Put your LinkedIn Account to Work
According to Marketing Profs, LinkedIn is the favored social media tool for B2B marketers. If you're in B2B marketing or sales, you can do so much more with your LinkedIn account than simply look up your B2B marketing contacts. Use LinkedIn to help sell product, expand your networks, grow your business and gain free publicity.
Here's some simple tips to help you engage fully with LinkedIn:
- Fill out your profile completely to earn trust and credibility.
- Use apps and widgets to integrate other tools, such as importing your blog entries or Twitter stream into your profile.
- Do market research and gain knowledge with Polls.
- Share survey and poll results with your contacts.
- Answer questions in Questions and Answers: show expertise without a hint of self-promotion.
- Ask questions in Questions and Answers to get a feel for what customers and prospects want or think.
- Publish your LinkedIn URL on all your marketing collateral, including business cards, email signature, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects learn more about you.
- Grow your network by joining industry and alumni groups related to your business.
Update your status with examples of recent work and accomplishments.- Link your status updates with your other social media accounts.
- Combine your social media approach: when someone asks a question in Twitter, respond in detail on LinkedIn and link to it from Twitter.
- Use the search feature to find people by company, industry and city.
- Start and manage a group or fan page for your product, brand or business.
- Research your prospects before meeting or contacting them.
- Share useful articles and resources that will be of interest to customers and prospects.
- Don’t turn off your contacts: avoid hard-sell tactics.
- Write honest and valuable recommendations for your contacts.
- Request LinkedIn recommendation from happy customers willing to provide testimonials.
- Post your presentations on your profile using a presentation application.
- Check connections’ locations before traveling so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
- Ask your first-level contacts for introductions to their first-level contacts.
- Interact with LinkedIn on a regular basis to reach those who may not see you on other social media sites.
- Set up to receive LinkedIn messages in your inbox so you can respond right away.
- Link to articles and content posted elsewhere, with a summary of why it’s valuable to add to your credibility.
- List your newsletter subscription information and archives.
If you haven't already, it's time to create or refresh your LinkedIn profile and begin increasing your B2B marketing contacts, and activity on this most useful site.
/mh
Related posts: LinkedIn-The Ultimate B2B Hookup
Martine Hunter
is the creative director of inbound marketing with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification and serves the Atlanta chapter of the Business Marketing Association as a member of the board of directors.
At networking events nowadays, you hear a new vocabulary:
“You're LinkedIn? Invite me to your network.”
“Are you connected to So&So’s network? Can I get an intro?"
“Friend me and I'll hook up with you on your wall.”
Social networking has changed the way we communicate to prospects and industry peers. If you're connected and they know your name, they can look you up. And even better, you can look up others.
Having missed the MySpace craze, the first profile I created on a social networking site was LinkedIn just two years ago when a former colleague asked for a recommendation. I didn't respond right away to the newfangled communication, but intrigued, I built my own profile. Since then, I have watched my friend's network increase to almost an incredible 500 connections and mine has grown to a respectible 180 solid business connections.
LinkedIn is best for business networking and is a boon for B2B marketers. Profile information is geared towards jobs, organizations, skills, etc. I always find it helpful and interesting to look at my connections' connections. It's great for stealth business research too. You can always ask to be "introduced" to someone else's connection. I've added my company's Web site and blog on my profile, a way of marketing my company and measuring marketing effectiveness.
It's also amazing to see your own network statistics. Although I have about 180 connections, my second degree connections (my connections' connections) amount to more than 57,000 — and the third degree amounts to over a four million!
Link to me!
I also have a Facebook profile and check it sporadically, unlike like some of my friends, who must check theirs several times a day. I use Facebook's social networking site only to keep in touch with old friends, current friends and new friends — very few business contacts. I tire easily of the "what are you doing" function. Some people update this regularly, often with banal entries like "I have a headache," or "I need to sharpen my pencil." I don't have patience to chronicle those activities, but it cracks me up to read what my pals are up to.
So, do all social networking sites serve the same purpose? Yes and no. I use all these sites to network. But the specific type of networking is different.
If you haven't already, you must create a profile on a social networking site that fits your needs. Increase your contacts, business and keep in touch... all at your fingertips!
Take a look at this video that explains how Linkedin works.
/mh
Martine Hunter
is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification.
More is written on the subject of successful selling technique than any other in the field of marketing. Everyone wants to know how to close the sale. In the traditional selling process, the relationship between prospect and seller has always had the hint of an adversarial relationship.
