You Are How You Rank: Maximize Value from SEO and SEM Strategies

Being searchable is key. Consumers are out there looking for solutions, and the goal is to have them step through your door in their search.

In today’s online B2B marketplace, consumers are steering their carts in a radical new direction – one of conscientious research. While this pattern of consumer behavior has been escalating for years, it took the pandemic to bring a near-instant shift to the way companies market to them. The most successful companies have redirected their budgets toward digital marketing, making search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) critical components of any strategy and budget.

Scott Chao, Chief Marketing Officer at Appspace, Brock Wackerle, Digital Marketing Manager at DaySmart, and Domenic Colasante, CEO at 2X Marketing, are strategists who’ve helped companies navigate the search optimization challenges of the ever-changing online environment.

This panel of experts led an LLR Collaborate session in mid-2021 for their fellow sales and marketing leaders across the LLR Partners portfolio. Scott, Brock and Domenic shared insights on the search trends they’re following, the role SEO and SEM play in a diversified, omnichannel sales and marketing strategy, and their most actionable tips for SEO and SEM strategy optimization. Here’s an exclusive look at what they had to say.

Leads from search engines have been found to deliver a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (e.g., cold calling) have just a 1.7% close rate.

Q. Since the start of the pandemic, which buyer behaviors have jumped out at you and driven changes in your approach to search optimization and marketing?

A. The shifting buyers journey is the most significant behavioral change this group has seen. The buyer is becoming more in charge of their content exploration journey and wants to research, learn, and understand more on their own before they connect with sales. Brock shared that up to 90% of B2B buyers begin their research with search engines.

This is one of the biggest reasons marketing tactics have changed. There’s less use of cold-calling, email, social media and LinkedIn InMail services, and more instances of meeting buyers in the places where they’re allowed to be in control. Being searchable is key – Domenic added that leads from search engines have been found to deliver a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (e.g., cold calling) have just a 1.7% close rate, according to Inter-growth.co. Consumers are out there looking for solutions, and the goal is to have them step through your door in their search.

Growing organizations should think about both SEO and SEM as arrows in your overall quiver for driving leads and advancing your pipeline.

Q. How should a B2B marketer think about SEO vs. SEM based on desired outcome and budget?

A. SEO and SEM are different ways to get search traffic through your door to drive pipeline and revenue. SEO strategy tends to be high-level and exploratory, targeting people at the top of your funnel who are striving to become better educated through ungated content, link building, and UI/UX optimization. It is best for solutions that solve medium to high-complexity business problems where the prospect journey starts with trying to learn more about the problem.

SEM uses paid search results to target those who already know what they want and are looking for a vendor. Clear ad copy, smart use of keywords the buyers are familiar with, and bid rate and landing page optimization are among the key things to focus on. They often engage high-intent buyers at the middle or bottom of your funnel.

Scott emphasized that growing organizations like Appspace, which sells an employee communication and space management platform, should think about both SEO and SEM as arrows in your overall quiver for driving leads and advancing your pipeline. The goal is to have a variety of tactics running while allowing your prospects to interact with you, keeping in mind that different people consume content in different ways based on what you offer and where they are in their own buyer’s journey.

What’s important to remember is that SEO rankings and web traffic are not the end goal – conversion of a lead within the website is.

Q. What are operational vs. outcome metrics, and how should marketers use them?

A. Operational metrics are quantifiable and express performance across a shorter time frame. For SEO, this includes keyword rankings, average position, organic traffic measured in visits, bounce rate, and time on a page; for SEM this includes impressions, clicks, cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per click (CPC), number of conversions, and cost per conversion.

Outcome metrics are the unique data you collect to determine expected outcomes. For SEO, this includes the anonymous-to-qualified conversion rate and qualified lead conversion rate for your pipeline. For SEM, pay attention to qualified lead volumes, cost per qualified lead, and the conversion rate of qualified leads into the sales pipeline.

What’s important to remember, Domenic stressed, is that SEO rankings and web traffic are not the end goal – conversion of a lead within the website is. For SEM, do not treat all conversions equally. Rather, segment them into qualified vs. not qualified to determine the true success of a campaign.

Q. What indicators might suggest you are missing opportunities to drive better leads?

A. If you’ve done everything according to plan and still aren’t getting the kind of organic web traffic you expected, look for a few things. Too many unqualified website leads, declining web traffic and slow website load times all can represent missed SEO opportunities. You should also make sure your site is optimized for mobile and that you’ve completed both a competitive ranking analysis and an SEO web assessment (likely via a third party or tool like SEM Rush).

The assessment, Scott explained, can identify any problems with fundamentals like your asset tagging, indexing and internal links. This is particularly important if your site has undergone a lot of refreshes over time. Do the assessment first so you can address any fixes needed while simultaneously prepping your content.

When it comes to SEM, low ad impressions or low numbers of leads from paid channels are key indicators that something is not working. Additionally, if your cost-per-click is too high or your click-through rate is too low compared to industry averages or your own past experiences, you may have an opportunity for correction. And most notably, if your sales-ready leads are dropping off before hitting the sales pipeline, it’s a sign that something needs adjustment. The good news is that SEM shortfalls are often faster to diagnose and resolve than SEO issues, so you can constantly test and adjust as needed.

When choosing keywords, go beyond the big headline search volume and focus on “owning” the keywords one level down. You can drive more traffic against less competition for a lower cost this way.

Q. What is some of your favorite tactical advice for other B2B marketers?

A. Clustering content or producing a series of content items around a single topic rather than just one content item can help you get more traction and higher density in your search results for certain keywords. Evergreen versus seasonal content is also a hot topic for debate. But Brock and Domenic have found at DaySmart that you can get the most value from continually adding elements, atomizing, and/or optimizing the content that’s always feeding you page views.

For hero banners, always put something clickable in that banner; if you don’t, you’re missing the chance to boost SEO value and push site visitors to where you want them to go. Remember that keyword architecture must exist throughout your entire website, not just on blogs. Brock likes to say to DaySmart’s brands, “seize the hero banner” because it can directly expose key product or service features to the client at the point of login. Not only do clickable keywords improve the overall health of your site when they’re in the hero banner, but they’re also in the direct path of your digital consumers, which helps increase conversions.

When choosing keywords, go beyond the big headline search volume and focus on “owning” the keywords one level down — you can drive more traffic against less competition for a lower cost this way. For example, take “IT Security” versus “Hospital Ransomware Protection.” The latter may have significantly lower search volume but speaks your prospects’ language and is more likely to get you in front of the right people.

Lastly, don’t slam on the breaks when a crisis hits. In March 2020, everyone in their space (business management software for smaller businesses like salons, veterinarians and tattoo shops) froze their paid search campaigns – except DaySmart. Display prices dropped and the competition disappeared (temporarily) enabling the company to capture its target audience’s attention with thoughtful, respectful content to help them through such a challenging time.

Q. How should a company think about getting started with SEO and SEM?

A. At 2X Marketing, Domenic breaks down SEO and SEM maturity into three phases: 1) strategize and plan, 2) build and fix, and 3) execute and optimize.

In the first phase, assess your searchability, prioritize keywords, set targets, and create a roadmap for the campaign’s evolution. You can use a quick SEM program to buy rankings, test keywords, and conversion quality, and help inform your longer-term SEO strategy. Phase two is all about optimizing your interfaces and creating ads, offers, content, and landing pages. The final phase focuses on link acquisition, conversion optimization, competitive defense, and impact reporting for ROI assurance.

It’s important to note that third parties can help with any or all the SEO and SEM maturity phases if you don’t have the necessary internal resources. Look at the skills you have in your organization compared to the skills you need. Then decide whether you’re going to build or buy the services to get where you want to go based on your timeline and budget.

Here’s the bottom line.

If they aren’t already, SEO and SEM should be major pillars in almost any digital marketing strategy. As consumers show an increased desire to control their content consumption journey, being searchable is more important than ever. With thoughtful, data-driven planning and investment, it’s possible to gain fast attention from consumers looking for answers and to be ready to convert on them.

This GrowthBit is featured in LLR’s 2022 Growth Guide, along with other exclusive insights from our portfolio company leaders and Value Creation Team. Download the eBook here.