Business.com, AssetTrade.com, B-to-B Works, WirelessVertical.com

B2BMarketingBiz.com
Practical News & Tips for
B2B Marketing on the Internet
June 5, 2000 - Vol. I, Issue 4

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NEWS & GOSSIP: Business.com, IBM Unix, B-to-B Works
CASE STUDY: AssetTrade.com
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jim Caruso of WirelessVertical.com
JOBS: VP Marketing at B-to-B Portal in Chicago

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NEWS
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* Business.com Launches Preview - One Ad Size Fits All
Business.com’s preview site is live. It looks tremendously
like most other search engine sites such as Yahoo but
instead of bots or cubicled minions, they claim to have
hired 50 (such a nice round number) library science
professionals from various industry specialties to build
their directory. They’re aiming to create “the most
comprehensive directory of business on the Internet
… from barns to butterfly valves.” But your advertising
options are currently limited to a single banner size
(468x60.) To get your site listed at Business.com you
have to register which means giving them your name and
email address. Sounds like a clever way for their ad
sales department to build an opt-in list of every b2b
marketer around. Want to do business with Business.com?
Contact business development at bd@business.com or
call 310.586.4111.

* Yea/Nay: IBM Unix Space Ads
We were glancing through a recent Fast Company issue the
other day (which is now about as long as Gone With the
Wind) and out of literally over 125 pages of mainly B-to-B
advertising, the IBM Unix ad really stood out. No it
wasn’t the weird photo of models pretending to work in a
virtual office in the middle of a field. It was the
fact that the ad was handwritten rather set in typeface.
As direct marketers know, handwriting catches people’s
eyes, especially in a vast ocean of typeset pages. So,
although it’s not perfect, this campaign gets a “Yea”
from us.

* Media Buy of the Week: B-to-B Works
Online media broker B-to-B Works offers some of the most
highly targeted online B-to-B media buys we know of.
Currently they sell ads for more than 300 sites,
including niche industry sites owned by Advanstar,
Primedia, Phillips and IDG. The official banner rate is
$94/m … but this can come down to $75-$80/m if you buy a
run of at least three months. Get more details at:
http://www.b2bworks.net/siteprofiles/

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CASE STUDY: AssetTrade.com
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* How AssetTrade.com Sold More Than $5 Million in Equipment
in Its First 5 Weeks: Great Prospect Databases Make a Difference

THE SITE: AssetTrade.com is a new online marketplace for
used industrial equipment and machinery. Along with the
usual e-market functions, “we also provide offline
services such as appraising and cataloguing of equipment
up for sale,” says VP of sales and marketing Lynn
Nowicki. Dupont recently inked a deal with the company
to dispose and acquire used equipment via AssetTrade.

THEIR PROSPECT DATABASE: AssetTrade.com was incredibly
lucky in inheriting a prospect database of 350,000
equipment buyers who have either bought or inquired with
AssetTrade’s established elder brick and mortar
siblings, including Henry Butcher International, the
largest industrial auction firm in the world. The list
covers a range of verticals (chem, pharm, metal, auto,
etc.) from Fortune 500s down to small machine shops.
“That’s the base of all our marketing efforts,” Nowicki
tells us.

MARKETING MIX: “Direct sales, mail, trade shows, trade
pubs, online, and even telemarketing,” says Nowicki.
With its list segmented into companies of all sizes
everywhere in the world, “different levels require
different marketing mixes,” she says. One fascinating
fact, “Email marketing is more important for Fortune
500s -- less important for small shops and smaller
countries.”

TELEMARKETING: The company maintains a telemarketing
sales force of more than 25 -- organized by market
segment – that works off the core database. They do not
currently outsource any sales functions, says Nowicki,
“because you need technical expertise to sell our
equipment,” and most independent telemarketers don’t
have it. “But if you know of one that does, I’d be
interested,” she says.

TRADE SHOWS: “This is the best way to demonstrate our
capabilities to prospects,” Nowicki says. The company
has a team of more than 20 staffers trained to deliver
live Web demos to trade-show visitors. Demos are
tailored to the show’s subject matter instead of a one-
size-fits-all canned presentation. “In some cases, we’ve
actually helped folks find equipment right there.”
AssetTrade also tries to place its booth right next to
its sibling’s offline company booths, so the brick and
mortars borrow some Internet coolness while AssetTrade
borrows some old-world credibility.

