how to generate leads using search and social media

How to Generate Leads Using Search and Social MediaSearch and Social Media

Twitter: @brianjcarroll @marketingsherpa

Twitter Hashtag: #b2bleadgen

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Background: How to Generate Leads Using S h E i d S i l M di SiSearch Engines and Social Media Sites

Based on 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition

2200 Survey participants

First time, published two editions: SEO and PPC

Follow Conversation on Twitter #b2bleadgen

How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines d S i l M di Si A dand Social Media Sites ‐ Agenda

Why search and social?ff f d l d l d d hEffectiveness of SEO and social media on lead generation and other business objectivesActual benefits of integrating social media into search campaigns

Top 5 practices for integrating search and social for lead generation

Case study – Acoustics by DesignCase study Acoustics by Design

Utilizing search innovations for lead generationReal impact of search innovationsHow to optimize for search innovations


Majority Integrating Search and Social MediaD i ti i t t i l di ith h i k ti ?Does your organization integrate social media with search engine marketing?

Not currently integrating searchand social? You’re in the minority

Marketers in strategic phase

No36%

Marketers in strategic phasemuch more likely to integrate

What’s the pay‐off? Yes64%

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April 2010 N=2 194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194


The Effectiveness of SearchIn your experience, how effective has SEO been at accomplishing these

marketing objectives for your organization?

d V ff ti S h t ff ti N t ff tiSEO is perceived as aneffective tactic in achieving a number of 42%

57%

51%

40%

7%

2%

Increase brand or product awareness

Increase website traffic

Very effective Somewhat effective Not effective

impactful marketing objectives

29%

35%

55%

58%

15%

7%

Improve brand or product reputation

Increase lead generation

product awareness

Improvements in soft metrics leads to improvements in 26%

27%

54%

51%

20%

22%

Increase online sales revenue

Improve public relations

product reputation

bottom‐line metrics 17% 55% 28%

Increase offline sales revenue

revenue

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194/ gy g p g y / p , ,


The Effectiveness of Search and SocialI i h ff ti h SEO d i l di b tIn your experience, how effective has SEO and social media been at

accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?

SEO i d Very Effective Social Media Objectives Very Effective SEO ObjectivesSEO perceived as more effective accomplishing hard objectives: traffic, leads, sales

29%

42%

37%

37%

Improve brand or product reputation

Increase brand or product awareness

y j y j

Social perceived as more effective accomplishing soft 57%

27%

33%

36%

Increase website traffic

Improve public relations

p p

objectives: branding and PR

As social matures, 17%

35%

10%

18%

Increase offline sales revenue

Increase lead generation

,perception will change 26%

9%Increase online sales revenue

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194


The Importance of Integrating Social MediaThe Importance of Integrating Social Media Increases the amount of SEO friendly content on the web

Generates inbound links

Increases the number of listings in the SERP’s

Improves the quality of your website’s traffic

Improves search conversion rates


Social Impacts Organic Search Performancep gWhat is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?

Search marketers who integrate Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users

social media achieve a 59% better rate of conversion. Also…

Increase the amount of SEO

27%

friendly content on the web

Generate inbound links

17%

Increase the number of listings in the SERP’s

Improve the quality of yourImprove the quality of your website’s traffic

Organic search traffic



Social Impacts PPC PerformanceSocial Impacts PPC PerformanceWhat is your organization’s click through and conversion rates for PPC traffic?

6%

Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users

10%

8%

Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users

3%

8%

Average click through rate


Paid search traffic



Search and Social Media IntegrationSearch and Social Media IntegrationResearch of search and social marketing practices

Key finding: Search and social have incredible synergy

Must have a social media process in place prior to integrating with SEO

“First, we identify the social media platforms that our target audience is using. Then, we research what our primary and

d tit d i i t f SEO d S i lsecondary competitors are doing in terms of SEO and Social Media.“


Best Practice #1: Coordinate TeamsBest Practice #1: Coordinate Teams

Target keywords

Search Team Social Team

Social trends


Best Practice #2: Optimize Social ContentBest Practice #2: Optimize Social Content

