Off Topic: Who Does MyHeritage Think You Look Like?

After coming across Web 2.0 - Your Inner Celebrity on Harry Hoover's blog, I had to try this out the Celebrity Collage from MyHeritage.com. Amusing, but how it's possible for anyone to simultaneously resemble Usher, Helen Hunt and Johnny Damon is beyond me. I have been told before that I look a bit like Glenn Frey, but never any of these people.



If you've got a few minutes to waste, try it out.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

WMC Interviews: Sharat Sharan

This week, I had the opportunity to learn more about how Sharat Sharan, president and CEO of webcasting and rich media platform provider ON24, has built this company into a leader in online lead generation and communication. ON24 provides a hosted platform to help B2B marketers and other business professionals produce webcasts, podcasts and rich media presentations for prospects, customers, employees, analysts and investors.

ON24 is also the company behind Insight24.com, a hosting service for thought leadership rich media B2B webcasts, podcasts, videos and demos from leading B2B vendors.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before ON24?

Sharat Sharan (SS): I was Group Vice President of Hearst New Media Group in New York. Before that, I was responsible for business development for Wireless Networks at AT&T.


WMC: How and when did you get started in this business?

SS: When I joined ON24, the company had a different business model. During the downturn, the business model was challenged. Since our original business enabled us to create a strong brand within the financial services and technology worlds, we leveraged that as we started to migrate the model in 2001.

That’s when we started focused on live webcasting events. Of course with a lot of hard work, execution and some luck, we were able to win more customers. We launched our first product in 2002 and now are the global leader in this category.


WMC: Who is your ideal or typical client?

SS: For us, webcasting is a horizontal application in which each company in the world has a need for it. With that said, we have several types of customers from enterprises to pharmaceutical, medical devices, publishing, life sciences and government. Each of these customers leverages our webcasting and rich media marketing solutions in several ways.

We focus on enterprise applications that companies are using for lead generation, product launches, internal communications and more. So our customers are the marketing departments of large companies, such as Cisco and IBM. Since many publishers use ON24 to power their webinars, publishing is another focus for us. These publishers are providing end-to-end lead generation webinars to technology customers. And then we have continuing professional education (CPE) customers in medical and audit categories. These customers use ON24 for CPE webcasts.


WMC: Who exactly do you view as your competition—and what sets you apart from them?

SS: ON24 is in a unique position as we provide a wide range of webcasting and rich media marketing solutions based on our close working relationships with our customers. Our customers turn to us for our outstanding professional services, our scalable and reliable technology platform and our ability to innovate in terms of how webcasting and rich media can be applied to enhance their marketing and lead generation agenda.

There may be companies that have components of these solutions, but from a comprehensive level, we believe that this truly sets us apart from everyone else.


WMC: How do you market and promote your business?

SS: Our goal is to constantly demonstrate the value that our webcasting and rich media marketing solutions provides to our customers. For us, we’ve been fortunate to have customers who recognize how our products and solutions benefit their corporate and marketing initiatives. Our customers have become advocates who either communicate the value internally to other departments and colleagues or who actively participate with us on customer case studies, testimonials and media references. Combined with our customer relations efforts, we are also very aggressive in our lead generation activities, of course using webcasting as part of our marketing mix, tradeshows and public relations efforts.


WMC: What's the biggest or most important marketing lesson you've learned since you started ON24?

CC: I think the most important thing, which is part of Marketing 101 or Product 101, is to be extremely close to your customers. In a category like ours, in which people were initially concerned about the complexities of audio and video but its now an important part of the future, we have to constantly hear from customers about the types of applications that they want. We want to know what they’re thinking about, as this is the only way that we can adapt our offerings to support them. For example 3-4 years ago, lead generation webinars didn’t exist. And now, nearly 50% of the webinars we host are for lead generation purposes.

New applications are evolving and as we stay close to our customers to understand their needs and to develop new applications that address these needs.


WMC: What inspired you to start Insight24.com?

SS: As I mentioned, we listen to our customers. We recognized that live webcasts are great for lead generation, with a majority of the audience attending during the live webcast and another 25-30% within the first week after the live webcast. We learned that many of customers would then have all of the archived webcasts but they were focused on the next campaign, so all of this content was sitting hidden on corporate websites or just not being used.

