Marketing Interactions

The B2B Website Audience Litmus Test

Many B2B companies think that their website must serve every type of customer they have—every flavor of persona. I'd ask you to step back a moment and think about your website audience. Just because your company serves a range of people, titles, and roles, doesn't mean that they all use your website—or ever will.

The elephants in the room during this discussion are usually represented by the CXOs—the ultimate persona that all companies want to attract, engage and sell to. However, these people are not likely your website's greatest fans or visitors.

Why not?

CXOs are:

• Too busy
• Relegating research to their staff
• Responding to referrals from peers and colleagues
• Focused on big-picture, business-imperative strategies which most solutions don't address
• Distrusting of vendor content at face value
• Irritated with company websites focused on the company, rather than their needs and interests
• Frustrated at their inability to find what they need quickly
• Disappointed in the lack of strategic thought leadership represented

*Note that this applies to CXOs at mid-size to large enterprises, not necessarily SMBs who may wear many hats, including doing online research.

So you're sitting there thinking, well, we can address this. We'll just change our website and design it to win over those picky CXOs!

Stop right there. The realities represented in those bullets above aren't likely to change just because your website gets a facelift and focus. Build it and they will come doesn't apply here.

The course of action with a higher payoff is to design your website for the staff doing the research and building the business case. I have to tell you that in creating nearly 70 personas in the last year, not one of them has been a CXO in relation to a website content strategy.

This doesn't mean you don't need content that's worthy of CXO attention - it means that getting that content to them will probably not be a direct route. Or, if it is, it's an executive roundtable or a specific thought leadership asset that you can place in front of them. Even if they're interested in that one piece, this doesn't mean they will begin trolling your website.

Additionally, if you design your website for an audience that doesn't trend toward visiting it, you've left the audience that will show up with nowhere to go but to a competitor's site that speaks to them.

By the same token, orienting your website for end users will also not drive the results you need. These folks hang out in customer communities and forums where they can interact with peers and get support and insights from experts for product use and resolving issues. They don't care how many awards your company has received or that your CEO is speaking at an industry event they aren't attending.

This leaves those in the middle of the spectrum. The people responsible for researching solutions to priority problems, building the business case and selling your ideas/solution internally. The content for those who sign off and those who use the solution on a day-to-day basis will, for the most part, be exposed to them by these folks.

Defining The Role of a B2B Website

Although websites should be designed with a primary audience in mind, the role of your website can become a bit convoluted. This is especially true when you consider all the departments that have a stake in the property.

Some possibilities include:

• PR wants the latest news to shine front and center
• Product managers what their collateral to have top billing
• Demand Gen wants gated content and calls to action that capture contact information prominently displayed (notice I did not say leads)
• Branding wants everything to reflect the tone, style and creative they've defined
• Web designers want template standards adhered to
• Sales wants customer stories featured, along with ROI tools and TCO calculators
• Social media wants icons and feeds in the eyepath

I could go on, but you get the point. This is a lot of stuff for one web property to accomplish. It's hard to make everyone happy and attempting to do so defeats the purpose. But, the real problem is that there's one stakeholder that's totally unrepresented in that list, the most important one — buyers.

For each of the "wants" of the stakeholders above, unless it serves the story that will attract and engage buyers, your website will fail the audience litmus test.

Develop A Process for Passing the Website Litmus Test

• Start with the personas most likely to visit your website
• Do the research to find out how they'll get there and what will attract them
• Develop possible scenarios across channels they frequent and determine how best to connect the dots (your website analytics can help with this, so can social media monitoring)
• Given these routes, figure out which pages each persona is most likely to land on and where you want them to go next (or what you want them to do)
• Build connected pathways with content and storylines
• Focus on the problems they need to solve and then (only then) on how your products and services enable that to happen.
• Take a hard look at your home page and figure out how to hook each of them when they land there. Is it obvious what they should do? Is the promise of what they'll get compelling enough given their priorities?
• Also assess your homepage for anything that will cause them to click the back button (your biggest enemy) and fix it.
• Remember you have only 3 - 5 seconds to convince them to stay

Essentially, if you are designing your website to engage Tom, Mary and Dennis, you need to look at it as if you were Tom, then Mary and then Dennis. Better yet - give someone who's not steeped in your site a description of Tom and what he's interested in, have them step into his shoes and visit the site for 5 seconds. Ask what caught their attention. Better yet if you can use an actual Tom, do that.