Optimize social media profilesp pSocial profiles will be indexed in search resultsDescribe your company using brandDescribe your company using brand keywordsUse your brand name for your account name whenever possiblename whenever possible

Consistency = recognition & results

Optimize social media communicationscommunications

Optimize tweets, status updates, blog posts, etc. with target keywords


Best Practice #3: Generate Inbound Links from S i l M di SiSocial Media Sites

All link building begins with quality t tcontentUseful, relevant, current & engagingEnable sharing

Syndicate your contentSyndicate your contentInclude links in social communications

Links placed on facebook and twitter are “nofollow” but there is still value you can yrealize by including the linkOptimized anchor textURL shorteners

T t i l d b k ki itTarget social news and bookmarking sitesDigg, reddit, delicious

Empower brand advocates


Best Practice #4: Protect your Online ReputationBest Practice #4: Protect your Online Reputation

Manage PR through social AND search


Protect your Online ReputationUse a social monitoring tool

Free tools: SocialMention, Twitter Search, facebook Insights, Google Al t d R l Ti S hAlerts and Real Time SearchPaid tools: Radian6, Omniture


Best Practice #5: Encourage Social Networking on W b iyour Website

Add a wealth of relevant content by hosting social features and fostering an online community right on your site

Create company blogs

community right on your site

Create company blogsEncourage comments, ratings and reviewsreviewsBe open to search enginesPrevent link spamPrevent link spam


MarketingSherpa Case Study: I i S i l M di R SEO G iIntegrating Social Media to Reap SEO Gains

bAcoustics by Design

Acoustical consulting firm withglimited marketing resources

•Healthcare•Education•Industrial

How they developed a blogHow they developed a blog strategy and corralled multiple authors to write timely posts


Integration Campaign ObjectivesIntegration Campaign Objectives

k d hCreate keyword rich content to improve SEO performance

Establish reputation as an industry though leader

Increase lead generation and conversion


Campaign Tactic: Planning Editorial TargetsCampaign Tactic: Planning Editorial Targets

Identify target audiences

Create keyword list for blog content that fills gaps in current web SEO

Create editorial calendarCreate editorial calendar for a year of blog posts on keyword related t itopics


Campaign Tactic: Recruiting AuthorsCampaign Tactic: Recruiting Authors

“After I pulled all the knives out of my Creating sufficient volume f bi h llchest and started talking about

doing blogs for which everyone would only need to prepare a post once

of content a big challenge

Enlisted engineering teamy p p pevery 6‐8 weeks, the conversation went

a lot better.”to write blogs and gain thought‐leadership status

– Kenric Van Wyk, President and Principle Acoustical Engineer,

Acoustics by Design

Won acceptance by minimizing workloady g


Campaign Tactic: Streamlining ContentCampaign Tactic: Streamlining Content

Allowed authors to select f li t f l t t ifrom a list of relevant topics

Provided writing guidelines to streamline process

Assigned an editor to reviewAssigned an editor to review writing and optimize posts


Campaign Tactic: Share ResultsCampaign Tactic: Share Results

Recognize thought‐leadership g g pstatus of bloggers with bylines

Analyze comments inbound linksAnalyze comments, inbound links, and other SEO gains

Include exceptional blog posts in company newsletter for recognitiong


Campaign ResultsCampaign Results

Blog generating 53% of t l h i itnatural search visits

Shared content positioning Acoustics by Design as thought leader on industry social media sitessocial media sites

Lead volume and rate of con ersions increasedconversions increased


The Real Impact of Search Innovations on Lead G iGeneration

Major search engines are responding to the rapidly growing popularity of social media as a marketing tactic by developing and releasing various search engine innovations to improve the experience of end users and advertisers alike

“Our greatest challenge is getting high rankings for genericld

Our greatest challenge is getting high rankings for generic terms within our industry. Personalized search could have a large impact as well.”


The Real Impact of Search Innovationsd hi k h f ll i h i i ill i b i hHow do you think the following search innovations will impact your business In the

next 1 – 5 years?

