Blogging

It’s a widespread and persistent quandary for marketers, particularly B2B marketers who use white papers as a lead generation incentive for response: on the one hand, if you place a contact form in front of your content, you’ll get a very low conversion rate (on average, 95% of visitors will simply leave the site, and one-third of those who remain will enter bogus information). On the other, if you leave your PDF content open, more people will download your materials but you get no information: who are these visitors? Are they actually reading your content? Printing it? Passing it along? Leaving your content open may actually produce more leads in the long run, but you have no way to measure that with any precision (or even know for sure if that’s the case).

How do you maximize the return on the investment you’ve made not only in producing valuable white papers and other content, but also in driving traffic to it through search engine advertising, email marketing, banner ads and other media? Particularly in this economy, when budgets are being squeezed and marketers are mandated to do more with less, how can you exceed “typical” results and get more than 2-3% of your visitors to raise their hands?

My first post on this topic looked at one possible answer, “post-click marketing” services that extract visitor IP information from your website log files, filter out ISPs and then match remaining network information to various databases to show you, in real time, who is visiting your website and what information they are viewing. Although the term “spyware” is unfair, these services still make some marketers uncomfortable as they are collecting information without the specific consent of visitors. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to get a higher percentage of visitors to voluntarily provide you with their contact information?

A unique new SaaS offering from Vitrium Systems called Docmetrics may do exactly that.

How Docmetrics Works

Once you are set up with their online service (no software to install), you upload your PDFs—white papers, case studies, product data sheets etc.—to your Docmetrics account. Next, create custom Flash forms using Docmetrics tools to collect user information. Insert these forms into your documents; for a white paper, you may want to place the form on page 2 or 3; for content you wouldn’t normally “gate” with a contact form, such as a product sheet, you can put the form at the end of the document. Finally, download your PDFs with the contact forms now inserted and upload these to your website.

When a visitor comes to your site, they can download any PDF without completing an on-site contact form. When they reach the page in your PDF with the Docmetrics Flash form inserted, the form will appear asking them for their contact information. You have the option of requiring completion of the form in order to read the remainder of the document (e.g. with a white paper), or providing a “skip” button on the form so the form submission is voluntary.

On the back end, the Docmetrics system collects all activity information. Typcially, you have no idea what happens to your PDFs once they are downloaded from your website. With Documetics, you get complete tracking—number of times the document was opened, how much time was spent on each page, number of times it was forwarded, printed etc.

Why It’s Cool

The folks at Vitrium claim that Docmetrics dramatically increases—by up to 10X—lead capture rates for normally gated content (such as white papers), while for the first time enabling the collection of contact information from content that isn’t normally gated (e.g. product sheets and case studies).

It also, as noted above, provides activity statistics on PDF content to help marketers improve their offerings. If white paper A has a much higher pass-along rate than white paper B, and gets printed more often, and users on average spend more time with it, then…develop more content like white paper A. That kind of data has just not previously been available for PDF content.

I’m still at the stage of working with selected clients to test this technology, so I can’t vouch for the increase in lead capture rates—though I plan to write a follow-up post once I have that data. For now, it’s sufficient to note that if the increase in conversion rate is even 20% of what Vitrium claims, the product will pay for itself. If Docmetrics provides half the increase in conversion rate claimed, it will make you a rock star with your boss or client.

What to Watch Out For

There really doesn’t appear to be much in the way of a downside to this service. It is possible that your PDFs may not display properly for prospects using older versions of Flash, although 1) this should affect only about 5% of viewers according to Vitrium, and 2) the next release, planned for February, will resolve this problem. Docmetrics offers a free trial, so it’s easy to test drive the software and draw your own conclusions.

Pricing

Monthly fees start at $100 and are based on the number of PDF documents tracked. Contact Vitrium to get more exact pricing for your situation.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Excerpt from:
Getting More Out of Each Click, Part 2: Docmetrics

Channel executives at IT hardware and software companies are being asked to sell more through their reseller channels, and both they and their channel partners know what kinds of programs can help make resellers more successful. Yet new research indicates that, despite knowing what to do, technology vendor channel chiefs don’t always act on this knowledge.

A channel sales effectiveness study just concluded for PRM vendor BLUEROADS by Sirius Decisions shows a “clear link between the types of partner programs that top channel executives emphasize and their impact on revenue growth in the indirect channel.” Of executives “who said they focused on sales ‘effectiveness’ strategic activities such as lead management and deal registration, 62% reported an increase in revenue. Paradoxically, 80 percent of the channel investments by the vendors that were surveyed focused around tactical issues such as training, partner portals, and partner communication tools – all activities that simply automate the relationship with partners. Of those who focused investment on these types of ‘efficiency’ programs, only 40% reported an increase in channel revenue.”

