Pulling B2B Buyers Through the Funnel with SEM

Pulling B2B Buyers Through the Funnel

Online Marketing Connect

Search Engine Marketing Focus Week – May 2011

Stacy Williams

Marketing/advertising: 23 years

Search engine marketing: 13 years

Founded Prominent Placement: 2001

Charter member of SEMPO

President-Elect of SEMPO Atlanta

When not working: wrangling two teenage daughters

www.linkedin.com/in/stacyswilliams http://twitter.com/stacywms

Prominent Placement, Inc.

Full-service, award-winning search engine marketing agency based in Atlanta

Provide search engine optimization (SEO) & pay-per-click (PPC) services to clients nationwide

Majority of clients are B2B

Brilliant team of 12 helped me put this together

Why should B2B marketers care about SEM?

Where do B2B buyers start when researching purchases online?

Where do B2B buyers go throughout the buying cycle stages?

Source: Webinar by Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro, 2008

Topics I’ll cover

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy Keyword strategy

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

Landing page strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Reputation management

Social media strategy

Bridge the gap between site analytics & CRM

Top of the funnel: awareness, research

Bottom of the funnel: negotiation, purchase

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Keyword research is critical

Use the verbiage your target audience uses – not what your industry or internal experts use

“search marketing” or “web optimization”?

“healthcare” or “health care”?

“professional retouching” or “picture airbrushing”?

“financial solutions” or “financial software”?

Opposite:

“payment card industry data security standard” or “PCI DSS”?

Choose keywords that don’t trigger editorial results

80% editorial

Choose keywords that don’t trigger editorial results

80% commercial

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Optimize lots of content – all different kinds of content

Companies create voluminous content – hunt it down!White papers

Sales literatureProduct documentation

Spec sheetsCase studies

Marketing materialsCustomer testimonials

FAQsVideosPhotosMaps

Presentations

Universal Search: optimize all digital content

Blogging: no longer sexy; still very effective

Every company has experts just dying to have a voice

Find them – give them an outlet

Stagger content creation with content curation

Data capture for lead nurturing

Request a free quote

Try an audit

Sign up for newsletter

Like/recommend/share

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Link-building methods

For any site:

Directory submissions

Competitive intelligence

Link reclamation

Promotions/giveaways

Authoritative links

Viral content/linkbait

Social media profiles/content

For B2B sites:

Partner/vendor sites

Customer/client sites

Vertical directories

Industry bloggers & tweeters

Article publication

Industry associations

Better Business Bureau

Optimized press releases build links & more

- Bypass the press & go directly to your prospects

- Take up more room in the SERPs

- Generate brand awareness & site traffic

- Build links pointing to your site

Optimized press releases build links & more

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Goal: “clean” SERPs when decision-maker checks you out

Control the content that shows up for your own name

Website

Twitter profile

Facebook profile

LinkedIn profile

BusinessWeek profile

(not us)

Optimized press release

Video (not us)

Website

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Content – Votes – Links

Lead nurturing – staying top of mind

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

(Back to SEO keyword strategies)

Editorial results don’t matter here

Use both your own and prospects’ verbiage

Include keywords for all stages of the buy cycle

Top of the funnel: broader, more information-based

ERP software

ERP software information

ERP software research

ERP software benefits

compare ERP software

review ERP software

evaluate ERP software

Top of the funnel: pain- or symptom-based

software migration problems

software migration bugs

unsecure network

network hacked

network crash

slow server

“The B2B purchaser is more emotionally removed from brands,

and bases judgment on real benefits and needs. That means searches will

involve less brand names and more pain-based or challenge-based

keywords.” - Andrew Spoeth, Enquiro

Avoid consumer clicks

Keywords: industrial, commercial, business, wholesale, professional, bulk, volume

Ad copy:

Ad scheduling: during business hours or some B2B buyers research Sunday evenings & convert Tuesday afternoons

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Goal #1: Provide information

White paper

Webinar

Free trial

Consultation

Newsletter

Case studies

Goal #2: Capture data

Classic tradeoff between amount of data collected and

number & quality of leads

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Social media targeting: by industry, title or interest

Facebook

Twitter

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Bottom of the funnel: long tail terms

scalable ERP software

ERP software provider

ERP software companies

open source ERP software

ERP software for small business

Microsoft Dynamics ERP software

ERP software for pharmaceutical manufacturers

Don’t forget to bid on your own brand name

Dominate the SERPs – build credibility

Click-through rate increases

Conversion rate increases

Control the copy that’s displayed – convey marketing/sales message

Leave fewer spots for competitors

Low cost / high ROI keywords

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Goal: convince prospect to buy our brand

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Latent conversions & attribution

Decision by committee adds time and makes accurate tracking difficult

Set cookies to a long expiration date (6-12 months)

Watch for newconversionattributiontools

Google Analytics’ multi-channel funnels & assists

Source: Daniel Waisberg, Conversion Journey, Search Engine Land 4/15/11

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

How phone call tracking works

Type in URL directly & see this:

Click on a Google organic listing & see this:

Click on a Google paid listing & see this:

18. Call tracking ensures you’re measuring all results

Mini Case Study:

-71% of leads came in by phone

-Increased PPC bids

-Doubled the number of PPC leads generated

SEO PPC ANALYTICS

Keyword strategy

Content strategy

Linking strategy

PPC on social media

Latent conversions

Phone call tracking

Web analytics & CRM: gap

CRM (Salesforce etc.)

• Fields filled out on form

Number of S.E. leads, estimated revenue based on average closing rate & sales amount

Number of customers from all sources & total revenue generated

Reporting Disconnect:

Historical Method

Web analytics & CRM: no gap

CRM (Salesforce etc.)

• Fields filled out on form

Number of S.E. customers & revenue generated

Today’s Method

Action items

1. Keywords: target all phases of the buy cycle, include pain points & brand. For SEO, avoid industry jargon and keywords that trigger editorial results.

2. Optimize as much content as you can, including different types of content (company documents, videos/photos, blogs, press releases, social media).

3. PPC should have separate ad groups, keywords, ad copy and landing pages for those at the top of the funnel vs. those late in the buy cycle. Filter out consumers where you can.

4. Test PPC on social media sites.

5. Gather data for lead nurturing at every step.

6. Hone analytics as much as you can, including long cookies, conversion attribution, phone call tracking, and pulling web analytics data into your CRM.

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