000 words.

Business to Business Marketing and the many items used to produce sales and revenue generation is growing everyday. Let me know what you want to see or need information on about this huge industry market. Comments are welcomed.

Business to Business Social Networking

Social Networking in Business to Business (B2B) is becoming common more and more as websites become available. Companies are using this internet medium to promote sales activities, new products or services, promote the company, and other “word of mouth” marketing activites in a viral environment through the use of social networking sites like YouTube, FaceBook, and My Space for example. LinkedIn and Plaxo even have recruiting efforts involved.

B2B companies are producing content on these sites to attract more qualified members to them. This is both written and video displays, depending on the desire and social networking site.

On the internet, much of the social networking has been done. Social networking, book marking sites, video, and image sharing websites provide the ideal framework for a successful viral marketing campaign. For example, having an article published on sites like Flickr can generate hundreds to thousands of visitors to the client's website in a very short time. Having a video listed on the most popular page of a video sharing website can produce a tremendous amount of traffic to the client's site.

Successful B2B social networking is different than business to consumer (B2C) website activities. The consumer market attracts all audiences to well known names and products; GAP, Ralph Lauren, Coca Cola, Oprah, Apple. But what about the B2B market of products; EDS, Unisys, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft? These audiences are more fragmented with internal employees, external partners, third party vendors, channels, and their customers and prospects.

B2B marketing in social networking is structured and directed at a more targeted audience. They know who their audience is, what they care about, and how to market to them? The social networking function is similar to the consumer market of word of mouth advertising and sharing, just more internal industry and business market bound.

Social media is a different process for the B2B crowd. It's about being a more informed buyer and seller. Success in B2B social networking depends on providing enough content on the site that leads to interaction, sharing, and engaging the customer's and prospect's interest for potential sales engagements.

B2B marketers first need to assess the relevance of social networking within their own industries and target audiences. Not every customer or salesperson cares about blogs or podcasts. Social networking needs to become part of the integrated marketing plan that ties into and compliments these other channels.

There are many reasons social media can be a productive marketing channel or platform. The purpose should dictate strategy and tactics used for reaching desired business goals.

There you go. Many companies are now starting to take advantage and use social networking for their marketing and sales channels. Let me know what you think.

Business to Business (B2B) Market

Hey gang,

Did you know the Business-to-Business market is huge and growing everyday?

Business-to-business, or “B2B”, is businesses selling to other businesses. Industrial and High Tech business markets are common place for B2B.

An example of a B2B transaction is a computer manufacturing company selling its product to an electronics and computer store, which is another company.

B2B companies generally have sales and marketing organizations that create and manage the sales processes and transactions.

A company selling photocopiers is likely a B2B sales organization because their sales representatives (reps) call on businesses, not consumers.

Often more than one decision-maker is involved in a B2B sale on the buyer's side. For example, a company making a software product purchase could require the decision of the technical department for the support of the product, the department designated to receive and use the software (the end-user), and the purchasing department to ensure the budget can support it and make the actual purchase and issue the purchase order (P.O.).

B2B marketing communications, or marcom, is how businesses promote their products and services to other businesses using tactics other than direct sales. The purpose of B2B marketing communications is to support the company's sales effort and improve the company profitability.

Conventional B2B marcom has two functions: (1) to generate leads for salespeople and (2) provide salespeople with sales aids they need to do their jobs. Less common is the mail order B2B company, which sells directly to businesses without involvement from a live salesperson.

B2B marcom tactics include advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade show support, sales collateral, branding, and interactive services such as website design and search engine optimization.

The Business to Business market is growing every day. It has a lot to do with the economy. So we need to get more businesses selling their wares to other businesses and create a need, which will create jobs.

Your comments are welcomed.

more Advertising in the B2B Market

Hey gang,

If you are doing advertising in the business to business (B2B) market, here is a quick tip that will help your ads sizzle:

Before writing any product ad, do the “PAP” test. This is Product, Audience, and Purpose.

Product. What is the topic of the ad? What product or service is it selling? Is it a single product or full line of products? You must have a clear understanding of what you are really selling to the reader.

Audience. Who will read the ad? What type of person is it targeted at? What are their needs, problems, fears, desires, interests, and concerns? Sample issues of the publications the ad will be published in can help provide an idea who reads the ad.

Purpose. What is the purpose of the ad? Is it to generate sales leads or bring in orders? Is it building an image or establishing credibility for the company? Is it to gain awareness of the product, its features, and benefits? What is the ad to do?

If you do the "PAP" test each time you set out to write any advertisements, whether it is for the business to business (B2B) market or business to consumer (B2C) market this will help make your ads draw attention and get your audience interested in buying.

Let me know what you think. Your comments are welcomed.

