SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) are essential for B2B enterprises to expand their reach and acquire more leads for their business.
According to a recent report published by Gartner titled “The B2B Buying Journey,” decision-makers spend nearly 27% of their time researching online independently while making a purchase decision. Still, many B2B organizations rely on traditional marketing approaches to acquire their clients. It is because they consider SEO and SEM to be irrelevant in the B2B industry. Depending on conventional marketing initiatives such as referral sales, getting leads through cold calling, conferences, and other industry events gets only a limited reach. CMOs of B2B enterprises need to consider marketing through search engines to generate high-quality leads for their sales funnel.
Rank on top for the Target Audience’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
B2B search engine marketing is an effective presales strategy to lure potential customers to the digital assets of any organization. Marketing through search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo will enable businesses to increase their website traffic. Most B2B purchase journeys start with a search query on multiple search engines.
Businesses that aim to have effective search engine marketing campaigns that yield results need an in-depth understanding of the keyword phrases that the prospects might use to resolve their operational challenges. B2B marketing teams can draft and deliver a comprehensive user-centric content creation and marketing strategy.
Marketers need a holistic marketing approach with a perfect blend of Search Engine Optimization and Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to rank at the top of the target audience’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
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SEO:
B2B marketing teams can design and implement effective SEO strategies for better website ranking in organic search results.
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PPC:
PPC plays a crucial role in search engine marketing. Businesses can leverage this online advertising technique to drive direct website traffic. It is one of the most effective ways to gather traffic because the advertiser only pays if they click the ad.
Also Read: B2B Digital Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2023
Ways to Design a Successful B2B Search Marketing Strategy
Extensive Customer Research
Businesses that want to monetize on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) need an in-depth understanding of the ideal buyer persona. It is essential to understand what the target audience is and what are their operational bottlenecks and challenges. Moreover, marketers also need to understand better what type of solution they are looking for to overcome their challenges and who are the purchase decision makers.
Developing a content strategy based on the ideal customer personas and their preferences will help to have a better reach in the total addressable market. While drafting SEO and SEM strategy for businesses, knowing what search terms people search for is crucial for a better ranking on SERP. These search terms of the prospects are the keywords that can help to improve the overall brand visibility on most search engines.
Developing B2B search engine content marketing with all the relevant keywords or search terms will help organizations to optimize their website, landing page, and ad ranking.
A Cohesive SEO and SEM Strategy Will Ensure Success
CMOs of B2B enterprises wanting to make the most of marketing investments must strike a perfect balance between SEO and SEM. Search engine optimization and marketing are essential to deliver a top-notch customer experience and touch them at all the touch points during the B2B purchase cycle. The enterprise that is overlooking the potential of this marketing strategy; will not have a competitive advantage in the industry.
SEO is an effective way businesses can leverage to improve brand visibility on the search engine results page. Firms with an efficient strategy will have more click-through rates (CTR) because their content will match what the user wants. The B2B marketing teams must ensure that all the search terms and keywords are strategically used in all the content. Just ensure that the website does not become a victim of Keyword stuffing to avoid getting penalized by Google algorithm.
Search engine Marketing enables B2B marketers to set display ads on their preferred channel to target their ideal customer persona while they are actively looking to buy a solution.
While drafting PPC ads, not using negative keywords will help to have a higher conversion rate. Ad groups, keywords, ad copy, and landing pages are a few crucial elements that marketers need to consider while designing their SEM strategies.
Content is the King
Any search engine marketing or optimization strategy’s essence is creating engaging and valuable content. All the major search engines prioritize content, and businesses that make content based on the set guidelines will have a better SERP ranking.
Businesses that deliver high-quality content and optimize it regularly can reach a much wider target audience. A content strategist can comply with SEO guidelines for all content creators, whether it is through a blog, whitepaper, infographic, or video.
One crucial aspect that needs consideration while drafting the content is its need to be educational rather than curated from a selling perspective. Rather than having direct marketing in the content strategy, organizations can empower the customers with industry insights, knowledge, and trends to improve engagement. It is crucial for brands to constantly evaluate their search engine content marketing campaigns to make strategic changes based on user preferences and needs.
Also Read: Government reintroduces GDPR replacement legislation with new marketing reforms
Embrace user-centricity
Businesses must attract and engage customers to develop trustworthy relationships and create a loyal customer base. Designing and executing an effective SEM strategy will enable businesses to engage customers. While developing the content for brand awareness, companies must use interactive language, answer long-tail question queries, and feature snippets to engage the customer.
Besides search engines, B2B enterprises can leverage social media tools as a part of their SEM strategy to increase the potential reach of marketing campaigns. Many marketing teams overlook social media’s power for their B2B marketing campaigns. Embracing social media will have a tremendous influence on the rankings on SERP. It’s the smartest way to engage customers and drive more traffic to the brand website. Social media optimization and running PPC campaigns are other effective ways to gather high-quality leads for the leads funnel.
Search engine marketing and optimization are crucial for B2B enterprises of all sizes and industries. The best blend of SEO and SEM will enable businesses to accomplish all their presales goals and have a higher ROI.
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