Expert's Corner

Web Analytics - 4 Common Issues

Brian Makas, Manager of Business Intelligence for ThomasNet, shares his perspective on the importance of and the risks associated with web analytics.

The web is unparalleled in its ability to measure results – which gives businesses the potential to identify which efforts are working and which are not. In a recent issue of The Industrial Marketer, I wrote about the last ad trap and the difficulties in tracking online investments, particularly in the B2B marketplace.

Specifically, the last ad trap is encountered when marketers assume that the last action taken by a customer deserves 100% of the credit for a sale. One way to identify this last action is to use web analytics data, specifically the referrer metric. In short the referrer metric identifies where your website visitors are coming from, but, what happens when your web analytics data is plagued with inaccuracies and you can't even identify that last action? Read more...

Client Spotlight

Use Your Website to 'Level the Playing Field'

“Our online catalog levels the playing field for a small corporation like ours,” says Hank Hines, President of Orr & Orr Incorporated. He says his company has increased visibility and is competing with bigger companies with the help of their ThomasNet-built online sales channel.

“We’ve had a steady stream of new orders – five times the amount we had before. We also have new customers because of our website,” Hines says.

View Orr & Orr Incorporated’s success story.

B2B Marketers Gain Competitive Edge with Online Video

If you haven’t already added online video to your company’s website, now’s the time to do it. According to Forrester Research, 71% of today’s online audience already watches Internet video, and the number of video streams consumed should more than double by 2013.

Forrester cites “an explosion of video content from users, professional studios, and marketers” as driving the popularity of online video. A report from Forrester’s “Video Strategy” series says, “In an effort to better communicate with their customers, marketers are moving beyond just sponsoring others’ content and are now actually creating and distributing their very own content.”

Become a part of the “explosion” of video content online – and discover the business-building advantages online video offers. Here are steps you can take to add online video to your company’s website and online marketing plans and advice from a video production professional, Larry Lieberman, President of New York-based Forever Wild Productions.

Create a video strategy for your company
To take advantage of the potential marketing power of online video, you should start by creating a video strategy that complements your company’s marketing plans:

• Set goals for your online video, such as “increasing ad revenue” or “driving brand awareness” – and be able to tie your goals to specific metrics, including “number of views,” “comments,” “revenue” and more.
• Know your target audience and create video content that will attract their attention and clearly communicate your marketing messages to these people.
• Outline and schedule an ongoing online video plan. Establish a budget and an evolving plan for producing and distributing your online video. Keep things active and moving forward. (One of the worst things you can do is run the same, old video on your site for months on end.)

4 out of 5

When visiting suppliers' websites, 4 out of 5 engineers say that detailed product information is most helpful to them in making a purchase decision or recommendation. 

Click here to learn more...

Source: ThomasNet's August 2009 Industrial Purchasing Barometer

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