As a B2B marketing person, you might think this list is overwhelming. However, in my view this is a wonderful list of potential tactics that you might employ depending on the goals you plan to achieve this year.

If you are new to Web marketing or have only dabbled in some search engine marketing, email campaigns or Internet advertising, this is a great list to get you thinking about other ways to get your message out or better, let your constituents get your message out for you.

If you are a veteran Web marketer, this is a great checklist to help you stimulate news ideas for your marketing plan.

In all cases, develop the plan, research the opportunities and execute effectively. Web marketing is no different from traditional forms in this respect.

Does the web development firm include marketing expertise as part of the project team?

The firm you choose may be a great Web development company but if they don’t understand marketing, they could develop a site that never meets your marketing expectations.

If you want to be sure your web presence achieves results, hire a marketing company to help you get the site you want. A marketing firm approaches a web site or blog from the perspective that it is a tool to help you market your business and can put a plan in place to help you do that. Having the marketing person as your point of contact makes the process simpler for you, eliminating the need for you to work directly with the web developer. This person can also translate what you are trying to achieve into what needs to be developed to ensure you get the desired results.

I use this concept as the basis for a presentation on developing an integrated marketing plan that I offer to small business owners (a topic that easily can run from 30 minutes to 3 hours).

As I was updating my slides for the marketing workshop that I gave today, I wanted to include social media (new media) marketing as part of the marketing mix. My perception prior to thinking this through for the workshop was to include social media marketing under Internet marketing along with search engine marketing, PPC advertising, SEO and other Internet related activities.

However, as I organized my thoughts, I started categorizing the marketing mix into the following areas based on their primary marketing objective:

• Generating leads
• Increasing visibility
• Developing credibility
• Building relationships

By looking at the tactics through this lens, my “ah ha” moment was when I realized that Internet marketing fell into the “generating leads” category because it was a direct marketing activity that drove your prospect to do something (visit the site, sign up for the free offer, etc.) while social media marketing fell into the “developing credibility” and “building relationships” categories.

For completeness, here are all the activities by category:

• Generating leads – direct marketing, Internet marketing, events (tradeshows)
• Increasing visibility – events, public relations, advertising
• Developing credibility – events, public relations, new media marketing
• Building relationships – word of mouth, strategic alliances, new media marketing

The beauty of this classification is that it helps business owners understand what tactics they may wish to use depending on their marketing goals. If this helps you, let me know. If you have a different classification for all the marketing tactics out there, let me know that too.

As a B2B marketer, it’s frustrating to try and pry prospect information from those visiting your Web site. Most people want to get something for nothing – a white paper, podcast, software – without giving something in return. I understand that mentality as I too, won’t sign up for something unless I’m very, very interested in purchasing the product or at least entertain a sales call. Plus I relish the day I find just what I’m looking for without having to part with my personal information.

However, it is our jobs to get that information. The following are tips on how to make your PPC landing pages more likely to capture this precious contact information:

• Use a landing page – Sending people to your home page is a waste of time in most cases. People click on your ad because they are looking for something specific and your landing page should only discuss what they are looking for.
• Keep it simple – Cluttered, overly long landing pages scare away a visitor. They don’t have time to read a lot of copy. If there are too many things to do on the page, they’ll get frustrated and leave.
• Match the landing page to the PPC ad – Generic landing pages used for all of your PPC ads is a waste (like sending visitors to your home page). Make sure your landing page matches the specific call to action you put into the ad itself.
• Make the call to action clear – If you are trying to collect contact information, make sure what you want the visitor to do is very simple and easy to find. Put the form where they can easily see it as soon as they get to the page.
• Encourage visitors to give you their information – Make sure your privacy policy is posted and visible. Also, if you are giving something away like a paper or free product, send the link to the fulfillment in an email rather than including it on the thank you page. At a minimum, you will get a valid email address.

