"Why are there all those words on your website?

A prospective client of mine who is looking at a possible website overhaul posed this question to me today: "I noticed that most of the web sites you build are very busy... lots of columns and a lot of words/sentences..."

His current site is, shall we say, "minimalist," with very limited information about either his company or the service they provide. He told me that he had deliberately made a choice to present it in that way.

I thought about his question, and what follows is my reply:

If you’re selling a product or a service to the business community, you know that you’re in competition with many, many other businesses. One of the many challenges you have as a businessman is how to communicate the business value of your offering to a prospective customer, as well as how “credible” are you as a provider of this product or service.

At its most basic level, a website should help you to overcome these challenges, by providing an easy-to-understand summary of exactly what it is that you are offering. With regard to building “credibility,” you can do so on the web by a) providing the credentials and experience of your key players; b) showing awareness of the business challenges of your prospective buyers; and c) demonstrating knowledge of your industry and any coming changes, regulatory issues, or general evolution.

In retail e-commerce, where you’re selling commodity items like shoes or power tools, prospective buyers presume that a name-brand product available through outlet “A” will be the same as the same product through outlet “B.” In these situations, price is usually the determining factor, followed by availability and level of service – i.e., how quickly you can get it. Consumers buying shoes from an “established” player like a Zappos or Shoes.com know that either retailer is “trustworthy,” and will typically base their purchase decision on availability of a style or size, or maybe shipping costs.

However, in the world of B2B, it’s a little different. First the prospective purchaser needs to have a clear picture of your product or service offering, and, presuming that it’s NOT a commodity-type of offering, they’ll need to understand the business value that you bring to the table. Next, they’ll want to understand what about your firm differentiates you from other firms offering similar services, as well as determining how “credible” you are. What about your experience enables you to ensure success for them? They will want to know how likely it is that you are able to actually deliver on your product or service, as well as looking to see examples of documented success in providing your services to other companies.

That's where your web site comes in. Prospective customers will peruse your site, and based on what they see there, will determine whether or not they feel comfortable doing business with you. The aesthetic quality and sophistication of your website are certainly important, as they say a lot about your company. And, more importantly, by providing a compelling “story” about your company and your product or service, your prospects will be far more likely to seriously consider doing business with you.

I presume that prospective clients spend time on my website, making their own determination about my background, experience, and qualifications. Rest assured that others will spend time on your site, for the same reasons. They may do it before they talk with you, and they will most certainly do so after they have spoken with you. But in either case, it will influence their decision to move forward (or to NOT move forward) with you.

Hope this clarifies things for any other folks out there with the same type of question.

Writing for Your Website

Content is STILL King

For better or for worse, the words that we use set a tone, and form, in others, a distinct impression of our personality. Of course, when we communicate "in person," we augment our words with a continuous, real-time feedback loop in the form of facial expressions, body language, and gestures, all of which go a long way toward influencing how the listener responds to the messages we're trying to convey. These factors all contribute to whether or not our words are credible, and whether or not the listener "trusts" us as a messenger.

In the online world, we lose access to the non-verbal cues that are so important in our one-to-one communication. As a result, our audience evaluates our online messages very differently, and — without the ongoing reinforcement of our body language and expressiveness — it is MUCH more difficult to evoke trust and, in the case of say, a sales message, to move toward a "close."

Content is More Important Than Ever

Writing for the web requires a slightly different approach than, say, scripting what you'd say in person, or even in a telephone conversation, where some limited real-time feedback is still taking place. To compound things, according to web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, during an average site visit, users read only 28% of the words on the typical web page. So you really need to get to the point quickly... and convincingly. Nielsen says, for example, that the introductory paragraph(s) found at the top of many Web pages — what he refers to as "blah-blah text" — is typically skipped-over by readers, who tend to go directly to more action-oriented content, such as product features, bulleted lists, or hypertext links. So, Nielsen recommends that writers "cut to the chase" with their web content. Don't waste word count on generic, feel-good material. Hey... it's not going to make your prospects or customers "feel good" anyway, so why bother? Your site visitors only want to learn whether or not your product or service will help to solve their problems — and as quickly as possible — so they can leave your site and move on to other business.

When prospects — or clients — visit your website, they don't have the same opportunity to analyze what you're saying against a continual flow of non-verbal cues. Accordingly, it's really up to your choice of words to help them decide whether or not to trust what you're saying, and ultimately, your business and brand. The words you choose, and the way in which you present them, create an impression in the mind of the reader, so be respectful of your audience, and when writing web copy, try to put yourself in their place. Limit hyperbole— words like amazing or unbelievable — and stick to a more basic style of writing. Also, you should write in terms that reflect your audience's language, as well. If your audience typically calls something a "widget," but you refer to it as a "doodad," you're gonna have a communication problem.

Making Your Website Headlines Work for You

Writing good headlines for your website has nothing to do with writing great literature, or even articles in newspapers or magazines. Great website headlines are worth their weight in gold, but knowing how to create them is not particularly intuitive, nor is it something that you can learn by emulating what you read in newspapers and magazines. In traditional print media, the reader has clearly decided to engage and browse through the publication, while on the web, there are an unlimited number of distractions, all just a mouse click away. Folks who are browsing a website typically don't wander through the site looking for articles of interest, in the same way that they might with a magazine or newspaper. They rely on search engines to search and discover content, so once someone manages to find your site, you have an extremely limited window of opportunity in which to engage them and maintain their attention. For maximum effectiveness, you'll want to:

• Ensure that your content is easily found via search engines
• Increase your visibility and exposure on the topics about which you write
• Attract better-targeted visitors who have real interest in what you have to say

While this article is not focused on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), there are many aspects of your writing style that can help to bolster your ranking in search engines. Headlines can be particularly important. To write effective headlines for your website, you'll want to:

1. Keep your title short — Three to six words is the ideal length, with ten words probably the limit. Search engines such as Google give "high relevance" to only the first set of words you use in the title, and they will typically display only around 8 to 10 words in their results pages (Google and MSN; Yahoo displays up to 16 words). Also, Google looks at the opening keywords of your title and checks to see whether or not they are reinforced in your own content before deciding where to place your page inside search engine result pages.
2. Don't try to to be "clever," by using irony, puns, plays on words, or any other journalistic approach. Your title should really be more of a "label" for your article, making it easy to find for folks who are using search engines to find articles (such as yours) that are actually of interest to them. Remember, too, that on the web, headlines are often displayed out of context. Make it easy for visitors to find yourcontent!
3. Your headlines should be able to stand on their own — If somebody was to read your title without the associated article, would they have a clue about the content? Your headline needs to be self-sufficient, and make sense when the rest of the content is not readily available.
4. Use the same terminology that your visitors would use — Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects, and think about what search terms they would use to search for your product or service... or, better still, your competitor's product. Use this knowledge to craft headlines that will be most meaningful to your audience.

Website Body Copy: Short and Sweet

First, make your "word count" for online viewing about half the word count you might use when writing for print collaterals. Many users find it tiring to read too much text on screens, and they also tend to read more slowly on computer screens than they do on paper. Use simple sentence structures. On the web, convoluted writing and complex words are even harder to understand than they are in print. Remember that web users are impatient and critical. They haven't gone to your site because you are a wonderful person, but because they have something that they need to accomplish. Write in a simple, non-hyperbolic style that allows them to quickly find the information they need.

Also, recognize that visitors — especially those arriving through a search engine — can enter your site at virtually any page, and they can easily move back-and-forth between pages, so make sure that each page is independent of the others, and covers its respective topic without assumptions about the previous page (or the home page, for that matter) having actually been seen by the visitor. It's also a good idea to provide links to background info or explanations to explain names or concepts that might not be clear to the casual reader.

Limit the amount of scrolling that your visitors need to do, and put your most important information at the top, so that it can be seen without any scrolling at all. If you do feel the need to have lengthy pages, make sure that you provide a "Back to Top" anchor link at both the bottom of the page. Also, the Web is a fluid medium, so update your content frequently. Statistics, numbers, and examples all need to be recent, or your company's credibility will suffer. For example, before a conference, your page about the event might have a link to a general info page or even a registration form; afterward, you might have a recap of the event, or provide links to slides or transcripts of a presentation that was given at the conference.

