How to Generate Leads Using Search and Social Media
Today’s Speakers
Jessica Eastman
Jen Doyle
Product Marketing Manager, Citrix Online http://www.gotowebinar.com @gotowebinar
Senior Analyst, MarketingSherpa http://www.marketingsherpa.com @JenLDoyle
Todd Lebo Director of Marketing & Business Development, MarketingSherpa http://www.marketingsherpa.com @TodLebo
Background: How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines and Social Media Sites � Based on 2011 Search Marketing Benchmark Report – SEO Edition � 2200 Survey participants � First time, published two editions: SEO and PPC
Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaCITRIX
How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines and Social Media Sites Agenda � Why search and social? � Effectiveness of SEO and social media on lead generation and other business objectives � Actual benefits of integrating social media into search campaigns
� Top 5 practices for integrating search and social for lead generation � Case study – Acoustics by Design
� Utilizing search innovations for lead generation � Real impact of search innovations � How to optimize for search innovations
Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaCITRIX
Majority Integrating Search and Social Media Does your organization integrate social media with search engine marketing?
� Not currently integrating search and social? You’re in the minority � Marketers in strategic phase much more likely to integrate � What’s the payoff?
No 36%
Yes 64%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
The Effectiveness of Search In your experience, how effective has SEO been at accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization? � SEO is perceived as an effective tactic in achieving a number of impactful marketing objectives � Improvements in soft metrics leads to improvements in bottomline metrics
Very effective Increase website traffic
Somewhat effective 57%
Increase brand or product awareness
40%
42%
Increase lead generation
Not effective 2%
51%
35%
7%
58%
7%
Improve brand or product reputation
29%
Improve public relations
27%
51%
22%
Increase online sales revenue
26%
54%
20%
Increase offline sales revenue
17%
55%
55%
15%
28%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
The Effectiveness of Search and Social In your experience, how effective has SEO and social media been at accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization? Very Effective Social Media Objectives
� SEO perceived as more Increase brand or effective accomplishing hard product awareness Improve brand or objectives: traffic, leads, sales product reputation � Social perceived as more effective accomplishing soft objectives: branding and PR � As social matures, perception will change
Very Effective SEO Objectives 37% 42% 37% 29%
Improve public relations
36% 27%
Increase website traffic
33% 57%
Increase lead generation Increase offline sales revenue Increase online sales revenue
18% 35% 10% 17% 9% 26%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
The Importance of Integrating Social Media �
Increases the amount of SEO friendly content on the web
�
Generates inbound links
�
Increases the number of listings in the SERP’s
�
Improves the quality of your website’s traffic
�
Improves search conversion rates
#SherpaCITRIX
Social Impacts Organic Search Performance What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic? �
�
Search marketers who integrate social media achieve a 59% better rate of conversion. Also…
Social Media Users
NonSocial Media Users
27%
Increase the amount of SEO friendly content on the web
�
Generate inbound links
�
Increase the number of listings in the SERP’s
�
Improve the quality of your website’s traffic
17%
Organic search traffic Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Social Impacts PPC Performance What is your organization’s click through and conversion rates for PPC traffic? Social Media Users
NonSocial Media Users
Social Media Users
NonSocial Media Users
6% 10%
8%
3%
Paid search traffic Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Average click through rate
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded
Search and Social Media Integration � Research of search and social marketing practices � Key finding: Search and social have incredible synergy � Must have a social media process in place prior to integrating with SEO “First, we identify the social media platforms that our target audience is using. Then, we research what our primary and secondary competitors are doing in terms of SEO and Social Media.“ #SherpaCITRIX
Best Practice #1: Coordinate Teams
Target keywords
Social Team
Search Team
Social trends
#SherpaCITRIX
Best Practice #2: Optimize Social Content � Optimize social media profiles � Social profiles will be indexed in search results � Describe your company using brand keywords � Use your brand name for your account name whenever possible � Consistency = recognition & results
� Optimize social media communications � Optimize tweets, status updates, blog posts, etc. with target keywords #SherpaCITRIX
Best Practice #3: Generate Inbound Links from Social Media Sites � All link building begins with quality content � Useful, relevant, current & engaging � Enable sharing
� Syndicate your content � Include links in social communications � Links placed on facebook and twitter are not “nofollow” � Optimized anchor text � URL shorteners
� Target social news and bookmarking sites � Digg, reddit, delicious
� Empower brand advocates Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaCITRIX
Best Practice #4: Protect your Online Reputation Manage PR through social AND search
Follow Conversation on Twitter #SherpaCITRIX
Protect your Online Reputation � Use a social monitoring tool � Free tools: SocialMention, Twitter Search, facebook Insights, Google Alerts and Real Time Search � Paid tools: Radian6, Omniture
Best Practice #5: Encourage Social Networking on your Website Add a wealth of relevant content by hosting social features and fostering an online community right on your site
� Create company blogs � Encourage comments, ratings and reviews � Be open to search engines � Prevent link spam
#SherpaCITRIX
MarketingSherpa Case Study: Integrating Social Media to Reap SEO Gains � Acoustics by Design � Acoustical consulting firm with limited marketing resources •Healthcare •Education •Industrial
� How they developed a blog strategy and corralled multiple authors to write timely posts #SherpaCITRIX
Integration Campaign Objectives � Create keyword rich content to improve SEO performance � Establish reputation as an industry though leader � Increase lead generation and conversion
#SherpaCITRIX
Campaign Tactic: Planning Editorial Targets � Identify target audiences � Create keyword list for blog content that fills gaps in current web SEO � Create editorial calendar for a year of blog posts on keyword related topics
#SherpaCITRIX
Campaign Tactic: Recruiting Authors
“After I pulled all the knives out of my chest and started talking about doing blogs for which everyone would only need to prepare a post once every 68 weeks, the conversation went a lot better. and
”
– Kenric Van Wyk, President Principle Acoustical Engineer, Acoustics by Design
#SherpaCITRIX
� Creating sufficient volume of content a big challenge � Enlisted engineering team to write blogs and gain thought-leadership status � Won acceptance by minimizing workload
Campaign Tactic: Streamlining Content � Allowed authors to select from a list of relevant topics � Provided writing guidelines to streamline process � Assigned an editor to review writing and optimize posts
#SherpaCITRIX
Campaign Tactic: Share Results � Recognize thoughtleadership status of bloggers with bylines � Analyze comments, inbound links, and other SEO gains � Include exceptional blog posts in company newsletter for recognition
#SherpaCITRIX
Campaign Results � Blog generating 53% of natural search visits � Shared content positioning Acoustics by Design as thought leader on industry social media sites � Lead volume and rate of conversions increased
#SherpaCITRIX
The Real Impact of Search Innovations on Lead Generation � Major search engines are responding to the rapidly growing popularity of social media as a marketing tactic by developing and releasing various search engine innovations to improve the experience of end users and advertisers alike
“Our greatest challenge is getting high rankings for generic terms within our industry. Personalized search could have a ld large impact as well.”
