How to Generate Leads Using Search and Social Media - Brian Carroll invites Todd Lebo and Jen Doyle of MarketingSherpa to show how to effectively deploy a search and social media campaign to generate leads.
2. Background: How to Generate Leads Using
Search Engines and Social Media Sites
S hE i d S i l M di Si
Based on 2011 Search Marketing
Benchmark Report – SEO Edition
2200 Survey participants
First time, published two editions: SEO
and PPC
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3. How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines
and Social Media Sites ‐ A d
d S i l M di Si Agenda
Why search and social?
Effectiveness of SEO and social media on lead generation and other
ff f d l d l d d h
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
Case study – Acoustics by Design
Utilizing search innovations for lead generation
Real impact of search innovations
How to optimize for search innovations
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4. Majority Integrating Search and Social Media
D
Does your organization integrate social media with search engine marketing?
i ti i t t i l di ith h i k ti ?
Not currently integrating search
and social? You’re in the minority
No
36%
Marketers in strategic phase
Marketers in strategic phase
much more likely to integrate
What’s the pay‐off? Yes
64%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April 2010 N=2 194
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5. The Effectiveness of Search
In your experience, how effective has SEO been at accomplishing these
marketing objectives for your organization?
Very effective
V ff ti Somewhat effective
S h t ff ti N t ff ti
Not effective
SEO is perceived as an
d
effective tactic in Increase website traffic 57% 40% 2%
achieving a number of Increase brand or
42% 51% 7%
product awareness
product awareness
impactful marketing Increase lead
objectives generation
35% 58% 7%
Improve brand or
29% 55% 15%
product reputation
product reputation
Improvements in Improve public
27% 51% 22%
soft metrics leads to relations
improvements in Increase online sales
revenue
26% 54% 20%
bottom‐line metrics Increase offline sales
17% 55% 28%
revenue
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
/ gy g p g y/ p , ,
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6. The Effectiveness of Search and Social
In your experience, how effective has SEO and social media been at
I i h ff ti h SEO d i l di b t
accomplishing these marketing objectives for your organization?
Very Effective Social Media Objectives
y j Very Effective SEO Objectives
y j
SEO
SEO perceived as more
i d
Increase brand or 37%
effective accomplishing hard product awareness 42%
objectives: traffic, leads, sales product reputation
p
Improve brand or
p 29%
37%
Improve public 36%
Social perceived as more relations 27%
Increase website 33%
effective accomplishing soft traffic 57%
objectives: branding and PR Increase lead
generation
18%
35%
Increase offline 10%
sales revenue
,
As social matures, 17%
Increase online 9%
perception will change sales revenue 26%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
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7. The Importance of Integrating Social Media
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
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8. Social Impacts Organic Search Performance
p g
What is your organization’s conversion rate for organic traffic?
Search marketers who integrate Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users
social media achieve a 59% better 27%
rate of conversion. Also…
Increase the amount of SEO
friendly content on the web 17%
Generate inbound links
Increase the number of listings
in the SERP’s
Improve the quality of your
Improve the quality of your
website’s traffic
Organic search traffic
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
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9. Social Impacts PPC Performance
Social Impacts PPC Performance
What is your organization’s click through and conversion rates for PPC traffic?
Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users Social Media Users Non‐Social Media Users
6%
10%
8%
3%
Paid search traffic Average click through rate
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded
April, 2010 N=2,194 Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded
April, 2010 N=2,194
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10. Search and Social Media Integration
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
d tit d i i t f SEO d S i l
Media.“
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11. Best Practice #1: Coordinate Teams
Best Practice #1: Coordinate Teams
Target keywords
Search Team Social Team
Social trends
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12. Best Practice #2: Optimize Social Content
Best Practice #2: Optimize Social Content
Optimize social media profiles
p p
Social profiles will be indexed in search
results
Describe your company using brand
Describe your company using brand
keywords
Use your brand name for your account
name whenever possible
name whenever possible
Consistency = recognition & results
Optimize social media
communications
Optimize tweets, status updates, blog
posts, etc. with target keywords
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13. Best Practice #3: Generate Inbound Links from
Social Media Sites
S i l M di Si
All link building begins with quality
content
t t
Useful, relevant, current & engaging
Enable sharing
Syndicate your content
Syndicate your content
Include links in social communications
Links placed on facebook and twitter are
y
“nofollow” but there is still value you can
realize by including the link
Optimized anchor text
URL shorteners
Target social news and bookmarking sites
T t i l db k ki it
Digg, reddit, delicious
Empower brand advocates
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15. Protect your Online Reputation
Use a social monitoring tool
Free tools: SocialMention, Twitter Search, facebook Insights, Google
Alerts and Real Time Search
Al t d R l Ti S h
Paid tools: Radian6, Omniture
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16. Best Practice #5: Encourage Social Networking on
your Website
W bi
Add a wealth of relevant content by hosting social features and fostering an online
community right on your site
community right on your site
Create company blogs
Create company blogs
Encourage comments, ratings and
reviews
Be open to search engines
Prevent link spam
Prevent link spam
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17. MarketingSherpa Case Study:
Integrating Social Media to Reap SEO Gains
I i S i l M di R SEO G i
Acoustics by Design
b
Acoustical consulting firm with
g
limited marketing resources
•Healthcare
•Education
•Industrial
How they developed a blog
How they developed a blog
strategy and corralled multiple
authors to write timely posts
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18. Integration Campaign Objectives
Integration Campaign Objectives
Create keyword rich content
k d h
to improve SEO performance
Establish reputation as an
industry though leader
Increase lead generation and
conversion
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19. Campaign Tactic: Planning Editorial Targets
Campaign Tactic: Planning Editorial Targets
Identify target audiences
Create keyword list for
blog content that fills
gaps in current web SEO
Create editorial calendar
Create editorial calendar
for a year of blog posts
on keyword related
topics
t i
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20. Campaign Tactic: Recruiting Authors
Campaign Tactic: Recruiting Authors
“After I pulled all the knives out of my Creating sufficient volume
of content a big challenge
f bi h ll
chest and started talking about
doing blogs for which everyone would
only need to prepare a post once
y p p p Enlisted engineering team
every 6‐8 weeks, the conversation went to write blogs and gain
thought‐leadership status
a lot better. ”
– Kenric Van Wyk, President Won acceptance by
and Principle Acoustical Engineer,
minimizing workload
Acoustics by Design
y g
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21. Campaign Tactic: Streamlining Content
Campaign Tactic: Streamlining Content
Allowed authors to select
from a list of relevant topics
f li t f l tt i
Provided writing guidelines to
streamline process
Assigned an editor to review
Assigned an editor to review
writing and optimize posts
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22. Campaign Tactic: Share Results
Campaign Tactic: Share Results
Recognize thought‐leadership
g g p
status of bloggers with bylines
Analyze comments, inbound links,
Analyze comments inbound links
and other SEO gains
Include exceptional blog posts in
company newsletter for
g
recognition
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23. Campaign Results
Campaign Results
Blog generating 53% of
natural search visits
t l h i it
Shared content positioning
Acoustics by Design as
thought leader on industry
social media sites
social media sites
Lead volume and rate of
conversions increased
con ersions increased
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24. The Real Impact of Search Innovations on Lead
Generation
G i
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
Our greatest challenge is getting high rankings for generic
terms within our industry. Personalized search could have a
ld
large impact as well.”
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25. The Real Impact of Search Innovations
How do you think the following search innovations will impact your business In the
d hi k h f ll i hi i ill i b i h
next 1 – 5 years?
