Why should you adopt a search marketing strategy when your company is operating in a B2B market?

Firstly, being on page 1 or even #1 position on Google or on any other search engine underlines your industry leadership. This applies to all businesses, even if your business supplies very specific niche products, services, software or applications.

Research into B2B search engine marketing is still limited. However a recent study showed that nearly 75% of people searching for B2B products and services clicked on an organic search result first, leaving top-sponsored links in second with 12% and side sponsored links in third with 7% of clicks. The research mirrors findings in the B2C sector, where nine out of ten people click on organic search result.

It is evident that your business is loosing out if not found through natural search. In addition to the obvious benefits of generating more enquiries and leads there are number of other reasons why you should rank well for natural search:

Increase Search Engine Visibility
Anybody searching for specific products and services online clearly shows intent. They are looking for product / service specific information and key vendors. Make sure you are visible during the purchase cycle, especially when the search for your products and services happens.

Build Brand & Recognition
Strong organic search results (high rankings) for your product and service specific search terms will result in your brand being associated with these search terms over time. You have to view natural search engine marketing as an investment in long-term brand building. Brand awareness and brand recall strength will increase, as your ranking remains high over time.

Enhance Credibility and Legitimacy
Search Engine, in particular Google are increasingly viewed as authorities, when it come to referring trust-worthy companies. High search engine rankings will underline your company’s credibility and legitimacy.

Eliminate risk
Risk plays a huge role in the B2B purchase decision process. Accordingly, potential B2B buyers look for industry leaders with proven track records, strong reputations, and focused expertise. These factors can often outweigh the best features and benefits. Keep in mind those who influence large purchases aren’t just making a decision that can affect the company, they’re making a decision that can affect their career. A strong online presence and high rankings in search engines for relevant search terms will underline your industry leadership.

Build Asset Value
Search Engine Optimisation is not only an investment in the value of your domain name or your website but also in your business as a whole. You should view your investment in sustainable high rankings in line with investing in staff, quality location and other technology.

Transmit Competitive Edge
Outranking your competitors will also send a simple, but powerful message to your potential customers: If you have better search engine ranking than you competitors, you must be better in what you do too.

Finally:
Don’t forget if you don’t take actions, your competitors surely will. Next time you search for your products and services you might find them in top position.

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A content gap in the context of search engine optimisation marketing is informational content related to your business, product or service that could be published on your website and that has people actually search for. Web site content management is essential and it is important to understand that there are literally thousands of people searching every day with keyword phrases that you had never thought about using on your website.

A content gap analysis takes a demand driven approach, analysis where there is specific demand for information related to your business. Closing the content gap and directing relevant traffic to your site could generate new leads. Content gap analysis contain Keyword research and Keyword analysis.

Keyword research and Keyword analysis are the foundations to a successful website and the essential starting point for any search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign. Keyword research is a lengthy process, however done correctly results in a clear understanding of terms and phrases searched for by potential customers for your industry, business, product or service. Keyword research also highlights potential business niches, assessed the competitiveness of relevant keywords and analyses the use of required key competitors.

In a nutshell, a service sales opportunity analysis is researching how many people are actually searching for the services you are offering or planning to offer. A service sales opportunity will give you an understanding of online demand before you launch your service or build a new website or commission new webpages. It is important to understand that there are literally thousands of people searching every day with keyword phrases that you had never thought about using on your website. Equally you could be marketing a service online nobody ever searches for, wasting time and money.

A service sales opportunity analysis can be part of a full keyword research and analysis should this be required. Understanding online demand will also provide vital intelligence on real demand as more and more people search the Internet before they buy a service.

Keyword research and Keyword analysis are the foundations to a successful website and the essential starting point for any search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign. Keyword research is a lengthy process, however done correctly results in a clear understanding of terms and phrases searched for by potential customers for your industry, business, product or service. Keyword research also highlights potential business niches, assessed the competitiveness of relevant keywords and analyses the use of required key competitors.

Poorly qualified sales leads followed up by your sales people can be an expensive waste of your time. Have you ever considered to use your website for sales lead generation? Online lead generation is a very low cost way to receive, qualify and process sales leads.

It is important to remember that there are literally thousands of people searching every day with keyword phrases that you had never thought about using on your website. Some of these searches can be matched to products or services offered by your business generating good conversion and can be turned into actual sales leads without a large investment. There are thousands of online sales opportunities, you just don’t know about them. Search engine optimisation and online marketing will help get these sales opportunities.