Read the full article at The Results People blog.

Red shirt, no real purpose = death.

Granted, in Star Trek, including an alien battle makes the episode more exciting. But the story line is developed by the main characters, not that ensign you see for 6 seconds before he gets killed. The aliens didn’t have time to deal with insignificant, pointless Away Team members.

Think about sinking resources and screen real estate into a part of your site that’s got no real purpose. Your visitors don’t need distractions like that flashy red button over there that doesn’t have any impact on the story you’re trying to tell.

Data and human emotions just do not mesh.

Data always struggled trying to understand human emotions. Even with an emotion chip, he still couldn’t quite grasp them properly.

Analytics are great – they tell you what visitors did on your site, how long they did it for, where they came from, where they went, how much money they spent… but they don’t tell you why visitors did something. There is no substitute (emotion chip, etc.) for true human emotions. You need to talk to real people to find out what they’re experiencing on your site.

I’m a doctor, Jim, not a…

Poor Bones. Kirk just kept throwing stuff at him that he wasn’t familiar with. You need to take the time to understand your visitors, so that you’re presenting them with information and tasks that they can understand and complete without getting frustrated with you.

Our neural pathways have become accustomed to your sensory input patterns.

Ok, I’m taking this one out of context a bit (in case you’re wondering, this is Riker commenting on the crew’s friendship with Data), but the point here is that there are lots of tools out there now that let you monitor one specific visitor’s behaviors, and then present them with content that is uniquely applicable to them. By building up that database of their inputs, you can effectively target your message to them.

In that particular moment, I was reconfiguring the warp field parameters, analyzing the collected works of Charles Dickens, calculating the maximum pressure I could safely apply to your lips, considering a new food supplement for Spot…

Data was extremely good at multitasking, even when “romantically” engaged with Jenna. Understanding what else is going on while your visitors are engaged with you through ethnography or similar types of research can give you an idea of how much attention visitors are really giving to you.

Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind.

No matter what you think, there is always room for improvement. Getting into A/B and multivariate testing is pretty easy these days, so I suggest you give it a try. Take all of the work you’ve now done to understand your visitors and use it to start tweaking your designs to optimize conversions. If you need some ideas on what to test or how to optimize parts of your site, check out user experience best practices, form best practices, landing page testing ideas, call to action best practices, and some of our other online experience articles.

Act, and you shall have dinner; wait, and you shall be dinner.

This Klingon proverb summarizes the current digital marketing landscape pretty well. It’s not enough to throw up any old website any more – you have to understand your customers and what their needs and pains are, and act on giving them what they need to solve their problems. And you have to be constantly monitoring this and adapting to their changing needs. Sit still, and you risk giving up business to your competitors who aren’t sitting still.

Make it so.

So get out there, boldly go where none of your competitors have gone before, and start getting to know your buyer better. It’ll pay off.

Engage.

Still not sure what you should to understand your buyers or to optimize your website? We can help.

More and more of us are using mobile handsets to access the internet, and we frequently see headlines declaring that ‘mobile internet will soon overtake fixed internet‘ or advising us to ‘forget desktop, its all about the mobile‘. And of course this time of year we get the usual predictions like ‘the one big trend is mobile‘ and ‘mobile will finally take off [in 2011]‘. There’s no doubt that significant momentum is building in terms of online activity by mobile users. And it’s not just anecdotal: there are reliable statistics backing up these claims.

But, as usual, it’s a good idea to take a deep breath and analyze the data a little closer to home in order to separate the general hype from your specific reality before making any rash business decisions. These are very broad trends the pundits are taking about. Often, the data is consumer-oriented. Is it time for B2B businesses to ramp up investment in mobile advertising, site functionality, and app development? Are we there yet?

In order to get a sense of where things stand, I took a quick look at the data for 10 B2B sites* to gauge the impact of mobile traffic. These sites are operated by companies of various sizes (mostly medium-sized businesses), covering a range of business sectors, with various levels of site traffic*. Really, about the only thing they have in common is that they are selling goods and services almost exclusively to other businesses.

