Subject: What Works in B-to-B

From: American Business Media <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 16:30:03 -0600

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(Business Media Matters is a monthly e-newsletter for the advertising community. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please use the links at the bottom of this newsletter.)

January 27, 2005 |

In This Issue
Peer-to-Peer Strategy Boosts eBay Revenue
Ten Ways to Make Your Trade Show Marketing More Effective
Raising Your Visibility in the News Media
THIS IS YOUR FINAL ISSUE, UNLESS...

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CAMPAIGNS THAT WORK
Peer-to-Peer Strategy Boosts eBay Revenue

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The client: eBay Business.
The goal: increase awareness and drive total dollar sales.
The task: "F.U.D." eradication.

That's how Chicago-based ad agency Slack Barshinger saw it. Chairman Gary Slack (whose other title is "chief experience officer") explains that F.U.D.—Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt—were what eBay worried might keep potential customers from using eBay Business. Through data analysis and in-depth interviews with eBay Business users and non-users, Slack-Barshinger discovered that users had no F.U.D. about conducting transactions on eBay. Non-users, on the other hand, were largely unaware they could purchase industrial equipment on eBay, and the idea of it filled them with F.U.D.

"The emotion that is so powerful in b-to-b is fear—the fear of making a bad decision," says Slack. "There's often as much of an emotional component to business buying as a rational one. So the communication strategy became obvious: passionate eBay Business users would make the best pitchmen."

Print ads show real eBay Business customers—a restaurant owner in his kitchen, a farmer in his barn—describing in their own words the ease and efficiency of using eBay Business. Ad copy contained hard numbers: "Last year, we spent $60,000 on eBay for equipment that would have cost more than $500,000 new," says a metalworker. A restaurateur says he spent $3,000 on equipment worth $30,000.

The ads ran in targeted media; the farming ad, for example, appeared in publications such as Farm Journal and Fastline. The restaurant ad appeared in Restaurant Business, Restaurants & Institutions and other industry titles. The campaign also included a creative mix of multi-media promotion efforts. Thirty-second spots and monthly live auctions ran on Farm Journal's AgDay TV. "How to Use eBay" promotions were featured in booths at regional events like the SunBelt Agricultural Expo and on farming websites.

Within a year, awareness of eBay Business in the targeted categories climbed from less than five percent to an impressive 30 percent, and eBay's total b-to-b sales revenue doubled to $2 billion. The campaign is ongoing, and new ads with the tagline "The Power of All of Us" will begin appearing this month in various b-to-b publications.

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FACE-TO-FACE
Ten Ways to Make Your Trade Show Marketing More Effective

Business marketers spend more than $20 billion a year on trade show marketing. But much of that money is simply wasted. The way to get more value from your investment in trade shows is by careful planning, dedication to measurement, and-above all-a strategic focus. Here are 10 tips for trade show success.

Think beyond marketing. Trade shows combine elements of selling, lead generation, public relations, research, brand awareness building, and account penetration. Successful marketers wear many hats when putting together their trade show marketing plans.

Put your trade shows in the middle of your go-to-market strategy. Each show must be part of an integrated marketing plan. Don't go to a show just because "it's something we do every year." Make sure it's part of a larger strategy to acquire and retain customers.

Targeting is everything. At a trade show, a fabulous booth is useless in front of the wrong people. So, spend serious time on trade show selection. Then, plan your participation at the show to attract the top potential buyers-and minimize the time you'll spend with non-prospects.

Plan your measurements in advance. Trade shows have developed a reputation for being "difficult to measure." But they are no more difficult than any other marketing activity. The secret is in setting clear, specific objectives and planning the metrics that will prove the results.

Play to a trade show's strengths. Trade shows tend to be inefficient venues for generating awareness. They are an expensive way to build a mailing list. But they are excellent for starting—and nurturing—face-to-face relationships with multitudes of customers and prospects.

Trade shows are the tip of a much larger iceberg. Some companies think that if they pull together a booth and show up at the trade show, they are all set. But the show needs to be part of an end-to-end marketing campaign. It's pre-show and post-show communications that make the event a true success.

Do your own promotions. You cannot simply rely on show management to drive all the possible business opportunity to your booth. An investment in your own pre-show promotions is the best money you'll ever spend.

