small-business-marketing

I recently saw an estimate that 20 percent of B2B marketing organizations today use marketing automation technology. But how many of those are using it effectively? I suspect that's a much smaller number.

It's a shame, since marketing automation can offer so many benefits when it's used effectively. And when it's not used effectively? Well, let's just say there are easier ways to waste money if that's your goal.

With that in mind, here are eight of the most common mistakes companies make when they implement a marketing automation solution. Avoid these errors, and you'll be far more likely to reap measureable benefits.

1. Fuzzy prospect profiles. You can't do lead generation without a clear lead profile. Get your stakeholders together, talk to existing customers, and build your ideal lead persona.

2. A lack of interesting content. Content marketing is the fuel that powers your marketing campaign. And remember: Quality content serves the customer's needs first, not your own needs.

3. Lack of teamwork. Your sales and marketing teams need to collaborate on every aspect of a marketing automation project. When in doubt, it's better to over-communicate than it is to risk misunderstandings.

4. Failing to document. I don't mean software documentation - I mean documenting the process you use to build and implement your lead-gen campaign.

5. Not getting high-level buy-in. Marketing automation can affect your entire organization. That means you need a high-level champion to shepherd the project and to communicate clear, company-wide goals.

6. Building unrealistic expectations. Marketing automation can drive tremendous ROI and energize your marketing efforts. But that doesn't make it cheap or easy - and suggesting otherwise just sets you up for failure.

7. Failing to use metrics. A marketing automation solution gives you access to a remarkable set of metrics. Use them to get constant, actionable feedback on your B2B marketing campaign.

8. Not updating your website. Sooner or later, all marketing roads lead to your company's website. And nothing will derail a marketing automation project faster than an outdated or hard to use site that drives away prospects.

Every business specialty has its own language. I know this all too well, since I come from an information technology background where you can literally drown in a sea of acronyms, abbreviations, and arcane terms.

The world of B2B marketing isn't much better, especially if you're new to it. Online marketing in particular uses a jumble of cryptic abbreviations that can intimidate outsiders. If you own a small business, however, it's essential that you get a working knowledge of these terms.

I can't run down every example here, but I will get you started with a list of 10 essentials. Better yet, you can use these terms to do additional research and learn even more about the field.

ROI: Return on investment. It means exactly what you think it does: The quantifiable return you can expect to get on any business investment.

CPM: Cost per thousand. This usually refers to the cost of purchasing 1,000 online ad impressions; it's related to CPI (cost per impression). Both of these involve the number of online ad impressions actually served, not the number readers click on.

CPC: Cost per click-through. Also referred to as PPC (pay per click), this is another online advertising model where advertisers only pay the publisher when the ad is clicked on - not just served.

CTR: Click-through rate. This is the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of impressions. Publishers that can guarantee higher click-through rates generally command higher prices for their ad space.

PPL: Pay per lead. This takes us one notch higher on the Internet advertising ladder, where advertisers only pay for lead generation, as defined by some specific action like completing a registration form or a survey.

CPA: Cost per acquisition. This is usually defined even more specifically than PPL - when, for example, a customer actually makes a purchase on the advertiser's site.

PR: Page rank. This usually refers to how Google ranks a website's relevance to a particular search term. In Google's case, ranking in the top 10 is the magic number, since that puts you on the first page of search results.

PV: Page view. A metric that shows the number of times visitors view a particular web page. Note that this is not the same as the number of individuals who view the page.

SEM: Search engine marketing. This is a vital (and extremely lucrative) marketing specialty that emphasizes the role search engines like Google play in driving traffic to a website. Search engine optimization (or SEO) is usually considered an important part of SEM.

SMM: Social media marketing. This is SEM's fast-growing kid brother. It covers everything from marketing a business on Facebook and Twitter to using social content such as blogs and online video to drive lead generation efforts.

Like I said, we're barely scratching the surface here. But if you start your B2B marketing research with these terms, I'm confident that you'll find more than enough useful information to keep you busy.

You've got a credit policy in place, and you know how to enforce it. You check your customer credit scores, and you understand the factors that influence commercial credit risk. When it comes to credit, you like to go strictly by the book.

But sooner or later, you'll consider making an exception to the rule.

Maybe your decision involves a family member or friend. Maybe you're dealing with a long-time business partner whose credit recently took a turn for the worse. Or maybe your gut instincts simply tell you something different than what a customer credit score is telling you.

Here's the thing: Bending the rules isn't always bad. I know that life can be messy and complicated, and even the best customer credit report may not tell the whole story.