In other words, the study says that channel executives, on the whole, know what works—they just don’t do it. They’re all hat no cattle, all show no go, they talk the talk but can’t walk the walk, pick your over-used idiom.

Charles Watson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for BLUEROADS, suggests that many channel chiefs lack the “alpha mail” orientation of their direct sales counterparts, and thus continue to make small, “safe” investment in low-return activities like training programs and partner portals. Such investments are focused more on reducing costs through improved efficiency than increasing revenue but typically don’t require executive team buy-in because they have low visibility and little impact on the enterprise. An alternative explanation may be that the corporate culture in many organizations discourages precisely the type of risk-taking that is needed to significantly improve channel sales effectiveness.

Based on this study as well as past research focused on channel partners, BLUEROADS recommends five practices that should be employed to improve channel sales performance:

• Invest in high-quality leads for partners; depending on the product category and price point, this can range from a quick visual screening to making pre-qualification calls before handing leads to the channel.

• Ensure that leads are delivered rapidly. Particularly for near-commodity products, leads can “cool off” quickly, and first-to-respond often beats best product offering.
• Get the right leads to the right partner, every time. Besides checking for named accounts and pre-established relationships, this may include sorting and routing leads based on industry vertical, company size, geographic location and product. (The folks at BLUEROADS are quick to point out that their PRM software automates this process.)
• Protect partners from channel conflict. Okay, that one’s pretty obvious.
• Help partners accelerate sales cycles with selling guidance and coaching. Engaging with channel partners as they need assistance—learning by doing—is less common though much more effective than “train and forget” programs.

Finally. the most sophisticated vendors are creating feedback channels that enable them to collect valuable market intelligence from channel partners, to answer questions such as:

• How does our product compare (in detail) to competitive offerings?

• What new capabilities are most important to the market?
• What is the “whole product” that customers (and potential customers) are buying?

The study concludes that channel chiefs, in many cases, know that they need to focus investments on high-visibility, high-impact programs aimed at increasing channel sales effectiveness, yet continue to invest in safer but lower-yielding efficiency improvements. this research from BLUEROADS suggests that those vendors willing to improvements in channel effectiveness a higher priority will ultimately prevail over their more cautious counterparts.

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More:
Five Strategies for Improving Channel Sales

Which types of online advertising provide the highest ROI? Who’s really clicking on your PPC ads? Why do PPC costs keep rising? How can you convert more clickers into buyers? Are Web 2.0 technologies now mainstream?

Learn these answers and more from this collection of blog posts and articles, some of the best reporting on online research topics so far this year.

Search Engine Performance Report: ROI up 13% in Q4 07, 97% of Additional Spend Goes to Google by Efficient Frontier

It’s hardly a shock that Google dominates search marketing budgets, but it is somewhat surprising, as this post reports, that the 800-pound gorilla continues to grow at the expense of competitors with higher ROI increases.

Online Marketers See High ROI from SEO by Marketing Pilgrim

Blogger, SEO expert and PR pro Janet Meiners reports on an MarketingSherpa study detailing the growth in paid search and organic search engine optimization. Read her post to discover which types of online advertising get a thumbs up—and which are losing favor with interactive marketers.

Put current events in context with news search engine Silobreaker by Pandia Search Engine News

Check out this review of research tool Silobreaker, “a different news search service (which) aims to deliver meaning and relevance, not just aggregate and rank news…by providing relational analysis and explanatory graphics to give you contextual insight into news stories and current events.” Though acknowledging some problems, Pandia calls it an “amazing resource.”

Who’s really clicking? by iMedia Connection

Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Professor of Marketing and E-Commerce at the University of Washington, paints a bleak picture of the future of PPC advertising—then gets blasted for it in the Comments by some fairly high-profile sources. My take is that he does miss the distinction between B2B abd B2C here (PPC ads are very productive, especially for software and computer hardware products) but he’s absolutely correct that search advertisers often underappreciate the value of branding and PR to enhance PPC results.

Eyeing Prices as Search Keeps Growing by eMarketer

This article summarizes a recent SEMPO study detailing “multiple reasons for SEM spending growth, including advertiser demand, rising keyword and pay-per-click campaign costs, small-to-midsized business SEM use and increased behavioral and demographic targeting.” Search marketing is also taking money away from other advertising and PR programs. The question now is…read the article!

The Main Factor Necessary to Convert Visitors to Customers by Marketing Pilgrim

In another enlightening post from Marketing Pilgrim, Internet marketer and online entrepreneur Greg Howlett reports that the average conversion rate for an online retailer is 2.5%—then explains how leaders like Office Depot, QVC and Lands’ End are converting at a 16-20% rate.

Google Reveals CTR Average by Industry by Shimon Sandler

This post uses Google data to show the average conversion rates for a few different industries. I was most interested in learning that the average SEM conversion rate for B2B technology companies is 2.8%. Whew! Most of my clients are comfortably above that level.