Lastly, most web visitors scan pages; they do not read word-by-word, so if you've got a lot of uninterrupted text, think of ways to make your document easy on the eyes. For example, to make important words or ideas stand out, use highlighting, as it will aid in their visual scanning of the page.

Fresh Eyes Can Improve Your Web Content

Keep your writing crisp and simple. Each paragraph should contain just one main idea; use a second paragraph for a second idea, since readers will often skip over any ancillary points as they scan over the paragraph. When you finally think you have a good finished product, be sure to have others proof it... not just for typos and grammatical errors, but also to see if it "makes sense" to a casual reader. Readers who don't really know much about your business can often make for great editors... their lack of industry or product knowledge enables them to spot problems that might not be obvious to you, so enlist your spouses, friends or relatives. The end result will be better for the effort!

Carving Out a Reputation

The Crucial Role of Branding and Positioning for Tech Companies

Starting a B2B technology company is a tough business. Many companies try, but few succeed over the long haul. But not all of the companies that fail do so because of bad technology. Some that fail even have superior technology... but they didn't have a good handle on the marketing process. The B2B technology market is a demanding one, with buyers who are knowledgable, pressed for time, and, ultimately fickle. They have no interest in wading through products that are poorly positioned, with lousy collaterals, or confusing pricing models. Which is why a good working knowledge of Product Marketing is so vitally important!

There are typically two things that stand between a technology product and its intended market: The product itself; and a successful marketing plan. Products that don't adequately address market needs, or that perform poorly, already have two strikes against them. But even a killer product, without a sound, viable marketing plan, can quickly go down in flames. Now, if you've got a product that just isn't up to snuff, that's really a Product Management issue, beyond the scope of this article (we'll cover it in the next issue). But, having successfully marketed tech products that were, shall we say, not quite ready for prime time, I'd like to talk about positioning strategies that have proven effective.

First, I'd like to talk about the distinction between Product Management and Product Marketing... In an ideal world, these disciplines work closely together but are distinctively separate, because their roles are somewhat different. At the most basic level, Product Managers "listen to" the market — learning what the market needs and building a product that meets those needs; while Product Marketers "talk to" the market — telling them what your product is and how it can help them. Not a huge distinction, but an important one. Unfortunately, in this day and age, more and more companies are combining these roles into one, especially in startups and early-stage companies. Of course, in these types of situations, you'd better have a pretty good handle on the fundamentals of both disciplines; However, for this series, I'm focusing primarily on the high-level fundamentals of Product Marketing.

Product Marketing Basics

There are four basic components that are essential to product marketing:

• Positioning — Providing a clear description to the marketplace of your product's purpose and functionality, as a stand-alone entity, as well as in relation to competing products
• Launch — Announcing and releasing the product to the marketplace
• Distribution — Delivering the product to buyers
• Sustaining — Maintaining sales and market share through marketing and promotional activities Positioning, Naming, and Pricing

This month, we'll focus primarily on Positioning. Positioning is something that happens in the minds of the target market. It's the perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of competitors in the same category. For example, you know the difference between, say, Microsoft and Apple, because of the considerabl work that each company has done on its positioning. Other examples in the automotive industry might be Volvo (safety); Porsche (engineering); and Subaru (inexpensive dependability). In the emerging technology space, though, it's scary how many tech products have gone to market without a clear understanding of the product's position in the marketplace. Until you've properly defined your product, your target market, and the all-important "why" someone would want to buy it, you can't even begin to market it. Positioning is the foundation for virtually all of your marketing activities. And it has to be clear and logical, to both your marketplace, and, equally importantly, to your company. More on that later.

There are many ways to position your product, but here's a good example of a product positioning statement "format," of the type that was used by Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm, from his days at the legendary Silicon Valley tech marketing consultancy Regis McKenna. Moore wrote that "Positioning is the single largest influence on the buying decision." An example of the type of format he used looks like this:

Product Position Statement

For (list the targeted end-user)

Who wants or needs (list a compelling reason for them to purchase),

The (your product or service) is a (list the product category)

That provides (list your key benefits),

Unlike the (name of competing product) offered by (list your main competitor),

Which does not (list the key points of differentiation)

So, the logical extension might look something like this:

For Retailers who need real-time point-of-sale transaction security monitoring, eVanta'sTransView is an enterprise Point of Sale transaction monitoring solution that provides live monitoring and real-time flagging of suspicious transactions, unlike currently available solution that only do so in batch processes.