Often the buyer questions the salesperson's motives, and the salesperson assumes that the buyer will automatically resist the pitch. The initial contact can be a pushy, in-your-face approach or a warm, "let me help you" proposition. Either way, the salesperson is viewed as the aggressor.
In my experience with our B2B marketing firm in Atlanta, business-to-business selling should be less of a game of wits and finesse more a valuable business encounter. When marketers establish the need for the product, communicate the message, stimulate buyer interest, salespeople should take heed not to lose the sale because of competitive gamesmanship.
Advocates of value-added selling and its offshoots, consultative selling, needs-based selling, have always understood the importance of showing the customer how their product or service can provide a benefit solution and better a solution for their customers. It's a common-sense approach for B2B sales and marketing pros.
The ultimate collaboration is the seller and buyer working together to take the buyer's products or services to the buyer's customers. When everyone in the chain is focused on the final end-user, solutions are revealed, problems solved. And usually sales are closed.
This type of strategic alliance with your customer goes beyond the basic order-taking mentality. It moves to the rainmaking mindset and insists that sales and marketing:
- Examine your customer, as well as your customer's customer.
- Be prepared to show understanding of their needs.
- Come with solutions to meet their challenges to be viewed as a trusted expert.
- Go past the simple transaction and look for new market opportunities for their products and services.
- Make an effort to become an integral part of their business, not just another vendor.
The salesperson who addresses challenges and solves problems gives the buyer much food for thought for nourishing an underwhelmed marketing plan. What buyer can resist the temptation?
/mh
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
After a long break, Mad Men Memos are back for Season 3. But before we get into what happened in Sunday's episode, here are some highlights from episode 1, "Out of Town":
- Apparently it's pretty redundant to make any 'Dick' jokes about Don's given name, as it was, in fact, actually meant to refer to... that. Thank his vulgar prostitute mom and her grudge with the condomless John who impregnated her.
- To absolutely no one in America's surprise, being pregnant hasn't stopped Betty from smoking or drinking. Also she wants the baby to be a girl so that it will distract her from how much Sally's chubbiness and suspected lesbianism disappoints her, which is infinitely.
- Peggy's secretary is not so good at the secretarying, but better at swooning over one of the new British guys acquired during last season's merger, making her one more ingredient in Peggy's big pot o' misery.
- Bertram has added "ancient and disturbing Japanese tentacle porn" to his long list of Asian-themed interests, and has seen fit to hang one on the wall because it reminds him of advertising. Seriously.
- Sterling Cooper fires the head of accounts, Burt Peterson, just in time for his ailing wife to probably die of cancer. The firings at Sterling Coop have apparently been going on for awhile between seasons, but the expectedness doesn't stop Peterson from making a big fat angry scene about it.
- Pete gets promoted to Petersons' position. Then Ken does too. Wait, what? There's a hilarious scene in the elevator when Pete and Ken are both semi-congratulating each other without realizing that they've received the same promotion. They soon find out though, and all of Sterling Cooper's accounts are divvied up between the two of them. Looks like its going to be a battle to the death. Or at least the unemployment line.
- Joan reiterates her plan, first expressed at the end of Season 2, to depart the advertising agency after her wedding.
- On a business trip together, Don and Sal make up fake idenities (something they both LOVE to do, in their own little ways) and dine with a pair of stewardesses from their flight. Don absconds with his, and ironically ends up telling her something true that even Betty doesn't know - it's his (Dick Whitman's) birthday.
-Sal is about to go to bed alone, but not before calling a bellhop up to fix the AC. The bellhop looks to fix something else instead, and Sal, a closeted homosexual in his mid-30s, finally has his first gay experience. Unfortunately for him, the fire alarm goes off, and as Don and his paramour descend down the fire escape, he spots Sal in flagrante. But, like the secret-keeping guy that he is, Don doesn't let on that he knows - though he does take the opportunity to ratchet up the tension on the flight back.
Now, onto episode 2, "Love Among the Ruins":
This episode felt more oddly paced than the last, mostly because of some ill-placed commercial breaks. But other than that, things are really getting rolling this season, which is a stark contrast to the series' usual slow-burn structure.
