Relying only on organic searches could leave your company’s marketing and sales team wondering where the leads are. Until recently, savvy marketers could leverage free ads—also known as organic ads through SEO tactics —to drive new leads and keep current customers engaged. Now favoring paid advertisements, most search platforms do little to help you gain a market advantage with free posts.
A recent study by Clutch found that 33% of the people they surveyed clicked on a paid search ad because it directly answered their question. This finding suggests that relevance alone won’t ensure that your ad is placed at the top of the search results.
So, what does this mean for system integrators?
First, know that simply paying to place a generic ad may work against you. The answer is a two-part solution. Content must be both relevant and backed by funding to ensure it can be seen by your prospective customers.
Since customers want answers to specific questions, it’s extremely important to know the specific questions your customers have. Consider facilitating ongoing in-person sessions between marketing and sales to make this happen. After these sessions, marketing will be able to craft content that matches what your sales team suspects and knows your customers are researching on Google. Remember, the new prospective buyer’s journey starts long before your sales team meets the prospect face-to-face. Once they’ve met, prospective customers are likely to divulge the specific questions and search criteria that led to your sales team’s engagement with them.
Also, answering the question may not be enough. Search common questions to see how your competitors and other industries are answering these questions. Are they using images, blog posts, or maybe even a podcast to provide answers? What headlines are they using to make their content relevant to the question?
So, what’s the formula?
There isn’t a catch-all formula for success, but there are key ingredients that can make digital marketing work for you:
- Discuss a new budget for paid search advertising
- Know what your customers are asking – specifically
- Know how your competitors are answering the questions that you’re answering
- Create relevant headlines
- Ensure the content below the headline specifically answers the question
- Go beyond the initial question
- Provide a call-to-action at the end of the content
For example, a common customer question might be: What video surveillance camera works best at night?
The marketing team can use this common question to generate a short blog post of about 300 words. Supporting that answer could be the documentation of a demo your engineering team performed earlier in the month. Consider a chart or graphic that clearly represents the test and subsequent results. The call-to-action may prompt readers to request a demonstration or free solution design.
System Integration Marketing Partnership
Vector Firm can help you adapt to the new paid search demands on your team. We can assist from start to finish, cultivating new leads and reinforcing your existing customer relationships so they’ll remember to purchase their next solution from you as well.
