Marketing Profs 9 21 12 Final
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This document discusses integrating SEO and social media marketing strategies, known as SEO-cial. It begins with introductions and an overview of what will be covered, including getting on the same page about SEO, why SEO-cial is effective, how to implement it for B2B brands, examples from other companies, and an in-depth look at one company's SEO-cial program. Benefits of social media for B2B marketers are presented, along with top social media platforms used by B2B marketers. The concept of SEO-cial is defined and challenges of integrating SEO and social strategies internally are addressed.
Marketing Profs 9 21 12 Final
- 1. SEO-cialize Your Marketing to Gain Online Visibility, Traffic, Leads, and Sales Presented by Veronica Fielding with Deborah French
- 2. Introductions • Presenters Veronica Fielding, President, DBE Deborah A. French, Senior Sales & Marketing Communications Manager, Q Center • Our Topic—SEO-cial Strategically combining SEO and Social Media Marketing for your B2B brand Social SEO Media
- 3. What We’ll Cover Today • Getting on the same page about SEO • Why SEO-cial is the way to go • How to make SEO-cial work for your B2B brand • What others are doing • In-depth look at Q Center’s SEO-cial program
- 4. How Many of You Are… • Not doing any real (ongoing) SEO or social? • Doing SEO but not social? • Doing Social but not SEO? • Doing both?
- 5. Very A ^ Brief History of SEO Internet Launches for Content Driven Links Consumers for SEO 3/15/1995 1/1/2007 On-website SEO Social Media Links Social Signals for for SEO SEO 6/15/1998 1/16/2009 9/16/2012 Link Building For SEO 1/1/2002 ' 95 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 ' 12 Today
- 6. SEO Now: Ongoing Offsite is Key Technical adjustments Competitive research On Website Keyword research SEO Domain research Keyword mapping Content Creation Content Curation Content Distribution: Off • Directory listings Website • Traditional link building SEO • Social engagement • Social link building
- 7. SEO + Social Media = SEO-cial Published in:
- 8. Top 2 Sources—Perfect Together
- 9. Yet Most Companies Are Not Integrating
- 10. Social Use By Companies
- 11. Links Are Increasingly Important 42.58 SEOmoz 2011 Search Engine (Google) Algorithm Ranking Factors
- 12. Benefits of Social for B2B Marketers* • Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C marketers) • Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers) • B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers) • The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans, compared to only 53% of B2B marketers. *Source: How B2B Marketers Use Social Media: New Research, Phil Mershon, SocialExaminer.com 4/24/12, see links in Resources section
- 13. B2B Marketers Social Media Preferences
- 14. So What Is SEO-cial? • Strategically leveraging social media marketing to support SEO goals • Controversial: see the comments following my Fast Company post on SEO-cial • Why the uproar? It’s still early, difficult to draw direct conclusions Still possible for SEO to succeed without SEO-cial • Though getting increasingly difficult to generate search-engine sanctioned links without it It’s A LOT of work • Takes time, $, and persistence It requires teamwork
- 15. SEO-cial Isn’t Easy… • You will need to work hard to unite your resources and manage through silo-ed objectives and plans SEO team Social media team PR/Communications Analytics Internal funders and supporters
- 16. Internal Stakeholders & Social • Convincing people that social is worth their input will be a challenge in most organizations – Still relatively new – Quantification and connection to bottom line almost impossible • Social isn’t a “sales” channel – Demonstrating success will be key • Agreeing on success measures, even qualitative ones, is critical • Convincing the money people to fund it will be challenging, too – “D, all of the above…”
- 17. Important! • If you focus on the search engines, you will annoy and alienate people (and lose search engine attention) • Stay focused on connecting and engaging with people, and the search engines will follow
- 18. Comparing B2C & B2B SEO-cial B2C B2B • Large # potential customers • Defined, limited # customers • Channel is direct interaction • Sales people = intermediary with consumers between social channel & buyers • Small % of audience makes • #Fans, #Followers smaller engagement #s look great • Engagement harder to come by, • Engagement #s high, lots of fewer people available to activity “socialize” from work • Engagement easier, sharing • Opinions shared reflect on constant and fluid—personal organization, more cautious in decision to participate sharing with brands in channel • Wide variety of appropriate • Offers need to be appropriate to offers biz decision makers
- 19. Reframing SEO Now: 1, 2, 3 1. Technical adjustments— so search engines can crawl On and recognize content on your site Website SEO 2. Identify the keywords YOUR buyers will use to find the site when not using branded terms. Apply On throughout site: Website • Page Copy SEO • Source Code Tags 3. Generating activity outside of your website that points Off to your website to signal the search engines that your Website site is of value to authority sites (and their stakeholders) SEO
- 20. The Rise of Social Signals • Getting inbound links by traditional means is still good: Directories Authority websites Influential bloggers • Getting links from the social channel is a must-do, too • What signals count? “Conversations” and content on your own social properties that include links back to your website “Conversations” and content on others’ social properties that link back to your website Activity around your brand name, even if it doesn’t include links: • Twitter chatter • Facebook likes • YouTube comments
- 21. How Do You Create Social Signals? 1 Create (and curate) unique, relevant, shareable content Identify “distribution” channels: blogs, 2 social media, websites, etc. Create interest and excitement around 3 the content, get many others to share it and talk about it, too
- 22. What Content Works Best?
