The list of potential media channels that you can use today to reach your customers and prospects can be exhausting. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, vodcasts, social networks, mobile, web portals, webinars, e-newsletters, traditional print magazines, trade shows, RSS feeds, industry web sites, on and on and on.

How do you know which are the right channels to reach your audience? In the B to B market, it varies widely and can change often. Mechanical Engineers in the HVAC market are probably utilizing a different media mix than Interior Designers that specialize in the Healthcare field.

Where do you start? Here are 8 ideas for getting a good handle on where your audience lives online:

1. Check your web site analytics to determine the top referring sources to your website.
2. Utilize sites like www.technorati.com or www.blogpulse.com to search your
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Lately I’ve been riding the bus to work, trying to save on gas. A fringe benefit is that I can listen to podcasts on my MP3 player.

Many B-to-B marketers (including some of our clients) are using podcasts to reach specific audiences who want to be informed. It’s a great tool for companies to establish thought leadership. However, you should avoid the temptation to record a blatant product pitch or “audio brochure.” Instead, content should meet the audience expectation that they’ll learn something new.

Your podcast needs to be educational and entertaining. The sales pitch can come later, when the listener chooses to take the next step and request more information (maybe even in exchange for their e-mail address).

First and foremost, a podcast should deliver useful information.
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More sophisticated sites offer product comparisons and tools that enable customers to better choose their own solutions. But even something as simple as a brochure, offered as a free downloadable pdf, can go a long way towards deepening the relationship between you and potential customers.

As you provide customers with tools and information, remember to instill a level of confidence. Customer testimonials are helpful, but only if they are genuine and presented well.

Validation from outside sources, like trade organizations and government agencies, also goes a long way toward instilling confidence in your company. Consider including their logos on your Web site where visitors will see them.
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In a web 2.0 world, it is becoming a continuous struggle to stay on top of SEO best practices. Staying at the basics, companies need to understand that SEO is moving more to quality as opposed to quantity.

In the past many companies got on the SEO bandwagon by focusing primarily on Meta data. Between meta tags and meta keywords, companies spent more time and effort on the meta information than on the web content itself.

Businesses need to understand that the SEO landscape is constantly evolving. No longer are web spiders just looking at meta data. They’re looking at more important information about a site to determine how high it should rank. Here are some basics for business to business marketers.

Consider focusing your meta descriptions and keywords around solutions and not just hardware. Traditionally, customers are looking to solve problems, not just to look at equipment.
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You may be reading this after clicking on our E-news item that 45% of integrated marketers in a recent study haven’t spent marketing dollars on emerging media like social networks, blogs, or word-of-mouth initiatives, but are interested in doing so. Of course, the other side of the coin is that 55% have implemented some kind of social media effort.

Why haven’t the 45% made the plunge…or at least stuck their toe in the water?

A new study by TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony sheds some light on what we have found to be true through experience. The authors of the survey of 71 marketing professionals in the U.S., Canada, France and the U.K. say that many marketers, “particularly the slower-moving” ones (their words, not mine!), want “best practices” and “proven models.” That’s understandable,
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Once you get customers to your site, make sure it’s a site you’re proud of. Keep it clean and uncluttered. First impressions are important and provide opportunities to immediately engage visitors with information that meets their needs.

Begin by providing a brief description of who you are, including the products and services that you offer, along with language that relates to the visitors need or problem. Don’t give people a reason to leave your site too early. Addressing their “pain issues” up front rather then burying them deeper in your site will encourage visitors to stay longer. Avoid industry speak, and keep your history and mission statement off the home page, reserving this valuable real estate to tell visitors how you can help them. Make the site easy to navigate and the source of relevant content that is short, simple and to the point.
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In the Internet age, consumers like to comparison shop. Help them make better decisions with a robust Web site.

Today, when most people want information, they go to the Web – to educate themselves, to look for solutions or to compare companies and products. Often they may be ready to buy, based on the information they find. That’s why it’s so important to design a Web site that includes all the information customers need at any stage in the buying process. 

Your Web site is your electronic storefront and as such, it should accomplish three things. First, it should be easy to locate. You can invest thousands of dollars on the best Web site in the world, but if you don’t drive traffic to it, the site won’t do you much good.

Second, your Web site should position your
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While Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a good investment, it won’t make a significant difference in your site’s performance if you don’t follow some basic principles.

Rule number one is about knowing the right words. A good SEO partner will have the tools to evaluate the right keywords that your audience is using to search for you. Just because you think your audience will search for you using a particular keyword or phrase, doesn’t mean that they will. Proper research will go a long way towards reaching your full audience.

Rule number two is all about content. Just putting in keywords will only get you so far. If you don’t implement a process for continuously updating your site’s content, then your audience won’t return to your site, and neither will the search spiders that visit your site to determine your search rankings.

Rule number three is giving your audience what they are looking for.
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Most business-to-business marketers have a very long to do list for 2008. And if the predictions of BtoB Magazine and others are right, embracing Web 2.0 is probably still on that list.

But what embracing Web 2.0 means isn’t just a matter of subjective semantics, a definition varying with each pundit’s proclamations. How you incorporate new interaction techniques should vary with your company and objectives, but most importantly, the individual segments of your target audiences.

Remember that your web site serves many different audiences, all with different goals. Some visitors are just starting to research products, others are looking for service and support, while special groups like journalists, partners, and investors, are interested in a getting information quickly and getting on with their tasks.
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In the lead article in the December 10 issue of B2B magazine, Kate Maddox outlined “the top 10 marketing trends for 2008, based on interviews with marketers, ad agencies, media executives, analysts and other industry experts.” Read article.

The top 10 are green marketing, globalization, the shift to online, customer in control, embracing web 2.0, improving operations, targeted and personal events, integrating media platforms, going mobile and blended search.

The marketers interviewed include top tier marketers such as Boeing, Caterpillar, FedEx, GE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Siemens and UPS. But what about the rest of us? (Okay, we’re an agency but we came from and still serve primarily non-top-tier B-to-B marketers. You know – the real world.)

We think the top 10 list is on target.
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