What are the most important things you think a B2B Web site should feature and do? In other words, how should it support and further our core marketing and business goals? I realize that’s a general question, but I appreciate whatever you have to say on the topic.

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Jay’s Answer: In general, a website should start or continue a dialog with a prospective client. People arrive at a website either from a direct referral or from a online search. The website itself is fairly “safe” way to examine a business. No sales people chatting you up. No pressure to buy. No email clogging your inbox. Since purpose of a B2B website isn’t to sell anything outright (it’s to generate a qualified lead), you want lots of information that describes who your target market is and how you specifically help them with their problems. A case study or two (featuring ROI). A client list. White papers on your methodologies. Make things easy to find (a search box, for example).

You need a clear call to action on why they should act today to contact you. You don’t want them reading your site and thinking, “this looks like a good company with a great offering, but since I don’t need them now, I’ll try to remember it for later.” You want them to take action: a phone call, a opt-in signup, or even simply ask a question. Therefore, make it easy for them to contact you (prominently placed email, phone, opt-in forms, etc.) and make it seem that if they don’t contact you it’s their loss. For example, if you target market are plumbing contractors, then offering a free report of the “Top 10 Ways To Increase Your Plumbing Revenue” might be just the incentive you need for them to take action. The offer must obviously match your target’s problems and have a clear benefit for them.

A website can also help save your sales and receptionist a lot of time. Place frequently asked questions (if you don’t yet have them, ask your sales and reception staff to start writing down the questions they get and their answers), directions, service menus, brochures, etc. online. Even if someone doesn’t find them online, your sales staff can send them a URL to the information.

A B2B website that has great SEO will help customers find you easily instead of having to find your customers.

A B2B website should continue your branding effort. For many new clients, this may be the first touch to your organization. Therefore, set the tone with the colors, wording, imagery, layout, and tone that works for the rest of your marketing materials. You want your prospective client to intuitively know how it will be to work with you.

Your website should have analytics installed (such as Google Analytics) to allow you to understand your traffic. Ideally, your site should also be optimized for conversion (opt-in form completion, for example) (for example, using Website Optimizer ).

I have recently been given a project to generate as much extra revenue as we can from our radio station’s interactive website.

A little back ground, the radio station is newly launched, only about a month old and is based in a country with a population of 140million plus with internet penetration at around 10%.

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Jay’s Answer: Leave a broadcast slot to feature local bands, and have the bands pay/bid for the slot (to play their latest CD, etc.)

Offers to have the DJs make personal appearances at private parties (playing their favorite music).

Sell podcasts of favorite shows.

If you have guests that play live music, compilation CDs of their live performances.

We are preparing to release a new, online service that will be used by both paying and non-paying users. The difference being that paying users get more ‘goodies’ (services & capabilities) than non-paying users are getting.

Based on the fact that we’ll have people who can ‘use’ our program on a limited basis and without charge, we’re trying to find the best way to help interested users become paying users.

I’ve seen a number of mechanisms that do this kind of thing . . . but I’m honestly not sure what will be really effective vs. something that is based more on the artistic decision of a website or graphic designer who is less of a marketer and more of a designer (no offense meant by saying that, BTW)

Our service is provided through a very robust online application that any user accesses via their browser. We can get eyeballs to go there, but once there, we want those who are qualified to become paying users … to do so.

To help manage the risk of making a bad decision, we are very happy to offer a limited time, risk-free use of our service . . . e.g. a 14 (30?) day free trial . . . so the prospect can better determine if the value proposition we claim to offer is real or, something less.

We also don’t believe in any long-term commitments. The fee to use our service is a month-to-month fee. If you don’t use it, you don’t pay for it. Simple. No hassles.

Our mission is to make our clients so dee-lighted with our service that not only won’t they leave, but they’ll bring their friends and contacts over for a healthy sampling of what we offer.

Can you suggest any especially critical things to be sure we DO and/or DON’T on the website / in the online application to maximize the conversion of tryers into buyers?

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Jay’s Answer: Your first round of tryers should be restricted to the number of people you can actively interact with. During this phase, you’ll be testing the system, and building your FAQs and creating instructional videos for common problems people are having. You need to hold their hands well.

Once you’ve ironed out the basic system, open the doors…slowly. Make it invitation-only initially, so there’s a pent-up demand (but also so that you can continue to refine your “excellent customer service”). The forum for the website should be open to all so people can start learning about it, but only members can post feedback.

Depending on your free/for-pay application, you can do many things. For example, free versions can’t print, can’t save, or when printing or viewing onscreen there’s an advertisement (not annoying, but visible). You want the prospective buyers to clearly know how your tools work, so don’t cripple the functionality – let people see the power, but just make it annoying enough to encourage tryers to move to buyers. A tryer might be a big influencer to other buyers, so let tryers play.