Will have a great impact on our business
Personalized search has Will somewhat impact our business
Will somewhat impact our business
created much speculation Will have no impact on our business
among the SEO industry Personalized search 33% 57% 11%
Real time search and
social marketing Real time search 33% 56% 10%
Social media users Video search 26% 47% 28%
anticipate the greatest impact
from all search innovations
from all search innovations
across the board Mobile search 24% 47% 29%
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April, 2010 N=2,194
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26. Optimize for Search Innovations – Mobile Search
Mobile search refers to the use of web
search functionality on mobile devices
search functionality on mobile devices 29%
with wireless internet connections
Mobile search has increased the reach 47%
of search engines by adding another
point of access for search engine users
Mobile search is still in it’s 24%
infancy as a marketing tactic
infancy as a marketing tactic Will have a great impact on our business
56% of respondents indicated that they Will somewhat impact our business
Will have no impact on our business
had not yet received any impact from
mobile search Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194
2010 N=2 194
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27. 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
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
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
Keep lead forms short and simple
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28. Optimize for Search Innovations – Real Time Search
p
Real time search refers to a search 10%
engine s ability to index newly published
engine’s ability to index newly published
web content as it is being published with
virtually no delay, or in real time 56%
Real time search can have a great
impact on organizations by allowing search
engine users to access newly created and
engine users to access newly created and
published content. 33%
Promotions & time sensitive content can
g g
now be distributed through organic
Will have a great impact on our business
search Will somewhat impact our business
Will have no impact on our business
Social media content
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194
2010 N=2 194
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29. Optimize Social Communications for Real Time Search
p
Develop keyword optimized content for social media
Join the conversation
Research hot topics and latest trends
that are relevant to your business
y
Post frequently
Utilize social tools to schedule tweets or
status updates ahead of time
Recruit brand advocates
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30. Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search
Personalized search refers to a search 11%
engine s capability to personalize search
engine’s capability to personalize search
results based on the last 180 days of a
search engine users’ search habits 57%
Previously visited sites
Interpreting search queries
Personalized search is expected to
33%
have a negative impact on SEO by limiting
the number of impressions their organic
the number of impressions their organic Will have a great impact on our business
Will somewhat impact our business
listings receive Will have no impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194
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31. Optimize for Search Innovations – Personalized Search
Drive more traffic to your
site – now!
Email blasts
Encourage bookmarking
PPC
Etc.
Etc
Engage web visitors
Relevant, useful, engaging content
Frequently add a new variety of
content
Rank checking is even less
Rank checking is even less
reliable
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32. Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search
Search engines have responded to
the growing popularity of video being
utilized for marketing and business 28%
purposes by developing video search, or
the capability to crawl and index video
content.
47%
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 26%
marketing tactic
5 % o o ga at o s d cated t at t ey ad
52% of organizations indicated that they had
Will have a great impact on our business
not yet received any impact from video Will somewhat impact our business
search Will have no impact on our business
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
Source / Methodology: MarketingSherpa Search Marketing Benchmark Survey / Fielded April,
2010 N=2,194
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33. Optimize for Search Innovations – Video Search
p
Create great content
Relevance and usefulness
Keep it short
Optimize video content with target
keywords
k d
Video sharing sites
On‐page content & surrounding HTML
Links
Attract viewers & maximize views
Video thumbnails
Enable sharing
Enable sharing
Encourage comments and ratings
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34. How to Generate Leads Using Search Engines
and Social Media Sites
d S i l M di Si
Why search and social? •Utilizing Search Innovations for Lead
SEO and Social rated as effective tactics in Generation
achieving hard & soft business objectives
achieving hard & soft business objectives •Real time search
•Real time search
Social impacts search campaigns by •Mobile search
improving rankings, increasing listing
quantity, and improving click through and •Personalized search
conversion rates •Video search
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
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35.
36. Thank You & Questions
Thank You & Questions
Jen Doyle Todd Lebo
MarketingSherpa
MarketingSherpa
Todd.lebo@marketingsherpa.com
Jen.doyle@marketingsherpa.com
http://www.marketingsherpa.com
http://www.marketingsherpa.com
@TodLebo
@JenLDoyle
Editor's Notes
Jen
Jen: start poll
Jen LeadTodd (optional): 64% responded with yes, but I’ll be interested as we move forward to find out the level of integration. As a marketer, I understand that it is an evolving process and the goal is to make sure that we keep advancing as we move forward. We want to find new ways to ‘up our game’ and increase the value of these 2 powerful marketing tactics.
