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E-Marketing Tips From the Front Lines
Toughest part of B2B marketers’ job: matching Web site to complex sales cycle, driving traffic, updating content.
from AICPA Custom Media Solutions

It’s all about generating leads today and it gets trickier when you are trying to convey key marketing copy in a Web site geared for complex big-ticket items such as accounting software, technology solutions and financial services.

As a B2B marketer, you’re tasked with appealing to multiple decision makers at different levels including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, IT heads and VPs. As many of you know very well, it’s not easy hitting the hot buttons of all your different prospects.

Flexibility gets results, as sales copywriting guru, Jonathan Katz, told Internet Marketing Report (IMR) last month. Marketers should segment their lists by title and develop separate messages for each one. And that doesn’t always mean creating an entirely new creative piece for each, says Katz. Keep the body copy generally the same, but test different appeals to prospects in key areas such as:

• Subject lines, headlines and subheads
• Lead paragraphs
• Bulleted lists

Putting It Into Action

For CEOs, you want to appeal to the big-picture issues like revenue growth, market share and earnings. For CFOs, you want to get straight to the bottom line costs, ROI etc. For IT professionals, you want to stress integration, training and support.

Sell Them a Step at a Time

Pacing is key for encouraging prospects to take the next step instead of just buy right away, says Katz. You can push those next steps — Webinars, white papers, live events etc — by stressing their value. This will make it easier for decision-makers to get buy-in from their superiors and draw them closer to closing the sale with you — not the competition.

What’s the Toughest Part of a Web Marketers’ Job Today?

Here are the results of a 2006 survey of 180 marketers by Progressive Business Publications: