Your next move… LinkedIn Ads: https://www.linkedin.com/ads/

LinkedIn Ads is an offering from the popular professional networking site that provides many targeting options and cost-effective innovative ways to reach your audience.

Campaigns can be created to target a specific message, product, general brand, promote a web conference or anything you want to make sure your audience is aware of.

Here’s a look at how you can use specific targeting options to make your LinkedIn Ads campaign work for you.

Step 1: Create Your Ad

This process is similar to other ad networks we all use to promote brands, products and offerings. Make sure the messaging in line with what you want your audience to do…buy a product, sign up for a conference, add a new service offering or just plain remember your brand. Don’t forget to include your company’s logo. Brand awareness is key and helpful.

As you can see in the image above, ads can be simple text or include an image. The headline allows for 25 characters and the body text can span two lines with a total of 75 characters.

Step 2: Determine Audience Targeting

This is where the real value of LinkedIn Ads is… very granular audience targeting! Here is a summary of the six main ways B2B marketers can target business buyers.

Geo-Targeting

Pick your continent, pick your country, pick your state, region, pick your metro. You can target your audience right down to their exact location. While this is similar to many ad networks just wait and see what else you can do…

Industry Targeting

Targets can be selected based on the industry they serve. You can reach those in agriculture, arts, construction, education, government — to list a few.

There are even more specific categories within those broad industry categories. Be mindful that you can only select up to 10 industries. If you need to reach more industries, I recommend that you create separate campaigns. This approach also allows you to offer more relevant ads.

Company Targeting

You can select your audience based on the company they work for (or have worked). Do you have a list of leads that you want to notify about your latest product offering or conference? Create a campaign and remind them they need to sign up or update their product.

Selecting companies by their size is also available so if you need to reach small business you can opt-out of companies that may be too big for your offering.

Role/Title Targeting

Only need marketing managers? Skip the C Level and go straight to the Marketing department. Know the exact job function you want to reach? Simply enter the specific job titles.

Targeting the right people has never been easier. This feature is great if, for example, you are trying to increase registrations for a conference that would be helpful to Fortune 500 Marketing teams.

Group Targeting

Are you trying to reach a certain group of people not necessarily based on their company or job function, but rather groups they are members of …yeah you can do that too. For instance, B2B marketers may want to reach members of organizations relevant to a certain industry.

One example: targeting a CPA group because your business offers software for financial auditing.

Demographic Targeting

Finally, do you only want to find women or individuals in their 30’s…you can reach them through LinkedIn’s targeting offerings. All you have to do is opt in.

Step 3: Optional ReTargeting

You can keep your ads running outside of the LinkedIn platform by opting in to the LinkedIn Network which allows you to follow that Marketing Manager that you are targeting if they visit any site in the Network. This option is similar to PPC search retargeting – across various content/display networks.

Target Your Business Buyer

For B2B Marketers reaching your exact audience has never been easier. Setting-up a LinkedIn Ads campaign is at your fingertips. And remember, this isn’t about driving the biggest click-thru-rate this is about reminding prospects of your business, product, or upcoming conference. This is about awareness.

If I remember anything from my advertising studies at Penn State its frequency, frequency, frequency…and LinkedIn Ads offers this in an affordable, highly-targeted format.

Your next move… LinkedIn Ads:  https://www.linkedin.com/ads/

LinkedIn Ads is an offering from the popular professional networking site that provides many targeting options and cost-effective innovative ways to reach your audience.

Campaigns can be created to target a specific message, product, general brand, promote a web conference or anything you want to make sure your audience is aware of.

Here’s a look at how you can use specific targeting options to make your LinkedIn Ads campaign work for you.

Step 1: Create Your Ad

This process is similar to other ad networks we all use to promote brands, products and offerings. Make sure the messaging in line with what you want your audience to do…buy a product, sign up for a conference, add a new service offering or just plain remember your brand. Don’t forget to include your company’s logo. Brand awareness is key and helpful.

As you can see in the image above, ads can be simple text or include an image. The headline allows for 25 characters and the body text can span two lines with a total of 75 characters.

Step 2: Determine Audience Targeting

This is where the real value of LinkedIn Ads is… very granular audience targeting! Here is a summary of the six main ways B2B marketers can target business buyers.

Geo-Targeting

Pick your continent, pick your country, pick your state, region, pick your metro. You can target your audience right down to their exact location. While this is similar to many ad networks just wait and see what else you can do…

Industry Targeting

Targets can be selected based on the industry they serve. You can reach those in agriculture, arts, construction, education, government — to list a few.

There are even more specific categories within those broad industry categories. Be mindful that you can only select up to 10 industries. If you need to reach more industries, I recommend that you create separate campaigns. This approach also allows you to offer more relevant ads.

Company Targeting

You can select your audience based on the company they work for (or have worked). Do you have a list of leads that you want to notify about your latest product offering or conference? Create a campaign and remind them they need to sign up or update their product.

Selecting companies by their size is also available so if you need to reach small business you can opt-out of companies that may be too big for your offering.

Role/Title Targeting

Only need marketing managers? Skip the C Level and go straight to the Marketing department. Know the exact job function you want to reach? Simply enter the specific job titles.

Targeting the right people has never been easier. This feature is great if, for example, you are trying to increase registrations for a conference that would be helpful to Fortune 500 Marketing teams.

Group Targeting

Are you trying to reach a certain group of people not necessarily based on their company or job function, but rather groups they are members of …yeah you can do that too. For instance, B2B marketers may want to reach members of organizations relevant to a certain industry.

One example: targeting a CPA group because your business offers software for financial auditing.

Demographic Targeting

Finally, do you only want to find women or individuals in their 30’s…you can reach them through LinkedIn’s targeting offerings.  All you have to do is opt in.

Step 3:  Optional ReTargeting

You can keep your ads running outside of the LinkedIn platform by opting in to the LinkedIn Network which allows you to follow that Marketing Manager that you are targeting if they visit any site in the Network. This option is similar to PPC search retargeting – across various content/display networks.

Target Your Business Buyer

For B2B Marketers reaching your exact audience has never been easier. Setting-up a LinkedIn Ads campaign is at your fingertips. And remember, this isn’t about driving the biggest click-thru-rate this is about reminding prospects of your business, product, or upcoming conference. This is about awareness.

If I remember anything from my advertising studies at Penn State its frequency, frequency, frequency…and LinkedIn Ads offers this in an affordable, highly-targeted format.

In search marketing it’s essential to track conversions, such as contact forms, white paper downloads, and webinar registrations. But if that’s your sole focus, you’re likely miscalculating and underestimating your ROI on search marketing.

Gain insight into your web visitor behavior and boost sales when you request a complimentary Web Analytics Review

To be successful today, it’s essential you measure the collective value of a variety of key online actions. Rather than just using conversions to measure your search marketing success, you should look beyond the initial conversion to the executive-level big picture.

Determining Your Search Marketing ROI – How to Start

To evaluate your search marketing efforts, start with these four considerations:

1. List all desirable actions that your website visitors can take
2. Determine which of these actions indicate some interest in your company, products and/or services
3. Find out how these actions reveal where each visitor is in the buying cycle
4. Determine the marketing value for each of these actions

Looking at the value of all visitor actions is particularly important for B2B companies with long sales cycles, or selling complex products or services with an in-depth decision-making process. B2B marketers need to look beyond registrations forms and measure the value in engagement and relationship building.

List All Desirable Visitor Actions

In addition to obvious conversions, evaluate all other actions website visitors can take. For example, there is usually monetary value in getting a prospect to:

• View a product page
• Watch a demo
• Take a product tour
• Read an analyst review related to your company
• Access a client case study
• Use an app such as dealer finder, product selection tool, or calculator

These actions generally aren’t considered conversions. Therefore, many companies fail to track them or calculate their value when measuring ROI. However, all of these actions indicate interest and engagement, could lead to a sale, and thus are valuable.

Gain insight into your web visitor behavior and boost sales when you request a complimentary Web Analytics Review

Visitor Behavior Reveals the Buying Cycle

To determine the value of each site visitor and action, it’s best to determine where they are in the buying cycle. Happily, search marketing usually provides excellent intelligence on where each visitor is in the sales process and buying cycle.

In B2B and complex sales, there are three main categories for leads. Each visitor to your site will likely reveal where they are in the buying cycle. The further visitors are in the cycle, the more valuable they are. The three cycles are:

• Early-cycle prospects: These visitors are in education mode and are seeking basic industry knowledge and general market information. Assets that provide a good market overview – or discuss broad industry trends – reveal early cycle prospects, and are great tools for engaging them.
• Mid-cycle prospects: They’re familiar with the industry and typically are evaluating options and vendors. Mid-cycle prospects usually appreciate – and download – assets such as comparison papers or analyst evaluations.
• Late-stage prospects: They’re ready to select a vendor/partner and purchase. Late-stage prospects are looking for specific information on packages and pricing, terms and conditions, and service contracts. Visitors seeking this type of information are your most valuable web visitor.

It’s essential your website offers information that is meaningful and helpful to prospects in all phases of the buying cycle. For example, many B2B marketers fail to provide information to the early buying cycle demographic. However, it’s essential to get your brand in front of potential customers early and often as they research and compare, then select and purchase products and services.

Visitors to your website can take many different actions, perhaps dozens. So how do you determine the value of each? You’ll find out when you check out check out Part 2 of this article in my next post. You’ll discover how to estimate the value of not only conversions, but just about any website behavior.

Gain insight into your web visitor behavior and boost sales when you request a complimentary Web Analytics Review

Today, savvy business marketers are defining search marketing success not just in terms of pre-defined conversions… but rather, based on the value of multiple, desirable online actions.

That’s right — they are thinking beyond the white paper!

4 Questions To Help You Evaluate Search Marketing Value

I urge you to ask these four questions when considering how to evaluate your search marketing efforts:

1. What are the various actions prospects can take on your website?
2. Do these actions indicate some level of interest in your company; your products and services?
3. How might each of these actions relate to a prospect’s buying process?
4. Is there some marketing value (even if it is small) associated with each of these actions?

This is particularly important for B2B companies selling high consideration, complex products or services, and companies with long sales cycles. B2B marketers at these firms need to think in terms of engagement and relationship building — not simply registrations forms.

Consider All Website Actions

In addition to the obvious tasks (i.e. conversions) such as form completions,  evaluate all the other actions website visitors can take. For example, most business marketers would agree that there is definite value in getting a prospect to:

• View a product page
• Use an app such as a Dealer Finder, or a Product Selection Tool, or a calculator
• Access a client case study
• Read an analyst review related to your company
• Take a product tour
• Watch a demo

All of these actions are indeed valuable. All of these actions indicate interest. All of these actions involve some level of engagement.

et, most are not considered “conversions”, do not require a registration form (hopefully), and are not tracked nor evaluated in the vast majority of B2B search marketing programs.

Website Actions Provide Clues About The Buying Cycle

The website engagement process also provides clues as to where a prospect may be in the buying cycle.

For example:

• Early-buying-cycle prospects are in education mode. They are looking for general market information and basic industry knowledge. Assets that provide a good overview, or discuss broad market trends can be a great way to engage these visitors.
• Mid-cycle prospects who are already familiar with the industry, are typically evaluating options and vendors. At this stage, website information and downloadable assets like comparison papers or analyst evaluations are very helpful.
• Late-stage prospects are ready to select a vendor/partner and purchase. At this point, they are looking for specific information on packages and pricing, terms and conditions, and service contracts.

Business marketers, make sure your website offers information that is helpful and meaningful to prospects at all phases of the buying cycle. It is important to get your brand in front of potential customers early and often as they research, compare, select and purchase products and services.