Here are the results:

Strong and steady growth in total mobile traffic to 10 B2B sites, although curious dip since Sep-10.

Across the 10 B2B sites analyzed, percent of total traffic has grown strongly and steadily, except for recent declines. However, it remains well below 2% of total traffic from these 10 sites.

Significant differences in the amount of mobile traffic to individual sites, varying from strongly positive trends to relatively flat, with some volatility.

Except for one outlier that has reached the 5-6% range, mobile traffic is still below 2% of total visits for these sites.

So we can see that the growing trend in mobile use is starting to have a measurable impact for B2B sites – but only starting. It is also worth noting that the trends are not unwaveringly upward, as pundits may imply.

It should also be pointed out that this analysis only considers visits. To get a more informed look at the impact of mobile traffic on your site (and to investigate traffic fluctuations that may be present), it may be worthwhile to also look at engagement metrics and data on outcomes. Mobile traffic may be small, but may be delivering a disproportionate share of conversions. Or there may be a lack of engagement if your site is not mobile-friendly. Also, by looking at unique visitors, you can gauge the actual number of people that are accessing your site via mobile devices – could tell a different story than visits alone.

Your results may vary, but this may provide some additional context with regard to mobile usage for B2B sites. This may not be the time for action and investment in catering to those mobile users, but it is probably a good idea to check in with your web analytics data – and your qualitative voice of customer data – so that you are ready when the time does come.

What do you think? Am I being too conservative? Are you getting out ahead of the curve and experiencing success with mobile in a B2B environment? Interested to hear from you.

*Background: 10 U.S. and Canadian B2B sites in various industry sectors; average visits per month per site ranging from ~10,000 to ~150,000 visits; data source for all sites: Google Analytics.

John Yuill is a Search Marketing Strategist at Mediative.

Unfamiliar Territory

In the consumer world, billions of branding dollars are spent to create a sense of familiarity not just with a product but also with a brand. Even if we’ve never bought a product before, there’s a good chance that we have some idea of the competitive landscape within the product category. If we were looking to make a purchase for ourselves, I would venture to say there are very few things we would consider buying where we wouldn’t even know the name of the product. Yet, this is an every day occurrence in the B2B world. Often, we’re asked to make informed purchase decisions about products and services that we never even heard of yesterday.

When we strike into unfamiliar territory, we create a challenge for the B2B marketer. If we don’t even know the name of the product we’re looking to buy, how do we start looking for it? Where do we begin? It’s pretty hard to Google something when you don’t know what to call it. This makes keyword discovery one of the challenging and important parts of any B2B search campaign.

Often B2B purchases are not only a buying decision, they also come with a steep learning curve. The buyer has to identify a potential solution, learn about the product category, identify the potential vendors, determine decision criteria – and this all has to be done before they even start evaluating their alternatives. Imagine trying to buy a car or a flat screen TV if you had no idea what those things were or even if they existed at all.

Decision by Committee

Sometime ago in my life, as I hung out my advertising consultant shingle, I was introduced to the joys and tribulations of committee driven decision-making. I uncovered the sad truth behind the joke, “How do you determine the average IQ of committee? You take the lowest IQ in the group and divide it by the number of people in the committee.”

B2B purchases are often driven by committee. And, as we found in the BuyerSphere research, different members of the committee have different agendas. In high risk, long cycle purchases, the internal politics involved in a purchase can rival anything you’ll find on Wisteria Lane. These differing agendas mean that signals from the committee will seem to be a cross purposes, making life exceeding difficult for the vendor.

The challenges from a search marketing perspective lie in the fact that if different committee members are looking for different information (as determined by their own objectives) they will also expect distinctly different experiences. Your website and search campaign somehow has to be able to offer clear and compelling paths through this tangled knot of prospect behaviors. Clear segmentation options, relevant messaging and highly intuitive navigation are three ways to guide different buyers with different objectives to the right destination.

B2B is different from B2C. It’s more complex, more challenging and, in my opinion, much more interesting.

Originally published in Mediapost’s Search Insider July1st 2010

I answer that question the same way I answer all questions about marketing: Let’s look at it through the eyes of the buyer. And when we do that, we find some significant differences as we step from the consumer side to the business side.