Here's a slightly different approach — Imagine that you're promoting a service such as tax preparation that targets the self-employed. You might work through a thought process something like this

This service would be valuable because:
The provider specializes in tax preparation for the self-employed.

Customers would benefit because:

• Expertise in this area would provide the maximum potential for tax savings.
• Lower fee structure enabled because of a narrower band of expertise.
• Quicker response (and quicker refunds) because expertise enables returns to be completed in a more timely manner.

This service would be useful for:

• Business consultants
• Freelance writers
• Photographers
• Artists
• Musicians

The resulting short and long positioning statements might read:

Short

Bob Eckert, CPA, is a tax preparation service that helps self-employed individuals such as business consultants, freelance writers, musicians and artists file their tax forms quickly and correctly, enabling them to reduce their tax liability.

Long

Bob Eckert, CPA, meets the needs of self-employed people such as business consultants, freelance writers, musicians and artists. Customers will benefit from using Bob Eckert, CPA, because Mr. Eckert is an expert in this area and is knowledgable about self-employment tax law, enabling the maximum about of tax savings. Clients also benefit from a lower fee structure and quicker response, because Mr. Eckert's expertise enables him to complete these types of returns more quickly than a "generalist" Tax Firm.

The Essentials

As you see, there are a number of different approaches that you can take. But generally, the product positioning process involves:

• Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who are the relevant buyers)
• Identifying the attributes that define the product space
• Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each currently-available competitive product and their relevant attributes

Specifically, you need to answer a couple of questions:

• Who is your target market?
• What challenges do they face that your product can help them solve?
• What are the major features and benefits of your product, and how to they align with the expectations of your target audience?
• What other products are available, against which your product must compete?
• How does your product stand up against these competing products?
• What class of product are you selling (low-end, mid-level, high-end)?

Answer these questions truthfully and objectively, and you're well on your way to successfully bringing your product to market. You'll be able to:

• Clearly define your target audience
• Clearly define your product and product category
• Build a product that meets the needs of your target audience (althought this encroaches into Product Management territory)
• Determine what kind of distribution system (internal or external) you will require
• Price your product competitively (and realistically)

The Competitive Matrix

Another tool that is often used in developing positioning is a matrix (example at right), on which you would plot-out the currently-available competing products within the marketplace, along with relevant attributes, from low-to high (i.e. price, features, innovation, etc.)

A competitive matrix helps you determine your company's competitive advantage (or disadvantage, for that matter). It provides an easy-to-read portrait of your competitive landscape and your position in the marketplace. This can aid in visualizing where you are versus your competitors, and can help you to better understand your strengths and weaknesses. As you can imagine, it is critical that you are coldlyobjective about where you actually fit in the marketplace. Attempting to fudge on this area will only mean that the decisions you make based on this delusion will be flawed... as will your results. An objective view of your "real" position within the marketplace can help you determine which steps you need to take in order to a) be competitive, and b) understand what you would need to do to, in order to be where you'd want to be on the matrix.

The Value of Your Brand

Branding and positioning are key to the success of your product, so it's crucial that your efforts convey a clear and credible promise of value for your intended audience. It's important to understand what a brand is. It's NOT a product, yet that seems to be a difficult concept for some marketers to understand. Sure, you can buy a company. And you can buy its brands. But you can NOT sell these brands to the customer. All you can ever sell are products and services. That's because the brand is just a symbol, an intangible entity that is the result of your company's hard work: PR, media and analyst relations; advertising; collaterals; testimonials; and — of course — a good product. The real goal of investing in your brand is to be able to charge a premium for your product, or to increase your market share. Or preferably both.

Communicating Your Value

In order to gain acceptance for your product or service, you'll need to create compelling value propositions that address not only the user benefits of your product, but also the benefits to decision-makers and key influencers, who may not be the same as the end-user. In B2B plays, your decision-makers and influencers are — more often than not — completely different from one another, and may even be in conflict with each other. For example, say you've developed an application that helps monitor financial transactions at a brokerage, identifying and flagging unusual transactions that might be inappropriate or even fraudulent. Your end-user might be a mid-level operations employee, but they aren't the actual decision maker. While they might recommend products or services, the final decision ultimately rests with a business manager or P&L owner. Similarly, technology products will usually need to be vetted by a technology gatekeeper, say, the CTO or the CIO. Of course, their interest might be in maintaining tight control over technology spending (hoarding it all for internal projects), and they might also be wary of technology (or technology purchases) that did not originate with them. And if there are consultants involved, that can add yet another layer of gatekeeper who must also be "managed."

