Aligning with Get There’s B2B sales cycle discussion in May, Crain’s released a study earlier this year that showed cycles are longer than they used to be. Today’s potential customers usually do not contact a brand until they are more than halfway through the sales cycle. Because of this trend, B2B marketers are feeling more pressure than ever to appear in relevant search results and to track engagement from start to finish.
Understanding how a lead goes from awareness to consideration to purchase tells the marketer exactly where to invest their time and money. Since the first step is awareness, we want to help you understand how to appear in the search results that will get you the leads you want.
The B2B marketer concerned with lead generation can benefit greatly from Google’s Authorship Program, which helps them combine social sharing with thought leadership to garner online interest. An authorship initiative helps cultivate name recognition in search results, provides a new stream of communication through personal Google+ connections, and helps brands rank more prominently through authored posts that have gotten positive attention on social networks. Establishing this feeling of personal connection with leads is the best way to keep them engaged. This ongoing collection of articles on Google Authorship is a helpful resource to stay updated on Google’s frequent changes.
Showing up in relevant search results is much easier to negotiate thanks to data reporting. Careful analysis of your social networks will help you strengthen your weaknesses, show up more often and engage leads through every channel. Keyword and content performance monitoring allow you to optimize both SEO and SEM elements for a sustainable future through search results. Google Analytics still provides the most detailed tracking of page traffic as it is linked to keyword campaigns and content strategies. Study that tracking and find ways to develop it, making it work further to your advantage.
Some marketers might consider marketing automation an easy way out or something that, if possible, they should avoid. In fact, the opposite is true. Software designed to automate repetitive tasks is a marketer’s best friend. The marketer can outline specific criteria and outcomes that are organized and filtered by a program that, in the end, provides the most efficient possible method of execution. Marketo offers its readers extensive research and support on the topic that we encourage you to explore.
(Image credit: Sacha Chua)
(Click here to expand)