Yet that doesn't mean you should simply throw caution to the wind and fly by the seat of your pants. There are times when you can and should make exceptions to the rules. But you should still treat your credit decisions for what they are - risk management exercises.

Here are three specific things to consider when you decide whether it's time to bend your company's credit-granting rules.

1. Look at the customer credit history. A customer that hit a rough patch and then got its act together is a very different case than one that seems to be headed straight off a cliff. The first is a great example of when bending the rules can pay off. The second is, well, a great way to throw away money.

2. Weigh financial risk against the intangibles. Maybe your credit decision could affect an old friendship or even your family ties. Or maybe taking a chance today could lead to tremendous business opportunities in the future. All of these concerns are important, but you have to decide whether they really outweigh your potential exposure to financial risk if a credit decision goes bad.

3. Understand your options. A credit decision doesn't always have to boil down to saying "yes" or "no." Perhaps you could suggest that a customer put up their inventory or future receivables as collateral. Perhaps you could simply offer a lower credit limit or more restrictive terms than your customer suggests. The key here is to look for alternatives that minimize your risk while maximizing your ability to say "yes" when a customer asks you to bend your credit rules.

Finally, no matter what you decide, remember that ignorance is never bliss when it comes to making a credit decision. Always perform a customer credit check, look at their payment histories, and gather as much information as possible before you decide. You won't eliminate your risk, but at least you'll be able to make an informed credit decision.

Entrepreneurs often rely upon their personal credit to start a new business. Sometimes that's a necessary step, although it's also extremely risky.

You can't, however, build a successful business entirely on personal credit. Instead, you need to establish and build a separate business credit profile. Think of it as taking the training wheels off your new business - it's a big step, but you'll go a lot faster and further in the long run.

Let's look at five steps you can take to start building your business credit profile today:

1. Get a DUNS Number. Dun & Bradstreet issues these numbers, which are the most widely used method of identifying businesses in the United States. Most corporate credit applications require a DUNS number - and it's up to you to get a number for your new business.

2. Consider a corporation or LLC. It's not impossible to get business credit as a sole proprietorship, but it's much more difficult to separate your personal and business credit.

3. Pay attention to the details. Prepare financial statements and a business plan, both of which are important to getting business credit. Also stay current with business licenses, permits, and other regulatory requirements - companies often check these details when they perform a corporate credit analysis.

4. Look for sources of "starter" credit. Some companies will grant credit without checking your personal credit history. But remember: This is only useful if the company reports your good payment history to the business credit bureaus, helping you to establish a solid credit profile.

5. Don't pay on time - pay early! Paying ahead of time can improve your business credit score even more than paying on time. It can also convince a business to extend credit or offer more liberal payment terms.

Once you start to build a business credit profile, don't forget to check your credit reports with all of the major reporting agencies. Errors and omissions could affect your credit risk score, so it's important to monitor your credit profile.

There's no shortage of websites that offer tips on collecting delinquent accounts. Many of them offer good advice - and sooner or later, you'll probably need it.

But here's my top suggestion for dealing with slow payments or no-payment situations: Keep them from happening in the first place!

As I mentioned in a previous post, regular customer credit checks are the single best way to identify potential credit risks before they affect your own business. But there are other simple, cost-effective ways to manage your collections and credit risk. All of them should be part of your credit risk-management arsenal:

1. Craft a clear, detailed credit policy. Walk your customers through the policy, one step at a time. Detail exactly what you expect in terms of payment terms, penalties, and collection options. Educate your employees, including your sales team, about your credit policies so that they can explain them to new clients.

2. Take your invoices seriously. Believe it or not, the quality of your invoices can have a major impact on how customers perceive your credit policies. Create professional-looking invoices that provide clear, concise information on the amount due, payment terms, and other important information.

3. Follow up on your invoices before they come due. Some small businesses avoid this because they consider it heavy-handed. But treat these follow-ups for what they are: a chance to deliver quality customer service and to build a solid rapport with your customers.

4. Keep accurate payment history records. You can and should perform regular customer credit checks with reporting agencies such as Dun & Bradstreet. But you also need to maintain impeccable records of your customers' payment histories and to check them regularly for unusual payment trends.

5. Know when to pull back on credit. If you wait until a customer is delinquent to change or withdraw their credit terms, you've already lost the game. If their credit profile shows a sudden rash of late payments to other vendors, or evidence of cash flow problems, you need to consider taking a more conservative stance with your own credit policies.

I know what you're thinking: Some of these suggestions may seem a bit cold or even cruel. And there definitely are exceptions to every business rule - including those governing your business credit decisions.

Just remember that business credit relationships always involve business risk. Making the wrong credit decision could leave your company holding the bag - and that's not fair to you or your employees.

