BtoB articles from September 2007

BtoB archives from September 2007

Deliverabilty remains big issue; Goldstein, set to retire as president of IDG List Services, offers advice on industry trends.(Direct & Database)(International Data Group)(Deb Goldstein)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Carol Krol International Data Group announced last month that IDG List Services President Deb Goldstein is retiring at the end of September. Goldstein has been with IDG for 21 years, including 16 as president of the list unit. ...

Dell.com/smb.(NetMarketing)(small and midsize businesses)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Dell Small Business Target audience: Technology purchasers at small and midsize businesses (1-500 employees) Key Web executive: Jeff Hamlin, director of online, Small and Medium Business division No. of employees who work on the site:...

Veritasideas.com.(NetMarketing)(Schneller LLC)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Schneller LLC, a manufacturer of laminates and floor coverings Target audience: Architects and interior designers Key Web executive: Philip Novac, director of market and product development No. of employees who work on the site: Five...

Deloitte.com/us.(NetMarketing)(Deloitte & Touche L.L.P.)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Deloitte & Touche USA Target audience: C-level executives, potential recruits, Deloitte alumni, media and analysts Key Web executive: William J. Barrett, director of Internet marketing No. of employees who work on the site: 12 Internet...

Agenda.
September 10, 2007... Sept. 24-25 OMMA Conference & Expo New York MediaPost Communications Hilton New York www.mediapost.com Oct. 2 ClickZ: E-Mail Marketing Incisive Interactive Marketing Hilton New York www.clickzevents.com...

indirect.(Best Practices Framework from Forrester Research Inc.)(Direct Marketing Educational Foundation gives contract for publishing its academic research journal to Elsevier)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Forrester releases CRM best practices Forrester Research released a Best Practices Framework for CRM that addresses 150 best practice capabilities. The best practices are organized into four categories: strategy, process, technology and...

GE.com.(NetMarketing)(General Electric Co.)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: General Electric Co. Target audience: Customers and prospects in multiple industries; analysts, journalists, employees and job seekers Key Web executive: Jen Walsh, digital media director No. of employees who work on the site: 10 Last...

National.com.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: National Semiconductor Corp. Target audience: Design engineers Key Web executive: Phil Gibson, VP-technical sales and Web tools No. of employees who work on the site: 25 Last major redesign: 2004 No. of pages on site: 45,500 Web ...

Benefits first: Marketing's active voice.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Jason Karpf `Use active voice, not passive voice.'' You should remember this admonition from college English class. Passive voice scrambles and weakens a sentence, elevating a direct object to the role of subject while defaulting...

the "math problem'; With mounds of metrics, creative no longer is the sole provenance of the "creative'.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Bruce Carlisle Early in my career, I was lucky enough to participate in the superb account management training program at Ogilvy & Mather, where we were solemnly taught that our jobs included strategy and project management. The...

Think long-term when gauging campaigns; Ask the expert.(SiriusDecisions)(Interview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: Christopher Hosford Tony Jaros is VP-research at SiriusDecisions, in Wilton, Conn. BtoB recently asked Jaros about trends in gauging the effectiveness of marketing promotions and campaigns. BtoB: How is the concept of promotion...

Online marketing tools come of age.
September 10, 2007... Byline: RICH KARPINSKI Did you hear the one about the VP of marketing who demanded budget and IT support for a $10 million enterprise application that he promised would revolutionize how his company did its marketing? Neither did we....

wsRadio.com launches wsRadio.Biz Network.
September 10, 2007... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ Hoping to dial up more b-to-b advertisers, ws.Radio.com recently introduced wsRadio.Biz Network. The business network, part of an effort to franchise ws.Radio.com into local markets, includes more than 40 live...

Novell boosts its position in IT field.(Novell Inc.)
September 10, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON When enterprise infrastructure software and services provider Novell debuted its "Your Linux Is Ready'' campaign last August, the objective was twofold: to introduce the company's SUSE Linux platform and to...

Keeping it simple will help get through to IT pros; Industry outlook.(Interview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON As VP-strategic marketing and business development of CMP's Channel business, Kate Spellman knows how to reach IT decision-makers. Prior to her current role at CMP, she was the publisher of the company's...

event.(International Association of Exhibitions and Events and China International Purchase Center to create IAEE-CIPC Service Center)(Spunlogic adds custom analytics tools)(PPM Media and Industry Insights to produce technology summits.)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... IAEE collaborates with Chinese event industry The International Association of Exhibitions and Events announced it has partnered with the China International Purchase Center to create the IAEE-CIPC Service Center to promote cooperation with...