RESULTS
In the five weeks since launching, the company
has sold more than $5 million in equipment. “I can’t
point to any one marketing channel that’s carrying the
load,” Nowicki, tells us. “They’re all adding up.”

http://www.assettrade.com

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Jim Caruso of WirelessVertical.com
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* How WirelessVertical.com Went from Zero to Light Speed
in only 30 days

As the Internet bursts at the seams with new B-to-B
marketplace launches, new entrants furiously compete for
members, capital and media attention. Working with a
pre-VC marketing budget, WirelessVertical (a new
Atlanta-based market maker for used wireless equipment)
has signed some big-name telcos, lined up VC funding,
and scored some quality media ink –- all in one month
since launching May 1. We talked to founder and
chairman Jim Caruso to find out how.

B2B: As a new player, what else have you been doing to
maximize your marketing results?

Caruso: We focused on where we could make an impact.
We’ve maintained a geographic concentration in the
South, going after carriers like BellSouth and Alltel,
which are clients now. Also, we focused our PR on media
here in Atlanta –- like The Atlanta Business Chronicle -
- because we know that local VC read them. We also
targeted the business dailies and weeklies around the
country, but our local business community is a priority.
Our heaviest focus was on print and Web-based media, and
we’ve probably gotten 12 pieces of major coverage, like
in Fortune Magazine, in one month since we launched.

B2B: What else has your PR firm brought to the table?
[The company works with MediaFirst PR, Atlanta.]

Caruso: It’s unusual to find a PR firm that’s so
narrowly focused on the Wireless arena. We chose our
firm for their vertical expertise, but our account
manager there has net marketplace experience. She
hasn’t worked in wireless before, but the combination of
her experience with the firm’s vertical focus makes a
big difference. We did a ‘soft launch’ as you know, so
a major part of our communications has been with VCs.
Every Internet Market Maker that talks to VCs –- and to
potential clients, for that matter -- has to show that
you can’t do this by phone or fax. That’s what we’ve
been trying to say in a lot of our PR.

B2B: If you had to rank online marketing, PR and direct
sales in order of importance, how would it go?

Caruso: Direct sales is by far the most important.
We’ve been working on co-marketing deals with companies
that have name brand customers, and we think that will
give us a lot more recognition in the market. So that’s
very important because we become a channel for them, and
they become a channel for us. But PR and marketing
absolutely have their place in there.

B2B: What online marketing have you been doing, and
what’s been your best online buy?

Caruso: We’ve gone after the most focused industry
audiences we could find. We’ve bough banner ads from
[wireless] associations, and in one case, we put a
banner on a registration page that had no other banners
on it. This is the page where the association lets
people sign up and post listings for [equipment] offers
and requests, so we know that the guys who are spending
money are the ones that register. Those are my people
right there. Our CEO found that one while he was
surfing. We have a banner on the home page too, but we
didn’t just want to be on the home page, which has too
many ads in our opinion.

You know, when we announced our company, we got a flood
of calls from people selling us banner ads. We said
‘this is the audience we’re trying to reach. Can you
reach that audience?’ And they all went away. A lot of
those banner ad networks don’t really bring the kind of
targeting that we need.

http://www.wirelessvertical.com
http://www.mediafirst.net

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JOBS
----------

* Fully-Funded B-to-B Portal Seeks VP Marketing
Join the fast-growing team of iwix.net - the Internet
site that is becoming the Specialty Insurance portal for
agents and carriers. It’s just launched in the US, and
will expand soon to European and other markets. A full
business development staff is in place, and a Vice
President of Marketing is needed to handle all day-to-
day marketing issues. Ideal candidate would possess the
following skills/experience:
- Bachelors Degree or equivalent and marketing
management experience
- Experience in high tech or Internet industry, plus the
Property/Casualty insurance industry
- Ability to work closely with management and sales
- Experience in working with multiple vendors
- Marketing copywriting/editing experience a plus
- Experience in identifying and closing strategic
relationships
Position reports directly to the CEO. Located in
Chicago. To apply email hr@iwix.net

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