Email is a powerful and effective marketing tool. It's incredibly affordable and extremely flexible. Used properly, it's unbeatable.

Used badly, it's a recipe for disaster. I see way too many small businesses that jump into it without understanding the most basic ground rules. And they pay the price.

So let's go back to school. Here are seven basic principles that should guide every email marketing campaign.

1. Get permission. This isn't optional. Spamming a customer will turn your business into a pariah. It can also get you sued if you violate the federal CAN-SPAM law. You can manage the permission process yourself, or you can work with reputable marketing partner.

2. Keep it clean. A "clean" list of email addresses will be targeted to your specific industry niche, product offering, or customer segment. The cleaner your list, the higher your response rates - and your ROI - will be.

3. Take your time. Many companies use "drip" email marketing campaigns to build successful, long-term customer relationships. These campaigns deliver value to the recipients (for example, a whitepaper or discount offer) while setting the stage for a series of additional communications.

4. Keep it simple. Some of your customers will respond to rich HTML or graphical email. Some dislike that approach - or they simply filter it out. Meet your customers halfway by allowing them to set their email preferences, or deliver plain-text email with links to rich-text versions.

5. Don't wear out your welcome. If a customer wants off your list, then of course you'll comply. But also consider removing a customer if they simply don't respond to your email over a specific number of messages or period of time. You're more likely to annoy them than you are to win them over with even more email.

6. Remember: Content is king! As I said in a previous post, quality content is the single most effective marketing tool most companies will ever use. Use email to deliver useful, interesting content - not a series of one-off, hard-sell sales pitches.

7. Experiment, experiment, experiment. Email is a wonderful place to try out new types of content, offerings, messages, and other options. This approach can be especially helpful if you're using a marketing automation tool that can capture and manage feedback from your email marketing experiments.

Marketing analytics tools today can produce mountains of data. Whether you're using a free tool like Google Analytics or a full-fledged marketing automation system, it's tempting to assume that quantity equals quality.

It doesn't. In fact, too much data can sink your B2B marketing strategy - and it'll drive you nuts in the process.

Choosing the right metrics for your own digital marketing campaign is a tough balancing act. To some extent, it depends upon your industry, your business model, and your individual marketing goals. But I'll help you get started by introducing some of the key metrics that can deliver useful, cost-effective B2B marketing insights.

For the sake of clarity, let's break these down into two categories: One related to search-engine optimization (SEO) and Web traffic; the other dealing with social media.

Key SEO and Web Metrics

Total organic traffic. By this, I mean traffic to your website from all sources - including search and social media.

Search-engine rankings. This is one of the core elements of any marketing-metrics package.

Popular search phrases. Another vital metric, since it creates a feedback loop for your website keyword-optimization strategy.

Time on-site and bounce rates. Bounce rates tell you, among other things, that people who find your site either don't get what they expect or don't like what they get. Either way, it's vital feedback.

Most popular pages. Bread-and-butter metrics like page views and organic traffic may be more important, but I would argue this one is just as essential.

Social Media Metrics

Subscriber trends. How many people subscribe to your blog, news feed, or other content via RSS or email? These folks are vital to your social marketing strategy, and they're worth their weight in virtual gold.

Conversion ratios. How many visitors to your blog or forum become subscribers?

Followers/fans. Another obvious metric, and one you should take very seriously.

Referral sources. Which social-media sources deliver quality traffic? How do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and other sites figure in the mix?

Search-engine traffic. I think this is especially important for blogs, since a growing body of unique content (something you're creating, right?) should drive a corresponding increase in search traffic.

For every metric I mentioned here, there are at least five more I could have discussed. But that's the point: There's almost no end to this process, and it's way too easy to get caught up in the numbers, rather than focusing on what they can tell you.

Start with a small group of metrics, learn how to analyze them, and constantly tweak your website, your content, and your digital marketing campaigns based on the feedback they provide. It's a slow process at first, but it will pay big dividends over time.

I recently came across a study that found 82 percent of all companies now use content marketing as part of their B2B marketing strategies. That's more than the number using search engine marketing - and twice as many as the number using print, TV, or radio advertising.

I'm not surprised. You shouldn't be, either.

Content marketing is a simple concept. It's the process of creating original content - blogs, videos, white papers, and other assets - to drive lead generation and promote a company's brand. It also serves to establish a company as a subject-matter expert and a thought leader in its space.

Why is content marketing so popular today? There are a few reasons.

1. It's inexpensive. Or perhaps I should say it's cost effective, since that's just as important. Some of the most effective marketing content you can create - blog posts - cost little or nothing to produce. How much did your last broadcast media campaign cost?

