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The emerging role ofalternative channels

BY ELLIS BOOKER

This year, we’ve added a new sectionon “social media,” reflecting the growth

of channels such as blogging and podcasting. Social media isalso the topic of the “Future” column (see page 38), which askshow marketers can harness the power of these nontraditional,undeniably popular environments.

Meanwhile, Internet advertising continues along its dou-ble-digit growth curve. A just-released report from the Interac-tive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopersconcludes that overall Internet advertising revenues in the U.S.for 2005 totaled $12.5 billion, a new annual record exceeding2004 by 30%. The final quarter of 2005 hit a record $3.6 bil-lion, representing a 34% increase overthe same period in 2004. Surprisingno one, keyword search took the topslot again in 2005, single-handedlyrepresenting 41% of the total spend.

Marketers are pouring their bud-gets online for a justifiable reason: Itworks.

“Our customers, namely engi-neers, rely heavily on the Internet andpublication reviews for product information,” said MartynEtherington, VP-marketing, Tektronix Inc., and one of the sixparticipants in our virtual roundtable this year (see page 4). “Inrecent primary research, the top three information sources en-gineers rely on to help them make informed purchase deci-sions are, in the following rank order: Internet search (98%),word-of-mouth (88.6%) and technical articles (78.1%).”

The impact of online social media permeates the most inter-esting thinking in b-to-b marketing today. Try answering foryourself our fourth roundtable question: “Are social media—particularly blogs—a practical application for b-to-b compa-nies? How are they best used?”

My own sense is that there is a major shift, largely genera-tional, in online consumption habits. A part of this shift in-volves a growing reliance on “authentic,” word-of-mouth

sources, in addition to traditional media and corporate outlets.Then again, I may be wrong. In fact, the only way to know

what’s real and what’s not is to test this thesis—and any othersyou have—with your own customers and prospects.

That introduces another theme of this year’s guide, thecommon trait shared by all smart Internet marketers: an orga-nizational commitment to continual testing and monitoring.This discipline converts old-fashioned arguments about whichcampaign approach will be most effective—the kind of seat-of-the-pants decision-making favored by old-school man-agers—into quantifiable programs.

Roundtable participant Jon Raj, VP-advertising for VisaUSA, put it succinctly: “If a company isnot using some sort of measurement toevaluate its efforts, then it is being neg-ligent regardless of the medium. Onlineabsolutely makes it easier to measurewith many great tools, but marketersneed to be committed to the conceptand the culture to be most effective.”

Raj goes on to underscore the im-portance of connection: “Engagement

is a new factor that must be evaluated. It is no longer accept-able to just throw a message out there, but rather you mustconnect with the customer in a meaningful way.”

This isn’t easy. But it is where online marketing has pulledus. If you’re not there already, get with the program or hirepeople who are.

Our hope is that BtoB’s 2006 Interactive MarketingGuide—along with ongoing coverage in BtoB’s NetMarketingdepartment, our various e-mail newsletter products, our new“Talking Tech” audiocast series and our multicity NetMarket-ing Breakfasts—will assist you in continually improving youronline efforts.

Ellis Booker is editor of BtoB and BtoB’s Media Business. He canbe reached at [email protected].

The impact ofsocial mediapermeates themost interestingthinking in b-to-bmarketing today.

EDITOR’S NOTE

CONTENTSROUNDTABLE Page 4

■B-to-b marketers and other experts dis-cuss interactive marketing trends

E-MAIL Page 10

■ Integrating e-mail with other media isan effective strategy

■E-mail resources

SEARCH Page 20

■Despite click fraud, marketers continueto embrace search

■Search resources

WEB SITES Page 25

■How to tailor Web sites for customersand prospects

SOCIAL MEDIA Page 26

■Will blogs and podcasts become a majorcommunications channel?

ONLINE ADVERTISING Page 28

■ Improve brand experience for visitorsusing video and rich media

■Online advertising resources

ONLINE EVENTS 1

■How to increase returns on Webinarsand webcasts

ONLINE PUBLISHERS Page 32

■ Innovative branding campaigns will attract new audiences

■Online publishers resources

INTERACTIVE AGENCIES Page 35

■Agencies incorporate interactive intooverall operations

■ Interactive agencies list

FUTURE Page 38

■How the brave new world of social media will lead to unprecedentedopportunities

WELCOME TO BTOB’S 2006 INTERACTIVE MARKETING GUIDE. Our annual publica-tion offers sections on e-mail, search, Web sites, online advertising, onlineevents, publisher sites and interactive agencies. Each section provides anoverview, tips, an interview with a subject expert and sidebars with usefulresources and data. You’ll also find updated vendor lists and data charts.

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BtoB: How has interactive spending changed this year fromlast? Why are these shifts happening?

Suppers: While the level of interactive spending has notvaried much for us in recent years, our intelligence and insightinto the effectiveness of our spending has increased.

With guidance and tools from our interactive marketing ser-vice provider, we have made tremendous progress tracking andmeasuring the association of paid search, online ad campaignsand placements with key features and elements on our Web site.We have become increasingly reliant on our online analytics ca-pabilities to shape our spending strategies and decisions.

Rogers: The Web works as a proven means to build brandsand to engage customers, and the big-budget, leading advertis-ers now have the experience, research and data to verify it. As aresult, the Web has moved from a place of experimentation to amainstream medium. Online spending has shifted from episod-ic to more full-year planning and buying, resulting in both in-creasing online budgets and the need for top advertisers to lockin premium positions to lock out the competition.

Rosenblatt: We are seeing clients increasing their spendingon online advertising as a percentage of their marketing bud-gets. Rich media advertising and search marketing, in particu-lar, are attracting a lot of investment, while many marketers arebeginning to adopt innovative technologies such as onlinevideo advertising and optimization. Online advertising growthis continuing to outperform the overall advertising market,driven primarily by the proven return on investment [ROI], thecontinuing shift of audience to online channels and the broaderacceptance and understanding of online advertising at seniorlevels in major organizations.

Etherington: Our interactive spending has gone up signifi-cantly in the past two years. The reason? Our customers, namelyengineers, rely heavily on the Internet and publication reviewsfor product information. In recent primary research, the top threeinformation sources engineers rely on to help them make in-formed purchase decisions are, in the following rank order:Internet search (98%), word-of-mouth (88.6%) and technical ar-ticles (78.1%). Given this research—and to ensure we provide in-formation to our customers anywhere, anytime and in their pre-ferred language—the Web has become pivotal in our marketing,budgeting and a way for us to serve our customers’ needs better.

Raj: The Internet is a maturing medium, and there are con-sistently more opportunities with the penetration and prolifer-ation of broadband. Second, marketers are finally wising up tothe benefits of marketing and advertising online.

Moore: We continue to see increases in spending on interac-tive marketing and advertising. Simply put, there is no othermedium more accountable and trackable than interactive.

BtoB: Given the attention paid to metrics and ROI, particularlyonline, what’s the best way to instill a culture of measurement inthe marketing department?

Suppers: The best way to instill a culture of measurement inany group is to provide analytics that are accurate, concise, con-sistent and actionable. Analysis for analysis sake will never sus-tain. Ask yourself what the primary goal and objectives are foryour Web site and identify the corresponding metrics thatpoint to success or failure. Develop measurements that can alteror change a decision. All metrics must also be presented on aconsistent basis to key stakeholders in a format that makes thelearning immediately apparent. Designing metrics that are both

constructive and actionable is also critical. Last, from a peopleperspective, make employees accountable for results by inte-grating the measurements into periodic reviews of progressagainst individual goals and objectives.

Rogers: Decide what points of measurement matter, both interms of immediate response and longer-term branding, andprovide the tools to monitor the results and give wide access tothe data. People will be empowered to make a contribution tothe marketing effort with data-driven decisions. Data is not justa tool for the direct-response people or the research people, butall involved in marketing.

Rosenblatt: Metrics have always been important for onlineadvertisers, but we are seeing an increased focus on online ad-vertising performance from the C-suite. When marketing is heldaccountable at this level, it inevitably drives a culture of mea-surement throughout the entire organization. In many ways, be-cause online advertising is so accountable, it is driving a higherlevel of accountability across all of a marketer’s channels.

Etherington: Define success, make people accountable, mea-sure only what matters (distinguish between looking good versus

ROUNDTABLE

4 | BtoB’s Interactive Marketing Guide | 2006 | btobonline.com

Moving into themainstream‘BtoB’s’ panel of experts discusses a variety ofinteractive marketing tactics, and how they fittogether as an essential part of business success

Roundtable participants

MARTYN ETHERINGTONVP-marketing,Tektronix Inc.

DAVID J.MOOREChairman-CEO, 24/7 Real Media

JON RAJVP-advertising,Visa USA

BRUCE H.ROGERS VP-marketing,Forbes.com

DAVID ROSENBLATTCEO,DoubleClick

TERRYSUPPERSSenior VP-interactivemarketing, General ElectricCo.’s CorporateFinancialServices Business

This virtual roundtable was conducted via e-mail. Each participant was asked the same setof questions and given the same total word length as a guide for response; each was giventhe option of skipping one question.

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doing good) and, as I can attest, youwill need to have strategy, structuraland process alignment

Raj: If a company is not usingsome sort of measurement to evalu-ate its efforts, then it is being negli-gent regardless of the medium. On-line absolutely makes it easier tomeasure with many great tools, butmarketers need to be committed tothe concept and, as you mentioned,the culture to be most effective. Thedays of simply looking at impres-sions or reach and frequency areover. Today it has to be about results.

Engagement is a new factor thatmust be evaluated. It is no longer ac-ceptable to just throw a message outthere, but rather you must connectwith the customer in a meaningfulway.

Moore: It’s important for the mar-keting department to understandhow this increased visibility provid-ed by the metrics of digital market-ing helps them make their buysmore efficient and proves the valueof marketing spend to the overall or-ganization. Goals should be setwhen the marketing plan is built,and all marketing efforts around thatplan should be measured againstthose goals. For example, for a searchmarketing campaign, goals can beset for increases in return on invest-ment or reduction in customer ac-quisition costs. Results can betracked and campaigns can be opti-mized in real time.

BtoB: Search marketing continuesto grow as a percentage of onlinespending. What’s interesting in thesearch space right now?

Suppers: From where I sit, work-ing in a large, long-cycle b-to-b envi-ronment, I’m not sure too much haschanged for me in the search space. Afew years ago, I shifted my prioritiesto search away from other online ad-vertising. The paid search model lev-els the playing field and provides adynamic and variable approach topromoting our Web site to the peoplethat are most interested and in need.

Rogers: Search will grow, but at alesser rate as spending reaches apoint of diminishing returns. Brandadvertising’s percentage of the inter-active advertising pie will increase asthe interaction between the two be-comes increasingly important, ratherthan [being] seen as separate efforts.Research shows online brand adver-tising positively impacts search ROIand vice versa. Having said that, ver-tical and local search continue to beareas of unexploited growth.

Rosenblatt: Local search, naturalsearch optimization, as well as un-derstanding consumer behavior inthe search process, are some of thebig areas in search right now. We re-leased a study last year that foundthat consumers behave differentlythan most marketers expect, and ourclients have been using those in-

sights to optimize their search pro-grams. For example, the researchshowed that while the majority ofsearch activity across the full 12weeks is generic, brand searches andclicks become more prominent closeto the purchase.

Another key point is that thetools available to marketers to man-age the search process lag the currentspend in the industry. Search is stillan immature market, and many mar-keters are asking for solutions to

help with bid management, opti-mization and measurement of theirsearch marketing programs.

Etherington: Results, effective-ness and tracking microconver-sions—i.e., being able to trackPPC/SEO—to influencing customerdecision-making.

Raj: Unfortunately the most in-teresting thing right now is proba-bly click fraud. That alone is not areason to avoid using search, but it isdefinitely something to be aware of


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“Brand advertising’spercentage of the interactiveadvertising pie will increaseas the interaction betweenthe two becomes increasinglyimportant, rather than [being]seen as separate efforts.”Bruce H. Rogers, VP-marketing, Forbes.com

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and find ways to combat.Another interesting trend is utiliz-

ing search as a brand-building medi-um. There has been some buzz outthere about the effects of search be-yond the traditional direct responseexpectation. Perhaps more marketerswill soon be buying search terms tohave their brands appear in certainplaces specifically as a brand play.

It is quite interesting how each ofthe search engines seems to bebringing a unique group of users to

the table. Conventional wisdomwould tell you a searcher is asearcher, yet the different sites seemto harness different users.

Moore: Search marketing has fi-

nally started to move beyond the ob-session with bid management operat-ing in a vacuum. Sophisticated searchmarketers begin with a measure—such as number of sales, ROI or return

on ad spend—and work backward todetermine how search dollars shouldbe allocated.

Also, looking at search holistical-ly is increasingly important. Having

tools that combine paid placement,paid inclusion and search engine op-timization tracking gives marketersunprecedented insight into how theentire search channel is performing.

BtoB: Are social media—particu-larly blogs—a practical applicationfor b-to-b companies? How are theybest used?

Suppers: Blogs provide an inter-esting supplement to an online strat-egy; however, they require addition-al resources to monitor and main-tain. I am not convinced at thispoint, at least with respect to the on-line corporate lending marketplace,that the benefits outweigh the chal-lenges. In my opinion a more suit-able application of a blog might befor more consumer-oriented busi-nesses or companies in the media in-dustry—basically, situations wherea group of individuals can identifythemselves as a community.

Rogers: Social media are fulfillinga basic human need to connect andcommunicate with like-minded peo-ple. Blogs and shared-media siteslike Myspace are powerful examplesof this at work, but that doesn’tmean every technological advanceon the Web is automatically an ad-vertising medium. B-to-b companiesneed to think this through carefully.Blogs work when you have athought leader, who by definitionhas a following, and who is willingto share his or her opinions and isprepared for opinionated reactions.Better to not blog than to do so with-out a plan just because it’s easy to do.

Rosenblatt: B-to-b companiesshould absolutely be focused onblogs, but there are a number ofways that they could or should con-sider interacting with the blogo-

sphere. At a minimum, they shouldbe monitoring blogs to learn what isbeing said about their company,their competition and their industry.They also must ensure that their PRteam is tailoring its approach inworking with bloggers. Blogs, forsome, might be a viable advertisingform. While not offering wide reach,they deliver a niche, passionate au-dience. And finally, firms can run ablog, which can help to establishcredibility, demonstrate a depth ofknowledge and be useful in influ-

ROUNDTABLE

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“Social mediais definitely the‘soup du jour,’the same wayit was withclick-throughs,e-mail orsearch.”Jon Raj,VP-advertising,Visa USA

“Search is still an immature market, and manymarketers are asking for solutions to helpwith bid management, optimization andmeasurement of their search marketingprograms.” David Rosenblatt, CEO, DoubleClick

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encing considered purchases thatmany b-to-b companies offer.

Etherington: A blog is a medium,period. But the intent—to develop acommunity of people with a com-mon or shared interest—is very ap-plicable for b-to-b companies.

Raj: Social media are definitelythe “soup du jour,” the same way itwas with click-throughs, e-mail orsearch. Video could be next. All arevery valuable when utilized wiselybut none will live up to the hypethe media creates.

I believe blogs, if well thought-out, can be used in a very effectiveway as a practical b-to-b application.Blogs enable customers to have anoutlet that is authentic, and whenused appropriately can yield appre-ciation that goes well beyond tradi-tional marketing.

Moore: Social media can be ex-tremely powerful. How they are bestused depends on the organizationemploying them, the markets theyare addressing and the products be-

ing sold. Outward-facing blogs andpodcasts from internal marketingdepartments can be effective whenused as communications channels tocustomers and prospects. Compa-nies can showcase their areas of ex-pertise for the market generally. Cus-tomers can offer feedback on theblog posts, creating a real-time pub-lic dialogue between the companyand the marketplace.

BtoB: How are you breathing lifeinto “old” channels such as e-mail?

Suppers: As is true of the indus-try overall, although our outbounde-mail activity has increased signifi-cantly over time, the response to ourcampaigns, measured in terms ofopen rates and click-throughs, hasdeclined.

With the proliferation of e-mail,it has become more difficult to cap-ture and keep someone’s attentionthrough this medium. In light ofthis, we are seeking opportunities tofurther segment our e-mail messagesand target them to tighter-definedgroups that we anticipate will bemost receptive to the content.

We also focus on the design andlayout of our e-mail content to en-sure it is pleasing and intuitive, yetalso recognize the challenge and theopportunity presented by the prolif-eration and the use of PDAs, Black-Berrys and other handheld devices

where the experience of receivinge-mail “on-the-go” is very differentfrom a desktop or laptop computer.With e-mail remaining a very low-cost medium, the opportunity to fig-ure this out remains compelling.

Rogers: E-mail is still a powerfulcommunications tool. We’re very for-tunate in that e-mail is still a success-ful and preferred channel forForbes.com to deliver breaking newsand information to our readers. Dur-ing the business day, we publish over2,000 stories, and our e-mail newslet-ters and alerts allow users to tailor ex-actly the type of information theywant to receive. E-mail isn’t old aslong as it offers something the recipi-ent has actually requested.

Etherington: That depends onwhat outcome you are trying toachieve. E-mail, like all promotion-al/communication tools, is a methodfor obtaining a desired outcome inthe most efficient manner. I believebroad e-mail as we know it will be-come irrelevant within the next few

years in favor of emerging interac-tive technologies. For example, I re-ceive 10 texts for every one e-mailfrom my own children. Communi-ties and devices will predict thelongevity and relevance of e-mail,not b-to-b marketers.

Moore: The death of e-mail hasbeen greatly exaggerated. The bestthing that has happened with e-mailis that, as an industry, we’ve learnedhow to effectively use e-mail as onepart of the marketing mix. E-mail isbest used as a CRM tool for existingcustomers when paired with otherdigital media that are particularlystrong at customer acquisition, suchas search engine marketing.

BtoB: Has online video finally ar-rived for b-to-b marketers?

Rogers: This year will be seen as awatershed year for video on the Web,providing a powerful new creativeoption for b-to-b advertisers. Whywaste money on TV when only asmall percentage of the audiencewould possibly have any interest inyour message? B-to-b advertising isby definition a highly segmentedmarketing effort that the Web af-fords, yet you can still have a “TV-like” experience that sells the emo-tional aspects of your b-to-b productor service. New research from the On-line Publishers Association (OPA)supports the interest in video for a

business audience. Forbes.com hasdevoted extensive resources to build-ing out its video production capabili-ties to capitalize on this growth trendand is now the leading source of orig-inal business video programming forthe Web. Many of the advertisersrunning video ads are b-to-b compa-nies, like IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp.and Accenture, to name a few.

