David Jung B2B Blog.com- Where am I coming from? Marketing Manager at ESPEC, Blogger at b2blog.com
- Can't invest in any one vertical market to sell
- Industrial Quicksearch, Thomas sales rep doing online listings, called people unannounced, "what are you doing saying about things about us on your Web site?"
- Clicks are not leads, BUT...do I have any thing else to measure? More than I had ten years ago.
- Let custs qualify themselves via clicks
- "A Paradox of Choice" book - not enough info, yet want to maximize value
- Scent of information - user is not always looking for right information but the SCENT that will make finding it intuitive.
- Quality of audience - not skimming users from Google that I might have missed,have been using Google actively.
- Statistics don't lie - 74 percent of clicks from Google, Yahoo 15 percent, MSN 9 percent, IQS 1 percent, Thomas 1 percent, ads have to follow traffic.
- Paid clicks - Google AdWords - 297 clicks, $1218 for 2 months, PPC $4.10. Labx.com, 120 clicks @$249, PPC $2.08. This is attractive audience. Fixed price, not performance. ThomasNet 77 Clicks,
- Google AdSense - 90 Clicks, $329, PPC $3.66. Yahoo Search 48 clicks, $16, $0.33/click. GlobalSPec.com, 38 $0, $0/click, KellySearch not fantastic.
- $x Traffic from Google than ThomasNet. Sees it as LONG TAIL, opportunity for growing penetration. PAY 4X per click on ThomasNet.
- 27X more traffic on Google than IQS and ThomasNet combined. LESS THAN 7 percent of GOOGLE TRAFFIC IS PAID.
- The user experience - comparing sites. How do users get to my site, how are users finding the scent, seeking names they recognize, e.g., "environmental test chambers," "humidity chambers," "208V transformer"
- 66 of top 20 results are vendors, true for AdWords and organic search, competitors, other third directories and bad results, AdWord accounts same hold true, directories compete on AdWords with them.
- 40-50 percent of results are substandard vendors.
- Google gives strong scent of information, screen grab, his results looked way too busy to right info was in the search results snippet, search words bold, many ads don't use search words.
- Top listing on sample search, kind of a dog, next listing, picture of transformers with selector tool link - scent of information, but results aren't perfect.
- ThomasNet - different set of challenges, Top 2-3 listings were substandard, 65 percent were substandard in top20, why pay 18 points to get to number 14, each point $240 dollars [COMMENT: like AdWords as your main search results]. majority of links are to home pages, not products. Great scent of information in search, get list of transformer suppliers, but goes to HOME PAGE, click, click...oops? No details? That's the top listing?
- Thomas does the job to get the people to the Web site but drops the ball when you drop them at the Web site home page.
- GlobalSpec - scent of info problem, too many choices, not enough distinction, good content but 60 percent of top ten are substandard vendors.
- GlobalSpec search results, categories, don't get ordered in most accurate product mapping. In correct category, 115 products from top provider, try advanced search - LOTS of details, STILL get 1400 products, a distributor, not MFR. is top link. To company listing, product details don't match to parameters. Click on company link, to home page, more decisions.
- What's wrong - being sold on clicks and page rankings, but users judge on relevant results. We assume that you have a unique audience, but when I see Google, are they just skimming audience that had passed by my site.
- They want to user categories within directories, so many, have to keep looking, search does not use categories, that's tough.
- Yahoo started as a directory, have skipped to search results.
- What's that all mean? Google rules, it ranks on relevance, traffic is not contrived, uses search to drill down.
- User needs familiarity with tools, usable, depth of content, stickiness, get them back to site.
- Advertisers' needs: is PPC like crack? Want to hear more about audience, clicks are just part of the puzzle.
- Our landing pages "suck," should I take ThomasNet budget and spend on better pages?
- WE NEED AUDIENCE - hoping Thomas leads are more valuable.
- Good sites - Labx.com, eTesters.com, VerticalSearch.com. Labx for active shoppers. eTesters - Quality user data, converting location of IP addresses. VerticalSearch.com - Just started, trade publications, quality articles, looking for more content like products, a Google model
- Recommendations - Paradox of Choice books, ICG Online Buying Guides report, his blog.
- NEED B2B product reviews, active editorial, user participation, relevant results, users pay, niches rule, help with landing pages.
