Web 2.0 isn’t a novelty for B2B marketers anymore. Your customers expect it. A study by Marketing Sherpa shows that in addition to search marketing (aka SEM, pay-per-click, PPC), search engine optimization (SEO) and natural search are also growing like crazy. This puts pressure on marketing departments to greatly improve their companies’ Web sites, making them two-way portals that encourage interaction and build relationships.

Blogs are also going strong. While attending a session on B2B blogs, I questioned blogs’ current popularity. Our agency had a blog 12 years ago that wasn’t all that successful. (Of course, the word “blog” didn’t even exist then.) Our Internet team answered in a single word: “technology.” Back then everyone had slow computers, slower transmission speeds and very little storage. Now it’s totally different. Lightning-quick technology makes video, interactive and just about anything else, instantaneous – including blogs.

In other words, even though we’ve been doing this “interactive” stuff for a long time, now it really works – and it’s not just for “computer nerds” and retailers selling to the Pepsi generation. It can work for you and your sales. Embrace the future and reap the rewards.

According to a recent article in “Interactive Marketing” not enough care is given to the copy contained on websites. Too much effort is made on talking too much about the company and the features of the products, and not enough time is taken to really explain how your product or service can benefit the customer’s needs and wants.

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When our agency kicked off its blog last May, it seemed like anything and everything inspired me to blog. Current events, other blogs, articles and even just having conversations with my colleagues all made me feel like the forces of the universe were crying out for me to blog … and so I did my best to please them by participating on this blog and others. But for some reason, at the drop of a hat, I lost that momentum and electrifying urge to type away. I felt that way for several months. It begged me to wonder why I went from being so compelled to blog to feeling like there really wasn’t anything I had to say. And for people who know me… it’s very unusual for me to have nothing to say! Could it be bloggers fatigue? Nah. I think I’m too young for that …

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“Signs Point to Yes”

Is widespread adoption of new media strategy and tactics really in the horizon for the B2B world? I don’t have a Magic 8-Ball anymore (I swear), but if I did … I’m pretty sure that the response I would see through its blue, bubbly liquid-filled peep hole would in fact be “Signs point to yes.” Why such the confidence? Well, I could easily make lists of reasons — but you are probably still caught-up on trying to figure out the fate of your own Magic 8-Ball, so I’ll stick to what peaked my interest today.

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Yahoo’s stock jumped 50% on Friday’s announcement that Microsoft has made a 41 billion dollar offer on the number two search engine. That is great news if you have your money in Yahoo stock but don’t pull your marketing dollars out of Google just yet. Google is the number one search engine and even if Yahoo and MSN combined their total search traffic they would still be a distant second.

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