Other sources of tips for developing a PPC campaign and its associated landing pages:

• Better B2B Landing Pages – A Case Study – Modern B2B Marketing Blog
• Six Elements for Effective Landing Pages – Marketing Pilgrim
• Matching Keywords to Landing Pages for PPC Pay Off – ECommerce-Guide.com

What does this mean for the smaller companies trying to compete?

It means you must take your image seriously and treat the effort with the same importance as all of your marketing efforts. It is time to stop undermining your marketing efforts by ignoring your brand. There are really good designers and Web developers available that can work within your budget. Don’t assume that the cost is out of reach. Speak with a smaller firm about your needs as many are willing to work with you and help you get what you need within your budget. Seek out someone who can help you break up the work into a plan that can be rolled out over time. It is actually better to start with a good design and build on top of it later.

The topic of print verses online publishing is something that many marketing folks are pondering at the moment when it comes to spending their advertising dollars. For many of my technology clients, print advertising is not a factor. Most have embraced online advertising in some form and if we do a print ad, it is usually for a conference guide or some very targeted publication.

What is happening in the media industry for high technology is just the beginning. A post by Tony Hung, Print Publishing’s Death Knell?, points out some interesting facts about IDG Publishing’s revenue mix between online and print. IDG is a media company focusing on the IT industry. According to Colin Crawford’s post, The transformation of IDG, the absolute dollar growth of IDG’s online revenues now exceeds the decline in their print revenues. This change in their revenue mix and higher margins from the online businesses have resulted in them being more profitable than before. So it is no surprise that InfoWorld (an IDG publication) announced that it would be discontinuing its print publication in order to focus its efforts online. According to another post by Colin, since print is no longer the major product line at InfoWorld, closure of the 27 year print publication is a natural step in a plan that was put into place 2 years ago.

The future of print in the technology industry is transitioning. Other print publications already have disappeared or have been repurposed into online publications. More will follow suit. And truthfully, in an industry where change happens so quickly, I would prefer to get all of my information online.

But is this the case in all industries? If print advertising is part of your marketing strategy, it may be a good time to do an analysis of your industry and target market to determine whether a shift from print to online is happening and how you can distribute your advertising efforts to take advantage of this trend.

This solution took a little more time to understand and set up, but the demo that comes with it is easy to understand and mimic for your own site. If you are looking for a nice way to feed RSS to your static site to make your visitors come back more often, this solution is another nice option to consider.

I took my cues from David and searched for an easy to use widget to load my blog entries into my web site home page. I came across Kent Brewster’s Badger application that creates Web badges out of any RSS feed. With a little tweaking of the css provided, I was able to integrate the information into the site pretty seamlessly. Being able to put my new posts headlines on my home page makes my web site more interesting to new visitors, encouraging them to visit my blog for more information.

I also updated the web site design to more closely match my blog design. I like the clean look of the blog and wanted to make the same look work for the Web site. With a bit of rearranging and rewriting some of the content, the site looks as good as new. There’s still work to be done, but the site has received the necessary facelift and is ready to go back to work.

Your web site is still very much an important part of your marketing effort and needs to remain equal to your blog if it has served you well. With a little bit of love, your web site can continue to work for your business in conjunction with your blog. It takes a little planning and strategy, but it can be done.

Along came the Internet which has given marketers an additional medium in which to communicate their messages to their target audience. And although it took a while for companies to incorporate Internet marketing within their corporate marketing functions, the Internet is now an integrated part of their overall marketing plan.

So if you have Internet marketing activities in your marketing plan, does that mean you are implementing social media marketing?

Many corporate marketers would like to think so, but there is a fundamental difference between Internet marketing, using the Internet as a means to communicate your message to your target audience, and social media marketing.

Social media makes marketing a multidimensional exercise. It is no longer about pushing your message out to your audience. Social media marketing takes the same Internet technologies and adds interaction with your audience. It’s having your constituents spread your messages for you rather than you talk deafly to some cloud of people who may or may not care about what you have to offer. In some ways it really isn’t much different from word of mouth marketing where your happy clients, colleagues and partners say good things about you and provide you referral business. The difference is the speed with which your message is carried via the social network.