Advertising in the B2B Market

Any advertising that sells products or services to businesses, industries, or professionals, not to consumers, is business-to-business advertising. Products and services featured in these ads are bought by business people for their professional, not personal, use.

People buy high-tech products for solutions to specific problems.

Very few high-tech ads are designed to sell the product directly. Their purpose is to build a comfort level for the buyer to feel good about the product and the company.

Good advertising copy should focus on the client 1st, the product 2nd, and the company 3rd.

Advertising promotions vary from a single page ad to several pages targeted to certain audiences that need the company products.

Business-to-business advertising copy typically addresses these audiences:

Users, like secretaries or mechanical operators who want to try out a product.
Choosers, like purchasing managers who have the power to place an order.
Proprietors, like directors who have the authority to issue the purchase orders.

These advertisements need to quickly list the unique features and benefits of the products and company in an organized 1 to 2 page copy that keeps the reader interested and wanting to find out more. The ad must give more information about the product, not the company, and the reader should learn something from it.

For example: an advertisement of a new computer and the company that makes it should include pictures of the product, all the features, what advance technology is included (i.e.,faster speed processor), how the user can benefit from this new machine (less processing time), and that the company will be around to support it and stand by what they sell. Also include the company logo, web site, and contact information.

This will keep your business to business audience looking forward to your next advertisements.

10 Tips for Writing B2B Direct Mail pieces and Increasing Response rates Continued

Hello business owners:

Here are the other 5 of the 10 Tips for Writing Direct Mail pieces in Business to Business (B2B) that will increase your response rates:


6. Add a Call to Action. If the prospect is to call, e-mail, or go to a landing page, tell them in bold type. Put the call to action in a bold, legible, easy to read font.

7. Add Company contact information. Make sure the contact information is large and in a bright color so it stands out on the mail pieces. Add it on all pieces contained in the package where applicable.

8. Make sure the offer appeals to the right audiences. Sell windshield wipers to car owners, dog food to dog owners.

9. Use the word “Free”. “Free” is a stronger motivator than any amount of “percentage off”. For example, “Send in the mailer for a Free booklet on....”

10. Personalize the direct mail piece. Use a simple mail merge lists –or more complex personalization techniques –to make the mailers more direct. Do not write “Dear Employer” or “Dear Executive”. Personalize it. “Dear Mr. Trump”.

If you missed the first 5 tips, go back to the previous blog post and look up 10 Tips for Writing B2B Direct Mail pieces and Increasing Response rates.

These tips really do work and will increase response rates.

Your comments are welcomed.

10 Tips for Writing B2B Direct Mail pieces and Increasing Response rates

Hello business owners:

Here are 10 Tips for Writing Direct Mail pieces in Business to Business (B2B) that will increase your response rates:

1. Change the Envelope. Readers do not want to see the same old envelope that is sent out repeatedly. They know it's coming, what it looks like, and it's going directly in the trash. Ask your copywriter to change the paper, color or size of the envelope.

2. Use teaser copy on the envelope. Make the teaser a shocking fact or something so enticing that the recipient wants to open the envelope to learn more. “Stop Hackers on Your Network Using these 3 Steps. Open to Read How”

3. Add a “reply by” date. Adding a “reply by” date adds urgency to the direct mail piece. It makes the prospects respond to the offer quickly.

4. Try a lift letter. A lift letter is an extra letter tucked into the main offer. A lift letter gives you one more chance to sell your products or services. For example, “A Note from the Publisher” lift letter urging the recipients to renew their subscriptions.

5. Highlight the Benefits. Show how the product or service is going to make life easier or better for your clients and prospects.

You'll have to come back to my Blog in a day or so for the other 5 tips.

See you then. Comments are welcomed.

Direct Mail in Business to Business (B2B)

Business to Business (B2B) Direct Mail and indirect mail packages are valuable marketing tools for companies in their line of business. This may include new product announcements delivered to certain companies that have bought from them before. For example: a new paper tray is available for a multi-page color copier that now holds twice as many pages.

Other Direct Mail packages may include mailers to new businesses to spark an interest on what the company offers; i.e., a new product is out, an enhancement to an existing product, a reduction in price of an existing product, etc.

Direct Mail packages are also used by companies that do not use a direct sales or marketing organization to create a sales interest and to make the deals. “Try X-Y-Z Corporations new computer laptop for your field personnel's mobile sales kits. Read on”

Direct Mail packages are short and simple depending on the materials and the message intended to be made. Caution: long copy is not well received now due to everyone's busy work load and lack of time.

Direct Mail packages are generally organized per offer or product and include pictures, graphs, charts, and content to describe the product features and benefits and the company that makes or offers it. A graphics artist may be required depending on the layout and images desired.