The turf wars over websites need to end. If your website is not contributing to business objectives, its not built for the audience. It doesn't matter what you think, what your boss thinks or what anyone else in your company thinks unless it's adding relevance for the audience your website needs to attract and engage.

Does your B2B website pass the audience litmus test?

If not, you're wasting time...

 

B2B Websites NOT Great At Demand Gen

A new study on an often overlooked subject is fresh off the presses: Demandbase and Focus.com 2011 National Website Demand Generation Study.

The B2B company website is growing in importance as buyers spend more time researching and selecting the information they use during a complex buying process.

Demandbase CEO, Chirs Golec, sums up the situation nicely in the press release:

“Social media may be heralded as the silver bullet to bring B2B marketing up to snuff but, despite its increasing influence, it’s important to keep in mind that no business sale is made without the buyer going to the corporate website first.

“Regardless of its origin--social media or e-mail, banners or search—traffic driven from online marketing initiatives always intersects at the website. And, while businesses are investing heavily in their sites, the study shows that they are then ignoring the very audience they worked so hard to attract.”

To get the inside scoop for you, I tracked down Craig Rosenberg, Leader of the Focus Expert Network and Funnelholic extraordinare to get his reaction to the survey results.

Ardath: What prompted the choice of the topic of website demand generation as the focus of the survey?

Craig: First a disclosure for transparency:  Demandbase was involved in the survey and their solutions help marketers identify and convert website visitors into leads.

There is an inbound marketing/content marketing movement going on in b2b yet we talk very little about the website.  Isn’t that interesting? 

We talk about content (you know this), we talk about nurturing them to come back, but we may not talk enough about what the results should be from those efforts and how they should be optimized.

If you look at the data from the survey, you will see that marketers believe their website is the leading source of leads and that 80% of marketers believe they are NOT maximizing their efforts there. 

As I like to say:  “you got them into the store (aka website), now what?”  The next step for marketers who are doing the right things with inbound marketing, lead nurturing, and such as optimize conversion when they get them to the website.

Ardath: What did you learn from the survey that most surprised you – and why?

Craig: I don’t know about surprises but I am certainly drawn to a couple important points:

• Registration Form Length – I love that we asked that, and I am shocked that in this day and age: 27% have 8 or more fields.
  
  You spent all this time, effort, and money getting them to come to you, why lose them by asking a question you don’t need? 
  
  Jon Miller from Marketo is cited in the survey as having studied the effects on the number of fields in a registration form.  Marketo generates 1000’s of leads a month from their website and guess what: they don’t even ask for phone number on the registration form. 

 

• 61% of marketing organizations say they know their buyers well or very well – This data is good news if we believe them.  Knowing your buyer is the first step to all your efforts in sales, marketing, and frankly, the entire organization. 
  
  So, the majority of people in the survey say they understand their buyer but they have a lot more work to do to understand whether they are attracting them and ultimately converting them.  An encouraging start, but obviously the “rubber meets the road” with conversion.

Ardath: If this is the most obvious conclusion drawn from the survey:

"BtoB corporate websites are the leading demand generation engine for new sales leads, but BtoB companies are struggling to optimize site performance and analyze insights around customer behavior once they arrive. And while companies have invested heavily in the corporate website, they are doing little to optimize the web experience for those very audiences they have worked so hard to attract."

What 3 tips would you give marketers to correct this situation?

Craig:

1. Site performance is about technology and we live in the “Revenge of the Nerds” era.  If websites are your publishing platform than truly act like a publisher and understand who is reading your website and where and allow yourself to make the moves that matter. 


2. Dedicate someone to care about this situation – a lot of b2b marketing organizations hire a design firm to do the website and leave it from there.  If it is the best source of your leads, why would you do that?  There are some very important factors that someone needs to own: Content (creation, delivery, and optimization) and conversion (quality AND quantity).


