Top 3 Online PR Mistakes; Free Tickets; Marketing to Scientists Online

***************
B2BMarketingBiz From MarketingSherpa.com
*************** May 1, 2001; Vol. 2, Issue 18
FREE subscriptions at http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com

NEWS:
- Free Conference Ticket for 10 Lucky Florida Marketers
- BizTravel.com Email Newsletter Gets Highest Clicks with Humor
- Top 3 Online PR Mistakes B-to-B High Tech Companies Often Make

CASE STUDY:
Pall Corporation Sees Double Digit Percent Sales Growth After
Launching Interactive Game for Scientists

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*****
NEWS
*****

* Free Conference Ticket for 10 B-to-B MarketingBiz Readers in Florida

Are you located near the Tampa Bay area? The Association for
Interactive Media (AIM) has generously offered us 10 single-day
passes to its annual conference for Internet and direct
marketing leaders to be held in Tampa Bay May 14-15. To enter
your name to win a free pass go to the link below by Thursday May
3rd. Winners' names will be randomly selected Friday May 4th.

Free contest (Floridians Only) at:
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?DTYSNRQQQ7W4KLWPGW519396
More conference info at:
http://www.aimannual.com/conference.htm#


* BizTravel.com Email Newsletter Gets Highest Clicks with Humor

Every Friday almost half a million businesspeople receive the (by
request only) BizTravel.com email newsletter. Site producer
Ronnie Smith tries to select content that's so compelling that
after seeing a short summary in their newsletter, readers will
click through to read more on the site itself (and then hopefully
be cross-sold on buying other BizTravel.com products.)

When cartoonist Marc Tyler Nobleman approached Smith with a
proposal for the newsletter, she wasn't very sure that humorous
drawings would be a big draw for busy businesspeople. Smith
says, "It's cute, but that's what it is -- cute. I didn't think
it was as enticing as a column on frequent flyer miles that we
know our readers will just love." However, she decided to test
adding a cartoon in January 2001.

The results surprised everyone. Smith says, "We got so many
click throughs on it that my CEO totally loved it!" In fact the
first month's cartoon pulled the second highest click through
rate of all of that week's articles. Then the following month's
cartoon shot to the number one spot for click throughs. Now
Smith supports traffic to the cartoon on the site by adding a
link next to other articles that reads, "If you need a good laugh
click here." And as it turns out, that's exactly what many
businesspeople do need these days.
http://www.biztravel.com
http://www.mtncartoons.com


* Top 3 Online PR Mistakes B-to-B High Tech Companies Often Make

We first heard of online PR expert Peter Shankman last fall when
his firm, GeekFactory.com, offered reporters and clients the
chance to jump out of an airplane. Despite the fact that we get
more than 100 PR pitches a day here at B-to-B MarketingBiz, the
airplane story was unforgettable. So, we listened up when
Shankman spoke passionately at a recent trade show on the subject
of what high tech companies should NOT do with their online PR.
Here in Shankman's own words are three BIG mistakes we in the
press see constantly (do you make them?):

1) Email is NOT your best friend. It never will be. Just because
you have a media list with every reporter's email address from
New York to Washington State, does NOT mean to blast your press
release on your new transmogrifier out to everyone on it. Why
would the agriculture reporter have any desire to read about your
new high-tech b2b gadget or service? The answer simply is, "He or
she wouldn't."

Make sure that when you email your press release to the media,
you're targeting ONLY the specific media who are interested in
EXACTLY what you're talking about - otherwise, you've just made
an enemy for life, and will never get any press out of that media
outlet.

2) Yeah, like a journalist is going to waste ten minutes of his
or her life searching your site for your latest press release.
Not.

If you don't have a link from the very first page (and on every
subsequent page) that says "Press," then you might as well not
have a press section at all. And don't make it fancy. Don't bog
it down with flash, or java, or any other multimedia experience
you can think of. Simply have your press releases in a clear,
concise format, that's easy to understand, and simple to navigate


(Note: Reporters don't want to sit there and watch an animation
of a pen. That's just pointless. To quote an old newspaper man,
"They're just looking for the facts, and nothing else." If you
can't give it to them, they're going to get it from someplace
else. Probably a competitor.)

3) Attachments suck. More than one journalist I know disables all
incoming attachments - meaning that if you send your new press
release as a Microsoft Word document, it's going to wind up in
his or her trash before he or she even knew it came in. The
reporter's computer doesn't know the difference between your
latest press release, and the new Anna Kournikova virus. All
it knows is that it's supposed to delete all attachments before
they download. And that's what it'll do. Best bet: Body of the
email. Simple as that.

Reporters will read your press releases, and they will write
about you. The easier you make it to do their jobs, the more
likely you are to get the "ink" you so furiously desire.

http://www.geekfactory.com


*****
CASE STUDY: Pall Corporation Sees Double Digit Percent Sales
Growth After Launching Interactive Game for Scientists
*****

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The average online marketing campaign has a shelf life of about a
week. That's why we were interested to hear about an interactive
campaign Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) that's been so effective
that it's been running for a year now ... and counting.

We also like the fact that Pall choose to create a game not just
for the sake of adding interactive bells and whistles to their
site, but because it really, truly fit the needs and personality
of their specific demographic. That's good marketing.

CHALLENGE
Although the layperson may not be aware of it, the
molecular biology supply field is highly competitive. Roxanne
Hook, Pall Corporation's Director of Strategic ecommerce
explains, "Distributors carry literally hundreds of thousands of
SKUs." Hook needed a cost-effective way both to inform and to
enthuse forensic scientists, so they would ask their purchasing
departments to order Pall's new products.

CAMPAIGN
Hook called on the services of HSR B-to-B , an agency that
had helped her create online campaigns, such as screen savers, in
the past. Together, the HSR team and Hook invented "Arresting
Evidence" a new interactive game just for forensic scientists.

Why build a game? HSR's Internet Services President Mike Hensley
explains, "The typical demographic is a young person working
their way through post-graduate studies. In many places they're
stuffed into these labs. Their computer really becomes their
lifeline. They gravitate toward it as way of communication and
for a sense of community. They're very enthusiastic about using
the Internet. They're also looking at it as a form of
entertainment." Hook continues, "Their psychographic profile fit
a whodunit game. They're scientists -- they like investigation
and discovery." And because the target audience was forensic
scientists (the kind police use to solve crimes) it seemed
appropriate to make the game a crime-solving event.

The Arresting Evidence game takes at least 20 minutes to play,
and features highly technical details that a non-scientist
probably wouldn't understand. Hensley admits, "I fumble my way
through a lot of it." Players use Pall's forensic products to
view the evidence and solve the murder of a cartoon character.
To encourage players to return, the game randomly changes both
the victim and assailant each time it's played.

Hook used a variety of media to drive traffic to the game on the
Pall site, starting with postal postcard that was mailed to a
snail mail list of approximately 10,000 highly targeted
recipients. She says, "There were only a couple of paragraphs on
it. You don't want to make people look for an action item. It
should be short and sweet." She overprinted extra postcards for
her booth staff to hand out at a forensic science trade show.
She also made sure that Pall's external sales force was aware of
the game so they could personally mention it to clients.

RESULTS
Hook says, "Around the first few months that the game
was functional, we did see up to double digit sales growth." The
game also generated sales leads from top-flight forensic labs,
including the New York Police Department and the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice.

In fact, the game proved so popular that Pall has left it online
for more than a year now. Henley notes, "People are still in the
game every day. It's generated leads throughout the year."

Henley feels the value of B-to-B games like this one go beyond
entertainment. In fact he thinks games can help B-to-B marketers
foster internal collaboration between the decision-makers at
target organizations, and ultimately help make high-ticket sales.
He says, "Games start out as a way of driving people and repeat
site visits; but, they also get people to gather around. They
tell their friends and the guy down the hall about them. It
starts to assist the sales process. On the surface you might say
games seem rather frivolous, but in almost every case they
provide collaboration and product education, as well as
entertainment."

Hook agrees, "Interactivity is good for our marketing. It's true
to say we all need a little break and a little entertainment. If
you can take something technical and make it entertaining, then
you've put yourself at a competitive advantage."

Pall's Game:
http://www.pall.com/arresting

HSR Business to Business
http://www.hsrb2b.com

Two Case Studies About Other B-to-B Interactive Games:

1. MainControl(R) Wins Small Business Accounts by Schmoozing Them
at a Virtual Golf Game
http://www.marketingtosmallbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1365

2. Whack-A-Flack Viral Campaign Garners 1,500 Qualified Sales
Leads (and Priceless Press Coverage)
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1042


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Publisher:
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(c) Copyright 2001, MarketingSherpa, Inc.