The decision for a small manufacturer to commit to some level of financial investment in internet marketing is usually not an easy one. For those in the B2B realm where decision making is slower and sales are traditionally built on relationships and long term trust, the SEO/ROI calculation is not necessarily straight forward.
The fact that the internet should be part of their marketing strategy is usually hard to argue. An increasing percentage of buyers are looking to the web for assistance in purchasing decisions. Industry portals like Thomas Net are often an excellent source for a quick ‘hit list’ of potential vendors, however the search doesn’t end there. Drilling down to a more detailed research level means the potential customer will be searching for the company site. Searching to see if that supplier is a leader among his peers on the web can, to some degree, be measured by their web presence and search engine rankings.
- Can your product and business easily be found on the web by your potential customers?
- How do you compare with your competition in search engine rankings and traffic?
- Do you have a way to reach out and grab a perspective customer as they come to your site?
There is no better long term way to deal with the first two questions than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and increasing the organic (free) quality traffic to your site. This is a long term commitment with long term growth prospects.
The next step is the hook to grab the customer as they come to your site. Online ‘live chat’ with technical sales, whitepaper downloads, etc are common and effective tactics used by other industries ahead on the SEO curve.
The internet marketing path is changing for manufacturers, but successful methods have already been tested and implemented by other industries. It’s time for manufacturers to get in the game.
I had suggested to a current client that they may want to consider some SEO work for the company website. The owner did not see the benefit at this time and said, “Almost all of our business is referral.”
I have an awkward time arguing that point. There is a bit of the chicken and the egg aspect to converting web traffic to clients for a professional services firm.
In the case of this particular response from a client, there are a few aspects of his business that may very well be served by improved SEO and increased traffic. The site now generally serves as a marketing brochure. Looking at the existing traffic, it’s apparent that the users coming to the site know the company exists and are most likely using it as a way to find a phone number, email or mailing address.
The key point here is that the traffic coming in is not likely the sort of traffic that has a ‘problem’ that could be solved by becoming a client of this firm. That’s the sort of focused traffic that I’ll be looking to generate for them. Yes, almost all of their business is referral, but I want to change that.
Lets look at a basic start to calculating ROI for them:
- 500 visitors/month increase due to SEO;
- 2% call to action (phone,email,contact,rfi);
- results in 10 ‘leads’;
- 10% close rate on those leads, conversion to client;
- results in 1 additional client per month
I actually think that the 2% call to action in this case is low. Somebody looking for a firm that does X will not go through 50 sites prior to contacting one, but I’ll go with that to be conservative.
The owner has to buy into the benefits of SEO. Being able to put a solid ROI calculation in front of them is a good first step.
My background is in engineering, and while my clients cover a wide range of industries, I draw on that engineering background to deliver services through a logical process.
The process that I use to implement Search Engine Optimization engagements for my clients is loosely based around the principals of ‘Lean‘ derived from the Toyota Production System.
An example of this approach is:
- Senior Management discuss and agree to the goal of website SEO
- Brainstorm to identify the client project leader and set SEO objectives
- Communicate the SEO plan and vision to the client
- Assemble client SEO implementation team
- Train and enable the client team
- Baseline the website current state
- Implement the SEO project
- Evaluate the SEO results, encourage feedback
- Stabilize the results to establish a ‘habitual’ implementation of SEO
- Introduce the ‘Next Step’ to make additional SEO improvements
I’ve got this process listed on this blog’s Lean SEO page. As I refine it and add details over time, I’ll keep that page updated.
Whether its its an SEO service for a client or I’m just doing a quick check of a client’s site to get an understanding of their business, one of the first things I observe in a review are the website page title tags. The formula is simple, but the execution is often lacking.
Lets keep it simple to start as the following items will get you 90% of the effectiveness of the title tag:
- Every page should have a unique title.
- Figure six to twelve words totaling less than 80 characters.
- Utilize your keywords in your page title.
- Keep search engine results in mind.
Your title is going to be in bold listing on the search results. While you want to think about the search engine understanding what the page is about, it wont matter if you are high in the search results but the listing doesn’t make sent to the user. They will be less likely to click through to your site.
Want to put maximize the results of your website? Click here for your Chicago based search engine optimization consultant.