Study Results; Selling Media Space to Small Biz; Tips from NEBS

*** MarketingSherpa.com’s MarketingToSmallBiz.com ***
Practical Info on Marketing to the millions of
Small Businesses and SOHOs on the Internet
August 2, 2000 - Vol. I, Issue 8

1. NEWS: Bigstep.com, NEBS, SHOPA Study, Dell, StrategyWeek.com
2. More Headlines from MarketingSherpa.com
3. CASE STUDY: SBDepot.com’s airline campaign
4. INTERVIEW: How AdFlight Sells Online Media to Small Businesses
5. SPEAKING GIGS & JOBS

NOTE: Please use our cool new online form to tell your
friends to get their own Free subscriptions to this!
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NEWS
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* Bigstep.com Pleases Partners by Offering “Birthday
Presents” to Members

To celebrate its second anniversary, Bigstep.com is
offering gifts to subscribers from Stamps.com, McAfee,
AllBusiness.com and myGeek.com. McAfee is offering a
discounted price on its antivirus and maintenance package.
Nothing special, there. But the others are giving out goods
and services for free if you merely register with them. Who
wouldn’t want $45 in postage from Stamps.com? The birthday
offers are a nice way to drive traffic to partners. And
likely Bigstep.com did receive a birthday present, too, in
the form of the affiliates paying for the ad space.
http://www.bigstep.com

* 50 Year-Old NEBS Leads the Pack Marketing Online

Can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Ha! Case in point: 50-
year old NEBS. This traditionally offline supplier of
business forms has embraced the world of online marketing
and e-commerce. NEBS now has a sophisticated website set up
and plans to launch “a host of Internet marketing
activities to strongly promote our website,” Susan
Nawrocki, division VP of Marketing tells us. Further, the
company is launching an affiliate program, which will
enhance NEBS partnership program with other small business
marketers. Nawrocki has these two tips for others marketing
to small biz online:

1. Rather than marketing to small businesses generically,
talk to them based upon the type of business they are. Make
your pitch relevant to their business -- as a landscaper,
as a florist, as an accountant.

2. Maintain referrals (word of mouth) as the primary way of
getting new customers. Because we provide a high level of
service to our customers, referrals from our customers is
still the primary way we get new customers. Our greatest
success is that we have maintained this for almost 50
years!!!!
http://www.nebs.com

*SHOPA ecommerce Study Finds Nearly All Small Businesses in
the US are Online Today

SHOPA (the School Home, & Office Products Association) has
published a three-part ecommerce study. Jam packed with
info and statistics, the study is a good primer for e-
commerce novices. The bottom line? E-commerce “is rapidly
becoming an important distribution channel that should not
be overlooked … nearly every small business that is
currently online also shops online for business goods and
services.” To get a copy, contact Melissa Kenney at SHOPA.
937.297.2250 x3040. For non-SHOPA members, cost is $100 for
each of the three parts or $300 for the entire study.
BTW: Look for our exclusive interview with SHOPA President
Steve Jacober in an upcoming MarketingtoSmallBiz.com!
http://www.shopa.org

* Campaign Review: Dell Stumbles with Personalized Email
Promotion

Dell Computer may be the king of the direct model, but it
doesn’t get high marks for personalized service. A
colleague recently received a LinkShare affiliate email
addressed to “Dear [Site Name].” Well, if that doesn’t make
you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Dell realized that its
effort to personalize the correspondence had gone awry and
the next day sent a letter of apology as well as the
correct links to its site. Dell may have been “pleased to
announce the launch of Dell’s Small Business Affiliate
Program in the LinkShare B-to-B Network,” but the glitch may
have left a sour taste in the mouths of some recipients who
think a famous company like Dell should have its act
together.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/topics/affiliates_002_affiliates.htm

*Media Buy of the Week: StrategyWeek.com

Most of us figure that if someone has made it to CEO, then
the person must know something. And perhaps if we knew what

the CEO knows, we could make it to the top, too. That’s a
feeling shared by StrategyWeek.com which bills itself as
“the only small business Internet resource presenting
proving online solutions through the eyes of CEOs.”
StrategyWeek.com targets leaders at companies with 1-100
employees. From the looks of a recent demographic survey,
it appears that StrategyWeek.com’s readers are
technologically savvy and that a whopping 74% are in the
market for e-commerce products and services. If you have an
e-commerce site and want to nab the SOHO market, this site
may provide you with good returns. Although the site offers
the nothing unusual in the way of media – just banners and
newsletter sponsorship opportunities -- the focused
audience is the winner here.
http://www.strategyweek.com/ads.htm

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MORE MARKETINGSHERPA.COM HEADLINES
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Here are more exclusive news headlines you might be
interested in from other MarketingSherpa.com channels:

* How a Major Business Real Estate Firm Launched Their
New Site with a Webcast
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=611

* Exclusive Survey Results Reveal 91% Women Like Opt-In
Email Newsletters
http://www.emarketingtoher.com/sample.cfm?contentID=596

* Passionate Online Publishers Gather for Love, Not Money,
at WebZine 2000
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=617

* Tracey-Lee Batsford of Wanted Technologies on
Repositioning from B2C to B-to-B
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=610

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CASE STUDY: SmallBusinessDepot.com’s captive audience
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*SmallBusinessDepot.com’s Grows Opt-In Email Database by
Giving Airline Travelers Print Newsletters

CHALLENGE
SmallBusinessDepot.com (SBDepot.com) offers info
on government contracts (a potentially lucrative play for
small businesses) and other exclusive news geared for small
biz. The site was launched in January, but SBDepot.com
started working on its database of names well in advance.
Don Mazella, co-founder, executive VP and publisher,
explains how SBDepot.com used print newsletters to gather
an opt-in database.

CAMPAIGN
Provide four different quarterly print
newsletters to airline shuttles run by Continental
Airlines, American Airlines and US Air. The eight page
newsletters were on topics of interest to the small
businessperson. The newsletters were available at major
shuttle hubs such as New York, Boston and Washington, DC
and were placed in the seatback pocket on the plane to
start and in the airport waiting rooms. Each issue held
cards with an offer to opt-in for a free print and/or email
subscription. SBDepot.com paid an agency for the privilege
of distributing the newsletters on the airlines.

RESULTS
The campaign reaped tens of thousands of names.
“It was a hell of a good way to reach an influential
audience,” comments Mazella. Distribution of the
newsletters on Continental “really worked” as the airline
seemed to be better at attracting the small business
traveler. American was the runner up with US Air placing
third. In fact, SBDepot.com had to do multiple print runs
of the newsletters as they proved to be so popular! The
high quality content of the newsletters was the reason most
subscribers signed up, Mazella believes (SBDepot.com’s
website content is exceptionally well-written. It’s all
original reporting, not rehashed wire service stories.
Check it out!)

COST: $13 per new opt-in subscriber.

NOTES: Providing target reading material to a captive
audience of shuttle travelers has attracted other companies
to try to same tactic. Rather than compete in a crowded
market, SBDepot.com is now looking to launch a major
marketing campaign utilizing online, direct mail and public
relations in the near future.

http://www.sbdepot.com

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
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* Albert Lopez, president and CEO, AdFlight on Getting
Small Businesses to Buy Online Ad Space

Small businesses may be one of the largest segments that
can benefit from the Internet, particularly when it comes
to using the medium for advertising. Most can’t afford the
services of an advertising agency, but they can utilize
some of the web-based advertising services that have been
cropping up. To get a better idea about how these services
are encouraging small businesses to buy media space online,
we spoke with AdFlight, Inc.’s President and CEO, Albert
Lopez.

>From Lopez’s viewpoint, small and medium-sized businesses
are an “undervalued market.” The “little guys have no
access to advertising” and the large portals don’t have a
big enough sales force to go after the small businesses.
“It’s a disaggregated market,” Lopez comments. AdFlight is
trying to remedy that situation by making the market
accessible and providing functionality.

The company uses a self-service model for setting up and
running an advertising campaign whether it is banners, e-
mail or e-mail advertising. (In the near future, AdFlight
plans on offering wireless ads as well.) We were favorably
impressed by the ease of using the system to set up an ad
campaign. A buyer can choose to advertise on specific sites
or purchase placement by category. The buyer can check
instantly on the results of the campaign in real-time and
use the self-service AdFlight system to adjust the amount
of advertising or the placement of ads.

Buyers using the AdFlight system have spent as little as
$500 for a campaign. AdFlight must be doing something
right. Lopez remarks that they have “a huge re-buy rate.”
About 80% of AdFlight’s customers buy again and usually
they buy more over time, Lopez says.

To date, AdFlight has been trying to reach the small and
medium business community by sponsoring text newsletters
and by word of mouth. AdFlight picked eight newsletters
(WDFM, eMarketer, AdsGuide, Iconocast, TheAdStop, Internet
Advertising Report, I-Ad Weekly and TheStandard.com’s Net
Persuasion.) The best results were from TheStandard.com.

As AdFlight looks to grow its business – and Lopez expects
that the company will be serving 1-billion ads a month by
the end of the third quarter of 2000 – it’s changing its
standard marketing procedure. Steve Fioretti recently
joined AdFlight as VP Marketing and is in the midst of
planning a major marketing campaign to be launched in the
next few months. So expect to hear more about the company
in the next few months.

In the meantime, online media sellers who hadn’t considered
small biz a major marketplace may be surprised!

http://www.adflight.com

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SPEAKING GIGS AND JOBS
----

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