As a technology marketer, I am going to guess that your marketing plan includes some search engine marketing efforts. After all, that is what technology companies are expected to do, deliver their marketing messages using technology based marketing vehicles such as search engines.
What better marketing vehicle than having your targeted prospect type in their needs and have your company pop up on the first page. It’s a low cost, manageable marketing vehicle that can be measured. All your competitors are probably doing it, your sales force has probably requested the support, and maybe even your CEO has suggested it. It is a very popular marketing tactic and everybody wins, the target finds you and you only pay for the click thru.
The theory is right on, but all too often technology companies implement these search engine marketing efforts without the upfront basic marketing planning necessary to ensure success. These search engine marketing campaigns may be the main driver of your marketing effort or possibly they act as secondary support to your primary marketing efforts.
In either case, a search engine marketing effort for b2b technology companies should consider Todd Miechiels “The 7 Cardinal Sins of B2B Search Engine Marketing”. It is a Free Report that may add value to understanding the value of your current or planned search engine marketing efforts. Todd Miechiels is a search engine marketing expert and is a nationally recognized speaker and author.
The 7 Sins
- Not Establishing a Clear and Realistic Goal
- Viewing Search Engine Marketing as a Temporary Tactic
- Not Having Basic Fundamental Sales and Marketing Elements in Place
- Not Performing Adequate Preliminary Research
- Unwillingness to “Lose it All” In Order to “Know Without a Doubt”
- Not Being Diligent about Testing and Refining
- Not Putting the Experts On It
Todd’s report really delivers some great insight to search engine marketing and points out that many companies need to plan the use of SEM, just like all of their other marketing efforts. Companies need to to excersie patience and dedication to ensure their search engine marketing campaign efforts can be an effective tool within your marketing Mix. Don’t just use SEM because it’s there, take the time to ensure this tactic can deliver against your overall marketing goals.
