My name is Brian LeCount. I started R.O.Why! Marketing, a full-service Cincinnati marketing firm, to change the agency business - or at least our little slice of it.  I believe that marketing should be treated like any other corporate investment.  Marketing efforts must produce real, verifiable results, and our work for clients delivers just that.  We're here to grow your business, not win awards.  When we do that, everyone wins.

At R.O. Why! Marketing, one of the things we do for clients as part of our blogging for business solution is to review their blog posts before they go live.  It's all part of an effort to make sure that as an organization, the client sends a consistent and clear brand message to the market.  In most cases we catch a couple of spelling errors or we recommend rewording something so the brand development police won't worry about competing messages.  Not a big deal and pretty easy to deal with.

Today, in reviewing a post that included an image, I saw something fuzzy in the image and when I blew it up larger, it was a copyright watermark.  Yes, the client had used Google Image Search to find a picture to help illustrate the point in the blog post.  Harmless enough, but they didn't realize that it was a copyrighted image.  OOPS!

We quickly removed the blog post, notified the client, and the image was replaced with another royalty free photo.  Luckily our client wasn't approached by the photo's owner, but this was a good lesson for them to learn.

Don't assume that images you find on Google are free for you to use as you wish.  Google doesn't own these images, but simply stores a thumbnail in its cache.  When you click on one, Google splits the screen to show you the thumbnail and the page that the full size version appears on.  The site that the image appears on is (or should be!) the rightful owner with license to use the image.

The better route would be to seek out royalty free image sites, or better yet, purchase credits to a stock photo site like iStock and purchase inexpensive web resolution images as you need them.

Be careful.  Just because it's freely accessible, doesn't mean it's free!

Today was an exciting marketing strategy day for us at R.O. Why! Marketing.  I began the day with an intensive marketing strategy session with a client that focused on brand development and market segmentation.  After weeks of analysis, we came together to put things in motion toward achieving the company's $100MM revenue goal.

Some of the questions on the table were:

• How do we differentiate ourselves in a market that is cluttered with like firms?
• We know what's unique in our business model, but do customers value that?
• If they don't value what we feel is unique, is it truly a differentiator?
• Do we continue to serve broad markets or should we tailor our solutions for niche markets, as the The Long Tail professes?
• The path to $100MM has several different, but equally valid approaches, as proven by larger competitors.  Which marketing strategy is best?
• What is our brand today, and what should it be in the future?

All good questions, and together over the next few weeks we'll answer them, and create a go to market strategy that delivers on the brand promises.

In your business, which approach prevails?  Single solutions delivered to broad markets or multiple product variations tailored for smaller, but potentially more lucrative niches?  Pursuing The Long Tail takes courage.

Are you willing to ignore the masses and differentiate, tailor to smaller niche markets, and say no to some business in order to own your niche?  Perhaps Macy's is starting to embrace this approach.  Will you buy more?

Would your customers?

Several months ago I took the plunge and signed up on Twitter.  Unsure of what to expect, I started sharing what was going on at R.O. Why! Marketing, some of the email marketing, interactive marketing and blogging for business efforts we're delivering for clients.  At first, very similar to blogging for business, it feels like you're simply talking to yourself.  Few followers, not many replies, but I found that after some effort and a focus on sharing valuable information (vs. the all to common 'I'm eating a sandwich' Twitter updates,) the followers started to come in droves.  I'm several months into it now and with over 100 followers I can say that my tiny little universe seems actively engaged.

I also have a couple of very tangible benefits to share.  My efforts on Twitter have delivered big for R.O. Why! Marketing, connecting me with a contact that has since become a new client in Chicago called KeenHire (a company that does some amazing things with behavioral interviewing, assessments & targeted selection,) - thanks to CincyRecruiter & smheadhunter for the connections - and in addition, this small Cincinnati advertising agency has just found its newest employee.

