You and I, as consumers, often search online for well-known or trusted brands. As Americans, we’ve been consuming all our lives, and have a pretty good idea of what we want to buy; we just need to find the right source.
B2B prospects and how they search present many more complexities.
If we look back only five or ten years ago, the B2B buying process was long and complex. The effort to recognize a need, collect information on available solutions to that need, evaluate various suppliers, issue an RFQ, evaluate submissions, and make a decision took three to four months on average.
Today, buyers get most of this information online and the entire process happens in days!
Industrial Marketing Survey
The Industrial Marketing Survey, sponsored by ThomasNet and Google, points to the need for B2B internet marketers to place themselves where industrial buyers are looking. The survey found that 96% of all industrial buyers use the Internet at some point during the buying cycle.
A major finding of the Industrial Marketing Survey is that B2B Web marketers are not fully aware of the behavior patterns of buyers when they’re looking to buy goods and services. In fact, many sellers have focused too much on their online presence while undervaluing the importance of Internet marketing efforts that drive B2B traffic to their website.
For example, a person searching for industrial cutting tools may search for “carbide cutting tools,” “machine tool accessories,” “carbide insert tools,” “precision turning,” or dozens of related or more specific search terms.
Next, there is variation on what to call things or where to find a supplier. If the searcher knows your company, he may search by product or part number. He may search by geography. You’ll get different search engine results for each of these queries.
The Survey also found that more than half the companies allocate a majority of their marketing budgets to their website (55%) yet allocated only 13% to Web marketing services – the one component that drives buyers to them! Clearly, a B2B marketing strategy does not exist for many.
Searchers may use industry-specific acronyms or generic terms. They also often use search terms focused on the need or problem. Add to that the multiple searches during the buying cycle and the complexity grows exponentially.
Are All Search Engines Equal?
Research shows that industrial and technical B2B prospects overwhelmingly prefer Google. While Google still drives the lion’s share of search traffic, the merger of the Bing and Yahoo! search engines shows signs of strength. People do use different search engines depending on what phase of discovery they are in: research or transactional.
Different search engines use different algorithms to index content and rank search results. To cover all your bases, review your raw server log files for indications of a shift in your audience profile and/or changes in the search engines.
Many B2B online marketers don’t realize yet how important the Internet is in helping buyers navigate through countless company websites.
If I’ve convinced you that a B2B marketing strategy is crucial to online success, let us help improve the user experience with our professional, Web strategy or SEO technical writing services.
Photo credit: Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot
By Web Marketing B2B | B2B Advanced Strategies | Searchlight Marketing | Houston - Naples | Searchlight Marketing | Houston - Naples December 2, 2011 - 8:22 am
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