SEO-cialize Your Marketing to Gain

Online Visibility, Traffic, Leads, and

Sales

Presented by

Veronica Fielding with Deborah French

Introductions

• Presenters Veronica Fielding, President, DBE

Deborah A. French, Senior Sales & Marketing Communications

Manager, Q Center

• Our Topic—SEO-cial Strategically combining SEO and Social Media Marketing for your

B2B brand

SEO Social Media

What We’ll Cover Today

• Getting on the same page about SEO

• Why SEO-cial is the way to go

• How to make SEO-cial work for your B2B brand

• What others are doing

• In-depth look at Q Center’s SEO-cial program

How Many of You Are…

• Not doing any real (ongoing) SEO or social?

• Doing SEO but not social?

• Doing Social but not SEO?

• Doing both?

A ^ Brief History of SEO

' 95 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 ' 12

Today

Social Signals for SEO

9/16/2012

Social Media Links for SEO

1/16/2009

Content Driven Links for SEO

1/1/2007

Link Building For SEO

1/1/2002

On-website SEO

6/15/1998

Internet Launches for Consumers

3/15/1995

Very

SEO Now: Ongoing Offsite is Key

On Website SEO

Off

Website

SEO

Technical adjustments

Competitive research

Keyword research

Domain research

Keyword mapping

Content Creation

Content Curation

Content Distribution:

• Directory listings

• Traditional link

building

• Social engagement

• Social link building

SEO + Social Media = SEO-cial

Published in:

Top 2 Sources—Perfect Together

Yet Most Companies Are Not Integrating

Social Use By Companies

Links Are Increasingly Important

42.58

SEOmoz 2011 Search Engine (Google) Algorithm Ranking Factors

Benefits of Social for B2B Marketers*

• Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business

partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C

marketers)

• Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings

from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers)

• B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights

from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers)

• The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their

B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C

marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans,

compared to only 53% of B2B marketers.

*Source: How B2B Marketers Use Social Media: New Research, Phil Mershon,

SocialExaminer.com 4/24/12, see links in Resources section

B2B Marketers Social Media Preferences

So What Is SEO-cial?

• Strategically leveraging social media marketing to

support SEO goals

• Controversial: see the comments following my Fast

Company post on SEO-cial

• Why the uproar?

It’s still early, difficult to draw direct conclusions

Still possible for SEO to succeed without SEO-cial

• Though getting increasingly difficult to generate search-engine

sanctioned links without it

It’s A LOT of work

• Takes time, $, and persistence

It requires teamwork

SEO-cial Isn’t Easy…

• You will need to work hard to unite your resources and

manage through silo-ed objectives and plans

SEO team

Social media team

PR/Communications

Analytics

Internal funders and supporters

Internal Stakeholders & Social

• Convincing people that social is worth their input will be

a challenge in most organizations

– Still relatively new

– Quantification and connection to bottom line almost impossible

• Social isn’t a “sales” channel

– Demonstrating success will be key

• Agreeing on success measures, even qualitative ones, is critical

• Convincing the money people to fund it will be

challenging, too

– “D, all of the above…”

Important!

• If you focus on the search engines, you will annoy and

alienate people (and lose search engine attention)

• Stay focused on connecting and engaging with people,

and the search engines will follow

Comparing B2C & B2B SEO-cial

B2C

• Large # potential customers

• Channel is direct interaction

with consumers

• Small % of audience makes

engagement #s look great

• Engagement #s high, lots of

activity

• Engagement easier, sharing

constant and fluid—personal

decision to participate

• Wide variety of appropriate

offers

B2B

• Defined, limited # customers

• Sales people = intermediary

between social channel & buyers

• #Fans, #Followers smaller

• Engagement harder to come by,

fewer people available to

“socialize” from work

• Opinions shared reflect on

organization, more cautious in

sharing with brands in channel

• Offers need to be appropriate to

biz decision makers

Reframing SEO Now: 1, 2, 3

1. Technical adjustments— so search engines can crawl

and recognize content on your site

2. Identify the keywords YOUR buyers will use to find

the site when not using branded terms. Apply

throughout site:

• Page Copy

• Source Code Tags

3. Generating activity outside of your website that points

to your website to signal the search engines that your

site is of value to authority sites (and their

stakeholders)

On Website

SEO

On Website

SEO

Off

Website

SEO

The Rise of Social Signals

• Getting inbound links by traditional means is still good: Directories

Authority websites

Influential bloggers

• Getting links from the social channel is a must-do, too

• What signals count? “Conversations” and content on your own social properties that include

links back to your website

“Conversations” and content on others’ social properties that link back to

your website

Activity around your brand name, even if it doesn’t include links:

• Twitter chatter

• Facebook likes

• YouTube comments

How Do You Create Social Signals?

1 Create (and curate) unique, relevant, shareable content

2 Identify “distribution” channels: blogs,

social media, websites, etc.

3 Create interest and excitement around

the content, get many others to share it

and talk about it, too

What Content Works Best?

Integrated SEO-cial—The Right Mix

Edmund Optics: SEO-cial Early Adopter

• Started SEO/PPC with DBE 2007

• Began to incorporate social elements 2010,

expanded program in 2011

• Facebook

• Twitter

• YouTube

• Organic search visits up 82% 2011 v. 2009

(25% 2011 v. 2010)

• Measurable “Assisted Social Conversions”

alone deliver 5-1 ROI

• Note: very active LinkedIn company presence, but that isn’t a direct assist to

SEO

PTS: SEO-cial After Panda/Penguin

• Started SEO/PPC with DBE 2005

• Began to incorporate social elements 2009

• Blog

• Facebook

• Organic search visits up 18% 2010 v. 2009

• Brought program in-house 2011

• Panda & Penguin hit

• April 2012 organic search visits drop 56%!