A few things I've learned that are worth sharing:

-  Twitter is for business too. Think smaller & Get creative.
-  If you're going to tweet, respect the audience & deliver valuable updates.
-  Save the 'I'm in Cincinnati' updates for SMS messages for Brightkite.
-  Engage those people you'd like to attract as followers.  Read & comment on their blogs, etc.
-  Avoid the temptation to follow everyone that follows you.  It's not required, nor is it always recommended.  Make sure those you follow add value.
-  Share more than you feel comfortable sharing.  Invite the universe in & build a relationship.

Just like other social networks, you reap what you sow.  So far I have found Twitter to be a worthwhile investment of a small amount of time, and given it's recent payoffs, I think I'll keep tweeting.

Have an experience to share?

I'm excited this morning to welcome Kaitlyn Kurtz to R.O. Why! Marketing as account coordinator.  Kaitlyn comes to us from Honeytree Stables in Oxford, Ohio, where she developed marketing and public relations campaigns, including the company's website, various market research projects and print advertising.  Kaitlyn also recently completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing at Miami University in Ohio, where she also served as Marketing Director of her Laws, Hall & Associates team that developed an advertising campaign for Foot Locker.  After presenting to the CEO of FootLocker, her campaign was chosen to be launched into 5 major European markets and voted the best due to its through the line consistency and overall creativity.

Kaitlyn has a big job ahead of her here at R.O.Why! Marketing.  As account coordinator, she will focus on managing client projects ranging from email marketing, interactive marketing, search engine optimization and our blogging for business solution.

Please join me in welcoming Kaitlyn to the team!

I subscribe to a free service that let's me know what stories and sources reporters are looking for.  It's called Help a Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com)  You should check it out.

So this morning I get an email about a contest that an online resource for those going through divorce is holding, and they're asking for promotion ideas.  The winner receives a Kindle.  Although I think the Kindle is super cool and of course I'd like to have one, I also get totally jazzed about coming up with interactive marketing ideas.  Companies today are looking beyond email marketing, search engine optimization and other brand development strategies toward more interactive marketing approaches to involve their audiences.  No, I'm not the first to suggest a viral video marketing strategy, but I believe that this approach has a lot of merit if building word of mouth is important to you.

Here's the idea I submitted:
(Remember, this is for a website that provides resources for those who have gone through a divorce, so the strategy needs to fit.)

Potential titles:

The ‘Dear John, It’s Over’ Video Contest
The ‘I never meant to hurt you’ Video Contest
The ‘It’s Over!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’m Starting Over…I Need a Makeover!’ Video Contest
The ‘I’ve got to get something off my chest’ Video Contest

Potential promotional copy:

Hey, divorce is a difficult thing to go through, and through these tough times we could all use a little laugh, right?  [Contest sponsor] announces the ‘I never meant to hurt you’ video contest.

Is it time for a divorce?  Time to tell your significant other to take a hike?  Need to come clean about seeing ‘someone’ else?

• Have you  been burned by your PC too many times?
• Cheated on your PC with a Mac?
• Had a Miller Lite while your Bud wasn’t looking?
• Has Windows Vista taken you for granted one too many times?
• Time to say goodbye to your 3 year old’s binky when it no longer quiets your little hellion like it promised to?

Confess to your ‘significant other’ about it in a short, funny, 2 minute original video.  What counts is  humor, originality, video production quality, and the tangible metric – YouTube views.  Videos must be sent to [the contest sponsor's website] where they will be screened (for inappropriate content) and uploaded to the contest channel on YouTube.  [The contest sponsor] embeds the YouTube video code into the site and builds a quick polling feature to allow visitors to vote, and the highest combination of website visitor votes + YouTube views wins.

Here’s an example of a script for a video:  Telling your SUV that you’ve been seeing a perky little hybrid.