Estimating Conversion Value

In terms of online registration forms and other conversions, typically B2B marketers start with the lifetime value of a customer and then work backward through the lead funnel to determine an estimated value.

For instance, the value of a white paper registration is probably based on:

• percentage of registrants who provide valid contact information
• percentage of these valid contacts who are target leads
• percentage of these target leads that are worthy of follow-up by your sales team
• then, high quality sales leads
• and finally… customers

The lead management and sales process described above can take months for many B2B firms.

Regardless of the time required, B2B search marketing leads can deliver big results.

Point in case: I work with a software firm that recently obtained a new customer. The initial sale was worth nearly half a million dollars. The origin of the contact was a $3.50 PPC click that resulted in a white paper download.

Estimating The Value Of Other Desirable Actions

Tracking and evaluating search-generated conversions can be difficult enough, but what about all those other online actions? We’ve determined that they do represent engagement and interest, and we know that these actions help prospects move through the buying process.

So, why wouldn’t you want to estimate the value? After all, getting prospects to take these steps is a direct result of your search marketing and website investment. But what’s the best way to estimate the value of all these possible website actions?

Here’s a crazy idea: Guess!

That’s right… estimate a small, but reasonable value associated with each web site action. Base it on other marketing efforts, if possible. Talk with your marketing team. Start with a very conservative value that everyone can agree on.

Ask yourself: what is it worth to your company to:

• Get your brand in front of a prospect (ppc ad impressions or organic listing)
• Have someone click through to your home page (or landing page)
• Go beyond this page and surf around your website
• Visit a product/services page
• View a case study
• View an online demo
• Interact with your Find a Dealer application

…you get the idea!

Perhaps a search engine impression is only worth a few cents. A search visitor is worth a few dollars. Getting the visitor to move beyond the landing page is worth even more; and viewing a product demo or accessing a case study – provides even more value yet.

I encourage you to assign small, estimated values to all of these actions – defined as goals or events via your analytics platform.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

We used to encourage online marketers to “think beyond the click”. Now it’s – “think beyond the conversion”.

B2B marketers should take these steps to estimate your true search marketing ROI:

• Make sure your website offers plenty of engagement options.
• Ensure that you are offering information and assets that aid all types of prospects across the entire buying cycle.
• Verify that you can isolate paid and organic search traffic in your analytics data.
• Track all desirable website actions using goals and events.
• Assign a small but reasonable estimated value to each action.
• Include the estimated value of all of these actions in your search marketing ROI calculation.

Tracking online conversions is important… but there’s more to the search marketing value equation.

In business-to-business (B2B) web marketing, the #1 key to your success is converting web visitors into leads and sales.

Perhaps you’ve got plenty of web traffic. Great. But how’s your conversion rate? What percentage of your visitors is turning into leads – and customers? Unless it’s 100%, you can and must improve.

Limited time! FREE offer!  Turn more visits into sales when you request a complimentary Web Marketing Plan, custom-tailored for you by our experts

Web marketing strategies that work with consumers often don’t work with B2B. That’s because B2B typically involves high-value, complex sales cycles. So your job is to convert visitors into leads – so your sales team can follow up and close deals.

In my most recent post, you discovered 5 strategies for turning web visitors into sales – sound, proven techniques to boost your leads and profit. In part 2 below, you’ll find 5 more.

6.            Create a Sense of Urgency

Website visitors have short attention spans. So you need to present compelling information and clear offers that create a sense of urgency. Use offers with limited time or availability to motivate visitors to take action now. In a case study, a time-sensitive call-to-action increased response rate by 46% compared with a call-to-action that wasn’t time sensitive.

7.            Continuously Test Calls-to-Action

Constantly try out different calls-to-action. In analytics, look at the navigation report for your top 10 pages and determine hot topics for calls-to-action.  And test different information formats – if a white paper isn’t working, try offering a short video or hosting a webinar on the topic. By seeking to engage your visitors in various ways, you’ll identify the calls-to-action that work best.

