Wesley Day Advertising

ON ADVERTISING
February 2007 issue

USE WHITE PAPERS TO GENERATE LEADS.
White papers posted on targeted business-to-business Web sites can boost your brand awareness, establish credibility, and generate hundreds of leads. A Bitpipe survey found that 94 percent of respondents had downloaded at least one white paper over the previous 12 months – and 59 percent had downloaded more than ten white papers.
   Still, not every white paper is effective. A paper that is overly promotional, poorly written, or flat-out dull may hurt your brand more than help it.
1. Be informative.
    At this stage, prospects want to learn about new solutions to their
    business problems, not the features and functions of your product.
2. Address a specific target audience.
    Speak to the needs of a particular audience. Create multiple
    versions if appropriate.
3. Use titles to grab attention.
    Present a clear, concrete benefit containing key search terms.
4. Use quality as a competitive advantage.
    Most decision makers download several white papers at a time.
    And 67 percent forward the ones they like to colleagues and
    supervisors. Make sure, then, that your white papers have a more
    compelling title, better content, superior readability, and a more
    attractive design.
5. Consider outsourcing production.
    A MarketingSherpa study found that while most companies
    develop white papers in-house, these frequently lacked the
    objectivity that customers require. They were poorly written, and
    employees’ closeness to the product often precluded them from
    adequately explaining the importance of the solution from the
    prospect’s perspective.
    Give us a call to discuss how we can give your white papers a competitive advantage. Return to top

NO ESCAPING ONLINE PR.
Online public relations isn’t simply a matter of devoting a section on your Web site to press releases and the phone number of your PR contact – although that is a key, and often overlooked, tool.
   Think of online PR as “reputation management online.” PR has never been about shouting about things. It’s about discussing, advocating. This entails promotion, dialogue and conversation, crisis control and defense, and research and insight.
   The tools range from virtual press offices on Web sites to Blog monitoring services to social media such as the ubiquitous MySpace and YouTube.
   Participating in online PR doesn’t require launching a Blog or a MySpace page. Start by optimizing your news releases and posting them on your Web site as well as on a few of the free or inexpensive PR aggregation sites. To optimize a release, include a keyword or a search term in the headline, in the subhead, and in the first paragraph. Proceed to use keywords in context throughout the release, though don’t use them gratuitously. Embed links in the text, with the links going to optimized landing pages.
   You should also regularly search for your brand on Blog compendiums such as Technorati as well as on the major search engines. Return to top

HOW TO VALUE CUSTOMER VALUE.
While “customer value” is the hot topic in marketing and advertising ROI, you should consciously break it down into three distinct elements:
1. Current value (or profitability) is a historical view of each
    customer’s profitability based on the products and services that
    they have purchased to date from your company.
2. Lifetime value (LTV) is a projection of each customer’s current
    value into the future based on the products that they use today.
3. Potential value is an estimate of your customer’s profitability
    based on buying additional goods and services from your
    company.
Customer potential value provides the best insight for incremental improvement and action – more specifically, it tells you precisely where to invest sales capacity and marketing dollars in order to have the greatest impact on profitability. Return to top

WHAT E-MAIL ADDRESSES IMPLY.
Here’s what other e-marketers have concluded about the following domains that represent about two-thirds of most e-mail lists.
• @yahoo.com – The dominant Web-based e-mail (20-25 percent).
   Expect 2-3 percent abandoning each month and lower than average
   unsubscribe and click-through rates.
• @hotmail.com (plus @msn.com) – Above average quality with
   average open, click-through, and response.
• @aol.com – Above average stability and responsiveness.
• Broadband ISPs – Significantly higher unsubscribe rates; however,
   those who remain are the cream of any e-mail marketing list.
• Dial-up ISPs (Earthlink, NetZero, etc.) – Declining numbers, but
   very loyal and responsive. Return to top

HAVE YOU GOOGLED YOURSELF LATELY?
A recent Harris Interactive poll showed that 23 percent of people search the names of business associates on the Internet before meeting them, and 75 percent of recruiters Google candidates.
   If you don’t like the quantity or quality of what you find, here are some ways to boost your visibility and posture:
1. Review books relevant to your area of expertise and post them on
    amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
2. Use Technorati.com to find Blogs relevant to your area of
    expertise and then regularly post comments.
3. Publish an article on a Web site relevant to your area of
    expertise.
4. Build your own Web site. The best way to ensure that your
    online profile says what you want is to speak for yourself.
5. Create a Blog. This takes a real commitment (post at least once
    a week), but it demonstrates your knowledge and connects you
    with others who share your interest.
Sound overwhelming? Then hire Wesley Day Advertising to promote you and your company. Return to top

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