Rosenblatt: In many respects,video offers the best of bothworlds—providing high brand im-pact opportunities with measure-ment capabilities. I think we are defi-nitely on the cusp in terms of the vi-ability of the video advertising in-dustry. Some major organizationsare beginning to invest in this area.IBM was an early investor in onlineadvertising and it is proving again tobe one of the leading companies inadopting online video advertising.

Once again, however, marketersand publishers are seeking tools tomanage the process of buying onlinevideo space and measuring its effec-tiveness. When we can get past thesehurdles and make the online videoadvertising process more efficientand effective for both buyers andsellers, it can deliver on the majorgrowth it is expected to see in thenext few years.

Etherington: No, it is still not inthe mainstream for b-to-b, there aretoo many technical variables com-bined with poor content, such as 2Dpresentations transferred from Pow-erPoint to video, and restrictive pro-duction costs. Adobe Flash as a toolfor telling a visual story or demon-strating one’s capabilities will be-come more prevalent for b-to-b com-panies before video.

Raj: Yes, but it is only going to getbetter. The video opportunities onlineare much greater than what we havebeen able to do on television. The tar-geting is so precise that I really believethis may very well change how wecommunicate with our customers.

Moore: Video has arrived for alldigital marketers. Several drivers aremaking video a powerful addition todigital marketing. First, we’vereached a tipping point in broad-band penetration. This has caused amarked increase in the numbers ofthe Internet population viewingvideos online for entertainment andfor information.

Next, the cost of video produc-tion is dropping rapidly. Sub-$5,000video cameras combined with pow-erful desktop editing software makeit possible for a b-to-b marketer tocreate high-quality video content

for one-tenth the price it would havecost five years ago.

Finally, the ability to combinevideo ads with sophisticated targetingonline means that marketers can morecost-effectively reach their targets.

BtoB: What other technologies holdpromise?

Suppers: I am intrigued with thepossibilities and potential of pod-casting. The pace of business contin-ues to accelerate, and time continuesto become more and more precious.Although data to date indicate lowadoption of this format, the portablenature of the technology fits today’sbusy, multitasking environment.Additionally, the opportunity tocraft, customize and self-select newsand information creates a new mar-keting venue that allows for ad-vanced segmentation and targeting.

Rogers: All forms of on-demandtechnologies will continue to sur-face. Wireless broadband will bringa more Web-like experience to wire-less devices and free the Web fromthe confines of a PC.

Rosenblatt: As online advertisingmoves from being a rounding errorin a marketing plan to a material in-vestment, there is an inevitable em-phasis on increasing performance.As a result, optimization is an impor-tant emerging area of the online ad-vertising market, bringing scienceand algorithms to the medium to

help generate the best possible per-formance for marketers.

Etherington: Technologies arehere today. It is the applied use ofthese technologies through devices,connected or wireless and, in partic-ular, RFID [Radio Frequency Identifi-cation].

Raj: I am very excited about theevolution of TV, (digital videorecorders, video-on-demand, interac-tive TV) mobile phones and podcast-ing. Those combined with the high-speed Internet will absolutely changethe way we all consume media.

Moore: Interactive television is ex-tremely promising. Given the amountof advertising dollars spent in televi-sion and the amount of technologicalinnovation that is occurring, it is onlya matter of time before we see televi-sion advertising being held to a high-er standard due to the increased visi-bility that advertisers will have.

BtoB: What is your biggest chal-lenge right now?

Suppers: Our challenge has alwaysbeen and continues to remain attract-ing the right people at the right timeto our site to engage and interact withour business. As I mentioned previ-ously, we are a large b-to-b player withlong-cycle products and solutions, sothe importance of both dimensions—right person/right time—is critical forour online success.

Rogers: Our biggest challenge isscaling the business fast enough toenable us to fully realize the growthopportunities that exist for us, par-ticularly for international markets.

Rosenblatt: Our greatest currentchallenge is hiring enough greatpeople to manage and drive thegrowth that we are seeing in thebusiness.

Etherington: It is time for mar-keters to get over justifying their po-sition and budgets. This can only beachieved if we, as a marketing func-tion, become more relevant. I be-lieve in order for the marketingfunction and my peers to be suc-cessful today, we have to becomemore relevant. I break relevancyinto three distinct areas:

1. Customer relevancy—identi-fying, understanding and anticipat-ing the wants and needs of our cus-tomers. Listening more to our cus-tomers and, when we talk to them,making sure we do it on their terms,

in their language and at a time theywant to be communicated with.

2. Channel relevancy—makingsure we train, equip and motivateour channels. We need to be alwayslooking to the horizon to lead thechannel to new opportunities.

3. Business relevancy—usingleading indicators versus lagging in-dicators to ensure we become morerelevant to the business and ulti-mately tracking a marketing dollarto an order dollar and then to cus-tomer satisfaction.

We are doing a lot of work in or-der to get better understanding of ourcurrent customers—who they are,how they want to be communicatedwith—to know if they are advocates.

Raj: Staying on top of all the fast-moving, ever-emerging media land-scape. There are more opportunitiesand challenges than there are hoursin the day. �

“Ask yourself what theprimary goal and objectivesare for your Web site andidentify the correspondingmetrics that point to successor failure.”Terry Suppers, senior VP-interactive marketing,General Electric Co.’s Corporate Financial Services Business

“The death of e-mail has beengreatly exaggerated.”David J. Moore, chairman-CEO, 24/7 Real Media

“A blog is a medium, period. But the intent—to develop a community of people with acommon or shared interest—is veryapplicable for b-to-b companies.”Martyn Etherington, VP-marketing,Tektronix Inc.

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BY CAROL KROL

TWELVE MONTHS AGO, the e-mail marketingworldwasbesetwithsuchroadblocksasspam and deliverability issues. The

problem was bad enough that many marketersdecided it wasn’t worth risking their reputa-tions and simply stopped or pulled back one-mail campaigns. However, far from being analso-ran, e-mail is still very much in the game,and e-mail marketers using the medium arefinding integrating e-mail with the restof the media mix can be very effective.

Shar VanBoskirk, senior analyst atForrester Research, said spending one-mail marketing is still strong. “E-mailis second only to search in companies’online marketing budgets today, with80% of marketers using, piloting orplanning e-mail marketing programs,and 88% expecting e-mail effectivenessto increase in the next three years.”

The sales numbers speak volumes.The Direct Marketing Association esti-mates that legitimate commercial e-mailresulted in approximately $39 billion insales in 2004, including about $9 billionin small-business sales.

E-MAIL’S COMEBACKTools and technology designed to

comply with CAN-SPAM and improvedeliverability, such as authentication of e-mailmessages, have also begun to have an effect,makingmarketersevenmorecomfortablewithusing e-mail again.

Infact,AOLsaidtheamountofspamreach-ing AOL customer in-boxes in 2005, as mea-sured by member complaints, marked a 75%decline from a peak level in late 2003.

Despite that, deliverability does remain anissue for marketers. Eighty-two percent ofmarketers say e-mail deliverability is a chal-

lengefor them,accordingtoastudyreleased inmid-April by EmailLabs, an e-mail marketingtechnology company.

Now that spam problems aren’t consumingall their time, e-mail marketers have begun torefocus on tactics.

Forrester’s VanBoskirk said among e-mailtrends, integration of messaging is a top priori-ty. “This is the year of e-mail integration with

other channels, and the companies that can dothat successfully will differentiate [themselves]from competitors,” she said.

“We’re using e-mail to complement otherforms of marketing-like direct mail and theWeb,” said Pam A. Evans, worldwide Webmarketing manager at IBM Corp. “We’ve de-veloped a series of multitouches. [We need to]make sure we deliver in a relevant way basedon what the customer is telling us.”

Integratinge-mailmarketingmessageswith

other media channels has become a top priori-ty for b-to-b marketers this year because it hasthe potential to dramatically increase responserates.

Brian Price, executive director, online mar-keting at Verizon, said the telecommunicationsgiant is employing an integrated mix of paidsearch and e-mail marketing in its b-to-b cam-paigns.

“Verizon uses a combination of search ban-ners and e-mail,” Price said, adding that it alsosupplements these online efforts with offlineadvertising, including direct mail, TV, printand free-standing inserts.

INTEGRATED APPROACHPitney Bowes said its strategy begins with

an idea. “We start with the idea, and then welookatall theways todeliver it,” saidMatthewSawyer, VP-corporate marketing at PitneyBowes. For example, Pitney Bowes uses e-mail,direct mail and search engine marketing topromote its Thought Leadership event series,

which addresses various business topicsto clients and prospects.

“We put out a 26-page publicationthrough direct mail to some of our topcustomers and prospects, as well as in-vestors,” Sawyer said. “Once we have thecontent, we then deliver that throughothercomponentsof themail stream, likee-newsletters and e-mail marketing.We’ll take some of the key articles anduse them electronically,” he said. Thatcontent is also posted at its Web site.

Ernst & Young is another marketerthat is taking a decidedly integrated ap-proachwith itsonlineande-mailmarket-ing. Its e-mail efforts are integrated withother media, including direct mail, andthose inturnaretightlywoveninto inter-active elements on the company’s site,said Michelle Lee Puleio, assistant direc-tor, national marketing at Ernst & Young.

In one example of e-mail marketing integra-tion, Puleio said promotions for an annual con-ference the company hosts in October for energyexecutives began much earlier in the year with a“save the date” e-mail to clients and prospects.That was followed up by a rich media e-mail.

“We created these Flash movies that wee-mailed them, and the call to action was em-bedded there,” she said. “There was a link builtin that brought them to the Web site to find out

E-mail back inthe media mixDeliverability still a concern, but marketersforge ahead, focus on integrated message

1. Make one person responsible for the entire campaign. Justbecause e-mail messages and Web landing pages exist in differentmedia doesn’t mean they are separate. When an e-mail recipientclicks on a link, they expect continuity. Most don’t even realize thatthey just migrated from their e-mail client to their Web browser.

2. Avoid using home pages or multipurpose landing pages. The morededicated the landing page, the more effective the results.

3. Stay focused on the call to action. Don’t forget why you broughtthis person to your page. You warmed them up in the e-mail mes-sage and now you want them to complete the transaction. Keep theprospect focused on the desired action and don’t distract themwith random opportunities or irrelevant information.

4. Don’t intimidate. Limit the number of fields your prospect mustcomplete as much as possible without compromising lead quality.You can always ask for more information later.

5. Test. You should test landing pages with the same discipline you do e-mail messages—one element at a time. For example: Send coupons,p.s. messages, opening sentences and calls to action separately.

Source: Randall Litchfield, Inbox Marketer News, “Perfect Landings,” March 2006

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KKeeyy ee--mmaaiill mmeettrriiccss■ From Q3 to Q4 2005, open rates for market-ing e-mails and newsletters dropped 29%.Click rates fell 21% in the same period. Source: eROI, “Q4 2005 E-mail Statistics” report

■ Contrary to popular wisdom, Friday may bethe best day to send e-mail. In Q4, 21% of e-mails sent on Friday were opened, followedby 20.8% of e-mails sent on Tuesday.Source: eROI, “Q4 2005 E-mail Statistics” report

EE--mmaaiill bbeesstt pprraaccttiicceess■ 52% of b-to-b newsletter subscribers usetheir preview pane to view e-mails, making itimportant for marketers to deliver their mes-sages in this smaller window space.Source: EmailLabs, Nov. 2005

■ 39% of b-to-b marketers have no formalpermission (opt-in) practices in place for col-lecting e-mail addresses. Only 7% of b-to-cmarketers have no formal practice in place.Source: Direct and Multichannel Merchant magazines

TThhee ssppaamm pprroobblleemm■ In 2005, the percent of users that “are lesstrusting of e-mail because of spam” decreasedto 53% from 62% in 2005.Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project 2005

■ What is spam? 96% of Internet users defineit as an e-mail “that intends to trick me intoopening it”; 93% define it as coming “from anunknown sender.” Only 38% define it as “try-ing to sell me a product or service even if Iknow the sender.”Source: DoubleClick, June 2005

■ To help manage spam, many users routeopt-in e-mail to Webmail addresses. 26% ofAmerican Internet users route opt-in e-mail toYahoo!, 21% read marketing communicationsthrough Hotmail and 13% use AOL. Source: Lyris Technologies, March 2006

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“This is an economic issue. You have todestroy the spammer’s business model.Charging a fee or a toll to get that to the in-box is part of the solution.”—R. David Lewis, VP-market development atStrongMail Systems, on the idea of chargingmarketers for access to customer in-boxes in order to fight spam.

E-mail, page 18

BB _ 04-24-06 A 10 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:44 PM Page 1


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Silverpop Systems Atlanta www.silverpop.com (866) 745-8767

Skylist Inc. Austin, Texas www.skylist.net (877) 250-2922

SmartSource Burlington, Mass. www.smartsourceonline.com (800) 239-0239

SourceLink Elkgrove Village,Ill.

www.sourcelink.com (847) 238-5400

StreamSend Inc. Davis, Calif. www.streamsend.com (877) 439-4078

StrongMail Systems Redwood Shores,Calif.

www.strongmail.com (650) 421-4200

SubscriberMail Lisle, Ill. www.subscribermail.com (630) 303-5000

TMX Communications Conshohocken,Pa.

www.tmxinteractive.com (610) 897-2500

Topica Inc. San Francisco www.topica.com (415) 344-0800

VerticalResponse San Francisco www.verticalresponse.com (866) 683-7842

WhatCounts Seattle www.whatcounts.com (800) 440-7005

Xert Alexandria, Va. www.xert.com (703) 838-9847

Xtenit New York www.xtenit.com (646) 825-9070

Yesmail Portland, Ore. www.yesmail.com (877) 937-6245

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Acxiom Digital Conway, Ark. www.digitalimpact.com (800) 491-9320

Arial Software Chicago www.arielsoftware.com (773) 764-3434

BlueHornet Networks San Diego www.bluehornet.com (619) 295-1856

Bluestreak Providence, R.I. www.bluestreak.com (401) 341-3300

Bronto Software Durham, N.C. www.bronto.com (888) 276-6861

Click Tactics Waltham, Mass. www.clicktactics.com (866) 402-5425

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Constant Contact Waltham, Mass. www.constantcontact.com (866) 876-8464

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Directorynet Alpharetta, Ga. www.directorynet.com (770) 521-0100

DoubleClick Inc. New York www.doubleclick.com/us (212) 271-2542

Dynamics Direct Valencia, Calif. www.dynamicsdirect.com (661) 600-2059

E-Centives Inc. Bethesda, Md. www.e-centives.com (877) 323-6848

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ExactTarget Indianapolis www.exacttarget.com (317) 423-3928

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$457

$426

$2

485

462

3

511

487

4

535

504

5

558

513

6

577

518

7

U.S. e-mail marketing spending, 2005 - 2010 (in millions of $)

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

■■Retention ■■ Acquisition ■■ Transactional

Source:: JupiterResearch E-mail Model, 11/05 (U.S. only)

Source: eMarketer, citing Return Path, April 2006

$232

$117

$78

250

130

82

262

141

84

269

150

85

272

157

84

273

163

82

Spending on modes of acquisition e-mailmarketing, 2005 - 2010 (in millions of $)

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010■■Sponsored e-mail■■ Coregistration■■ Append

Source:: JupiterResearch E-mail Model, 11/05 (U.S. only)

E-mail open and click-through rates in theU.S., by audience type, 2005

Permission-based e-mail nondelivery ratesworldwide, by Internet service provider,second half 2005

B-to-b marketers

37.75%

5.23%

B-to-c marketers

29.54

4.44

Mixed audience

31.61

6.67

■■Opens ■■Clicks

Source: eMarketer, citing ExactTarget, March 2006

Excite 42.9%

Gmail 40.4

Lycos 33.8

Adelphia 31.0

Mail.com 26.8

Hotmail 26.1

BellSouth 25.0

Roadrunner 24.9

MSN 24.4

BT Internet 23.5

Rogers 23.3

Netscape 23.3

Cogeco 21.0

ATT 19.4

NetZero 18.8%

SBC 17.2

Verizon 15.3

Yahoo! 15.3

Sympatico 15.2

Cox 14.5

AOL 12.4

Cablevision 11.7

Comcast 11.7

AOL.ca 11.0

USA.net 9.9

9.4 Compuserve

8.1 Mac.com

7.8 Earthlink

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06bb0074.qxp 3/7/06 9:47 AM Page 1

2005

81

54

2006

108

63

2007

142

73

2008

181

85

2009

233

98

Why shouldmarketers launch e-mail acquisitioncampaigns?

Mallin: First, most marketers areanxious to grow their e-maildatabases since the online portion oftheir business is key to their salesgrowth strategy. Adding to your e-mail database gives you the abilityto communicate with yourcustomers on a regular basis at avery low cost. Second, the return on

investment is very high with inter-active marketing. [Also,] you canmeasure your results in real time,[and] your ability to test, personalize

the offer and make changes quicklyis much greater online than in anyother marketing vehicle.

What are somechallenges facing b-to-b marketers thatwould like to do an e-mail acquisitioncampaign?

Mallin: I think [one challenge] isfinding the right data thatperform—finding the names, find-

ing the right price points.On the b-to-b side, there’s less in-

formation available than on the con-sumer side. The biggest challenge ishaving available content forstraight-up acquisition. I thinkthere are still too few names on theb-to-b e-mail side. There isn’tenough buyer information. B-to-bcatalog [names] are not on the mar-ket [for example].

You need the opportunity tohave Web sites available for leadgeneration, those that generate

enough traffic to do co-registration.There are fewer than 100 sites avail-able for lead generation [in b-to-b]versus 1,000 or more on theconsumer side.

What do you suggestfor b-to-b marketersthat are doing e-mailretention campaignsbut would like tobegin an acquisitionprogram?

Mallin:They have to have a bud-get and a commitment to it. It’s not“put your toe in the water and jumpout.” It’s about consistency andcommitting to a program everymonth. Making a commitment toacquisition, testing different offers,being willing to test and failing [areall necessary] to ultimately succeed.