Limited time! FREE offer!  Turn more visits into sales when you request a complimentary Web Marketing Plan, custom-tailored for you by our experts

 8.            Offer Choices to Boost Response Rate

Your visitors vary widely – and acknowledging that will help convert them into leads. Test various offers and assets, and empower visitors by giving them choices. In one test, providing two offers increased leads by 63% over a single call-to-action.

And your visitors’ needs will change over time. Prospects early in the buying process often prefer general market information. Those further along in their research appreciate comparison charts and independent reviews. Prospects who are ready to buy want information on options and pricing, and to make contact with a sales rep.

9.            Ensure Promises Are Accurate

Ensure promises are accurate and consistent. For example, a link sending visitors to a registration form should not read “download now”.  A more honest statement is “register for instant access. “Also make sure your website engagement process is straightforward and simple: make it easy for visitors to give and receive information.

10.          Regularly Review Analytics Data

Your analytics data – if set up properly – can be enlightening and profitable. It’s essential that you review your analytics data at least quarterly, preferably monthly, to ensure the code is intact and that you’re tracking the right information.  If your analytics data isn’t set up properly, your data will be inaccurate and you’ll be making decisions based on false information.

Conclusion: the key to your search marketing success is to test, test, test… and discover what landing pages and offers work best for your target audience. Focus on simplicity, compelling information, buyer benefits, and urgency to increase your qualified leads.

Take action on the tips above, and watch your leads – and profit – grow. Be sure to enjoy part 1 of this article, with 5 more valuable tips on How to Convert Your Web Visitors Into Leads

Limited time! FREE offer!  Turn more visits into sales when you request a complimentary Web Marketing Plan, custom-tailored for you by our experts

Below are four recommended negative keyword targeting methods that will help you better target your B2B ad campaigns.

Utilize Both Campaign & Ad Group Level Negatives

You can apply negatives at the campaign level or at the ad group level in Google AdWords.

Campaign-level negatives apply to every ad group in your entire campaign. Use campaign negatives for broad-based, general, undesirable words, phrases and concepts.

For example, many B2B marketers who are selling high-priced, high-consideration products or services use campaign-level negatives for words like: free, used and cheap.

Ad group-level negatives only apply to a single group of words. I recommend that you use Ad Group negatives for more granular and specific undesirable words and phrases.

For example, if you sell commercial doors, home would be a good negative keyword to add to your Commercial Garage Door Ad Group.

Include All Forms Of The Negative Keyword

When implementing negatives, don’t forget to consider all variations of the keyword. This is the only way to ensure you weed out all undesirable queries. Specifically, I recommend that you:

•  Include both the singular and plural variations of the negative keyword
•  Include common misspellings

Actual B2B search query data shows that PPC ads are often times erroneously displayed for commonly misspelled undesirable) keywords. Why? B2B marketers forget to add misspellings to their negative list.

For example, to prevent your ads from showing on search queries that include the word foreign, add the following words to your negative list:

- Forinn

- Forieng

- foriegn

Use Google’s Search Query Tool to find variations, derivatives and misspellings of non-desirable words and phrases.

Include Phrase & Exact Match Negatives

When including negatives, it may be easy to determine several broad match keywords you would want to add (such as “home” from earlier example). But, you should also know that both “phrase” and [exact] match negatives can be included in your Negative KW list(s), which is often a good idea.

Phrase match negatives should be included in “quotes”. These negatives will prevent your ads from being displayed when this phrase is included in a search query (in the exact order).

For example, if you sell commercial pet supplies, add the phrase “denver broncos” as a phrase match negative keyword.

Exact match negatives should be included in [brackets]. Google will not show your ads when someone searches for the exact word or phrase you include as a negative.

• If you don’t want to run PPC ads to promote a white paper – you can add an exact match negative keyword: [white paper].
• Or if you’d like to maintain your company as a premium provider, include brackets around keywords such as [bargain][closeout], and [discount].

