Small Business B2B Marketing

Consider local search PPC, even if your service is national

BtoBonline cites a ComScore study revealing that 63% of Internet users in the U.S. conduct an online search (as of July 2006) -- which is up 43% over the year prior.

While this study focuses on all local searches (ie., not just business-to-business (B2B) searches), it might give you some encouragement to test some local search PPC campaigns, if you aren't doing them already.

If your service has geographical limits to your local area, then of course this makes sense to try. 

But even if you offer services nationally, you might think of targeting local search campaigns in key geographical areas for your target market profile (and measure your results). 

For example, if you specialize in services for agricultural-related firms, you might try local search campaigns in cities/regions/states that are likely to have companies in your target market -- perhaps the bread-basket areas of Lincoln, NE or Des Moines, IA.

Inc . Magazine launches IncTechnology.com

Inc.com, the online property of Inc. Magazine, launched IncTechnology.com today, offering how-to articles and product reviews related to small-business technology issues.

A particularly interesting feature of the site to watch is what it describes as "user-generated content in the form of reader testimonials of experiences with various technologies and tech strategies."   

Given that using technology is likely the most powerful element for small-business B2B companies to differentiate their products and services from competitors, the hands-on "case study" features on this site might prove to be really useful.

What Sales Needs from Marketing

If your company has some employees (namely, at least one or more salesperson(s) plus one or more marketing personnel), you might be struggling on how to coorindate the efforts of both. 

Check out Jill Konrath's free PDF report on What Sales Really Needs from Marketing.  (NOTE:  even if you're solo, and don't have employees, it's still woth a few minutes to review...to help you market and sell...)

Konrath is the guru on selling to big companies, and some of what she writes is more targeted at larger B2B companies selling to other big companies, but this is definitely worth the quick download and easy read for any small biz B2B'er.

Product development resource

Looking for ways to add revenue by offering through new products or services based on your expertise?   

New product development expert Bill Myers at Bill Myers Online offers some resources, tips, advice and how-to's -- especially in the realm of technology/multi-media offerings. 

Myers is the also the developer of Membergate, a successful content management system that helps small businesses (and even large) take what they know, and monetize it into paid online content.

Myers' expertise has a unique blend -- he's both a tech expert plus has a background in direct marketing.

How to Monetize Your Expertise

A great way to add profit to the bottom line (especially for solo entrepreneurs in B2B) is to apply your knowledge, experience and expertise and put it into an information resource, and offer it for a fee.

There are several ways to do this, including:

• You could write a book and propose it to a business book publisher.
• You could also self-publish and make it into an ebook, and sell it via your website.

But if you'd like to create some on-going, passive (ie., "forever") type revenue streams, you might consider creating a paid-content website -- a place where you post articles, how-to content, forums where you give advice, etc. - and members to this site only have access to your expertise if they join....that is, they PAY you by credit card to get the info you provide.

How can this be done?  Tim Kerber's MemberShipSiteOwner.com offers a lot of great advice and tools, plus an interactive forum of many others who are doing it successfully. 

Kerber has a lot of experience with this.  He has a few membership sites of his own, and is part of the support team for MemberGate, a software platform that enables businesses to manage their content and offer it up for dollars.    

Do cold calls work for professional services?

If you're selling professional services, does setting up cold call meetings really work?  You might get overly discouraged by setting up lots of appointments that don't result in service contracts right away.

This helpful article gives two pointers about setting realistic expectations and realizing that a cold call shoud be considered just the first step in a series of attempts to contact prospects.

Emarketing Blog Directory

If you're looking for a directory of blogs specifically on e-marketing, here's one we found.

Emarketing Blog Directory Listing of internet marketing blogs related to making money online and working from home. Find a blog, or submit yours.