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What is B2B Search Engine Marketing?
Help your customers find you.
B2B Search engine marketing is the art and science of attracting motivated customers to your website by increasing your site’s presence within the search results of major search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, and Yahoo). B2B Search engine marketing is crucial because 72% of customers begin at a search engine like Google when researching products and services online, according to research from Pardot. Effective B2B search engine marketing begins with a thorough understanding of the keyword phrases your customers are searching for most often and then leveraging a combination of Search Engine Optimization and Pay-per-click advertising to be found during those searches.Search engine optimization (SEO):
Techniques that help you achieve rankings for your website in organic search results.Pay-per-click advertising (PPC):
Internet advertising techniques direct traffic to websites, in which the advertiser only pays when the ad is clicked.Search Engine Optimization
SEO, also known as search engine optimization, makes your website’s pages appealing to search engines. SEO-optimized webpages score higher in both organic and unpaid search results. Since Google has a 90% market share in B2B search, most SEO initiatives concentrate on raising a site’s rating there, according to an Optify study. Getting your website on the front page of the search results should be the main goal of any SEO effort. Moreover, adapting to current SEO trends like voice search optimization and prioritizing mobile-friendly content is essential. Search engine rankings can be raised by concentrating on two strategies:You are improving your website’s relevance.
Your website has to use your most significant keyword phrases in a method that is appropriate for the language and code of your website. Your website will rank higher in organic search results the more pertinent it is to the user’s search query. Note: I’ll discuss this more in a later section of this article, but it’s possible that prospects need to be using the words or phrases you believe to be the most relevant to their searches to find the goods and services you offer.You are improving your website’s link popularity.
Your website needs to draw high-quality inbound connections. An inward link originates from another website. Your website will rank higher in search results. Google prioritizes the popularity of links over the relevance of websites. Public relations and SEO share many similarities. To see results, there must be a continuing, persistent effort. Significant achievements can be attained within three to six months; you can then build on those accomplishments while creating a solid foundation. Also read : Best SEO Tools for Improving Organic Search Visibility in SEMPay-per-click Advertising
Pay-per-click, or PPC, advertising is when your B2B company makes a set payment to display text-based ads in sponsored search results. Regardless of how frequently the listing is shown, you will only be paid when a searcher clicks on your ad and visits your website. Compared to conventional print advertisements, pay-per-click advertising is a results-focused advertising medium. With traditional advertisements in a print magazine, you pay to be published regardless of the outcomes the advertisement generates. With PPC, your ad can stay on Google’s front page all day without costing you anything unless someone clicks on it. About 25% of searchers will click on the paid search results if they consider the ad relevant to what they are searching for. In essence, it pre-qualifies leads at a reasonable cost. Your ranking in paid search results can be improved and optimized by focusing on three tactics:Increasing your bid amount.
Your ranking is based on the cost per click you are willing to pay. The more you pay per click, you will rank higher in the paid search results.We are improving the relevancy of your advertisements.
Google wants to ensure the most relevant ads appear at the top of the search results. The more relevant your ads (and the corresponding landing pages on your website) are based on the search terms, the higher your ranking will be in the paid search results.You are increasing your budget.
The more you choose to invest in pay-per-click advertising, the better your chance to have ads that are consistently displayed. By using research tools like the Google Ads Keyword Planner, you can determine the approximate budget you will need to pay per click. Budgets can be managed daily, and they are very flexible. You can start a PPC campaign with a $50 budget to see what results you can produce. I have clients who spend more than $ 25 monthly on PPC ads because they can tie the campaign to the leads and sales generating. Where search engine optimization takes months to see results, pay-per-click advertising takes minutes. Your ads can attract targeted traffic immediately, but your campaign will require attentive management to ensure you receive the highest return on your pay-per-click advertising investment. Also read : PPC Advertising Platforms: Running and Optimizing Pay-Per-Click CampaignsSearch Engine Marketing for B2B(Business to Business)
Step 1: Define an Effective B2B Search Engine Marketing Strategy
Begin with the end in mind
Many companies need clear goals to dive into search engine marketing. Spend some time identifying the key elements of your search engine marketing strategy. The following steps will walk you through the process of defining your strategy.Define your search engine marketing goals.
B2B Search engine marketing will help drive targeted traffic to your website. Think about the goals and objectives for your website and online marketing efforts. Your B2B search engine marketing program should be designed to support these goals. Some common B2B search engine marketing goals include the following:- Selling products online. Customers purchase products on your website.
- They are selling products offline. Customers research products online and purchase at your physical location, over the phone, or through your distributors.
- You are generating leads or inquiries. Prospects research products online and submit questions or information requests via your website.
- They are building a marketing database. Prospects and customers request to receive future online and offline communications from you.
- You are improving brand or company awareness. Prospects learn about what you do or engage in an activity supported by your brand.
Define your B2B search engine marketing audience.
If you don’t know who you’re trying to reach, you won’t be able to figure out how they search to help them find you. Begin by brainstorming about your target audiences. Consider the following when defining your B2B search engine marketing audience.- What specific industries and market segments do you serve?
- Describe a typical company in each industry and market segment you serve.
- Where are your target customers located geographically?
- Who will be going online to search for your products and services? What is their role within the company? Are they the end-users of the products and services?
- What product or service categories are they interested in?
- What information will they be searching for?
Define your top competitors.
Your B2B search engine marketing program must also focus on your competition. You want to ensure you identify your top competitors so you can continually evaluate how your company’s search engine presence ranks relative to the competition. Please define the following elements for each company or website you compete against.- Who are your top five competitors in order of priority?
- Do they engage in SEO or paid search?
- What product or service categories do you compete in?
- What makes your company different and better than each competitor?
- What keyword phrases do they appear to be focusing on?
Define a measurement strategy.
How will you know if your B2B search engine marketing strategy is successful? Identify specific success metrics from the list below that will allow you to measure your SEM strategy’s impact on your business. Be clear about what you want to achieve, and make sure your goals are attainable. Some common B2B search engine marketing success goals include:- Increase website ranking for target keyword phrases from X to Y.
- Increase traffic to your site from X to Y or by X%.
- Increase online sales from organic search traffic from X to Y or X%.
- Increase online leads from organic search traffic from X to Y or by X%.
- Decrease bounce rate from X% to Y% from organic search traffic.
- Achieve a target cost-per-lead from paid search advertising.
- Achieve a target cost-per-sale from paid search advertising.
Step 2: Choose the Best Keyword Phrases
Get inside customers’ heads through keyword research
The most critical step in search engine marketing is keyword research, strategically selecting your company’s most important keyword phrases. If you do not perform this step properly, there is no way that your campaigns will be successful. When choosing the best keyword phrases, it is critical to choose phrases relevant to your business and those searched for most often by your customers. The keywords have:- Strong relevance to your company and website. Niche terms related to your products or services that your website has content to support.
- Reasonably high search volume. They are terms your most likely customers are searching regularly.
- Relatively low competition. Terms with a relatively low number of companies competing in the search results.
Brainstorm potential keyword phrases.
Begin your keyword research with the art of the process and brainstorm phrases you think customers use when searching for your products and services. Utilize tools like Google scraping to gather valuable insights into popular search queries and trends. Get all of your customer-facing team members involved and consider the following questions:- What problems are our customers trying to solve?
- What terms or phrases do they use to describe their needs or problems?
- What terms or phrases do they use to describe the solutions we provide?
- How would we describe our products and services to a beginner in our industry?
- What do customers do with our products? (e.g., applications, etc.)?
- What terms do industry magazines and analysts use to describe our products and services?
- What 10 phrases do we associate most with our company?
- What 10 phrases do we associate most with our products and services?
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