It’s not that different from whatpeople do on the direct mail side ofthe business.

There are more tools out therenow to understand success on the e-mail side. You need to analyze re-sults through Web analytics. It’sabout making a commitment, estab-lishing a budget, doing a variety oftesting and building a program on amonthly basis. That will get you theROI.

The danger [in not committingfor the long term] is that you end upwasting money. You need to use it asa learning platform. The wonderfulthing about e-mail is you can learnfairly cost-effectively. �

E-MAIL


ED MALLINis president ofDonnelley GroupWhite Plains, N.Y.

ASK THEEXPERT

Corporate vs. consumer world-wide e-mail trafficper day, 2005-2009 (billions of messages)

■■ Consumer ■■ Corporate

Source: eMarketer, citing Radicati Group, January 2006

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E-MAIL


details about the conference.” Directmail invitations, which included aregistration form as well as the Webaddress for those who chose to regis-ter online, were sent out to reinforcethe message.

Timing is everything. IBM’sEvans said campaigns need to becarefully orchestrated in order to

maximize their impact. She said thatis particularly true in coordinatingmarketing plans across borders.

“In trying to launch a globalcampaign, it’s critical to allow fortime for your message be translatedand in-market at the time you’re do-ing other marketing, like events anddirect mail,” she said. “It’s anotherlevel of complexity, but when we’reable to integrate these messages andtime them properly, we have prettyphenomenal results.”

The move toward e-mail integra-tion with other media channelsmeans measurement must begin tointegrate as well.

Chris Baggott, co-founder andCMO of ExactTarget, an e-mail mar-keting provider, said that among thetop trends this year will be mar-keters’ attempt to integrate resultsfrom e-mail marketing campaignswith Web analytics. That, accordingto ExactTarget, will give companiesa new metric, which Baggott calls

“return on subscriber.”Sawyer said Pitney Bowes has a

“dashboard” for all the componentsof a marketing campaign so that re-sponse rates can be measured. “Wedo some comparisons of one vehicleversus another, but we’re also look-ing at performance within each ve-hicle versus past performance,”Sawyer said. “That’s often a betterway to look at it.”

Hewlett-Packard Co. also has a so-phisticated approach to integrated

measurement. It uses Web site ande-mail responsedata, aswell as surveysand call center data, to track sales thatoccur in and are influenced by e-mail.

At Ernst & Young, marketingrepresentatives meet regularly. “We... talk about what we’ve done,what’s in process and what we’replanning,” Puleio said.

“The results rely on the wholething,” Puleio said. Otherwise, “it’slikemakingacakewithoutputtingin the flour.”�

E-mailContinued from page 10

What qualifications should Ilook for when hiring an e-mail marketing manager?

Answer: It was inevitable. Your quarterly e-newsletter is now monthly. A lone e-mail pro-motion to “test the waters” has mushroomedinto a weekly event. Your opt-in list is growingby leaps and bounds. E-mail marketing can nolonger be left to your administrative assistant ora junior advertising staffer—it’s time to dedicateresources to this burgeoning function.

Generally, the role of an e-mail marketingmanager or coordinator is to create, executeand manage all aspects of outbound e-mailcampaigns and be the primary contact for oth-ers involved in the process. While the job func-tion of an e-mail marketer has evolved, there arestill some core qualifications you can look for.Look for someone who:

■ is database marketing literate;■ has excellent organizational skills;■ pays attention to detail;■ can handle deadline pressure;■ can manage multiple projects at once.Job candidates with experience in e-mail

marketing should:■ be able to write and/or recognize good

copy;■ be familiar with HTML and online design;■ be knowledgeable about data mining

and customer data segmentation;■ have direct marketing experience;■ have a good grasp of e-mail and viral mar-

keting concepts;■ have knowledge of e-mail industry best

practices; and■ understand spam legislation in the U.S.

and abroad.Above all, understand that the qualifications

you identify in a potential candidate boil downto your company’s needs. Happy hunting!

Tricia Robinson is VP-marketing and strategyfor Premiere Global Services (www.premiereglobal.com), an outsource provider of busi-ness process solutions.

There is a lot of talk about ‘e-mail reputation.’Whatdoes that mean,and do Ineed to care?

Answer: It seems that every time you turnaround these days people are talking about e-mail reputation, and every company in the e-mail space seems to offer a solution for it.Here’s what you really need to know:

■ Your e-mail reputation is how e-mailrecipients view your e-mail program.

■ You most certainly need to care about it;reputation dictates if your messages reach thein-box, get junked or go missing.

■ You can easily control your reputation, in-creasing your program response as it improves.

Think of your e-mail reputation as your cred-it score for e-mail. Your past and present behav-iors factor into your credit rating, and yourfuture behaviors can make it better or worse.The same is true with e-mail.

While there are thousands of data points fac-toring into reputation, we see that there arethree primary levers that most influence reputa-tion and subsequent delivery:

Bounces: Too many bounces spell disasterin the eyes of ISPs. Removing bounces might bea hassle, but doing it regularly will have adramatic effect on your e-mail delivery. ISPs useyour unknown user rates and other bouncemetrics when deciding whether to let your e-mail through.

Blacklists: Sure, you’ve heard about them,but does anyone really care about blacklists? Theanswer is yes. Most e-mail receivers referenceblacklists in order to filter unwanted e-mail. Byfinding out what blacklists you are on and doingeverything possible to get removed, you willdramatically improve your e-mail deliverability.

Backlash: If you think that your customers’clicking on the “This Is Spam” button won’t affect

your e-mail reputation, you are mistaken. Com-plaints drive 70% of e-mail deliverability issues. Bydetermining your complaint rates and sources,you can begin minimizing your complaint ratesat ISPs and increasing your delivery rates.

Use whatever service you need to help getyour reputation in order and to keep tabs on it,but the onus is on you to be vigilant about keep-ing it pristine. If you don’t know what your repu-tation is with ISPs, find out. It is the one thing youcan do today that will give you actionable datayou can use to fix your reputation, get more e-mail delivered and increase program response.

George Bilbrey is general manager of deliv-ery assurance for Return Path (www.return-path.biz), an e-mail performancemanagement company.

How can I use Web analyticsto improve my e-mailmarketing?

Answer: To combat consumers’ growingimpatience with spam and irrelevantpermission-based e-mail messages, marketingexperts and analysts have been urging e-mailmarketers to adopt advanced tactics that boostcustomer loyalty, campaign response and e-mail marketing ROI.

One way to do this is by optimizing the in-tegration between your e-mail marketing andWeb analytics platforms. This enables a two-way flow of actionable information that allowsyou to more efficiently target and trigger e-mail campaigns based on Web-site click-stream data —the details of how visitors inter-act with your Web site.

But the engineering challenge, expense andtime required for such an undertaking discour-age most marketers from even trying. However,learning to extract e-mail marketing ROI fromthe formulaic machinery of databases, business

objectives and procedures doesn’t have to be asdifficult as it sounds—or as many make it.

The best approach is simply to start small.Lay the groundwork necessary to implementa single e-mail marketing tactic. Launch yourcampaign, prove the ROI and then move onto the next. By integrating as you go, the taskbecomes much more manageable, and youcan get campaigns off the ground morequickly.

Some tactics you can try that combine e-mail marketing with Web analytics datainclude:

■ For shopping cart or Web-form abandon-ment, send customers an e-mail reminderencouraging them to return and complete theirtransaction, and consider offering an incentiveto get them to do so.

■ Send customers a message based onwhat pages, categories or products and servicesthey browse on your site.

■ Renew and refresh relationships with cus-tomers who have returned to your site after anextended absence by sending an e-mailmessage based on their last purchase or mostrecent page views.

According to a May 2005 study on the ROIof relevance, JupiterResearch reported thatcrafting these types of highly relevant e-mailmessages can generate nine times moreimprovement in revenue and as much as 32times more improvement in net profit over un-differentiated broadcast campaigns. Even afterincluding additional Web analytics spending,the use of Web site clickstream data as atargeting attribute still significantly improvesboth top-line and bottom-line results.

So if you’re ready to get started, check with youre-mail service provider to see [if] it already has aworking relationship in place with your Web analyt-ics vendor to make your integration tasks easier.And start small, one tactic at a time. Do this, and yousoon could be taking your e-mail marketing to newlevels of success.

Elaine O’Gorman is VP-strategy atSilverpop (www.silverpop.com), a providerof e-mail marketing solutions.

E-MAIL MARKETER INSIGHT

BB _ 04-24-06 A 18 B2DB 4/20/2006 2:30 PM Page 1

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BY CAROL KROLThe juggernaut that is search marketing

shows no signs of slowing in 2006, accordingto the statistics that pour in regularly from re-search and measurement providers. The num-bers, from ad dollars being spent to the volumeof searches being conducted, speak volumes.

Users conducted 5.1 billion searches in De-cember 2005, close to a 60% increase over theprevious December’s 3.3 billion searches, ac-cording to Nielsen//NetRatings. The addollars have followed.

Advertisers in North America spent$5.75 billion in 2005, according to theSearch Engine Marketing ProfessionalOrganization (SEMPO), a nonprofit, pro-fessional organization for search enginemarketers. That is a 44% increase overspending the prior year. Paid placementaccounted for 83% of that total.

ONLINE AD SURGE WILL CONTINUEOther researchers and analysts, such

as Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray and Stan-dard & Poor’s, agree search has led thehealthy surge in online advertising andwill continue to do so. Piper Jaffray saidsearch and online advertising were up23% in 2005. Standard & Poor’s predictsonline ad growth will exceed 20% in2006, “and could approach 30% basedon continued strength of search advertising,”according to a report released in January 2006.

“Search is escalating for sure,” said Ed Jen-nings, VP-marketing at Parametric TechnologyCorp. (PTC), a b-to-b technology marketer.Jennings has been employing search as part ofthe marketing mix for the last 18 months, us-ing both paid search and search engine opti-mization. He said he has “absolutely” in-creased the budget for search, which is used asboth a lead generation tool and a branding

mechanism.Many other marketers are doing the same.

In a study specific to the manufacturing indus-try, for example, almost half (48%) of market-ing executives plan on increasing the amountthey spend on search engine marketing. Theyalso plan to spend less on magazine advertis-ing, trade shows, direct mail and telemarket-ing. SVM E-Business Solutions, the companythat conducted this study, spoke with market-

ing executives at more than 200 U.S. manufac-turing companies. Fifty-seven percent of themsaid the biggest benefit of online marketingand search is improved communications withcustomers.

“As long as search is efficient in terms ofROI—and it still is by far versus any other dig-ital channel—[spending] will continue in-creasing,” said Frederic Joseph, regional CEO,EMEA at ZED Digital, a unit of Zenith Optime-dia, a London-based media agency. Joseph

handles buying through all media channels forclients of the agency. “We test and learn on ev-ery channel,” he said. “We identify channelsthat have the best ROI.”

CHALLENGES AHEADOne foil to this overwhelmingly rosy pic-

ture was a March eMarketer report. Estimat-ing that Google’s worldwide gross revenuewill total $9.30 billion this year and $11.80billion in 2007, the online research aggrega-tor’s forecasts also outlined challenges. Its re-port, “Search Marketing: Players and Prob-lems,” said Google faces roadblocks to contin-uing strong growth, including the threat ofclick fraud, privacy concerns and the com-plexity of creating and managing campaigns.

“Concerns about click fraud and privacyare two sticking points that will potentiallychip away at, if not halt, the growth of searchengine marketing,” said David Hallerman,eMarketer senior analyst and author of the re-port. “All is not rosy in the search business.”

But not everyone agrees, particularlyon the issue of click fraud.

“I really don’t think click fraud is abig issue,” said Joseph at ZED Digital.“It’s really marginal.” PTC’s Jennings saidhe is aware of the possibility that clickfraud can affect his campaigns, butadded that he is not very concerned andin fact doesn’t want to spend a lot of timefocused on the issue. “We don’t necessar-ily know if we’re getting funny num-bers,” he said. “We didn’t want to be-come experts in this necessarily.”

He does, however, invest time in test-ing and tracking campaign effectiveness.

“It is not so much the technical stuff,but seeing which offers are working andchanging campaigns,” he said. “We putSiebel tracking IDs embedded in the URLinto the text strings we put on Google forpay-per-click campaigns. We get reports

from our vendor on how well the Google traf-fic is doing,” he said.

But click fraud definitely is on marketers’radar. According to data released last Decem-ber by SEMPO, the number of those who be-lieve it is a serious issue has tripled in the pastyear, and two out of five advertisers and about40% of agencies surveyed have tracked fraudin pay-per-click campaigns.

Click fraud can be committed for financial

Search spendingspree continuesConcerns over click fraud don’t slowenthusiasm for search engine marketing

1. Consider target keywords carefully. They should always be atleast two or more words long; too many sites will be relevant for asingle word.

2. Position keywords strategically. The page’s HTML title tag is mostimportant. Failure to put target keywords in the title tag is themain reason perfectly relevant Web pages may be poorly ranked.

3. Add HTML hyperlinks to your home page that lead to major insidepages or sections of your site. Also consider making a site-mappage with text links. If you naturally point to different pages fromwithin your site, you increase the odds that search engines willfollow links and find more of your Web site.

4. Build links. Go to the major search engines. Search for your targetkeywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Visitthose pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Non-competitive sites may agree to link to you, especially if you offerto link back.

5. Verify and maintain your listing. Once your pages are listed in asearch engine, monitor your listing every week or two. Resubmityour site any time you make significant changes.

Need to know 5 simple rules for effectivesearch engine optimization

SEARCHRESOURCES


KKeeyy sseeaarrcchh mmeettrriiccss■ Online searches in the U.S. increased 39% inJanuary 2006 to 5.7 billion, up from 4.1 billionsearches in the year-earlier period.Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2006

■ Market share in search remained steady in2006 with Google (48.2%), Yahoo! (22.2%) andMSN (11.0%) leading the way.Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2006

■ Google’s worldwide gross revenue will totalan estimated $9.3 billion this year and $11.8billion in 2007.Source: eMarketer Report, March 2006

SSeeaarrcchh bbeesstt pprraaccttiicceess■ Forty percent of search marketers are miss-ing out by using only Google and/or Yahoo!for their online campaigns.Source: JupiterResearch, February 2006

■ More than half (52%) of marketers surveyeddescribed paid search performance for 2005as “great—outperforms other tactics,” edgingout e-mail marketing to house lists, whichcame in second at 47%. It was the first timesearch marketing surpassed e-mail marketing.Source: ad:tech and MarketingSherpa survey, March 2006

■ Sixty-two percent of search engine usersclick on a search result within the first page and90% of users click on a result within the firstthree pages of search results. Thirty-six percentof search engine users believe that the compa-nies with Web sites listed at the top of thesearch results are the top brands in the field.Source: iProspect and Forrester Research report, April 2006

22000055 ttrreennddssIs search expanding? The past year saw themajor search engines expanding aggressivelyinto new areas, including video search; local,targeted advertising; and interactive mappingand other Web 2.0 applications. Google evenoffered options to add “portallike” content toits formerly stark home page.

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“Search engines on one hand are saying, ‘We’llprotect you,’ and on the other hand they’resaying, ‘You can’t expect us to really protectyou because we don’t have all the data.’ ”—Jessie Stricchiola, president of SEO firmAlchemist Media, on the problem of search en-gine advertising click fraud, BtoB, March 2006.

Search, page 22

BB _ 04-24-06 A 20 B2DB 4/20/2006 2:30 PM Page 1

The Directory forMarketing Executives. w w w . B t o B o n l i n e d i r e c t o r y . c o m

ONLINE DIRECTORY

BtoB’s Online Directory puts marketing solution providers at your fingertips! Truly a one-stop source for all your marketing needs, BtoBonline.com brings you a listing of nearly 2,300 companies in 50 product/service categories. Find that much-needed vendor today by going to www.BtoBonlinedirectory.com.

Where do you find marketing vendors?


SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING RESOURCESCompany Location URL Phone SEM services

Acronym Media New York www.acronym.com (212) 691-7051 Optimization, pay-per-click management, link-building campaigns

Advertising.com Baltimore www.advertising.com (410) 244-1370 Strategic direct-response and brand marketing campaigns

Alchemist Media Hollywood, Calif. www.alchemistmedia.com (323) 934-2939 Optimization, pay-per-click management

Backbone Media Waltham, Mass. www.backbonemedia.com (781) 899-4050 Optimization, Web site development, e-mail design, keyword research, ROI tracking

BeyondROI Hallandale, Fla. www.beyondroi.com (800) 498-4764 Search marketing strategy consulting for small and midsize businesses

Bruce Clay Moorpark, Calif. www.bruceclay.com (805) 517-1900 Optimization, pay-per-click management, campaign management

Business.com Santa Monica, Calif. www.business.com (800) 381-5771 Pay-per-click management, paid inclusion

ClearGauge Chicago www.cleargauge.com (312) 923-7604 New program launch strategies, pay-per-click management, design, analytics

Did-It.com Rockville Centre, N.Y. www.did-it.com (800) 932-7761 Paid search management, technology services

DigitalGrit Boonton, N.J. www.digitalgrit.com (973) 316-9696 Optimization, paid placement, paid inclusion, analytics

Fathom Online San Francisco www.fathomonline.com (415) 284-9100 Keyword campaign management, technology services

iCrossing Scottsdale, Ariz. www.icrossing.com (866) 620-3780 Strategy, consulting, implementation, analysis

Inceptor Maynard, Mass. www.inceptor.com (978) 298-1525 Optimization, paid placement, directory programs, authorized reseller of paid inclusion

iProspect Watertown, Mass. www.iprospect.com (617) 923-7000 Optimization, paid inclusion, pay-per-click management, Web analytics, Web site conversion enhancement

KeyRelevance Wylie, Texas www.keyrelevance.com (972) 429-1222 Optimization, keyword research, pay-per-click management, ROI tracking

Marketleap San Francisco www.marketleap.com (888) 201-9982 Optimization, search engine paid inclusion management

Medium Blue Atlanta www.mediumblue.com (866) 436-2583 Visitor conversion, online PR, search engine optimization

Oneupweb Lake Leelanau, Mich. www.oneupweb.com (877) 568-7477 Optimization, pay-per-click management, bid management, ROI analytics

Outrider St. Louis www.outrider.com (314) 209-1005 Optimization, pay-per-click management, strategy, consulting, measurement

Prime Visibility Bethpage, N.Y. www.primevisibility.com (866) 774-6381 Optimization, pay-per-click management, keyword tracking

Proceed Interactive Des Plaines, Ill. www.proceedinteractive.com (888) 632-6328 Online and search affiliate marketing, design, technology, Web analytics

Quigo Technologies New York www.quigo.com (646) 289-6000 Search engine marketing, campaign management, content-targeted advertising services

Resolution Media Chicago www.resolutionmedia.com (312) 337-6450 Optimization, paid listings, consulting

Searchfeed.com Bridgewater, N.J. www.searchfeed.com (866) 722-9951 Pay-per-click management

SiteLab International La Jolla, Calif. www.sitelab.com (858) 456-4720 Optimization, pay-per-click management, paid placement

Vertive Consulting Austin, Texas www.vertive.com (512) 342-8378 Optimization, paid listings and pay-per-click management

WebMama.com Palo Alto, Calif. www.webmama.com (650) 289-0701 Optimization, pay-per-click management, analytics

Zunch Communications Dallas www.zunch.com (972) 455-4800 Optimization, pay-per-click management, design

BB _ 04-24-06 A 21 B2DB 4/20/2006 7:02 PM Page 1

SEARCH


Company URL Phone Marketplace ClientsBusiness.com www.business.com (888) 441-4466 B-to-b products, services, news and information BusinessWeek.com, Fast Company, Forbes.com, Inc.com, Internet.com

GlobalSpec www.globalspec.com (518) 880-0200 Engineering parts and components technical content ASEE, Autodesk, Information Handling Services (IHS) MatWeb, Solidworks

Indeed www.indeed.com (203) 564-2419 Search engine for jobs Dice, New York Times (also an investor)

ThomasNet www.thomasnet.com (800) 699-9822 Industrial manufacturing General Air Products, Inc., Equipment Direct Safety and First AidSupplies, Wheeling Power & Industrial Services

Sidestep.com www.sidestep.com (408) 235-1700 Travel industry Continental Airlines, Hyatt Corp., JetBlue Airways, Orbitz, travel agencies

Thomson Findlaw www.findlaw.com (651) 687-7000 Legal Nolo.com, Thomson West

VERTICAL SEARCH

gain by parties such as contextual adaffiliates, which can profit whenclicks occur on their sites because ofrevenue-sharing agreements withsearch engines. An advertiser’s com-petitors similarly might engage inthe practice, as a way to drain themarketer’s pay-per-click advertisingbudget.

In a separate benchmarketingstudy conducted in late 2005,SEMPO found conversion rates for“delayed e-commerce/service pur-chases”—a bucket b-to-b mar-keters’ products fall into—arehigher through search engine opti-mization (6.3%) than paid search,which had an average conversionof 4.2%. “SEO is a huge driver of

‘latent’ conversions,” the reportconcluded.

The next big hurdle may be theenterprise search space. Companiesare trying to figure out how to mon-etize Web sites, and part of that ismaking sure they are functional andcan be navigated with ease.

“I know we struggle with that,”Jennings said. In his own experi-ence as a customer, he said, “I rarelyuse a search tool on a site. Even if Iknow the site, I’ll do a Google searchon it and make it domain-specificrather than go to their site and use asearch tool.”

Jennings said he is currentlylooking at the possibility of im-plementing an enterprise searchsolution. �

SearchContinued from page 20

“I rarely use asearch tool ona site.Even if Iknow the site,I’ll do a Googlesearch on itand make itdomain-specific”Ed Jennings,VP-marketing at ParametricTechnology Corp. (PTC),

BB _ 04-24-06 A 22 B2DB 4/20/2006 5:03 PM Page 1

“It’s Just Business.”Just 26 Million people a month. Just 50 of the leading online business publications. Just the biggest business search network on the Internet.

Just business searches. Just business results. Just decision makers saving time and money while they get things done.

As the leading online marketplace for trusted business solutions, advertisers onBusiness.com can reach 26 million* buyers and sellers of business-to-business services every month…more than any other vertical search engine.

Business.com. Just the center of the business-to-business universe.

Business Begins Here.™

*comScore, Media Metrix, March 2006Powering thesearches of:


Company What it does What it owns Key partners

AOL Owns major portal destination and Internet service provider Netscape, MapQuest, AIM, AOL.com Google

Google Search destination and advertising provider; productsinclude Adsense, Adwords, Gmail, Google Local and GoogleToolbar

Urchin Software, Keyhole Corp., content-targeting firmApplied Semantics, weblog firm Pyra

Google sites including AOL, Ask Jeeves, EarthLink

GenieKnows.com Global pay-per-click search engine offering PPC solutions to1,100 publishers and 3,500 advertisers in U.S., Canada, U.K.,Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland,Norway, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil, Mexicoand Australia.

GenieKnows.com, GenieKnows.co.uk, GenieKnows.cn ,GenieLocal.com, GKFA.com, SmartGenie.com

Business.com, Kanoodle, Lycos and Miva

IAC Search and Media(formerly Ask Jeeves),a wholly owned sub-sidiary of IAC/InterActive Corp.

Offers search destinations and advertising solutions (includ-ing search, media and performance marketing products)

Ad products include Ask Sponsored Listings, pay-per-click product, and IAC partner marketing, media andperformance marketing products. Web sites includeAsk.com, Bloglines, Evite.com, Excite, iWon, Max Online-My Search, MyWay and My Web Search. Owns Ask Algo-rithmic Search Technology (formerly named Teoma).

Syndicates algorithmic results and paid listings to partners in-cluding Mamma, Motley Fool, Search.com (CNET), Geotrustand others. Also syndicates paid listings from Google.

LookSmart Paid listings and display ads via distribution network andproprietary vertical search site networks

Findarticles.com, Furl.net, LookListings, Net Nanny,WiseNut; plus 181 vertical search sites in 13 categories

Publishing partners: Ask.com and NYTimes.com; distributionpartners: InfoSpace, Cox, Dogpile, Marchex, Revenue.net,CNET's Search.com

MIVA (formerly FindWhat.com)

Online platform that facilitates keyword and contextual paidlistings for advertisers and publishers. Primary focus is onproviding publisher partners with solutions enabling the ac-quisition, retention and monetization of online audiences.

MIVA Media Europe (formerly Espotting), MIVA Direct(formerly Comet Systems), MIVA Small Business(formerly Miva Corp.) and B&B

Distribution network of thousands of online publisher partnersincluding blinkx, Conde Nast, Dennis Publishing, Express News-papers, Intellext, Mirror Group,The (U.K.) Sun. Private-label part-ners include Eniro AB, Mit sui, Superpages,Verizon

MSN Search Portal hosts its own search technology atwww.search.msn.com, and Windows Live Search beta atwww.live.com launched in March.

Proprietary MSN Search software; is piloting its ownpaid-search solution on MSN adCenter platform(adCenter will be broadly available in the U.S. some timein 2006, according to MSN)

Paid listings from Yahoo! will continue in the U.S. until adCen-ter is launched in 2006.

Yahoo! Leading portal destination; owns Yahoo! Search Marketing. AlltheWeb, AltaVista, Inktomi, Yahoo! Search Marketing CNN.com, ESPN, InfoSpace, iVillage, Maxim.com,United On-line, USAToday and VIACOM properties (BET.com, MTV.com,VH1.com, etc.)

WHO’S WHO IN PAID SEARCH

BB _ 04-24-06 A 23 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:39 PM Page 1

BtoB recently spoke with two searchmarketing gurus. Mike Moran is anIBM Distinguished Engineer withmore than 20 years of experience insearch technology at IBM Research,Lotus and other IBM software units.Bill Hunt is the founder and CEO ofGlobal Strategies International andhas led large-scale search marketingprojects for clients such as IBM,AT&T and Intel. (The following tran-script is a part of the interview, whichis available on btobonline.com as aBtoB Talking Tech audiocast.)

Is any b-to-b companynot using search thesedays?

Moran: Many of them are, but Idon’t run into companies every daythat aren’t. A cheeky answer wouldbe that most of the good ones are.Our experience at IBM was that sev-eral years ago, we weren’t looking atsearch marketing as an area weshould focus on. [But] over the lastfive years, we’ve improved the per-centage of visitors coming to the site

[via search] from 1% of all visitors to22%, and the average is around 7%.

What about the useof search amongtechnologycompanies?

Hunt: I think they’re starting toreally get a handle on it. Google hasa technology council that meetsquarterly and its participants aresome of the bigger b-to-b technolo-gy companies, and I think most are

dabbling in search in some way.Some are actually doing it exponen-tially more.

One statistic I use as a barometerwas the last statistic I saw in Google[that] showed that 244 of the Fortune500 have an active paid search cam-paign. So that leaves a pretty bigchunk of people who aren’t usingsearch.

What’s the trickiestpart of searchmarketing? Where domarketers go wrongin using the tactic?

Hunt: They don’t take it asseriously as they should. Theythrow a lot of money at it. Theythrow some resources at it, but Idon’t think they understand someof the strategic implications, andthat leads into managing the team.Search is one of those things that isalmost like a revival meeting or afamily reunion where you get allthese people together from all differ-ent walks of life, all different areas.

Mike calls it “cooks for the broth.”Something most companies makethe biggest mistake on is not takingit seriously enough and not integrat-ing well across their teams.

I can’t tell you how many times Igo to a company, sit down withthem and just watch a technologyperson go to a marketing person, in-troduce themselves, give them acard and then after that meeting, it’slike, “We should’ve talked yearsago.” Here are two people thatshould’ve been talking all along andhave never even met.

Moran: The huge error that com-panies make is they get fixated onthe wrong things. They’re looking atgetting the No. 1 ranking for some-thing, or they’re focused on traffic tothe site. Those things are important,but they’re a means to an end. Theplace they fall down is they forgetsearch marketing is more about mar-keting than [about] search.

They focus on the technicalarcana of turning this dial there, andpushing that lever and taking all theadvice of these really low-levelthings that you have to do, whichare all important, but they forget themain reason that they’re trying to dothis. They’re trying to sell more.They’re either trying to sell moreonline or offline. They have to makesure the traffic they’re driving to thesite from search engines is reallyconverting, and I think they losetrack of that sometimes in the midstof all the detail. �

ONEUPWEB.COM 877.568.7477

SEARCH


MIKE MORAN andBILL HUNT, authorsof “Search EngineMarketing, Inc.:Driving SearchTraffic to YourCompany’s WebSite” (IBM Press)

ASK THEEXPERT

“Search is oneof those thingsthat is almostlike a revivalmeeting.”

BB _ 04-24-06 A 24 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:40 PM Page 1

BY MARY E. MORRISON

N OT LONG AGO, a Web site was consideredgood if it presented information in aclean, easy-to-find way. Sites that al-

lowed visitors to execute transactions weredeemed advanced, and if the site could handlecustomer service inquiries, so much the better.Today, however, b-to-b sites must meet therapidly expanding expectations of business-people who have become far more sophisticat-ed in their use of the Web and want a highlypersonalized online experience.

The key for marketers is to give site visitorsthat tailored Web experience and measuretheir response, said Andrea Fishman, directorof global strategy for BGT Partners, a profes-sional services firm that focuses on technologysolutions for interactive marketers. “In thepast, there tended to be lots of content outthere that was generic in nature,” she said.“What we’re seeing now is a lot more self-se-lection.” Self-selection design presents infor-mation to site visitors according to their role orthe type of problem they’re looking to solve,rather than by product.

B-TO-B SITES YET TO EVOLVEStill, many b-to-b Web sites haven’t

evolved, said Dennis Boyce, VP at interactiveagency Avenue A/Razorfish. “A lot of b-to-bsites out there are still very product-centric,” hesaid. “They tend to reflect how the company isorganized rather than how their customers areorganized or their market is organized.”

To know what customers want, companiesmust determine not only the demographiccharacteristics and site habits of visitors butalso what is most appealing to them, what lan-guage they use and what will finally trigger apurchase—information likely to come onlyfrom interviews with the customer, saidHarley Manning, VP-customer experience atForrester Research. “You can only get those

things by interviewing people, by lettingthem tell their stor-ies of how they purchase,how they think, how they describe things,how they go about things,” he said.

Manning cited semiconductor companyAnalog Devices, which he said was under the

impression that its audience of design engi-neers was very brand loyal and wanted a cleanlayout when researching products. After do-ing research in engineers’ offices, however, thecompany found that the engineers liked toscroll up and down screens packed with infor-mation. When the engineers didn’t find whatthey wanted quickly, they’d move on to anoth-er semiconductor maker’s Web site. AnalogDevices redesigned its site accordingly.

“If you didn’t know that this is how designengineers like to navigate, you’d say ‘this site ispacked, no one can use it,’” he said. “As itturns out, it’s an almost perfect design for thattarget audience, and [Analog Devices] had bigjumps in all their metrics.”

Lance Schneider, e-business manager ofBudnick Converting’s Tapeinfo.com, relies on

site analytics and surveys e-mailed to prospectsand customers who have opted in. He uses thatinformation to refine the site’s content and ad-just its product-finding tools. “It’s our theorythat, if you are the person or company supply-ing the best information, sooner or later you’llbe the person supplying the product or ser-vice,” Schneider said.

IMPROVING CONTENTProviding better content in a personalized

fashion is getting easier because of advances incontent management systems and portal soft-ware packages, Fishman said. “The initial con-tent management systems were so hard to usethat marketing never felt really comfortable,”she said.

Fishman said there now is a wave of “con-tent management light” applications, from

vendors such as Ektron Inc. andRedDot Solutions, that are moreuser-friendly and allow marketersto handle tasks such as editingcontent and managing colors. B-to-b marketers are also starting to takeadvantage of the latest technolo-gies to improve site content, turn-ing to video, facilitated chat and,to some extent, RSS and blogs.Some companies are forgoing theuse of Flash for video.

“Especially as broadband con-nection grows, short video can bea very powerful way for larger b-to-b sites, and even smaller ones, tocommunicate their message,” Fish-man said.

Although blogs can be effectivein creating an ongoing conversation with cus-tomers, they require constant updating. “Youreally have to keep up on it. … If people comeback and see it hasn’t changed in a month,they’re not going to come back again,” saidBudnick Converting’s Schneider, who overseesTapeinfo.com’s blog.

RSS is also of interest to marketers lookingto personalize sites, particularly because Webusers are overloaded with spam in their e-mailin-boxes. “People know that if they signed upfor an RSS feed, they requested it,” saidWilliam Rice, president of the Web MarketingAssociation. “As a marketer, you may haveheard of this, but you need to start exploringthe technology on the server side so you can beready for it when the widespread acceptancecomes, because it’s going to be very soon.” �

Plan customer-specific marketing Savvy visitors crave personalizedexperiences on company Web sites

1. Personalize your site. Let site visitors “self-select” when theyarrive at your home page so they can find the most relevant partsof the site for them; for instance, “I’m a physician” or “I’m apharmaceutical rep.”

2. Use rich media with caution. Consider your audience beforeadding audio, video or a lot of Flash to your site. Give visitors theoption to hear audio by mousing over a button (rather than auto-matically launching the file).

3. Conduct research to determine users’ preferences. Going intocustomers’ offices is the best way. If that’s not possible, invitecustomers to a facility where you can observe them. Phone sur-veys are another option.

4. Focus on incremental changes. Your site may not need acomplete redesign; instead, implement small, useful changesthat improve customers’ overall experience.

5. Add a blog only if you can update it often. If the content is staleand doesn’t get the attention it needs, you may be doing moreharm than good.

Need to know 5 simple rules for creating acustomer-friendly Web site

WEB SITESRESOURCES

What’s the differ-ence between anaverage b-to-b Website and a great b-to-b Web site?

Nielsen:Most b-to-b sites em-phasize internally focuseddesign, don’t answer customers’main questions or concerns, andplace barriers in the way ofprospects who use the Web todiscover companies to place ontheir shortlists. These sites havenot realized that the Web has re-versed the relationship betweencompanies and their customers,

with most online interactions be-ing demand-driven, where youeither give people what theywant or see them abandon yoursite for the competition.

A great b-to-b site? One that’smore forthcoming with informa-tion for new users in the earlystages of research. Often sites de-prive users of needed

information by an overly confus-ing navigation structure or bypresenting overwhelming andconvoluted content.

What are the keytrends you’re seeingin b-to-b Web sitesright now?

Nielsen:Busy business peoplehave stopped saving brochuresand advertisements because theyassume they can look up theequivalent information on theWeb. My group is just finishing ausability study of b-to-b sites,

[which] will be presented at theUsability Week conference in SanFrancisco in June 2006. Most ofthe research participants told usthat when they are consideringdoing business with a company,one of their first actions is to checkout its Web site. Thus a site that in-adequately communicates thecredibility of a vendor and itsproducts can have a seriouslydetrimental effect on incomingleads, long before you start yourofficial sales efforts.

What are somequick and easy

ways to improve aWeb site?

Nielsen:I think that mostb-to-b sites need a completeredesign. I really want companiesto reconceptualize their Web sitesand redo everything with an em-phasis on doing what customerstold us in user testing. On theother hand, there are also plentyof quick fixes available for the av-erage b-to-b site. A company …could still get a lot of mileagefrom simpler changes, such aswriting a good overview page foreach product category. �

JAKOB NIELSENis principal atNielsen NormanGroup

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KKeeyy WWeebb ssiittee ssttaattss■ 73% of American adults (age 18-plus) goonline to use the Internet. Age continues to bea strong predictor for Internet use: 89% of 18-to-29-year-olds go online, compared to 82%of 30-to-49-year-olds, 71% of 50-to-64-year-olds, and 34% of those age 65 and older.Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 2006

■ In 2006, 78% of manufacturing companiesplan to increase spending on their corporateWeb sites. In addition, 52% of manufacturersconsider their Web sites to be their most pow-erful marketing tools.Source: SVM E-Business Solutions study, April 2006

MMoosstt vviissiitteedd WWeebb ssiitteess ((ppeerr mmoonntthh))1. Microsoft 112 million visitors2. Yahoo! 102 million visitors3. Time Warner 100 million visitors

SSttiicckkiieesstt WWeebb ssiitteess ((hhoouurrssooff vviissiittoorr uussee ppeerr mmoonntthh))1. PokerStars.com 18:30 hours2. AOL 6:00 hours3. FanFiction.Net 4:50 hours

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings study, March 2006

VViiddeeoo oonn tthhee ggooWeb video is booming. Users want to viewvideo on a variety of devices, including: com-puters/laptops (22%); TVs (20%); iPods (4%).Source: Points North Group study, March 2006

TThhee ddaawwnn ooff WWeebb 22..00■ The biggest Web site trend in 2005 was theemergence of Web 2.0. What is it? “A secondgeneration of services available on the WorldWide Web that lets people collaborate andshare information online.”Source: Wikipedia

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“The central principle behind the success ofthe giants born in the Web 1.0 era who havesurvived to lead the Web 2.0 era appears to bethis, that they have embraced the power ofthe Web to harness collective intelligence.”—Tim O’Reilly, president-CEO, O’Reilly Media,“What is Web 2.0?” Sept. 2005


BB _ 04-24-06 A 25 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:41 PM Page 1

BY PAUL GILLIN

A LITTLE MORE THAN a decade after the firstpersonal online diary appeared on the In-ternet, social media had a breakout year in

2005. But whether the phenomenon—knownvariously as social media, word-of-mouth mar-keting and personal publishing—is destined tobecome to a major new communications chan-nel or a rounding error on corporate marketingbudgets is still an open question.

The numbers are impressive. Techno-rati.com tracks more than 33 million blogs,up fourfold in a year. Some sources esti-mate there are more than 100 million blogson the Internet.

Podcasting, the audio sibling to blog-ging, grew to an estimated 38,000 programsfrom practically none in 2004. The New Ox-ford American Dictionary declared “pod-cast” its word of the year for 2005.

But all that impressive growth hasn’t yettranslated into big marketing investments,at least in the b-to-b space. Questions per-sist about return on investment, the qualityof the information in the blogosphere and howto control messages in this unruly environment.

LITTLE NUMBERS LOOM LARGEThe important thing about social media isn’t

the big numbers but the little ones: the thou-sands of moderately active special-interest com-munities that comprise the so-called “long tail.”B-to-c marketers got the message, and 2005 wasthe first year that meaningful experimentationin social media marketing took place.

But with the notable exception of tech com-panies like Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, IBMand others, b-to-b marketers have so far movedslowly into social media-based marketing.

Most are starting by simply listening to theonline buzz. “Think of bloggers as the world’slargest open, unsolicited focus group,” said

David Sifry, CEO of Technorati, a leading blogsearch engine. Like many social media experts,Sifry believes marketing must shift from deliv-ering a message to influencing a conversation.

Services from Cymfony Inc., Nielsen Buzz-Metrics and Nstein Technologies, among oth-ers, have sprung up to monitor and report onblog buzz. Corporate executives are creepinginto the blogosphere, but only about 5% of theFortune 500 companies have sanctioned blogs.

Many companies are leery of wading into anonline world that is loosely organized and lackschecks and balances. A “blog swarm” aroundnegative news can be a public relations night-mare. Some companies have made the con-scious decision not to blog.

But the decision of whether or not to engagewith social media may not be marketers’ to make.“The period of interruption marketing is wind-ing down,” said Paul Rand, a partner and globalchief development and innovation officer atKetchum Inc. “The most important things com-panies can do is make information readily acces-sible and available,” to the new influencers.

Some b-to-b marketers are beginning to dothat. When Nokia Corp. introduced its N90video phone last fall, it sent evaluation units toabout 50 prominent mobile phone bloggers.

Most posted reviews, which N90 cataloged on aspecial blog set up for the occasion. Some re-views were negative, but they were listed alongwith everything else.

McDonald’s Corp. has a corporate responsi-bility blog aimed at customers and businesspartners. Boeing has a blog for frequent businesstravelers. Wal-Mart Stores started a campaign tocombat negative opinions about its employmentpractices by courting influential bloggers.

TRADITIONAL MARKETERS JUMP INIn the tech market, Microsoft is podcasting

conference sessions for third-party developers.IBM Corp. has a podcast series aimed at in-vestors that peers into the future of businessesand institutions. Hewlett-Packard Co. is aiminga podcast series at business customers andchannel partners.

Outside tech, marketers are beginning to stir.Eastman Kodak Co. is using podcasts to educateits European channel partners. The short videosdramatize the sales process from the customer’s

perspective so retailers can anticipate ques-tions. “It’s about getting useful content topeople fast and telling a compelling story,”said Mike McDougall, director of productsand services in Kodak worldwide public relations.

The bugaboo is measurement. Ques-tions about the ROI of social media cam-paigns still relegate them to the back burn-er in many marketing organizations. “Thejury’s still out on whether this will be apowerful tool for marketers,” said DaivdCohen, an exec VP at Universal McCannErickson, adding that he expects ROI

questions to be answered this year.Even if social media never becomes a major

investment item, its presence is being felt inmainstream marketing. The good news for mar-keters is the resistance to branded content isn’tnearly as steep in the blogosphere as it is inmainstream media. “People who engage in Websites and content don’t mind the branding,”said Elizabeth Talerman, partner at Campfire,an entertainment company that specializes ininteractive advertising.

And even if you don’t spend a dime on socialmedia marketing, you shouldn’t ignore what’sbeing said about you. “People are walkingaround with megaphones and they’re talkingabout your brands,” Technorati’s Sifry said.“You can stick your head in the sand or you canchoose to listen.” �

How can b-to-b use ‘social media’?While new channels attract buckets ofbuzz, questions remain about their ROI

Need to know1. Enlist services that “listen” to the blogosphere and monitor how

your company, its products and services are being discussed. 2. Uncover influencers in these specialized communities and seek

ways to involve them in your product development, branding andnews.

3. Tell compelling stories—and tell them fast. 4. Accept that not all conversations will be positive. React quickly to

errors but always consider how your responses may be magnifiedin this environment.

5. Shift focus from delivering a message to influencing a conversation.

5 simple rules for effectivesocial media marketing

KKeeyy ssoocciiaall mmeeddiiaa ssttaattss■Ad spending on blogs, podcasts and RSSwill reach $49.8 million in 2006, up 144.9%over ad spending of these user-generatedonline media in 2005. By 2010, total adspending on blogs, podcasts and RSS willreach $757.0 million.

■ Blog advertising accounted for 81.4% ofuser-generated online media in 2005, andpodcast advertising made up 15.2%. By2010, blog advertising will make up 39.7%of user-generated online media, whilepodcast advertising will comprise 43.2%.Source: PQ Media, April 2006

■ Podcasting is forecast to grow at a com-pound annual rate of 101% through 2010.The number of podcast users in the U.S.will grow from fewer than 1 million lastyear to 4.5 million by the end of this year,ballooning to an estimated 56.8 million in2010.Source: Diffusion Group, June 2005

CCEEOO bbllooggggiinngg rraarree■ Corporate blogging is becoming morepopular, but getting a CEO to take up thedigital pen remains rare. Just 7% of CEOsblog today; only 18% plan to host a com-pany blog during the next two years.Source: PRWeek/Burson Marsteller CEO Survey, Oct. 2005

WWoorrdd--ooff--mmoouutthh■ The Internet—via blogs, messageboards, social networks and more—helps b-to-b marketers put traditionalword-of-mouth marketing efforts intooverdrive. “The big picture is that b-to-bhas always been about word-of-mouth.Customers don’t buy multi-hundred-thousand-dollar items without talking totheir peers,” said WOMMA CEO AndySernovitz. “That hasn’t been called word-of-mouth, but it is really in essence whatb-to-b marketing is all about.”Source: BtoB, June 2005

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt■ “I don’t think we’ll have a Howard Sternof podcasting; we’ll have 1,000 HowardSterns, each with 10,000 listeners.”—Adam Curry, whose Daily Source Code isthe most popular podcast on the Internet,BtoB, Feb. 2006

BtoB’s new Talking Tech Audiocast Series features brief interviews with expert marketers and other special guests discussing the best tactics for reaching

the elusive IT executive. The latest episode features Scott Anderson, Director of Enterprise Brand Communications for Hewlett-Packard. Listen to what Mr. Anderson has to say by visiting www.BtoBonline.com and clicking “BtoB Audio.”

This 10-minute audiocast is also available as a podcast. New episodes premiere on the fi rst and third Wednesday of each month.

Learn how to reach IT executives in just 10 minutes!

SOCIAL MEDIARESOURCES


BB _ 04-24-06 A 26,27 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:42 PM Page 1

cused on the tool, by the way. Blogscould become something else.

Is the blogospheretoo massive for someto come in now andget attention?

Rubel: We’ve seen time andagain bloggers come out of nowhereand become very influential. A yearago, no one was reading

Techcrunch.com. Now it’s one ofthe top 50 blogs in the world. Theso-called “A” crowd list constantlychanges. I’m in the list of the top100 bloggers right now, but I don’texpect to be there at the end of theyear.

Your goal should not be tobecome one of the top-echelonbloggers but to become one of thetop bloggers in the areas you careabout. �

Learn how to get the best results out of your interactive campaigns using technologies such as e-mail marketing, webcasts, online advertising, search, podcasts and more. Hear from theexperts and network with your fellow marketers in a city near you…

For more information and to register:

Visit: www.BtoBonline.com and click “Events”

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New York: Thursday, May 25Grand Hyatt Hotel7:45-8:30 am - Networking Breakfast 8:30-10:00 am - Program

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NetMarketing Breakfast Series

Additional speakers to be announced.

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Sponsored by:

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Chicago: Tuesday, June 13InterContinental Chicago


How did you getstarted blogging?

Rubel:At my last job atCooperKatz & Co., I got two dif-ferent clients blogging. We hadsome success, and I decided tojust get started myself. I writeevery single day. I started to getsome press in 2004 and it mush-roomed when I was covered inBusinessWeek. I’m still sur-prised that people are interest-ed in what I have to say.

How much time doyou spend on yourblog every week?

Rubel: Probably 21 to 25hours. But I’m very active.

Has it had anymajor effects onyour career?

Rubel: It’s given me signifi-cant attention, more than any-one could ever ask. It’s fueledmy brand and further estab-lished my knowledge in thisspace. I’m sitting in this seat inlarge part because of thatactivity.

Why are b-to-bfirms not doingmore withblogging?

Rubel: They are, but it’s at alow level. Attorneys andconsultants do it quite a bit, butnot a lot of the larger b-to-bcompanies. There are questionsof whether blogging is here tostay and what the time commit-ment will be, but people arestarting to get over that. Blog-ging also hasn’t reached all in-dustry areas yet. But I think ev-ery vertical will have its owncommunity.

How willmarketing lookdifferent in fiveyears as aconsequence ofsocial media?

Rubel: It’ll be less aboutpushing messages and moreabout generating conversations.I wouldn’t be surprised if a lotof trade advertising money goestoward blogs. Don’t get too fo-

STEVE RUBEL is senior VP atEdelman

ASK THEEXPERT

Note: * Individuals who have ever downloaded a podcast **Individuals who download an average ofone or more podcasts per week.Source: eMarketer, February 2006

■■ 2006■■ 2008■■ 2010

Total podcast audience*10

25 50

Active podcast audience**3

7.515

UU..SS.. PPooddccaasstt AAuuddiieennccee,, 22000066,, 22000088 && 22001100 ((iinn mmiilllliioonnss))

BB _ 04-24-06 A 26,27 B2DB 4/20/2006 7:14 PM Page 2

BY KATE MADDOXAdvertisers are embracing new online ad

formats, including video and rich media, toimprove the brand experience with customersand deliver relevant, useful information tobusiness decisionmakers.

“Marketers continue to acknowledge that in-teractive is a critical medium to engage their cus-tomers and create deeper brand experiences,”said Greg Stuart, CEO of the Interactive Adver-tising Bureau. “We fully expect interac-tive to continue to play an ever-increasingrole of importance for marketers.”

Internet ad revenue reached a record$12.50 billion in 2005, up 30% from2004, according to the Internet Adver-tising Bureau. One of the factors drivingthe growth is the continued develop-ment of new ad formats, such as onlinevideo, and new rich media formats thatallow advertisers to deliver more com-pelling content to customers.

Online video ad spending in the U.S.will reach $640 million in 2007, according toresearch firm eMarketer. By 2009 advertiserswill spend $1.50 billion on video ads online,eMarketer projected.

“The growth of online video content makesthe Internet more and more a place for brand-ing advertisers,” said David Hallerman, senioranalyst at eMarketer.

“While the big-dollar spending is going topaid search and the lion’s share of search is fordirect response, branding advertisers are look-ing to figure out how to use video as an exten-sion of their branding efforts in other media.”

According to a report released in the lastquarter of 2005 by Dynamic Logic based on dataaggregated from the company’s MarketNormsdatabase from 2000 through 2005, ads with on-line video increased aided brand awareness by6.2 percentage points and brand favorability by3.0 percentage points, compared with a controlgroup that was not exposed to online video ads.

Dynamic Logic also evaluated the effective-ness of in-stream video ads and not-in-streamvideo ads in increasing aided brand awarenessand brand favorability.

According to Dynamic Logic, in-streamvideo ads are TV-style commercials, typically15 seconds in length, which play “pre-roll,” orprior to video content, on a Web site, such as anews or entertainment clip.

Not-in-stream ads are video clips that are

embedded in a banner, which users must clickon to play. Dynamic Logic found that in-stream video ads increased aided brand aware-ness by 5.5 percentage points and brand favor-ability by 3.0 percentage points, comparedwith a control group that did not see the ads.

For not-in-stream video ads, aided brandawareness increased by 7.8 percentage pointsand brand favorability increased by 4.0 per-centage points, compared with a control groupthat did not see the ads.

“In-stream ads are most similar to TV ads,so you’d expect advertisers to be pretty good atthem,” said Ken Mallon, VP-product develop-ment at Dynamic Logic.

“Advertisers haven’t figured out the rightlength and how to make the content work.More research needs to be done with onlinevideo ads.”

Christine Eyre, director of corporate mar-keting at Iron Mountain Digital, which devel-

ops online backup and data recovery services,recently developed an online video campaignusing Accela Communications’ AccelaCast on-demand rich media platform.

“We were trying to create awareness ofLiveVault,” Eyre said. LiveVault, an onlinebackup company, was acquired by Iron Moun-tain Digital in December, and its services arenow sold as a brand of Iron Mountain Digital.

The video ad featured comedian JohnCleese in a humorous six-minute spot intendedto drive users to a webcast to learn more aboutLiveVault. It ran on technology sites includingITWorld.com and ComputerWorld.com.

The video ad played after users clicked on aFlash banner ad. The average viewing time forthe ad was nearly four minutes, and the aver-age click-through rate was slightly more than3%, compared with an industry average click-through rate of less than 1%.

“What is different about this ad format isthat it’s almost a blend of rich media advertis-ing and on-demand webcasting,” Eyre said.

Other ad formats are providing newways for advertisers to deliver rich infor-mation to users.

Earlier this month rich media compa-ny Klipmart Corp. introduced a new adformat that displays six panels of simulta-neously streaming online video ads. Thead unit is being used by Amp’d Mobile topromote a new line of mobile phones.

Wireless phone provider Vonage hasbeen using online video ads since 2004, in-cluding a campaign that ran on CNET.comaimed at business decision-makers.

“People do tend to interact with them, andthere can be other benefits such as brandingand educational purposes,” said CarolineFinch, director of marketing at Vonage.

To help improve the creation, planning andbuying of online video ads, the Interactive Ad-vertising Bureau late last year released guide-lines for broadband video commercials. TheIAB worked with the American Association ofAdvertising Agencies on the guidelines.

The guidelines define broadband videocommercials as online ads that appear before,during and after a variety of content, includ-ing streaming video, animation, gaming andmusic video content in a player environment.

Among the guidelines are: In-stream com-mercials may be up to 30 seconds long for pre-and midroll commercials; publishers may offercustom lengths for postroll commercials; and aminimum of 200 kbps is recommended for en-coded bit rates. �

Online video ads,new formats growMarketers take advantage of emergingtechnologies to better engage customers

1. Ads with online video are more effective at raising aided brandawareness and brand favorability than ads without online video.

2. Not-in-stream video ads are more effective at raising aided brandawareness and brand favorability than in-stream video ads.

3. The interstitial is the most effective ad format, followed by thefull-page ad.

4. For partial-page ads, the large rectangle is the most effective adformat.

5. The button (120x90) is the least effective ad format.Source: Dynamic Logic

Need to know 5 simple rules for effectiveonline advertising

ONLINE ADVERTISINGRESOURCES


What are the mosteffective online adformats that youare seeing?

Bruner:Rich media andsearch are the meat and potatoesof Internet advertising thesedays, although b-to-b advertisersare using far less rich media thanconsumer advertisers. Whererich media is used by b-to-b ad-vertisers, we see click ratesroughly twice as high on averageas for GIF or JPG ads.

As for search marketing, it isthe ultimate form of targeting.

Ads are targeted only to users ex-pressing an explicit interest in thetopic, and advertisers pay onlywhen the searcher follows upwith a click. This can be particu-larly effective for b-to-b advertis-ers working in very [defined]niche fields, for which it makeslittle sense to blanket larger audi-ences with irrelevant messages.

Which online adtechnologies showthe most promisefor b-to-badvertisers?

Bruner: I expect you will seea lot more b-to-b advertisers ex-perimenting with video advertis-ing this year, which is already allthe buzz for consumer marketersonline. Given the success of We-binars, the use of more video on-line for advertising andeducation in the online spaceseems inevitable. I expect we willalso see a big uptick in the use of

online advertising optimization,driven by publishers seeking todifferentiate themselves byactively helping their advertisersreach their campaign goals.

How do you balanceintrusiveness withinformation?