Secondly, when we started looking developing Insight24, a report came out highlighting how business and IT professionals preferred to receive their content. A vast majority indicated that they learned about solutions and companies through webcasts and podcasts.

We realized that by developing Insight24, we could provide two benefits—a resource for business and IT professionals to research solutions and compare vendors, while extending the shelf-life of rich media content for increased ROI.


WMC: Anything else you'd like to add?

SS: We are constantly looking at how we can better serve our customers and this was a great opportunity to share our thoughts. Thanks for the opportunity to speak with you and your readers Tom.

*****

technorati tags: Sharat Sharan, interview, ON24, Insight24, webcasting, rich media, B2B lead generation, thought leadership, webinars, podcasts

del.icio.us tags: Sharat Sharan, interview, ON24, Insight24, webcasting, rich media, B2B lead generation, thought leadership, webinars, podcasts

icerocket tags: Sharat Sharan, interview, ON24, Insight24, webcasting, rich media, B2B lead generation, thought leadership, webinars, podcasts

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

New on WMC: Guide to Web-Based B2B Lead Generation Programs

The web marketing plan development section on WebMarketCentral continues to expand with the recent addition of a Guide to Web-Based B2B Lead Generation Programs. An overview of online B2B lead generation tactics, this page provides an overview of the most common types of Internet advertising and online B2B lead generation programs, including:

• Search engine marketing


• Advertising on Internet ad networks


• White paper syndication


• Email marketing


• Webcasts and podcasts

The goal of all of these B2B lead generation activities is to make it easy for your prospects to find you when they are looking for a solution to a problem that your product or service provides, then guide them through the process from information-gathering to purchase. Research shows that 75-80% of B2B buyers and influencers use the Internet to find information about vendors rather than responding to outbound efforts.

Web-based lead generation programs supplement and complement offline efforts such as trade shows, direct mail and telemarketing. Online marketing is a key component of every B2B marketing and PR plan, but is particularly valuable for products and services that:

• Typically involve a single decision maker or small team;


• Are tactical rather than strategic purchases; and


• Are relatively inexpensive.

This new section expands on existing guides to SEO, blogging and interactive PR.

*****

technorati tags: web marketing plan development, b2b lead generation programs, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, ad networks, white paper syndication, email marketing, webcasts, podcasts, online marketing, b2b marketing, SEO, blogging, interactive PR

del.icio.us tags: web marketing plan development, b2b lead generation programs, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, ad networks, white paper syndication, email marketing, webcasts, podcasts, online marketing, b2b marketing, SEO, blogging, interactive PR

icerocket tags: web marketing plan development, b2b lead generation programs, Internet advertising, search engine marketing, ad networks, white paper syndication, email marketing, webcasts, podcasts, online marketing, b2b marketing, SEO, blogging, interactive PR

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices

A previous post here covered average click-through rates for email newsletter advertising, email campaigns and website banner ads. As noted, DoubleClick provides fairly reliable data across those media.

It's surprisingly difficult, however, to get meaningful data on the average click-through rate (CTR) for Google AdWords ads. This discussion on Webmaster World reports various experiences: 0.6%-1.2%, 1%-2% and 3%-5%. PayPerPost puts the figure at 0.5-1.5%; and Hochman Consultants pegs the average at 0.7-1.5%. Across all of the sources I was able to find, the average fell into the range of 1.1-2.2%. That range includes both B2B and B2C ads (the latter tend to generate higher CTRs). On the B2B side, I'd place the average Google AdWords CTR in the range of 0.9-1.4%.

So—how can you optimize your Google AdWords CTR to beat those averages? Recently added to WebMarketCentral is a list of 14 Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing. These best practices include:

• Use free online tools such as Google Suggest and Overture's Keyword Selector Tool to help select the most popular search terms relevant to your campaign.


• Write compelling, carefully targeted ad copy.


• Track, analyze, optimize and test everything: ad copy, landing pages, keyword bids and response incentives.


• Design and implement effective lead follow-up programs; without proper follow up, you're wasting money.