More focused efforts for fall; Advertisers proceed with new campaigns, placing more emphasis on targeting.(Advertising)
September 10, 2007... Byline: KATE MADDOX B-to-b advertisers will continue with their plans to launch new ad campaigns and extend existing ones into the fall season, although the slowing economy is causing many of them to pursue more targeted media plans and...

Sale of assets reduces Ziff Davis' b-to-b presence.(Ziff Davis Media Inc.)
September 10, 2007... Byline: MATTHEW SCHWARTZ Will Ziff Davis Media's recent sale of its Enterprise Group mark the end of the company's standing as a major player in the b-to-b marketing world? Ziff sold the assets of its Enterprise Group to private equity...

Second Life has some firms second guessing.(Linden Lab)
September 10, 2007... Byline: KATE MADDOX While Second Life is indisputably the largest virtual world in which corporations are setting up shop to reach customers and prospects, limitations such as security and scalability are causing some b-to-b marketers and...

Staples.com.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Staples Inc. Target audience: Small and midsize business customers Key Web executive: Colin Hynes, director of usability for Staples No. of employees who work on the site: N/A Last major redesign: July 2005, with incremental updates;...

hp.com.(NetMarketing)(Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html Company: Hewlett-Packard Development Co. Target audience: IT professionals Key Web executives: Ray Vaden, technology services customer portals manager; Nandini Nayak, director of design and...

Wellsfargo.com/biz.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Wells Fargo & Co. Target audience: Small- and midsize business owners. Key Web executive: Richard Weeks, senior VP-head of business Internet services No. of employees who work on the site: Varies depending on project Last major...

Vmware.com.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: VMWare Inc. Target audience: IT professionals, system architects and administrators Key Web executive: Sindy Braun, senior director, Web marketing No. of employees who work on the site: N/A Last major redesign: August 2007 No. of pages...

Attached to each other and to the Net.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Paul Gillin I got married on Sept. 1. Like many couples these days, my wife and I selected nearly all of our services and vendors on the Internet. The reception site was chosen from an online registry, the caterer for, and the...

Common tactics reach diverse IT; Case studies, video product demonstrations and social media effective in connecting with execs.(Vertical Insight: Marketing to IT)
September 10, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON The IT vertical encompasses multiple subcategories-networking, security, storage, application development and wireless, to name a few-but companies successfully marketing to the professionals in this space have...

Breaking the rules the right way.(Chasers)
September 10, 2007... There are the immutable laws of nature, never to be broken. And there are the Chasers' Criteria, commonsense guidelines for effective b-to-b advertising that allow for some creative license. We suggest the license should be exercised...

goat or gloat; A quick comparison of recent work by competing advertisers.(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Company: MasterCard, Purchase, N.Y. Agency: McCann-Erickson, New York Market: Entrepreneurs Quick chase: White space often enhances the graphics and text on the page. But in this case, white space is the ad with the exception of several lines...

cut to the chase.(Chautauqua Communications)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Company: Southwest Airlines, Dallas Agency: GSD&M, Austin, Texas Market: CEOs, corporate travel managers Quick chase: Testimonials are a great way to back up the promise of a reward. Southwest Airlines puts a human face on the promise in the...

Top 100 b-to-b advertisers increased spending 3% in '06.(Company rankings)
September 10, 2007... Byline: KATE MADDOX The top 100 b-to-b advertisers spent an estimated $6.76 billion on b-to-b advertising last year, up 3.0% from $6.56 billion in 2005, according to a BtoB analysis of ad spending data from TNS Media Intelligence. The...

10 great web sites.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Each year, BtoB selects 10 b-to-b Web sites that do an exceptionally good job of communicating with their audiences. These sites find innovative and compelling ways to share product and services information and,...

QuickHits.(News)(research of online ad spending )
September 10, 2007... Online ad spending seen topping radio spending Online ad spending is expected to reach $21.7 billion this year, for the first time surpassing radio ad spending, which will total an estimated $20.4 billion, according to a new report from...

The Experts.
September 10, 2007... Steve Krug is the author of the bestselling book "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability'' and the founder of Advanced Common Sense, a Web usability testing firm. Alan Webber is a senior analyst at Forrester Research....

Cintas.com.(NetMarketing)(Website overview)
September 10, 2007... Company: Cintas Corp. Target audience: Managers and owners at small to midsize businesses; decision-makers at large corporate accounts Key Web executive: Mike Brigger, manager of e-business marketing and technology solutions No. of employees...

newcampaigns.(VIA Group)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Visa "Food Court'' Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day, Los Angeles Target audience: Visa cardholders Campaign objective: Demonstrate the convenience of paying with a Visa card instead of checks or cash Media: TV Budget: Undisclosed Parametric...

Going green can help image; Event marketers discover brand benefits in taking environmental responsibility.
September 10, 2007... Byline: ERIN BIBA Trends across the U.S. have consistently moved toward environmentally friendly options for house, home and work. The same is true for the event marketplace. Creating a green event means rethinking strategies from step...

Promotion effectiveness; Concentrating on quality, rather than quantity of leads a better measure.
September 10, 2007... Byline: CHRISTOPHER HOSFORD Understanding the effectiveness of a particular marketing campaign in the b-to-b space isn't easy. The sales cycle can be lengthy, and tying revenue and incremental sales to any particular program is difficult....

Clients' ROI needs drive agency deals; Recent acquisitions focus on boosting capabilities in search, direct and CRM.(customer relationship management)
September 10, 2007... Byline: KATE MADDOX As clients increasingly demand proof of ROI on their marketing investments, agencies are scrambling to beef up services in search marketing, direct and customer relationship management. Many are meeting this need by...

Research spurs debate over Net Promoter Score; Article disputes reliabilty of customer loyalty metric.
September 10, 2007... Byline: KATE MADDOX An academic debate is quietly brewing over the widely adopted Net Promoter Score, although marketers that have implemented the customer loyalty index say the debate is not having an impact on their use of it in their...

Vatican's pilgrim charter literally puts spirit in the sky.(Vatican introduces air charter service for Catholic pilgrims)(Street Art Show and Auction by Draftfcb New York for Rock N Renew)(Microsoft Corp. gives advertising contract to Bradley and Montgomery.)
September 10, 2007... Thinking about taking that pilgrimage to the shrine at Lourdes? Wait no longer, the Pope has his own airplane to take you there. In truth, it is the Vatican that has introduced a charter service for Catholic pilgrims. Although the plane won't...

Wondrous widgets and mighty mashups.
September 10, 2007... Byline: Ellis Booker Now that I've been out of computer trade journalism for several years, I can make the following, shocking confession: As a college freshman, I dropped my one and only computer programming class just before I failed it....

Marketers prepare for 'blended search'; Strategies shift as search result pages begin displaying more than text links.
September 10, 2007... Byline: CAROL KROL Two major search engines have introduced so-called "blended search'' interfaces that expand the content of a search results page beyond text links to many kinds of content, such as maps, video, images, audio, news and...

Coremetrics tool targets smaller marketers.(Coremetrics Inc.)
September 10, 2007... Byline: RICH KARPINSKI Web analytics vendor Coremetrics is taking its high-end tools to small and midsize businesses. The vendor, best known for delivering sophisticated analytics tools to large enterprise users, is going down-market...

Btobonline.com.(Opinion)
September 10, 2007... poll results Where do you go to get new ideas for your Web site? Other sites within your company: 21% Competitor sites: 37% Other b-to-b sites: 31% B-to-c sites: 11% Poll question Vote now at btobonline.com ...

Methodology.(TNS Media Intelligence)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Totals for the Top 100 B-to-B Advertisers in 2006 are based on analysis of data from New York-based TNS Media Intelligence. TNS tracks ad spending across a wide range of media, including b-to-b publications and consumer media such as TV,...

move recipient to web page; E-mail video encourages interactivity, but also poses rendering and delivery problems.(Multimedia)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON The sight, sound and motion of multimedia can add significant creative appeal to an e-mail campaign, but with serious rendering and delivery issues to consider, marketers must proceed with caution. "The more you...

Integration a powerful tool; E-mail marketing loses value when it is not integrated with other efforts, analytics.(Integration)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON If marketers have learned anything in the past few years, it's that e-mail comes closest to realizing its potential when it's integrated with messaging in other marketing channels. It also works best when combined...

Make sure to measure all viral click-throughs for accurate ROI; Ask the expert.(Analytics)(return on investment)
September 24, 2007... Question: How can you properly incorporate analytics into e-mail marketing and why? Answer: There is a much-talked-about trend in the industry to tie Web analytics into your e-mail system. According to JupiterResearch, as many as one-third...

Watch your images and ISPs to ensure deliverability; Ask the expert.(Deliverability)
September 24, 2007... Question: How did the deliverability challenge change? Answer: The following are developments in 2006 that affected deliverability and will continue to do so: 1. Default image suppression became ubiquitous and is the most important...

Old addresses can send you straight to spam trap; Ask the expert.(List Management)
September 24, 2007... Question: Should I buy a targeted e-mail list to promote my site? Answer: You see it all the time: promoters offering you a quantity of "targeted, opted-in'' lists of e-mail addresses. Here's why you should never send an e-mail campaign to...

Data scrubbing worth the effort for Dai Nippon subsidiary.(Deliverability)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN DNP IMS America Corp., a U.S. subsidiary of Dai Nippon Printing Co., started sending an e-mail newsletter to 2,000 value-added reseller customers and prospects in 2002. The messages were well-received. Between 40%...

Xerox finds new business with offer-and without brand.(Strategy)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN As a customer, you'd probably be suspicious if you got a marketing message offering something for nothing, but that's exactly what Xerox Corp. has been sending out to nonprofit prospects for more than five years....

Lackluster 'Payroll' sales lead to healthy e-mail campaign.(Creative)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J.BANNAN The American Payroll Association's members know the value of its book "The Payroll Source.'' Often called the payroll bible, the $200-plus tome covers compliance issues and rules, and is updated yearly to reflect...

Connecting the data; Customer behavior metrics are helping marketers create more intelligent e-mails.(Analytics)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON Compared with the results available from traditional, offline media, metrics on e-mail campaigns offer marketers a virtual gold mine of information about how the target audience responded to the effort. One...

Hudson's Bay new gift card program captures corporate market.(Integration)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Retailers typically court the consumer, but Hudson's Bay Co., which has more than 580 locations across Canada, wanted to capture a bigger slice of the corporate market as well. So the company, which sells a variety...

Video postcard campaign brings back Chicken of the Sea jingle.(Multimedia)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Video is a tough sell for e-mail marketers. After all, most companies block attachments or executable applications. But Chicken of the Sea needed something to help it stand out from its competitors. The company was...

How to get immediate response to your e-mails; Ask the expert.(Strategy)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Question: How do I get more people to respond "right now'' to the e-mail campaigns I send? Answer: There's nothing like the cha-ching of clicks, orders and activity on your latest campaign. But how do you inspire your readers to act now...

Stretching the limits of a mature medium.(Editor's Note)
September 24, 2007... Byline: Ellis Booker Electronic mail remains a major component of every marketer's strategy. Say what you will about the potential of new-fangled channels such as video, social media and virtual worlds, e-mail marketing isn't going away....

simple content a safer choice; Improper e-mail rendering can cause creative marketing campaigns to miss their mark.(Creative)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON E-mail marketing creative presents a particular challenge for marketers: Unlike a print ad or direct mail piece, which are usually displayed as the advertiser intended them to be, the content in a marketer's e-mail...

list retention a tough battle; Monitoring bounce logs, removing invalid e-mail addresses key to keeping a clean list.(List Management)(Survey)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON Several factors determine the success of an e-mail marketing campaign, but a clean, current list of recipients who are receptive to your messages is among the most important. Unfortunately, having such a list is...

'E-NURTURING' CUSTOMERS; Marketers add preference options to keep prospects moving along in the sales cycle.(Strategy)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON Effective e-mail marketing strategy is increasingly about reaching recipients with the right content at the right time. To achieve this deceptively simple goal, marketers are turning to life cycle marketing, or...

a good `rep' can ensure delivery; Making content, subject lines relevant builds a good reputation with customers, prospects.(Deliverability)
September 24, 2007... Byline: MARY E. MORRISON As spam proliferates and corporate filters get more difficult to clear, e-mail deliverability continues to challenge legitimate marketers looking to connect with customers and prospects. In the past, spam filters...

Key touch point metrics trigger custom e-mails.(Analytics)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN A Web site redesign created a wonderful problem for ShareBuilder 401K-more leads than it knew what to do with. Six months ago, inside sales reps had about 700 leads coming in each month. That number climbed to more...

TSR's new e-mail marketing program helping target customers.(List Management)
September 24, 2007... Byline: KAREN J. BANNAN Decade-old TSR Inc. supplies the wire harness industry with hand tools, braiders and anything else that helps manufacturers assemble high-tech and, often high-ticket, items. Unfortunately, until earlier this year...

Deployment, design and device open road to e-mailing in China; Ask the expert.(Strategy)
September 24, 2007... Question: What are the unique concerns of e-mail marketing to customers and prospects in China? Answer: There are three primary considerations when it comes to e-mail marketing to customers and prospects in China: deployment, design and...

Ask the expert.(Multimedia)
September 24, 2007... Question: What are the benefits and drawbacks of using video in e-mails? Answer: Including video in e-mail can yield several key benefits, such as a higher response rates, longer interaction times, lower distribution costs and more...