“Hi honey, we need to talk.  We’ve been together for a long time.  We’ve had some tough times and some really great ones too.  But over the years I feel that I’m the only one putting the effort into this relationship.  I take care of you, keep you looking great, and I will say that you’ve been pretty reliable.  But the world around us has changed.  Gas prices are skyrocketing and frankly, people think we’re unsafe.  They just look at us differently now, and as hard as I have tried to remain content, this relationship just takes everything out of me.  I fill you up with my love every week, but then I have nothing left.  No passion, no excitement, and no money.  It costs so much more now to keep this relationship going than it ever used to.  I feel taken advantage of, and I….I’m so sorry…I just can’t do this anymore.  I need to tell you that there’s someone else.  For the last few months I…God I can’t believe I’m telling you this….I’ve been seeing a hybrid.  No, it’s not someone from work, and I really wasn’t looking.  It just kind of happened.  I’m so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you, but I need to go this direction in my life right now.  It’s what I need to feel like myself again.  And you’re going to be fine, really!  I think we’ve both been pulling each other down.  You’re a smart, good looking, enormous SUV with a strong personality and a command for the road.  There are other people out there that would appreciate you, give you all the gas you need and not feel guilty about it.  You know, the wealthy elite.  I just can’t afford to give you what you need anymore.  I’m so sorry.”

We'll see if the idea wins the contest, and I'll of course post it here, but let me know what you think.  Have any viral video ideas or examples you'd like to share?

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine recently about the data that one of our clients, Health Force, has been collecting on its website.  Health Force is a national travel nursing and allied health staffing company.  R.O.Why! Marketing, your friendly neighborhood Cincinnati marketing firm, has been working with Health Force for over 4 years, delivering a range of interactive marketing solutions, including a new website earlier this year.

The website displays travel assignments that are available across the country, and allows visitors to search these jobs, apply online, and also register with their skill sets to receive automatic job notifications in their area of expertise.

We're now 6 months into the new site, and they've collected a lot of data.  Names, email addresses, disciplines, specialties, etc., and also data like the time they last visited and logged in.  Programmers and tech folks think about databases and architectures and linking tables, and how complicated it can be to get it all out.  Marketers, on the other hand, think about what they can do with this data.

With the data we now have available, we can send email marketing messages that invite people back to the site based on the date of their last visit.  Health Force can call them to talk about jobs they've seen on the site and that they qualify for.  We can also understand what jobs get the most searches and inquiries, and provide that data back to the company to better target future job opportunities.

The site looks beautiful and does a great job of brand development, but how about we build the brand at the cash register too?  Let's talk with visitors as individuals, using what we know to deliver custom experiences.

The creative is important to be sure, but a website should talk to you on a personal level at every opportunity.  The technology has been around for years to deliver 1:1 marketing quite well, but it all starts with the data.  Collecting it is important.  Knowing what you'll do with it and mapping out a deliberate plan is something entirely different.

I was inspired today by a great blog post by Seth Godin.  In it, he compares marketers to lawyers, charged not necessarily with telling the truth, but with arguing for the client, their product, their practices, etc.  We're paid to claim that our client's products are the best, even if they are not.  Clients hire us to build email marketing campaigns, event marketing programs, interactive marketing strategies, and other marketing strategy efforts to sell the product or the service, even if it's not the best; even if the customer would be better off with nothing at all, or heaven forbid, a competitor's product.

What about when a client hires a Cincinnati advertising agency like R.O.Why! Marketing?  They want email marketing tips and ROI marketing programs that grow their business.  They need a newsletter and they know that what they need is a newsletter.  But what if they don't?  What if they're wrong?  What if they really need something else?  What if R.O.Why! Marketing isn't right for them?

It's happened before, on each end of the spectrum.  Just this week we landed a client who felt that email marketing was what they needed.  While email marketing does need to be a part of the mix, we believed it was not the right time.  After we considered the ultimate marketing results they were looking for, their culture, the budgets and timeframes, we felt strongly that blogging for business was best for them.  We could have just sold them an email marketing program for more money and more profit.  It would have been easier, but it wasn't right.  Their audience expects more and while we were hired to serve the client, I believe we were really hired to serve their customer.

We've also had to walk away from business because the product couldn't live up to the marketing claims.  The company needed to make dramatic changes to the product itself in order to make it competitive, and good for customers, and worth buying. 

As Seth says "...marketers still have the chance to be believed. But trust belongs to statesmen, not lawyers."