It began with an overlong-for-my-taste clip of Ann Margret in Bye-Bye Birdie, who despite her undeniable beauty managed to get on my last nerve by caterwauling at an annoying volume and with bizarre enunciation ("Bird-hee?"). Did people really used to like that movie? The guys seem impressed, anyway, and Diet Pepsi wants Sterling Cooper to use the provocative clip as inspiration in devising a campaign around their new diet drink, which has the unfortunate moniker "Patio" (It's a "working" name, apparently, but it needs to "work" on not existing).
Everyone is down with the idea except Peggy, who takes issue with what she sees as blatant sexism, apparently forgetting where she works and what year it is. She comes to Don, who advises her to abandon all pretenses of artistry, leaving her a little disillusioned with her occasional mentor. In an attempt to embrace her gender role, she croons the Ann Margret song to her mirror (in a slightly more tolerable way than the original), then hits the streets for a Don-like night of getting drunk and hooking up.
Pete gets off to a rocky start in his quest to outdo Ken for the head of accounts gig, thanks to a disasterous PR pitch to the guys who plan to demolish Penn Station to make way for Madison Square Garden. More accurately, it was thanks to Paul, who in his ill-advised attempt to "play devil's advocate," expressed a little (read: a lot) too much sympathy toward the growing backlash against Penn Station's destruction. Don and Roger are tasked with cleaning up their mess. They patch things up with the MSG people, with the caveat that Paul is no longer allowed within a beard's length of the campaign.
Just when things are getting back on track, Pryce (one of the Brits in charge since the merger) walks in to inform Don that London will be pulling Sterling Cooper's involvement with Madison Square Garden after all. Don is livid at the missed opportunity, but there's nothing he can do.
Roger clashes with his daughter over the prospect of bringing his young new wife to the former's impending nuptials. But the biggest problem facing that wedding is an unseen one: it's planned for what will be the day after the JFK assassination.
Betty's brother William is in town with their increasingly senile father, Gene. William tells Betty he's putting the old man in a home. Betty accuses her brother of trying to get his hands on the family mansion, and then it's Don's turn to swoop in for the kill. He pulls William aside and tells him in so uncertain terms that he will NOT be getting the house, and that Gene will be staying at Casa Draper for the time being, with William footing the bill. Unfortunately, Grandpa Gene goes from zero to crazy in about 30 seconds flat. Talk about your ultimate backfire.
Next Week: Gene goes wilder!
Chase Mitchell is a copy writer at Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, MLT Creative was founded in 1984 by partners Billy Mitchell, Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch PadTM for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative's services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.
Remember when everyone started saying Web 2.0? I remembered thinking, "What does that mean? Why is everyone saying it? It seems self-explanatory — why do I need to watch a webinar on it?" Well, I found myself in the same situation recently when I started hearing about Inbound Marketing, only this time it didn’t seem as self-explanatory.
What is it?
Inbound marketing is when you focus on getting found by customers versus finding customers. It’s effective in B2B marketing because it focuses on advertising to people who are interested in your industry or service or product, instead of interrupting prospects through e-mails, cold calls, etc. In addition, technology is making it harder and harder for you to use the aforementioned methods because of spam blockers, inability to find phone numbers on websites, etc.
What are the fundamentals?
- Your Website – SEO is critical to inbound marketing, and your website has to be the hub for everything you do. Blog on your website using your own company’s keywords, publish links on your site and keep it maintained and updated with new information and useful content.
- Content – You can’t write about what you ate for lunch. You have to develop meaningful content that people will find useful and informative so they keep coming back for more. Of course, it’s always nice to throw in a little humor, too. But above all it has to be useful to your public.
- You Guessed It: Twitter! – I don’t mean JUST use Twitter, but that’s another thing we all keep hearing about, so I figured I’d try and get an eye roll out of you. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and all other forms of social media act as significant channels to get your message out there. They increase your visibility while establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.
Why do it?
It’s significantly cheaper! But don’t be fooled — though it’s monetarily cheaper, it does not cost less in terms of time. Developing meaningful content, finding groups to publish in, responding to people’s posts, responding to people’s responses to your own posts, searching topics, etc all take time. But it’s worth it, because it’s directly targeting those who are searching you out because they're interested in your industry, product or service — and that’s a darn good lead for just blogging about what you know off-hand anyway.
How do I start?
- Begin by making your website the center of all your marketing efforts. Pump it full of meaningful content and refresh it constantly so people keep coming back for more.
- Take that meaningful content and send it out on through social media channels to increase your visibility.