Include Domain Name Negatives

When analyzing website search queries you’ll likely find several domain names. For non-relevant domains that you don’t want to trigger you ads, add the domain as a negative. Here’s how to do this:

• Periods (and dashes) are ignored by AdWords, so this domain: laptopcomputers.com will actually be depicted as laptopcomputers com in your search query report. (Notice the space where the period used to be located).
• Based on how AdWords treats periods, you should use a phrase match negative keyword like this: laptopcomputers com
• In addition, you should also include a second negative keyword using the period (i.e. laptopcomputers.com) – to ensure all desired negative keywords are included.

Target Your Investment

Keyword targeting is extremely important for B2B marketers… especially firms investing a significant amount in lead generation and customer acquisition. When you’re paying $10 – $20 per click and over $100 per lead, you need to make sure the searchers’ intent is aligned with your marketing objectives.

Test these four proven negative keyword methods to improve your PPC ad targeting methods and results.

In business-to-business (B2B) web marketing, your success depends on converting web visitors into qualified leads. Perhaps you have plenty of web traffic. Great. But how’s your conversion rate? What percentage of your visitors is turning into leads – and customers?

Unless it’s 100%, you can improve. So marketers like you need to continuously boost their efforts to convert more website visitors into profitable leads.

Boost your conversion rate when you request a complimentary Website Usability & Conversion Assessment, custom-tailored for you by our team of experts

As many B2B marketers have learned the hard way, web marketing strategies that work with consumers aren’t necessarily effective with B2B. That’s because B2B typically involves a high-value, complex sales cycle. So you need to convert visitors into qualified leads, who are added to your database or CRM so your sales team can follow up by email or phone.

The following 10 tips are sound, proven techniques that – when  implemented properly – will increase the quantity and quality of your leads and your web marketing profit.

1.  How to Find Out What Your Web Visitors Really Want

Start by analyzing which pages your visitors visit most – this reveals their areas of interest.

There are a number of analytics programs such as google analytics. I recommend focusing on your top 10 pages, then looking at two key reports: which pages visitors came from – and which pages they visited next. By understanding your visitors’ behavior and navigation, you’ll understand what they’re seeking.

Usually the home page is your most visited page, but where do visitors go next? An understanding of what pages they visit next is essential to identify what your visitors want. And once you know what information is important to them, you can gather or create effective marketing assets.

Do visitors click on your About Us page to learn more about your company? Or do they click on the Solutions/Services page to understand more about your offerings? If the Solutions page is the second-most visited page, look at the navigation summary to determine which page most visitors clicked on next. When on your solutions pages, what additional information are they seeking? Then create an asset that provides that information.

2.  Implement Clean, Clear Landing Pages

The design and verbiage of your websites, microsites or landing pages is critical to success. Through extensive testing, I’ve learned that clean, simple design usually performs best with B2B visitors. That’s in contrast with consumers who often prefer flashy, busy sites. While consumers usually enjoy being wowed or entertained, business buyers don’t have time for fluff and appreciate a simple, clear landing page.

The best web marketing copy also differs in B2B compared with B2C sites. In B2B, you should always present – as quickly and efficiently as possible – clear benefit statements, points of differentiation, and calls-to-action. You’re not writing to entertain – you’re writing to inform, quickly and efficiently.

3.  Focus on Visitor Benefits

Many marketers make the mistake of focusing on their products or services – and how awesome they are. But what business buyers really want to know is “what’s in it for me?” So focus your webpage content, calls-to-action and downloadable assets on benefits to the prospect.

 Boost your conversion rate when you request a complimentary Website Usability & Conversion Assessment, custom-tailored for you by our team of experts

Give business visitors something of value, something that will boost their knowledge or skills, and help them do their job better. Provide unique, helpful information, rather than a self-serving promotional piece about your company.

For example, studies on market research have a much higher conversion rate than marketing brochures. This is especially true if you promote the study by focusing on the benefits the reader will receive. So a good description for a white paper might be something like Find out how to increase your search marketing ROI or Case study on how 5 companies successfully used social media to generate leads.