We just finished a fun contest for one of our clients that uses our blogging for business platform.  The blogger with the most posts in June won a Flip Ultra video camera. 

We're coaching this client to post great blog content on a frequent basis in order to develop a more casual dialogue with their market, further their brand development efforts, and also to accomplish the search engine optimization goals we have agreed on. 

Blogging for business doesn't have to be difficult or time consuming, but it does take some effort to get into the habit.  Upon announcing the contest, the blogging really took off.  As a result, blog and website traffic have tripled since April, with much of that traffic created in June, and we have a very, very excited client who can't wait to receive her new video camera.  (Have you seen these things?  Very cool.)

In order for blogging for business to succeed (and long term success is still on the horizon here...), R.O.Why! Marketing not only needed to deliver a great blog platform that was built for search engine optimization, but we also needed to help each blogger create the interest, time and passion for blogging.  For the cost of one great dinner out, the contest helped create that spark amongst an entire team of people, and now they're reaping the benefits.  When was the last time your blog and website traffic tripled?

There's an opportunity here for every marketer to identify what we need our audiences to do in order to help us all succeed in the long run (yes, buy stuff, but what else?) and to find exciting ways to help them do it.  Contests are just one way.  Peter Shankman's figured out a way.  Events and PR stunts are another.  Speaking of, have you seen his book? 

I love to see a client win, and have enjoyed reviewing the statistics on the search engine optimization and blog network that R.O.Why! Marketing delivered to them. 

MDI Medical is a rehab therapy staffing firm  that works with physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech language pathologists, send them on assignments across the country.  Based outside of Atlanta, MDI chose R.O.Why!, a Cincinnati marketing firm, to deliver a variety of marketing programs including website enhancement, search engine optimization, email marketing and a sophisticated blogging for business platform.

Search engine optimization has produced the following stats on rolling month site visits:

• Rolling month site visits up to 2,208 (5/27/08 - 6/26/08) up from 1,952 & 1,052 for 2 previous periods
• Nearly 52% of site traffic in June is from search engines (up from 33% in May)
• 688 keywords triggered 1,040 visits in June (up from 203 keywords & 459 visits in May)

Blogging for business has produced:

• 174 visits in April
• 318 visits in May
• 509 visits in June
• 1 keyword drove traffic in April
• 41 keywords drove traffic in May
• 146 keywords drove trafic in June

Great to see the work paying off!  Have a similar story of results?  Please share it!

Ever have one of those moments when all of the clutter seemed to just fade away and you became laser focused on what was truly important?  I am enjoying a morning full of that type of focus today.

As I prepare for an upcoming vacation in a couple weeks, I spent some time this morning working through my list of priorities.  Client needs come first.

• What ROI marketing projects need to be completed before I leave and/or return?
• What loose ends can we handle now?
• What email marketing campaigns are scheduled for that week?
• Does each client understand what our next steps are and are the deliverables abundantly clear?
• What items do I NOT want to see on my list when I return?
• What search engine optimization, pay-per-click, email marketing performance, interactive marketing and blog analytics reports need to be delivered?

Then came the business development and administration side. 

• Are the bills paid?
• Are invoices current?
• What reports do I need?
• How many proposals are still out for companies looking for a Cincinnati advertising agency?
• Are any proposals due before I return?
• How many can be closed before I leave?  Wow - at least 3 can!
• Can we decide on the new hire before I leave?
• What about the office location search?

If you're like me, you often wish you could work like it's your last week (or day!) before vacation.  Isn't it amazing how quickly the clutter falls to the side and you focus all of your talents and efforts on those things that are the most important?

All of these things I'll be working on for the next 10 days or so are focused on what matters - RESULTS.  Marketing results and ROI for clients, meeting deadlines, keeping promises, delivering, delivering, delivering.

As marketers, we can learn from this and apply the same rigor to the campaigns we're running and the work we do each day.  How many of the things that are on your plate today, this week or next are truly focused on delivering results?  How many of these 'projects' are truly necessary?  How many meetings don't you need to have? 