It’s All About Risk

When we make decisions in any part of our lives, we have a “brake” and a “gas pedal” that governs the decision-making process. Call it risk and reward, prevention and promotion, loss and gain. Whatever you call it, in most decisions, there are opposing forces, and the ultimate decision depends on the balance between the two. If reward overcomes risk, we buy. If risk rules, we don’t.

On the consumer side of our lives, there’s often a strong emotional investment in the reward part of the equation. For example, I really want a new road bike. I can’t rationalize the purchase, seeing as I have a perfectly good used road bike, but that doesn’t quell the pangs of jealousy I feel when I see someone wheeling down the road on a new Cervelo or Trek Madone. Someday, I know, reward (the joy of saying “look, me too!”) will overcome the risk (parting with a significant chunk of cash) for me.

But think about most B2B purchases. If we’re looking at buying a new rack of servers, or supply chain management software, where’s the fun in that? The only real emotion at play here is the risk of screwing up and being fired. Emotions in B2B purchases are heavily biased towards risk mitigation. And that directly impacts your search strategy. Messaging has to minimize risk in the eyes of the buyer, rather than try to build on the emotional reward side of things. I can’t say the same would be true if you were bidding on terms like “convertible roadster,” “touring motorcycle” or even “iPad.”

It’s Their Job

The second difference is directly related to the first. B2B purchases are part of someone’s job. They’re not doing it because they simply love buying enterprise software or industrial supplies. No one makes a hobby out of buying O-rings or heavy-duty water pumps.

How does this affect a search strategy? It heightens the need for efficient retrieval of information. While a consumer looking at a sports car or booking a cruise might want to get “immersed” in an “experience,” typical B2B purchasing agents want to get in and out, allowing them to put one more check mark beside their ever-growing to-do list. They will not be in a forgiving mood if you send them down dead ends or tie them up in confusing navigation. This is all about making their job easier. And that becomes crucial when you think about landing page strategies and the path that leads from them.

Next week, I’ll cover the other two ways that B2B differs from B2C: the fact that often buyers are in unfamiliar territory, and that B2B purchases are typically group decisions.

Originally published in Mediapost’s Search Insider June 24th 2010

“In the 3M scheme of things, marketing wasn’t even a second tier priority. It was fourth or fifth tier at best. But in the future, marketing needs to lead 3M.”
Jeff Lavers, VP of Marketing, Sales and Communications, 3M

“Emerson didn’t even have a CMO before me. They didn’t believe they needed one.”
Kathy Button Bell, CMO, Emerson

“We’re announcing a marriage at GE. We’re not sure how they’ll get along, but IT and Marketing are about to become married. We’re combining the two functions.”
Beth Comstock, CMO, GE

Wow! Three iconic B2B brands, each rethinking the role of marketing within their organizations. Is this a wave?

What Marketing Should be

The reason I love marketing, at it’s purest, is that it is the connection between an organization’s business model and their customers. It owns that essential bond. But that’s a responsibility that has been abdicated by many organizations, and never explicitly acknowledged by others. That connection, that reason to do business in the first place, is ignored but a startling number of companies. Marketing should be the voice of the customer, driving product development, service delivery, operations…indeed, every aspect of the business. That’s what Lavers was hinting at in his challenge to 3M. Companies need to be driven by their customers. Marketing should be accountable for keeping the two firmly in sync. But somehow, in the past several decades, marketing has become cheapened to the point that the function was essentially abolished in many org charts. 3M relegated it to a seat way at the back of the bus. Emerson never even bothered to put in on the corporate directory until 10 years ago. Marketing needs to be put back on the org chart, right at the top.

The excuse in the B2B world was that there was no need for marketing. The channels owned the relationships with the customers. But the digital marketplace is reforging relationships between manufacturers and end customers. Suddenly, brands matter. Customer feedback matters. Conversations matter. Marketing has to be the one constantly reminding those inside the corporate walls that those connections are vital in the future.

