The Business-to-Business Handbook - Bly

THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK

Center for Technical Communication

590 Delcina Drive

River Vale, NJ 07675

(201) 505-9451

rwbly@

A Note to the Reader

The Business-to-Business Marketing Handbook is copyrighted by the Center for Technical

Communication. No portion of this manual may be reprinted or reproduced in any way

without the author¡¯s express written permission.

? Copyright 2013, by the Center for Technical Communication. All rights reserved.

This is NOT a free e-book!

Purchase of this e-book entitles the buyer to keep one copy on his or her computer and to print out

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Printing out more than one copy¡ªor distributing it electronically¡ªis prohibited by international and

U.S.A. copyright laws and treaties, and would subject the purchaser to penalties of up to $100,000

PER COPY distributed.

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THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 B2B Marketing: 1978 vs. 2008 .................................................. 5

Chapter 2 10 Tips for Increasing Landing Page Conversion Rates ............ 10

Chapter 3 Are White Papers Dead? ......................................................... 14

Chapter 4 The 6 Key Components of Effective B2B Offers ...................... 19

Chapter 5 Should B2B Copywriters Avoid Jargon? ................................... 24

Chapter 6 5 Steps to Building a Large and Responsive Opt-In E-List

of Qualified B2B Prospects ......................................................................... 29

Chapter 7 5 Modern Myths of B2B Marketing ......................................... 34

Chapter 8 Are Businesspeople Devoid of Emotion When Making

Buying Decisions? ...................................................................................... 39

Chapter 9 Marketing with Case Studies ................................................... 44

Chapter 10 4 Simple Steps to Writing SEO Copy That Both Your

Prospects and the Search Engines Love .................................................... 49

Chapter 11 What Works Best for B2B Lead Generation: Inbound or

Outbound Marketing? ............................................................................... 54

Chapter 12 Using Web Analytics to Drive Online Sales ............................ 59

Chapter 13 5 Ways to Boost B2B Direct Mail Response Rates ................ 64

Chapter 14 A New Copywriting Formula: the 4 C¡¯s .................................. 69

Chapter 15 What¡¯s Working in B2B Marketing ........................................ 74

Chapter 16 7 Rules for Content Marketers .............................................. 78

Chapter 17 Business-to-Business Headline Writing Clinic ........................ 82

Chapter 18 The More You Tell, the More You Sell ................................... 87

Chapter 19 The Trouble with B2B Marketing .......................................... 92

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THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK

Chapter 20 Which B2B Medium is Right for You? .................................... 97

Chapter 21 10 Ways to Improve Your B-to-B Catalog ............................ 100

Chapter 22 The Power of Proof ............................................................. 104

Chapter 23 Let¡¯s Get Physical ................................................................ 108

Chapter 24 What¡¯s Working in E-Mail Marketing? ................................ 112

Chapter 25 Tactics and Tips for Marketing B2B Services ....................... 116

Chapter 26 The Evolution of B2B Marketing.......................................... 120

Chapter 27 7 B2B Marketing Myths....................................................... 124

Chapter 28 Networking the Old-fashioned Way .................................... 128

Chapter 29 QRCs and the Death of the BRC .......................................... 132

Chapter 30 Mobile Marketing on the Move .......................................... 135

Chapter 31 Are These Marketing Trends Really New? ........................... 140

Chapter 32 7 Tips for Writing Technically Accurate High-Tech Copy ..... 143

About the Author ..................................................................................... 147

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THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING HANDBOOK

Chapter 1

B2B Marketing: 1978 vs. 2008

I started my career in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the late 1970s,

and by the early 1980s, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the basics of B2B.

I also didn¡¯t see where B2B was likely to change much. So I believed I could

continue to use the methods I¡¯d learned during my first few years for the rest of my life.

Boy was I wrong!

First came along the fax machine¡­then the personal computer¡­then cell

phones¡­then white papers¡­then the Internet¡­then search engines¡­then

blogging¡­then Webinars¡­then social networks¡­and suddenly, B2B marketing had

become a brave new world, one that few fully grasped and most of us struggle to keep

up with.

Here, as I see it, are some of the biggest changes that have taken place in B2B

marketing during the past three decades¡ªand also, what has stayed relatively the same.

1¡ªThe death of ¡°industrial marketing.¡± It used to be called industrial

marketing, and the trade publication serving the industry was called Industrial

Marketing.

Gradually, Industrial Marketing changed its name to Business Marketing and then

to BtoB. And today, those of us who market products and services to businesses are

¡°business-to-business¡± marketers.

2¡ªFrom tactical to strategic. Before the Internet, B2B marketing had relatively

few choices. So planning campaigns was simple and straightforward. You¡¯d create a sales

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