Bruner:As in every medium,it’s all about relevance. Advertis-ing can be seen as intrusive or an-noying when it has nothing to dowith your interests or when youare focused on a different kind oftask at that moment. At the same

time, it can be seen as a welcome,value-added insight when youare in-market for what it ispromoting. Smart mediabuying—aligning the right mes-sage with the right audience—isthe foundation for that, butemerging technologies can help.For example, behavioraltargeting technologies can identi-fy a user who has alreadyexpressed some interest in a topicor your product on an earlier vis-it, letting you serve them a mes-sage crafted to move them to thenext step along the considerationprocess. �

RICK BRUNERis director ofresearch atDoubleClick,New York

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KKeeyy oonnlliinnee aadd ssttaattss■ Online ad spending in the U.S. will reach$15.6 billion this year, up from $12.9 billion in2005. Marketers are investing across the digitalmarketing spectrum, including blogs, podcasts,Webcasts, e-mail, Web sites and database mar-keting, to reach business customers.Source: eMarketer, December 2005

■ B-to-b marketers have shifted nearly 25% oftheir budgets to digital media. The growthrates for b-to-b publishers’ marketing tacticsshow online is on the rise: Of those surveyed,49% said they have been using online market-ing tactics this year, and 55% said they expectto deploy online marketing by 2008.Source: Forrester Research/American Business Media, November 2005

VViiddeeoo,, rriicchh mmeeddiiaa oonn tthhee rriissee■ Online video ad spending in the U.S. willreach $640 million in 2007, approaching triplethis year’s online video ad spending of $225million. By 2009 advertisers will spend $1.50billion on video ads online. Rich media adspending in the U.S. will total $1.26 billion thisyear, growing to $3.54 billion in 2009Source: eMarketer, December 2005

GGooooggllee ggooeess oofffflliinneeOne of the most-watched online ad stories of2005 was Google’s fledgling moves into sell-ing print and radio advertising, leveraging itsautomated, auction-based models. “WhatGoogle is trying to do is become a one-stopmedia shop,” said Shar VanBoskirk, a ForresterResearch analyst.Source: BtoB, April 2006

OOnnlliinnee//pprriinntt iinntteeggrraatteeIn an example of the accelerating trend amongmedia companies to merge print and online adsales, Time Inc. reorganized the sales teams ofall its business and finance titles. The new orga-nization, Time Inc. Business and Finance Net-work, will be supported by one sales team rep-resenting the magazine brands combined withthe sales force of CNNMoney.com.Source: BtoB, April 2006

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“Rich media is used in so many ways that if youjust look at clicks, you’re missing a big part of thestory. Rich media analytics is a melting pot of re-sponse-based analysis with branding impact.”—Ari Paparo, director of rich media forDoubleClick, in BtoB, March 2006

BB _ 04-24-06 A 28 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:43 PM Page 1

©2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Best of the WebAvenue A|Razorfish named MarketWatch the top financial site of 2005

G RO U N D B R E A K I N G “ L I V E QU OT E S ”�Innovative use of AJAX technology brings market movement to the story page.

T R A F F I C I S S U R G I N GUnique users jumped 32% to start off the year, while page views rose 20% from the fourth quarter monthly average.*

*Source: Internal Data

For more information, contact: Randy Kilgore, Senior Vice President, Advertising | 212.597.5941 | [email protected]

AND WE ’RE OFF TO A GREAT START IN 2006

Project2 3/30/06 1:08 PM Page 1

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OOnnlliinnee aaddvveerrttiissiinngg bbyy aadd ddiimmeennssiioonn

Segment 2/05 4/05 6/05 8/05 10/05 12/05 2/06

Trade Publications & Sites 13.2% 3.2% 2.6% 3.0% 3.2% 4.0% 41.2%

Advertising & Marketing 12.1 10.6 4.9 6.8 7.0 7.2 13.8

Marketing Research & Data 21.9 31.1 28.2 32.3 34.1 34.1 12.2

Computer Hardware & Software 10.3 10.3 15.1 14.7 13.1 8.4 9.9

Finance 7.7 9.6 10.0 9.1 7.1 12.9 5.8

Equipment & Materials 3.3 2.6 2.0 1.8 2.7 3.2 4.8

Telecom & Connectivity 4.1 3.5 4.1 3.0 7.7 5.5 2.7

Human Resources 4.6 4.4 5.1 5.2 4.1 3.6 2.7

Web & E-commerce 17.0 14.9 19.3 9.9 8.8 9.1 2.4

Shipping 3.2 5.7 3.7 5.7 3.8 4.7 1.4

No Segment 0.4 1.6 0.8 1.3 1.5 1.8 1.1

Consulting & Contracting 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.7 3.1 3.9 0.9

Training & Conferences 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.2 0.4 1.0 0.9

Marketplace & Exchange 0.7 0.7 2.2 5.1 3.3 0.5 0.2

Legal Services 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1

Dimensions 2/05 4/05 6/05 8/05 10/05 12/05 2/06

Button No.1 (120x90) 3% 2% 2% 3% 4% 5% 5%

Button No. 2 (120x60) 7 8 13 8 4 5 2

Full Banner (468x60) 24 13 11 8 7 6 4

Half Banner (234x60) 2 4 7 10 3 7 2

Large Rectangle (336x280) 3 3 3 3 1 2 3

Leaderboard (728x90) 16 19 16 16 35 23 19

Medium Rectangle (300x250) 6 9 10 5 7 11 23

Micro Bar (88x31) 3 3 6 6 7 3 3

Non-standard Dimension 7 17 11 18 12 16 18

Rectangle (180x150) 3 3 2 2 2 2 1

Skyscraper (120x600) 6 5 6 6 5 4 2

Square (250x250) 3 2 2 2 1 1 0

Square Button (125x125) 5 3 4 4 4 3 1

Unspecified 0 0 0 1 1 3 15

Vertical Banner (120x240) 1 1 1 1 1 3 1

Vertical Rectangle (240x400) 4 3 3 2 1 0 0

Wide Skyscraper (160x600) 7 5 6 5 6 8 2

OOnnlliinnee aaddvveerrttiissiinngg bbyy bb--ttoo--bb aaddvveerrttiissiinngg sseeggmmeennttssShare of all b-to-b impressions Share of all b-to-b impressions

Segment 2/05 4/05 6/05 8/05 10/05 12/05 2/06

Inline 89.34% 84.88% 92.78% 89.61% 92.94% 88.60% 95.28%

Pop-Under 6.52 10.86 4.64 8.23 5.75 9.60 3.84

Pop-Up 3.00 2.99 2.09 1.79 1.07 1.62 0.70

Floating/Overlay 0.09 0.07 0.13 0.23 0.22 0.13 0.15

Interstitial 1.05 1.20 0.37 0.14 0.02 0.06 0.02

OOnnlliinnee aaddvveerrttiissiinngg bbyy bb--ttoo--bb aaddvveerrttiissiinngg ffoorrmmaattssShare of all b-to-b impressions

Segment 2/05 4/05 6/05 8/05 10/05 12/05 2/06

Standard Image 70% 65% 68% 58% 59% 56% 48%

Standard Image/Text Link 6 11 13 24 14 13 32

Flash (Generic) 23 23 18 17 26 28 20

Rich Media 1 1 1 1 1 3 1

BB--ttoo--bb uussee ooff rriicchh mmeeddiiaa vvss.. nnoonn--rriicchh mmeeddiiaa aaddvveerrttiissiinnggShare of all b-to-b impressions

Note: All online advertising data exclude house ads, which are advertisements run on an advertiser's own Web property. Impression figures are based on image-based display ad technologies and exclude sponsored link impressions.Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

BB _ 04-24-06 A 30 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:43 PM Page 1

BY MARY E. MORRISON

O NLINE EVENTS HAVE gained in popularityin the past few years thanks to their rela-tively low cost and ability to put mar-

keters in direct contact with customers andprospects. Now, marketers that have enjoyedsome measure of success are increasing returnson their Webinars and webcasts by focusingon lead generation and repurposing onlineevent content.

Sopheon, a provider of product lifecyclemanagement software, has run between 30 and40 Webinars in the past four years, said DaynaAnokye, the company’s business developmentcoordinator. Working with vendor Netbrief-ings, Sopheon uses events to target its audienceof engineers and R&D professionals. The Webi-nars feature PowerPoint presentations with au-dio, and promote interaction with polls andquestion-and-answer segments.

“In the past, Webinars were more of a nur-turing tool [for us], and now we’re flippingthem over to be more of a ‘lead-gen’ tool,”Anokye said. “I think people are seeing moreWebinars and are more comfortable with thatformat, and they’re expecting to learn aboutyour company when they come in.”

LEAD THE WAY Sopheon uses data from participants’ registra-

tion profiles and analyzes information about howmuch time users spent in the online event, whatquestions they asked during sessions and whatcomments they made in post-event surveys.

“With the Webinars, we know that they’rethere … especially if they’re asking a lot ofquestions,” Anokye said. “It helps us knowwhat their pain points are in their company,and then we have a better idea of where we canhelp them directly. It provides great conversa-tion points for our [sales] reps.”

Xerox Corp.’s office group also uses infor-mation gathered from its online events pro-

gram to qualify and develop leads. The compa-ny has run three “magazine-style” webcastssince November 2004, working with vendorAccela Communications and partnering withpublishers such as Network World. In addi-tion to marketing to the databases of its pub-lisher partners, Xerox has done extensive in-ternal promotions of the webcasts to its salesteams, educating them on how the events

could help generate and nurture leads. More than 2,000 IT managers have watched

the webcasts, said Denise McLaughlin, man-ager for segment marketing programs, world-wide marketing in the Xerox office group, andmore than 40% of those met the company’scriteria for a qualified lead. “We feel that weare reaching the right audience,” she said.“They’re highly self-selecting. They’re actuallywatching the broadcast for an average of 19minutes. … [40% of those who watch] are tru-ly interested, and are in a buying and a deci-sion-making window for our technology.That’s a phenomenal result.”

Integrating leads garnered from onlineevents is crucial to success, said Elana Ander-son, VP-research director at Forrester Research.“Online events that are executed in a vacuum

and not aligned with specific goals can’t bemeasured,” she said. “Firms need to thinkabout what they are trying to accomplish andthen define specifically how they will measurethat. If my goal is to generate leads, I need to de-fine how many, what quality I expect them tobe, and then figure out how to track thoseleads through final determination.”

CONTENT IS KINGBefore considering how to track and devel-

op leads, marketers must create a Web eventthat customers and prospects will want toview.

Xerox opted for an education-heavy strate-gy, deciding early that it wanted its webcaststo be learning forums presented in broadcast-quality video—almost like watching a “60Minutes” report, McLaughlin said. “We didn’twant it to be a heavy Xerox selling message,”she said. “We wanted … [to] bring in outsidevoices that we thought would attract the ITdecision-makers we were looking to talk to.”

Ira Weinstein, senior analystand consultant at Wainhouse Re-search, said he’s seeing a lot ofcompanies show an interest in us-ing video. “It’s been around for awhile, but people’s network con-nections continue to improve,” hesaid. “So the chances that your at-tendee is on a video-capable ma-chine with enough bandwidth arehigh. Video makes it more inter-esting, and it adds to the overallstickiness of the event.”

Still, an audio-only format maybe the best choice for some mar-keters. Sopheon uses only audio

and PowerPoint so it can feature presenters fromaround the world, Anokye said. In addition toexperts from industry associations and consult-ing companies, Sopheon has invited companiesthat aren’t yet clients to participate.

“We get a lot of interest and high atten-dance when we have practitioners present-ing,” Anokye said. “When we have someonefrom Dow Corning [Corp.] or 3M presenting,the audience really is interested in whatthey’re sharing.”

The focus on creating events that are stickyis reflected in two other trends: the addition ofcalls to action and the creation of custom, indus-try-specific platforms for online events, Wein-stein said. Calls to action, such as a button thatallows participants to ask a question of presen-ters, keep users engaged. Custom platforms,

such as industry-specific interfaces, increase theoverall usability of the events, he said.

Marketers are also getting savvy aboutreusing valuable content, particularly by post-ing the audio from webcasts or Webinars aspodcasts. “You have all this rich library of con-tent now; you have an interview, a sound byte,that might have been only two minutes,”McLaughlin said. “You can take that one littlepiece of interview and use it for other onlineadvertising or marketing purposes.” �

Marketers alignevents, strategyWebinars and webcasts effectivelygenerate leads, valuable online content

Need to know 5 simple rules for producingeffective online events

OOnnlliinnee mmaarrkkeettiinngg ttrreennddssWeb seminars are fast becoming a cost-effectivealternative to traditional venue-based events,according to a Wainhouse Research survey:

■ More than 61% of respondents are replac-ing traditional in-person events with Webseminars.

■ Web seminars are being used by 87% to cre-ate new marketing programs and tasks.

■ Respondents reported a 32% increase, onaverage, in leads generated when using Webevents in place of traditional marketing media.

IInn--ppeerrssoonn eevveennttss But don’t forget in-person events. Use of in-person events currently ranks as the mostpopular trade marketing tactic among respon-dents, with 60.2% of b-to-b marketers makinguse of event marketing in 2004 and 2005. Thatwas more than the 48.7% of marketers that re-ported using online marketing.Source: Forrester Research study, December 2005

TThhee ddaawwnn ooff vviiddeeooDelivering video over the Web is finally be-coming a practical reality. Internet video ser-vices will generate more than $1.7 billion inrevenue by 2010, according to IDC. Threebusiness models will dominate: advertising-supported, a la carte and subscription-basedservices.Source: IDC Study, April 2006

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“Video will be a big focus of ours this year. Weare going out to our clients with a number ofvideo opportunities.”—Dennis Shiao, director of productmanagement, Webcasts, for Tech Target, onnew video Webcasts, in BtoB, April 4

ONLINE EVENTSRESOURCES


1. Create an overall strategy that details the objectives of the onlineevent program and what the programs will look like.

2. Engage the sales organization early on. Explain the value of Webevents and how they can help nurture leads.

3. Partner to expand the list of prospective attendees. Consider as-sociations and publishers in the targeted industries.

4. In the registration form, offer to send a link to the archived ver-sion to those who can’t attend.

5. Make the content focused and succinct. The event title should bespecific and clear, and the event should run no longer than a half-hour. Also, consider breaking the webcast into chapters thatviewers can jump to. Provide viewers with an incentive to fill out apost-event survey, which can help inform future events’ content.

How has b-to-bmarketers’use ofonline eventsevolved?

Downs: [They are being ab-sorbed] into daily commun-ications, users are becomingmore comfortable with advancedfeatures, and [there is a] contin-ued use of archived events ver-sus live events. For marketers,the ability to capture an eventand post it on a Web site for un-limited viewing is invaluable,and everyone is starting to real-ize that.

What’s the best wayto get started withonline events?

Downs: I would recommendstarting with a Webinar, althoughthe lines between the two types ofevents continue to blur. A Webi-nar typically consists of Power-Points combined with audio via

phone or VoIP [voice over Internetprotocol]. A Webcast typically in-volves a streaming video compo-nent. However, the introductionof Webcams into Webinars hascreated some confusion. The un-derlying technology and qualitystill differ, but to the typical useror attendee this is not understood.

What are someeffective ways topromote anupcoming onlineevent?

Downs:The most effective

way is still through onlinepromotions. We are seeing theuse of pay-per-click throughchannels such as Google come onthe scene, while the use of e-mailblasts is dying a painful death.People want the virtual world tobe simple; [they want to] click ona newsletter ad or banner andcomplete a simple registrationpage. This brings up a key issue Ioften see, which is making theregistration process too compli-cated. This can kill the success ofan event’s marketing program.Ask as few questions as possibleand keep it to one page.

What’s on thehorizon for onlineevents?

Downs: Marketers need to dif-ferentiate their company andalways be on the lookout for newways to impress their audience.Web events used to be cool in andof themselves, but now the wowfactor has reached a plateau. …Virtual event technology continuesto evolve with new features—voice over the Net, video andmore. Watch for new ideas, andthink of creative ways to use whatthe technology currently offers. �

STEPHANIEDOWNS is president ofConferzone,Denver

AS

K T

HE

EX

PE

RT

BB _ 04-24-06 A 31 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:45 PM Page 1

BY MATTHEW SCHWARTZ

A S B-TO-B MARKETERS shift billions of dol-lars into Web marketing, online pub-lishers are scrambling to craft new vehi-

cles to make it easier for advertisers to targetever-thinning audiences.

Advertisers have started to push for inno-vation “at the edges, with more granular nar-rowcasting and [are] trying to identify new au-diences,” said Mike Azzara, senior VP-Internetbusiness at CMP Media. “We’re tryingto provide intelligence to match mar-keters with the right profiles.”

In February, CMP launched tech-search.com, a search engine that pro-vides access to news and informationfrom CMP’s network of technology mag-azines and blogs. The tech publisher alsolaunched smallbizresource.com, whichis dedicated to the SMB (small and mid-size business) and SOHO (smalloffice/home office) markets.

With spending on search marketingstarting to plateau, online publishers arestarting to run more branding cam-paigns that cater to various audiences,industry observers said.

THE SHIFT FROM SEARCH TO DISPLAY“There’s a shift away from search and to-

ward more display ads,” said Jeff Lanctot, VP-general manager of Avenue A/Razorfish, whichbills itself as the largest buyer of online media.Marketers are “turning away from ‘brochure-ware’ and toward multifunction Web portalsthat can serve multiple constituencies.”

Take Office Depot, which has 100,000 in-dexed pages built into its Web site (officede-pot.com). “We’re focused on better leveragingour natural search capabilities,” said KristinMicalizio, VP-direct sales. Office Depot has

also developed several online partnerships,such as a link to tax service H&R Block. “Itplays into our brand,” Micalizio said, addingthat “there is a lot of room to get other partnersonline and add to our equation.”

Another trend among online publishers:working with advertisers to integrate morerich media into their online ad campaigns.“There is a growing recognition [among b-to-bmarketers] that consumers are getting accus-

tomed to a certain depth of information onlineand more sophistication in the ads,” Lanctotsaid. “There are more and more [b-to-b ad]campaigns that tease customers with text andvideo, and a lot more interactive ads.”

Steve Pacheco, director of advertising atFedEx Corp., said online marketing is “notabout awareness anymore but switching mar-keting to a way in which people can learn moreabout our brand and do more commerce in apersonalized, relevant way.”

Pacheco said FedEx will “significantly” in-crease its online ad budget this year but wouldnot elaborate. “It’s getting the brand in the

right environment for people who might useFedEx or be reminded about us.”

During New York Fashion Week in Febru-ary and September, for example, FedEx repre-sentatives, known as “the purplerazzi,” snapdigital shots of guests strolling down the redcarpet.

The purplerazzis hand the guests a cardwith the URL “fedexfashion.com” and alertthem to go to the site if they want to downloadthe picture. In the center of that site is a link toapparelfedex.com, which provides detailed in-formation on how FedEx “delivers” for thefashion field as well as the core attributes of thebrand. FedEx has similar online plays with theNFL and NASCAR.