• Circle back and use search marketing data to improve your natural SEO by optimizing for the most valuable terms (combination of impressions and conversions). Natural search results are 3-4 times more likely to get clicked than paid ads, so it's critical for your website to show up well in both organic and paid search for key search terms.

See the entire list of SEM best practices here.

*****

technorati tags: average click-through rate, CTR, Google AdWords, Webmaster World, Hochman Consultants, PayPerPost, Overture keyword selector tool, B2B, B2C, SEO, paid ads, SEM best practices

del.icio.us tags: average click-through rate, CTR, Google AdWords, Webmaster World, Hochman Consultants, PayPerPost, Overture keyword selector tool, B2B, B2C, SEO, paid ads, SEM best practices

icerocket tags: average click-through rate, CTR, Google AdWords, Webmaster World, Hochman Consultants, PayPerPost, Overture keyword selector tool, B2B, B2C, SEO, paid ads, SEM best practices

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Book Review: The New Rules of Marketing and PR

There are two kinds of readers who won't like David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing & PR; fortunately for the author, both groups are small. The first is that small group of ahead-of-the-curve web marketers and PR professionals who have already figured out how to integrate online efforts between optimized news releases, blogs, social media sites, podcasts and all of the other content distribution and promotional tools now available online (though the ranks of this group will be swelled by the readers of David's book).

The second group is the diminishing number of old-school PR and marketing practitioners, those who still believe that press releases are only for the media, that you have to interrupt people with your marketing message to get their attention, and that campaigns aren't real unless they are on TV. This book explodes their old view of the world.

Scott performs two important services with this book, one tactical and one strategic. Tactically he pulls together a disparate set of new media tools into a coherent framework, while strategically, he presents one big idea.

On the tactical side, Scott presents a coherent framework for integrating all the tools of Web 2.0 into a unified marketing and PR program: blogs, podcasting, wikis, online discussion forums, social media, video, websites and search marketing. While many B2C and B2B marketers use at least a subset of these tools regularly, thinking about them in a unified manner can be challenging. An integrated approach maximizes the impact of online marketing and PR efforts, and Scott provides a useful thought framework for creating a coherent and productive action plan.

Strategically, Scott devotes much of the book to one key new rule of PR: it’s no longer just about media relations—writing press releases for journalists and hoping they’ll write about your product, service or company, but more about what I’ll call market relations (more about this in a future post)—writing news releases and using online distribution tools to reach your potential buyers directly.

Press releases are part of the old rules (though they still have their place): write about your company or its offerings, and distribute this information directly to journalists as well as through traditional services such as Marketwire, PR Newswire and Business Wire. News releases aren’t necessarily about you—they are about topics your prospects are interested in: new ideas, perspectives on what’s happening in the industry or helpful guidance on solving problems. These are distributed through online distribution services such as PRWeb and promoted through blog posts, podcasts and Web 2.0 social media.

One measure I have of a book’s utility is how many passages I highlight; I wore out a highlighter on this book. Here are a few key illustrative points and quotes:

• PR practitioners under-utilize blog research. “How difficult can it be to read the blogs of reporters you’re trying to pitch? It teaches you precisely what interests them. And then you email them with something interesting that they are likely to write about rather than spamming them with unsolicited press releases.”


• Taking your message directly to your prospects through thought-leadership news releases is a more productive approach to the media as well. “If you do a good job telling your story directly, the media will find out. And then they will write about you!”


• A market relations strategy won’t produce results overnight, but the beneficial effect is cumulative over time as your prospects come to see your company as a source of insightful, interesting expert content and commentary.


• Under the new rules, you are what you publish. “Anybody who wants to be a leader has to have news coming out...Businesses will live or die on original content…Get down to the essence of what (problems) your product solves and write good stories about that and publish them online.”


• Marketing and PR have to be less about fluff and more about substance. “What links all of these techniques together is that organizations…behave like publishers, creating content that people are eager to consume. Organizations gain credibility and loyalty with buyers through content, and smart marketers now think and act like publishers in order to create and deliver content targeted directly at their audience.”