3. Ask the buyers – b2c organizations poll their visitor base ALL the time, why can’t b2b?

Ardath: In your opinion, what is the biggest reason that B2B websites fail to generate demand?

Craig: There are two reasons. 

The first is the propensity for creating brochureware.   Many websites are still boring, corporate, sterile, etc.  In today’s world, content needs to be arresting and provide buyers with something they actually want to read.  As well, design and usability is very important to the user experience. 

The second is conversion, plain and simple.  You have to decide what you want your website visitors to do on a particular page, etc.  If it is to register for something, then optimize the experience for the registration.   Most websites are not the great at that.

Ardath: Why is the corporate website such a political hot potato?

Craig: There are powerful people in every organization who have opinions about the website who have no idea what modern marketing is about.  An optimized website typically comes from an organization where the marketing department is given autonomy to build what the buyers want, not what the CFO or even Product Development wants. 

Otherwise, everything I just answered becomes moot…you will have a boring, middle-of-the-road brochure focused website and you will not be optimized for lead generation.

***

Thanks, Craig! Go get your copy of the report and shape up your website!

Audit Your B2B Website for Engagement

B2B companies say that improving their websites is a priority for 2010. I'm not sure exactly what they're thinking, but I do know that — before they do anything — they need to evaluate the website they have now in order to create a renovation plan.

I suggest that an audit be conducted for each web page, or at least your main pages if your site is really intense. The benefit of doing this audit will help to position your web pages to generate more responsiveness from your prospects and customers.

Some of the things overlooked on B2B websites include:

• Web pages are not stand-alone. They need to be integrated in a way that leads your website visitors to the information they find useful based on interest.


• Just because your navigation creates siloed areas of content doesn't mean your web pages need to follow suit.


• Your website is not a brochure all about YOU and your products. If it's not designed with your prospects and customers in mind, you lose. That means every single page.


• Each page has about 3 - 5 seconds to catch attention. Don't bury your hook.

I've created a simple Web Page Audit Form to get you started.

Here are the steps for auditing your web pages:

• Main Topic: Each web page should have a focus. You should be able to summarize the main topic in a sentence.


• Question Answered: When prospects are searching for information, they are seeking answers to questions. Which question does your web page answer? As you audit your web pages, you should begin to see the possibilities for ways to connect your content into pathways that apply to buying stages - or you'll see gaps that need to be filled.


• Call to Action: You need to show your prospects how to take next steps given the information they've just accessed.


• Takeaway: If all they read is this one page, what impression are you leaving with them? A takeaway is different from a call to action.


• Use of Company Focus: Print off your page and circle all the instances where you've used words such as; we, our, our company, company name, us, product names, features, etc.


• Use of Prospect Focus: Use a different color pen and circle all the instances where you've used words such as; you, yours, your company, roles (VP, CIO, Entrepreneurs, etc.), benefits and outcomes, etc.
  
  [Which side weighs in heavier? How focused on your audience is your content?]


• Keywords and Phrases: Now circle the keywords and phrases you're using on the page. Are they words your prospects use to search with? Or, are they only what you think are important. If you search for these terms in a search engine, does your page show up? Which words and phrases might work better at catching your prospects' attention?


• Time Spent: Get into your analytics and determine how much time people are spending on the web page. Is it enough to read and comprehend the content? Or is it only enough for a brief scan? Do they exit or do they visit another web page? Is the content they view next related to the topic of this page?


• Related Web Pages: What options do you provide to entice your prospects to spend more time with you? Which pages do you have that could be incorporated to enhance the experience you're providing to your website audience?

If you'd like a copy of the Web Page Audit form, download the PDF.

Once you've audited a number of pages, it's likely you'll see a pattern for revisions. You'll also discover new possibilities for creating an integrated experience for how your website visitors engage with your content. Finally, it should become really clear how to improve your online dialogue with your prospects and customers because your website will have the potential to become all about them. And that's a good thing.

Many B2B Websites Still Suck Wind

Why is it that B2B websites are so terrible at engaging the people they're designed to serve?

