Pipeline’s Lead Generation Blog

Search engine marketing and search engine optimization continue to get a lot of attention in marketing departments today.   Many software companies are still struggling with expectations and where SEM/SEO really fits in to their lead generation plans.

Last week I attended a webinar conducted by Kellysearch.com titled: “B2B Online Marketing Foundations: Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.”

The webinar’s focus was on the differences between Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization, and to provide tips and tools for developing effective SEM and SEO campaigns.  Like many similar type webinars there was a good deal of basic information, but the webinar also had some very solid ideas and tips for B2B marketers. 

Here are a few of the topics and tips I took away from the webinar that I thought were most relevant to our industry.

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Based on their “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans” survey, BtoB Magazine’s editor Ellis Booker and senior reporter Kate Maddox will present a webinar titled “2008 Marketing Outlook 2008” on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 11 AM PST (2 PM EST)

According to their registration information they claim that despite the softness in the overall economy, b-to-b marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year.   During the webinar they plan to review the findings of this annual survey and update them with new interviews and survey data collected in the past month.

Included in their webcast will be:

• How marketers are measuring success in 2008
 
• Where marketers are spending their online budgets
 
• What marketers think about current economic
 conditions, and how these are affecting their plans
 and budget

Register here for this webinar, offered by BtoB Magazine.

Yesterday I posted some information and a few links concerning vertical search engines. 

While it’s not a vertical search engine, I ran across this site a few weeks ago and I think it’s a pretty interesting take on how people may use search engines in the future…not only in their initial search process, but also as they compare and contrast vendors and products throughout the buying process.

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Frustration.  It’s the one word that often best summarizes the general feeling of many B2B software marketers when they refer to their Search Engine Marketing efforts and results.

And it’s just not the software industry that’s feeling frustrated as they attempt to use the major search engines – but most all B2B industries are feeling some type of similar pain.  Most B2B marketers, by now, understand that you simply can’t compare the popularity and effectiveness of search engine results to B2C markets.   The bottom line is that the relevant factors that the major search engines use to determine rankings simply don’t work well for B2B companies.

However, one answer to this frustration may be vertical search engines. 

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