• Began to implement SEO-cial best practices July 2012

• Early indicators show good bounce back on keyword and domain authority

Deborah French, Q Center

• Deborah is going to share what she has learned

spearheading the introduction of SEO-cial for her

organization

• They’re just picking up steam now

• She will share what she planned, what happened, what

she did to adjust, and where Q Center goes from here

Q Center Overview

• Corporate conference center in

business for 40+ years

• Located 45 miles west of

Chicago Loop

• 1,042 overnight guest rooms,

150,000+ sq. ft. of state of the

art meeting space

• GROUPS ONLY– no individual

business or leisure travelers

• We are a B2B sale, not a

hospitality sale

Q Center Marketing Goals

#1 – Generate leads for group

sales effort

#2 – Drive incidental revenue

from guests

$

Q Center Marketing Challenges

#1--Single, independent property competing with

national and international brands

#2--B2B sales model competing with brands that

interact with targets in B2B AND B2C

#3--Conservative culture

Why Search Matters to Q Center

• We’re a niche solution

• Brand awareness is generally low

• Traditional advertising has not been

effective—too wide a swath

• How do buyers find us? They look for

us!

#1 word of mouth

#2 online search

• Limited funding makes SEO very

attractive

Q Center: SEO and PPC

#1 Natural Listing, generated by DBE SEO

Cost-effective

PPC presence

Using SEO (and PPC) Since 2005

• Organic search = 33% of the site’s traffic up 20% over this time last year

• PPC = 33% of traffic Strategy—complement to SEO

• Social Media, new in 2011 2012--Strategically integrating with SEO=SEO-cial

Why Social Matters to Q Center

• Word of mouth and referrals are important in decision making

• People trust other people

• Our clients and guests are very engaged in social

• We need to be there with them

• Competitors use social to drive B2C awareness

• Cost-effective, flexible way to drive brand awareness

• Corporate buyers use social to research options

• Social combines the benefit of being where the buyers are with credibility

from others who value your brand

• Long sales cycle—social keeps us engaged with prospects

• Social’s impact on search will fortify our keyword rankings and domain

level authority

Getting Started

• Began blog, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr in 2011, added

Facebook in 2012

• Weren’t getting enough return for resource cost in 2011

and considered abandoning—outsourced to DBE

Getting Started

• Set goals and measurement

• Increase organic search traffic by

15%

• Increase social referrals, too

• Grow influential followers list to

100% of 105

• 25% of the way there!

What We’ve Done So Far in 2012

• DBE assumed management of Q Center’s social presence in March 2012

Blog, Twitter, Facebook (and consulting on LinkedIn and YouTube)

• April – launched Service Upgrade Offer page on Facebook (aimed at meeting

planners)

• May – launched the Oasis spa promotion targeting on-site guests

Found to be too “consumer” focused and changed promotion to something people

could use

• Late May – enhanced LinkedIn Company Page

• July – Twitter influential follower outreach began

The goal is not just to gain new followers, but to gain them from a targeted list of

industry influencers.

• Drink promotion (targeting on-site guests) ran from 7/16 to 8/17

• Mid-August – LinkedIn training for sales team

• September – discussing launch of Pinterest, starting development of white

paper

Challenges for B2B and Q Center

• Needing to show clear connection between online buzz and bottom

line (a sweepstakes may be fun, but is it connecting with the right

audience?)

• If the B2B market for your brand is small, you need to do a very

targeted promotion. But reaching a small audience runs counter to

the big buzz that’s needed to drive SEO. Catch-22

• Building buzz without generating sales leads is pointless but SEO

needs to feed the search engines activity that is working for people.

• Solutions:

– Thought leadership that is relevant to the brand and its audiences and has value

beyond the brand

• Offer unique whitepapers

• Create and curate value-added content through Facebook and Twitter

• Curate content of core target and wider audience interest on Pinterest and/or YouTube

– Target solutions that are controlled with modest expectations: free drink offer

What We’ve Learned So Far

• Resources may need to be traded

Money spent on traditional marketing may need to be converted to staff or

to an outsourced resource

• Don’t overthink it to the point of paralysis

It’s new, adopt a try it mindset

• Try everything

You can always pull it back and try something else

• It’s not a project, it’s a journey

You learn things along the way so be flexible and open to changing the

approach

• Measure everything

The insights are in the details

• Be patient

Like any strategy, it takes awhile to have an impact

Your Turn

Other Helpful Resources

• Report of social media usage by B2B companies via Phil

Mershon/Social Examiner 4/24/12 and links to great research results

of 3,800 social media marketers surveyed:

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/b2b-social-media-marketing-

research/

• Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2012/7986/b2b-

social-marketing-growing-linkedin-top-channel#ixzz26ZnYCqGv

• Fast Company article:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3000283/seo-isnt-what-you-

think-it

Need More?

Contact Us!

DBE is a leading digital marketing agency for middle market marketing

decision makers who need a trailblazing partner to increase sales in

quantifiable and cost-effective ways. DBE’s innovative mix of content-

driven SEO, PPC, and social media marketing connects buyers and

brands and delivers results that make our clients heroes.

Veronica Fielding

President, Digital Brand Expressions

vfielding@digitalbrandexpressions.com

609-688-8558