- Start poking around on Twitter and LinkedIn. Search for topics and see what people are saying. Respond. Once you get started, you’ll see that it’s actually really easy, because all you’re doing is writing about what you know anyway.
- We (MLT Creative) recently wrote a guide on blogging that can help you get started: B-to-B Blogging Guide. Hubspot.com has some great information about inbound marketing as well.
So go ahead and try it! Sometimes people will even comment on your posts and tell you you’re smart. And it’s always nice to hear that from someone other than just your mother…
Vann Morris is an Account Executive with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
From BtoB Magazine - Hands On Search (HOS)
Story posted: July 15, 2009 - 2:27 pm EDT
Chris Dawkins is founder and CEO of search engine optimization company Trace Media Marketing. Hands-On: Search recently asked Dawkins about best practices in blending organic search with pay-per-click search campaigns.
HOS: You specialize in SEO, or “natural” search marketing. How can SEO be combined with paid, pay-per-click (PPC) search ads?
Dawkins: As a general rule, marketers should dedicate half their budgets to SEO, or natural search, and the other half to their paid campaigns. For the short term, a paid search program has the benefit of delivering traffic almost 
right away, whereas SEO will likely take several months to deliver traffic.
[Also] testing various keywords and phrases with paid search can be beneficial to your SEO efforts. For example, you can figure out quickly which keywords convert to leads or sales. As your SEO campaign starts delivering traffic, you can back off a little from your paid campaign and focus more on SEO.
HOS: PPC campaigns can become expensive, especially in a competitive market or industry, right?
Dawkins: Yes, but you may not always want to bid on the most popular—and thus most expensive—keywords. You may want to take more of a long-tail approach and bid on niche or second-tier words. These aren’t quite as expensive as the top 10 terms, but can be effective for a lot of small companies.
You can compare keywords and their potential cost by using SEO keyword research tools from Wordtracker or Google AdWords’ keyword tool. The Google AdWords tool will give you an estimate of what it would cost to be on the first page of Google, as well as how much competition is out there for each keyword.
HOS: But with second-tier words, wouldn’t you get fewer click-throughs?
Dawkins: You will get fewer hits, true. But the theory is that the hits you get will be of higher quality because their narrowness will attract the people who really are looking for what you have to sell.
So you should narrow your use of keywords, focusing on just the product you sell or your geographical location. You may just get more sales from 10 clicks off these keywords than from 100 clicks from more generic, and expensive, terms.
HOS: How do landing pages fit into the equation?
Dawkins: You can use landing pages very effectively with paid search because you control exactly where the visitor lands. You can also have several different landing pages, so you can match the keywords that customers use with a highly relevant landing page. Landing pages can be very powerful tools when combined with paid search and can easily be changed or replaced if needed, so they are great for A-B testing.
As far as the information included on landing pages, the theory is that the bigger commitment you’re asking for, the more landing-page information you should offer. So, if your conversion goal is something simple, like trying to get people to download a white paper or sign up for a newsletter, you don’t need a lot of supporting information. But if you’re trying to get them to make a bigger commitment, like sign up for a year’s worth of services, you probably want to include more information such as case studies or testimonials.
HOS: What about the role of SEO vs. PPC when it comes to landing pages?
Dawkins: With paid search, the more focused the landing page is, the better. For example, a keyword-oriented landing page will typically perform better if it doesn’t have any internal navigation. And ideally you should not link that landing page to the rest of the Web site, where people can look around for 10 minutes and lose impetus. Once they start clicking around, they might just click off the site entirely.
I recommend that, once a visitor takes the desired action, such as contacting you or downloading a white paper, then you can forward him to the full Web site to see testimonials and your other clients, and to be reassured that his initial decision was a good one.
HOS: Are the rules different with SEO?
Dawkins: With SEO, you don’t have the same control over where users enter the Web site and, of course, you need to offer links to the rest of the site. This is where more advance techniques come into play. Building “silos” into your site, for example, involves using the internal link structure to create themed sections. When done properly, silos help improve ranking in search engines and help visitors navigate and make sense of your site.
Each silo has a main page and supporting pages. The supporting pages link to the main page of the silo, but do not link to supporting pages of other silos. In effect, you are telling search engines which pages of your site are most important and should be considered appropriate landing pages. This way, you can gain some control over where prospects initially land.
/mh
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
Who’s talking about you?
