Abdul Rimaaz Your Digital Transformation Partner

SMEs that decide to invest in digital marketing are often faced with doubts of various kinds.

In this article we wanted to focus on  the  B2B market , which by its nature is a market with complex dynamics, with certain customer acquisition paths and purchasing behaviors.

Leaving aside for a moment the questions related to the specificities of the individual sectors and the characteristics of the individual company, there are some  cross-cutting questions common to many companies.

We are sure that you who are reading will have asked yourself these questions at least once (or you will have heard them from your superiors), without finding exhaustive answers.

Well, we wanted to collect below some of the most frequently asked questions on B2B digital marketing, trying to answer each point point by point.

Question 1: Why is my competitor before me on Google? 

Answer: If you do a Google search using your company name there is no problem, there you are on the front page and in the first positions. But if you try a keyword search such as sector + city  instead  , your competitors are positioned before you. How is it possible?

Leaving aside the visibility given by paid activities, the answer must be sought in all those  SEO factors  that affect positioning:  loading speed , quality and length of content, age of the domain, network of external links, mobile usability …

If your competitor ranks ahead of your brand, it is likely that, quite simply, they are doing all these things better than you.

The only exception is the age of the domain, i.e. how long a site has been online and on which, for obvious reasons, you cannot cheat.

Consider that if you are just starting an SEO optimization business, it could take several months before you see the fruits of the work done, depending on the difficulty and competition in the sector.

Question 2: How does SEO affect conversions? 

Answer: To answer this question we must start from the purpose for which SEO was born, that is to improve the positioning of websites on search engines, to attract more traffic and therefore potential customers.

If we consider that most people don’t go beyond the first page of Google when they search, you can easily understand how being able to appear in the top 10 results is a big plus  .

The equation is simple:  more exposure = more likely to attract prospects and sell.

Obviously, at the base there must be a work of  identifying the  most suitable keywords with which we want to place ourselves, so as to be sure that what will arrive at our site will be for the most part qualified traffic.

But remember:  being first on Google doesn’t automatically mean selling more.

Because? We explain it to you in the next point.

Question 2: Why am I first on Google and not selling? 

Answer: As we said a little while ago,  being first on Google  is certainly a great source of visibility, but  by itself it does not guarantee greater conversions .

Users can land on your site from the search engine, but if they do not welcome them they do not find Call-to-action clearly visible, if the landing pages are not structured in the correct way, if the purchase procedure is too difficult and the products / services are not fully illustrated, it shouldn’t be too surprising if the visit doesn’t end with a purchase.

A fertile ground must be created on which new conversion opportunities can develop, and  SEO is just one of the various web marketing tools available.

It certainly helps, but if it is not combined correctly with other elements, its effectiveness will be reduced.

Question 3: I want to be on the front page!

Answer: This is not a question but a statement we often hear from customers. This is accompanied by the omnipresent “I want to be in first place!”, A real myth that shows no sign of giving up.

We are about to reveal a secret, or rather two.

Everyone would love to be on the front page, but

• It is not a result that comes overnight
• Not everyone needs it

Let us explain: reaching the first page of Google  requires constant work over time , which can take longer or shorter times to give results. This depends a lot on the competition and the difficulty of the keywords with which you decide to position yourself: the more competitors we have, the more difficult it will be to move up in the SERPs.

As for the second point, it may seem absurd but it is not.

There are variables for which trying to be first on Google could be not only useless, but even counter-productive.

In this case, we refer to  new or niche products  for which there is no demand (and if there is, it is scarce). Aiming for first page positioning on Google for this type of product will hardly bring great results, since there will be few searches made by users and, consequently, visits to the site. It could therefore be more productive to invest in an  omnichannel campaign  to intercept a pool of potentially interested users, segmenting the public by age group, gender, geographical location and interests.

Question 4: How to generate quality B2B leads?

