7 Steps to Search Engine Marketing

Steps to Search Engine Marketing Success for B2B Companies

Right now, somewhere, a potential B2B customer is searching for your products. But, who will they find first – your company or your competitor?

Search engine marketing for industrial and B2B companies is all about getting in front of customers at the very moment they are searching for your products on Google and the other engines. But how do you take full advantage of search engine marketing and outshine your competition? The following seven steps will put you on the right path to B2B search engine marketing success.

Step 1 – Define an Effective Strategy

All too often, B2B and industrial companies dive into search engine marketing without a coherent strategy. Don’t fall into this trap. Get off on the right foot by thoroughly defining your target audience(s), identifying their needs and motivations and highlighting how your products can serve these needs. Next, review your company’s position in the marketplace. Identify your top competitors and your company’s competitive advantage. Finally, identify specific goals and benchmarks, such as search rankings, website traffic increases, sales lead volume and other ROI metrics, to allow you to measure the success of your search engine marketing campaign. This strategy will form the foundation of your campaign and put you on the path to success.

Step 2 – Choose the Best Keyword Phrases

The most critical step in search engine marketing is to strategically select the most important keyword phrases for your company. If you do not perform this step properly, your search engine marketing campaign is destined for failure. When choosing the best keywords, it is critical to choose phrases that are not only relevant to your business, but also ones that are searched most often by your target customers throughout the buyer’s journey. Begin by getting inside the heads of your customers and brainstorm about potential terms your customers use when thinking about your products and capabilities through the awareness, consideration and decision stages of the buyer’s journey.