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How to Improve Your SEO Ranking on Google: 6 Tips from Our Experts

SEO /

In our vastly evolving digital world, exceptional organic SEO (search engine optimization) and its maintenance is more critical than ever, especially as digital advertising tools and strategies prepare for the demise of third-party tracking cookies. The implications of this change in data accessibility on digital advertising remains to be seen, but as marketers prepare for a cookieless future, the conversation about how to improve SEO ranking on Google is growing. At its core, SEO helps to create positive brand visibility and traffic to your website. From a standpoint, organic SEO provides valuable data to help you understand what your target audience is searching for, what problems they are trying to solve, and what types of content will best serve their needs, while giving users quicker access to relevant information and the key data they are seeking. With 89 percent of B2B buyers researching information about possible purchases through search, good organic SEO can mean the difference between ranking on the first page of search results, or on pages two and beyond. Consider that 75 percent of searchers never go past the first page of search results, and suddenly the urgency of organic SEO becomes clearer. A particularly noteworthy statistic – 94 percent of clicks on SERPs go to organic results. While paid advertising certainly is an important part of an overall marketing strategy, organic SEO typically drives more traffic to websites and, being unpaid vs pay-per-click (PPC), has a higher ROI. If you’re asking how to improve SEO ranking on Google, explore these six actionable steps you can implement to make a positive impact: 1. Start with an Audit If you’re looking to improve your organic SEO results, the best place to start is with an SEO audit of your current website. Regularly analyzing its performance (we recommend at least every six months) can help ensure that: · Your site’s user experience remains optimized· Selected keywords are performing· You identify timely insights into what users are searching for and the terms they most frequently use· You understand how current and new competitors are ranking. Remember that regular auditing is truly necessary to ensure your organic SEO strategy is aligned with data trends and audience behaviors. Check out our article “The Benefits of an SEO Audit” for more details and tips. When you’re ready to examine your SEO, our team is here to support you. 2. Leverage Long Tail Keywords According to WordStream, 50 percent of search queries contain four or more words. And that number is only increasing as more people employ voice search using more conversational terminology (more on that below). That’s particularly important data for the B2B marketer as the type of user query can lend clues about where a potential buyer is in the purchasing cycle. Someone searching for “top SaaS software for banking” vs “SaaS software” typically knows more about what they are looking for and may be closer to the bottom of the conversion funnel. Strategic keyword research, refinement and expansion should take into consideration many variables, including your overall business objectives, sales goals, budgets, target audiences and more. We explore more about keywords in our articles “The Importance of Long Tail SEO” and “Keyword Research Tips for Your B2B Organization.” 3. Include Voice Search Not to be overlooked within your keyword strategy is the rise in voice search. With voice search gaining in popularity due to devices such as Google Home®, Amazon’s Alexa®, and Apple’s Siri®, along with a global population who has experienced remote interactions for more than two years, it’s not a surprise to see statistics that note that “71 percent of consumers prefer to conduct queries by voice instead of typing.” This is yet another reminder to craft an SEO strategy with the user at the center. In the context of voice search, your target audience is likely asking very specific questions that relate to their position within the purchasing journey, like “what are the top companies for XYZ” vs “how does product A differ from product B.” You can see in the first instance, the potential buyer may just be at the beginning of their search, whereas in the second, they have clearly done some research and have moved onto comparisons. Look carefully, and frequently, at your keyword data and devise content that best helps answer even the most specific queries. 4. Ensure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly With shortening attention spans and less patience for anything other than an ideal user experience, websites need to be well-optimized for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Forty-two percent of researchers use a mobile device during the B2B purchasing process. And as noted by BCG, over 90 percent of B2B users say, “they’re likely to buy again from the same vendor if they have a superior mobile experience.” Return visitors mean more qualified leads and higher probability of conversions. A thoughtful SEO audit (see above) can help identify your site’s mobile-friendliness, examining way to improve: · Site speed· Technical issues· Ease of readability· Responsive design. Mobile-friendly should mean more than “does it work” on a phone or tablet. Simply having a responsive website – meaning that the layout responds to a user’s screen size – is not enough. Smart organic SEO evaluations consider what that mobile experience is like (where are the lead generation forms, how is the data effected, etc.). Ensuring an optimal experience in both mobile and desktop views is critical. And with Google itself prioritizing mobile-first indexing when evaluating a website’s content relevancy in relation to a users’ search, it’s a smart move to make, especially as part of your SEO maintenance plan. And speaking of maintenance… 5. Prioritize On-Going SEO Maintenance Once achieving a first page, or even the coveted first place, ranking on SERP, your organic SEO work doesn’t end. Ongoing maintenance must be integrated into an overall SEO plan for continued success.Google changes its algorithm around 500-600 times each year. While many of the changes may have only minor impacts on SEO at best, having a maintenance plan in place to ensure

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B2B Digital Advertising – What Format is Best?

