Q – B2B Magazine: With regards to SEO, briefly why would a B2B marketer be interested in optimizing their web site to bring in organic traffic? What do you say to companies that say, “Yeah, but we don’t sell stuff online, so it sounds like a lot of expense for not much gain.”

Mercury Leads Plvan: Over 93% of B2B buyers go online as much as 6 months prior to the actual acquisition of a product or service.  With this in mind, B2B marketers must admit that the website is the marquee for their business and SEO plays a pivotal role in your future.  This is even more important for B2B companies with long sales cycles and high ticket products or services, as the lead nurturing part of the equation becomes even more critical to overall marketing and sales success.  Search Engine Optimization is only part of the equation however, like a good direct response ad or direct mail package website marketers must focus on the WIFM” equation or what’s in it for me with their prospects?  If your prospective buyer comes to your website, after all of your hard work to push your rankings to the top, you’d better be able to convert them.  The core tenets of good Direct Marketing have a lot of crossover to search engine marketing with a less patient audience.  Statistically it’s been proven that website marketers have 8 seconds and 2.3 clicks to garner a conversion.  You need to be razor-sharp in your content creation while adhering to the complicated algorithms developed by today’s search engine requirements.

Q – B2B Magazine: What are some of the methods you recommend to gain rankings and own keywords?

Mercury Leads Plvan: First of all, extensive keyword research and competitive research should be conducted to make absolute certain that you are optimizing for the correct (keyword(s) phrases) you endeavor to be ranked and found by.  Secondly, adhering to the most current algorithm is critical.  This is a complex set of criteria which must be followed to the letter in order to gain search prominence.  As a way to “own keywords” and the associated phrases, marketers must view the SEO process as an ongoing investment in their future.  For high ticket sales, and undiscovered customers or segments, this investment is easily paid for.  Increasingly, fresh and informative content in the form of the blogging, landing or response pages, articles, white papers, virtual events, online PR, and pushing through the right social media outlets will serve to keep your content fresh and relevant in the eyes of the search engines, and this keeps you at the top.

Q – B2B Magazine: How should a company “think” of SEO, if it’s not used to operating like a web publisher?

Mercury Leads Plvan: Our experience has proven that all B2B companies have much to gain from good SEO, and that SEO should be viewed from more than just a customer acquisition perspective.  Future investors, strategic alliances, channel partners, international expansion, even acquiring key personnel are examples of other groups that can would be positively affected by great SEO.

Q – B2B Magazine: What kind of metrics do you recommend companies use when tracking SEO efforts?

Mercury Leads Plvan: At the base level, tracking unique visitors, page views, popular keywords, length of visit, and repeat visitors statistics can all be tracked easily with publicly available free tools.  Google Analytics as for example.  Many hosting facilities will offer an abundance of web metrics so factor this in your evaluation.   There are literally thousands of low cost tools that can leverage your knowledge about how successful your SEO is.  More importantly, our experience has shown that studying “the company you keep” and how you rank against competitors is equally important.  Again there are many tools available allowing you to track how you perform against these competing companies.  As the saying goes “offense wins games, defense wins championships”, by knowing what (keyword(s) phrases) your competition is using in both paid and unpaid search you can tilt the scale in your favor.

Q – B2B Magazine: Once a marketer successfully attracts a visitor to its website, what kinds of issues should they be thinking about vis a vis that person’s behavior? With all the options out there—email newsletters, blogs, content assets, opt-in promotional campaigns, contact forms, requests for calls—what kinds of questions should a company ask itself to maximize its Web traffic?

Mercury Leads Plvan: Two words are important here, “lead nurturing“!  As most of us know, today’s B2B marketers need to look beyond the “one-hit wonder”.  The C-Suite is particularly guilty of this as they are tied directly to company performance and are acutely aware of this.  Your goal, particularly in the event of a complex sales process is to gain share, and to keep top of mind with your prospect.  This is only done through multiple touch points with the prospect.  Too often, marketers place lengthy forms on their website, like anybody has time (see 8 seconds and 2.3 clicks above) to dedicate to this process. An alternative approach is to collect small bites of information and then formulate acquisition strategies which include many impressions over time nurturing the prospect.

Q – B2B Magazine: Ultimately, what is the most successful measure of an SEO effort?

Mercury Leads Plvan: For most companies, it comes down to sales but this shouldn’t be the only measure.  Referencing, my answers above however, the purpose of SEO can vary by stakeholder all of which can positively affect your organization by being at the top of search.  So why wouldn’t you prioritize SEO/SEM. You have everything to gain.

Contributing Journalist:

Jon VanZile – Freelance Writer B2B Magazine

jvzile@aol.com

Phone: (954) 788-4775

Fax: (954) 943-7092

My Website

Editing for Authors

LinkedIn Profile

My About.com Website

Mercury Leads Principal Interviewed by B2B Magazine is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!

When it comes to Pay-Per-Click advertising, there are three types of Keyword Match Types that you can use to tailor your keyword bids.  Understanding the details of these three match types can mean the difference between a profitable ad campaign and a waste of time & money.  The three match types are “Broad”, “Phrase”, and “Exact”.  What is each match type, and how can you use each to your advantage?

1. Broad Match Type – For broad keyword matching, the search engines make assumptions about the intent of the searcher. Let’s say you are bidding on the keyword “buy furniture” using broad match.  Your ad could be triggered by a search for “bedroom furniture”, “furniture repair”, or “furniture store” for example.  However, a search for “Dining Room Table” or “Free Sofa” could also trigger your ad because the search engines know that these terms are related to the term furniture.  In summary, Broad Match Keywords can be costly and ineffective if they aren’t closely monitored and managed. When you add keywords into your Google account, they are automatically classified as Broad Match unless you specify otherwise.
2. Phrase Match Type – For phrase matching, the terms being searched must contain your keywords to trigger your ads. As a result, far fewer assumptions are made by the search engines and the clicks you receive are usually more relevant.  Using the “buy furniture” example above, phrase matching would trigger your ad if the term “where to buy furniture” or “buy furniture repair business” were searched.  Your keywords must appear in the search, but additional words can be placed before or after your phrase.  Phrase Match keywords generate fewer impressions, but in general, produce more relevant results.  When you add keywords into your Google account enclosed by “quotes” they are classified as Phrase Match.
3. Exact Match Type – Exact match is the most precise method for bidding on keywords.  With exact matching, the phrase being searched must match your keyword phrase precisely and cannot contain any additional keywords before or after your phrase.  For the “buy furniture” example, your ads would only be triggered if that exact term were searched upon.  Exact match generates far fewer impressions but the results are almost perfectly matched to your intent.  When you add keywords into your Google account enclosed by [brackets] they are classified as Exact Match.

As you can see, keyword research involves much more than just generating lists of keyword phrases and running your ads.  Careful consideration of the mindset of your target audience can help you determine the Keyword Match Type that best fits your goals.

In my next post, I’ll talk about Negative Keywords and how you can use them to further customize your campaigns.

Steve Ulman

Mercury Leads, Inc.

Keyword Match Types Can Determine Pay-Per-Click Success is a post from: Lead Generation Strategies: No Longer A One-Hit Wonder!