What would happen if you got rid of all the junk that doesn't matter for just 2 weeks?

If you reduced everything you spend your time on to a bulleted list of the most important things, how much of your daily work would survive the cut?

Marketers, get focused!  Improve your email marketing campaign now.  Stop himming and hawing about the brand development efforts and the strategy.  Make a decision, act, and make some progress this week.  Cut the fluff from the ad campaign, focus on why the reader/viewer/recipient should care and create some results.

You know what's great about this?  Except for client requests, if it's not on the list, I won't be spending time on it for the next two weeks.  Like the boxes that have been in my basement since we built the house 5 years ago, if it won't get my attention in the near term, will it ever really make it back on my priority list?  Was it really important at all to begin with?

It's inspiring to meet people who work for companies that really understand what brand development means.  Over the last couple of weeks I've enjoyed getting to know a local market research company, yet even as I write this it seems unfair to place them in that category.

At the risk of this sounding like a restaurant review, I'll describe what I found.

What I have experienced is a company filled with some of the most fascinating people I've met in a long time, who together create an atmosphere that is infectious.  From the moment I read their website I was drawn to them.  Upon entering their offices I felt like I was stepping into someone's home, and from the first introduction it was clear I had found a diamond in the rough.

There are no mission statements or corporate values on the walls, but everyone has had a hand in crafting them, and each person I met truly knows what they mean and lives them everyday in their work.  No Madison Avenue advertising agency was hired to create the brand, but it is very much alive. 

In discussing what we might do for this company, I was delighted to discover that for this team and this company, it truly isn't about the marketing.  And it really never should be, should it?  But all too often I see companies whose taglines are more impressive that the product itself - where the company, the people, and the product or service can't live up to the hype.  In fact, it needs the hype to get in the door.

Here, at this tiny little boutique research shop, there is no need for gleaming signage, billboards and television commercials.  There will be no mass communication strategy designed to blanket the country with buzz.  The role of the marketing programs we deliver will simply be to let the good stuff out.

We won't be creating the story; the story already is, and it grows as new pages are added everyday.  At most, we'll bring some structure to a message that has taken on a life of its own.

What's exciting is that this company has done it in the right order.  They've taken something as old and potentially boring as market research and innovated the solution to such a degree that clients get to know their customers in ways they never imagined.  They quietly built the product first, then tested it, perfected it, wowed clients with it for years, developed an experience around its delivery that can't be had elsewhere, and created a magnetic force around them that draws onlookers in at rates the best sales executive would drool over.

Brand development wasn't an initiative.  It's what happened when a small team set out to do something great.  And it's become a movement with serious momentum.

Now they're ready to let some of this story out.   Now they're ready for marketing, and humbly, marketing will take its place as the enabler - not the reason for being in the first place.

As any individual or corporate blogger knows, comments posted to your blog are an important element to building a dynamic conversation and an ongoing relationship with your readers.  It is very important to solicit comments whenever possible, asking customers, employees, partners and even the general public to chime in with their reactions to your posts.  This feedback on your blog give you a sense for how your message is resonating, allowing you to directly address comments and perhaps tailor your communication to better suit your readers' interests.

While the tone, nature and information shared in comments posted to a personal blog may be of little concern, when it comes to blogging for business, oversight of your blog posts and comments is critical.   Organizational blogging efforts must strike a delicate balance between freeing the passionate voices within and the external market to share their insights with the corporate need to keep the blog on strategy from a branding and messaging standpoint.

For example, today we received a comment posted to our blog that began as follows:

"Our web is wholesale jewelry. This is the largest wholesaler of the jewelry and all the commodities made by handmade. You can wholesale thousands of jewelry easily and quickly. The minimum order is $100. We specialize in..."

This is of course a blatant attempt to promote products & services by an unethical marketer.  Instead of finding blogs specific to the wholesale jewelry business, this person is attempting to post advertisements on every blog they can find.

Had our blog been built using some of the free tools out there, this comment may have made it onto our blog unnoticed, confusing our readers and eroding the value of our blogging efforts overall. 

