Search engine marketing for a business-to-business company is different than for a business-to-consumer company. In short, there’s more research involved with the user before a buying decision is made. In most instances, B2B purchases are very substantial in cost and can even involve a contract for a decided amount of time. In addition to this, the researcher may not even be the person who has authority to make the buying decision. The user may be researching a number of companies to present to whomever makes the decision. It may take weeks, months or longer for a purchase to be made, if at all.
So how can we market a B2B company site in the search engines to take advantage of this behavior? We still want to bring users to the B2B site through SEO and PPC efforts. The key is to have information that the user can download or have sent to them via e-mail, thus making a conversion. Newsletter and white papers are an excellent way to keep communications alive with the potential client. Make sure these pieces of information are easy to find no matter what page the user is on and don’t make any forms too tedious to fill out.
When analyzing your traffic keep in mind the behavior and processes that the user is more than likely following. This will help you translate your analytics into useful data. Don’t look for the quick sale. It’s all about conversions and continuing that relationship you’ve started.
Jeff Swanson
