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There are two significant online trends that directly impact the present and the future of Business-to- Business Marketing.
The first trend is the rising importance of search engines as the initial starting point on the web. According to Piper Jaffrey, 44% off all web visits begin with a search as opposed to a specific URL or destination. And search will continue to grow as the most significant channel in new customer awareness and acquisition.
The second trend is a move towards socially oriented marketing. As the buzz continues to grow around new media such as mySpace, Facebook and blogging, marketers are asking: “What role does social media play in my marketing strategy?”
In this whitepaper, we will explain how an inexpensive and easy-to-execute strategy centered upon organizational blogging can dramatically impact search engine results and serve as an entry into the world of social media – which is a world that facilitates a significant increase in web engagement and conversions.
Although most blogging to-date has been focused on technology, politics, or other forms of Citizen Journalism, interest among corporations and other organizations is quickly growing. Translating that interest into an actionable plan is where most organizations struggle. In other words, they know they want to blog, but they aren’t entirely sure of the why, what, and how. Why should they blog? What are the benefits? And how can it be measured?
To understand the true value of a corporate blogging strategy, it’s critical to first understand the value of organic (or natural) search. Back in July 2007, Seth Godin had an interesting and relevant blurb called: Permission, Junk and Spam. He pointed out that the biggest change in marketing since he penned Permission Marketing in 1999 is the idea and ubiquity of search marketing.
Godin’s general premise is that with search, people are not being interrupted with junk (stuff they are not interested in right now). Instead, they search when they are interested. Here’s a key quote: “The result of Google and the prevalence of search means that people are far more forgiving of things that need to be sought out, and less patient than ever with selfish marketers that insist on showing up in your face.”
The key to success in marketing today and marketing in the future is that you need to be found on the search engines. To date, the easiest way to get found has been by way of Pay Per Click (PPC) keyword advertising. However, in the Marketing Sherpa Search Benchmark Study for 2008, PPC was rated 4th on a list of high ROI marketing tactics. The most telling quote is below: “To say that 99 people out of 100 click on the natural search results is probably an underestimate.”
Compound that remarkable conversion advantage with keyword price inflation, and it doesn’t take much to come to the conclusion that the strongest acquisition strategy in a marketer’s arsenal is high rankings in organic search. Search is the most democratic of all acquisition methods. In fact, 44% of all web interactions begin with search. And while billions are spent on PPC and other ad-centric strategies, nearly all of the clicks on a search results page come from an organic area.
In this section, we will cover the factors in successful organic optimization and why organizational blogging needs to be considered as a core tactic for search engine optimization (SEO). In the figure below, we see a Business to Business search on “email marketing best practices.” In this search, the top two organic search results are for an ExactTarget corporate blog titled “Email Marketing Best Practices.” ExactTarget also has a Pay Per Click ad appearing on the right side, hidden among a number of competitors.
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