Portals are Good

Portals dedicated to reaching small and medium sized businesses seem to be all over the place. Companies like Intuit (http://community.intuit.com/start_and_grow), Sage Software (sagespark.com), Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/hub.mspx), American Express' Open Forum (http://www.openforum.com/) and CapitalOne are doing a lot to bring a host of resources to small business customers even delivering solutions beyond what they sell.

Locations such as BNet (www.bnet.com), Bmighty.com and several others are often run by publications or 3rd parties and tend to focus more on tips, how-tos and feature articles on marketing and business management. These sites can be a tremendous resource to the small business owner.

So, are these sites effective in delivering a tighter, stronger relationship with customers? Do they promote additional sales of products and services? I argue that they indeed are valuable. They can be especially valuable as a marketing tool to reach your audience segment. If you are in the marketing department of an organization selling to small businesses I would encourage you to look at partnerships with these organization. Get your brand and services in front of your target audience. By being included or features on these portals, you are gaining credible third party implied endorsement, critically valuable if you are a small start-up firm.

Being included on these portals may not drive intense revenue opportunities at first, so please do not start counting on cashflow in the first months. Instead, you are placing your brand and products in locations that are completely target on your audience.

There is a way to make more of portals -- committed co-marketing. Like any initiative, you have to put some creativity and emphasis around an initiative in order to drive greatest potential. It is ideal if you can strike a deal to be on American Express' Open Forum, but also what are you doing to maximize this opportunity? Did you do a joint press announcement? Are you doing marketing to American Express's customers letting them know your firm/product is not available? Are you writing articles? Are you blogging about it? Are you driving traffic via twitter? Are you letting your own customer know?

All of this is important. Portals are great and securing your product and brand on some of the high profile/high traffic sites could be a game changer for you, but also remember it will take significant creativity and work to make the most of it.

What do you think?

Disclaimer: Porter Novelli has worked with several of the brands listed above.