Converting searches to profits: Is your search engine marketing attracting quality users?

In contrast to many popular beliefs, all website traffic is not good, and not all visitors to your website are those you want to do business with.  Google has emerged as the internet giant over past years capturing the majority of general search activity. But for the focused industrial buyer or engineer who knows what he or she is looking for, Google is often of little use.

How well your Industrial Search Engine Marketing Strategy attracts the highly qualified industrial user determines whether your strategy drives profits or becomes an expense item on your profit & loss statement.

Interestingly enough, Nielsen/ NetRatings said U.S. search volume increased 39% (estimated at near 5.7 billion searches) in January 2006 from the previous January.

That's a lot of searches, results, and users offering great potential.  Unfortunately, in the world of manufacturing, distribution, and b to b service companies, it can be extremely costly to use pay-per-click, or adword buys to effectively intercept the quality buyer you want within your website.  Have you ever clicked on a competitor when you saw they were buying adwords, just because you could?  How often do you think they do it to you?

Statistics show that industrial buyers and engineers are more likely to be more specific in their search and turn to a specific industrial destination site.  The reasoning is simple if you understand the industrial buyer.  When they are looking for a pump, they don't want ladies shoes (pumps), or transformers (the toys of years past).  They want only industrial product or service suppliers.  More importantly than the suppliers, they want to remain anonymous, don't want to register, and don't want someone to contact them until they're ready to contact you first.

According to an industrial research study performed by Google and ThomasNet performed in November 2005, the industrial buyer is first looking first for general product information 89% of the time.  77% of the time they want specific information at the part number level, 63% of the time CAD drawings, pictures and images 60%, and pricing 56%. 

If you take notice at the order, industrial buyers and engineers need specific information (specs, CAD drawings, applications, uses, etc.) about the products and services much more than they are looking for price. 

Some industrial sites who require registration share your personal information with every supplier your visit, allowing them to call you.  Others let you submit a quote and then shop the quote to every supplier within the category. 

Do you feel as though your business is being turned into a commodity? 

Perhaps you are getting some results.  However many of my customers have found great success from a company that was a pioneer in connecting industrial buyers and suppliers through the internet and has been in business for more than 100 years.  They have reinvented themselves and are driving more than 2 million industrial buyers to suppliers websites each month.  Their industrial product news site captivates nearly 20 million page views monthly for their suppliers.  They have also developed many tools to help industrial business to business companies drive a higher quality buyers, delivering greater profits for their customers.

What would it mean to you if your internet strategy could gain you an additional 20% in profitable orders?

Contact us now to evaluate your industrial search engine marketing strategy. It could be the difference between a profitable year with bonuses, and a losing year.