White Papers or Webcasts? (Your Prospects’ Choice May Surprise You.)

March 28, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

If you’re like most B2B marketers, you probably would choose webcasts almost every time as the preferred means to influence your prospects; they’re visual and provide a richer, quasi-personal means of communicating your message to your prospects. Chances are, you do white papers – if at all – primarily because your competitors do, or as a means of giving your developers a place to expound on topics that you secretly believe only they really care about.

Problem is, that perspective is not shared by the people you most want to influence; in fact, your prospects would choose white papers almost every time …certainly while they’re still in research mode. While we’ve suspected this for some time, there’s now some solid evidence… [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Engagement, Online Marketing ·

Can You Really Afford to “Set It and Forget It”?

March 24, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

You spent thousands of dollars outsourcing the design and development of your beautiful shiny new website …or you had capable people in house who developed it. Either way, it cost you and your company valuable resources, i.e., time and money; and no doubt plenty of blood, sweat and tears. From planning and development to developing new (or migrating existing) content and assets, creating a new website is an extensive and laborious process. The sigh of relief when a new site is finally launched can be heard around every beltway across America. So is it time now for that chaise lounge on the beach with an umbrella in your drink? Sure, why not, you’ve earned it; but whatever you do, don’t just “set it and forget it”.

I’ve seen too many website owners fall into the trap of building a new site without content development strategy, much less putting strategy into practice. I hear it all the time: “Why do I need more content on my website? I’ve got plenty. Besides, nobody reads that stuff anyway.” Au contraire, mon ami; look in your web analytics to see exactly what your visitors are reading.

I have two edicts about search engine optimization. The first: [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Search Engine Marketing, Traffic Generation ·

Is Your B2B Website Educating? …or Simply Boasting?

March 18, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

We see so many websites that read much like print ads or brochures: going on and on about the virtues of the company and its products or services. Phrases like “leading”, “most flexible”, “best-performing”, “cutting edge”, “best practices” and other such superlatives appear to elbow each other for more and better page space.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that …to an extent. After all, it’s your site; so you have every right – in fact, a responsibility – to present your firm and its offerings in their best possible light. And especially in those early days… if you don’t say nice things about yourself, who else is likely to?

But if that’s all your site is doing, you’re very likely disappointing your most cherished audience of potential purchasers [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Engagement ·

The Secrets of Keeping Your Website-Design Project on Track

March 11, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

It’s no secret – at least not to those of us in the industry – that website design projects tend to vary all over the map in terms of time-to-complete. And only some of that is due to the scope or size of the job; even for similar-scope projects, there’s a lot of variance. Most of it is due to subtle traps that clients unwittingly fall into, often because projects of this type and complexity are simply unfamiliar territory for many of the people who really need to be involved.

Here at eMagine, we’d much prefer to see every website-design project run like clockwork; in fact it’s a win-win, better for the client and better for us. So we’ve put together this little checklist of steps clients can take to keep theirs from becoming like the houseguest that never leaves… or in this case, The Project That Never Ends. [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Web Design ·

“Do we need a Web marketing firm? …we already have an ad agency.”

March 4, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

In a recent posting on our B2B Web Strategy blog, we summarized David Meerman Scott’s fine piece on RainToday, provocatively titled “Don’t Trust An Advertising Agency To Build Your Web Site” …primarily because we couldn’t agree more with his premise.

Today we thought we’d turn it around to the positive, and discuss why you should engage a specialized Web marketing firm, and for more than website-building …even if you already use a traditional agency for such things as image and branding. Not surprisingly, the major reason for using a dedicated Web marketing firm is its specialized expertise – which explodes into numerous component segments, including:

  • Web marketing strategy
  • Website design and development
  • Website usability and architecture [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Online Marketing ·