You might actually offer 3 levels: free (anonymous), free (registered), and for-pay (registered). The free (anonymous) can simply show up and start using it (if they know how). The registered people get access to training materials (registration is nothing more than their name & email so you can use an autoresponder to begin a dialogue).

I want to know how to get a good name for my website that draws people to it. It will be a baby boomer, senior help line with information etc and products to sell later on.

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Jay’s Answer: Everyone these days is hoping for a magic name that will draw people magnetically. Unfortunately, people wind up tuning out the overload of messages/names they hear each day.

So, what should you do?

Don’t sweat the name too much right now. A name doesn’t mean much on it’s own. It’s just a name. Google and Yahoo, for example, didn’t mean anything to anyone until they spent a lot of time (and money) showing people the value behind the name.

Instead, focus specifically on your long-term goal: to sell products. Your smaller milestones are to attract your target market first, build trust/interest, and eventually convince them they should give you money for your excellent/necessary products/services.

But what name should you pick?

The right name should reflect your target market. It’s unlikely that a baby boomer thinks of themselves as a baby boomer. Maybe a child of the 60s. Maybe a post WWII-baby. So instead, focus on a name that’s in alignment with your long-term goal (of selling products).

Here are some examples (domains currently available):

• 60sHotline.com
• 60sHelpline.com
• 60Somethings.com

I am working on a web site for my Positive Motivation speaking… Positively Female
I have found a couple sites I like but want something very flashy, feminine, upbeat, colorful, and of course motivational. If you have seen some really awesome websites, please share them with me. I am looking for something personal without a corporate feel.

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Jay’s Answer: The best websites are the ones that both reflect your values and successfully attract traffic (and ideally sales/conversions).

Top traffic doesn’t arrive because of the look of the site, it comes because of the content of the site. Therefore, first focus on the value of the browsing experience. Who should find your site? Why would they want to hire you? What problems would they have? What would they need to feel comfortable hiring you? How can you show them what you can do for them without them contacting you?

Once you get your copy, then focus on your image. The images/colors/layout should reflect your target market. Corporate sites tend to look very different from micro-business’. I wouldn’t go with “flashy” or “over the top” unless your target market responds well to it.

Given you’re starting up, don’t spend a lot of $ on a flashy website until you’ve clearly done your marketing strategy homework.

1. Do you prefer events to be developed WITH live video of the presenter, or doesn’t matter?
2. Do you prefer to dial into a land line, or simply listen through your pc?
3. Do you prefer to receive PowerPoint, etc. in advance of the event, or is post-event ok?
4. Do you prefer free events or paid-for events? When will you pay to attend an event? What is the typical maximum amount you would pay?

As I’m interested in your perspectives in this area, please feel free to include any other thoughts around your desired webinar experience – must have’s, do-not-do’s, etc.

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Jay’s Answer:

1. Watching someone talk is nice, but not necessary.
2. Listening through PC (with an ability to use lower fidelity if the video/audio starts “breaking up”)
3. Post event is fine. Ideally, the audio of the presentation as well.
4. Free events are fine. What I’d pay for is based on the perceived value of learning what’s being presented.

Also – make sure that the audio/video software is compatible across many computer platforms.

I currently have a list of customers in Quickbooks and want to start sending out an email to everyone in my list. What should I do?

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Jay’s Answer:

No matter what you choose, your first step is to get the email addresses exported from QuickBooks into a file that your email program can use (for example, http://quickbooksgroup.com/webx/forums/importexport/413).

Using Outlook, you could send a single email to everyone that’s on your list, using the blind cc (bcc:) function. Basically, create your email, send it to yourself, and bcc: all your clients. The clients will receive the email, and won’t be able to see the other names on your list.

• Pros: you have Outlook, it’s easy to create an email, it’s easy to import into (for example, http://intuitlabs.com/blog/2007/08/email-contact-manager-2/), and it doesn’t cost you anything additional.
• Cons: the email isn’t personalized, and you have no way of tracking who’s read your email, etc.

To send a customized email to each customer, you’ll need to either perform a mail merge or use a bulk email program. To do a mail merge, you could use: Email Address Manager A bulk emailer is meant to do the mail merge and send the emails in a single package. Here are some options for a bulk emailer: SendBlaster, Email-Unlimited, or FairLogic

• Pros: you can send a customized email (so each person receives an email to them) using software that’s meant for this purpose. Some bulk email programs can also track the email delivery.
• Cons: you need to learn/purchase another program and have to update that program on your computer over time.

Lastly, you could use a contact manager to compose and send a customized email to each customer. A contact manager is a web application (so you don’t have to install it on your computer) that’s intended to send out emails to a list of people. Contact managers generally send out fancier looking emails that your plain text and the software can track who opened the email, etc. Here are some options: MyEmma (about $30/month), iContact (about $9.95/month), or VerticalResponse (about $8/month).

• Pros: you get nicer looking emails and tech support
• Cons: you pay for the software each month, whether or not you use it. You need to learn to create nice looking templates for sending your emails (or hire someone to create one for you).