Google, Display Ads, and B2B Marketing

Google just pushed a tiny bit further into their long-stated strategy of making display advertising their next billion dollar business. Former DoubleClick exec Barry Salzman joined the team to bring this vision closer to reality, and it’s expected that we’ll see more movement from Google in this direction over the next year.

What does this strategy mean for B2B marketers? A lot.

As B2B marketers, we love search, both natural, and paid, as it gives us a highly precise way of targeting buyers based on a real-time understanding of their interests. If someone searches for “demand generation”, we can reasonably assume, that at that moment in time, they are quite interested in learning about “demand generation”. Targeting our messages against a profile that accurate makes sense in an environment where we are selling products that are often complex, expensive, and highly considered, to a very narrow audience of business people who are interested.

The Flaw With Search

The problem with this is that it relies on the prospect to "actively" seek information. They need to make the effort to perform a search for a specific piece of information, and when they do, we are able to present them with a message. This works well, but only in situations where they are actively searching for a specific type of information. Outside of that, we have no way to reach them. This means that any messages we would like them to discover more “passively” in order to start them thinking about new areas that their business could be improved, change their perceptions of a certain solution, or highlight an area to consider that they may not have considered, we are unable to get that message in front of them.

This active/passive challenge for marketers is about to move to the fore-front as Google brings its weight into the display search game. With its heavy investments in social media, with the new Buzz platform, and the full Twitter feed, as well as the algorithms to understand these in real time, Google is in an enviable position. This data allows Google to begin to understand who is interested in what at any given moment, and who the influencers are in that particular market.

Intention-Based Advertising

Far more than the loose, mainly demographic-based, targeting that is currently available to marketers in display search, Google will conceivably be able to present display ads based on actual area of interest and intent (acting more in the role of information concierge). Much as we currently target search ads based on the key phrase typed, we may soon be able to target display ads based on key phrases that are not typed – just acted on. As prospective buyers show an interest in investigating a certain area, say by clicking on a link, shared socially, that refers to an article on generating more leads for sales, Google may be able to then show them a display Ad targeted at any interest in “demand generation”.

Right now it is difficult to target prospective B2B buyers “passively”, so much of our marketing efforts are designed around making it easier for prospective buyers to find us when they are actively looking.
This may soon change. Read More...

The Buzz about Google Buzz – 6 things relevant to B2B

Yesterday, Google announced their next major foray into social media, with the launch of Google Buzz. While the main concepts behind Buzz are very familiar with anyone who is at all familiar with social media – friends, status updates, photo sharing – the way that Google brings it all together, and their sheer weigh in the market, means that this may be quite interesting.

As a B2B marketer, what does this mean?

It’s always challenging to gaze into the proverbial crystal ball, and in a market this dynamic, many things can change, but here are 6 things worth paying close attention to as Google Buzz rolls out:

1) Shift to the Main Stream:

Historically, social media has been somewhat separate from other parts of our world. You had to deliberately set up a new social service, whether Twitter or Facebook, and then actively make it part of your daily routine. It actually took an effort (albeit small) to get involve. This meant that social media was less adopted by the business mainstream, but was mostly adopted by the writers and bloggers within a business context. Therefore, social media as a marketing strategy in B2B was often used to influence influencers, rather than connecting directly with end prospects.

Now, Google has integrated all of the elements of social media much more tightly together – your email contacts automatically are your friends/followers, Buzz updates are right next to your Inbox, and a message blurs the boundary between an email and direct message. This means that, rather quickly, a significantly higher percentage of the mainstream audience will find themselves involved – actively or passively – in social media.


2) Reducing Business/Personal Boundaries:
With this steady integration of email, status updates, photos, and friends into one realm, it continues the trend of blurring the boundaries between business and social relationships, and between work and home life. Whereas I do believe that, in many ways, our brains are hard wired to see a clear difference (hence why it would feel extremely awkward to offer to pay your mother-in-law for Thanksgiving dinner), I do see the evolution of Google Buzz as reducing those boundaries.