4.  Create Unique, Compelling Calls-to-Action

You know what pages your visitors look at most, you have a clean landing page. At this point, your goal is simple: capture your visitors’ contact information. To do this, you need to identify the most effective calls-to-action (CTA).

Go back to your navigation summary report, and identify the navigation path.  For example, if your searchers are clicking through to your services page, you might create an asset for that page focusing on services in your industry, such as a guide, report, or white paper about your industry, and how to compare and contrast service providers.

The CTA – and the asset offered to your visitors – should vary from page to page, as you seek to align the asset offered with the information your searchers are seeking.

5.  Offer Value in Exchange for Contact Info

This is it, the goal of most B2B websites:  to capture contact information. In order to persuade your visitors to give up some privacy and give you their contact information, you need to provide something valuable in return.  Identifying the most attractive assets to offer will help convert more website visitors into qualified leads.

The more contact information you want (e.g. visitors’ phone numbers), the more valuable the asset needs to be. Reflect on your own experience – we tend to give out email addresses relatively easily (especially if we have a secondary email address), but we’re much more guarded about our phone number. If you want a phone number, you need to create something of great value that meets the visitors’ specific needs.

I hope you’ve profited from Part 1. Be sure to check out our March newsletter, which will feature How to Convert Your Web Visitors Into Leads – 10 Essential Tips – Part 2

Boost your conversion rate when you request a complimentary Website Usability & Conversion Assessment, custom-tailored for you by our team of experts

Why? Many B2B marketers fail to include informational assets in their overall SEO strategy. Information presented on your website such as press releases, case studies, newsletters, white papers, product demos, and how-to videos are all great ways to engage prospects, generate leads and acquire customers.

But, if they aren’t readily found by searchers, they will not realize their full SEO potential.

Here are three steps to fully capitalize on the SEO potential of your online informational assets.

1.  Select Specific Keywords For Each Asset

Just like your website’s overarching SEO strategy, your online assets must also include targeted keywords. The keyword set may be more specific and will likely contain long-tailed terms.

I encourage you to perform keyword research specifically around the topics of your press releases, studies, etc… to better understand your prospects’ online behavior and intent.

Review your analytics data as well and take a look at the specific search queries prospects use to find your site and access various information. By targeting the right set of terms, your marketing assets will become powerful tools to engage prospects.

For example, a B2B market research company is optimizing many of their webpages for target keywords such as “local market research”, “market trends”, and “consumer research”.

In addition to website SEO, they are also optimizing a research study that addresses the topic of green consumers. The SEO plan for this downloadable asset focuses on much more specific keywords such as “Green consumer research” and “eco-friendly market research”.

This comprehensive approach to SEO allows the main pages of the site to rank well for general terms while the research download ranks well for more specific search queries.

2.  Optimize Webpages & Asset Content

Optimizing online assets is not much different than optimizing the rest of your website. Specific tactics may vary based on the format in which the information is presented, but here are some general rules to follow:

• Use keywords in the URL structure of the page that promotes the asset. For example:  www.mysite.com/market-research/green-consumers is much more effective than www.mysite.com/downloadresearchstudy

•  Use keywords in the page title and META descriptions for the page

• Within the body of the asset, insert keywords into headings.

•  Incorporate key phrases into the text links throughout the body copy.

For example: Click here for more information is not nearly as effective as Click here for more local market research data

• Apply keyword-rich alt tags to all images

3.  Utilize Social Channels

Blogs provide a wealth of content to your site, which is exactly what the search engines look for – current, up-to-date content. Blog posts can range from fun, light-hearted topics, to more serious, industry related topics. Your corporate blog is also a great way to promote downloadable assets.

By optimizing blog posts you make them more visible in search results.

Blogs should be used to:

•      Provide a snippet of a press release
•     Summarize a downloadable research report
•     Promote a product video or webinar
•     Preview a case study

Use other social media channels to promote optimized assets as well. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ should all be part of your integrated SEO strategy to optimize and promote informational assets.

If You Have Online Assets – Optimize Them!