#SherpaCITRIX
The Real Impact of Search Innovations How do you think the following search innovations will impact your business In the next 1 – 5 years?
� Personalized search has created much speculation among the SEO industry � Real time search and social marketing � Social media users anticipate the greatest impact from all search innovations across the board
Will have a great impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business Will have no impact on our business
Personalized search
33%
57%
11%
Real time search
33%
56%
10%
Video search
26%
Mobile search
24%
47%
47%
28%
29%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search � Mobile search refers to the use of web search functionality on mobile devices with wireless internet connections � Mobile search has increased the reach of search engines by adding another point of access for search engine users � Mobile search is still in it’s infancy as a marketing tactic
29%
47%
24%
Will have no impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business Will have a great impact on our business
� 56% of respondents indicated that they had not yet received any impact from Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, mobile search 2010 N=2,194 #SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search � Know your apps � Research apps on major device manufacturers websites, and the websites for phone operating systems
� Optimize more types of content � Mobile search applications are accepting more than text based queries � �
Shazam SnapTell
� Signal your location � Attract local business �
Include address in website code using hCard microformatting
� Optimize your current site � Take advantage of the history with search engines, current traffic and inbound links � Original content will out rank duplicate content
� Keep sites clean and simple � The mobile web is not yet sophisticated enough for complex websites
� Keep keywords short � Keep lead forms short and simple #SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Real Time Search � Real time search refers to a search engine’s ability to index newly published web content as it is being published with virtually no delay, or in real time
10%
56%
� Real time search can have a great impact on organizations by allowing search engine users to access newly created and published content. � Promotions & time sensitive content can now be distributed through organic search � Social media content
33%
Will have no impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business Will have a great impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize Social Communications for Real Time Search � Develop keyword optimized content for social media � Join the conversation � Research hot topics and latest trends that are relevant to your business
� Post frequently � Utilize social tools to schedule tweets or status updates ahead of time
� Recruit brand advocates
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search � Personalized search refers to a search engine’s capability to personalize search results based on the last 180 days of a search engine users’ search habits
11%
57%
� Previously visited sites � Interpreting search queries
� Personalized search is expected to have a negative impact on SEO by limiting the number of impressions their organic listings receive
33%
Will have no impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business Will have a great impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search � Drive more traffic to your site – now! � � � �
Email blasts Encourage bookmarking PPC Etc.
� Engage web visitors � Relevant, useful, engaging content � Frequently add a new variety of content
� Rank checking is even less reliable
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search �
Search engines have responded to the growing popularity of video being utilized for marketing and business purposes by developing video search, or the capability to crawl and index video content.
�
Video content is now being indexed and ranked on the first page of the search results when relevant
�
Video search is in it’s infancy as a marketing tactic � 52% of organizations indicated that they had not yet received any impact from video search
28%
47%
26%
Will have no impact on our business Will somewhat impact our business Will have a great impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
#SherpaCITRIX
Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search � Create great content � Relevance and usefulness � Keep it short
� Optimize video content with target keywords � Video sharing sites � Onpage content & surrounding HTML � Links
� Attract viewers & maximize views � Video thumbnails � Enable sharing
� Encourage comments and ratings #SherpaCITRIX
How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines and Social Media Sites �
Why search and social? � �
�
SEO and Social rated as effective tactics in achieving hard & soft business objectives Social impacts search campaigns by improving rankings, increasing listing quantity, and improving click through and conversion rates
Top 5 practices for integrating search and social for lead generation � � � � �
Coordinate search and social teams Optimize social content Generate inbound links from social media sites Protect your online reputation Encourage social networking on your site
#SherpaCITRIX
•Utilizing Search Innovations for Lead Generation •Real time search •Mobile search •Personalized search •Video search
Q&A
Jessica Eastman
Jen Doyle
Todd Lebo
Product Marketing Manager, Citrix Online http://www.gotowebinar.com @gotowebinar
MarketingSherpa Jen.doyle@marketingsherpa.com http://www.marketingsherpa.com @JenLDoyle
MarketingSherpa Todd.lebo@marketingsherpa.com http://www.marketingsherpa.com @TodLebo
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