Instead, we use a blogging for business platform that helps protect the company from off-strategy posts and comments, and ensures that we deliver valuable blog content that our readers want.  The marketing-related conversations being held on our blog don't get interrupted by irrelevant messages, and our relationships remain protected.

Want to see a demo of a blog platform that delivers all the benefits of blogging for business (including automatically keyword optimized blogs built on a search engine marketing strategy) while delivering the brand and messaging oversight that's critical to your business?  Click the Contact Us link above to get in touch.

I just finished reading a great new whitepaper from Compendium CEO Chris Baggott.  (Compendium is R.O.Why! Marketing's blogging solution partner.)  Entitled Corporate Blogging and Email Marketing: Why They Work Together, the paper addresses how effective marketers (and their advertising agencies!) are using these two proven tools to acquire customers and cultivate strong relationships.

A study by the Pew Center for Internet & American Life notes that email and search are the tied as the number one online activity.  Email marketing best practices have long proved that email is ineffective for acquisition; for that we must turn to search.

But how do we fully leverage search when pay per click (PPC) advertising is costly and, as pointed out by Marketing Sherpa, captures only a small portion of the available market?  Organic search is the answer, however another problem surfaces:  the vast majority of corporate websites are not updated with enough new content frequently enough to effectively accomplish dominant search positions.

As Chris Baggott points out, "What’s needed here is an easy to execute strategy for targeting large numbers of keywords and ranking on them in the organic results. This is where organizational blogging comes in.  At the end of the day, search engines want to deliver relevant content."

He continues by explaining that the relevance of your content is driven by:
•    Page titles
•    Keywords
•    Recency and frequency
•    Humanization
•    Metrics - bounce rates, page visits, visit duration


From Chris's piece, blogging for business make sense for a few key reasons:

1. Mr. Edelman of the Edelman Trust Barometer says that "Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog –and I say this as a CEO blogger."
2. "Widespread employee blogging presents an opportunity for many new pages of relevant and closely related content thus increasing your document collection."
3. "By organizing blog content around specific keywords and topics instead of authors, business blogs become laser focused on serving up only the most relevant content based on the searchers input."

Although the adoption of blogging for business by corporations is growing rapidly, we're clearly just at the beginning.  However, as more organizations embrace the idea of leveraging employees for content creation and integrating email marketing with it, latecomers will find it increasingly difficult to own their market via their blogs.

If you'd like a copy of the whitepaper, please contact me at blecount [at] rowhymarketing [dot] com.

Thanks to Chris for a great piece, and to Compendium for supporting R.O.Why! Marketing with a great blogging solution.  Our clients love it and we look forward to introducing many more people to the platform this year.

Today a client of R.O.Why! Marketing received a comment on one of their blog posts that was somewhat antagonistic.  The comment questioned a company policy, and our client was torn on whether or not to reply, and if they did, how they should frame the response.

We helped them realize that interaction with your audience and creating a more personal relationship is what blogging for business is all about.  Positive or negative, a comment on your blog should almost never go ignored.  A potential customer was reaching out to them, and while perhaps they did not use the best approach, the situation presented a great opportunity to differentiate.

Our client delivered an outstanding response to the blog comment, clarifying the company's policy, explaining the reasons for it, and how such a policy was a benefit to the great people they serve.  Whether the person who commented will respond is not the point.  Instead, the company demonstrated more of who they are, approaching the situation with humility and a willingness to deliver value.  The search engines will find this response, and so will searchers, and in doing so they will learn one more reason why this company is different from the competition.

When your readers take the time to respond to your blog posts, welcome the opportunity to respond.  Thank them for the comment, deliver real value, and introduce a side of your company that your website will likely never reveal.  They may end up becoming a customer one day, or perhaps you'll leave an impression that will encourage a recommendation in the future.

Happy blogging....

Fun day to be talking about blogging for business as a marketing strategy.  We have been working with a client for about a month on a blogging platform we delivered.  It can always be a little tough getting started with your blog.  What will I blog about?  When should I blog? I don't have time for this!  All familiar comments we hear, but as you progress, your blogging for business radar starts to heat up.

