Buy Cycle Marketing
In Karen Breen Vogel's presentation on B2B search (poorly attended considering the price per acquisition B2B companies are willing to pay) she examined one aspect of the often lengthy and complex B2B buy cycle. There exist, she said, two primary parties within a company that determine whether or not to buy your product - influencers and decision makers.

Influencers are those who are "closest to the pain." They start the buying cycle with research.

In SEM terms, they conduct problem-centered searches. They don't know who the vendors are and they may not even be familiar enough with the solution to search for it by name. B2B SEMs must be familiar with the specific language their target audience uses to describe their particular problem.

Decision makers, once the influencers have presented them with the problem, do later stage research, though often with more product specific searches. Often, said Karen, decision makers conduct these searches looking for validation for a decision they're about to make.

How did she find this crucial, campaign-driving data? Well, she worked at IBM, first in sales and later in marketing, where she learned by doing.

If you had IBM B2B marketing duties and no knowledge of their buy cycle then you'd have to begin with questioning their clients. Your questions first must track the flow of solution information through the company and second pinpoint the brand touchpoints.

In addition to their clients it's vital to talk with the current sales force, who likely have an intuitive sense of the buy cycle and may also be able to share some annecdotal evidence gleaned from client interaction.

Map this buy cycle behavior and you have the engine for your upcoming marketing campaigns.

SEMs may consider branching outside of strict optimization techniques as buy cycle analysis is likely to uncover other brand touch points that may deliver low hanging fruit.

Karen also indicated during q&a that it's vital for B2B companies rank in the top ten for their search terms.
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |