B2B Directories Can Boost Marketing Results in Todays Economy? Just Not the Ones Currently Out There!

It’s interesting the challenges that on-line marketers have today. Where do I continue to position our Ad spend? What real results can I expect if I make this commitment? Will my marketing budget get cut significantly over the next couple of months? How do I get the results that we need with less resources available?

One thing is likely a certainty and that is that marketing budgets will continue to shrink placing ever more importance on the few dollars left to spend. Conventional thinking tends to error on the side of eliminate every thing except those that are directly linked to leads, the pipeline and deals more specifically. Sounds like the right plan but how many marketers really measure the results with enough clarity to really know which campaigns and venues really delivered. The truth is far fewer than one would expect.

Directory marketing has traditionally been one of the first to go in down economic times largely because of the perceived lack of traffic and the inability of the advertiser to engage the prospect in any form of meaningful interaction. Is this the result of Directories being a poor lead generation and pipeline staple for advertisers or more a reflection of the current weakness of capabilities and traffic associated with them. I beleive the truth is a little bit of both and there lies the opportunity for marketers and directories alike.

If one looks at the reason that Directories exist it is to help buyers quickly find sellers. What a great place for marketing to spend lots of money and get real value in the form of qualified leads ready to make purchases? Sellers want to be there simply put becasue they want to hang out where the buyers are. So having a complete listing of all companies in a space and their complete portfolio of products well populated is essential to the value that a Directory can offer a buyer and by association the sellers. In fact, that is today one of the last things that Direcotries do. There are very few tools for buyers to narrow in on the best fit vendor and when they dig into the company roster what they find are the few companies that have some form of sponsored (paid) listing only. In markets where 100’s if not 1,000’s of companies provide valueable services and products there are sparsely few represented. It is the underlying economics of the Direcotry which cause this maldy in the first place. Directory operators, often times B2B Publishers, have put the cart before the horse and built Directories with an eye toward how can we get advertisers to spend display ad dollars on a CPM basis with us. How much space can we actively sell to the 100 or so clients that we now sell display ad space in the paper based publication to?

With all this given as the current State of the State in B2B Publishing and Directories there are emerging options that will be game changing for the buyers and the sellers. JAZD is partnering with a very select group of B2B Publishers to create the de facto vertical market Directory platforms. JAZD directories are built under one basic premise which is that you must help the buyer quickly find the right product at the right price. To accomplish this the buyer must find complete listings of companies and products and have the ability to compare them and get real ratings and reviews from other buyers that have made similar decisions. In short, the Directory must be built for the buyer. With a foundation of 1,000’s of buyers every month finding the right companies to purchase from the sellers will be able to spend marketing dollars to accomplish what they have wanted all along. The ability to represent their company in a differentiated light to qualified suspects and prospects that are actively considering making a purchase.

JAZD has engaged marquee B2B Publishing partners in Chemicals, Life Sciences and Technology over the past several weeks. JAZD will launch these Directory markets during the summer of this year. Finally, a Directory business that is built to serve the ultimate client the Buyer. Sellers will love the capabilities to distinguish themselves in front of select Buyers and take advantage of the flat rate, performance based  options that put immediate and tangible results within the shrinking budget of every marketer.