Managing B2B search engine marketing campaigns for five years, for a Boston area agency revealed to me many challenges small to medium size B2B marketers are faced with.
First, marketing complex products is challenging in many ways. The sales cycle usually takes anywhere between six and eighteen months and most small B2B companies don’t have a decent CRM. Because of these two facts B2B marketers have a difficult time attributing sales to website traffic, so CEOs or CFOs are less apt to appropriate new funds towards online marketing efforts.
There also remains a degree of mystery as what search engine optimization is all about. Many B2B marketers believe that SEO is about some sort of magic pixy dust that someone like me is going to sprinkle on their website. Sprinkle some dust and soon they’ll appear on the first page of Google for their keyword – ‘widgets’. Unfortunately, there’s nothing magical or mysterious about top search engine rankings. Search engine visibility boils down to a considerable amount of content and backlink development.
Because small B2B marketing departments tend to be one, or if they’re lucky two person departments, content development always get shelved because no one wants to write content. And, who’s got time to build backlinks? What are backlinks anyway?
Sharing my experience with you was not meant to make you feel as if all is lost. However, I do understand your challenges. That’s why I recommend if you want to fill your lead pipeline you have affordable options.
You can outsource your SEO efforts to a professional. And, you can begin paying for leads with Google Adwords. Mind you bidding for leads can become very costly for inexperienced individuals. But, you can do it. If you don’t have the time to learn Adwords, or you simply just want to run your business, then outsource it to a professional.
Please contact me today to discuss your B2B search engine marketing challenges.