I write a lot of Web content for B2B companies. Manufacturing companies, software companies, service companies, chemical companies, widget companies — basically the small and mid-sized companies that make up the backbone of our economy.

This work, although incredibly important to the companies themselves, isn’t exactly sexy nor big budget.

So I was blown away when I opened my mail yesterday and learned that I had been awarded a Platinum MarCom Award for the Web content I wrote for the National Security Institute. You can read the case study if you want the full story. You can view other Platinum and Gold Award winners at the MarCom Awards site.

Winning the award got me to thinking about what’s involved with helping small and mid-sized B2Bs revamp their Websites.

Too often SMB Websites are “do-it-yourself” jobs. I’ve seen everything from sites managed by office admins using Microsoft FrontPage to sites that haven’t been updated since George W. Bush first became President.

The biggest problem I see, outside of poor design, is that companies don’t know how to communicate their message. The result is a poorly developed site that gives prospects few reasons to hang around the site looking for information. So they click right back out.

The first step in working with companies who want a Website overhaul isn’t so much “writing a few pages of copy” (which is what I usually get called in to do). It’s educating the client about Web marketing and then once we’re all on the same page, doing a complete message rebrand:

• Who are you?
• Why are you in business?
• Why do your customers do business with you?
• What makes you different?
• What’s your sales cycle?
• How do people find you?
• What’s changed for you in the last few years?

And most important, “What do you want your site to do for you?” Nine times out of ten people say, “Get us sales!” Ok! Now we’re talking!

The real problem is that people don’t see Websites as ASSETS. A building is an asset. Office furniture is an asset. A laptop computer is an asset.

A Website, however, is an EXPENSE. Because Websites grew out of traditional marcom — we migrated paper brochures and datasheets to the Web — they’re not seen as assets that deliver real value.

A bricks and mortar building delivers real value because it houses employees and the business of the company. It’s the same for a Website. Done right, a Website works for you 24 hours a day — generating leads, giving directions, answers questions, and promoting job openings, to name a few.

My job as a B2B marketing consultant / Web marketer is to help companies see the Website as an asset — and to develop messaging and content accordingly.

In addition to winning a Platinum award for the NSI site, I also won a Gold Award for overseeing the revamp of Dr. Helaine Smith’s site (WordPress design by Cre8d-Design) and an Honorable Mention for the e-book I wrote for her, “Dental Implants: Five Questions You Must Ask.”

Thanks again, Dave and Steve — you guys are great and I loved working with you. And thank you, too, Dr. Smith for your continued trust and business.

Michele Linn of the Content Marketing Institute emailed me this evening to ask where my article was . . . the one that was due last Friday.

Uh oh. I hadn’t done it . . . because it wasn’t on my schedule (even though I swear up and down I put it there).

In the last six months or so, lots of things have fallen through the cracks. I find myself doing more and more mind-numbing tasks — tasks that eat up tons of time — and less of what I really want to do. I find myself getting flustered and angry and resentful.

Matt Cutts has been writing about his 30-day challenges on his blog. I do 30-day challenges with myself but I haven’t been too public with them.

I’m changing that because I want to make a HUGE change. I want to off load the tasks that make me unhappy and upload the projects that make me happy. (See Kel Kelly’s post, Lick Subway Railing or Attend Networking Event?, about happiness in business.)

Even though it’s not Nov. 1, I’ve already sorta kinda started my 30+ day challenge. I hired a bookkeeper. This is huge for me because I’m one of those people who thinks she has to do *everything* herself.

In other words I have a very hard time asking for help.

But I need help. First off, let me just that I’m a marketer and while I know how to add, subtract and balance my checkbook, anything beyond that makes my eyes glaze over.

Second, I started using Quickbooks Online (huge mistake) and now my books are rife with errors. (The bookkeeper suggested I go back to the desktop version. I’m following her advice — it’s why I hired her.)

Third, I spend hours entering data and pushing buttons and trying to make sense of it all. It never makes sense. It’s like it’s written in Sanskrit.

And last, I HATE ACCOUNTING!

Glad I got that off my chest.

So travel with me during November as I learn how to let go of tasks and make room for the things I do want. As my former coach Sharon Teitelbaum told me repeatedly during my coaching calls, I’m the CEO of DH Communications, Inc. I shouldn’t be doing low-level tasks that I can pay someone else to do. (Sharon, btw, is fabulous. If you’re considering work-life coaching, call her.)

What’s your take on the DIY trap? Do you offload everything you can? Or do you get bogged down in details?

The one thing I admire — a lot — about David Meerman Scott is his ability to skim the surface of the marketing trenches, see the big picture, and then communicate new trends and forces at work.

(I think this is due to the fact that he surfs on oceans around the world. He sees the tops of the waves versus being buried in them.)

He’s released the Introduction and first chapter to his new book due out in November, Real Time Marketing and PR.

People, I got goosebumps reading it. Even though I had already heard David present the Taylor Guitar story, I really enjoyed reading the back story and seeing an example of real-time marketing — one that *any one* of us could easily do.

If the first chapter is any indication, David has another international best-seller on his hands.

You can download your own copy from David’s blog — Web Ink Now.

Can’t wait for the book to come out!

I’ve spent the last few months cleaning clutter out of my home. The garage, the cellar and the spare room had become stuffed full of no-longer-used items such as old books, toys, bikes, clothes, baby stuff, old computer equipment, out-dated electronics, broken things that were still usable (they just needed to be “fixed” hahahaha), etc.

Cleaning out the clutter, while a dusty and dirty job, was oddly therapeutic. I came away from the process having learned two valuable lessons:

1. I need far less *stuff* than I think I need.

2. Having empty space has allowed me to think more clearly.

Both lessons have profound implications, but the second one is key. Clutter takes up space — physically and mentally. You have to maneuver around it, move it aside to make room for other stuff, clean it, organize it, and deal with it.

Too much clutter can make you feel anxious and out of sorts. It can also keep you from achieving your goals as it “blocks” you spiritually and/or emotionally.

As I worked my way through the physical clutter in my house, I began noticing that in addition to the physical clutter, I had a TON of digital clutter:

• Multiple email addresses and accounts — I spend over an hour every day just dealing with email, most of which I’ve never asked to receive.
• Multiple social media accounts — I manage my own Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, LinkedIn, and Google Reader accounts.
• Megabytes of hard drive content — My poor little MacBook is stuffed to the gills with client projects as well as my own stuff.

I’m on a mission to begin eliminating some of this clutter because you know what? I have at least a half dozen really cool projects that I started for myself — and that I’ve not finished. On top of that, I have two big fat hairy goals that I’ve had on my goals list for years, both of which I really want to achieve.

I can now see I haven’t finished projects that really excite me nor reached my big goals because I let all this clutter get in the way.

As with removing physical clutter, you have to start off slowly and do it in stages, otherwise you get overwhelmed. My goal this month is to eliminate much of the junk and spam email I receive. This is easier said than done as companies send so damn much of it!

I’ve been unsubscribing from email I never asked to receive, and I use Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature, which makes it super easy to delete the crap I don’t want. I also use the “Report Spam” feature, but I’m not sure if that does any good.

I use a Yahoo email address for any commenting I do online. This address gets picked up by the scrapers who in turn send out mass spam. This keeps my business account fairly clean while making it easy to delete the spam in one fell swoop.

I’ve also separated personal email from business email. This means I don’t have to deal with non-pressing but still important items until my “off” time.

Do you have any other tips that have worked for you?

And, what has been your experience with eliminating digital clutter? I’d love to hear it.

If you’re going to write an e-book that tells B2B marketers how to gain the attention of people in their target markets, you had better damn well illustrate how to do this yourself.

Velocity, a UK-based B2B technology marketing agency, nailed it with their new e-book, “The New B2B marketing Manifesto: Five imperatives and six staples you need to win the battle of attention.”

It’s not that the writers used irreverent phrases you don’t normally see in B2B marketing literature — stuff like “naked, desirable drunk person” and “social media ninjas” (all of which I adore).

It’s that they took a really complex topic, whacked away the hype and got right down to the challenge: in today’s over-hyped, media saturated, micro slivered world, you have just a few nano seconds to gain someone’s attention.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve all become hyper vigilant about how marketers / sales people can contact us.

Caller ID, Facebook privacy settings, email accounts set up just for spam unsolicited email, Do Not Call registry, ad blockers, the mute button on the remote, TV via the Internet (Hulu, Netflix), etc. etc. etc. — all of these wonderful tools and applications make it really easy to filter out unwanted marketing and advertising.

To get someone’s attention, you have to earn it. And you do it through engaging content that explains why you do what you do, is genuine, fresh and insightful (versus being warmed over and dull), and that goes beyond digital — as in, it ties together the offline and online worlds we all inhabit.

(Think uploading your personal life via photos and status updates to Facebook.)

If you’re in B2B marketing or marketing communications, and you’re struggling with how your world has changed (as Velocity states in its e-book, one day we were living in the black and white world of print ads and trade shows and the next day we opened the door to a Technicolor Oz of social media and iPads), you need to read this e-book.

Fill out the short form to get your copy — and once you’re done reading it, leave a comment at the Velocity blog.