• Thought leadership content is the ultimate marketing message. “Content brands an organization as a thought leader...Instead of just directly selling something, a great site, blog or podcast series tells the world that you are smart, that you understand the market very well, and that you would be a person or organization that would be valuable to do business with.”

There’s much more—about the power of blogs, the value of content aggregation, the challenge of viral marketing, the importance of online brand monitoring, how to utilize social media, why the “4 P’s” of marketing are nonsense, developing buyer personas and speaking their language, common PR terms to avoid, why you shouldn’t design your website’s media room just (or even primarily) for the media, and how to “pimp out” a blog.

The section on blogging is particularly useful, even for experienced bloggers. And as Scott points out, for many clued-in marketers and CEOs today, “It used to be that the moment of truth was when somebody went to the store to find your product. Now the moment of truth is a link to your site from a blog.” A well-written business blog can serve as a “storefront, shingle, office sign, newspaper ad and yellow-pages ad” all in one.

In short, this book rocks.

*****

technorati tags: book review, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of PR and Marketing, blogging, social media, podcasts, Web 2.0, wikis, B2B marketing, integrated marketing, market relations, thought leadership, buyer personas, pimp out a blog

del.icio.us tags: book review, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of PR and Marketing, blogging, social media, podcasts, Web 2.0, wikis, B2B marketing, integrated marketing, market relations, thought leadership, buyer personas, pimp out a blog

icerocket tags: book review, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of PR and Marketing, blogging, social media, podcasts, Web 2.0, wikis, B2B marketing, integrated marketing, market relations, thought leadership, buyer personas, pimp out a blog

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

MarketingSherpa Releases 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide

MarketingSherpa recently published its Search Marketing Benchmark Guide for 2008, providing data on cost per click (CPC), conversion rates, SEO and other key online marketing metrics. The study is designed to help online marketers set PPC and SEO budgets, forecast results, test online marketing programs, and even (toughest of all)—explain search marketing plans to your client or CEO.

Among the key findings:

• Search marketing continues to grow at an incredible pace, with spending up 39% globally in 2007.


• A third of respondents anticipate double-digit spending increases on both SEO and Google PPC programs in 2008.


• Marketers rate SEO second and search engine marketing (PPC) ads third in terms of ROI, behind only house-list email marketing. Online banner ads and print advertising receive the lowest grades for ROI. The return on PR spending is viewed as the most difficult to measure.


• Thinking of bringing SEM and SEO in-house? Nearly a third of corporate respondents said that finding talented SEO specialists is "very difficult" (which is probably why KCA's business is expanding in this area).


• Click fraud remains a significant problem, but is very difficult to measure (duh! Like you needed a research study to learn that.).

The complete study will set you back about $300, but this excerpt is free.

*****

technorati tags: MarketingSherpa, search marketing benchmark guide, cost per click, CPC, online marketing metrics, SEO, web marketing ROI

del.icio.us tags: MarketingSherpa, search marketing benchmark guide, cost per click, CPC, online marketing metrics, SEO, web marketing ROI

icerocket tags: MarketingSherpa, search marketing benchmark guide, cost per click, CPC, online marketing metrics, SEO, web marketing ROI

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Podcast Promotion vs. Blog Promotion

While there are several similarities between blog and podcast promotion, as an audio medium, podcasts offer several addition avenues for distribution. So, podcasts are somewhat of a different animal when it comes to promotion.

Blogs use RSS feeds to get indexed by search engines, as well as promotion tools such as Technorati, TruthLaidBear, Pingoat, BeeTooBee (for marketing blogs) and social media sites like BlogMarks. RSS feeds can be distributed through numerous sites; Robin Good still has one of the best lists ever.

Podcasts also use RSS feeds for distribution and are indexed by search engines based on the surrounding content—podcast files are generally placed on blogs or web pages along with text describing the subject and participants in the podcast. However, podcasts can also get added distribution through services such as iTunes, ODEO, Yahoo Podcasts, Podcast.com, Podcast Alley and Podcast Pickle. Want to really go nuts? Check out podCast411's directory of roughly 150 podcast promotion sites.