In this type of scenario, you'll need to look at each participant in the decision-making process, identify their respective hot-buttons, and develop specific value propositions for each of them. Each participant in the decision process must be made to feel that your product or service provides them with real, distinct value, value that they can't get elsewhere. If you already have customers, you need to ask them "What value do users get from this product or service?" You need to determine how they are better-off, as a result of using your product or service. And, what characteristics differentiate your product or service from others that are already available in the marketplace? If you don't yet have customers, you need to be talking to your prospects, and determining what they feel are the most important aspects of your offering (hopefully, you will have already done this before you began your product development efforts). Starting with the answers to these questions, you can begin to create the first draft of your positioning statement. After you've done so, test it out on people who don't really know what it is that you do or sell, and listen for their responses. Once you've piqued their interest sufficiently so that they want to know "more," you'll know you're on the right track!

Employee Alignment

One last point that is too often neglected: It is critical that your employees — at all levels — are brought into the branding and positioning process at the earliest stage. They already have a perception — for better or for worse — of your company and its products. They also may be on the "front lines," interfacing directly with your prospects and clients, and may have valuable insight on how you are already perceived within the marketplace. In order for your brand positioning to be effective, it has to reach every area of your company, and be a part of every customer interaction. In order to have a strong brand, even your receptionist must know the central values, and these values should guide their day-to-day behavior. With proper employee alignment, each and every person in your company will deliver a consistent brand experience to each and every prospect or customer with whom they come in contact. And as a result, your prospects and customers — and the marketplace — will begin to regularly associate your products and your company with the values you've established!

Well Worth the Effort

Virtually every strategic marketing activity — from naming, to collateral development, to packaging, to PR, Media, and Analyst Relations — depends on having a clear and concise brand position. A well-conceived — andconsistent — brand and positioning strategy creates a strong brand equity, which is the added value brought to your company's products or services that enables you to charge more than what can be charged by similar, unbranded (or poorly-branded) products. An obvious example of this would be Coke versus a generic or store-brand cola. Because Coca-Cola has built such a powerful brand equity, it can charge more for its product — which is why customers willingly search-out Coke, and will pay a premium price. Position your company and its products correctly, and you will quickly build awareness and enhance profitability!

Hopefully, this article has provided you with some useful information that can help you in properly positioning your product or service.

Comments or questions? Drop me a line at david.orban@oydesign.com.

B2B E-mail Marketing 101: How to Ensure Success

For small and mid-sized businesses, e-mail marketing is one of the most valuable and economical tools available. It's direct, it's inexpensive, and it's rapidly deployable. But how you go about crafting an email campaign can make all the difference between success and failure. One of the most important things you can do when preparing a campaign is to put yourself in your customers' shoes.

First, you need to ask yourself "Exactly what kind of information do my clients or prospects actually want?" What will attract their attention and get them to actually open and read — and hopefully act on — your e-mail campaign? What can you offer them that will be of real value to them? It's important to think of email as a fairly intimate mechanism for engaging with your prospects or clients. Any successful campaign will involve a well-designed series of communications that is designed to take them through an extended conversation, rather than just a series of unrelated, uncoordinated messages. Email addresses for your clients — and especially your prospects — are a valuable resource, and the best way to lose access to them is to abuse them. When we don't give sufficient thought to the messages we send, you can almost be assured of getting "unsubscribes" and, ultimately, the loss of that prospect or client. And, as we all know, it's much easier — and less costly — to maintain an existing client than it is to acquire a new one.

So, content is crucial. If it's not meaningful to your target audience, you'll lose their attention, and possibly their business. Stuck for ideas...? Here are a couple of ideas, just to get you started:

Highlight an Existing Client — When you get positive feedback from a client, reach out to them and ask if it would be O.K. for you you to highlight them on your website and in e-mail campaigns. Nothing sells better than success, and prospects are always looking to validate their purchase decisions.

