SEO & SEM for B2B Companies
Digital Marketing Tip of the Week by Dreamit CMO Seth Berk
A 2017 study by BrightEdge shows about 51% of all web traffic is generated through organic searches (SEO). However, 10% is generated through paid searches (SEM). So, the smart choice is to leverage both to increase your B2B leads.
SEO-Friendly Content is King for B2B Companies
To drive traffic your way, your B2B company must produce quality content. If not, your page rankings will never increase. Your content needs to be SEO-friendly for it to show up in search engine results. You want to be sure that search engines understand what the content is about, so they can send the right traffic to it.
The Content Marketing Institute says the definition of content marketing is a strategic approach to marketing focusing on creating and distributing content that's relevant, consistent and valuable. It should attract an audience that's clearly defined, and retain that audience. You should drive users to take actions that convert them into customers.
Some brands that created successful content marketing strategies:
- Kissmetrics - Creates relevant and targeted webinars regularly through partnerships with influencers to bring in leads.
- Moz - Allows users to post to the YouMoz blog, where it leverages the user-generated content throughout its network
- Shopify - Generates leads through regular blogging, online guides, podcasts, videos, success stories and case studies
SEM Campaigns Help Drive B2B Traffic
For B2B companies, AdWords and PPC campaigns should lead traffic to landing pages that are relevant. They should always include a clear call-to-action. These campaigns to attract subscribers to your email list. Contact them later with valuable information. This will help you increase your valuable leads.
Here are examples of companies who had very successful SEM campaigns:
- Ann Summers - This award winning PPC campaign was all about brand awareness. They bid on current events and popular news-related SEO keywords. Ads were shown over 1.5 million times and picked up by the press.
- Snickers - Compiled a list of the top 500 search terms with Google's help. Then, created a list of 25,381 common misspellings of those terms. PPC ads received 55,589 impressions, 5,874 visitors and a 1.05% click-through rate.
- Matt Simpson - Launched a Facebook ad campaign in order to find the perfect woman. Targeted the ads using relationship status, age group, interests and demographics. Received 5 leads and 30 clicks in just five days for only $19.39.
Running display ads, search ads and geographically targeted ads helps you do what SEO content can't do on its own. B2B companies need to leverage both high-quality, SEO-friendly content and SEM campaigns to drive valuable leads and increase lead conversions. This will help you increase overall sales.