To use any of those promotional services, you'll need to create an RSS feed of your podcast, which can be done easily through FeedBurner. FeedBurner also provides an excellent tutorial on how to produce, store and index your podcasts using popular blogging tools. PodcastingNews provides step-by-step instructions for creating a podcast+blog+feed using Blogger and Feedburner.

In short, there's a bit more involved not only in recording podcasts, but also storing and promoting them than there is with blogs—but the addition distribution tools for podcasts make them like a super blog entry that has more methods of promotion.

My thanks to uber-podcaster Paul Dunay for his wisdom and guidance on podcast promotion for this post.

*****

technorati tags: blog promotion, podcasting tutorial, podcast promotion, Paul Dunay, BlogMarks, Robin Good, ODEO, Podcast Pickle, Podcast411, FeedBurner

del.icio.us tags: blog promotion, podcasting tutorial, podcast promotion, Paul Dunay, BlogMarks, Robin Good, ODEO, Podcast Pickle, Podcast411, FeedBurner

icerocket tags: blog promotion, podcasting tutorial, podcast promotion, Paul Dunay, BlogMarks, Robin Good, ODEO, Podcast Pickle, Podcast411, FeedBurner

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

WMC Interviews: Jonathan Treiber

I recently had the chance to interview Jonathan Treiber, CEO and co-founder of loyalty rewards marketing provider OnCard Marketing and the man behind iBakeSale.com. iBakeSale is an innovative "painless fundraising" program that allows consumers to save money through cash-back rewards from popular merchants while supporting their favorite charities. The program has signed up hundreds of popular merchants such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, 1-800-Flowers, Nordstrom, Lillian Vernon, Old Navy, GAP, PetCo and Linens-N-Things. Any charity can sign up and ask supporters to join.

iBakeSale is a great opportunity for shoppers to do well by doing good, and has been written up in numerous blogs including The Parent Bloggers Network, midwesternmommy.com, The Mummy Chronicles, The Karianna Spectrum and Phat Mommy, as well as Jonathan's own blog. Here's our conversation:

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before OnCard Marketing?

Jonathan Treiber (JT): I worked at Citigroup in New York City doing investment banking, finance and marketing.


WMC: How, when and why did you get started in this business?

JT: We started OnCard Marketing in June of 2006 with the intent to create a pay-per-sale advertising channel for paper media. We thought about making the advertising promotional in nature and engage consumers who would like to receive personalized offers at various retailers. We came from Citibank where we were familiar with the credit card rewards industry and thought it would be great if we could offer people more back on their existing card on top of what they were already getting. After some research, we decided to create our first rewards program where people could sign-up and shop at our advertisers to get deals. We would earn a fee on each purchase from the merchant.

We thought long and hard about what we could do that would be different from all the rewards programs out there and decided to incorporate our passion for non-profits into the business model. We talked with a few people who really liked the idea about using the cash-back rewards as fundraising dollars for local community organizations like churches, schools, little league teams etc. as well as larger charities. We realized nobody else was doing this and that it was a good twist/opportunity that could help us gain traction with consumers. We developed the application, lined up the merchants, and launched in May of 2007 with iBakeSale.com. It’s been growing ever since.


WMC: How would you describe the relationship between OnCard Marketing and iBakeSale.com?

JT: Great question, we get this one a lot. The best way to describe it is that they are two sides of the same coin. OnCard Marketing is our parent company which designed and developed the rewards technology and application for iBakeSale.com as well as other third party programs we are creating. OnCard develops the advertiser relationships and uses iBakeSale.com (which we own and operate) as a distribution channel for these offers directly to consumers. OnCard will leverage the other consumer programs we are building in the same way, as different distribution channels to get offers/ads to different consumers. We realized that we would need to build our first distribution channel (or rewards program) internally to prove to other parties that we could do it for them. Many parties were interested but didn’t want to commit because we were a start-up and hadn’t built a program before. So iBakeSale.com was created to accelerate partnership discussions and help us build credibility in our industry.


WMC: What type of consumer signs up for iBakeSale, or is all over the board?

JT: Really any type of consumer can sign-up. Since it’s not mandatory that members donate their savings, we have people who are just looking for shopping deals and want to keep their savings for themselves. On the other hand, a majority of our members are community moms and families who are looking to support various grass-roots causes and think that doing so by shopping is the coolest idea ever. These are the moms who are tired of bake sales and raffles and looking for something new to use for their multitude of fundraisers.

