B-to-B Insights: 5 Free, Fantastic Web Marketing Tools
You may eventually need the advanced version, but first try the free service, which allows you to create an unlimited number of surveys you can email to customers or post on your website. The free service limits you to 10 questions and 100 responses per survey. However, if you're new to surveying, these limitations aren't necessarily bad and can help focus your survey strategy and analysis techniques.
Free Movie Tools to Put You In Pictures
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, a moving picture is worth 10,000. Short, online video is a powerful tool in B-to-B marketing. You may not know it, but if you're using Windows or Mac operating systems, you already have decent video editing software on your computer that will allow you to show the benefits of your products in action. (You can also download Windows Movie Maker for free at download.cnet.com.)
Using any home digital video camera, you can shoot and now edit an effective video to complement your website's product presentations. Creating video for professional use was once an expensive proposition. For better or worse, the advent of YouTube has lowered expectations. If your lighting is even and audio clear, you can create an effective online video.
As a rule of thumb, keep videos short. For beginners, less than a minute is best. If you're going over two minutes, your name better be Francis Ford Coppola. Don't let an individual scene run longer than 10 seconds.
Woopra: The Next Frontier?
Woopra is a new web analytics service that has both a free and paid version. Among its many functions is a real-time snapshot of your website's activity down to the customer level. Watching this stuff is like drinking Absinthe: over-consumption can drive you crazy. However, control your latent obsessive-compulsive tendencies and you'll find Woopra's graphic interface with your website's traffic history very helpful. It's literally a snapshot of your daily traffic in a calendar format. You can even engage customers in live chat for some one-to-one marketing research. Where Woopra will take us is yet to be determined, but hitching the ride at Woopra.com is free.
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A columnist for Retail Online Integration, George founded HAGUEdirect, a marketing agency. Previously he was a member of the Shawnee Mission, Kan.-based consulting and creative agency J. Schmid & Assoc. He has more than 10 years of experience in circulation, advertising, consulting and financial strategy in the catalog/retail industry. George's expertise includes circulation strategy, mailing execution, response analysis and financial planning. Before joining J. Schmid, George worked as catalog marketing director at Dynamic Resource Group, where he was responsible for marketing and merchandising for the Annie's Attic Needlecraft catalog, the Clotilde Sewing Notions catalog, the House of White Birches Quilter's catalog and three book clubs. George also worked on corporate acquisitions.