Lead Gen Tactics, SEM /

A savvy B2B marketer’s media mix includes strategic B2B digital advertising. Simply put, digital advertising is anything a potential customer sees on a screen, whether you have a presence on Google Ads, trade website banner ads, page takeovers, social media or email marketing. On average, people in the United States spend at least seven hours a day in front of a screen. As online content continues to proliferate, along with visuals that seek to grab and hold your attention, it can be more and more difficult to have your creative stand out. Marketers must consider how to capture attention and increase click-throughs in an increasingly crowded and competitive field. Unfortunately, there is no “one rule” for B2B digital advertising performance – ad engagement is highly-specific to the media on which it appears. On social media, animated content outperforms static content almost 2-to-1. Conversely, in some very recent studies, static ads actually outperform animated ads in website layouts (like trade publications), likely due to users gravitating to clean and simple content in a busy and cluttered layout. This can be an especially difficult challenge in B2B digital advertising, where often there are complex differentiators in products/service (ie. a lot to say). While video is often a go-to option for engagement and visibility, allowing marketers to deliver a lot of information in B2B digital advertising material, recent trends also show increased engagement in interactive content – such as HTML 5. This format allows marketers to create digital ad materials that actually let a user interact with the media – affecting the content that is displayed. One key consideration before you set out to develop new creative B2B digital advertising campaigns, is knowing exactly what formats your media placements support. For example, many industrial companies and manufacturers place ads in digital trade publications – such as eNewsletters and websites. Often these media only support specific file formats and have size limitations – many of which prevent video or interactive content from being an option. When preparing your next B2B digital advertising campaign, and planning for cost-effective ad material development, consider these common ad types: HTML 5 Banner Ads: Several years ago Apple made the decision to not support .swf files on all iOS browsers and, initially, this seemed to have killed the animated banner ad. Now, the HTML 5 format has taken root. An HTML 5 package allows advertisers to make ad units that operate as mini, fully-coded websites, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript, that will create your layout and motion graphics. While this takes advanced knowledge to properly code and create the digital materials, as well as to ensure the ad content will comply with media requirements – so it will work when supplied to the third-party media – the increase in ad engagement and CTR, in many instances, is notable. This ad content is often highly brand-relevant for B2B companies, looking to display their technology-forward company image in a visual way. HTML 5 also supports a wide array of customizations, interactive functions, video, and more. The production costs – and planning costs – are higher for these ad types. But, given the high cost of media buys, and the fact that increasing customer touchpoints is key in modern B2B digital advertising initiatives, the value of these ad formats goes well beyond a simple CTR metric. Social Media Templates: Social media sites have improved their support of interactive graphics formats – take Facebook’s extensive variety of templates, as well as LinkedIn’s expanded support of video content. In a platform where you need to capture users attention quickly, and where large areas of the viewable layout remain as static/flat text, interactive graphics can help improve B2B digital advertising results. As part of its robust marketing platform, Facebook has developed a number of tools for advertisers to enable. These not only support the upload of a variety of finished creative types, but also allow digital advertising to be developed right within the Facebook system. One can upload a company logo, a series of still photos and write custom text, and the Facebook Ad platform will create an animated slideshow ad unit for Facebook and Instagram. And with a number of different, pre-made templates available, B2B digital advertisers can develop interactive content using static sources, which can be very effective, especially if your budget can’t support a costly custom video or an elaborate B2B digital advertising development effort. Video in B2B Digital Advertising: Video has long been a go-to source for highly-engaging, highly-informative visual content. While some statistics recently released over-hyped the value of video in B2B digital advertising content, video still can definitely be an effective tool to increase engagement. There are a wide variety of production considerations to evaluate when creating video – for example, how many applications it will have – as well as the lower resolution requirements of many digital advertising platforms that can allow for less costly video shooting. As opposed to a high-end company overview video, a 15-second Facebook spot can often be filmed inexpensively, with in-house editing, suitable for use across desktop and mobile platforms. Obviously, a good strategy should be in place to effectively and strategically create video marketing content (Stifel Marcin can help there too). New technologies and software have made creating and embedding video easier as well. With Premier and After Effects included in the Adobe Creative Cloud, anyone with an Adobe subscription has access to the same software used by video professionals. Google Web Designer can embed a video hosted on YouTube. You can also upload video directly to Facebook to use as your creative. Video has seen an increased presence, not only in traditional banner ads of all sizes, but in large screen takeovers, environments where you have a user’s undivided attention. It’s important to consider size limitations of video. Even a small video ad will likely be more than 15mgs, which is well-beyond the limitation of most B2B digital advertising trade media placements. A complete review of the placement options can help determine the