Answer: If by quality lead we refer to leads more likely to become customers and to buy our products or services, it is important first of all that the lead is a figure whose opinion has a certain weight in the decision-making processes within the company. .

To attract these people, it is necessary to focus on  specific content related to the product or service  we sell, available both for immediate use on the site and for download such as blog articles, ebooks, white papers, webinars and video courses, taking care to convey them. always to the right target.

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Another way to attract qualified leads is to focus on  brand awareness , or corporate branding. The better known your company is, the more likely we are to increase leads from people interested in the product or service we sell. 

Once the leads have been brought into the sales funnel, they must be treated with nurturing activities   aimed at establishing a communication channel.

Question 5: How to do lead generation on a low budget?

Answer: If we look at the advertising side, one way to do lead generation with a limited budget is to  create a campaign on a limited geographical area , starting from a limited area and gradually expanding the range of action.

From an SEO point of view we can decide instead to aim to position ourselves with  long tail  – or long tail – keywords – that is, very specific keywords that should bring more qualified traffic.

Another way to generate leads when you cannot count on a large budget is to focus your efforts on  content marketing , i.e. on the production of content (texts, videos, infographics, ebooks) aimed at attracting prospects and guiding them along the funnel of sale until the final decision and purchase phase.

Keep in mind that if you want to get good results from a B2B lead generation campaign, you should have a monthly budget of no less than € 600. Smaller figures, for a B2B campaign, can hardly bear fruit.

Question 5: I want to create the new … ..

Answer: Everyone at least once stumbled upon one of these  portals to book a hotel for the holidays, look for a house for sale or rent, or to shop online : simple to use, well-stocked and convenient for prices and delivery times. It is no coincidence that they are the most used by users and have turned the owners into digital gossips.

How nice it would be to be able to replicate the success of these sites, right? A good idea in theory, a big deal in practice.

What many underestimate is that  to have a portal of this type you need a solid structure behind it , both from the point of view of the digital infrastructure and from that of management costs.

These portals have to manage a  huge amount of data, requests and  contents  that must in turn be properly organized to be usable by users.

And this is only the beginning! These portals find themselves having to focus simultaneously on  two types of public : sellers and end customers. Being able to satisfy both of these segments is not at all simple and requires substantial budgets to convince suppliers to be present with their offer on the one hand, and to convince users with a sufficiently broad offer on the other.

Question 6: I can’t afford strategic analysis, I have to start right away

Answer: Many companies feel that conducting a  preliminary strategic analysis is a waste of time and money. What they want is to get started right away. Of course nothing prevents you from doing this, but  on whatbasis do you go to work?

Strategic analysis is a decision-making tool that serves to  understand if you have the means and resources to face a specific investment  and have results in good time.

It is not necessary for everyone, but certain realities and sectors represent a way to avoid wrong investments and waste of money.

The risk is in fact that of starting with an investment that, over time, can turn out to be too high or too low. In this way you will find yourself wasting money or not having obtained any results. And that’s not what we want, is it?

At the end of a strategic analysis, one is not yet operational, but one gains a  new awareness of one’s own means and real possibilities , based on real and objective data.

Question 7: I already have email marketing contact lists, why can’t I use them?

Answer: With the recent introduction of the  GDPR , which became directly applicable on May 25, 2018, companies that have obtained contacts in non-transparent ways have a hard life. The new regulation has in fact given a drastic crackdown on data processing and privacy, imposing very specific duties on companies that have to manage customer and supplier data.

Failure to comply with the regulation can result in penalties of up to 20 million euros and 4% of the annual turnover.

With regard to email marketing activities  after the GDPR , the consent of the interested parties to  use their email for commercial communication purposes is required to be in good  standing .

Someone will rightly object that in this way you will lose a large part of the contacts, but it should also be remembered that it is  better to have few consents from interested leads , rather than a very long contact list but with few people really in target. The real risk is in fact that our emails are thrown away without even having been opened.