What this means for B2B Marketers is that your buyers will have more personal stakes on the table when they get involved with your organization. Regardless of whether you are the cheapest or best, the encroachment of business on personal space will mean that strong emotional factors will be at play. If you are not a company with whom they feel a level of trust, a personal relationship, and a pride about doing business with, you may not be selected. Intangible factors, to be sure, but personal space is more about emotional factors than rational business decisions.


3) Small Groups, Waves, and Influence:
Google appears to be adding a focus on the “small group” that is less emphasized in many current social platforms. By adding an interim step between one-to-one and one-to-world, and providing a new way for these groups to interact (and be observed) online with Google Wave, they now have a much richer ability to understand how influence manifests itself in small groups.

This shift from large influencers to many smaller influencers is a key dynamic in today’s world, and by focusing on the small groups, Google has positioned themselves to be a key part of it.


4) Location-Based Social Connections Increase in Importance:
With a tight tie to the iPhone, and its location-based features, Google Buzz has moved location-based thinking one step closer to prominence in today’s market. Buzz has many features that are tied to both where you are, and more importantly, who is near you. With a human, face-to-face relationship still being highly relevant in building trust, these location-based features may increase the importance of classic off-line events like major shows and conferences.

Rather than being about the content, events will continue to shift towards being about who is there, and how to orchestrate face-to-face meetings. Location-based social networks will be one of the most powerful contributors to this shift in the dynamic of off-line events.


5) Google Knows the Influencers:

One of the most powerful insights that Google gains is knowledge of who the actual influencers are in any given market. Seeing exactly who is followed, what topics are discussed in small groups (and with whom), and what links are clicked on in shared status updates, gives Google tremendous insights into who is interesting and relevant in any given topic area.

This understanding of influence by subject is not just a powerful data set, but as Google progresses further into real-time search, the ability to rank a result highly because a key influencer on that topic area suggested it will allow much more accurate search results. For those B2B marketers still focused exclusively on content and links as a driver of search ranking, this will be a trend to pay attention to.


6) Google Knows Your Interests:

Conversely, Google will also begin to build an understanding of each person’s interests based on their friends, the topics of their discussions, and what they share and respond to. As Google does this, they will be able to move from only being able to present relevant information when it is actively sought (via search), to presenting information that is passively sought (through general indications of interest). A “recommended” posts concept will allow Google to continually tune these algorithms.

This is a powerful transformation for B2B marketers, as many of the ideas and concepts we need to communicate and have buyers discover are not always actively sought. Being able to present a message to someone who displays certain indicators of intent, but may not have explicitly searched, is a powerful arrow in the B2B marketer’s quiver.



How Google Buzz truly ends up effecting us as B2B marketers is obviously determined by many factors. However, Google is clearly a major player in the market for finding and discovering information, and as they make a major new foray into social media with Buzz, these six trends are well worth watching.

What do you think? What will your organization be watching for as Google Buzz rolls out? Read More...

National Instruments: Exchange of Value for Digital Body Language

I wrote about equitable exchange of information in a previous post, and it is a concept I believe in strongly. It was great to chat with Helena Lewis and her team at National Instruments when I was writing Digital Body Language, and see how they had put the concepts into practice. With an audience of scientists and engineers, and a very broad product shelf, it was inspiring to see the exchange of information concepts operationalized to such a degree.

Enjoy the case study:

National Instruments: Exchange of Value for Digital Body Language

National Instruments is a worldwide leader in software and hardware for scientists and engineers, with a very broad set of products and solutions serving nearly all industries and project types. Those products carry price tags anywhere between $100 and several million dollars. With more than 25,000 corporate customers and a Web presence that offers deeply detailed information on its products, National Instruments had both an incredible opportunity and a daunting challenge.

