Enabling search marketing for BtoB companies?

An industry sector that can benefit greatly from search marketing are B2Bs such as manufacturing or enterprise software developers. It is difficult for them to target their customers geographically and normal advertising doesn't work well, except for branding purposes. And B2B marketing like trade shows, seminars, etc is expensive and time consuming.

At the same time, this sector doesn't feel search marketing works for them, because a visitor may come by while researching, and leave without making contact because of the sales cycle. We've solved part of this problem with www.activeconversion.com. We'd like you to check it out, so that you can see if we've helped answer this question.

This week, Google got added to the S&P index. They just issued $2 billion in stock to sell to institutions, as inclusion in the index means many index and mutual funds now have to hold Google in their portfolio. About a year ago in this blog, I mentioned their market value was $58 billion. It is now over $100 billion. It appears search engine marketing is now a bona fide industry!

Email Marketing vs Spam

An online marketing staple should be email marketing. Used properly, it can be a great tool to create demand, inform and remind. However, used improperly, and it gets viewed as spam. It's really too bad that unwanted email is automatically labeled as spam, because it's not. Spam is typically email from unknown persons, selling fake Rolex watches, or worse - fake Viagra. Email from legitimate companies, with the ability to unsubscribe, to parties that recognize the sender's name is email marketing.

According to Ipsco-Reid, a well known research company, spam is actually been going down significantly and not near the problem it used to be. Because ISPs do a much better job of filtering spam now, and with the severe penalties that the CAN-SPAM allows for, there is much less spam than there used to be. Also, email service providers are very careful to follow the rules to keep from being shut down.

Emailing more than twice a month to the same list is not recommended. And try to email offers or tips that will benefit your audience. Make it attractive and something they look forward to, instead of something to dread, and you'll find email a powerful online marketing tool that works.