First Page Listings On Google Even More Important by AccuraCast

If you had any doubt about the importance of SEO, these research results should eliminate them. Based on study from Jupiter Research, four out of ten searchers don’t venture beyond the first page of results when searching, and a quarter look at only the top half of page one.

OMG! UM Finds Web 2.0 Breeding Consumers 2.0, Social Media Attains Critical Mass by Online Media Daily

MediaPost editor Joe Mandese reports on a Universal McCann study showing that “Text messaging, blogging and social networking have reached critical mass, with more than half of adults now relying on at least one of these so-called Web 2.0 platforms for communicating with friends, family, or colleagues on a regular basis…The research (also) finds that among digital media’s bleeding edge - adults 18-34 - social media now is the dominant form of personal communication media,” among other interesting findings.

Direct sales, branding primary SEM objectives: SEMPO survey by DMNews

Ellen Keohane highlights findings from a SEMPO study showing how marketing budgets are shifting, what marketers think of the branding value of search engine marketing, and how they feel about experimenting with new forms of media.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Search Engine Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So far) - Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Blogging for Business, Part 1

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Read more from the original source:
Best of 2008 (So Far) - Web Marketing Research, Part 1

Someone recently forwarded me the Vyatta newsletter. Vyatta provides open-source router and firewall solutions. Intriguing in and of itself, but in addition, the company does an exceptionally creative job of marketing.

The newsletter is nicely put together, with important news at the top (they get PR), a silly but probably effetive free offer about half way down on the right side (they get humor) and links to their Facebook and LinkedIn groups (they get social networking).

What really caught my attention, however, was the link at the bottom to Vyatta Ads Not Fit for Print. This would have been a $200,000 web page if an agency produced it, but by developing it in “open source” fashion through input from their users, they (presumably) slashed that cost significantly.

Nice.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

See original here:
Vyatta - Extremely Creative B2B Marketing

The concept of virtual tradeshows has been around since at least 2001. The appeal, to both exhibitors and attendees, is obvious. No travel costs. No lost productive time due to travel. No limit on the number of employees you can use to staff your booth or “send to the show.” No need to limit the duration of the show to just a few days. No geographical boundaries (assuming you have a way to staff the odd hours). No environmental concerns. No panic because your booth staff flew to Chicago—but your booth ended up in Atlanta.

Yet in practice, uptake has been very slow. This is partly for cultural reasons (can I buy you a virtual drink?) but also because the technology has never quite delivered a user experience that’s a viable substitute for physical presence. Now, the folks at ON24 believe they may have changed that. Their new Virtual Show platform combines the company’s expertise in webcasting with rich graphics to create a compelling visual environment with useful tools for presenting information and qualifying online “booth visitors.” It’s almost like Second Life for trade shows.

Virtual Show is targeted at both individual companies and show organizers/event planners, including trade publications. On the individual company side, the platform could appeal to any company that’s large enough to already host its own user group type events, but may be even more attractive to companies who are right on the edge of that—large enough to have a sizable base of engaged users, but not quite large enough to justify the expense of a live event. An online forum could be used in place of a live event for companies at this stage, while enabling firms that already host a live annual event to add supplemental online conferences throughout the year. Companies could also spread out the cost by selling virtual booth space to channel or technology partners.

The platform may have even more value for publishers. It enables them to offer advertisers a much richer and more interactive way to reach subscribers than the usual mix of enewsletter sponsorships, banner ads and white paper syndication. For aggressive publishers willing to get a jump on this, it also provides differentiation in a highly competitive online advertising market.

Virtual visitors to an event can:

• network with peers at the show, exhibitors and sponsors (through online chat);
• get documents (beyond the normal limited tradeshow marketing collateral, since the booth rep can now provide any document from within their organization);
• view a presentation (similar to a webinar) and ask questions;
• chat with a booth rep;
• have content recommended to you via ON24’s patent-pending Smart Booth technology;
• engage in group discussion and interact with people; and
• upload a cool avatar.

Depending on the number of booths and degree of customization, pricing generally ranges from $20,000-$50,000 per event. For a large enterprise hosting its own user group or other forum, that’s competitive with the cost of a live event—and again, with no travel costs or travel-related lost productivity. Publishers should be able to provide advertisers with attractive pricing for an online presence that goes well beyond the standard webcast.

Other recent coverage of ON24 and Virtual Show:

ON24 Announces Virtual Venue Platform from Worlds In Motion

UP Media, ON24 partner for virtual trade show from DMNews

ON24 Enters Virtual Event Space with New Solution; Adds Flash to Webcasts from DemandGen

ON24 Aims to Turn Desktops into Conference Halls with Virtual Show from Streamingmedia.com

Kill the Business Trip from Forbes

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

The rest is here:
ON24 Launches Virtual Tradeshow Platform with Real Potential