Most marketers make a significant investment in developing communication tools to help market their products. For example:

• Trade Show materials – signage, presentation materials, booths, etc.
• PR materials – press releases, promotions/custom programs
• Social Media materials
• Brand materials
• Customer testimonials
• Leadership materials – via senior management, R&D, key industry leaders or celebrity endorsements

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Business to business marketers are evaluating a new ad platform on Twitter which will allow advertisers to pay for tweets that appear at the top of real time search results. Advertisers bid on keywords, but instead of the CPC model used for traditional paid search, they bid on a CPM basis. The ads that appear in the search results can then be re-tweeted to that user’s followers, which then build upon their search results.

Currently, only about one half of B2B marketers utilize Twitter but it is among the leading initiatives for 2010. The new ad platform, which allows for keyword driven targeting, offers an ideal opportunity to measure the potential ROI for their clients.

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For some B2B companies, including social media in the overall marketing mix makes a lot of sense, as many business professionals are already using social media.  Using this tactic as part of the marketing mix is like any other aspect – you must first determine objectives, strategy, and key performance indicators.  However, there are some unique aspects to social media that you need to keep in mind:

1.  Build up your presence with content. Content is king! Create content for your customers that they can use – whether it be a whitepaper they can pass on to their colleagues, a graph they can use in a presentation, or a quick fact they can retweet. Give them something of value and they will share your brand name and content. You should be using existing material and repurposing it for your needs.

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Magazine advertisers have long suffered with less-than-desirable accountability metrics.  As an analogy, think of negotiating a radio schedule based on the number of people who own radios.  Thankfully, the industry has made significant improvements in the last few years and has recently leapfrogged some competing traditional tactics.

MRI started down this path a few years ago by providing issue specific audience estimates.  This allowed advertisers to calculate the delivery of a specific magazine schedule, and thereby more effectively plan and negotiate the medium.

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An increased number of companies are using email marketing, but many are not using it to its full potential. Before jumping into an email campaign, it is essential that the advertiser have a focused direction of who they are looking to reach. Here are five important tips to keep in mind when building an efficient email campaign.

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ROI campaigns are commonly used in the online world via CPA (cost per acquisition) campaigns.  CPA campaigns allow you to pay based on response, not exposure.  More recently, B2B marketers are trying to apply this same tactic to other forms of media.  

 In reaction to this, B2B magazine publishers have determined that if they want to stay in business then they need to provide a pay for performance option similar to what online can offer.  Magazines are referring to these as ROI campaigns.  Read the rest of this entry »

It is a common misconception that C-Suite executives typically delegate all of their research. In a recent study by Forbes Insights and Google, the majority of C-level executives surveyed not only do much of their own research, but conduct 6+ work related searches a day. Knowing that this group is actively seeking information online can help improve an advertisers ability to target them. Including search in your c-level targeted plan will put you in front of them as they’re seeking out this information. In fact, 53% of those surveyed said that they do click on paid search listings. When targeting through search, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
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