The biggest characteristic is that our members are people who are comfortable shopping online. Our members tend to be very vocal community members and many are staunch supporters of major charities. These folks are donating their savings to major charities, which gave us the idea to reach out to medium-sized charities as a fundraising option. Many charities are looking for additional funds and some have quickly adopted our program as one additional way to do so.


WMC: How have you attracted merchants to the iBakeSale program?

JT: This is a tricky question but a good one. We have used various ways to attract merchants. The biggest way was to use the various online affiliate networks to help us make contacts with various merchants. We had some pre-existing relationships with some who were interested but the majority of relationships stemmed from these affiliate networks. The thing many people don’t realize is that we had to sell and convince each retailer why they should work with us. It wasn’t so simple for us to join the network and get 300 merchants. There are often lengthy approval processes and various phone calls to explain our business and entice various merchants to work with us.

The biggest reason we were able to launch the program with 250 merchants was because we had such a good business concept. Many retailers who would not have worked with us as a straight rewards program were intrigued by the message we had around charity, community fundraising, and doing good by shopping. Many of these large merchants saw us as a way to gain a deeper presence on the local community level without having to do anything. Their marketing dollars were technically getting channeled through us (as a pass-through) to the communities we helped with iBakeSale.com. They saw it as a win-win and wanted to get onboard.


WMC: What sets you apart from other loyalty and rewards programs?

JT: Here are the key differentiators:

• iBakeSale offers cash-back rewards with an average rebate of 8%, higher than most other programs


• Our application allows users to donate a portion of their savings to any cause


• Users can create their own fundraising groups—they don’t need to be a 501(C)3
  


• Focused on grass-roots community organizations


• Fundraising groups doing most of the promotion of the program


• Monthly payouts to fundraising groups, unlike quarterly payouts from other programs


• Targeted offers to each member based on purchase history and preferences—most other programs offer a large online mall with no customization

WMC: How do you market and promote your business?

JT: As mentioned in the previous part, the biggest way we promote our business is by empowering the fundraising groups we support with the tools and marketing materials they need to recruit supporters into their group. It is clear to them that the more people they get into their group, the more money they can hope to raise from the program. We’ve even built in an interface similar to Evite where members can send group invitations directly from our website.

Other ways we are promoting our business is via strategic partnerships and sponsorships. We recently did two deals that are proving out to be very successful. One with MyChurch, which is similar to Facebook but focused on Christian Faith issues. The second was with AmeriCheer, the largest cheerleading organization in the country, where we signed a deal to become their exclusive fundraising partner. Beyond partnerships, we have also done targeted online advertising and are using the success stories from our fundraising groups to generate media coverage via our public relations strategy. That has been tremendous at helping us build online buzz for our program, especially with the media.


WMC: What's the biggest or most important marketing lesson you've learned since you started OnCard Marketing?

JT: There are so many I honestly don’t know where to start. The most important lessons I’ve learned so far have been:

• Understand who your customers are and which ways are best to reach them


• It’s always easy to spend money on marketing—it’s spending wisely that’s the tough part


• Follow-up with everybody—people are not always responsive at first, but a good marketer knows how to follow-up with varied messaging to elicit a response


• The internet offers tremendous opportunity to build brand and reputation quickly—but only if you use the right tools for your business

WMC: Anything else you'd like to add?

JT: I think that does it. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with your readers. I really appreciate it.