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6 Critical Items to Address When Creating Your 2022 Marketing Plan

Marketing Campaigns /

Marketing activities have undergone transformative changes in recent years, with the last 18 months representing a true shift in the very ways we communicate. This was especially evident in B2B marketing, where efforts that were “must haves” in traditional plans became impossible overnight.  Smart B2B marketing strategies continually adapt to the changing landscape, and no matter how big recent changes were, we are proud to have partnered with brands to help them not only survive, but to succeed. As we look forward, we are excited at the new opportunities we see in B2B marketing for the upcoming year, and the many ways we are working on a strategic 2022 marketing plan with each organization to move ahead.  Critical Topics for Your 2022 Marketing Plan  1. Leveraging Digital Tactics to Build Awareness and Drive Sales – even before COVID operations began, Americans spent more than 8 hours a day on average in front of a screen. While the shift to digital began long before that, it’s important that brands continue to re-strategize their digital approach, and strengthen these initiatives so they are the core driver of leads and sales.  2. Streamlining Digital Sales Funnels – customer expectations for easy, efficient and fulfilling digital experiences are higher than ever. Now is the time to refine and improve your communications for an increasingly digital world. From the first visit to your website, and every step through (and beyond) a sale, your marketing and sales funnels must be refined for optimal digital experiences.  3. Account Based Marketing – marketers need to reach the right audiences to drive quality leads and ultimately sales. Account based marketing uses a strategic approach to develop smart campaigns, leveraging the vast amount of “big data” out there to communicate with highly specific B2B targets. Learn more about our approach to B2B Account Based Marketing, and learn how this can help you reach those “big fish” targets.  4. Optimizing & Reallocating Trade Show Budgets – everyone is excited to be back in person. However, long before COVID, most brands were decreasing their trade show investment. The last 18 months have shown there are new, and often better and more targeted ways, to reach prospects. We aren’t saying no trade shows, but in your 2022 marketing plan, it’s important to evaluate the total investment in trade show activities, and where the most return will be found.  5. Recruitment Marketing – a company’s need to sustain and grow its workforce is greater now than perhaps any time in recent memory. Virtually every company we work with, especially with our agency’s focus in highly-competitive STEM and B2B fields, has a critical need to recruit. We are working hand-in-hand with marketing and HR departments to help craft new approaches and ideas to grow talent pipelines.  6. Influencer Strategies – not just for B2C brands, influencer marketing has become an important component of many industrial, technological and strategic B2B marketing initiatives. From product placement on social media, to carefully nurtured partnerships with key organizations and personalities, influencer campaigns can yield a big impact for brands looking to build loyalty and awareness.  How Can We Help You in 2022?  For two decades we’ve helped B2B organizations succeed, and our expert team is ready to support you. Fill out the form and let’s plan a time to connect.  You’ll discover our collaborative approach from our first conversation. We are dedicated to helping brands succeed, and are ready to Power Up Your 2022 Marketing Plan.  Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. Contact us today and see how we can power up your marketing strategy and results.

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Top 10 Ways to Elevate Your B2B Website Design Content

Content Marketing, Websites /

Visitors to B2B websites have unique needs but need to browse through a lot of technical information to understand if your products or services are the right fit. Product specs, operating information, capabilities, and services must be presented quickly, while also communicating your company’s brand message and benefits. Most of our manufacturing clients operate in highly-competitive markets, so it is imperative that these companies’ websites perform at their best. While each company has specific needs related to their industry, the list below of B2B website design content is a good starting point when thinking about refreshing your site or developing a brand new website. Your B2B Website Design Content Checklist Looking for B2B Website Design & Development? Complete a form to request information or a proposal. We’re more than happy to talk about your site, your goals and what Stifel Marcin can do for your industrial, technological, medical or manufacturing website design and development project. Stifel Marcin – The B2B Marketing Agency Unlike many advertising and marketing agencies, B2B isn’t just something that we do, it’s all we do. We’ll work to help your brand achieve its goals through the strategic combination of creativity, communication and technology. Our focused client intake processes give us the ability to thoroughly understand your business, products and objectives, working to identify the competitive advantages and opportunities that will grow awareness, leads and sales. We develop innovative marketing plans with strategic, data-driven processes, presenting complex ideas and compelling messages that position your business ahead of the competition. As your cooperative partner, our integrated B2B marketing agency is dedicated to your success. Since 2001, Stifel Marcin has offered industry-leading B2B website design expertise. Contact us and let’s talk about how we can help your business.

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