Brand Central Station

Vancouver-based Vitrium Systems announced the launch of a new, online service that allows marketers to embed a registration form into PDF’s. The new system, dubbed PDFSalesLeads, allows marketers to take advantage of the portability of electronic sales literature while providing an interactive form inside the document that will allow the reader to provide the contact information required to carry the sales process to the next step.

During a sneak peak of the new service, Vitrium’s Manager of Marketing and Communications, Randa Codron, explained how PDFSalesLeads provided a solution to the dilema of making prospects register to download PDF’s online or giving digital documents away without any idea of who’s reading them. “PDFSalesLeads allows users to complete their registration information inside the PDF while they are engaged with the content,” she explained. “You can set the form up to appear on any specific page, so the reader has a chance to decide whether the information your providing is something they want more information about.”

Furthermore, the technology stays with the document, so PDF’s that are passed from one user to another also pass along the interactive registration form. All registrations are collected in real time back at the PDFSalesLeads web site and can be integrated into SalesForce.com.

View an online demo.

This is a handy break-through for small and mid-sized marketers who want to expand their reach via the Internet but can’t spend a lot of wasted time sorting through irrelevant leads or trying to follow up on bogus registration information. At just $49 per month, the service is affordable.

The possibilities of this technology appear to go beyond simple registration. During our conference call, I asked if there were plans for creating other interactive forms that could be imbedded into PDF’s. While Randa couldn’t be specific, it does sound like PDFSalesLeads may be just the first of a number of utilitarian products to roll out of Vitrium’s R&D team.

We’ll be watching for more developments from Vancouver in the future.

It’s not “greenwashing” per se - but more than a few people are skeptical of catalog and direct mailers when they say they’re concerned about the environment and want to cut the wasted circulation out of their marketing efforts.

As far as I’m concerned, if they save a little “green” (money) and a few trees in the process, I’m all for it.

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An article posted to BtoB Magazine’s web site a while back pointed out an interesting result from a recent Hearst survey: nearly 50% of all b-to-b marketing budgets are spent on online programs.  That spend covers everything from web site development/enhancements to online advertising to SEO to webcasts to Social Media … you get the idea.  The survey goes on to explain that trade shows account for 17% of marketing budgets, direct marketing (12%) and print (11%) account for most of the rest.

But like most media property-driven market research, it ignores a significant pool of resources that often go untapped by most b-to-b marketers and the media.  I understand why.  For a magazine or other media outlet to try and identify how much money and human resource is dedicated to internal communications, training and organizational behavior, they would have to step waaaaaay out of their comfort zone.

It’s kind of like asking an amateur astronomer to find Dark Matter in the universe using his existing, backyard telescope.  They may have an idea where to point the telescope, but they can’t really see what they’re looking at.

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One of my favorite B2B Marketing Blogs (the Red on Marketing Blog) posted this great little article on B2B copywriting at the end of last week.  In fact, the lesson to be learned here applies to all kinds of copywriting – whether you’re writing for the Internet, for the news media or to sell something in an ad:

Don’t bury your lead.  Tell people who you are and what you do.

Clearly.

In fact, I can remember the day I first heard an advertising colleague refer to a client’s service as a “business solution” – I thought it was brilliant.  Apparently, so did every other B2B copywriter in the 1980’s.

And when everyone uses the same words to describe different things, everything starts to sound the same.  Even when they’re not.

Learn the lesson the easy way now.  Check out Robert Celashi’s post here.

For some, the mix of social media with B2B marketing is a tough one to swallow.  While several business marketers were quick to jump onto web sites, the communications tended to be one-way (not interactive), with many web sites becoming little more than electronic brochures that were cheaper to produce and easier to distribute than their paper predecessors.

But with the ‘web came the promise of interactivity.  And that promise is now starting to mature in the form of social media (or Web 2.0).  But what’s a business to do if it sells, primarily, to other businesses?

Thanks to Brandon Bryce, President & CEO of Large Mouth Communications and an article that recently appeared on the Large Mouth web site entitled “Who’s afraid of the Web 2.0?”

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I found this very helpful post on the Small Business Trends blog on developing a “marketing kit.”  There are some very helpful tips here for B2B marketers who typically have to rely on a library of brochures, spec sheets and direct mail pieces to educate a prospective customer. (more…)