Personalized search has Will have a great impact on our businessWill somewhat impact our business

created much speculationamong the SEO industry 33% 57% 11%Personalized search

Will somewhat impact our businessWill have no impact on our business

Real time search and social marketing 33% 56% 10%Real time search

Social media users anticipate the greatest impact from all search innovations

26% 47% 28%Video search

from all search innovations across the board 24% 47% 29%Mobile search



Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search

Mobile search refers to the use of web search functionality on mobile devices 29%search functionality on mobile deviceswith wireless internet connections

29%

Mobile search has increased the reach of search engines by adding another point of access for search engine users

47%

Mobile search is still in it’s infancy as a marketing tactic

24%

infancy as a marketing tactic 56% of respondents indicated that they had not yet received any impact from mobile search

Will have a great impact on our businessWill somewhat impact our businessWill have no impact on our business

Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2 194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2 1942010 N=2,1942010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search

Know your appsResearch apps on major device manufacturers websites, and the websites for phone operating systems

Optimize more types of contentMobile search applications are accepting more than text‐based queries

ShazamSnapTellSnapTell

Signal your location Attract local business

Include address in website code using hCard microformatting

Optimize your current siteOptimize your current siteTake advantage of the history with search engines, current traffic and inbound linksOriginal content will out rank duplicate content

Keep sites clean and simpleKeep sites clean and simpleThe mobile web is not yet sophisticated enough for complex websites

Keep keywords shortKeep lead forms short and simpleKeep lead forms short and simple


Optimize for Search Innovations – Real Time Searchp

Real time search refers to a searchengine’s ability to index newly published

10%

engine s ability to index newly published web content as it is being published with virtually no delay, or in real time 56%

Real time search can have a great impact on organizations by allowing search engine users to access newly created andengine users to access newly created and published content.

Promotions & time sensitive content can now be distributed through organic

33%

g gsearchSocial media content


Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2 194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2 1942010 N=2,1942010 N=2,194


Optimize Social Communications for Real Time Searchp

Develop keyword optimized content for social media

Join the conversationResearch hot topics and latest trends that are relevant to your businessy

Post frequentlyUtilize social tools to schedule tweets orstatus updates ahead of time

Recruit brand advocates


Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search

Personalized search refers to a search engine’s capability to personalize search

11%

engine s capability to personalize search results based on the last 180 days of a search engine users’ search habits 57%

Previously visited sitesInterpreting search queries

Personalized search is expected tohave a negative impact on SEO by limitingthe number of impressions their organic

33%

the number of impressions their organic listings receive


Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search

Drive more traffic to your site – now!

Email blastsEncourage bookmarkingPPCEtcEtc.

Engage web visitorsRelevant, useful, engaging contentFrequently add a new variety ofcontent

Rank checking is even lessRank checking is even less reliable


Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search

Search engines have responded to the growing popularity of video beingutilized for marketing and business 28%

purposes by developing video search, or the capability to crawl and index video content.

Video content is now being indexed and ranked on the first page of the search results when relevant

47%

Video search is in it’s infancy as a marketing tactic

52% of organizations indicated that they had

26%

5 % o o ga at o s d cated t at t ey adnot yet received any impact from video search


Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194


Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Searchp

Create great contentRelevance and usefulnessKeep it short

Optimize video content with target k dkeywords

Video sharing sitesOn‐page content & surrounding HTMLLinks

Attract viewers & maximize viewsVideo thumbnailsEnable sharingEnable sharing

Encourage comments and ratings


How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines d S i l M di Siand Social Media Sites

Why search and social?SEO and Social rated as effective tactics in achieving hard & soft business objectives

•Utilizing Search Innovations for Lead Generation

•Real time searchachieving hard & soft business objectivesSocial impacts search campaigns by improving rankings, increasing listing quantity, and improving click through and conversion rates

•Real time search•Mobile search•Personalized search•Video search

Top 5 practices for integrating search and social for lead generation

Coordinate search and social teamsOptimize social contentGenerate inbound links from social media sitesProtect your online reputationEncourage social networking on your site


Thank You & QuestionsThank You & Questions

Jen Doyle Todd LeboMarketingSherpaMarketingSherpa

[email protected]://www.marketingsherpa.com

@JenLDoyle

[email protected]://www.marketingsherpa.com

@TodLebo

how to generate leads using search and social media

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