The simple answer is because companies tend to design websites based on what they think is important, rather than what their prospects and customers value. This has been said again, and again...and again. In fact, one of my most highly read posts, even today, is B2B Websites Not Effective—a post I wrote June 5, 2006.

The other issue is that websites are political hot potatoes. For some reason, there seem to be a lot of territorial turf wars. Not sure why, when the goal is to engage prospects and customers to build new and ongoing relationships that result in your selling more stuff.

But, that's a conundrum for another post.

What I'd like to know is who wrote the rule that says all corporate websites must follow a standard navigation format?

You know what I mean. That siloed, uninteresting and uninformative menu that includes stuff like:

• Products
• Solutions
• Resources
• Case Studies
• News/Press
• About Us

Does this navigation say "All About You" or "All About Us?"

Confronted by this navigation, visitors look at your homepage to try to find a clue about what to do next based on their purpose for the visit. [Read try to find something valuable to them.]

Unfortunately, the top half of most websites is now consumed by a big banner graphic or flash widget that immediately requires us to scroll down if whatever it features is not why we came.

Then, perhaps there are a span of boxes across the bottom that offer choices like:

• Latest News/Press - see more about why we're so terrific.
• Solution Focus - click to learn more about our product feeds and speeds.
• Customer story - gosh, I hope that's about a customer like me...oh, only the first paragraph. The rest of it talks about your products with a couple of obnoxiously Rah! Rah! testimonial quotes called out in the sidebars.

Or maybe you're featuring a new white paper with a snazzy cover on a topic I'm actually interested in learning more about.

Now we're getting somewhere. Oh...you want me to give you 20 fields of my personal information? Hmm. Let me go do a search and see if I can find out the same stuff somewhere else...

Hmm. The only other text on the page says, "We're the leading provider of..."

Oh, wait. There's a tiny link to your corporate blog up in the little navigation at the very top of the page. Maybe I can find something interesting there...click. Hmm. More stuff all about you. No wonder independent blogs are more highly thought of than corporate ones.

Doesn't this scenario make you wonder what you can do to improve user experience at your website? Your company's website may not be this bad, but I'm pretty sure that it can use some improvement to meet your prospects' ideas about value delivery. [Read immediate gratification for dropping by.]

Here are a couple of tips:

• Figure out the top 3 reasons people who need what you sell visit your website. If it's a complex sale, I can guarantee you that they're not looking for the "contact a sales rep" button on their first visit. Then make sure your homepage addresses those three things in a noticeable manner.


• Create navigation that actually makes sense to your website visitors based on the problems your offerings help them solve. [Even if you must keep the standard format, you need to figure out how to immediately engage your visitor traffic. Hyper links, call outs in your sidebars, something.]


• Eliminate dead ends. When your visitors have enough gumption to click on a link, make sure you deliver on the promise for that click and that you've got a pathway to pull them more deeply into the topic they've just told you they find valuable.


• Make engaging with you simple. Allow them to dole out their information a bit at a time in exchange for content they value. Choose when you do that carefully. For example, you might provide an excerpt or executive summary of a white paper to prove it's worth it for them to part with information. Be sure you're only asking for information you need right now based on our relationship.
  
  For example, do you really need my street address when I download a white paper? Short forms will deliver a much higher opt-in rate. Just saying.

Addressing your website engagement is not about structural redesign so much as it's about the words used and the options provided. Nothing a little website content renovation can't fix, in most cases. It's all about perspective. Theirs—not yours.

I'll leave you with the same quote I used to end the 2006 post. For many b2b companies, this quote is—unfortunately—still true:

"Companies are still designing for themselves rather than for their customers. They place serious barriers in the way of prospects who use the Web to discover companies to put on their shortlists."

 

The Marketing-to-CIO Wish List

While catching up on my blog reader today, I came across a post by Paul Barsch, The New Role of the CIO?, that set my mind whirling. His premise is that the CIO is shifting to become a business facilitator to make business happen and will be asking business users (that's you) what they want and need to deliver on strategic objectives.

So, are you ready? What technology would you ask for to drive marketing success?

To help the thinking along, I'll start the list - please post comments and add to it.

