Who wouldn't like to reach 96% of their target market with one
business to business marketing plan? According to a survey
published in the September 1, 2005 issue of "Electronic Design"
magazine, it can be done. When asked, "Where do you find the
most useful information about new products and technology?" the
respondents ranked print magazines (54%), Web searches (23%,
Google primarily), and E-mail newsletters (19%, which includes
RSS feeds) as the top three sources. This covers 96% of the
bases, relegating trade shows (2%) and word of mouth (2%) to
being almost inconsequential. This comes as good news for anyone
using business to business marketing for lead generation. These
numbers show that print is roughly equal to the Internet in
value; you can't neglect either without significantly hindering
your marketing campaign. Of the electronic half of the marketing
publicity equation, Internet searches on Google account for a
slightly larger percentage. However, unless done correctly,
simply posting
optimized"
press releases on the Web will not necessarily land a
company on the first page of a search. Most companies have done
some search engine optimization (SEO) for their site, so the
playing field is level. Taking optimization to the next level, a
marketing or public relations firm must generate optimized
releases and articles that go out on major wire services with
embedded links to the relevant pages on a client's website. And
they should be syndicated with RSS content feeds to increase
visibility with new audiences. Rounding out a close third are
Internet newsletters. In particular, RSS newsletters are quickly
becoming an excellent marketing tool as this medium makes it
easy to display high-quality, relevant news on a company's
Website, and to syndicate its news and content elsewhere. Just
as for news releases, though, anything written for RSS must
employ all available SEO techniques so critical for visibility
when a prospective customer is searching your keywords. Once
correctly optimized, major search engines seek out RSS feeds and
view them as legitimate news sources. Here lies one of the
greatest strengths of any marketing publicity effort: that
customers readily recognize the editorial copy of electronic or
print media outlets as fairly objective arbiters of the "real"
story. For this reason, editorial copy is read six times more
than advertising, according to some studies. Without print,
optimized press releases and RSS feeds, there will be gaping
holes in your
business to
business marketing strategy and it will be difficult, if not
impossible, to get to the 96% saturation level. But with the
right online marketing plan, lead generation should more than
take care of itself By John Elliott. Founder of Power PR, a
business to business marketing firm. 3711 Lomita Blvd.,
Suite 200, Torrance, CA 90505; (310) 787-1940; fax (310)
787-1970; or
http://www.powerpr.com.
About the author:
A native of Hawaii, John is a journalist and former editor of a
national real estate publication. While editor-in chief- of The
Property Management News, he actively participated in the
National Association of Real Estate Editors. As a public
relations executive, John has been instrumental in landing
hundreds of pages and hundreds of hours of radio and television
coverage for his various local, national, and international
clients and employers. H