The Marketing – IT Connection

So, that explains the import of the comments from Jeff Lavers and Kathy Button Bell. What of the impending nuptials between marketing and IT at GE? What are we to make of Beth Comstock’s BMA announcement?

This signals are fascinating shift in the practice of marketing. If marketing takes over the wheel and drives the company forward, then IT has to provide the infrastructure to help it win. This will be an uneasy shift of power. IT is just to being the control point within organizations. Marketing would use a different label. “Bottleneck” or “Black Hole” is one I regularly hear. With the shift in importance of marketing, IT dragging their heels will no longer be tolerated. In their drive to be nimble, Marketing will be pushing and pushing hard. I see no signals here that indicate potential wedded bliss. Essential? Yes. Easy? Not on your life!

If America’s iconic B2B brands are now ramping up for a new kind of marketplace, one where they take back accountability for end-to-end relationships, we are definitely dealing with a new normal. But I fear many in the C-Suite ponder the prospect with the same reluctance they would have about giving the kids the keys to the Porsche. Sure, we’ll go fast, but we will be driving off a cliff?

Originally published in Mediapost’s Search Insider June 10th 2010

Some of the questions that we will be exploring include:

1. What technologies exist that will facilitate more collaboration between marketing and sales?
2. Should social media be part of your demand generation strategies?
3.  What role does search marketing play in improving both the quality and quantity of your leads?
4.  How will demand generation look different in 2015?

Join us for a conversation with Mac McIntosh (from The Business-to-Business Sales Lead ExpertsTM) and Gord Hotchkiss (author of The BuyerSphere Project) to discuss these and other existing realities that face B2B Marketers.

This webinar is recommended for VP’s, Directors and Managers in Sales and/or Marketing roles.

Register here: http://pages.enquiro.com/webinar24-managing-b2b-sales-leads.html

Our Digital Footprints

Mike Bloxham, Michelle Prieb and Jen Milks (the last two joined us for the last Search Insider Summit) were gracious hosts, and, as with last week (when I was in Germany) i had the chance to participate in a truly fascinating conversation that I wanted to share with you. We talked about the fact that this generation is the first that will leave a permanent digital footprint. Mike Bloxham called it the Indelible Generation. Mike’s title is more than just a bon mot (being British, he’s prone to pithy observations), it’s a telling comment about a fundament aspect of our new society.

Imagine some far-in-the-future anthropologist recreating our culture. Up to this point in our history, the recorded narrative of any society came from a small sliver of the population. Only the wealthiest or most learned received the honor of being chronicled in any way. The average person spent their time on this planet with nary a whisper of their lives recorded for posterity. They passed on without leaving a footprint.

Explicit and Implicit Content Creation

But today, or, if not today, certainly tomorrow, all of us will leave a rather large digital footprint. We will leave in our wake emails, Tweets, blog posts and Facebook pages. And that’s just the content we knowingly create. There’s a lot of data generated by each of us that’s simply a by-product of our online activities and intentions. Consider, for example, our search history. Search is a unique online beast because it tends to be the thread we use to stitch together our digital lives. Each of us leaves a narrative written in search interactions that provides a frighteningly revealing glimpse into our fleeting interests, needs and passions.

No, of course, not all this data gets permanently recorded. Privacy concerns mean that search logs, for example, get scrubbed at regular intervals. But even with all that, we leave behind more data about who we were, what we cared about and what thoughts passed through our minds than any previous generation. Whether it’s personally identifiable or aggregated and anonymized, we will all leave behind footprints.

Privacy? What Privacy?

Currently we’re struggling with this paradigm shift and it’s implications for our privacy. I believe in time, and not that much time, we’ll simply grow to accept this archiving of our lives as the new normal and won’t give it a second thought. We will trade personal information in return for new abilities, opportunities and entertainment. We will grow more comfortable with being the Indelible Generation.

Of course, I could be wrong. Perhaps we’ll trigger a revolt against the surrender of our secrets. Either way, we live in a new world, one where we’re always being watched. The story of how we deal with that is still to be written.

Originally published in Mediapost’s Search Insider June 4th 2010