1. Integration of customer data so marketing and sales and service have access to complete profiles and activities of all customers.


2. Integration of marketing channels so marketing can make sure the brand is consistent and get a better gauge on what's working.


3. Integration with sales so we can make better hand-offs of qualified leads to sales, see what happens with the opportunities and take them back, if need be, for further nurturing. They're going to buy sooner or later, and it should be from us - so we need to keep track and keep in touch.


4. Measurement and metrics tools that work for today's interactive campaigns. It's not just about click throughs. We need to see beyond the campaign to what else our prospects are doing - with our website content, our microsites, our downloads, where they come from and go to afterward, how much of a webinar they view, not just that they downloaded it from our archives.
   
   We want to know navigation paths and whether or not one content resource led to another and how they fit together for different kinds of prospects to build the story that pulls that person forward in their buying cycle. And don't make us put forms up in front of every resource they want to collect that information. Help us remove barriers to gathering intelligence. Oh, and we want these insights in real time. I could go on, but you get the idea.


5. Content Publishing that marketing can own and manage in real time to address the fast-moving pace of business conversations today. Not the corporate website - that's a political hot potato with too many "owners" - but we want to be able to create a microsite at the drop of a hat to address a strategic topic. I can give you a laundry list of what types of functionality we'd like that can be managed by business users, but that's a whole other blog post.


6. Email tools that enable us to create and send emails to niche subsets of our marketing database, schedule campaigns and monitor metrics and view prospect profiles and activity at the microsites in #5 above.


7. Blogs that we can launch to build community networks around strategic subjects. This is for thought leadership that initiates conversations and produces exchanges that add to our insights in how to improve customer experiences. Not just to spout expertise or dump product info.


8. Sales Tools Portal that enables us to post and monitor content/resource usage and sales to rate and comment on the tools we're providing them with. This should include an advanced search capability that enables salespeople to select the prospect they're preparing to meet with and quickly display the relevant information they need. We want to know what they use, why they use it and if they don't, why isn't it working?

Whew! That should keep your CIO busy for a while, but that's my short list. What else should we add? Each of the above is broad and has subsets and expansion possibilities, but I was going for concept.

What else?

Is Your B2B Website's Backside Droopy?

Go to a search engine and type in your company name or product or a keyword and take a look at the search results. Notice anything?

Most likely, only one of the links takes people to the home page of your website.

All the others invite visitors to enter your world through a back door.

Click on some of the search results links, wipe your mind blank [I know, it's a challenge], and ask yourself if you arrived on that page by chance, what kind of impression would the website leave with you?

Can you pick up your company's story in mid-stride? Do you understand where you are in the scheme of things and is there a clear path to either take a few steps back to catch up or easily move forward on your exploration of the topic?

In other words - how engaging is your website if entered from the backside?

A few things you may want to check and adjust to make sure your backside isn't droopy:

• Start with the search results.
  
  • Are the pages that returned for your website responsive to the search term entered?
  • Are there some better choices for keyword optimization? Does the content deliver on the promise it made by returning on the keyword the user searched with?
• Now look at the page the search return links to:
  • When was it last updated? Will the information still be considered current and be of high interest?
  • How does it invite people into your company's story?
  • Assess the options for your visitor - where can they go next? Where might they rather go?
  • Are there clear choices related to the subject matter or topic that motivated them to visit your website?
  • Can you improve their response by freshening the content? Adding links that extend the story they've stepped into the middle of?
  • Is it obvious how they can interact with you?

Yes, this takes some effort. I suggest you start with your most highly visited pages and work your way down the list.

Most people will visit your website or learn of your company for the first time because of a search result that directs them to an internal page. That's the beauty of search, and for savvy folks who've figured out how to reduce the shoveling they have to do to get the information they want.

Take a look at your bounce rates for specific pages. Are they higher than they should be? The object is to pull your website visitors into your world, so high bounce rates on key pages are indicators that change is in order. You not only want them to stay, you want them to invest time in learning more about how you can help them answer their needs. Right?