Layout of the DM package should be short copy, contain precise information, product pictures, features and benefits if a product is part of the mail campaign, and how to go about getting the offer.

The package needs to present a non-sales approach that would result from the mailing being tossed in the trash or deleted if sent on-line. And, most importantly, it should “Wow” the recipient with what the offer is all about.

If the direct mail package does not get and keep their attention, it is likely headed for the trash bin for sure.

You only have a brief moment of the recipient's attention and interest. Take advantage of it.

Look for some helpful tips on writing B2B Direct Mail and increasing response rates in my next blog.

Comments are welcomed.

5 Tips for Writing Effective B2B Marketing Emails

Hey gang,

Here are 5 tips to writing effective Business to Business (B2B) marketing emails that will get your prospects opening and reading them:

1.Make the “Subject” Line Strong. It doesn't matter how compelling the email offer is or how brilliant the message is written. If the Subject line is weak, the email will never get opened. Keep the Subject line short (never more than 40 characters including spaces.), and make it communicate extremely quick with a little “punch”. For example “Four Ways to Get Our Software”.

2.Add Web Address at Top and Bottom. Include the Company URL link to their web site landing page at the top and towards the end of the email message. Readers may not want to go through all the copy to get to the web site hot link. They're ready to click right to the web site. Make it easy for them to do so.

3.Identify the Reader's Pain Quickly. Let the prospects know immediately that you understand exactly what they're up against, and that here's the answer to their problem. Do not start out with benefits and features of the product. Get to the problem solutions quick.

4.Do not make the E-mail too short. Prospects will read the email if it has valuable information for them. Acceptable content may span 7 to 8 paragraphs and use bullets where needed. Some people like to read all that the email has to say. Others will click on the URL and not read much of the email. So do not short change any of the readers. Provide just enough copy content to make it valuable to the reader, and provide a URL for the ones ready to click away to the web site.

5.Keep the E-mail lively. Writing in a flat, boring style is not good. Write with a little energy and a sense of fun. Sometimes when you add a little attitude, you can cut through the clutter and get the reader on your side. “Firefox is Free and It Deserves a spot on your hard drive. It's Super Fast”.

Well there you go. Try this and see if you don't get results. These methods do work.

In my 27 years in the business to business (B2B) market, I had to use any methods I could to get my best customers to open an email. Even after I called them and told them I was sending one to them.

Your comments and tips are welcomed.

B2B Marketing with Email

E-mail marketing is the online equivalent of old-fashioned direct mail: unsolicited sales letters sent to prospects in the hopes to convince them to buy the product.

It is the same for Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), and Social Networking.

Companies use e-mail to generate sales leads, invite participants to a webcast or tele-seminar, to a company event, or drive people to their web sites.

E-mail is flexible and used to meet all kinds of marketing challenges. For example:

• Get a prospect to request a White Paper.

• Download software. Announce upgrades and software service patches.

• Ask for the sale of a time based product test period, like a “Try and Buy”.

• Cross sell products. Up sell higher priced products.

• Generate sign-ups for a conference. Invites to a special event like a users group.

• Participation in a survey. Garner customer testimonials, etc.
  

E-mail copywriting demands grabbing people's attention quickly, and then moving immediately to the offer. The recipient's In-Box is jammed and full of spam, so they are rapidly going through their e-mails. If the E-mail wastes time with lots of words, it is deleted and sent to the trash folder.

The 20 second rule comes to mind. If you do not grab their attention in 20 seconds, you lost them. And that may be for good.

For more on B2B Marketing please keep reading my Blog.

Comments are welcomed.

Here are 5 tips to B2B Marketing

Hello Business owners,

Here are the 5 tips to B2B marketing that will really make your business stand out.

• Presentation materials must be clear and precise. Sales presentations, handouts, and notes should be clear enough that the buyers can make sense of them even when they are not there; the sales meeting or presentation.

• Features and Benefits. If aimed towards buyers who use spec sheets or standard checklists, include them in the collateral showing advantages of the product while being honest about what it can do. Some buyers like features as much as benefits.

• Technical Specs. Technical products must have a data sheet of specifications in a clear, precise, and accurate representation that is easily understood by the buyer.

• A Defined Ordering process. Make it Easy. Remove all obstacles to the buyer using the client's ordering process. If the buyer prefers to order everything online or over the phone, and not meet with a sales person, then provide that step in the collateral materials.

• Listen to the Audience and Let them Buy. Do Not always try to sell to them. Try instead to take care of their pain, relieve their stress, make their day! They will come back and be a loyal customer.

Any Comments you would like to add, your thoughts and ideas are welcomed

Welcome to my B2B Blog

Hello.

I am posting a Business to business (B2B) blog. More content to come. Please stay tuned.