Our client is a rehab therapy staffing company with lots of passionate folks.  And they're busy - really busy - supporting hundreds of traveling therapy professionals and trying to fill thousands of jobs.  Along comes this guy from a Cincinnati marketing firm towing the blogging for business line.  So we get them started, slowly at first, at looking for things in their day that would make for great blog posts. The management team has also had some fun promoting the blogs internally, and today held their first blogging for business lunch.  Free lunch for anyone who's willing to eat & blog.

The results?  Happy staff and 11 new blog posts today!  Hats off to Monica, Autumn, Lindsey, Larry, Luke and Katie for creating some great new content. 

They've got blog posts on everything from how to find a great job and the Fish! philosophy, to working with recruiters and hospitals, and even a post about flying monkeys. 

They're having fun with it now, and starting to form even tighter relationships with a market that their blogs are beginning to help them grow.  This is exactly what blogging for business is all about.  Let the outside world in.  Empower your people to be positive public voices for the company.  Let the passion out. 

Here are a few quick steps to help your team develop some energy around blogging for business:

1.  Spend a little time educating your team on what a blog is and what it's for.
2.  Train the team on what to blog about, how often, and exactly how to do it.
3.  Coach them along the way with content ideas and suggestions for including keywords to get the SEO benefits
4.  Encourage candid (but appropriate) dialog on the blogs
5.  Make it fun.  Share fun stories with your audience, not just the hard facts.
6.  Provide incentives. Hold 'blogging for business' lunches, have a contest for the most frequent blogger, etc.

But the first step?  Just get started.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing." 

"Taking action is better than standing still."

Is it really?  Just because you're sending out those sales letters each week doesn't mean it's getting you anywhere. Sure, you have a monthly email marketing broadcast, but are people reading it?  Is it really helping you form deeper connections with customers?  If the answer isn't a clear and resounding "Yes, and here's how we measure it," you need to be open to the idea that it all might just be a giant waste of time.

Here's an example.  I recently had a problem with a piece of software we use.  It wasn't doing what it was supposed to.  I contacted the company, explained the problem, and asked for them to look into it.  Within 24 hours I had a reply from support:  "I've done A, B, and C.  Please let me know if the problem persists."  Super, so I go check, and the problem is still there.  What's more, the person could have seen this before even replying.  Don't they realize that I'm less interested in the action they took than I am in making the problem go away?  I want a solution, not a description of what you did.

Your marketing needs to deliver solutions.  Your executives who hold your feet to the fire don't care how many email marketing broadcasts you send.  They don't care how many tradeshows you attend and flyers you print.  It doesn't matter how many impressions your brand development efforts make.  They want results.

Your customers want the same.  Give them value.  Make something about their life better, faster, more enjoyable, more efficient, cost less.  They don't care about what you're saying.  Change something big for them.

In many B2B marketing environments, there is a belief that the marketing strategy and communications plan has to be different from that of consumer companies; that companies buy differently than people do.  While you may be dealing with longer sales cycles and purchasing departments, committees and POs, I believe that the purchase decision in a B2B environment is far more similar to that in B2C than it is different.

Whether you're picking out a new pair of shoes for yourself, or new wireless devices for your distributed sales organization, I believe you'll buy from people (and brands) that you like.  Once B2B marketers and sales teams get through the lengthy sales process, the proposals and price quotes (ick are those no fun,) most find that it comes down to the one on one relationship between people within the buying and selling organizations. 

My accountant is someone I like personally.  So is my banker, my IT consultant, the owner of my payroll company, and my insurance broker.  Sure, we went through a needs analysis, proposals and contract negotiations, but first and foremost, I liked them.

Your customers are no different.  I understand that you sell complex ERP software that needs buy in from many different stakeholders.  Yes, there's an RFP process that you have to follow to have a chance of winning the bid for that new facility your company will build for the customer.  But if they don't like you, personally, your odds of winning go way down.  If they don't identify with you and the brand you represent, you're out.

