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SEO, PPC, Social Media & More–Find the Top Online Marketing Firms

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Here is a TopTenREVIEWS review of the top internet marketing companies. Various service areas are evaluated, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), link building, social media optimization and more.

Read the online marketing services firms review.

Tags: link building, online marketing services firms, pay per click, ppc, review, search engine optimization, SEO, top internet marketing companies
Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Web site development | No Comments »

5 steps to successful and measurable white paper marketing

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

In technology marketing, the virtues of white papers are well known. But the deployment strategy too often goes off course. When this falls short, measurable results are sure to follow.

A successful white paper distribution strategy really only requires five steps:

1. A marketable topic that provides important content to potential buyers.

Just because your engineers are excited about a technology doesn’t mean this topic will generate enthusiastic readers. Research your topic and make sure you’re really filling a market niche and supplying needed content. If this step is not dead on, how can the program be successful?

2. Structure and content that delivers on the promise of valuable information.

This step can do one of two things. It can build on the credibility of the company that develops the white paper. Or it can damage your company’s credibility if the reader goes to the trouble to download your data, only to find the information is poorly organized, badly written, and/or hopefully week on good content. There’s a middle ground in there too, but that falls short of motivating the prospect to do business with you.

3. Visual appeal that contributes to the positive perception the reader has of the company.

White papers are marketing pieces and should fit with the overall corporate brand. Charts, graphs, screen captures and other visual depictions should be handled by an experienced graphic designer, as should all parts of the white paper. Not everyone who can design a white paper should design a white paper. After all, you want this document to be read by your audience. Visuals are important.

4. A distribution strategy of reaching potential buyers, customers, etc.

Writing the white paper is the easy part. Really. As difficult as it can be to extract important information out of your subject matter experts and convince your C-suite and peers that you’re not giving away trade secrets at every turn, the most difficult part of any white paper strategy is distribution. Take the time and allocate the budget to do this step properly. Before you embark on developing the white papers, research white paper search and syndication services like bnet, techtarget, knowledgestorm and more, as well as more niche-focused services. Also consider the white paper as a pull to an advertising or direct mail campaign.

Also, determine how you will continue to nurture those leads once they are in your pipeline.

5. Benchmarking and measurement methods to determine and define success.

Before you begin, determine what success looks like. Realistically. Is it the number of qualified downloads, qualified additions to your marketing database, inbound leads, search engine optimization, synergy with a PR program, etc.?

Posted in Advertising, Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing, White paper marketing | No Comments »

Q2 Marketing Cited in Slideshare’s Content Marketing Predictions for 2009

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Slideshare’s Content Marketing, Social Media and Marketing Predictions for 2009 cites research commentary from Q2 Marketing. Find the presentation, full of great resources, here:

http://www.slideshare.net/ambal/clickdocuments-content-marketing-cheat-sheet

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

The 5 Fastest Ways to Generate Leads

Monday, May 18th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Now is the time to leverage marketing to generate leads. In an economy where it takes considerably more leads and more times to make sales, moving quickly to keep the pipeline full is of the essence. Marketing should be helping you in the endeavor.

This article examines the five fastest ways to leverage marketing to generate and nurture leads. These tactics are designed to work in unison with more long-range marketing activities, and can be executed on an ongoing basis. They’re also meant to fit tightly with and enhance your selling process.

Webinars. Once you’ve figured out what you have to say with your webinar or series of webinars, promotion is the biggest consideration. Any media organization that you team up with to promote your webinar will be able to provide you with the list of registrants. Assuming you have a good topic that people care about, this should represent a healthy list of prospects in a reasonably finite period of time.

But beware, there are many webinar pifalls to avoid.

Seminars. The next step up from webinars is face-to-face seminars. These are more risky because you need to fill a real live room. With webinars, none of your attendees knows if they are one of 50 or one of 5,000. But when you’re in a room together, it’s all transparent. So seminars pose a constant challenge to fill a room. If the topic of your seminar is “Ten Ways Product X Can Improve Your Business Process,” don’t expect much of a turnout. The seminar must be educational in nature. Advertise good content and deliver, and you’ll build a reputation for high quality events.

As with webinars, seminars provide qualified leads. But unlike webinars, you’re team is able to actually engage potential buyers face-to-face during networking time and Q&A. Seminars are much more powerful at building and promoting your brand to attendees than webinars. They also build greater interaction with your brand and more vested prospects.

Check back later this week for more of the 5 fastest ways to generate leads.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct marketing, Economy, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing, Webinars | 2 Comments »

Using PR to Boost SEO

Friday, April 24th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

From PR News, this will help you refine your online media strategy by making the most out of PR to drive SEO. Combine these efforts and minimize dollars spent while maximizing ROI.

http://www.prnewsonline.com/prinsiders/Using-PR-to-Boost-SEO_12769.html

Enjoy!

Posted in Public Relations, SEO, Search Marketing | No Comments »

Ten tips for choosing the perfect ad agency

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Looking to land a marketing or PR agency? Or maybe you’re considering the options and looking for alternatives to the agency or agencies you already have? Here are some fundamentals for making the best choice.

But first, if you haven’t already, read the four essential ingredients you’ll need before selecting a marketing agency.

And now, for the first 3 tips for securing the perfect marketing agency for you:

1. Commitment to delivery. Agencies sometimes lack structure. Everyone you talk with is going to tell you they hit their clients’ deadlines. To get to the real issue, ask their references about their track record in hitting deadlines.

2. Seeing the big picture. Your account manager should have a firm grasp of your business objectives. The agency methodology should be more about helping you reach your goals than creating award-winning pieces. They must understand how and why you want to impact your audience.