Capture and follow up on your trade show contacts. Lead capture and management is a process. It requires attention and diligence. If you don't have a lead management process in place at your company, stop now. Go build one before you invest another dollar in trade show marketing.

It's all about people. Not only targeting the right audience to meet with you at the show, but also selecting, training, and motivating the right staff members to interact with them when they come.

Focus on the business goals. Managing a trade show can be extremely complicated, with myriad details and logistical challenges. But don't forget why you're there-it's to engage with customers and prospects and generate business results.

(The above is an excerpt from the book "Trade Show and Event Marketing" by marketing consultant Ruth P. Stevens, who also teaches marketing at Columbia Business School. Reach her at [email-masked]. If you are interested in the trade show business, attend the Trade Show Summit at the Essex House in New York on Feb. 23, 2005. For details, visit this URL.)

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ON MEDIA RELATIONS
Raising Your Visibility in the News Media
How can you get your company mentioned in USA Today or The Wall Street Journal? How can you get CNBC or CNN to interview your CEO and other resident experts? How can you most effectively get coverage for your brand from the major news media?

Here are the types of stories that get the media's attention:

Trend stories. Show that your pitch is part of a larger trend story, and provide sources outside of your company.

"If you can show me that your story could have national implications, then I know it's not just a self-serving story for you. A small Pennsylvania agency called me and said, 'You know, we only got through the last couple of years because we picked up the anti-smoking campaign in Pennsylvania.' But what they were also able to do was identify six or seven other small agencies who within their states had also picked up anti-smoking work, and were also those kinds of small agencies who would have suffered through the recession. We were able to therefore make a bigger, national story out of that."-Jonah Bloom, executive editor, Advertising Age

Data, studies, surveys that are exclusive to your publication.

"Sometimes you could have data and studies that are proprietary and interesting, and I can't get it anywhere else. That can be a way of getting into an article. A study's been done, a survey, a tally." -Brian Steinberg, advertising columnist, Wall Street Journal

"We love top 40, top 10, top one. We love to know who's in first and who's in tenth place, we love a list. So if you have one of those, I'm always interested in hearing it. What exactly are you listing and how does it work. We've had guests on the air who said, 'We've categorized the Top 10 whatever,' and people like that." -Ed Caldwell, supervising producer, Bloomberg TV

Stories that present a different or controversial angle.

"If you can come to us with something that might be an indicator of future growth in X, then that's a different take on an economic stat that's not the boring housing stats, and [other reports] that we get every month. We had a guest on yesterday that said that she formerly worked for Alan Greenspan and her job was to plot scrap metal inventories. How boring is that? But, it's a Greenspan leading indicator, because auto manufacturers buy scrap metal before they buy new metal. But who would have thought that? So if you have an interesting data point that will speak to us about consumer confidence, great, we love that." -Christine Dooley, senior producer, CNBC

Stories with a news hook.

"Look at the calendar. Business news, in a sense, is predictable in that you know the earnings season comes around four times a year, and there are regular events that affect business programming-for example, the Davos Conference, or the major economic reports that are released by the government." -Ed Caldwell, Bloomberg TV

"Big companies doing big things, that's what interests me most. I don't mind doing feature stories from time to time about quirky things that will - the term we like to use at USA Today - 'surprise and delight' our readers. But, that really has to jump a higher bar than most daily conventional stories. My focus here is hard news. Probably the biggest mistake people make is to call me up, and they'll say the words that send a shiver down my spine, which is: 'I've got a fun story for you!' Fun? I cover the news."-David Lieberman, senior media reporter, USA Today

(This article is an excerpt from "B-to-B Meets the Press: Raising B-to-B's Visibility in the News Media," a report from the PR/Corporate Communications Committee of American Business Media. The full report will be available in February 2005. Contact Jane O'Connor if you are interested in receiving it.)

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THE POWER IN B-TO-B
THIS IS YOUR FINAL ISSUE, UNLESS...
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Brought to you by American Business Media, Business Media Matters is a monthly e-newsletter that brings the b-to-b opportunity to life for marketers, advertisers and media planners and buyers. Each issue contains industry data, research and case studies that document the power and effectiveness of business media as advertising and marketing vehicles.
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