2. You can measure the ROI. In fact, you can measure your content marketing ROI in excruciating detail, using metrics that quantify your lead generation, conversion rates, repeat visitors, and other key indicators.

3. You focus on the customer's needs. Promoting a product or service isn't usually a conversation; it's a monologue. Customers get sick of that fast. Content marketing allows you to serve customers by sharing your knowledge, experience, and thought leadership on topics they care about.

4. It's incredibly flexible. Your ability to conceive, launch, and scale a content marketing strategy is limited only by your imagination - not by your budget. In fact, some experts would argue that the best content marketing takes a deliberately low-budget approach that emphasizes substance over style.

What's the downside to putting content at the center of your B2B marketing strategy? Well, there's a learning curve, but it's really not very steep - especially given the ROI you'll get once you climb it. So get started with content marketing, and discover where it can take your small business!

Business credit reports and scores are vital risk management tools. That's why it's natural - and necessary -- to ask one question: Are they accurate?

The answer to this question can have a big impact on your risk management strategy and your customer relationships. Yet it can also impact your business directly if your own credit score is based on inaccurate or incomplete data.

Let's break this down and address each concern in turn.

Customer Credit Checks

The three major business credit-reporting agencies - Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax - draw data from a number of sources to compile reports. In the case of Dun & Bradstreet, a company's Paydex score is also compiled from a company's payment history.

Most businesses strive to report accurate credit data on their customers and creditors. In the case of Dun & Bradstreet, the reporting agency also plays a role in managing the integrity of its data. As a result, the end product - the customer credit history - is typically both accurate and up to date.

Here's my recommendation: When you look at customer credit data, don't lose sight of the big picture. A report from a company like Dun & Bradstreet can provide a wealth of data on a company's history, key business metrics, payment trends, and financial stability. Even when an error does appear in a report, the overall trends rarely lie - and they can give you the resources you need to assess credit risk.

Checking Your Own Business Credit

This concern is even easier to address. That's because there's simply no excuse for not knowing what information appears in your own business credit profile.

Most consumers know to check their credit reports at least once a year. Businesses should do the same - but they should do so more frequently, given the amount of data that typically flows into a profile.

Don't just look at your credit score. Even an innocuous error like an incorrect phone number might complicate your business relationships - and they're easy to fix.

Monitoring and managing your credit profile is absolutely essential. Treat it the way you'd treat your tax records or financial reports, and you can be absolutely certain that your profile is accurate and up to date. And that will make it an essential business asset.

Earlier this week, I looked at the role that a Paydex score plays in the business credit-assessment process. It's a valuable tool and a great starting point for any credit risk analysis.

But it's not the only tool that you can - or should - use.

To understand why, let's take a closer look at what else goes into a complete business credit report. These are the types of things you'll learn from a source like a Dun & Bradstreet Business Information Report (BIR) - widely considered the industry standard for business credit risk-management.

• A summary that gives you an instant overview of a firm's line of business, sales, net worth, and general financial condition;
• Alerts dealing with ownership changes, bankruptcies, and other major business events;
• The Paydex Score, based on a company's payment history;
• Financial information including assets, sales, liabilities, and profits;
• Public filings such as lawsuits, liens, and judgments;
• A business history that provides insights into both the company as a whole and its key executives;
• An operations overview that covers things like what a business does, the number of employees, the location of key facilities, and known subsidiaries;
• A Payment Summary that breaks down a company's payments by industry, credit-limit histories, overdue payments, collection accounts, and a host of additional data.

In this context, a Paydex Score is a bit like a snapshot - while the additional data you'll find in a BIR is more like a three-dimensional look into a company's history, operations, and financial health.

Obviously, this kind of information is essential for making informed business credit decisions. Yet it's also a valuable tool for making other business decisions, including:

• Sales team planning;
• Marketing tactics;
• Evaluating product or marketing partnerships;
• Evaluating vendors and suppliers;
• Performing competitive research and analysis.

In other words, don't just look as business risk management as a credit question. The data you'll find in a report like a Dun & Bradstreet BIR allows you to manage risk across your organization. Just as important, it can alert you to new business opportunities long before your competitors get wind of them.

Business credit reporting is a booming industry these days. Some of the major names in consumer credit reporting, including Experian and Equifax, now offer services that cater to businesses.

For most businesses, however, Dun & Bradstreet is still the first and most important source of business credit risk-assessment data. And for Dun & Bradstreet users, the company's Paydex score remains the single best method for evaluating a firm's business credit score.

You're probably already familiar with the FICO scores used to assess consumer credit. Paydex is similar in that it quantifies business credit risk. Unlike FICO, however, Paydex looks only at whether a business makes its payments on time, according to the agreed-upon terms.

