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I recently posted a brief article on my
blog about the importance of
organic
search marketing budgets as part of the entire B2B marketing budget. As
search
crosses the chasm and search generates more interest from the C-level, you can
bet that marketing budgets will shift from traditional mediums to search. Search
marketing is a seven billion dollar/yr industry and experts predict that by 2010
search marketing will be a twelve billion dollar/yr industry. While most of the
online marketing budgets are directed towards sponsored campaigns, the
importance of organic search engine marketing and proper analytics for tracking
success is a recipe for any successful online marketing campaign. For successful B2B marketing in 2007, there are three “ingredients” to keep in
mind:
- Paradigm shifts in the planning of marketing strategies and budgets (search
engine marketing anyone?)
- Establishing proper metrics to track
- Studying analytics as part of the lead generation process
Paradigm Shifts in the Planning of Marketing Strategies and Budgets
I’ve already touched on this, but as B2B marketers we need to take advantage of
online opportunities. A well rounded search marketing strategy involves a
sponsored and organic component. Part of your marketing budget should be
directed at search marketing (whether you will be outsourcing or performing it
in-house). Organically speaking a site that is well optimized and ranking in the
search engines can prove very effective as organic results are longer lasting.
With the B2B arena involving a much more complex web of interactions between
prospects and vendors, having your organization represented in the prime real
estate of a search engine results page will help ensure that you are on the list
of potential vendors during the selection process. The point is planning of a
dedicated search marketing budget is becoming more important that ever. Still
not sold on a dedicated search marketing budget? Well you can bet that your
competition is doing is as search continues to gain popularity and enter the
mainstream.
Establishing Proper Metrics to Track
Another key in B2B marketing in 2007 is establishing the proper metrics to
track. With B2B marketing, the actual transaction represents only a small part
of the entire purchase process. As a result, establishing proper metrics to
track along the way is key to determining your success. These metrics can be
established from:
a) Your Organization’s KPIs – the key performance indicators for your company as
a whole can help determine the proper metrics that you should be tracking.
Lead
generation sites may have different KPIs than would an
information type site.
b) Online Goals – may or may not be the same as your organization’s goals. You
may have an online goal to increase traffic to your site by 20% every quarter
for two years. In order to measure your site’s success, you may want to use
online goals such as these to determine if your SEM strategies are returning the
results that you expected.
c) Competition – Know your competition and visit their websites. They may
disclose some information as to how they are measuring their success. From here
you may be able to establish key metrics that you should be tracking as well.
If you are unsure whether you are tracking the proper metrics for your online
success you may want to revisit the metrics and evaluate your analytics to
determine if improvements are necessary.
Studying Analytics as part of the Lead Generation Process
With B2B companies, lead generation is a vital cog in the wheel that turns. It’s
no secret that B2B transactions have a longer selling cycle and usually involve
a higher end purchase. The amount of time a potential client researches a
solution for their need can take weeks, months and even years. Therefore
studying analytics as part of the lead generation process may help uncover areas
of improvement for your lead generation process. Analytics can offer a wealth of
knowledge providing you take time to ensure that your analytics is set up
correctly and is tracking proper metrics. With proper analytics you can review
items such as:
- Number of repeat visitors to conversion pages
- Sponsored search cost - broken down by products/services, keyword, source and
campaign
- Length of time spent on site
- Where search visitors go on your site after leaving the ‘landing’ page or your
site entirely
- Search visitor form requests drop-out behavior and rates
- Path analysis as an indication where potential leads are leaving the site
- Geo region where the majority of site visitors are coming from (this can help
you define new markets to enter or existing markets to focus on)
There is so much more that you can track though your analytics providing that
you have an analytics package that is robust enough to measure what you need to
measure. That in itself is the trick, “measure what you need to measure.”
This recipe may not guarantee success but it will sure contribute to it. I see
B2B marketing in 2007 incorporating the use of search marketing as not only a
tool for promotion, but as a necessary means to improve ROI. |
enquiro research
Jody Nimetz