And it’s because of that speed that many corporate marketers are frightened of it. The key is to embrace it and use it because your company is being talked about in social networks and there is nothing you can do to stop it. By participating in the social networking world, letting your customers speak directly to you, and listening to what they have to say, you are more likely to win the hearts and minds of the masses than you will if you hide behind the corporate veneer.

How do you turn your Internet marketing activities into social media marketing?

I am an extremely strong proponent for Internet marketing. It has worked for my business and my clients’ businesses and now we are extending that Internet presence by adding on social media marketing. Every business, small or large, needs to open the communications channels with their audience. Look for opportunities to get feedback on your company, good or bad, and respond. For small businesses, start a blog. It doesn’t matter whether you market B2B or B2C, a blog provides benefits you normally will not get from Internet marketing alone.

In 7 reasons why small businesses should blog, Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba, authors of Citizen Marketers, provide reasons and advice on why you should blog.

Adding social media marketing to your marketing mix is not a difficult project. It does need to be planned so that your social media marketing activities stay on brand with all of your marketing activities. And depending on your company, you may need to evaluate the effect social media marketing has on the culture of your business. But there are ways of evolving your company to take advantage of this new and exciting marketing area. It’s really not that scary afterall.

Just like every other marketing program, you have to assess the value of each of these venues based on your target audience. What works for one business may or may not work for another. Your prospects and clients may wish to get their information by email, through a feed, or by visiting your blog directly.

Email Newsletters – The Benefits

A good email newsletter that you enjoy reading is a welcome addition to your inbox. The challenge is that most of us are receiving so many emails today that it is hard to find time to keep on top of it all. However, email newsletters offer many benefits for marketing your business. Your newsletter:

• Helps people get to know you without ever meeting you. It should reflect your personality and help you build your reputation in your field.
• Caters to your target market and helps you meet your marketing goals.
• Has a purpose such as driving traffic to your Web site or blog, building credibility for your services, generating demand for your products or services, announcing news and events about your company, or create a community for your readers by providing information to them you don’t post elsewhere.
• Is familiar and easy for most to use. You are not asking them to do something new, like visit your blog or subscribe to a news feed. It also can be personalized so that you can intimately connect with your readership.
• Gets delivered to their inbox. There really is no effort they need to do other than open it and read the content.

Blogs – The Benefits

An active, interesting blog can also benefit your business. Blogs benefit both the reader and the author. For the reader, blogs:

• Encourage them to interact with you. Your readers can comment on information you have provided, give their opinions of what you have written – both good and bad, and become part of your community.
• Give the reader a choice on how want to receive and view the information. They can visit directly or subscribe via a syndicated news feed. Today it is even easier to get the news you want because Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers now contain RSS readers that are easy to use. If there was ever a reason to upgrade to IE7, now is the time. The simplicity of subscribing to a feed from a blog makes it appealing even to the most technically phobic user.

From the author’s perspective, a blog:

Enables you to communicate with your readers more easily. Your blog should be short snippets of information that discuss topics of interest to your subscribers.

• Can be created and updated using simple tools like WordPress and TypePad. These are content authoring tools that once the blog look and feel is developed (or taken from their abundance of themes), you can add content really easily.
• Achieve higher rankings in the search engines quicker than Web sites because blogs are active, have links to other blogs, and content is published regularly.

Email Newsletters AND Blogs

Web 2.0 technologies have provided marketers more ways to get their messages to their target audience. With all these choices, it is more important than ever to develop an integrated marketing plan to ensure your strategy is aligned. Be sure that when you decide to launch your blog that you understand how all of your marketing efforts interact and that your readers get what they need from your content, regardless of whether it is coming from an email newsletter or a blog. If your marketing plan addresses all of the venues you have available to