Provide Useful Tips or Market Insight — As an expert in what you do, your knowledge can be extremely useful to your audience. These can be tips on how to make better use of your product or sewrvice offering, or they can be insights into the current state of your marketplace. You don't necessarily want to "sell" in these messages, you just want to demonstrate that you have market expertise that can prove useful to your prospective clients. They'll make the sales connection on their own, and they won't feel like they're being spammed.

Announce Upcoming Events — Got an industry event or trade show coming up? Announce it, and be sure to include a link to the event. If you'll be exhibiting, provide your booth location and on-site contact info. If you're just attending an event, let your audience know if you'll be available for meetings or general networking. And, if an event has already passed, highlight photos of you with clients or industry figures.

As you can see, ideas for content are limited only by your imagination. You can include sales promos, or even industry news. And once you’ve identified the types of content you'll be using, you can begin preparing the actual emailing, building your e-mail list and creating an email template that properly reflects your brand image. There are several ways to approach this, starting with using Microsoft Outlook as your basic foundation, to stand-alone email software packages, all the way to hosted email management solutions, which can range from simple (inexpensive) to complex (expensive.) Unfortunately, a serious discussion of the merits of each method is well beyond the intent of this article.

Finally, it's a good idea to send out a preliminary e-mail in which you introduce yourself and establish expectations about what type of information your subscribers can expect to receive, and the frequency with which they'll be receiving it. Encourage an ongoing conversation by asking for feedback. This will not only engage your customers, but their suggestions and feedback can also help you improve and better target future campaigns.

The next step is to draft an e-mail marketing plan for the entire year. Look at the calendar from the perspective of your customer, being aware of significant industry events that might be of interest to them. Map-out topics and promotions that can help you reach them with pertinent information at the "right" time, throught the year. The time you spend in front-end planning will greatly improve the performance of your campaigns, while ensuring that your audience receives information that is both relevant and timely.

When it's time to push-out your campaign, be sure to do a couple of "test" emailings, to your personal email account, and to family members or friends. Check against not only your "Office" email client, but also against web-mail clients like Yahoo or G-Mail, to be certain that everything looks the way you've intended. Make sure that any included graphics show up where they're supposed to. Proofread, then proofread again. And be sure to proof your "Subject Line," as well. Then, make sure that any included links function properly.

Lastly, be sure to include an obvious "Opt-Out" mechanism on your email, even if it's a simple "Reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in the Message Header" link. There will typically be some folks who — while appreciating your company as a resource — prefer not to receive unsolicited email promotions, and it is vitally important that you respect their wishes.

Five Tips for Better Presentations

There are few things as deadly as a poorly-conceived business presentation. We've all sat through more than a few, so you know exactly what I'm talking about. So why, then, do we persist in making the same mistakes on our own presentations? Here are 5 simple rules to follow that can help you make your next presentation much more effective:

1. What's Your Point? — Before you even begin working on your Powerpoint deck, you need to ask yourself "What is the One Main Point I want to get across to my audience?" If you can't answer that question, then you probably aren't ready to even give a presentation. You presentation should start with this ONE Main Point, and each section or slide should essentially provide support for this One Main Point.
2. The "Jerry Maguire" Rule, a.k.a. "You Had Me at Hello" — Your audience will decide whether or not they like you (and your presentation) within the first 10 seconds, so you need to be completely ready to go, when it's time. Don't be fumbling with a microphone, or fussing with your laptop, while folks are waiting for you to start. Stand tall, make eye contact throughout the room, smile, and be confident. You should know your first three slides cold, and be totally prepared to speak about them without having to look at them. That will help you feel more relaxed, and will help set the tone for a successful presentation.
3. Repetition is Your Friend — Remember that One Main Point you're trying to get across? You need to make certain that your audience does, too. Even during the most compelling of presentations (you know, like the ones Steve Jobs gives), your audience's minds will wander. So don't be shy about repeating your main point or supporting argument. It's like that old, three-step adage: "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em; Tell 'em; and lastly, Tell 'em what you've just told them..." YOU know your material. You need to be sure that, when you're done, that your audience knows it, too!
4. Include Audience Participation — Folks who make pre-packaged cake mixes figured this one out a long time ago. You know that Duncan Hines could have easily used powdered eggs in their cake mix, but they chose not to. They understood the power of having the "baker" contribute to the recipe and "create" the end product. You can do the same with your audience, by including leading questions and facilitated exercises within your presentation. Every time you involve an audience member, you bring them a little closer to accepting — and supporting — your point of view.
5. Deliver With Passion — Remember when you were a little kid, and a grown-up would read you a story from a book...? The uncle who read to you with an excited, animated voice is the one who got your attention! Bring that kind of passion to your presentation. Get out your old copy of "The Cat in the Hat," and record yourself reading it aloud. THAT is the kind of excitement you need to bring to your presentation. Because if YOU can't get excited about what you're saying, how can you expect your audience to get excited...? This, of course, really starts with the words themselves. So, when you're writing your presentation, think about that 10-year-old inner child, and try to bring that kind of excitement to your writing. And don't forget non-verbal cues and body language, all of which go a long way to creating a presentation that's memorable, long after it was given!
   

