I attended a BMA event in NYC on Thursday. Google was kind enough to host and two of their B2B search gurus were featured speakers.
No surprise, it was a top-notch event. Google knows its brand and is skilled at "living it." You can feel the brand, even in intangible ways.
The big surprise of the evening (at least to me) was the ways in which search differs for B2B vs. B2C.
B2B searchers, Google says (if Google could speak) are much more picky about their results. As marketers, we've been trained and are in turn training our clients to focus on first-page results. Hone your message, craft your advertising so you can appear on page one.
Still important in the B2B world...but data indicates that many B2B searchers -- especially those searching industrial or highly technical solutions -- will go much deeper to find the RIGHT solution. 5 even 10 pages deep.
B2B marketers, Google "says" will use longer search phrases. Where a B2C searcher will use a 2 maybe 3 word search string, B2B marketers are more complex -- stringing together longer search phrases (up to 5 or 6).
Excellent insight made even more powerful by the analytic and planning tools offered by Google, Twitter and others.
The lessons of the day? (at least for me...) B2B online search is more than a growing media deserving of precious marketing dollars. It's one that requires specialized understanding by agencies to fully capture the opportunities on behalf of their clients.
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