“If it’s relevant, it’s limitless,” said Pacheco,referring to fedexfashion.com et al. “It de-pends on how big your business is and whatyou have to offer.”

B-TO-B SLOW TO WARM TO RICH MEDIAFor b-to-b advertisers there’s a fine line

when it comes to embracing rich media.In the b-to-b space, “you have to be

careful with your audience,” said GregStrakosch, CEO of IT media companyTechTarget. “In the IT space, audiencesare becoming much more receptive to richmedia and the like, but I wouldn’t say it’suniversally liked. The b-to-b crowd is alittle more cynical about rich media thanthe b-to-c crowd, but audiences are get-ting more receptive to the idea.”

The Web also offers marketers increas-ingly sophisticated tools to measure theresults of their online campaigns.

“ROI obsession isn’t going anywhere,”Strakosch said. “People who say [ROI] is aphase aren’t paying attention.”

But when crafting online campaigns, mar-keters must think about measurement moreholistically.

“It should be ‘return on objective,’ ratherthan ROI,” said Jim Nail, chief strategy andmarketing officer at Cymfony Inc., which pro-vides media measurement services. “Mar-keters have to think more deeply about strate-gy and have to show their managers that theyunderstand the length of the buying cycle.”

He added that when tracking lead genera-tion campaigns for ROI, marketers have tomake sure to weed out the weak prospects sothey’re handing a high-quality list to the

sales force.At the same time, advertisers have to be

prepared to test and retest different distribu-tion sources, said Dan Felter, CEO of Opt-Intel-ligence and chairman of the Online Lead Gen-eration Association, a non-profit organizationfounded late last year to promote best practicesand standards among Web sites, marketersand lead generation providers.

“The Internet is closing the loop from im-pression to click to opening the ad to conver-sion,” Felter said. Marketers “have to knowwhat’s going on every step of the way and knowwho you’re working with so companies don’thave to change their content on the fly.” �

Online publisherscasting wider NetWorking with marketers to run richer,deeper and more interactive campaigns

1. There’s an increasing emphasis on “narrowcasting” to identifythe b-to-b audience as “contextual” targeting gives way to “be-havioral” targeting.

2. Search marketing may have peaked, as more b-to-b marketerspivot to develop more display ads and branding campaigns.

3. Don’t embed just the “latest and greatest” information into b-to-bmarketing campaigns. If the campaign is properly targeted, po-tential buyers will have an unlimited appetite for content.

4. B-to-b marketers are much less skittish than in the past when itcomes to using rich media, such as streaming video and audio, intheir online marketing campaigns.

5. When assessing returns from lead generation campaigns, mar-keters have to be vigilant in weeding out weak prospects beforethey hand over the list to sales reps.

Need to know 5 simple rules for buyingeffective online advertising

NNeewwssppaappeerr rreevveennuueess uuppCombined advertising expenditures on news-papers and their Web sites rose 2.5% last yearto $49.4 billion compared with the previousyear. The bulk of the growth came on newspa-per Web sites, where spending rose 32%,reaching a record $2.0 billion. Source: Newspaper Association of America, March 2006

OOnnlliinnee vviiddeeoo oonn tthhee rriisseeTwenty-four percent of Internet users watchonline video at least once a week, and 46%watch online video at least once a month.Also, 66% of video viewers have watched on-line video ads, and 44% of those have taken anaction based on what they’ve seen. Actionstaken as a result of watching online video adsinclude visiting a Web site (31%) and making apurchase (8%).Source: Online Publishers Association, March 2006

DDiiggiittaall eeddiittiioonnss fflloouurriisshhAs of June 2005, 148 magazines with acombined circulation of 1.3 million were avail-able in audited digital editions. Both of thosemeasures were up 56% from a year earlier.Source: Zinio, from audit statements by ABC and BPA Worldwide, June2005

BBeesstt ppuubblliisshheerr WWeebb ssiitteessThe winners of American Business Media’sJesse H. Neal Awards for Best Web Site in 2005were: Pork, porkmag.com (Vance PublishingCorp.); Aviation Week & Space Technology, Avi-ation Week Intelligence Network (McGraw-HillCos.); and CIO, CIO.com (IDG).

My dad is awesome.No other dad can figure things out and make them work like he can. He digitallyconnected our whole house and now we can turn almost everything on or off fromanywhere. His technology company does the same kind of really cool stuff. Heloves his job. He can do anything.

My dad is the boss, an IEEE Member and an IEEE Spectrum reader.

IEEE Spectrum readers lead, and the technology industry follows. Advertise to this powerful group— only through IEEE Spectrum.

I E E E S P E C T R U M - T H E M A G A Z I N E O F T E C H N O L O G Y I N S I D E R SWWW.SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG/BB • FOR INFORMATION, CALL +1 212 419 7760

ONLINE PUBLISHERSRESOURCES


BB _ 04-24-06 A 32 B2DB 4/20/2006 1:45 PM Page 1

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866•203•2770


Advertising Age www.adage.com (212) 210-0280 92,000

Agriculture Online www.agriculture.com (515) 284-2917 262,000*

Allbusiness.com www.allbusiness.com (415) 694-5000 1 million

Ask.com www.ask.com (510) 985-7400 23 million

Automotive News www.automotivenews.com (313) 446-6031 167,386*

Aviation Week & www.aviationnow.com (212) 904-2000 172,000*Space Technology

Baseline www.baselinemagmedia.com (212) 503-3500 96,000*

Billboard www.billboard.com (800) 449-1402 1.2 million

Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com (212) 318-2000 969,000

Business.com www.business.com (310) 586-4111 2.2 million

BusinessWeek www.businessweek.com (212) 512-4611 2 million

CFO www.cfo.com (212) 641-9883 335,000*

Chemweek www.chemweek.com (212) 621-4900 31,051*

ChicagoBusiness.com www.chicagobusiness.com (312) 649-5323 160,000

CIO Insight www.cioinsight.com (212) 503-3835 92,000*

CNET Networks www.cnetnetworks.com (888) 500-2638 28 million

CNN www.cnn.com (212) 275-7800 21.2 million

CNNMoney www.cnnmoney.com (212) 522-8007 5.6 million

Computerworld www.computerworld.com (508) 879-0700 272,000

Construction.com www.construction.com (800) 393-6343 272,000

Data Warehousing www.tdwi.org (206) 246-5059 57,000*Institute

The Deal www.thedeal.com (212) 313-9200 85,000*

Ebuild.com www.ebuild.com (202) 452-0800 122,000

The Economist www.economist.com (212) 541-0500 273,000

EDN.com www.edn.com (781) 734-8000 253,660*

EE Times www.eetimes.com (415) 947-6649 407,619*+

Entrepreneur www.entrepreneurmag.com (949) 261-2325 6.7 million

ESPN.com www.espn.com (212) 448-4850 18.7 million

eWeek www.eweek.com (212) 503-4687 314,000

Fast Company www.fastcompany.com (212) 389-5305 499,000

Federal Computer Week www.fcw.com (703) 876-5100 200,000*

Financial Times www.ft.com (212) 641-6646 715,000*

Forbes www.forbes.com (212) 366-8900 6.1 million

Globalspec.com www.globalspec.com (800) 261-2052 2.7 million*

Google.com www.google.com (650) 623-4000 100.8 million

Government Computer www.gcn.com (202) 772-2528 173,000*News

Hollywood Reporter www.hollywoodreporter.com (323) 525-2000 632,000

IEEE www.ieee.org (212) 419-7766 252,000

INC www.inc.com (212) 389-5247 225,000

Industry Week www.industryweek.com (216) 696-7000 103,300*

InformationWeek www.informationweek.com (516) 562-5000 769,032*+

InfoWorld www.infoworld.com (415) 978-3274 170,000

Investors.com www.investors.com (212) 626-7683 400,000

JupiterWeb www.jupiterweb.com (203) 662-2800 14.9 million*

Marketwatch www.marketwatch.com (415) 765-8292 3 million

Medical Economics www.memag.com (973) 847-5321 62,413*

MSN-Microsoft sites www.msn.com (866) 415-3309 95.3 million

Nation's Restaurant www.nrn.com (262) 835-2661 85,154*News

Network World Fusion www.networkworld.com (800) 622-1108 197,000

NewYorkbusiness.com www.newyorkbusiness.com (212) 210-0277 110,000*

New York Times www.nytimes.com (646) 698-8000 7.8 million

News Corp. www.newscorp.com (212) 852-7017 5.6 million

OSTG www.ostg.com (877) 825-4689 N/A

PC Magazine www.pcmag.com (212) 503-3500 889,000

PC World www.pcworld.com (415) 243-0500 6.2 million*

SearchSecurity.com www.searchsecurity.com (781) 657-1000 200,000*

SearchStorage.com www.searchstorage.com (781) 657-1000 155,000*

TechTarget sites www.techtarget.com (781) 657-1000 4 million*

TechWeb sites www.techweb.com (516) 562-5000 965,427*+

Telephony www.telephonyonline.com (312) 595-1080 174,000*

Time Warner Network www.timewarner.com (212) 484-8000 31.5 million

USA Today www.usatoday.com (703) 854-4434 9.6 million*

Variety www.variety.com (323) 965-2417 454,000

Wall Street Journal www.wsj.com (800) 366-3975 2.1 million

Windows IT Pro www.windowsitpro.com (866) 203-2770 2.8 million*

Workforce.com www.workforce.com (949) 255-5340 87,002

Yahoo! Search www.yahoo.com (617) 305-6032 119 million

Unique monthly

Publication URL Phone viewers

Unique monthly

Publication URL Phone viewers

Source: Audience measurement (U.S. only) from comScore Media Metrix, March 2006. *Audience measurement figures self-reported. +U.S. only.

ONLINE PUBLISHERS AT A GLANCE

BB _ 04-24-06 A 33.qxp 5/2/2006 9:48 AM Page 1

What are some of thekey trends you see inb-to-b marketing andb-to-b online media?

Reidy: Digital marketing is be-coming the primary means of com-municating to the businesssegment.

The most effective way to reachhigh-level decision-makers isthrough the Web. This is becausea) the Web is the place where theyget most of their information

today; b) the Web is the placewhere they spend most of theirmedia time; and c) the Web iswhere they feel they get the least-

biased information.Marketing must be tailored for

each segment in the decision-mak-ing process (business decision-makers, technical decision-makers,influencers, etc.) Just spendingyour marketing dollars in theinteractive space is not enough.You must tailor your messages tothe various constituenciesinvolved.

An understanding of roletaxonomy (more important in mid-size/enterprise-size organizations

vs. small businesses) is key. Siteslike myspace.com are often cited asbeing key influencers to largegroups. What is less well known isthat communities are also criticalin the b-to-b space.

Networks have popped upacross the Web for the professionalcommunity and have a largeimpact on how parties are makingpurchase decisions. This is not lim-ited to lower staff employees orstrictly technical workers. Increas-ingly, C-level executives are

joining these communities to findout about products and also to val-idate their decisions.

What are some of theeffective ways for b-to-b marketers toreach their target?

Reidy: The majority of the b-to-baudience turns to Google ahead ofYahoo! in the search engine spaceas evidenced by historic searchvolume and demo profile research.From a pricing standpoint, manyb-to-b categories and keywords arevery competitive and with that,highly priced on a market-dictatedCPC bid level.

Therefore, we have seen theneed and the emergence of special-ized vertical search engines such asBusiness.com and Industry Brains.Although neither has the volumeto compare to Google, Yahoo! orMSN (GYM), we have experiencedsuccessful campaigns that arespecifically targeted to the b-to-baudience on both these sites withkeyword search and contextuallyrelevant opportunities.

This is not to say that a typicalb-to-b searcher would be more aptto use Business.com as a preferredsearch engine over Google, but thedistribution networks of these ver-tical search sites are much more rel-evant to the target audience and,in many cases, lower-cost.

Can the intense focusb-to-b marketers haveon measurement andROI turn out to becounterproductive?

Reidy: The intense focus on b-to-b measurement tools is a greatthing for our industry andsomething, as an agency, wecontinuously emphasize with ourclients and marketing partners. Ina world where the consumer is in-creasingly in control,b-to-bmarketers are looking for bettermetrics to determine effectiveness.It is critical for b-to-b marketers todefine what they are trying tomeasure; clear/set objectives willhelp determine what ROI toolswould be best.

B-to-b marketers are drivingdeeper accountability internallyto drive better measurement andROI. … A focus on ROI, while en-tirely appropriate for certain b-to-b marketing initiatives, channelsand time horizons, is equallyinappropriate for others. The besttools in the world are of little useif the wrong metrics are beingtracked. So the right combinationof ROI, site side behaviors andmessage impact measurement(branding, perception, intent)should be looked at in order toproperly optimize all marketingelements. �

ONLINE PUBLISHERS


MARTIN REIDYis president ofModem Media,Norwalk, Conn.

ASK THEEXPERT

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BY KATE MADDOX

In the early days of online advertising, tradi-tional agencies struggled to figure out theright business model to handle the new medi-

um. Many broke interactive services off into aseparate group or created new business units tohandle interactive. Some pursued acquisitions ofonline shops while others hired technology gu-rus to work in their creative groups.

No trade show was complete without a pan-el that tried to define interactive agenciesand discuss the culture clash betweenInternet techies and traditional creatives.

Now, as interactive becomes a stan-dard part of clients’ marketing plans,agencies are merging interactive intotheir overall operations and treating itas just another marketing discipline.

OGILVY CONSOLIDATESFor example, Ogilvy North America

last year consolidated Ogilvy & Mather,its traditional ad agency, and OgilvyOne intoone organization.

“Organizationally, we have become farmore 360 in terms of how we’re lined up to op-erate as a partner with clients,” said Bill Gray,co-CEO of Ogilvy North America. “We are re-ally organized to deliver one brand, theOgilvy brand, not as separate companies butas a total, holistic marketing solution for b-to-bclients.”

Ogilvy handles integrated campaigns forb-to-b clients including IBM Corp., DHL,American Express Co. and Cisco Systems.

For DHL, Ogilvy provides Web site develop-ment, e-mail marketing, rich media, microsites,landing pages, search and viral marketing.

“They do a wonderful job of integratingthe advertising all the way from above the lineto below the line,” said Karen Jones, VP-adver-tising, brand and promotions at DHL ExpressUSA. “Since they are part of Ogilvy, the inter-action is 360.”

Some clients work with multiple agencies

to handle interactive marketing.For example, IBM works with Ogilvy,

which is its agency of record for global adver-tising, as well as Digitas.

“Ogilvy works on everything that includesadvertising and demand generation,” saidSher Taton, worldwide interactive marketingmanager at IBM.

“Digitas is our interactive agency for IBM’sWeb communications.”

Taton said both agency partners arebrought in early to plan strategic marketinginitiatives. “It really is a complementary rela-tionship,” she said.

However, she added, “One of the chal-lenges is that interactive runs across manythings, including e-mail and search. SinceOgilvy is our agency for demand generation, if[the work] is associated with a demand genera-tion campaign, it stays with Ogilvy.”

That could include banner ads and landingpages.

“Beyond that point, in looking at how tomake communications really work across theentire Web, that’s where the handoff takesplace and we look to Digitas,” Taton said.

There are also differences in which agencyhandles search.

“When you’re talking about paid searchwith a media component, that is with our me-dia teams [at Ogilvy]. If it’s an organic search, itis with Digitas,” she said.

In working with multiple agencies, Taton

said, it is important to foster a relationship ofcollaboration.

Laura Lang, president of Digitas, said manyclients are asking the agency to provide mar-keting services for all phases of the purchasecycle, from branding through direct response.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a lot of b-to-bclients ask, ‘How can I get a customer to actual-ly engage with my brand?’ ” Lang said. “Driv-ing transactions is not enough for our clients.We must build brand at the same time.”

CREATE A BRANDING EXPERIENCEOften the agency uses Web sites to create

this branding experience.For client Federal Express Corp., Digitas

created a Web site at www.fedexfootball.comto leverage FedEx’s NFL sponsorship and helpbuild brand affinity.

The site featured player information, gamestats and an opportunity to explore FedEx ser-vices. One of the features of the site was the“small shipper of the week,” which profiled

FedEx small-business customers. The sitealso had 130 video clips featuring formerNFL quarterback Boomer Esiason as host.

Agency.com, which celebrated 10years in business last year, also consolidat-ed its services in 2005 to provide more in-tegration across the agency.

Rather than having separate disciplinesfor different areas of online advertising, itconsolidated its client services group so thatstaffers are cross-trained in all digital areas.

“Now clients are looking across the en-tire spectrum of digital services,” said Yuri Sal-nikoff, managing partner, New York, at Agen-cy.com.

“They no longer look at interactive agen-cies and think just Web sites.”

Agency.com’s services include online cre-ative advertising, online media planning andbuying, search engine marketing, Web site de-sign, viral campaigns, e-mail marketing, ana-lytics and content management.

Agency.com also merged itraffic, whichhad been operating as a separate agency, intothe overall agency.

AGENCIES EXPAND OFFLINEOther agencies that started off as interactive

shops are now expanding into more offlinework.

AKQA, for example, which started out asan interactive and technology agency, nowdoes offline work including print, outdoor,television, PR and events. It is also expandinginto such emerging media as interactive TV

and mobile marketing.“This depth of services, across disciplines

and platforms, gives us an opportunity tobuild successful solutions for our clients,” saidAjaz Ahmed, chairman and cofounder ofAKQA.

“Clients are increasingly looking for a sup-plier that can join the dots of their customerexperience. So that means the agency needs tohave expertise in the entire purchase cycle,from awareness through interest, trial, pur-chase and loyalty.” �

Online agenciespush integrationReversing a trend, traditional shopsmerge interactive into overall operations

1. Involve your agency early in the marketing strategy developmentprocess.

2. When working with multiple agencies, foster an environment ofcollaboration rather than competition.

3. Explore ways to use interactive for all phases of the purchase cycle, from awareness through direct response.

4. Understand your customers to create an interactive brand expe-rience with them.

5. Be clear on business goals and define metrics that candemonstrate how campaigns achieve the goals.

Need to know 5 simple rules for workingwith your interactive agency

SSaallaarriieess,, jjoobbss oonn tthhee rriissee■ Average CEO salaries at b-to-b agenciesjumped 36% in 2005 to $210,000, from$154,000 in 2004. With bonuses, the totalsalary at the CEO level was $237,000, up 25%from $189,000 in 2004. In other positions, cre-ative directors, saw their total compensationincrease from an average $93,000 in 2004 to$106,000 in 2005. The total compensation ofmedia directors jumped from an average$60,000 in 2004 to $80,000 in 2005.