3. What’s the ROI? The agency needs to be able to demonstrate return on projects like yours. If you’re looking at web marketing, what’s the agency done and how has it impacted their clients? If they’re trying to sell you on direct marketing, what’s their track record? How have they measured past success and how will they do it for you? A formal measurement methodology in plain English is a huge plus.

Check back soon for the rest of the ten tips for selecting the perfect marketing agency.

Posted in Advertising, Award opportunities, Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Direct Mail, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Messaging & Positioning, Online Marketing, Promotional Marketing, Public Relations, Referral marketing, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing, Trade Shows, Webinars, White paper marketing | 1 Comment »

Top web sites for tech buyers searching for solutions

Thursday, March 5th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Where do tech people search for products and solutions when making buying decisions? The recent Google/TechTarget Research Project asked 2,200 worldwide tech buyers and decision makers this question: Which of the following search sites have you used to find information on technology solutions for your organization in the past six months?

Here are the results:

Google 95.8%

TechTarget(SearchSecurity.com, SearchStorage.com, Whatis.com) 43.8%

Yahoo! Search 35.5.%

MSN Search/Live Search 29.0%

InformationWeek.com 21.8%

InfoWorld.com, NetworkWorld.com 16.3%

Ask.com 15.9%

eWeek.com 14.7%

AOL Search, ecommercetimes.com, Chinese search engine Baidu, CUIL, South Korean web portals Daum and Naver each received responses of less than 5%.

Download the Google/TechTarget Research Project here.

Posted in Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

SEO Secrets: How Tech Buyers Use Search to Purchase

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

The new Google/TechTarget Research Project delivers exciting SEO insight into how technology purchasers use search terms to find products and services like yours. If you’re serious about your SEO strategies and you want to outshine competitors, even the ones that outspend you, keep reading….

We’re examining the Google/TechTarget Research Project because it deserves some quality time. Serious B2B and B2G marketers should really download this free report. They then should come back here for more quick highlights and observations.

How many keywords are buyers using to find you?

Conventional wisdom in search, across industries, is that buyers are using two to three keywords to find information on solutions like yours. But this report sheds new light on this critical topic. In the early stages of research, technology buyers tend to type in two or three keywords. No surprise to search pros. But later in the buying cycle, they will use brief four- or five-word phrases. Why is this?

In later stages of buying, tech purchases use search terms like “compare” and “review” in an effort to distinguish between products and solutions. Specifically, they are looking for reviews and resources that compare technology solutions.

(As an aside, also from this report, 24% of buyers surveyed “frequently” find industry analyst web sites useful in the buying and evaluating process, but this resource is not even in the top five. Click back later to find where analyst sites rank and which resources rank higher.)

What does this mean for IT marketers? The first observation, taken from the report, but a clear conclusion, is that any and all favorable comparisons of your solutions to your competitors should be on your web site in whatever formats available.

If these resources don’t exist, you need to put a strategy in place to have reviews and comparisons created, preferably by reputable third parties like industry analyst firms, magazines, online editorial sources, etc.

You can also take the lead in generating a discussion around your technology, comparing it to your competitors. Maybe a social media program is in order.

From the report: “An analysis of TechTarget online campaigns demonstrates that many of the superior performing white papers are ones in which the author compares the solution or blueprint of one provider to that of another.” That is a very valuable piece in information.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Business to Government Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Google/TechTarget Report Reveals Tech Buyers’ Search Patterns

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

A new joint study from Google and Tech Target, examines the search habits of technology professionals when making purchasing decisions. The purpose of the The Google/TechTarget Research Project:

Reveal the mindset of the IT buyer in context of their purchase process and search mode
Put marketers in a better position to make keyword buys, choose content to syndicate
Determine optimal selection and scheduling of content and website media to attract the IT buyer

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Here is a recap of some important findings:

Different search terms are used by buyers at various stages of the IT buying process
There is a concrete relationship between search and branding, as well as lead generation and ROI implications
Surprises were found regarding buyer utilization of new media including mobile devices, video and RSS feeds
Information source preferences were established

Here are some more important findings on the brand impact of search:

53% of IT purchasers use search to discover vendor solutions they are not previously aware of
86% of searchers look for a familiar brand or manufacturer before clicking on a search result
67% willing to click on the link of a manufacturer with which they are not familiar
Over 40% of searchers will click on search ads that are contextual to content on IT Publisher sites, and 46% willing to read those ads.

There is some good stuff in this report, and we will be examining it in greater detail throughout the week. Thanks to Michael Stelzner’s “Writing White Papers” blog for bringing it to my attention.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Newspapers not dead, 16% increase in online readership

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Nielsen Online reports a 16 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper web sites. This represents 40.1 million unique visitors in December 2008, up from 34.6 million in December 2007.

To top online newspaper site was NYTimes.com, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the second and third spots. See the table below for more.

Here are the top ten finishers, courtesy of Nielson Online:

                                               Dec-08 UA   % Change

Top 10 Online Newspapers     40,093            16

 1. NYTimes.com                       18,187             6

 2. USATODAY.com               11,420           15

 3. washingtonpost.com              9,470           12

 4. LA Times                               7,963           73

 5. Wall Street Journal Online     7,235          34

 6. Daily News Online Edition    5,883          99

 7. Chicago Tribune                    5,235           35

 8. New York Post                      4,557           60

 9. Boston.com                           4,086            -6

10. SFGate.com                          3,503           26

Of the top 10 online newspapers, nine experienced positive year-over-year growth. No small contribution to this jump was the weakening economy, election cycle and new administration.

Posted in Economy, Industry Trends, Online Marketing, Public Relations, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing | No Comments »

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