Don’t forget to include marketing assets and informational downloads in your B2B SEO strategy. Capitalize on all the online tools at your disposal including press releases, case studies, product demos, white papers and webinars.

Create a specific SEO Plan and Keyword map for each asset and use your corporate blog and social channels to drive searchers to these optimized assets.

B2B marketers may actually have an advantage over consumer marketers due to the wide range of assets at their disposal. Informational pieces like webinars, white papers and product demos provide great channels to expand and enhance your B2B SEO strategy.

The goal is to not only for the main pages of your website to rank well in search results, but for your online assets to appear at the top of the results too. Remember that Google displays “everything” in the search results, including images, blogs, videos, news, etc… so the more assets that are optimized, the more opportunity your site has to rank well.

In order to be successful in 2012, search marketers must realize the line between social media and SEO is becoming nonexistent. The world has embraced social media and social media platforms have made great strides in courting businesses for participation and advertising. Social media is becoming essential for all businesses to include in their marketing efforts.  After all, social signals are already affecting search engine results.  The major search engines have publically confirmed this fact on multiple occasions.

In addition, search engines are displaying both personal (when logged into the corresponding account) and public information in their search results.  Facebook currently partners with Bing to provide personalization in their search results by including posts from friends or companies you “like” that are related to the search topic. And Google just launched “Google plus your world” at the beginning of the year, which allows content from your Google+ account and circle to appear in their search results.

This evolution of search provides businesses with more opportunities to share information and news about their company and business and have that message appear across online platforms. By participating in, creating and promoting conversations about your industry, company, products or services you can not only communicate with your target audience, you can also influence how your website ranks in the search results.

With programs such as Google’s “Google plus your world” and Facebook’s partnership with Bing, social media efforts must work in concert with your SEO program and is becoming an essential component to search engine optimization packages. When these strategies are properly orchestrated, your target audience should get one cohesive message no matter the outlet, increasing brand awareness and potentially lead generation or sales. With socially acceptable search engine optimization packages, businesses will likely see greater results in their SEO programs now and in the future.

A microsite is a “mini website” with multiple pages and usually some type of navigation bar. The visitor can browse around the site and determine what is content important to them.

A landing page can also have multiple pages (multi-step landing page) but there is generally one or two paths for the visitor to take towards converting. The visitor is guided through the content and pages in the order you decide.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the differences between the two types of sites here are three factors to help determine which is best for you

1. Complexity of the Product or Offering

Does your product or offering need explaining or is it self-explanatory?

If you have a complex product, a microsite may be a better option. The extra pages of a microsite allow you to explain the various details of the product while still making the information optional. It’s there if visitors need it but does not impede the conversion if the visitor doesn’t require additional information.

If a product / offering is self-explanatory or easily explained, a landing page or multi-step landing page could work better. This option is also great if you have content that you want every visitor to see.

2. Your Target Audience

It is important to understand how your target audience searches and makes decisions.

• Do they need to be in control and make their own decisions (microsite) or do they need to be guided through the process (multi-step landing page)?
• Do they need all of the facts and details to make a decision or not?
• Do they have the time or patience to go through multiple steps or not?

3. The Level of Commitment You are Asking for

Is your call to action (CTA) asking for a large commitment like installing a software demo or a small commitment like viewing a free guide.

Larger commitments generally means that the visitor will want more information before making a decision and will also have higher anxiety in deciding. A microsite can provide the additional information needed in a familiar and professional format of a website.

For a small commitment or very specific CTA, the additional pages of a microsite may be distracting or confusing for the visitor in how to proceed. The clear path of a landing page or multi-step landing page may be better in this situation.

Test It!

There is not one set answer for using a microsite vs. a landing page and many factors play a part in determining which would be best.

You may have a complex product but your target audience needs to be guided through the process. You may have a CTA with a small commitment but your target audience needs to be in control and determine what is important themselves.

The only way to know for sure whether a microsite or landing page is better, is to test it.

Thank you for taking the time to read, if you have any questions or comments please post below or e-mail me at abraham@smartsearchmarketing.com.