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When it comes to choosing business-to-business media, it's useful to separate acquisition and retention expenses.

Defining acquisition is fairly straightforward. It means cold prospecting, attracting an entirely new contact and persuading him or her to respond and express some interest in your product or your company. It's often known as lead or inquiry generation, and requires a variety of media.

But once a relationship is in place, the media situation becomes quite different. You can use your database and apply direct media very effectively.

So for media planning it makes sense to consider inquiry generation, lead qualification and nurturing, and retention at the same time. It may take years until the prospect actually buys. At that point, the retention objective then takes on its typical character — promoting repurchases, cross-selling or upselling, and preventing defection.

Here are the best media for communicating with inquirers and current customers in B-to-B markets:

• E-mail

  Low cost makes this the No. 1 medium, hands down, for B-to-B retention marketing communications. It's also versatile, allowing you to communicate with the intimacy of a text-based letter, or the graphic impact of an HTML advertisement. You also can use e-mail in a newsletter format, delivering useful information that's welcomed by businesspeople. Data from the Direct Marketing Association's new “B-to-B Direct Marketing Benchmarks” study confirms that 71.2% of marketers use e-mail for retention, while 60% use it to follow up on inquiries.

• Webinars

  They arrived on the B-to-B marketing scene only a few years ago and very quickly developed a reputation as little more than a long-form sales pitch. Sign-up rates — and show-up rates — continue to decline. This is a shame, since the medium permits marketers to tell their stories with great detail and variety. My guess is that overuse simply killed the golden goose.

  However, if used intelligently, Webinars still have plenty to offer. The secrets are timing and content quality. They're best applied at two key stages in the buying process — when prospects are researching solutions and comparing vendors. One interesting wrinkle on Webinar use comes from Howard J. Sewell, president of Connect Direct in Redwood City, CA. He pointed out recently that Webinars can be prerecorded at the speaker's convenience and then delivered, as if live, when the customer is ready.

• Phone

  Still the workhorse medium in B-to-B marketing communications, the phone can be applied successfully across the acquisition and retention spectrum. On the retention side, use the phone for inquiry qualification, lead nurturing, account management, new product introductions — whatever you can think of. DMA research shows that telephone marketing is the largest media category for B-to-B DMers, representing $28 billion in aggregate spending so far this year.

• RSS feeds

  This hot Web 2.0 medium already is looking good for B-to-B since it instantly and proactively delivers whatever content a customer has requested — an e-mail newsletter, blog content, anything. The problem is persuading customers and prospects to sign up, and keeping them interested in continuing the subscription. So content is king here. You'll end up with highly qualified readers — but not necessarily everyone you want to reach.

• Mail

  Just because e-mail is cheap and easy, don't neglect direct mail as part of your retention marketing tool kit. For one thing, you're unlikely to gain — or maintain — correct e-mail addresses on 100% of your current customers and inquirers. Direct mail can fill the gaps in e-mail coverage. But there's more to it than that. Direct mail is still highly welcomed by business buyers. It generates healthy response rates, and is unparalleled in helping marketers maintain efficient ongoing business relationships.

• Events

  There's nothing like face time with customers, and events can give your sales and executive teams concentrated access at relatively low cost. Corporate events come in all flavors, ranging from user group meetings to technical seminars to executive briefings and golf outings. They're excellent for relationship building, identifying customer issues and moving prospects through the buying process.

Some media aren't ideal for retention marketing.

• Print and banner ads

  Advertising in the trade or business press and on targeted Web sites can be effective for building awareness, but it rarely makes sense once a marketer has a direct relationship with a customer or prospect. At that point direct communications — by e-mail, mail or phone — is likely to provide a stronger return on investment.

  But this conclusion is subject to change: Let's keep an eye on such experiments as Google's entry into print media sales, which may turn the tide by lowering the CPMs to an irresistible level — if it ever migrates to more targeted media than just newspapers and consumer magazines.

  Another exception would be domain-based targeted banner advertising, which is being offered by some forward-thinking B-to-B sites like Forbes.com. You can serve up ads to visitors from a particular corporation you're trying to nurture a relationship with. Unfortunately, you can't target more granularly than the corporate domain level — right now, anyway.

• Broadcast

  The same argument can be made for broadcast media, especially television, where the cost of entry puts it off limits to all but the largest companies. But here too, change is in the wind. Some local marketers are making radio and television work — but their efforts primarily have an acquisition objective.

• Trade shows

  Compared with proprietary corporate events, trade shows generally are viewed as places to find new prospects. When planning retention campaigns, trade shows usually are supplanted by lower-cost media. But a wise marketer considering trade shows will add retention to acquisition planning. If you're going to a show to prospect, don't forget to contact your current inquirers and customers and invite them to meet with you at the event. When the retention objective rides along with the acquisition investment, the ROI on trade show marketing can soar.

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RUTH P. STEVENS (ruth@ruthstevens.com) consults on customer acquisition and retention, and teaches marketing to graduate students at Columbia Business School. She is the author of “The DMA Lead Generation Handbook” and “Trade Show and Event Marketing.”

Finding a new customer takes a particular set of campaign strategies. After all, remember that prospects may have no idea who you are or what you sell.

The best media for acquisition include:

• Your Web site, enhanced with techniques designed to compel visitors to leave behind their contact information — namely, an offer and a call to action.

• Search engine optimization, so your site can be found in the first place.

• Search engine marketing, i.e., keyword bidding, to attract companies that are looking to solve a particular business problem.

• Outbound telemarketing, including intelligent use of voice-mail messaging.

• Direct mail, including dimensional mail and flats, like letters, postcards and self-mailers.

• Trade shows, if there's a sufficient concentration of serious prospects to justify the expense.

• PR, which in business marketing usually proves to be a better prospecting investment than advertising.
  — RPS