Here's what you need to know about how a Paydex Score works:

• A score can range from 0 to 100 -- the higher the score, the lower the credit risk.
• Scores of 80 or above generally mean that a business pays its bills early or doing the early-payment discount period.
• Scores of 70 or above reflect a company that pays its bills consistently on time and according to agreed-upon terms.
• Scores of 70 or below reflect a history of late payments -- lower scores may indicate payments 120 days or more overdue.

Like I said, Dun & Bradstreet's isn't the only business credit-scoring system in use. It is the most prevalent, however, and it's crucial for any small business that wants to establish and maintain a strong credit history.

Conversely, it's important for businesses to understand how they can use other companies' scores to assess their business credit risk; decide upon loan, trade credit, and payment terms; and monitor business credit for potential changes or signs of trouble.

Finally, you should know that while a Paydex Score is a good way to assess business credit risk, it's not the only tool available. In a future post, we'll look at some of the other business credit data sources a company like Dun & Bradstreet can provide.

I don't have to tell most of you that mobile technology is growing at a staggering rate. But if I did, I would point out that smartphones now make up more than half of all U.S. phone sales.

I would tell you that two thirds of mobile users say they use their phones to find a business to make an in-store purchase.

I would note that nearly half of mobile shoppers have downloaded a retail app.

I would certainly tell you that two thirds of consumers plan to make a purchase via mobile this holiday season.

I would point out that the smartphone market is now larger than the PC market -- an extraordinary milestone.

And I would also remind you that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.

10 Ways to Leverage Mobile Marketing

So let's turn to the REALLY important topic here: How will your small business turn the mobile marketing revolution into hard, cold cash?

Here are 10 suggestions that will show you what's possible and what you should be doing to explore the possibilities within your own marketing campaign:

1. Build a mobile-friendly business website. This is no longer an option. If your business is online, it needs to have a mobile-friendly website - period.

2. Consider text-message marketing. Consumers are more than twice as likely to react to a text message as they are to email marketing. Just be sure to work with a reputable provider and avoid spamming.

3. Offer a mobile app. Yes, this can be expensive. But it's also a very effective way to reach customers, drive lead generation, and promote your brand.

4. Appeal to short attention spans. Mobile users are busy, and they're often multi-tasking. Craft your content to reach them with short, highly focused messages.

5. Integrate social marketing. Mobile users love to share information. Give them something to "like" about your content, and turn them into vital allies in your lead generation efforts.

6. Use QR codes. These codes are similar to barcodes; a user can scan them with a mobile device and learn more about your company, products, and services.

7. Extend special offers. Make your mobile users feel special with discounts, reward programs, or other perks designed especially for them.

8. Promote, promote, promote! Whether it's a mobile website or a dedicated app, you need to promote it just as you would any other marketing channel.

9. Respect users' privacy. Location-based services are a powerful marketing tool, but it's also easy to abuse them. Tread carefully and treat your mobile customers with respect.

10. Get ready for mobile commerce! So-called m-commerce systems are still in their infancy, but you need to understand the technology if you want to be ready to exploit it.

This is enough to get you started, but like I said, this is simply the tip of the iceberg. Just remember to integrate all of these techniques into your company's overall digital marketing strategy, look for ways to leverage multiple marketing channels, and ensure that your technology always serves your customers -- and not the other way around.

We all know that software-as-a-service (SaaS) has changed the way small businesses think about B2B marketing. But what's the real advantage driving these businesses to adopt SaaS?

Price is part of the answer. Pay-as-you-go pricing is a huge draw for small businesses that no longer have to worry about hardware costs, software licensing, support and maintenance, or any of the other financial baggage that comes along with on-premises software.

B2B Marketing SaaS: The Real Secret to Its Success

But price isn't the whole answer. In fact, there's an even bigger benefit to using SaaS for digital marketing: It allows small businesses to use applications that only very large enterprises could have used in the past.

SaaS-based demand generation tools are actually a perfect example of this evolutionary process. These online applications include an immense array of B2B marketing-related tools and services. A top-tier vendor in this space, such as Eloqua, Marketo, or Market2Lead, will offer a package that might include:

• Email marketing management;
• Multi-channel integration of Web, email, and live-event marketing;
• The ability to create custom landing pages, website forms, and microsites;
• Tools for creating personalized marketing campaigns;
• Event marketing capabilities;
• Contact database management tools;
• Lead scoring, nurturing, and reporting;
• Social media marketing and tracking capabilities.

