5 Must-Read Tips for B2B Search Marketing

[Note from Lee: A few weeks ago, Michelle wrote a fantastic post on Retail SEO tips and this week, I've questioned her to tackle B2B SEO and general search marketing tips, since one-size SEO does not fit all programs. Delight in!]

Search marketing should be a top priority for organizations in any industry. But B2B search marketing efforts take a slightly uncommon form than the tactics used in consumer focused SEO and PPC programs . Typically, B2B markets are smaller, products and services are more complex, and sales cycles are longer. Therefore, B2B marketers must reckon a bit differently in terms of butt keywords, online content and link building.

TopRank has worked with many companies by search marketing to reach Business to Business audiences over the past 8 years and we’d like to share these 5 B2B search marketing tips that can help companies maximize their results:

1. For B2B companies, getting found is just the commencement. While B2C companies can reasonably expect to breed a buy from a single site visit, the sales cycle for B2B companies is much longer. Once a prospect finds the B2B website via search, the real work starts to exchange the prospect to a sale. Understanding the B2B hunter and their position within the sales cycle (Evaluation, Consideration, Buy) is essential for making appropriate optimized content to meet their needs.

Additionally, web sites focusing on reaching B2B audiences, must focus an equal amount of effort on gaining relevant search engine rankings and the gumminess of their site. Visitors looking for B2B solutions can be convinced to stay on a site longer by:

• Providing the information prospects need to assess the company and its offerings
• Relying on analytics and user experience metrics to measure gumminess factors, such as time spent on specific pages, clickthrough rates on calls to action and length of visits
• Ongoing heatmap analysis to ensuring that the appropriate links are included on the home page to lead prospects to the most vital content

2. Content is key for B2B websites. For B2C websites, the majority of content focuses purely on product information. Because sales conversions for B2B organizations are based more on building relationships, content must position that organization as an industry thought chief and a trusted resource. Including video demos, case studies and newsletters on a site can help B2B organizations build relationships with their consultation.

For one client in the B2B marketing industry, TopRank devised a blog strategy incorporating industry thought chief interviews. Insight was gathered from notable figures and shaped into keyword-optimized blog posts for a special interview run. This tactic contributed to a nearly 50% increase in organic traffic to the blog. More importantly, referrals from the blog to the corporate site augmented by more than 140%.

3. B2B butt keyword glossaries must be more robust. Visibly, targeting the proper keywords is essential to any search marketing campaign. But for B2B organizations, keywords need to cover a longer buying cycle, and therefore must often be more diverse than B2C butt keywords. Prospects at the commencement of a sales cycle might use certain terms to search for information that differs from terms used by those ready to buy. That variety of keywords must be supported by relevant content and link building as well.

For one B2B client, TopRank® Online Marketing devised a robust keyword strategy that considered audiences at multiple touch points to achieve significant results. The consciousness was made that prospects who are ready to buy typically use solution-based terms – either general or exact product names – in their searches. On the other hand, prospects at the commencement of the sales cycle use issue- or problem-based terms in their searches. The butt keyword glossary, therefore, included both specific product terms and issue-based terms. This helped increase keyword referrals by more than 60%.

4. B2B organizations must reckon outside the box when it comes to link-building. Because B2B markets are typically smaller than B2C markets, there may be fewer websites capable of linking to B2B sites. Consider the amount of fashion-related blogs compared to food processing technology blogs. To increase the number of inbound links to their sites, B2B organizations must get a small creative:

• B2B organizations can approach their supplier networks for inbound links to their site
• B2B organizations with a small butt consultation can make link bait focused on a uncommon but related market
• For very specific niches, a B2B blog consultation can be widened by blogging about more general company-related issues

5. B2B search marketing efforts have to speak to multiple entities within a business. Unlike B2C buys, B2B buys involve uncommon stakeholders within a company. Each stakeholder comes to the site with a uncommon set of expectations.

For example, a B2B site that sells recruitment software might be visited by a company’s HR manager to gauge the effectiveness of the software. A member of the company’s finance department might visit the site to assess the value of the product. In still another scenario, a member of the company’s IT department might visit the site to learn how the software can be integrated into the overall system.

B2B search marketing efforts must identify:

1. Who in the business is buying products/services on the website
2. The level of understanding stakeholders have about products/services
3. The jargon uncommon stakeholders use to find products/services
4. The benefits that their business needs to hear from products/services

As you can see, there are some vital considerations for B2B search marketing vs consumer focused audiences. The key is to know the unique needs of the butt consultation, how they search, evaluate solutions, consume information and ultimately, how search affects choice making, both frankly and indirectly.

What tips do you have for B2B organizations to add to this list?

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5 Must-Read Tips for B2B Search Marketing |
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