To like you, customers must get to know you and your people.  They need to get on the inside, understand how you think, and see the human side of your organization.  This is why blogging for business makes so much sense.  By allowing your employees to have a public voice, your customers get to see and hear who you really are.  Blogging for business isn't the same as any other form of business writing.  Blog writing teaches humility, and in each post we discover the person behind it.  The personality, the passions, the expertise.  Our customers start to form a bond with us as they identify with our thinking.

Open up your business and let your customers in.  Get rid of the corporate marketing speak, and let your employees share their voice.  Speak to your market in the same way your favorite personal brands speak to you.  You'll soon discover that your customers buy from people they like as well.

Here at R.O.Why! Marketing, we've had quite the new business development push going, and it's really starting to pay off.  We are very fortunate to have been recently chosen as the Cincinnati marketing firm by two area companies: DocuStar and also by Star Base Consulting.  We will be delivering a variety of solutions including marketing strategy, email marketing, direct mail, interactive marketing, and a corporate blogging platform.

The other story behind our new business push is the flurry of requests we're receiving for quotes.  It seems that many firms are talking with Ohio marketing agencies and shopping price.  We are being asked for quotes on search engine optimization, quotes on ROI marketing measurement, quotes for email marketing programs, etc. 

While we certainly appreciate the interest, we will not reduce what we do to a commodity.  At R.O.Why! Marketing we sell marketing solutions that grow businesses.  Period.  Have a problem like too few leads?  Not enough sales?  Customers not fully engaged?  We can help you solve that, but it starts with a relationship.  We need to build one together in order to properly address your challenge.

How much to send emails to my database?
In one example, a company asked us for a quote for an email marketing program.  Well, anyone can provide email software.  Anyone can deliver a tool at a price, but it's what you get for that price, the expertise in email marketing, the best practices, knowing what to avoid, the support, the on call status, etc. that makes all the difference in the world.  I just can't communicate all of that without meeting the company. or without writing a ridiculously long proposal that no one would read.  You need to hear it in my voice, read it in my face, shake my hand and know that you're talking to the company that CAN make it happen.

We sell the solution to the problem, the expertise.  The tool is just the tool, and if it's just quoted like that, it will be compared to other tools without an appropriate appreciation for the differences in features/functionality, and the company and people behind it.

Everything can be obtained cheaper.  Are you sure that's what you want?

We went live on some major back end upgrades to a client website today at www.MDIMedical.com.  While we were not engaged to work much on the site's design, we rewrote and organized all of the content in a much more intuitive way.  Here, we're all about delivering ROI marketing strategies, so we built some strong calls to action into a common sidebar that should help drive qualified sales and marketing leads for the company, and work to help us monetize the entire marketing strategy.

R.O.Why! Marketing has also delivered a corporate blogging platform consisting of 5 company bloggers and a little over a dozen targeted keyword blogs.  As bloggers post new content on the specific keyword topics, they'll begin to rank much more effectively in the search engines, helping out the overall search engine optimization effort significantly.   

Overall, we completed the following:

1) Organized and architecture files into bookmark / search engine optimization-friendly folder structures
2) Modified layout to polish the overall look and feel without changing the brand
3) Improved the page aesthetics to deliver a cleaner appearance
4) Use general include files so future updates, redesigns and new modules can be "plugged-in" much more efficiently (header, footer, sidebar, etc.)
5) Improve child menus within the navigation to be css-driven & easier to manage
6) Replace most inline javascript into modular included .js files, and use asp to replace javascript code bloat where applicable.
7) Created page-level meta keywords and descriptions support which was not previously present
8)  Applied the new page template code to the ExactTarget email marketing signup confirmation pages
9)  Crafted new, discipline-specific pages of content for each the clients 3 primary audiences

We have many more big plans for the site, but this was just a first attempt to clean things up a bit, give users clear calls to action, launch the blogging platform, and prepare for future upgrades.  We're looking forward to the redesign of the overall brand in the future.

So, what's this Atlanta-based company doing with an Ohio marketing agency?  They sought out a firm with specific healthcare staffing expertise and found us. 

We love when that happens!