How to monitor your B2B company's online presence
It is extremely important to stay abreast of web chatter by monitoring the online presence of your B2B business. Staying aware of discussions about your company or industry, and being there for timely responses, is essential. And with a simple daily routine, reviewing a few sites won’t have to be a bother.
Perform these three quick steps daily to know and push what's being said about your company:
Scan Google Alerts: Check Google Alerts for your company name, products, key executives or brand terms. To set this up, enter your search terms and select to receive updates as they happen, or once daily. When activity hits the web about your company, an alert will be sent to your Gmail inbox.
Check Twitter for tweets about your company: Use tools like TweetDeck or Twitter Search to monitor conversations about your company in real time. You can also set up an RSS feed for a specific Twitter Search to go straight to your Google Reader. Repond or retweet as necessary.
Answer industry-related questions on LinkedIn: Search for questions on LinkedIn that you or members of your company can answer. Also respond to any relevant discussions in your LinkedIn groups.
For a broader view of your industry, it might be wise to monitor your key accounts, prospects and competitors as well.
/mh
Martine Hunter is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
Here's a list of my favorite B2B blogs on marketing, SEO, WOM and lead generation:
- A PR Guy's Musings– Stuart Bruce writes about the science of public relations.
- Achieve Market Leadership – Insights on opportunity analysis; strategy and planning; and operations and execution, by the Crimson Consulting Group.
- Anything Goes Marketing – Chad Horenfeldt shares tips and tricks to improve your online marketing skills.
- B2B Insight - Ephraim Cohen writes about corporate communications and PR from a B2B perspective.
- B2B Knowledge Sharing – Scott Gillum of MarketBridge blogs about the constantly changing world of B2B Sales and Marketing.
- B2B Lead Generation Blog - Brian Carroll's blog focuses on B2B lead generation, sales leads and marketing for the complex sale.
- B2B Marketing Communications 2.0 – Pete Jakob writes that as B2B customers turn to the internet to support all stages of their buying process, B2B marketing needs to change its game — and fast!
- B2B Marketing Confidential - Andy Hasselwander provides news and insights from across the B2B marketing landscape.
- B2B Marketing ROI – Making B2B marketing as sexy as B2C, from Adam Blitzer at Pardot.
- B2B Sales Solutions – Dale Underwood writes about B2B sales topics.
- B2B SEO - Galen De Young blogs about business-to-business Search Engine Optimization.
- B2B Web Strategy – eMagine's blog about driving traffic, engaging visitors, conversion, measurement and Internet marketing.
- B2Blog – Dave J uses his perspective as a marketer in the trenches to write about the dramatic changes affecting industrial marketing / B2B marketing.
- Bad Marketing – Todd Ebert tells the good, the bad and the ugly of B2B marketing, and gives ideas for on improving it.
- Better Closer Blog– Bill Rice's blog gives tips and techniques that will have you turning more prospects into customers.
- Branding and Marketing – Chris Brown writes for business professionals with an interest in branding and marketing, with a focus on building awareness.
- Building a Sales Machine – Aaron Ross writes about accelerating growth, reducing uncertainty and creating a predictable sales machine in the on-demand era.
- Business of Marketing and Branding – David Koopmans writes about marketing and branding in the Information Age.
- Freaking Marketing – Robert Rosenthal shares all types of marketing tips, including B2B marketing and lead generation categories.
- Guerrilla Consulting – Michael McLaughlin helps consultants market themselves with breakthrough tactics for winning profitable clients.
- Idea Sellers – Daniel Sitter writes about better tips for selling.
- Marcom Writer Blog – Dianna Huff delivers news, riffs, and commentary on all things relating to B2B marketing communications.
- marketfusions – Shivonne Byrne's thoughts on strategy, business, marketing, content and creativity.
- Marketing Fishbowl – Gary David comments on all things marketing, from the elementary to the profound.
- Marketing Interactions - Ardath Albee writes thought-provoking posts about marketing and sales integration, shortening sales cycles and improving sales tools.
- Marketing MO – Marketing tips from the trenches for B to B marketers, executives, entrepreneurs and consultants.
- Modern B2B Marketing - Jon Miller shares Marketo's latest thinking about B2B marketing, from best practices in search engine marketing to lead nurturing to marketing accountability.
- PR2.0 – Brian Solis' blog fuses public relations, social media, and new media marketing.
- Sales Tools and Sales 2.0 - Fresh ideas and motivation to help sales professionals and managers sell more.