- 23. Integrated SEO-cial—The Right Mix
- 24. Edmund Optics: SEO-cial Early Adopter • Started SEO/PPC with DBE 2007 • Began to incorporate social elements 2010, expanded program in 2011 • Facebook • Twitter • YouTube • Organic search visits up 82% 2011 v. 2009 (25% 2011 v. 2010) • Measurable “Assisted Social Conversions” alone deliver 5-1 ROI • Note: very active LinkedIn company presence, but that isn’t a direct assist to SEO
- 25. PTS: SEO-cial After Panda/Penguin • Started SEO/PPC with DBE 2005 • Began to incorporate social elements 2009 • Blog • Facebook • Organic search visits up 18% 2010 v. 2009 • Brought program in-house 2011 • Panda & Penguin hit • April 2012 organic search visits drop 56%! • Began to implement SEO-cial best practices July 2012 • Early indicators show good bounce back on keyword and domain authority
- 26. Deborah French, Q Center • Deborah is going to share what she has learned spearheading the introduction of SEO-cial for her organization • They’re just picking up steam now • She will share what she planned, what happened, what she did to adjust, and where Q Center goes from here
- 27. Q Center Overview • Corporate conference center in business for 40+ years • Located 45 miles west of Chicago Loop • 1,042 overnight guest rooms, 150,000+ sq. ft. of state of the art meeting space • GROUPS ONLY– no individual business or leisure travelers • We are a B2B sale, not a hospitality sale
- 28. Q Center Marketing Goals #1 – Generate leads for group sales effort #2 – Drive incidental revenue from guests $
- 29. Q Center Marketing Challenges #1--Single, independent property competing with national and international brands #2--B2B sales model competing with brands that interact with targets in B2B AND B2C #3--Conservative culture
- 30. Why Search Matters to Q Center • We’re a niche solution • Brand awareness is generally low • Traditional advertising has not been effective—too wide a swath • How do buyers find us? They look for us! #1 word of mouth #2 online search • Limited funding makes SEO very attractive
- 31. Q Center: SEO and PPC Cost-effective PPC presence #1 Natural Listing, generated by DBE SEO
- 32. Using SEO (and PPC) Since 2005 • Organic search = 33% of the site’s traffic up 20% over this time last year • PPC = 33% of traffic Strategy—complement to SEO • Social Media, new in 2011 2012--Strategically integrating with SEO=SEO-cial
- 33. Why Social Matters to Q Center • Word of mouth and referrals are important in decision making • People trust other people • Our clients and guests are very engaged in social • We need to be there with them • Competitors use social to drive B2C awareness • Cost-effective, flexible way to drive brand awareness • Corporate buyers use social to research options • Social combines the benefit of being where the buyers are with credibility from others who value your brand • Long sales cycle—social keeps us engaged with prospects • Social’s impact on search will fortify our keyword rankings and domain level authority
- 34. Getting Started • Began blog, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr in 2011, added Facebook in 2012 • Weren’t getting enough return for resource cost in 2011 and considered abandoning—outsourced to DBE
- 35. Getting Started • Set goals and measurement • Increase organic search traffic by 15% • Increase social referrals, too • Grow influential followers list to 100% of 105 • 25% of the way there!
- 36. What We’ve Done So Far in 2012 • DBE assumed management of Q Center’s social presence in March 2012 Blog, Twitter, Facebook (and consulting on LinkedIn and YouTube) • April – launched Service Upgrade Offer page on Facebook (aimed at meeting planners) • May – launched the Oasis spa promotion targeting on-site guests Found to be too “consumer” focused and changed promotion to something people could use • Late May – enhanced LinkedIn Company Page • July – Twitter influential follower outreach began The goal is not just to gain new followers, but to gain them from a targeted list of industry influencers. • Drink promotion (targeting on-site guests) ran from 7/16 to 8/17 • Mid-August – LinkedIn training for sales team • September – discussing launch of Pinterest, starting development of white paper
- 37. Challenges for B2B and Q Center • Needing to show clear connection between online buzz and bottom line (a sweepstakes may be fun, but is it connecting with the right audience?) • If the B2B market for your brand is small, you need to do a very targeted promotion. But reaching a small audience runs counter to the big buzz that’s needed to drive SEO. Catch-22 • Building buzz without generating sales leads is pointless but SEO needs to feed the search engines activity that is working for people. • Solutions: – Thought leadership that is relevant to the brand and its audiences and has value beyond the brand • Offer unique whitepapers • Create and curate value-added content through Facebook and Twitter • Curate content of core target and wider audience interest on Pinterest and/or YouTube – Target solutions that are controlled with modest expectations: free drink offer
- 38. What We’ve Learned So Far • Resources may need to be traded Money spent on traditional marketing may need to be converted to staff or to an outsourced resource • Don’t overthink it to the point of paralysis It’s new, adopt a try it mindset • Try everything You can always pull it back and try something else • It’s not a project, it’s a journey You learn things along the way so be flexible and open to changing the approach • Measure everything The insights are in the details • Be patient Like any strategy, it takes awhile to have an impact
- 39. Your Turn
- 40. Other Helpful Resources • Report of social media usage by B2B companies via Phil Mershon/Social Examiner 4/24/12 and links to great research results of 3,800 social media marketers surveyed: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/b2b-social-media-marketing- research/ • Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2012/7986/b2b- social-marketing-growing-linkedin-top-channel#ixzz26ZnYCqGv • Fast Company article: http://www.fastcompany.com/3000283/seo-isnt-what-you- think-it
- 41. Need More? Contact Us! DBE is a leading digital marketing agency for middle market marketing decision makers who need a trailblazing partner to increase sales in quantifiable and cost-effective ways. DBE’s innovative mix of content- driven SEO, PPC, and social media marketing connects buyers and brands and delivers results that make our clients heroes. Veronica Fielding President, Digital Brand Expressions [email protected] 609-688-8558