If the angles on using new media blended alongside traditional channels in yesterday’s post interested you, this article from eMarketer is worth a scan. It’s an interview with Melissa Katrincic, the head of interactive digital marketing and ecommerce at cult skincare provider Burt’s Bees.

Whilst Burt’s Bees is a B2C brand, Katrincic still struggles with the same challenges as B2B marketers: creating a consistent online/offline experience whilst maintaining control of offer and image:

“If we’re doing something online, how can we deliver an experience that is similar to retail, where you still feel an identification with the brand?”

“Facebook is a great new foray for us. The fact that it’s global has, at times, proved challenging because we run online promotions in the US that sometimes are unavailable to our Canadian or UK consumers. They let us know that they’re not very happy about that, but we’re working on it.”

The article’s available in full on eMarketer here.

I’m pleased to be able to make available our web 2.0 planning guide. We’ve had a lot of interest in this document, as marketers look to introduce more “pull” techniques into their programmes. You can download it here for free: B2B web2 blotter

It provides a process for thinking through your approach, suggests how different tecnhiques can be used to relieve pressure at points in the sales funnel and provides management considerations for marketers using web 2.0 for lead generation for the first time.

Easy to use, fill in, make notes on, and share in a brainstorming meeting. Do drop me a line or reply in the comments field with any questions.

I attended a fascinating presentation last night given by Tom Ilube, the CEO of online identity theft prevention company Garlik. Tom is also the ex-CIO of Egg.

Online identity fraudsters can apparently gather the information they need to steal your identity in 2-3 hours – something that used to take them days. By visiting your Facebook or LinkedIn page, company site, Flickr account and searching the online government archives, fraudsters can now get everything they need to mock up convincing passports, bank statements, utility bills – basically any document that they need to get credit.

When you stop to think about what’s online about you when the information is culled from all sources – your photos, CV, personal information, mother’s maiden name – you start to think differently about how you use the web.

If you, or any of your team, are thinking about starting blogs or exploiting social networking sites either for marketing purposes or personal use, Tom made some great points about protecting yourself online. 

Start by using Google, or better still ZoomInfo or Wink, to search for yourself and see what’s already out there. His major two hints for keeping safe? Never put your personal mobile number or home address on anything. 

There’s a lot more useful info on Tom’s blog and Garlik’s site. I’m off to Google myself…

I recently interviewed the marketing director at one of the UK’s largest systems integrators about her views on the marketing she receives. Her “most memorable” was a mailing containing a box of tissues and the headline “crying into your sales forecast?”.

She couldn’t remember who sent it, why, or what they were selling. She recalled it – for all the wrong reasons – and no-one got an appointment or a sale out of it.

These attention-grabbing techniques are often agency-inspired. They happen when agencies can’t or don’t understand the proposition. ”But it got a 57% recall rate” shrieks the agency. “Yes, but did it generate any leads?” we should ask! The recipient is a real person with real challenges. They want information to help them do their jobs better, not balloons, trowels or tissues.

The same is even truer online. People vote with their feet. If the content is interesting and useful, it grows legs. If it doesn’t, it dies.

A derth of good, relevant, valuable and honest content has been the B2B marketing world’s challenge for decades. For years buyers have been asking for “warts and all” stories but few companies have the stomach to provide them. (It’s why shows like Top Gear are so successful in B2C – they tell it like it is with a strong opinion and bags of personality.) But is a change on the horizon for B2B? Is the web 2.0 phenomenon finally forcing B2B marketers to change their ways?

Consider whether you would rather read a private diary from someone actually using the multi-million pound software product you are considering purchasing, or a corporate brochure describing its features? The brochure will probably be skimmed through but you can imagine the diary getting read thoroughly. As increased truth and interaction is being demanded by web 2.0, a new era is dawning for B2B marcomms functions.

Going from decades of broadcasting brochureware to something more akin to crafting diaries and narratives (and being prepared for a good amount of criticism along the way) is going to require quite a shift for the traditional B2B marketing department.

The upside is war stories, honesty, interest, more pull-able and usable content. It’s what buyers have been screaming for. The trade-off is less editorial control and a necessity that the content-generators themeselves are better informed and involved in their products’ or services’ world.