■ Hiring also rose in 2005: 39% of b-to-b agen-cies said they would have larger staffs than in2004 (compared with 37% of those surveyedin 2004); 35% said they would have smallerstaffs (compared with 26% in 2004); and 26%said their staff size would remain the same(compared with 37% in 2004).Source: 14th annual compensation survey of ad agencies, conducted byIrwin Broh & Associates for Advertising Age, November 2005

‘‘BBttooBB’’ nnaammeess ttoopp aaggeenncciieess ■ Winners for 2005 included:Large Agency: Ogilvy North AmericaMidsize Agency: Slack BarshingerSmall Agency: PJA Advertising and MarketingInteractive Agency: Agency.com

TThheeyy ssaaiidd iitt“This is one of the strongest business climatesfor agencies that I’ve seen in years. Opportuni-ties have been especially plentiful lately withlarge companies that historically have target-ed large enterprises but are now looking to godown-market and target midsize and smallbusinesses.”—Gary Slack, chairman-chief experience officerat Slack Barshinger, in BtoB, March 2006

“Ad professionals with interactive marketingexperience are in huge demand. There areopenings across the country, across the board.”—Ragan Jones, senior recruiter at Talent Zoo, anadvertising recruiting firm, in BtoB, March 2006

INTERACTIVE AGENCIESRESOURCES


What types ofinteractive servicesdo your b-to-bclients want?

Eisenberg:Many of our b-to-bclients are looking to update theirWeb sites to take advantage ofnew technologies that enable tar-get marketing based on user pref-erences and behavioral data.These technologies include moresophisticated tracking and ana-lytics, dynamic content manage-ment systems and personaliz-

ation capabilities. Their goal is toimprove their ability to createand nurture customerrelationships at all levels withinthe organization and increasetheir return on investment on theWeb. Many large organizationsalso need to consolidate numer-

ous, disparate Web sites toimprove overall user experience.

Our clients are also very inter-ested in exploring how to usemobile devices as part of theirmarketing mix.

How is your agencyhandling these newservices,such asonline video andmobile marketing?

Eisenberg:Both technologiesare in big demand, and we do a

lot of work in each. We have sub-ject matter experts in creative,technology and user experiencedesign who work together toplan how these technologies arebest used for our clients. As withany online marketing effort, theuse of the technology must com-plement marketing objectivesand make sense in context. Wewill continue to grow ourpractices in both areas over thenext year. We also maintain aclose connection to our emergingmedia lab that explores the

impact of new technologies formarketing.

How are youmeasuring ROI oncampaigns?

Eisenberg:ROI is measured inthe context of overall campaignobjectives and specific objectivesfor each media channel. It isapproached differently for eachcampaign, using industry-standard techniques and metricswhere appropriate. �

MELISSA EISENBERGis senior VP-directorof Web channels atMRM Worldwide, San Francisco

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INTERACTIVE AGENCIES


A

INTERACTIVE AGENCIES AT A GLANCE

TrSaAsAs

Agency Location URL Phone

360i New York www.360i.com (888) 360-9630

360 Youth (Alloy) New York www.360youth.com (888) 360-9630

Abstract Edge New York www.abstractedge.com (212) 352-2600

Ackerman McQueen Oklahoma City www.am.com (405) 843-7777

Agency.com New York www.agency.com (888) 374-6804

AKQA San Francisco www.akqa.com (405) 645-9400

Ambrosi Chicago www.ambrosi.com (888) 262-7624

Ant Farm Interactive Atlanta www.antfarminteractive.com (404) 591-1600

Apollo Interactive Culver City, Calif. www.apollointeractive.com (800) 599-7499

aQuantive (Avenue A) Seattle www.aquantive.com (206) 816-8700

Arrow Design New York www.aarowdesignstudio.com (212) 367-8887

Aspen Marketing Services West Chicago, Ill. www.aspenmarketing.com (800) 848-0212

Atmosphere BBDO New York www.atmospherebbdo.com (212) 827-2500

Avenue A/Razorfish New York www.avenuea-razorfish.com (212) 966-2300

Babcock & Jenkins Beaverton, Ore. www.bnj.com (503) 629-6090

Backe Communications Ardmore, Pa. www.backecom.com (610) 896-9260

Barbarian Group Boston www.barbariangroup.com (617) 424-8887

Barkus Interactive (Ted Barkus Co.)

Philadelphia www.tedbarkusco.com (215) 545-0616

Bayshore Solutions Tampa, Fla. www.bayshoresolutions.com (800) 790-1199

Bennett Kuhn Varner Atlanta www.bkv.com (404) 233-0332

BGT Partners Miami www.bgtpartners.com (305) 438-1800

Biggs Gilmore Communications

Kalamazoo,Mich.

www.biggsgilmore.com (269) 349-7711

Blast Radius New York www.blastradius.com (212) 925-4900

Blattner Brunner Pittsburgh www.blattnerbrunner.com (800) 545-5372

Blue Diesel Westerville, Ohio www.bluediesel.com (614) 540-4226

Blue Dingo New York www.bluedingo.com (212) 358-8200

breatheInteractive (West-Wayne)

Atlanta www.breatheinteractive.com (404) 532-1800

Bridge Worldwide Cincinnati www.bridgeworldwide.com (513) 381-1380

Buzzwerks (Hitchcock Fleming & Associates)

Akron, Ohio www.hitchcockfleming.com (888) 376-7601


Carat Fusion San Francisco www.caratinteractive.com (415) 541-2970

Carlson Marketing Group Minneapolis www.carlsonmarketing.com (763) 212-4520

CFM Direct OakbrookTerrace, Ill.

www.cfmdirect.com (630) 954-4250

Charleston|Orwig Hartland, Wis. www.charlestonorwig.com (262) 563-5100

Citrus Portland, Ore. www.citrusmarketing.com (503) 973-7700

ClearGauge Chicago www.cleargauge.com (312) 923-7604

Click Here (RichardsGroup)

Dallas www.richards.com (214) 891-5700

Colle & McVoy Bloomington,Minn.

www.collemcvoy.com (952) 852-7500

.Com Marketing Winter Park, Fla. www.dotcommarketing.com (407) 774-4606

Cramer-Krasselt Chicago www.c-k.com (312) 616-9600

Critical Mass Chicago www.criticalmass.com (312) 288-2500

Cummings Interactive Rockford, Ill. www.cummingsinteractive.com (815) 394-0184

Definition 6 Atlanta www.definition6.com (404) 870-0323

Designkitchen Chicago www.designkitchen.com (312) 455-0388

Digiknow Cleveland www.digiknow.com (216) 292-7259

Digital Pulp New York www.digitalpulp.com (212) 679-0676

Digitaria San Diego www.digitaria.com (619) 237-5552

Digitas Boston www.digitas.com (617) 867-1000

DiMassimo Carr Brand Advocates

New York www.dimassimocarr.com (212) 253-7500

DNA Studio Los Angeles www.dnastudio.com (310) 788-1900

Draft Digital New York www.draftdigital.com (212) 546-8000

EastWest Creative New York www.ewcreative.com (212) 951-7220

Eisner Communications Baltimore www.eisnerinteractive.com (410) 685-3390

Eleven Inc. San Francisco www.eleveninc.com (415) 707-1111

Enlighten Ann Arbor, Mich. www.enlighten.com (734) 668-6678

Eric Mower & Associates Syracuse, N.Y. www.mower.com (315) 466-1000

Extractable San Mateo, Calif. www.extractable.com (650) 212-3900

Fry Ann Arbor, Mich. www.fry.com (734) 741-0640

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Gage Minneapolis www.gage.com (763) 595-3800

Genex Los Angeles www.genex.com (310) 736-2000

Goble & Associates Chicago www.goble-assoc.com (312) 803-1900

greater than one New York www.greaterthanone.com (212) 252-1999

Hanft Raboy & Partners New York www.hanftraboy.com (212) 674-3100

Harte-Hanks Direct San Antonio www.harte-hanks.com (800) 456-9748

HSR Business to Business Cincinnati www.hsr.com (513) 671-3811

i33 communications New York www.i33.com (212) 448-0333

IconNicholson New York www.iconnicholson.com (212) 274-0470

iCrossing Scottsdale, Ariz. www.icrossing.com (866) 620-3780

Idea Integration Houston www.idea.com (713) 626-5242

IM Online (Ignited Minds) Marina del Rey,Calif.

www.ignitedminds.com (310) 754-3200

IMC2 Dallas www.imc2.com (214) 224-1000

Intermark Interactive Birmingham, Ala. www.intermarkinteractive.com (205) 803-0000

Iris SGW (SG&W) Montville, N.J. www.sgw.com (973) 299-8000

Kupper Parker Communications

St. Louis www.kupperparker.com (314) 290-2000

Laughlin/Constable Chicago www.laughlinconstable.com (312) 644-1700

LeapFrog Louisville, Ky. www.leapfroginteractive.com (502) 212-1390

Macquarium Intelligent Communications

Atlanta www.macquarium.com (404) 554-4000

Marden-Kane Manhasset, N.Y. www.mardenkane.com (516) 365-3999

Margeotes Fertitta Powell New York www.margeotes.com (212) 979-6600

Mastermind Marketing Atlanta www.mastermindmarketing.com (678) 420-4000

MEA Digital San Diego www.meadigital.com (619) 308-5266

Media Logic Albany, N.Y. www.mlinc.com (206) 243-1000

Media Whiz New York www.mediawhiz.com (646) 442-0074

Medical Broadcasting Co. Philadelphia www.mbcnet.com (215) 545-4444

Medium Blue Atlanta www.mediumblue.com (866) 436-2583

Modem Media Norwalk, Conn. www.modemmedia.com (203) 299-7000

Molecular Watertown, Mass. www.molecular.com (617) 218-6500


Monster Worldwide New York www.monsterworldwide.com (212) 351-7000

Motivo (Ten United) Columbus, Ohio www.motivo.com (614) 224-7400

MRM Partners Worldwide New York www.mrmpworldwide.com (646) 865-3376

New Media Strategies Arlington, Va. www.onlinebrandpromotion.com (703) 253-0050

nurun/antfarm New York www.nurun.comwww.antfarminteractive.com

(404) 591-1600

OglivyOne New York www.oglivy.com (212) 237-6768

One to One Interactive Charlestown,Mass.

www.onetooneinteractive.com (617) 425-7300

Organic San Francisco www.organic.com (415) 581-5300

Periscope Minneapolis www.periscope.com (612) 339-2103

Phelps Group Santa Monica,Calif.

www.phelpsgroup.com (310) 752-4400

R/GA New York www.rga.com (212) 946-4000

Refinery Hatboro, Pa. www.refinery.com (267) 615-2200

Renegade Marketing Group New York www.renegademarketing.com (646) 486-7700

Ripple Effects Interactive Pittsburgh www.r-effects.com (412) 683-3700

Risdall Advertising Interactive

New Brighton,Minn.

www.risdall.net (651) 286-6700

RP Interactive (RPA) Santa Monica,Calif.

www.rpinteractive.com (310) 394-4000

Sapient Cambridge, Mass. www.sapient.com (617) 761-1676

SF Interactive (Butler,Shine, Stern & Partners)

Sausalito, Calif. www.sfinteractive.com (415) 331-6049

Sharpe Partners New York www.sharpe-partners.com (212) 366-4123

Skyworks Technologies Hackensack, N.J. www.skyworks.com (201) 457-1000

Slingshot Dallas www.davidandgoliath.com (214) 634-4411

Strategix Interactive Baltimore www.strategixinteractive.com (410) 779-6060

T3 Austin, Texas www.t-3.com (512) 499-8811

TBA Global Events Woodland Hills,Calif.

www.tbaglobal.com (703) 528-8484

Threespot Media Washington, D.C. www.threespot.com (202) 471-1000

Tocquigny Austin, Texas www.tocquigny.com (800) 363-6566

TransUnion Chicago www.transunion.com (312) 529-1000

UNreal Marketing Narberth, Pa. www.unrealmarketing.com (866) 664-6805

White Horse Portland, Ore. www.whitehorse.com (877) 471-4200

Winning Strategies Oakland, Calif. www.winningstrategies.com (510) 835-3334


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Direct mail goes in the trash unopened. On the Internet, I rarely surf and mainlysearch. The few Web sites that I authorize to contact me uninvited do so through anRSS feed. I don’t see an ad unless I’m really interested in the content.

Don’t think this is a generational thing. I’m 48 and spent more than 20 yearsspilling ink as a technology journalist. I’m a bit more tech-savvy than the averageconsumer, but I’m no geek.

I am your customer. Maybe not now, but certainly five years from now. As thetechnology to keep out unwanted messages improves, you customers will find ever-more sophisticated ways toblock you. Each time youfigure out a way to getaround that, they’ll findsomething else. It’s an end-less game of leapfrog.

But now new tools areavailable that end that cycle.To use them, you have to re-think your role in the valuechain and create channelsthat customers won’t wantto filter.

New media is yourfriend. The revolution of thelast two years is the arrival ofcheap, easy-to-use devicesand services that make itpossible for all of us to man-age our own content.They’re crude and awkwardtoday, but that won’t last.And you can use them aswell as your customers.

We hear a lot about blogs,but blogs aren’t important.What’s important is personal publishing, or the ability to communicate a message toa global audience almost instantaneously. Personal publishing will permeate elec-tronic media, providing a counterpoint to mainstream sources and adding depth andcolor to the conversation.

Some mainstream media will embrace and co-opt personal publishing. Others willignore it and continue their slide into the abyss. Savvy b-to-b marketers will realizethat there are wide swaths of the blogosphere that are virtually empty—industrialengineering, for example—and set up their own outposts. They will gain audienceand become masters of their own content domains.

We hear a lot about podcasts, but podcasts aren’t important. What’s important istime-shifted media. The phenomenon that started with TiVo has spread to digital audioand will soon capture portable video. Information consumers will no longer be behold-en to program schedules or even their living rooms. Our TV shows will travel with us.

For businesses, the possibilities are limitless. Training videos, new-product pro-motions and interactive manuals will be shuttled over the Internet and loaded intoportable devices without our intervention. Sales reps will always have the latest col-lateral. The CEO will deliver a quarterly report by video to every person in the com-pany. In time, speeds will improve enough that we’ll participate in video conferencesin real time. And this will all cost less that today’s patchwork of videotapes andovernight delivery services.

We hear a lot about RSS, but RSS isn’t important. What’s important is the abilityto subscribe to information that really interests us. As we do, we’ll realize value we

can’t even imagine today.RSS will deliver highly targeted content to any device based on the criteria that

we specify. Today, people use it mainly to subscribe to blog posts and podcasts. But inthe future, they will use it to subscribe to ideas.

That’s how Ron Bloom, CEO of PodShow Inc., sees it. PodShow is making celebri-ties out of ordinary people. Two years ago, few people knew Paige Heninger andGretchen Vogelzang beyond their suburban Washington, D.C., neighborhoods. To-day, Paige and Gretchen have 300,000 weekly listeners and a fat new sponsorship deal

from Georgia-Pacific Corp.’sDixie division. Paige andGretchen host MommyCast,a weekly podcast that hascaptivated mothers aroundthe world. They represent anew channel that marketerscan use to reach a highly en-gaged audience.

Bloom believes that peo-ple will eventually use RSSto subscribe to thoughtsfrom others they respect. Soyou may elect to get mythoughts on blogging deliv-ered to you, for example,while screening out myopinion of the New YorkYankees. Good move.

These aren’t the onlytools available to you, butthey’re emblematic of a newclass of technology that letsyou easily initiate or join aconversation. The new mar-keting paradigm is to insert

your company into the slice of the user’s mind that’s reserved for valuable informa-tion. Your tools will be product placements, how-to tutorials, networking events andinteractive games. You may even invite customers to invent their own commercials, asSony and Toyota have done. Your audience will interact with you because they wantto, not because you’re in the way. And you will develop a bond with customersthat’s stronger than anything you ever imagined.

The seeds of this revolution are being sown today. J3tlag.com is an edgy travel sitewritten by bloggers with a passion for travel. It’s run by a shoe company. The Amer-ican Family is a weekly podcast about family issues. To listen to it, you’d barely evennotice that it’s produced by Whirlpool Corp. of washing machine fame.

Technology reseller CDW Corp. produces five high-quality, technology-relatedmagazines for vertical markets. The branding is so subtle you might miss it. GoDad-dy.com generated buzz by posting the 13 disallowed versions of its Super Bowl adson the Internet for all to see.

This is just the tip of the content marketing iceberg. Technology advances andcustomers’ willingness to listen to new sources of content present you with an un-precedented opportunity to stake out your claim in the new marketplace. This isn’tabout buzz. It’s about value and your willingness to deliver value via channels thatweren’t available just two years ago. Take the challenge. I’ll be your best friend.

Paul Gillin is a consultant who specializes in community journalism and socialmedia. His Web site is www.gillin.com.

FUTURE


New technology, newmedia, new paradigm

BY PAUL GILLIN

HEAR ME, MARKETERS, FOR I am your worst nightmare. Although I could be your best friend. Over the past year, I have almost completely dis-connected myself from traditional media and marketing. I let my newspaper subscriptions lapse 18 months ago. What little television I watchis piped through TiVo, sans commercials. My e-mail filter catches and discards all but the wiliest marketing messages. I can’t remember thelast time I listened to the car radio; all my drive-time audio is podcasts.

BB _ 04-24-06 A 38 B2DB 4/20/2006 3:56 PM Page 1

Winning in today’s B2B marketsmeans going above and beyond.

It takes a lot to push your brand above and beyond the competition.The newest, best tools and methodologies. Actionable case studiesand best practices from other top B2B marketers. A clear sense of what’s moving the needle today, what’s not and why. In sum, precisely what BtoB Magazine delivers. Every page is packed witheverything you need to change the game…and win.

www.btobonline.com To receive your free copy of BtoB’s Marketers Resource Guide ‘06, go to btobonline.com and click on Resources.To subscribe, call 1-888-288-5900. Advertisers, please call 212-210-0782.


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interactive marketing guide 2006(psw xdownx.com)

Education