Is Search Engine Marketing cost effective enough to increase
profits for B2B marketers? As you know, B2B transactions
differ from most consumer transactions because these decisions
require coordination between a number of different personnel
before the final transaction is made. Therefore, the process
requires a period of time between researching the product
and placing the order. It’s an ongoing rather than
snap decision.
“The Role of Search in Business to Business Buying
Decisions” is a well-designed study of approximately
1500 participants responding to a 40-question survey that
was validated with pre-testing before implementation. You
can download
the entire report for free, and here are a few highlights:
- When participants were asked to indicate how they
would go about making a B2B purchase, 93.2 percent said
they would research the purchase online.
- When asked if they would use a search engine at some
point in this task, 95.5 percent of participants indicated
that they would.
- When asked where they would start their search for information,
63.9 percent of participants chose a search engine over
consumer review sites, e-commerce sites, manufacturer’s
sites, and industry portals.
- When taking budget into consideration, manufacturer’s
sites and industry portals were the chosen starting place
as budgets increased. However, 86.9 percent of participants
said they would visit a search engine after visiting those
sites.
The study is rich with too many details to cover in this
article, but following are some important conclusions:
- Search engines play a dominant role in B2B purchases.
- Search engines are used in the early or mid research
phase in the buying cycle.
- Google is favoured over other search engines.
- Search engine research takes place at least one to two
months before the buying decision.
- Good balance between organic and paid search is necessary.
Organic SEO gets over 70 percent of the clicks.
- Position is a factor, with over 60 percent clicking on
the top 3 listings.
- Most users decide which listing to click on in seconds
upon scanning the page.
With all this qualified traffic originating from search
engines, it is more important than ever for B2B marketers,
wholesalers, and B2B exchanges to ensure their Web sites
are correctly optimised for good positioning in search results.
There is also great value in SEO/SEM as a user-friendly marketing
tool.
The Uniqueness of Search Engine Marketing
Search engine traffic is highly targeted. That's because
potential buyers who find your B2B offerings through search
engines are looking for your products and services on their
own, so they are predisposed to hear your marketing message.
You can’t find a more qualified prospect than that.
Here’s what distinguishes search engine marketing from
other types of advertising:
- Non-Intrusive: Search marketing is
a non-intrusive marketing tool. Most advertising, both
online and offline, interrupts consumer behavior. If
a user goes to a web site for info, up pops an intrusive
ad. Reading a newspaper? Ads dominate and force articles
to be continued on another page. With search engine marketing,
the user is actively seeking your products, services,
and information. They are delighted to be driven to your
site.
- Voluntary: Search marketing is the
result of user-originated behavior. Your visitors from
search engines and directories have voluntarily clicked
on your listing rather than any competitors, thus they
are motivated to explore your offerings.
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