The next interview in our B2B
Marketing thought leader interview series is with Dianna
Huff, B2B Marketing Communications Consultant.

Dianna also writes for the Marcom Writer Blog, and
provides some great tips to help B2B marketing professionals
develop integrated marketing campaigns for effective
lead management.

Tell us a little bit about what you
do and how you got into B2B marketing.

I am a B2B marketing communications
consultant and copywriter — I specialize in helping
companies achieve better results with online marketing, including
Websites, SEO, email marketing, e-newsletters, landing pages,
etc.

I started my career back in the late 80s,
early 90s — I used to write newsletters for various
organizations on a volunteer basis. I had also always worked in a
manufacturing environment, even in college. (Back then, the term “B2B” didn’t exist.) I completed my Master
degree in English Lit in 1993 and wasn’t sure what to do
with myself. I went to career counseling and when the counselor
saw the things I was writing “for fun,” plus my
experience at various companies, she said, “There’s a
name for people like you – it’s called marketing
communications.” The rest is history.

From reading your blog, I see that
you write a lot about integrated marketing. What are your top 3
tips to help companies tackle the art of
integration?

This is a great question.

1. Actually plan out your campaign
before you create anything. Who is your target audience?
What are their pain points and challenges? How does your product
or service help them? What are your goals and objectives for the
campaign? Describe not only a successful outcome but how
you’ll measure it.

2. Develop your strategy.
How will you reach your target market? Where do they congregate
and what is the best way to attract their attention? Just because
everyone is pushing new channels such as YouTube/video,
doesn’t necessarily mean that YouTube/video will work for
you. Carefully consider both offline and online tactics and how
they will work together. For example, I am still very perplexed
by the recent VW campaign which uses print ads, TV commercials and
online ads. I really do not “get” the campaign nor
the message nor the objective. Why? Because none of the channels
are fully integrated – the campaign assumes you watch TV
and go online to specific sites. But if you read only the Wall
Street Journal, which is where I saw the print ads, they make no
sense whatsoever because they are out of context.

3. No matter what your channel,
don’t send people to your Website home page! One
of my favorite things to do is pick up a trade journal —
any one will do — and analyze every single ad in the
publication. Generally, only one or two companies push people to
an offer-specific landing page. All others direct people
to the home page. Even direct marketing / SEO companies do this
— and they should know better!

What techniques and marketing
tactics have you personally used to push the
envelope?

I developed an e-book for my client, Dr.
Helaine Smith, a cosmetic dentist. (Even though she markets to
consumers, her sales cycle is very close to B2B in that
it’s a “considered purchase” that can take
months.) I took inspiration from David Meerman Scott, who advises
that companies should offer free information / new ideas in the
form of e-books. Dr. Smith really wanted to push the envelope in
dentistry by talking about how one’s oral health can affect
one’s sexual health — something no other dentist was
doing. So last spring I developed an e-book for her called,
“Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex!” which has had close to
4,000 downloads (which is huge for her) and several reviews on
blogs, including About.com and David Meerman Scott’s blog,
Web Ink Now. In fact, her alma mater is going to give it out to
freshman during orientation! This project “pushed the
envelope” for me because my first inclination was to advise
her to stay on “safe” topics. If we had done that, we
would not have created such buzz for her.

A recent post on your blog discusses
5 strategies to increase B2B sales. What is the number one
opportunity you see for companies to better reach their target
market online to increase
sales leads?

Search engine optimization and content
geared toward what buyers want. Seriously. I see so many B2B
sites that aren’t optimized, and the smaller B2B or
“mom and pop” sites tend to have very little content
— and then companies wonder why they aren’t getting
any leads/inquiries from their sites. One company that called me
had a Services page that simply listed their services. That was
it. I said, “You need to expand your services content so
people know what you do and how you can help them.” Their
response? “Our customers know what we do.” It’s
this kind of thinking that leads to companies losing out to their
competition.

In your experience, what do you see
as the biggest opportunity for B2B marketers striving toward

marketing ROI?

Know your customers and buyers and what they
want. In fact, I developed a free e-book on this very topic,

Five B2B MarCom Strategies to Increase Sales Now. It
includes eight strategies for getting to know your prospective
customers.

As many of you are also B2B marketing experts, what tips do you have for
developing a truly integrated
marketing campaign?

Copyright Modern B2B Marketing | Marketo Blog – B2B Marketing Communications: Thought Leadership with Dianna Huff