Content
3 Reasons B2B Marketers Must Embrace Mobile… Now
Have you optimized your B2B website for mobile search? If not, columnist Patricia Hursh explains why you must work to become mobile-friendly immediately.
Patricia Hursh is president and founder of SmartSearch Marketing, a Boulder, Colorado-based digital marketing agency specializing in full-funnel lead generation solutions for B2B companies.
Content
Determine The True Value Of Your B2B Search Marketing Program
B2B marketers, if you’re measuring and evaluating “conversions” only — such as white paper downloads, webinar registrations, or contact forms — you are likely not seeing the big picture in terms of true return on your search marketing investment. Today, savvy business marketers are defining search marketing success not just in terms of pre-defined conversions… […]
Content
Should You Expect Sales-Ready-Leads From Search?
This is a mantra we hear far too often. Many B2B marketers expect their search marketing program to generate only high-quality leads that are immediately ready for sales interaction and closing. Question: Is this really realistic? Business Buying Is A Process Think about your own experience — both as a consumer and, if applicable, as […]
Content
B2B Lead Generation Tips Part II
In my last article, we discussed B2B marketing challenges such as the need to generate high quality leads while driving a high volume of leads, and B2B marketers’ increasing focus on post-click website improvements. Today, we’ll continue our market analysis with a look at how B2B search marketers are scoring and tracking leads, interacting with […]
Content
B2B Lead Generation Via Search Marketing (Part I)
According to a recent Marketing Sherpa report, the top 3 marketing challenges facing B2B marketers today are: Generating high quality leads Generating a high volume of leads, and Dealing with lengthening sales cycles This column explores how business marketers are tackling these tough issues in terms of their search marketing efforts. B2B Budgets Continue To […]
Content
How To Find Your Perfect PPC Bid And Budget
Balancing lead quality and lead quantity is a significant challenge for nearly all B2B marketers. How do you find the “sweet spot” for your company?
Content
Does Quality Score Impact B2B Search Advertising Success?
The premise that ad popularity and a high quality score leads to improved search advertising results may or may not be true.... especially for B2B advertisers. I urge business marketers to challenge this assumption and understand the relationship between PPC quality score and ROI-based results.
Content
What Business Searchers Are Looking For…. Might Surprise You
Business buyers use search engines throughout the entire research and buying process. For this reason, most B2B marketers utilize search marketing as a cost-effective way to build brand awareness, engage prospects, and generate leads. In terms of lead gen, a potential buyer is typically required to complete an online registration form in exchange for… what? The […]
Content
Marketing Insights From Search Funnels
As explained in my last article -- search engines can tell you a lot about your customers. Specifically I shared a few tools that enable marketers to identify buyer needs, emerging market trends, and competitive threats. Today I’ll cover another (free) tool that can help you understand your customers’ entire search process, and the best ways to capitalize on this data to improve marketing results.
Content
Valuable Customer Insights Via Search Engine Tools
Forget about your SEO investment. Disregard your PPC budget. B2B marketers should be asking themselves, “Am I getting all I can from search engines... for free?” Consider this: searching is the second most popular online activity today — second only to email. In fact, comScore (August 2009) estimates that Google alone handles 304 million searches […]
Content
Finding The Optimal Cost-Per-Lead
It’s amazing how few companies can tell you what an online lead is really worth. I’ve found that most marketers embrace the lower is better philosophy. But, is a low-cost lead generation strategy always the best choice? I contend that there is an optimal lead cost for every company. Establishing the right cost-per-lead model involves […]
Content
B2B Search Marketing: The Cost of NOT Showing Up
Much has been written about B2B search marketing programs designed for lead generation and customer acquisition purposes. For lead gen efforts, success metrics typically focus on volume of leads, cost per lead, and quality of lead. Many B2B marketers are starting to question this simplistic approach and are no longer willing to ignore the opportunity […]
Content
B2B Lead Generation Tips
The goal of many B2B search marketing programs is to generate online inquiries and leads. Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) programs are designed to find highly-qualified prospects and drive them to targeted landing pages where people register to receive valuable information or complete contact forms. Below I share five simple yet effective tips […]
Content
Using Search Engines To Reach Business Executives
Many B2B marketers are frustrated by their inability to reach executive-level decision makers. Recent research indicates they needn’t look further than the internet. Let’s explore how marketers can utilize search engines to easily and cost-effectively reach executives online.
Analytics & Conversion
Invest First In Conversions, Then In Driving Traffic
Much time and energy has been devoted to improving PPC campaigns and SEO programs for B2B websites. The basic premise of advertising and optimization is to improve visibility and response, i.e., get that click! But, I’ve noticed recently that many marketers are focusing their initial marketing efforts not on getting more clicks, but rather on […]
Content
Increase Online Registrations By Improving Downloadable Assets
Many B2B search marketing programs are designed to generate online registrations, inquiries, and leads. Typically, something of value (such as a white paper, product demo, or presentation) is offered in exchange for personal contact information. Today I’ll offer three tips to enhance the value of these downloadable assets and generate more online registrations.
Content
B2B Marketers Should Embrace “Tire Kickers”
Should marketers avoid paying for prospects who are early in the buying process and not ready to submit personal information or be contacted by a sales person? Should these “tire kickers” be avoided so that marketers can focus their attention on generating more valuable, sales-ready leads? While this approach may seem logical at first, I […]
Content
Lowering Your Quality Scores To Increase ROI
B2B search advertisers must confront an annoying paradox. For most advertisers the billable event is the click. Yet for most B2B advertisers success depends not on clicks, but rather on conversions: the percentage of visitors who take the desired online action, such as downloading a white paper or registering for a webinar. B2B marketers must […]
Analytics & Conversion
Eight B2B Landing Page Conversion Tips
Driving prospects to your website is only half the battle. What can B2B marketers do to entice visitors to take desired online actions…and improve conversion rates? Here are eight easy-to-implement tips designed to improve landing page relevance, persuade action, build credibility, and maximize response rate.
Content
The Brutal Realities Of The B2B Lead Qualification Process
So, your pay-per-click campaign has generated 100 registrations for the download of a white paper. One hundred conversions may sound pretty good, but the real questions are: How many of these are valid, qualified prospects… what percentage will become sales leads… and ultimately, customers? Understanding the lead qualification process is key to B2B search marketing […]