There are many other valuable ideas to consider when preparing your presentations, notably minimizing the amount of information that appears on each slide (It's a slide, not a book!), and having a script that doesn't just read what's already on the slide. But the five points listed above have been extremely useful to me in creating succesful presentations, and I hope that they'll be useful to you, as well!

Social Media Marketing: Where's the Value?

As companies look for cost-effective ways to market in the down economy, many are experimenting with social media campaigns, employing a host of tools, from YouTube videos to blogs to applications on Facebook and Twitter. But it begs the question: Is Social Media Marketing actually paying off for marketers, and how can you measure ROI? While proponents of Social Media Marketing point to increased brand awareness, and — to some degree — more concise targeting, few are willing to go out on a limb and attribute any significant revenue growth directly to their Social Media marketing initiatives.

Social Marketing Initiatives Grow, In Spite of Lack of Useful Metrics

Still, according a report prepared for eMarketer by research firm Aberdeen Group, 21% of best-in-class companies plan to boost their social media marketing budgets by more than 25% this year, in spite of the fact that Aberdeen's research also showed that 39% of companies found it somewhat difficult to measure the impact of social media, and 20% said it was very difficult to measure.

So where does that leave you? Aberdeen and eMarketer believe that by 2013, an estimated 52% of all Internet users will be regular visitors to social networking sites. No matter how you slice it, that's a significant number of users, and many of them will be potential targets for your product or service. The steady stream of updates and news from "friends" are becoming a weekly — or even daily — habit for many people. That stickiness is good news for social network providers. The bad news is that — sticky or not — social networks are still struggling to develop workable revenue models.

"Yes" to Facebook and LinkedIn; But a Definitive "Maybe" to Twitter

To date, the more established social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have gotten most of the attention, and, among business users, Facebook seems to have gotten the most traction. But a lot of attention has been paid of late to microblogging service Twitter, with celebrities and even politicians (using "ghost-Twitterers"), entrepreneurs, business leaders and everyday users apparently flocking to the service in large numbers, generating lots of attention and activity. Twitter enables the distribution of web-wide messages, called "Tweets," consisting of 140 characters or less, to "followers" and to other social networking sites like Facebook. The initial response to the service has been strong, and eMarketer projects that the number of Twitter users will jump from 6 million U.S.-based users in 2008 to over 18.1 million in 2010. However, Nielsen vp of research David Martin suggests that the retention rate of new Twitter account holders is not particularly strong, and that as the novelty wears off, Twitter use may well drop dramatically. Given that sites like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn already provide a Twitter-like short messaging system through their "Status Update" functionality, many who have signed-on to Twitter have suggested that Twitter may have actually taken a step backward, in creating a web service that offers only a "Status Update" function.

Social Network Marketing Initiatives CAN Lead to New Opportunities

All things considered, Social Networking as a whole has gotten some serious traction, and savvy marketers are including it in their overall marketing mix. For many B2B tech marketers with big-ticket, complex sales and long sales cycles, there is a pronounced need to influence and to build rapport, with both clients and prospects. In this environment, creating demand is really about building relationships, and about establishing you and your organization as a valuable resource and a trusted advisor. Participating in social networks is just one way in which you can accomplish these goals. Your social network marketing initiatives don't need to be enormous, in order to increase awareness of your product or service, and to create additional channels of communication. Use networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to provide information and advice; to pose leading questions; to promote events (both traditional and web-based); and to build alliances and partnerships.