Jen lead
Jen leadTodd: We are going to be focusing on how search and social can work together to impact lead generation. At MarketingSherpa we continue to see the positive impact of search/social as we use our content to increase leads. A webinar is a great example. A solid keyword strategy that is used for search and also applied to social as you: write a blog post, tweet the event (using your keywords), set-up hashtag, announce on LinkedIn, update on Facebook, etc. is a powerful strategy.
Jen:Todd: Don’t get blinded by the social marketing platform. First develop the strategy, before you focus on the platform.
Todd: When I think of what it means to integrate search and social, it reminds me of the evolution of a fitness program. For a long time, people looked at two critical parts of fitness: cardio and power (muscle). So you jog, ride bike, etc. for the cardio and lift weights for power. And you alternate days for each discipline. Now professionals are integrating cardio and power into one workout to maximize overall fitness. The two combined are more powerful than one. It is not an all or nothing proposition – but there is great value in combining the two. Same with Search and Social.In this diagram, if you are a small company, you may be the search and social team. That can make it easier, but you still need a strategy. And you still need to think holistically on using the data from each side to feed the other. For a larger company, the coordination is even more important and having a process to feed information back and forth is critical. Start with a consistent process to pass target keywords to social team. Have social team bake those words into social tactics. Pass back to search team social trends: followers, social voice (strength), sentiment, passion, top users, content downloads, social reach, etc. Define what is important to you.
Todd: Content is KING. This was before social and it is even more important now. If you aren’t relevant and interesting, people won’t follow. If we aren’t providing relevant and helpful content on this webinar that helps you to generate more leads – it doesn’t matter how well we integrate search and social. But when you are relevant and interesting – make sure to optimize your programs.-- don’t forget those social profiles and descriptions: these are important and need to use your targeted keywords. Go back and check your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other accounts. -- Consistency is key: with keywords, with brand name.-- At MarketingSherpa we provide marketers practical how-tos and proven research in all area of marketing. That message needs to be consistent.-- Optimize communication: example for this webinar we emphasized Search and Social Integration. Think about the expanded reach that you could achieve on your next webinar if you started by outlining an overall strategy.
-- All sharing links to blogs and other content.-- Get to know the key influencers in your space. We call this group the Social Authority, and if you can engage with this group, you will dramatically increase your reach and influence. Example in marketing is Chris Broggan. As of today, he has 143,448 followers on Twitter. If you can get him to tweet about your webinar, that is 143,448 marketers that are now learning about your webinar. It takes hard work and an investment of time, but it is possible.-- Syndicate content: everyone is looking for quality content, so syndicating your content may expand your reach. Maybe just part of your content, with a link back to your site.-- social links: common question: Should you use URL shorteners? I say yes for a few reasons: -- it still counts to your search -- you can use keywords in your tweet -- I want to always encourage retweets, so I keep tweets short enough to account for RT. In MarketingSherpa’s case, I keep tweets at 119 characters, so followers can retweet without changing tweet (make it simple)
Brand reputation is an important part of social media. What is the outside world saying about your company, product and service.
There are some great tools that you can use to track online reputation. This example is from SocialMention. In this example, we are comparing 3 baseball teams. Here are the 4 metrics that we are tracking:Strength: likelihood that your brand is being discussed in social mediaSentiment: ratio of positive comments to negative commentsPassion is the likelihood that people that talk about your brand will do so repeatedlyReach is the range of influenceYou can also follow keywords, etc.
-- blog can generate great results. As marketer, your primary role may be to get individuals in your company to contribute. Provide guidance, deadlines, etc. Also, show the contributors the results of their work. Share the states, comments, etc.-- Encourage comments but make sure to prevent link spam on comments section. This can be done by talking with your IT person.-- Not all platforms are designed to be easily indexed by search engines. Make sure yourcontent is clearly visible to the spiders by asking vendors and consulting your searchexperts.
Todd: we use Blog Grader and Twitter Grader, these and other tools can be a great help.
Todd: interesting blog on getting yourself in first position on Google search.
MarketingSherpa uses video for testimonials. Also good for breaking news in industry. High-quality is not necessary and sometimes low-tech can appear more timely and urgent. Maybe a new release of a google tool is perfect for a reporter to discuss the impact on marketers. And then tie it to a systematic social campaign.