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.

CPC advertising vs. organic SEO

If you have limited time, resources and budget (and don’t we all?) you will probably have to make some tough decisions regarding the time and money you put into your SEM strategy.  Should you spend more resources optimizing your site organically to improve your results on search engine results pages or spend more resources on CPC campaigns through Google’s AdWords?

Both are going to take considerable time and money, but if you have to chose, start with an emphasis on SEO.   While CPC campaigns can produce some immediate results, optimizing your site will give help drive more relevant traffic to your site and give you a better ROI in the long run.
 

Consider placement-targeted campaigns

If you haven’t tested placements in Google’s content network, it may be worth a try.   Placement-targeted ads allow you to actually pick the specific websites you want your ad to appear within the Google content network.    For example, if you’re a vendor of ERP software you could search and find placements such as managingautomation.com, ThomasGlobal.com, or if you specialized in lean manufacturing, you could place your ads on leanblog.org.  Your success will depend on your specific niche market and the availability of suitable sites within the Google network.

One other thing to keep in mind - as you identify and choose the placements where your ad could appear - make sure you use all of the methods Google provides to discover eligible placements.  The default category is “browse categories” – but you might have better luck in finding the right placements by using the “describe topics” or “list URLs” options.

Placement-targeted campaigns may not be better than keyword-targeted ads for your software product, but they’re definitely worth a look.

Ad content

Think about your Unique Value Proposition when you create your ad and if you offer something different than your competition – make sure you put it in your ad.    Maybe it’s a free trial, a money-back guarantee, free training, etc – whatever makes you different; make sure it’s in your ad.

Crawlability

Make sure your site is designed to help crawlers find your relevant information.  The way your website is designed and coded is critical in helping the crawlers find and understand the information on your site.   There are many ways to design your site to make it easy for crawlers to understand your information.   If you don’t already know how to do that (and there’s no reason you should be an expert) – find a SEO partner/expert that can help you.

Negative Keywords

While it’s a simple concept, for some reason, many marketers don’t use negative keywords in their campaigns.   For example, a software company that specializes in repetitive manufacturing software but doesn’t provide solutions for engineer-to-order or make-to-order should use those negative keywords in their keyword selections.   Again, it’s a simple and easy concept, but an often overlooked and under utilized tool.

Geography

Similar to negative keywords, using Google’s ability to target customers by location is another often overlooked tool.   This feature can be especially useful if you’re a local dealer or Value Added Reseller (VAR) that only covers certain states or regions of the country.   Targeting smaller regions can result in more relevant ads with higher clickthrough rates

Research Vertical Search Opportunities

It’s not a surprise that since Kellysearch is a B2B vertical search engine they would include information about vertical search engines in their material…and rightly so.   Vertical search engines can be a great tool for B2B software companies.   Not only are your prospects somewhat “prescreened” by using such sites – the vertical search engines also have other advertising and search opportunities such as fixed fee ads and may have different CPC options.  

Content

This last topic is by far the most important – content.   Above all else, content is king when it comes to SEO and SEM.   The most important thing you can do to improve your SEO/SEM and lead generation results is to make sure the copy on your website is written with SEO best practices in mind and is relevant to your prospects.  

To view the entire webinar, you can visit KellySearch-usa.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under SEM / SEO, Lead Generation, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.