Ruth P. Stevens Articles and Columns

Ruth P. Stevens Articles and Columns: DIRECT Magazine

November, 2006

Web 2.0: What it Really Means for B-to-B Marketers
By Ruth P. Stevens

There's a lot of loose talk out there about Web 2.0. No one agrees on what it really means, for one thing. Some people say it's a new technology. Others, a social movement. Still others say it's just the Dot Boom all over again, but this time, it's less bubble-like and more business-like.

The best definition of Web 2.0 I've found is this: The next generation of online services delivered through the Web. Most observers agree that the Web 2.0 is characterized by a shift of power from Web publishers to Web users, and that we are moving closer to the utopian vision for the Internet where the network is the platform, and all involved have equal access.

But what does all this mean for marketers? In the B-to-B world, it's pretty interesting. The features of Web 2.0, like blogs, podcasts, wikis, RSS feeds and social networks are rapidly becoming an accepted part of the B-to-B marketing toolkit.

But they require special handling. Let us look at how these things are working-and how they can get you into trouble if you're not careful.

Blogs

By some estimates, there are over 50 million blogs out there already. Who has time to read this stuff? Well, the answer is: not everybody. Only a small fraction of blogs is read in any volume, and, in fact, most blogs are not even kept current by their owners.

Much has already been written on blogging, so let me focus on the best applications I've seen for blogging as a B-to-B marketing tool. From the point of view of conducting a blog from your company, here are some useful angles:

PR: Blogs establish thought leadership. Even better, 53% of business buyers say that blogs influence their purchase decisions, according to a recent study from KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann.

Search engine marketing: Blog postings freshen your website, attracting higher organic results listings on search engines.

Lead generation: Blog readers and responders serve as a source of new business contacts. Robert Lesser, President of Direct Impact Marketing, recently found that blogs received a 12% share among responders who named the most user-friendly and affordable tools they are actively using for lead generation.

Market research: Blogs provide low-cost insight into customer needs and issues.

From the point of view of taking advantage of the blogosphere as a whole, blog advertising is still in its infancy. Many B-to-B blogs accept banner ads, and others have Google AdWords listings in place.

But meantime the best approach is to go at it with a PR mindset. Bloggers want to learn about interesting items to write about, but they hate being manipulated. So when trying to influence them, go in with a respectful and helpful attitude. Here's some great advice from Ted Birkhahn of the PR firm Peppercom: Test the waters by reading the blogs in your field, and adding non-sales-y comments to posts. Once you have a feel for the environment, then experiment with your own blog.

Podcasting

Delivering a snippet of downloadable audio, podcasting is already in wide use among business marketers. Podcasts are taking their place rapidly alongside email, telephone, pdf downloads, and the myriad other touch options that B-to-B marketers use to migrate customers and prospects along the long sales cycle. The more variety to the touch stream, the merrier.

The predominant use of podcasts among business marketers is to deliver product information or establish thought leadership, with a short discussion or interview on a business problem of interest.

I had the fun of being interviewed for a podcast recently on the subject of trade show and event marketing by the Toronto-based marketing services company Eloqua. According to Steve Gershik, director of marketing innovation, Eloqua's podcast strategy is intended to position the company as a thought leader, and as a group of marketing professionals "authentically interested in advancing the conversation about effective marketing." He notes with satisfaction that Eloqua recently closed a $750,000 deal that was "directly affected by" Gershik's podcast and blog program.

Just keep in mind that the podcast is a passive medium, dependent on users' motivation to visit your site and go to the trouble of downloading the audio material. So you'll need to factor in the additional expense to promote the podcast itself. On the plus side, podcasts are very inexpensive to produce.

Wikis

What can be done with wikis to find new customers or promote your products? Not much, so far. If you didn't know, Wikipedia is the grandfather of wiki media these days, an online encyclopedia written and edited by anyone who registers at the site and feels inclined to contribute. Some marketers have been accused of writing bogus self-promoting entries, but these are quickly identified and corrected by the horde of Wikepedia denizens, accompanied by abundant negative commentary in the blogosphere. Who needs lousy PR?

There are some firms out there that offer wiki writing services. MyWikiBiz, for example, will create or enhance the Wikipedia entry on any firm that hires them-as long as the firm is "notable" enough to justify a Wikipedia entry in the first place. Gregory Kohs, the corporate history writer who founded MyWikiBiz.com, points out that Wikipedia is "an excellent tool for enhancing and clarifying the marketplace's perception of the firm, and for providing cross-referencing links to related topics -- either within Wikipedia, or to the company's own web site." He cautions, however, that the links need to be selected judiciously, and refer only to highly informative and useful content-or you risk being permanently banned from Wikipedia. Kohs also observes that the wiki-type markup language, as an alternate to HTML, may bring some value to marketers looking to create website content in a more flexible, participatory manner.

RSS Feeds

RSS, which allows fresh content to be streamed to subscribers as it is produced, has the hallmarks of a productive direct marketing medium. Once you invest in signing up subscribers, you have a new, automated and very low cost channel for staying in touch and keeping current. RSS is also said to be a useful way to get information out in a world where corporate spam filters block so much email.

But RSS adoption curve appears to be slower than some of the other Web 2.0 media. The KnowledgeStorm Universal McCann study found that among tech buyers-who you'd expect to be early adopters-only 31% said they subscribe or use RSS readers. This compares with 80% who said they read blogs. RSS is in its early stages, but showing signs of great promise as a delivery vehicle for breaking news or offers to committed customers and prospects.

Social Networks

Some sizable social networks for business people have sprung up, including LinkedIn and Ecademy. But the jury is still out on how they can be used effectively for B-to-B marketing. Here are some of the applications that marketers are experimenting with:

Business development. Perhaps the most immediate benefit of these networks is in personal selling. LinkedIn, for example, encourages individual business people to leverage the network to connect with others who have connections with particular companies or lines of business. In fact, companies like Jigsaw and Spoke combine social networking with cooperative list development, allowing sales people both to contribute and to collect contact information on sales targets.

Viral marketing. Social networks take word-of-mouth marketing to the next level. Asking a current customer for a referral is the lowest-cost source of new customers you can get.

Market research. Communispace creates web-based communities of customers and prospects for companies like HP and CDW, using a combination of social networking and good old-fashioned consumer panel techniques that allows marketers to get deep customer insight and feedback about products, services-the works.

Collaboration. The technology developed for social networking is finding its way into businesses as an enabler of information sharing and collaboration. YfonGlobal, for example, is working with a military contractor to allow employees in the field to share encrypted files over a secure network.

Observations And Guidelines For Business Marketers

Wear your PR hat when considering the Web 2.0 opportunity. Go for thought leadership, versus marketing-speak. Use a conversational style. Talk about your category-or your customer's issues-instead of hyping your own business.

Remember that customers have more control than ever, so corporations must become flexible enough-or confident enough-to withstand public input and feedback.

Many of these Web 2.0 applications are equally-or more-effective in internal communications than they are with customers and prospects.

Newer, even less proven Web 2.0 applications are coming up fast. Like video. In June, CMP Media launched a daily video broadcast to tech buyers on TechWeb, and its ad spots have sold like hotcakes.

Web 2.0 is all about customer involvement. Don't fight it. Embrace it. This is about letting your customers help you shape and grow your business.

This stuff is still in the early stages of its development. So experiment. Get your feet wet. And enjoy the challenge of keeping up with the ever-evolving Internet.

Ruth P. Stevens consults on customer acquisition & retention, and teaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School. She is the author of The DMA Lead Generation Handbook, and her new book is Trade Show and Event Marketing, now available at Amazon. Reach her at ruth@ruthstevens.com.

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