The company’s marketing strategy fully revolves around its Web site. All direct marketing, search, ads, and tradeshows drive traffic to the Web site where the marketing team guides prospects through successive stages of engagement -- from anonymous to known to understood.

To move visitors from anonymous to known, marketers at NI used Web forms to carefully execute an equitable exchange of value for key information on the site using a modular user profile as a building block. In exchange for presenting a two-minute video, it was acceptable to ask for an e-mail address and basic contact information. For a free trial download, a broader information request (buying cycle phase, budget, timeline, etc.) was appropriate.

To make these Web forms more valuable, the team ensured that all marketers could quickly manage which aspects of the modular user profile were required. Pre-population was used extensively to ensure visitors did not repeatedly answer the same question. Emphasis on global usability meant, for instance, that ZIP/postal codes were not required fields in geographies where that wasn’t appropriate.

By increasing the percentage of known visitors, NI elevated the rich data from the Web visits to highly actionable information. For instance, nurture and follow-up communications catered to the areas of interest based on activity. By using digital body language to tailor communications this precisely, NI achieved open and click-through rates of 50 percent and 30 percent respectively - extremely high numbers compared to industry norms, and reflective of a strong engagement level with prospects.

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What I Learned in Kindergarten about B2B Marketing

There's a lot about B2B marketing that can be learned in kindergarten. Like sharing. It's all the same except that the currency has changed from chocolate bars and those little packages of cheese and crackers to information.


As a provider in the space, you (hopefully) have something to share in terms of your insights, ideas, best practices, and advice, and you definitely have something that you want in terms of an opportunity to share your value proposition with the right audience who may eventually become buyers.

If you haven't yet, think of each of your marketing interactions in terms of a your-chocolate-bar-for-my-cheese&crackers metaphor, and you might come up with some easy wins to better engage your audience.

Top 6 B2B Marketing mistakes of sharing we all should have learned in kindergarten:

1. Asking for their entire lunch: one of the things that you can ask your audience for, and most B2B marketers do, is their contact information. This is a significant ask, and many potential buyers are hesitant to give it for good reason. But as a marketer, ask for just a little bit (name, email, that's it) at first, and make sure you are offering something good in exchange. Don't ask for 15 fields of information because you "might" need it. Every field makes the hurdle higher.


2. Trying to trade away the black jelly-beans: We all love our own products. That's healthy. But don't fall into the trap of thinking that "10 reasons you need my product" is rich, value-add content. It's a sales pitch. Even if you get away with it once, you won't get away with it twice.


3. Going hungry - not asking for anything in return: A contentious point, I know. But, we're all under pressure to build our businesses, and if you don't ask for information, you won't get it. Be respectful, don't ask for too much, but if you continually provide great content, you can ask for a small amount of information in return.


4. Stealing lunches: It's bad, don't do it. Ever. Kindergarten, or now. Every time you ask a person to pay attention to your message, you are requesting something from them. You'd better provide something in return. If you're emailing them, it is NOT free, it's an "ask", you're asking for their attention. If you don't provide quality content, you've given nothing in return, so pay attention to content quality or you'll lose people's interest quickly.


5. Taking something you already have in your lunch bag: You don't gain anything, and they feel taken advantage of. If you've already asked them for their industry, title, company size, etc, don't ask again. Put the effort in to make sure you know that you've already got the information, and don't ask for it again. If your content is rich enough, ask something new that you don't already have.


6. Mistaking your carrots for a chocolate bar: The concept of "valuable content" is thrown around very loosely in some marketing circles. You're not the judge of that, your audience is. Don't let your standards slip until you think you're trading away carrots and convincing yourself they're a chocolate bar. Things like a 1hr webinar with rich, non-salesy content from an independant market expert are good; Things like Top 10 reasons to buy your product are not good.

We at Eloqua have called it "Equitable Exchange of Information", but at the end of the day, it's really about sharing, and the same principles apply to information as to chocolate bars. Create great content, share generously, ask for only a little in return, and you're off to the races.

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