Content takes center stage with Web 2.0

Through our research on Web 2.0 tools, B2B marketers are deploying these tools equally to target customers and prospects. The cost of entry is practically nothing. Most tools are free or next to free.

With the widespread adoption of Web 2.0 tools, it's interesting to juxtapose Web 2.0 to direct mail. You may remember hearing the debates on the key success factors for direct mail. Most experts speak of the 40:40:20 rule. The success of a direct mail program is based on 40% list, 40% offer and 20% creative.

For Web 2.0 media, the formula for success is very different: 100% content. You could also argue that SEO (Search Engine Optimization or Organic Search) is critical to your audience finding you, so a strong linking strategy is vital. Content creation has now been turned on its head. With direct mail, the creation of copy and offer is mostly outsourced to professional copywriters.

Not so with Web 2.0 as the content creation is the domain of amateurs (i.e. blogs are usually not ghost-written).

For those B2B marketers with a need to stretch their budgets and a do-it-yourself attitude, Web 2.0 provides a golden opportunity.

P.S. Please join Paul Dunay and me at the Marketing Profs BtoB Forum in Chicago Oct. 1 - 2, 2007 for a presentation on Leveraging New Channels to Create Marketing Buzz. We will present how to include these new channels into your marketing mix along with insight from our research. To save $200 on the registration, use promo code ESPK07.