Depending on the topic or search, they will want proof that validates the assertions your content makes and potentially more information about the subject that motivated their visit. And, please tell me the content is not all about you.

Everyone spends a lot of time making sure the homepage looks great. With the advances in search technology every page needs to pass that test. Start hoisting that backside and get it in shape to engage visitors and deliver the outcomes you want.

Microsites for Responsive Marketing

Trying to get changes made to corporate websites is often the bottleneck in executing on marketing campaigns. More and more, B2B companies are realizing that showcasing and sharing their expertise in a way that helps their leads better understand the challenges they're facing, and explore options for overcoming them, is a wise marketing move.

Problem is that marketers need a way to quickly get relevant information out in a way that generates usable intelligence for their marketing and nurturing strategies. Creating microsites for different challenges, focuses, industries or company types gives marketers a tighter way to connect with actively interested leads. And, the sites can be simple to navigate—hugely important given a recent statistic that 80% of website visitors leave if they have to click more than 4 times to get to the information they want.

However, if microsites are going to be a viable marketing tool, they need to be flexible and allow line-of-business, non-techie marketers to quickly upload and professionally present timely thought leadership content. You can't halt a campaign in the middle of the conversation. And, what many businesses don't realize is that filing a content piece with your outsourced agency who has a two-week lag time, severely restricts the agility of responding to what leads want. Especially if they shift focus.

Let's say that you plan a campaign. You develop your content on schedule, your agency deploys it, you send your first email and notice that a majority of your audience is not only clicking through on the link in your email, but are also expressing interest in an additional article on the microsite. The issue is that the follow-on content piece you have in the agency pipeline, and next up on the program, is written in a different direction.

So, what do you do? Send that piece, as scheduled, and miss out on responding appropriately to expressed interests? Or, do you do individual sends with a PDF of a new article that meets their needs, forgoing any ability to track response and interest metrics?

If your ability to connect with leads on their terms is hindered by a rigid process with a long advance time, then your company is going to miss out on those early steps of building what could turn out to be a gorgeous customer relationship.

One answer is to deploy microsites that marketing can manage. And yes, there is technology available that will hold template look and feel to corporate standards (for those of you shuddering) and working with them doesn't need to require expertise in technology.

Additionally, the ability to drive organic growth around your company's area of expertise can deliver huge results. In contrast to the corporate website which is usually focused on your industry, product and investors, you can cull a whole following that might not otherwise have connected with your company, based on your ability to optimize expert subject matter for search engines.

Corporate websites are great once the potential buyer has researched, gained knowledge, learned what he needs to know, decided how he wants to solve the problem and is ready to evaluate vendors. But, if you wait to get to know your leads at that point, you've probably missed the boat. Consider your microsite the responsive online presence that can get you in the conversation in the beginning, when beliefs, perceptions and attitudes are forming. That's where you need to be.

Revamping Your B2B Website

I'm working with a number of clients who are revamping their websites. In addition to a new look (template design) and new graphics and sometimes even colors, there are a lot of things to consider with how you use content. Your content will be most effective if it's designed to build relationships that drive interactions and results that help your company meet business objectives. In short, it should be based on a strategy for market acquisition and customer loyalty extension.

In no particular order, here are some questions to consider:

• What's the most important thing you want site visitors to get when they get there?
• What's the feeling you want them to leave with?
• What do you want them to think about your company?
• Who are you expecting to visit?
  • How are you delivering meaning and value to each constituency?
  • Will each persona find clear, relevant value?
  • What about current customers?
  • What about past customers?
• How does your content pull them farther inside?
• What's the objective of the navigational paths you're creating?
• What's your plan to increase relevancy over time?
• What will be the metrics of success for your website?
• Have you addressed your website visitor's emotional quotient?
• What will make them want to come back?
• If a lead receives a marketing communication, will it be in tune with your content if they decide to visit your website?
• Is the website useful to salespeople?
• What methods and processes do you have in place to invite interaction?
• Is your content designed to be conversational? (will it facilitate dialog?)
  • With who?
  • How will you engage and forward the dialog?