As always, be sure to provide a simple means for other participants to reach you, and even consider providing specific "landing pages," where necessary. And remember to track exactly where your leads are coming from (and what they're responding to), so that you can fine-tune your initiatives for the next go-round!

Smart Social Networking for B2B Companies

Whether they realize it or not, businesses have been using the "social" power of email marketing for a number of years now. It's just that we've been referring to it as "viral" marketing. Sure, our email campaigns have gone out regularly to house (or acquired) lists, and recipients have been encouraged to forward these e-mails to friends and colleagues. Which actually happened, from time to time. And when it did, it was helpful. But not overwhelmingly so.

The problem, even with broadcast email, is that email that's just "pushed out" is lacking in the interactive dynamics that are essential to maintaining the interest of busy workers who are typically trying to do several things at once. So, while you might capture their attention momentarily, the lack of an immediate and meaningful interaction or a "call to action" means that, at best, your email might get filed in a "To Read Later" folder, or at worst, it just might be deleted outright.

So how do you engage your primary audience -- and, your secondary "network" audience -- more effectively, while still retaining the speed and economy of scale afforded by the web-based medium? A simple solution is to combine your e-mail marketing initiatives with currently-available social networking offerings such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

By including a Social Networking component in your email marketing mix, you enable the sharing of your content not just to an individual or two, but to an expansive network of individuals. This creates an environment conducive to discussion and feedback, all from just the click of a link. By capitalizing on the traffic found on uber-active networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, businesses can reach and engage both decision-makers and influencers, in ways that were never before possible.

Looking to start add a Social Networking component to your marketing mix? Here are a couple of ideas that can help get you up and running, quickly and cost-effectively:

• First, if you're not already registered on Facebook or LinkedIn, do so now. By joining these web forums -- and by becoming active on them -- you can begin to establish yourself as an authority on both your company and the industry it serves. Once you begin participating on these forums, both asking and answering questions within the many "interest Groups" that are to be found there, you will find that more and more people are interested in what you're saying, helping you to establish yourself as a "trusted source."
  
  By joining LinkedIn and Facebook groups, then responding to questions and getting involved in discussions, you set your company up as a resource and an expert.


• Use your Facebook or LinkedIn "status" field to publicize your events, newsletters, landing pages or other initiatives. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all give users the ability to publish information in just seconds, so it's ridiculously easy to begin promoting your initiative, as soon as you have the basic details nailed-down. For example, if you have an e-newsletter set to publish on Wednesday, you could publish a status update a day or two before the drop, to get your audience talking about it. You could even send non-subscribers to your website, so that they can subscribe in time for the "new" edition, as well as giving them impetus to visit and peruse your web site.


• Add clearly delineated opt-in links to all of your marketing collateral, print or web-based. If, for example, you post a new video on your Facebook page, make sure that video contains a link at the end so that your viewers can opt-in. Once it's shared across your new "virtual" network, you'll be reaching hundreds of prospective new customers. Give them an easy way to request additional information. And if you’re planning to send visitors from a social media site to your web site, or are asking them to download a white paper or view a video, opt-in links must be extremely visible. You don't want to bury the link at the bottom of a page. If someone cares enough to check something out, you need to give them a very obvious way to remain engaged.


• Use the search power of the internet. You're already (or should be) following your company, products, and industry issues via Google e-mail alerts. You can essentially do the same on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, enabling you to gain valuable market knowledge and insight, as well as timely content for e-mail marketing initiatives. For example, Twitter's search function allows you to follow everything that's being mentioned about your company, giving you real-time access to things you might never otherwise hear -- or hear when it's too late. You can then take both the good and the bad of what's being said and respond appropriately within your e-mail marketing. For example, "Here's a tweet we recently heard about a problem with one of our products, and here's what we're doing in order to resolve the situation."
  

As you can see, Web 2.0 has provided businesses with many low-cost tools for carrying your brand and message to your target audiences, for a competitive advantage that can pay dividends for a long time to come!