*****

technorati tags: Jonathan Treiber, OnCard Marketing, iBakeSale.com, loyalty programs, reward programs, online shopping, the Parent Bloggers Network, midwesternmommy.com, the Mummy Chronicles, the Karianna Spectrum, Phat Mommy, credit card rewards, community charities, non-profit fund raising, MyChurch.com

del.icio.us tags: Jonathan Treiber, OnCard Marketing, iBakeSale.com, loyalty programs, reward programs, online shopping, the Parent Bloggers Network, midwesternmommy.com, the Mummy Chronicles, the Karianna Spectrum, Phat Mommy, credit card rewards, community charities, non-profit fund raising, MyChurch.com

icerocket tags: Jonathan Treiber, OnCard Marketing, iBakeSale.com, loyalty programs, reward programs, online shopping, the Parent Bloggers Network, midwesternmommy.com, the Mummy Chronicles, the Karianna Spectrum, Phat Mommy, credit card rewards, community charities, non-profit fund raising, MyChurch.com

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

PR Through Bloggers

To add a few of my own thoughts to the last post by Cece Lee, "blogger relations" are becoming as important as media relations in PR strategy. Connecting your content with bloggers is increasingly important for several reasons:

• Bloggers have increasing influence. As previously reported, when making purchasing decisions, B2B buyers spend more time with social media than any other content except vendor materials, and trust social media more than any other source. Blogs are a key component of the social media B2B buyers are reading.


• Bloggers tend to be subject matter experts (although some might point to this blog as an exception to that rule). After all, it's difficult to write on a regular basis about a topic outside of one's expertise. That's why, for example, you'll find few Minnesotans who blog about surfing (okay, Graeme Thickens being an exception).


• Bloggers are passionate about their subjects. They have to be, to write about it week after week, when there's generally very little direct income involved. The average blog generates less than $50 per month in direct advertising income; even uber-blogger and best-selling author David Meerman Scott concedes in his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR that his blog income is "not much money, but every few months I can take my family out for a nice dinner on the proceeds."


• Bloggers reach a micromarket. While maintstream print publications, even within a specific industry trade category, reach tens or even hundreds of thousands of readers, that audience is necessarily broad. By focusing on niche subject matter, bloggers generally reach a smaller but much more concentrated audience.

So, here are a few of my own observations about how to best approach bloggers. I receive numerous emails each week from PR folks asking me to write about their product or service. Most of these appeals are appalling; a few are very well-crafted (that's how I initially connected with Cece; her first message was one of the latter). I recently received an email from Bill Halpern of Integrateurs International, a telemarketing B2B technology lead generation firm. His message rated a 4-out-of-5 for blogger outreach quality:

• Excellent subject line: his subject line was "sorry to hear about your problems with junk email on your form"—that told me immediately that he had visited my website, as he could only have come up with that phrase from visiting my contact page.


• Audience understanding: it was clear from his message that he understood who my audience is (marketers interested in B2B lead generation, particularly in the technology sector).


• Appropriate topic: related to the above point, his subject (using telemarketing services for technology B2B lead generation) was highly relevant for my readership.


• Informal, personal style: his writing had a genuine tone and was his message was clearly written to me—not to a list of editors on a media list.


• Link to thought-leadership content: the one place where Bill's message failed (though he's working on this). Bloggers generally don't like to simply schlep a product or service (unless it's something truly unique), but do like writing about unique and valuable thought-leadership content, such as an insightful and enlightening white paper, article, podcast, blog post or report. And while many bloggers prefer not to simply be on a press release distribution list, they will write about important announcements.
  

PR professionals looking to effectively reach bloggers would do well to follow Bill's example.

*****

technorati tags: blogger relations, media relations, PR strategy, B2B marketing, social media, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, micromarket, Cece Lee, Bill Halpern, B2B lead generation, thought leadership content

del.icio.us tags: blogger relations, media relations, PR strategy, B2B marketing, social media, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, micromarket, Cece Lee, Bill Halpern, B2B lead generation, thought leadership content

icerocket tags: blogger relations, media relations, PR strategy, B2B marketing, social media, David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, micromarket, Cece Lee, Bill Halpern, B2B lead generation, thought leadership content

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

PR and Blogging Outreach: Practical Tips

This content has been moved to PR and Blogger Outreach: Practical Tips on the Webbiquity blog.

*****

technorati tags: Cece Salomon Lee, Web 2.0, PR, blogging, blogger outreach, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel

del.icio.us tags: Cece Salomon Lee, Web 2.0, PR, blogging, blogger outreach, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel

icerocket tags: Cece Salomon Lee, Web 2.0, PR, blogging, blogger outreach, Naked Conversations, Robert Scoble, Shel Israel

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom