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.
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… […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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?
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.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
B2B Search Marketing: Measuring Success Beyond Conversions
Today, the majority of b2b search marketing programs are focused on lead generation. Prospects are driven to landing pages where they register for white papers, demos, webinars, and other informational assets. A certain percentage of these registrants become sales leads, and ultimately customers. While lead gen programs do produce inquiries, this type of campaign may […]
Are Online Registrations REALLY Sales Leads?
One of the most common B2B search marketing practices is offering whitepapers, demos, trial software, and other assets in exchange for registration information. Many companies immediately turn these registrations over to the sales team, but this may not be the best approach based on lead quality and a lengthy sales process.
B2B Search Tips: More On Writing Killer Ads
It seems so obvious, yet many B2B marketers don’t focus on the most fundamental element of any successful search ad campaign—the copy. I’ve found that writing great ads comes down to five simple principles:
B2B Search Tips: Writing Killer Ads
One of the most fundamental elements of any successful B2B advertising campaign is the ad itself… The message… The copy. I’ve found that writing great ads really comes down to five simple principles:
Low B2B Click-Through-Rate: Inexperience Or Wisdom?
Have you ever analyzed the click-through-rates associated with B2B search listings? Organic versus paid? Business versus consumer? The data is interesting… and can be interpreted in several ways. It’s hard to tell if business marketers are simply behind their consumer counterparts in terms of expertise and experience—or if they are smart enough to focus on […]
B2B Search Marketers: Keep It Simple
What! No webcasts, demos or podcasts available for download on your site? Worried you’re getting left in the dust by more savvy digital marketers? Don’t despair. Business buyers continue to show a preference for fast and simple online information.
Dating Tips For B2B Marketers
Just what do search marketing and dating have in common? According to Seth Godin, the keynote speaker at last week’s Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto… plenty! When it comes to finding an appropriate partner and building a long-term relationship, there are some interesting analogies.
Driving Online Registrations: Think Beyond the White Paper
Successful B2B marketing efforts—particularly search advertising campaigns—often utilize landing pages designed to collect registrations. Website visitors must complete a (hopefully short and simple) registration form to receive something of value. Typically this registration data is then cultivated and, if warranted, entered in the company’s lead management and sales system.
Solving B-to-B Marketers’ Problems
In my last column I explored b-to-b marketers’ changing perceptions toward search marketing and predicted a continued trend in rapidly increasing b-to-b search budgets—at the expense of traditional marketing channels. Today I’d like to talk about why this shift is occurring. First, let’s start by looking at the top challenges identified by business marketers and […]
Ad Agencies Partnering with Search Marketing Firms (or Not)
At the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York, agency executives spoke candidly about their experiences working with search engine marketing (SEM) firms. What’s working? What’s not? And most importantly, how can agencies and search marketers work together to better serve clients? Here’s a re-cap of “Outsourcing Anonymous: Why To Admit You Hired An […]
Studies: B-to-B Search Is Poised For Continued Growth
A close look at recent market studies sheds some light on what’s happening in the world of business-to-business marketing, and provides several interesting insights regarding search marketing. It appears that business marketers’ perceptions are changing and as a result—budgets are starting to shift. Slower Adoption Rates As part of Forrester’s Marketing Effectiveness Survey, conducted in […]
Reducing Barriers To Online Registration
Many b-to-b search advertising campaigns are designed to generate online leads. Typically a company’s search ad promotes a specific resource or downloadable asset. Searchers clicking on an ad are presented with a highly tailored landing page that includes a registration form which must be completed in order to receive the item. The most common example […]