Did you know search engine marketing matters to professional services firms more than ever today? Even if you rely on referrals for new business, your prospective buyers are visiting your website before deciding to engage in an initial discussion with you. According to our research, How Clients Buy Professional Services, 80% of buyers typically visit a service provider’s website before buying. And, as Mike Cooch said in a recent RainToday webinar, Search Engine Marketing 101 for Professional Services, “If you’re not marketing online, you’re not marketing.”
But getting started with search marketing can be overwhelming. How do you know the keywords buyers use to search for your services? How can you beat out large companies with well-known brands and big budgets that top the search rankings? How do you get people to read and link to your thought-leading content?
Search Engine Marketing Tools and Resources
To help you get started with your search engine marketing efforts, Mike shared his favorite tools and resources:
Google Analytics: This web analytic tool allows you to track how visitors get to your site and what they do once they arrive. In search engine marketing, data is everything. Google Analytics allows you to see what people are responding to and where visitors spend their time.
Google Alerts: This tool allows you to monitor conversations on specific topics that are happening on the web. You simply create a list of keywords such as your company name, keywords related to your services, your name, and the competition. Then anytime these words are used online, you receive an email with a link to that online appearance. This allows you to stay on top of who’s talking about you and your company, monitor what your competitors are doing, and see who is talking about important topics in your space. It gives you the opportunity to respond and join the conversation.
Google Reader: As a professional services provider, you’re expected to be an expert. But it’s hard to stay on top of all the current trends. Google Reader allows you to subscribe to all your favorite sources of information and collect them in one place. You can quickly and easily keep up with what’s new in your industry. It also allows you to share the content with others through Twitter and commenting.
Twitter: Twitter remains a controversial and misunderstood tool among some B2B marketers. Many professionals dismiss it right out of the gate. At the same time, more and more people are signing on to Twitter and seeing it as a good source for quick bites of information. Twitter is a great tool in your search engine marketing arsenal, as it is a quick and easy way to send people to your thought-leading content. You can link to blog posts, articles, white papers, and presentations. It’s one way of letting your audience know you’re on top of all that’s going on in your industry, and it drives traffic and links to your website.
Facebook: While Facebook started out as a college thing, it’s now taking over the online world. It has grown amazingly fast—professionals, businesses, and colleagues (and even my mother!) are now on Facebook and use it on a regular basis. Don’t write it off as a thing for college students—there are many businesses with thriving Facebook fan pages these days.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is probably the most common social media tool used by professional services providers. It is also one of the least optimized. Too many professionals (and I’m a victim of this) create their LinkedIn profile and forget it’s even there. Years go by without any updates. LinkedIn is not a one-and-done tool. Use it regularly to promote new content and events. Use it to find prospects and seek recommendations and endorsement. There is more power to LinkedIn than simply posting your resume online.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool: This free tool from Google allows you to identify keywords for your search engine marketing campaigns. You just type in the keywords you think your audience is searching for, and it will show you how many people are searching using those terms along with suggestions for other relevant keywords. This allows you to quickly and easily determine which keywords prospects use to find services and content like yours.
Google Local Business Center: Whether your business is primarily local, national, or international, Mike recommends getting listed in the local search directory. You can compete against larger brands with bigger marketing budgets and develop more relevant ads. It’s a great tactic many companies have not taken advantage of yet.
To claim your spot, visit the local business center and search to see if you’re already in the database. If you are, you can claim your listing and update it. If you don’t find your business, there’s an option to submit your information to the database. For the best results, tailor your message to the local audience. For example, Mike’s company, Everon Technology Services, has offices in Boston and Denver. For the company’s Boston listing they use a “Wicked Smaht” headline, and for Denver they include pictures of mountains on the landing page. Each of those speaks specifically to the local audience.
Search engine marketing is no longer just about loading pages with keywords and trying to get inbound links to your site. Google has gotten more sophisticated and rewards those who publish relevant content and join the conversation. These tools and resources will help you get started, but you’ll still need to do the work to make your firm and your content valuable to people.
