7 SEM Strategies B2B Organizations Need To Be Deploying

— July 18, 2019

For B2B companies to succeed they need capable and effective B2B marketers to help position them against the competition and set the foundations to ensure they’re capturing and converting leads to customers.

B2B marketers are generally creative individuals who can efficiently work with numbers, statistics and outcomes. Relying on some basic principles, mobile and website development companies continue to look for innovative ways to reach target prospects while using social media for their two-way conversation between business.

Search marketing for B2B organizations often comes with unique challenges to optimize and manage profitable SEM programs thus, online strategies that work, include:

1. Email marketing
2. Social marketing
3. Content marketing

A smart B2B marketer opts for a cost-effective marketing strategy. Google offers a flexible budget option to optimize web pages and manage traffic constantly.

There are several analytical tools to generate leads that most marketing companies use –

• Manage and analyze customer interactions with HubSpot (Customer relationship management platform).
• Optimizing the website keywords with SEMrush (Search Engine Optimization efforts).
• Build a brand and generate leads with MailChimp (email marketing campaigns).
• Follow multiple social media accounts, blogs and news sources with Feedly (content curation tool).
• Gather all metrics for strategic planning with Databox (powerful market intelligence platform).
• Manage and optimize posts across several social media business account with Sprout Social (social media management tool).
• Demonstrate a product or organize a video meeting with Zoom (video marketing tool).

Google’s recent algorithm update uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a searcher with content related to their query, without the need for specific keywords.

Google Adwords has a network that allows the marketer to get a better rank for a competitive keyword/keyword phrase.

Search engine marketing also referred to as paid search or pay per click (PPC). SEM uses complicated algorithms to ensure the most relevant results. SEM is a powerful tool that improves market visibility, exposure of a brand and its products & services, and generate lead.

When setting up a campaign with an SEM network, marketers must –

1) Select a set of keywords related to their website or product.

2) Create a text-based ad to display in the search results.

3) Bid on a price they are willing to pay for each click on their ad.

SEM networks are self-serve operations, increasing search engine result pages (SERP) increases conversion rate. An Optimized web page copy is a powerful method to put a clear message in front of your buyers.

Follow best practices with the tools mentioned above to give you great ROI of your ad campaign-

• Set a campaign –

Source: Astha Sharma

Google, and other search engines, provide parameters to apply on the landing page for a campaign like geographic location, date & time, a platform to display the ad. These parameters will allow for audience selection – global/ few countries/just one, set the time of the Display Ad – must be set for 24 hours or displayed for limited hours, and platform to deliver the ad to the audience – a campaign can begin from the search engine itself or from the content network.

• An incentive for the response –

Source: Neil Patel

To captivate the attention of the audience creative marketers come up with innovative ideas. To turn visitors into clients, they have changed the old methods of sign up they use whitepapers and ebooks for the users to sign up like neilpatel. Further, they use webinars, surveys, contests, newsletters to encourage visitors to take part and connect.

• Write an Ad –

Source: Keyword Planner

Choosing the right keywords will help generate leads. It is best to use keywords that are humble yet compelling, avoid use of excessive punctuation or shorthand which could be difficult for Google to relate. There are multiple sources to leverage like a keyword suggestion tool to develop and manage keywords.

• Implement tracking & bidding –

Source: Google Adwords

It is best to optimize the budget and bid to get the highest conversion rate from click-throughs. With compelling ads, and tracking feature of Google Ads, it helps to attract visitors and get a track of those that land on a page. Applying manual tracking can help analyze the amount of time a visitor holds on to a website.

• Analyze and test ad –

Source: Optimizely

When making an investment in search engine marketing it is recommended to optimize the traffic for conversions to receive efficient ROI. A great best practice is to A/B split test ads on different landing pages. Analyze which keyword is generating the highest clicks, or which ad is outperforming the other. Platforms like Optimizely can help implement A/B tests offering real-time results.

• Follow Up with the Leads –

Source: Astha Sharma

When an ad campaign is receiving click-throughs, it is best to follow-up with them to get converted. It can be easier to divide leads into two sections – warm (those who just completed a form to get the site information) leads and cool (those visitors who filled the form to download a whitepaper or ebook) leads. This segregation will helps with better follow-up through email or calls.

• Optimizing the website for search –

Source: Omobono

Organic search listing generally produces 3-4 times much clicks than paid ads.

In a survey of 115 marketing specialists in B2B roles, Omobono found that 79% rated social media as the most effective marketing channels, with 38% noting that if they had extra budget for next year, they would spend it on social media.

Social Media is currently the most powerful channel in the B2B marketing world. Social media platforms have opened up two-way conversations between businesses. It is one of the effective platforms in meeting the marketer’s objectives, building thought leadership, and deepening customer relationships.

Social media opens up new possibilities to engage visitors and convert them into the lead – uploading photos or videos of the products and services are great ways of sharing content.

If done well, SEM is capable of adding the real value to your business. Marketers are using it no longer as an option but, as one of the important measures to grow their business and build relationships. Optimize your ad copy and maintain relevancy the more relevant, the higher your ranking will be in the search results.

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