I'm just scratching the surface here, and I could name a dozen other companies that offer similar SaaS-based online demand generation products. Some are less expensive than others, and some are more suitable than others for very small businesses versus midsized firms. All of them, however, deliver a package of services that typically cost between a few hundred dollars and a few thousand dollars a month.

A B2B marketing organization might find the same features in on-premises software, but they'll have to add a few zeroes to the cost to get it - and they'll have to pay a good chunk of that right up front.

Picking a SaaS Marketing Solution: 3 Things to Consider

So far, so good. You're sold on the concept of SaaS, and you'd love to adopt a digital marketing solution that gives your room to grow at a fair price. If you're ready to take the plunge, here are three tips for evaluating a solution beyond the obvious stuff, like pricing and support options:

Scope. Just about everybody in this market can support Web and email marketing tasks, and most also play well with third-party CRM and SFA solutions. But what if you want to use the same software to manage an integrated direct mail marketing campaign? How about integrating data from conferences and live events?

There are demand-generation tools that can manage multi-channel B2B marketing campaigns, and some of them do it quite well. Just remember that you'll pay more - perhaps a lot more - to get all of this in a single tidy package.

Scale. Small and midsized businesses don't worry much about how these SaaS-based digital marketing solutions will scale. That's only a problem for the big guys, right?

Actually, you might be surprised how quickly scalability becomes an issue even for smaller companies. That's because smaller companies have smaller marketing teams, and those teams often manage multiple campaigns with lots of moving parts. Select a demand-generation solution that can support Web templates, for example, and it'll be much easier to make changes while protecting your brand with a clean, consistent set of shared assets.

Feedback. Metrics are the modern marketer's secret weapon: They allow you to quantify results and demonstrate ROI in a way that you could never do in the past. That's why it's especially important to look at a vendor's analytics tools. Ask how they track things like website activity, campaign response rates, and cost-based marketing metrics.

Most small businesses learn to live with a certain amount of commercial credit risk in their lives. Yet it's still a nasty surprise when a trusted customer with an excellent payment history goes belly-up - and leaves you holding the bag.

Common Sense: The Best Risk Management Tool

An effective way to manage this risk is to perform a thorough business credit assessment on each new customer before you extend credit, and to continue performing regular customer credit checks on your existing relationships. A customer credit history can provide the insights - and the warning signs - your small business needs to recognize problems before they spiral out of control.

Even so, I think that old-fashioned common sense is still a business owner's most important risk management tool. Pay close attention to the details of your customer relationships, and you'll notice little changes that are easy to overlook. Put enough of these details together, and they just might tip you off to potential credit-risk issues.

Here are some examples of the subtle but important changes I'm talking about:

Senior management shifts. When a company shakes up its top leadership suddenly or unexpectedly, it's time to start asking questions. Sometimes these kinds of changes happen at a healthy company - but more often they're a sign of serious internal problems.

Banking changes. You already know that switching banks is a very big deal for any business. So if a customer or client starts paying you with checks drawn on a different bank, you need to take notice. That's especially true if a customer starts paying with personal checks or credit cards.

New payment patterns. Is a customer that typically pays within a week or two suddenly taking a month or more to pay? Are they paying on an irregular schedule or in lump sums when they weren't before? Even if the new payment pattern meets their contractual obligations, you need to ask why an established customer credit history is suddenly in flux.

A different address or phone number. Businesses move all the time, especially when they're growing fast or opening new locations. But it's important not to assume that a new address is a sign that all is well. After all, downsizing companies move, too - and that kind of move definitely has implications for a customer's business credit profile.

Changes in attitude. What do your sales and support staff notice when they meet with a customer? Do normally cheerful employees suddenly look worried or downbeat? Are familiar faces suddenly missing? Does the customer's office look thrown together and disorganized? Ask your employees what their gut feeling tells them about a customer's financial status, and take their input seriously.

Unexpected or unusual business disputes. When an established customer suddenly complains about the quality of your goods or questions your support policies, it's natural to blame yourself (and your team) for the problem. Yet it's also possible that the customer knows they're in financial trouble - and they want to buy time with disputes that allow them to get away with slow payments or missed payments.

None of these trends guarantee that you're headed for trouble with a customer or client. The more of them you encounter, however, the more important it is to look more closely at customer credit data and to make an informed risk-management decision.

Is direct mail marketing dead?

It's a common question these days, and we all know why: Email, search, social media, and other forms of digital marketing are all the rage. They're cheaper than direct mail, they're faster, they deliver better feedback, and they ultimately deliver better ROI.

Right?

Actually, I don't think direct mail is dead yet. It might even be getting its second wind.

Direct Mail Still Gets Results

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), 1.4 percent of U.S. households in 2010 responded to direct-mail pitches. That's down a bit from the 2005 numbers, but that number is still more than double a typical email marketing response rate, according to the DMA.

While those numbers don't directly address B2B direct mail marketing, I think it's safe to say they're comparable -- especially in terms of how they compare to email response rates.

We all know why those email response rates are so low. Bulk email is a saturated marketing channel, and the signal-to-noise ratio is unbelievably low, even for sophisticated online lead generation efforts.

Those numbers don't mean direct mail is a slam-dunk for every small business. They simply mean that direct mail can still have a place in your marketing mix - if you know how to identify, target, and build a trust relationship with the right prospects.

4 Ways to Marry Direct Mail and Digital Marketing

So direct mail definitely is not dead. But technology has transformed the way it works. Here are some specific trends you need to follow in order to use direct mail effectively.

1. On-demand printing. Throw away the cookie cutter: It's now possible to create small, highly customized batches of direct mail with content tailored for specific customer segments or for groups at different points in your marketing pipeline. You'll get higher response rates, and you'll get them at a very reasonable cost.

2. Integrated direct mail/digital marketing campaigns. You can use direct mail to drive prospects to custom website landing pages, social media pages, video demonstrations, whitepaper downloads, or any number of other destinations. This type of thoughtful, carefully-crafted content is essential to identifying qualified leads and setting up your sales team for success.

You can also experiment with new options, such as QR codes, to simplify the process of integrating direct mail marketing and digital campaigns.

3. End-to-end personalization. What do you get when you combine on-demand printing with so many different digital marketing choices? You get the opportunity to deliver a completely personalized marketing experience for every prospect. That's an opportunity that you couldn't buy at any price just a few years ago.

4. Analytics. Now more than ever before, the tools exist to measure the responses to your direct mail marketing campaigns. In fact, it's important that you NOT launch a direct mail campaign until you have a plan in place to track and measure your results.

Like I said, this doesn't mean direct mail is always appropriate for your small-business B2B marketing efforts. But it's important to experiment with direct mail, just as you experiment with social media, video, email, and other activities.

So direct mail isn't dead. And if you know how to use it right, it can give a healthy boost to your small business' bottom line.

I know that getting paid late is better than not getting paid at all. But for most small buisnesses, dealing with late payments is all too familiar -- and utterly miserable -- experience.

That's because slow payments leave a business in credit purgatory. Put your foot down too hard trying to collect, and you might sink a profitable business relationship. Yet if you decide not to rock the boat too much, you're volunteering to share somebody else's financial pain.

Fighting the Slow Payment Plague

What's worse is the fact that according to a recent National Federation of Independent Business survey, 40 percent of small businesses say their receivables are coming in at a slower pace. In many cases, clients are able to pay, but they want to hang onto their cash as long as possible in an uncertain economy.

You may not be able to eliminate slow payment problems, but you can certainly manage the risk. Here are four tips that are especially relevant to small businesses:

1. Start with an ounce of prevention. A customer credit check isn't useful just for avoiding deadbeats. It's also a great way to evaluate credit risk in terms of slow-paying customers. That's because customer credit data, when properly compiled and analyzed, can help to predict potential slow-payment scenarios well before they happen.

Bonus tip: Don't treat customer credit checks as a one-time affairs. It's important to conduct regular customer credit reviews, even with established customers, to catch potential problems.

2. Always get it in writing. Handshake or verbal agreements don't benefit anyone in the long run. Business circumstances can change, employees come and go, and "informal" agreements are difficult to enforce. That's why a written contract or letter of agreement is the single best risk management tool that any business - of any size - can have.

Bonus tip: Whatever else the agreement covers, make sure that it spells out - in plain English - payment dates and amounts.

3. Dangle a pre-payment discount carrot. Some businesses focus on late-payment penalties: late fees, interest charges, and the like. Others, however, have discovered that discounts for paying in advance are an even more effective way to avoid late payments.

Bonus tip: If a 10 percent pre-payment discount reduces late payment problems, then the discounts will pay for themselves - and then some.

4. Consider a credit-card backup requirement. Some businesses can ask customers to provide a credit card number when they sign a purchase agreement. If a payment is late, you can bill the customer's credit card instead - or simply arrange automatic credit card payments (possibly with a discount).

Bonus tip: This tactic has its limits, especially if you're dealing with a very large corporate customer. Apply it when and where you can, however, and it will play an important role in your collection and credit risk strategy.

Social media marketing can feel like a treadmill where your small business never quite finds its footing. Keep running long enough, and it's easy to lose sight of your true small business marketing goal: consistent, cost-effective lead generation.

Social Media Marketing and Lead Generation Done Right

Here's the good news: Social media, used correctly, is one of the most cost-effective lead generation tools your business can deploy. There's simply nothing else that can deliver this much ROI on a B2B marketing investment.

So what does it mean to use social media the "correct" way? Here are five specific examples:

1. Never quit experimenting. Some social media sites are gaining ground as B2B marketing platforms (YouTube, LinkedIn) while others are in decline (MySpace, StumbleUpon). Behind those broad trends, however, almost every small business marketer discovers a unique mix of social media platforms and content that delivers the best results.

Don't be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid to fail - there's simply too much to gain here from experimenting and fine-tuning your online lead generation efforts. Tweak your business blog topics, and fine-tune your writing voice. Work with podcasts, video, and other types of social content. Even efforts that fail to generate leads can provide valuable feedback about what works and what doesn't.

2. Don't forget to deliver a call to action. The conventional wisdom holds that a call to action over social media will damage your credibility and hurt your relationship marketing activities. Yet there are limits to this attitude - after all, many of your prospects want to buy and are looking for information about your business.

A well-crafted call to action gives prospects the opportunity to get the information they need while still showing respect - and delivering value - for everybody else. Whether your call to action involves a website, e-book, whitepaper, registration/landing page, newsletter signup form, or some other response, you need to integrate it into every aspect of your social media marketing strategy.

3. Give prospects somewhere to go! It sounds simple, but you'd be amazed how many businesses overlook this step. If your individual social media marketing efforts are the spokes in a wheel, then think of your landing page or website as the hub. All roads lead here - so be sure you provide a compelling destination!

4. Robust social media analytics are a must! By "robust" I definitely don't mean analytics that deal only with a single social media tool. Those are useful, but they never give you a coherent view of your marketing strategy.

Instead, I'm talking about the growing crop of social CRM and social media management tools, as well as increasingly sophisticated marketing automation solutions with built-in social media analytics. These products, including those from major vendors like Salesforce.com, Sugar CRM, and Eloqua, provide the hard data you need to drive your social media marketing and lead generation efforts.

During the weeks and months ahead, we're going to share some specific tools and techniques for managing your commercial credit risk. Before we get into specifics, though, I think it's helpful to point out a few basic principles that any small business can use as a foundation for its credit risk management strategy.

There's actually a single common theme for all five of the principles I'll discuss below: act, don't react. If you want to manage risk, then you need to learn how to anticipate risk.

Fortunately, with the right risk management tools and a bit of discipline, any small business can achieve this goal. Here are five specific suggestions, including action your small business can take right away.

1. Don't just focus on new customers. It's human nature: We like to think that long-term business relationships are stable, solid, and built on a foundation of trust. The truth, however, is that up to 80 percent of bad debt involves business relationships that are a year or more old.

Takeaway: Don't treat credit risk management as a one-time process. Evaluate credit risk for your customers, vendors, and suppliers regularly, and watch for trends in business credit profiles that signal impending trouble.

2. Trust your technology tools. A manual credit-review process might feel more thorough - you can pull in data from multiple reporting sources, mull it over, and make a "big picture" credit decision. Today, however, with so many data sources to choose from, it's more likely that you'll miss or misunderstand critical information.

Takeaway: Work with a business information provider that offers a comprehensive, integrated set of risk management tools. You'll save money and time - and manage credit risk far more effectively.

3. Trust your colleagues, too! Some of a credit professional's best allies aren't in the credit department - they're in sales, support, customer service, and even the executive suite. A sales call, for example, might reveal that a customer is downsizing its office, or a business owner might hear through the grapevine that a normally reliable partner is having problems with slow payments.

Takeaway: The more eyes and ears you recruit, the more likely you are to get the information you need to evaluate credit risk in a timely manner.

4. Take business fraud seriously. Most small businesses are eager to build relationships with new customers, suppliers, vendors, and business partners. In the process, however, they're more likely to overlook signs that a business relationship is TOO promising.

Takeaway: Apply consistent risk management practices to all of your business relationships. When you see a red flag - a murky business history, unusual references, or too-good-to-be-true terms - put on the brakes until you can get the answers you need to evaluate credit risk.

5. Your job is to manage risk - not eliminate it. There's only one way to completely eliminate risk from your business, and that's to close the doors and go home. That's because the more you do to eliminate business risk exposure, the more expensive and time-consuming the process will become. At some point, the costs of eliminating ALL risk exceed the benefits of trying to do so.

Takeaway: Put the right tools, technologies, and processes into place to manage your risk in the most cost-effective manner. Once you achieve this, you can be confident that you're striking the right balance between risk and reward.