B2B Website as Centerpiece of Marketing Strategy

I'm at the Sales Shebang, which kicks off this morning. Last night's opening kick-off was terrific. Molly Cox and her entourage performed a wonderful mix of Improv and sketches. The relationship marketing spoof with a couple in a counseling office was hysterical. During the Improv portion, the interaction they created with the audience was fun and I think everyone had a blast.

While you're waiting for the first postings about the workshops and keynotes, I thought you might find this white paper, written by ThomasNet, good food for thought.

"Aligning Your Marketing Strategy With Your Business Plan" makes a solid case for how important a B2B website is to your company's business. Not just as an appendage, but as the centerpiece for your marketing strategy.

When you consider that 93.4% of industrial buyers are on the Internet to find information that helps them make buying decisions - 91% will leave your site without pursuing a conversation if they can't find solid information - Can you afford to have a ho-hum website?

Consider your business strategy. Take a look at your website and see if each of your strategic goals is supported, promoted and enhanced by the content you provide. A recent survey by Enquiro found that a vendor website is "...the #1 influencing factor in a buying decision."

Studies show that buyers spend at least 8 hours online looking for products and services. The way people search for information and buy has changed. B2B companies need to keep up or lose out to the companies who have taken the steps to make sure their website is an integral strategic asset.

Thanks to Joe Pulizzi for posting the paper. You can download it with free, direct access from his post. There's a helpful checklist for things to consider. And, yes, the focus is for industrial manufacturers, but there's plenty of information that applies to all B2B companies and how to anchor your online marketing strategy.

As the paper says, "All roads lead to your website."

The Craft of Connections

For many organizations, an intranet, sales or customer portal is about having a place to display information of relevance. What if these online portals can create a connected base of expertise that organizations can tap to improve performance, as needed?

There's an ongoing debate about the difference between information and knowledge. In the past, online initiatives have been about making information available. However, that information is only as rich as it's presentation. In other words, how often does it change to keep up with market, industry and company changes? How do insights in practice get applied to the information available on a portal?

By creating a database of "experts" and giving them the interactive tools to connect to each other at the right time, you can improve and extend the knowledge of your organization beyond traditional boundaries. The idea is to create "communities of practice" by connecting people to those who can help them learn what they need to know to be more effective in real-time situations.

Creating a portal as a community, whether it is internal (intranet), goal-specifc (sales portal) or reaching outward (customer portal) is one way to start. But, it's not about just the exchange of information. It's about connecting expertise that can be useful. Which isn't easy. A community effort needs facilitation to generate participation. This is not an "if you build it, they will come" situation.

In an article, The Craft of Connection, by Tim Laseter and Rob Cross, they state, "People participate because they see value. Experts get recognition. As time goes by and people in the community start to know each other, they develop reciprocity. An individual in need today may be tomorrow’s expert providing the knowledge to help solve a problem. Gradually, we see much higher trust, and the community changes from the mode of ‘getting the right information to the right person at the right time’ to truly start building on each other’s ideas to find a solution to a problem. In other words, that’s when we start creating knowledge.”

They talk about using "natural brokers," the natural leaders that people gravitate to for information. These people usually have more connections throughout your organization than others. They are the ones who can help boost participation and be proactive in helping others make connections.

"...the greatest challenge in the world of intelligence gathering occurs not in data collection, but in making the connections that generate insight. A poorly connected intelligence community has a lower chance of turning data into useful knowledge..."

By creating a knowledge base of experts, your organization can begin to share the insights that are useful in obtaining strategic objectives. Give each person a profile. Include their picture. Also include a few professional details that help people who don't know them personally engage them in conversation more easily. Have each person select from a keyword database that will help others find them when their expertise, insights and opinions can help with a problem, project or innovation.

Use your natural leaders to facilitate discussion forum topics and encourage others to submit thoughts, comments and even articles about related issues they are passionate about.

If you are skeptical about the impact of establishing communities of practice, read the article. Some of the achievements companies have made are tremendous. The way to achieve improvements of scale through interactive expertise portals is to facilitate participation. If you don't connect the people in a meaningful way, then you'll have an information portal. Somehow, I think having an active community of practice portal leads to greater effectiveness and to a better experience.