- RefreshWeblog – John Rasco blogs about B2B web marketing and SEO news.
- Revenue Journal - Kristin Zhivago's writes about revenue-increasing insights, strategies and techniques for CEOs and entrepreneurs.
- Sales Itch – Ed McLean writes about the changing world of Sales, with occasional posts about sales-marketing alignment (inactive).
- Sales Lead Insights - Mac McIntosh blogs about ways to boost your business with B2B marketing and B2B sales lead generation.
- Savvy Internet Marketing – Pam Swingley discusses internet marketing for technology and B2B firms.
- Selling to Big Companies – Jill Konrath's step-by-step guide for sellers who want to get their foot in the door of large corporations.
- SEO-Space – Organic search engine marketing thoughts and insights with a B2B twist.
- Seth Godin’s Blog – The prolific author provides profound and hilarious insights on marketing.
- ShopTalk – John Caddell gives a daily look at business-to-business marketing, highlighting trends, focusing on what works and what doesn't.
- Simplenomics – Mike Sigers blogs about sales, marketing and customer service the Simplenomics Way.
- Startup-Marketing – Working with startup CEOs and marketers to explore the keys to startup marketing success, by Sean Ellis.
- Stupid Marketing – Kevin Epstein promotes great marketing and shines a spotlight on the spectacularly stupid things that are sometimes done in the name of marketing.
- Stu's Blog: Success Stories to Grow Your Business – Marketing frameworks, best practices and smart tactics for Demand Generation, Sales Optimization and Customer Success.
- SynaxisSpeaks – Applications of philosophy to marketing and branding.
- The B2B Lead– Real world, practical B2B sales and marketing tips from ReachForce.
- The Scrappy Software Marketer – Andrew Kordek shares thoughts, expressions and general tidbits of being a scrappy software marketer.
- The Social Media Marketing Blog – Scott Monty's perspectives on B2B implications of social media — the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web — for marketers, agencies and companies.
- WebInkNow – David Meerman Scott provides online thought leadership and viral marketing strategies using blogs, news releases, ebooks and online media.
- WebMama's Look at the Web – WebMama, aka Barb Coll, focuses on search engine marketing for B2B companies.
- WebMarketCentral Blog –Tom Pick has been a B2B marketer since 1992, with an emphasis on research, writing, leadership and online marketing.
- Writing Whitepaper's Blog – Michael A. Stelzner shares the latest trends in writing and marketing whitepapers.
/mh
Martine Hunter is the creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
When I saw this video at a recent American Marketing Association meeting, it was evident that the relationship between the marketer and the consumer has changed and continues to change at an exceedingly marked rate.
- Is it time to reassess your relationship with your customer?
- Are you listening? Do you go to the places your customer goes?
- Are you providing what your customer really needs?
Answer these questions or your customer may leave you at the table.
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.
From BtoB Magazine - June 11, 2009
by Christopher Hosford
New York—Internet publishers inevitably will charge for their information, and display ads must conform better to the content around them, proclaimed Barry Diller, chairman-CEO of Internet company IAC/InterActiveCorp., at the opening keynote Wednesday of Advertising 2.0 New York.
“Display ads have been completely ‘commodified,’ and that won’t change,” said Diller,whose IAC headquarters 
building hosted the event. The issue, he said, is that “with generic display, every day a ton more inventory arrives.”
Diller, who also is chairman of travel services site Expedia and ticketing company Ticketmaster Entertainment, said that standard banner ad formats fail to adequately conform to the context in which they are placed, and that this must change.
“We’re all at the earliest period of display advertising, which has been standardized into formats where people can say, ‘I know what to ignore,’ ” said the former head of Paramount Pictures and Fox Inc.
He said ads that are “embedded in a very deep way” and “contextual sponsorships specific for the audience” may be more effective.
Diller also predicted that the original model of free Web content is obsolete, and that publishers increasingly will begin to offer content behind walls, charging subscription fees to access it.
“I absolutely believe that the Internet is passing from its free phase to a paid system,” he said. “Consumers have expected it to be free, but it’s going to change. It’s likely publishers will have fewer readers, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s inevitable. Some people will pay and some won’t, but it will be a good thing for everybody, including the consumer.”
IAC/InterActiveCorp. owns such businesses as search engine Ask.com; dating service Match.com; local search and reviews site Citysearch; and Vimeo, a videocentric social network.
Martine Hunter is a creative director of eMedia with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing.