Check out this tidy little article on Upselling on DHL's Small Business newsletter website. I was interviewed on the topic some time ago and the article just came out. Pretty basic info on Upselling, but important nonetheless!

I did not know this fact, however:

J. Paul Getty, the former billionaire oil baron—and once the richest man in the world—was well known for emphasizing the selling of products that give continued sales.

Makes perfect sense to me. Those are my favorite types of businesses!

Well, the equation isn't that precise, but there's been a convergence of ideas in B2B Internet marketing that Karen Gedney points out a very sharp increase in "B2B clients needing copywriting services" in her ClickZ article, Help Wanted: B2B Copywriters.

Thought Leadership Marketing isn't just about premium content, but in B2B, there's a need to 1) enhance the customer/potential buyer experience through information and 2) increase sales and repeat buys. Research also shows that webinars, email newsletters, whitepapers and the like are important drivers of online leads & inquiries for B2B companies.

What's this all lead to? Well, in short, it signals a run on marketing talent in B2B. Even in house talent that's been doing B2B for years may have a hard time adapting to the needs of the marketplace, especially now that customers are seeking control of the B2B message too.

2007 is going to be a FUN YEAR in B2B online. Really, it is! Adapted from Karen's article, here's a few things I'm thinking will impact us:

• Sales 2.0 and the evolution of the marketing/sales relationship in B2B
• Marketing response goes down when frequency is reduced. Don't just boost the volume on one channel, rather try varying communications with e-newsletters, alerts, surveys, Webinar invitations, and more.
• The need for QUALITY content is unrelenting. Each new marketing endeavor, especially in B2B where it's not just about slick ads that are outsourced to the agency, requires solid, knowledge-rich content. Hence, the need for copywriters.
• Consumer control of the message and the need to reach out to evangelists & vigilantes in real time. Not only will you need quality copywriters, but you'll need them on alert at all times and with quick wit to boot.
• Long-copy assignments that span PR, marketing, customer service and sales. Everyone needs to be singing from the same sheet of music. In my experience, PR firms and ad agencies are terrible with long-content topics like white-papers and other significant knowledge-dredging undertakings. Get someone in house or that specializes in this stuff.

So, now that YouTube's been purchased by Google, what does that mean for the rest of us?

Well, nothing, and everything. Nothing - we really can't get in on that big pay day. Fine. Everything - video on the web is a game changing big_freaking_deal.

My prediction is that any company that has a website NEEDS VIDEO on their site in some way, shape, or form.

Really, it's ubiquitous. The ad dollars are there to back it up and there's no shortage of deals being done on video in the mobile space, web space, iTV space and every other corner of the mediasphere that video can possibly touch.

Specifically, I want to see sites using video for lead gen. Even my wife's new chiropractic website has a chiropractic intro video on it. Sure, it's a 'template video', but it's sight, sound, motion and emotion that sells a hell of a lot more effectively than text!

So, I did a little digging to see who's doing this:

• IBM is using video as a lead gen tool for their lead gen tools
• Grip On Tools (via MarketingSherpa) used video via email
• Perfect Patients (provider of my wife's website) uses video as a lead gen too

I'm sure that there are many others, but let's look at why this is so effective:

1. Video explains concepts in a way that no text or podcast can. You can use voice, music, pictures, screenshots, motion pictures, whatever...to explain your concepts
2. Broadband penetration makes consuming video 'just part of the Internet usage' of the average consumer
3. Having prospects read your website for 5 minutes is a big stretch. Getting the information across in a 5 minute video isn't nearly as big a burden
4. Video is just more engaging that blogs, or even podcasts. Seriously. I can watch the "Fox Hat" video a thousand times, and it's still engaging, and it's still funny!
5. Puts a human face on the scene. Sure, blogs do this, but video REALLY does this. Putting the owner in podcasts seems to work, so putting the owner in video will work better, right?

There's certainly more to it than that, but video, screen casts, YouTube and everything else web video is a small piece of the growing interest in Sales 2.0. Stay tuned

Well, it's actually FedEx Purple, or PANTONE 2685, according to the FedEx Corporate Identity Guide.

In spite of the way FedEx completely hosed up their opportunity to capitalize on the buzz that FedEx Furniture Guy was creating, I truly admire their 'color coding' brand strategy, which FedEx recently expanded on at a Nashville AMA event, as reported by the Jazzed About Business blog.

I don't think that the importance of color, and differentiation by color, should ever be underestimated in your long term branding strategy. In fact, all of FedEx's branding is apparently long term.

Covering the evolution of the FedEx brand from how it got started to how it continues to be maintained, Hoy revealed they have employed strategic, rather than tactical, branding. Their branding started around using “Power Applications” which consisted of mediums in which the brand was placed in front of people, such as signage, trucks, uniforms, literature and anywhere else the FedEx name may be seen.

Maybe I just notice these things, but even a low usage customer like me can tell you the difference in what service I'm getting from FedEx based on the color on the box, truck or logo on the website. Wild. How easily we're trained.

Think about this during your next new product launch or line extension.

When asked to approximate the importance of color when buying products, 84.7 percent of the total respondents think that color accounts for more than half among the various factors important for choosing products. "For consumers these days, color is not simply one of many variables, but is in fact the most important factor in making purchase decisions. As youth have grown up with heavy influence from the visual media such as TV, film, video and fashion magazines, companies are starting to focus more on marketing colors that appeal to the senses," Cheon Mi-ryung said. (Seoul International Color Expo 2004)

Technorati Tags: branding, color

I've been passively following the emergence of new, 'just in time' deal related online stores or 'retail indexing sites'. I guess I'd put things like InBubbleWrap in there too, but we'll get to that later. So, I guess I'd call this e-commerce with anticipation, or JIT (Just In Time for you non-manufacturing raised folks out there) e-commerce.

I just came across a new JIT shopping site Soupe Du Jour today, thanks to a reference from Cool Hunting. I've added to my daily troll list, along with WOOT! Here's what SDJ has to say about itself:

This site, along with MightyGoods, Dealtime (sort of) and a host of others are building affinity for the site with the element of surprise. Not something totally new, if you were the type to look at your little Amazon "gold box" on a daily basis. But we're entering (or right in the middle of) an age where shoppers have short spans of attention and have been so well trained to never shop for all but the most basic necessities without the requisite incentive placed before them. (coincidentally, a recent AutoVIBES study found that of consumers planning an auto purchase in the next 12 months, 51% are unlikely do to so without some form of incentive)

Some of these sites are pretty addictive, in fact, I visit mightygoods and woot on a regular basis. Woot is smart - they have an RSS feed, but some of the other sites I've seen are shooting themselves in the foot here by not offering their deals via RSS. In fact, I think that there's even more power in deals through RSS, but you can lead a horse to water without him ever drinking, so I guess we're riding the email pony express to find out about our deals until such a time when RSS in ingrained in the messaging habits of every e-commerce store, especially these JIT'commers.

Speaking of InBubbleWrap and other sites that are like them or any 'JIT deal sites' for that matter, I have a few thoughts for them. Since entering the world of online advertising in a bigger way that I ever was before as part of the Pheedo team, I've come to really appreciate the power of advertising and a vehicle for monetization of content. Sites like IBR could provide a valuable service to their sponsors/customers by not just giving away stuff, or providing deals, but also by selling advertising in the RSS feeds when those products are released, along with offering lead generation opportunities and customer data capture opportunities. It breaks down like this.

Todd and the 800 CEO Read crew have a new project called 'In Bubble Wrap' where you can sign up and be eligible to win a business related prized each day (just books, so far, which is awesome...) just by answering a couple of questions and submitting your info.

Check out http://beta.inbubblewrap.com/

From the "great marketing minds" category, Bonita Coleman Stewart, the Director of Interactive Communications for Chrysler Group, talks about how interactive marketers are getting ahead of traditional marketers. I'm not certain that this is one for the textbooks, but certainly there are marketing departments that could use a good dose of process in thier teams.

[via AdBumb]

Peter has a great section of the BeConnected blog on customer intuition tools that you can use to better connect with your client base.

Apparently, the ultimate "targetability" of Google AdWords to B2B product searchers is clawing revenue away from traditional B2B trade rags and websites which, in the past, used to be the only "targeted" way to reach the actual decision makers in the B2B space.

Not so anymore...

Marketers use AdWords to reach consumers with tightly targeted messages as consumers seek tightly targeted information, which is a decent thumbnail description of business-to-business publishing's model.

"If Google can slice and dice [information]," said one b-to-b publishing executive, "and give highly qualified users to very targeted advertisers, then what do you need a trade publication for?"

The shining star in all of this is that B2B sales cycles are not typically completed in a day, and ads placed in B2B trade pubs reach potential buyers at a very different stage of the purchase/decision cycle than will a targeted ad via Google. When B2B ad salespeople are out there selling ads, they need to bring this up as a topic.

Moreover, B2B ad salespeople need to accentuate their own website's draw and come up with unique revenue models to support and augment the print ad revenue.

[via AdAge - TRADE PUBLISHERS WARNED OF GOOGLE'S IMPACT ON MAGAZINES]

[also - MarketingVox - Google Threatens B-to-B Publishers]

Interactive marketing can no longer be a skunk project for agencies that want to have relevant solutions. The smartest creatives are already thinking in Net-applicable ideas. See Goodby's Internet work for HP, Crispin's Subservient Chicken for Burger King, Ogilvy's Superman movies for Amex, and my favorite, Wieden's Beta 7 campaign for Sega, which was an Andy winner last week.

As Andrew Robertson, worldwide president of BBDO says, you don't have to be a pioneer experimenting with clients' money, but you do have to be able to move when the consumer moves. And the consumer is moving.

What does this say for those companies that are "specialists" in the interactive space and are not part of an agency. Well, there will always be room for you, but unless you significantly differentiate yourself, your best bet may be to find an agency to partner with. At some point, the space will consolidate, your local agency will become more hip to interactive, and you may need a friend.

[via AdAge.com - WHAT LEO BURNETT TAUGHT US ABOUT THE INTERNET]

This is not breakthrough, but clever. Dell's radio ads (I just heard one on the way back from lunch) have unique URLS in them instead of using dell.com. The URL they are using is "www.dellradio.com".

Nothing too new, but like everything else that's common sense...it isn't so common. A lesson for local retailers who to a lot of radio ads!

Heidelberg, the printing press people, are on track to pull of some great integrated marketing tactics for their upcoming trade show in Dusseldorf. This only makes sense. The trade show is no longer just about the show, but about another venue to further/begin the long relationship with customers. I wrote an article a while back about Internet marketing for trade shows, but this goes much further. This is about bring the entire experience full circle, using the right tools to make it cost effective, and showing your customers that you've got it together.

"Heidelberg's multi-stage concept is based on personalized addressing of target groups and dialog between the company and its customers - before, during and after the trade show. The various international measures involve customers, employees, opinion leaders, print-media buyers, journalists and investors and utilize all existing communication channels from dialog and advertising campaigns to electronic and print media, the website and, last but not least, the drupa booth itself. This will all be complemented by targeted marketing measures around the exhibition center," says Dr. Klaus Spiegel, Member of the Heidelberg Management Board and responsible for products and marketing.

I just came across this article on integrated marketing on the Digital Web Magazine site. I particlularly like this quote - because we also do TV spots here, this makes perfect sense, and is some thing that agencies should be thinking about. Sometimes, the tools you use really can make a difference for the client!

Today, we have HD video with 24fps frame rate—the same frame rate as 35mm film. Not only does this 24P technology produce similar quality to film at a significantly reduced cost, you can also pull still images from the video that maintains 300dpi for brochure applications, and are more than adequate in size and resolution for any Web application. This technology not only saves marketing dollars up front, it provides easy integration across various media and, best of all, provides many dozens of unique still images for Web application. More than a couple of select shots taken during an expensive photo shoot, this is a veritable cornucopia of visual images to pick from, identical to what is being used on the television commercials, in print pieces, and beyond.

Through an understanding of integrated marketing and related media and technologies, such as this example with HD video, Web designers can add value to their clients and companies. The exploration of new (non-Web) technologies, like HD video, as a method to improve our Web design can provide extra value through lower production costs and greater integration across other media. This level of broader thinking and knowledge makes us more valuable and improves the business success of those who employ us.

How did you find your last plumber? Where did you locate the person to fix your air conditioner last summer? I’ll be the limo for your daughter’s prom came from the same place.

The Yellow Pages

If you’re anything like the 25% of Americans that wish they could have found that information online (maybe because you’re one of the 21.5 million households on broadband), you’re not alone. A recent Kelsey Group/BizRate.com study queried more than 5,500 online shoppers and found that 25 percent of their searches were for merchants located near their homes or workplaces.

Local search is also on the brains of Google and Overture (Yahoo) who both plan to launch services allow allowing advertisers to aim their ads at users in specific geographical areas either by checking the Internet Protocol address assigned to the user's compute local search service would identify potentially local search queries, like "dentist," then ask users if they would like to type in a ZIP code or other location modifier to get geographically targeted results.

Marketing Myopia at the Phone Company

The phone companies have complained for some time that the Internet is taking away their business. I disagree, and if you look at one of the founding articles of the practice of marketing, Marketing Myopia by Ted Levitt, you’ll see why. The yellow page advertisers were not viewing themselves as “resource locators” but rather as ad space sellers for offline printed material. If they had seen themselves as a service to customers, rather than as a “product” of sorts, they’d have had this figured out long ago.

Fun and Profits with Micro Sites

Taking a new approach, users who type the phrase "Green Bay HVAC or air conditioner repair 54303" will see advertisers within 15 miles of Green Bay. For advertisers that have no Web page to link to, clicking on the ad would send users to a "landing page" or “micro site”, which could be sold and created by the phone companies, and reside on their server, along with additional advertising from the HVAC company, including information like hours of operation, phone numbers, maps and directions.

No company is better positioned to capitalize on this offering than the local directory company selling you your yellow pages space!

The search engines have the Web traffic, they lack the ability to attract and sell ad space to small business owners. Verizon, SBC and other Yellow Pages publishers have millions of small advertisers already buying their services - and have sales forces to help those businesses with their online advertising - but their Web divisions may lack the infrastructure to support this initiative. I say – hire people!

Verizon "is moving in that direction”, so to speak, with their SuperPages.com site. Starting March 1, users of SuperPages will be able to perform general searches by typing in any keyword or phrase, rather than being limited to the precise business categories created by SuperPages.

Yellow pages publishers have good reason to be scared, and even more reason to rejoice in the potential for profits selling custom micro site landing pages to compliment an advertisers offline ad.

Tobi Elkin from iMedia Post followed up on the reaction to Mitsubishi's Super Bowl "See What Happens" ad, from which users were supposed to visit www.seewhathappens.com to find out if the Camry or Galant won the "accident avoidance" test.

"In the first 24 hours [after the spot ran] we had the same number of unique visits to that site that we would normally get in a month on the Mitsubishicars.com site..."

The effort is "all about integrated marketing. You have people who are multimedia consumers. TV is the headline, and the online world gives you everything else." Still, Beavis notes, digital media accounts for less than five percent of the Galant media budget.

[The Hindu Business Line] A recent study called the Impact Multiplier Research Initiative conducted by the Indian Newspaper Society revealed that even in real market conditions the combination of print and television created a greater impact on the consumer. (really?!) In five of the six participating brands, the synergy was evident and there was spontaneous recall.

That being said, the the effect may not be visible when the print and television ads are not the same. In true Integrated Marketing fashion, there needs to be consistency in message across media to achieve maximum impact

The research also proved that there is a threshold level for television beyond which adding print to television results in added efficiency in reaching target audiences and an opportunity to reach even some "hard-to-get" targets.