SEO: Don’t bet your future on it

Here is a popular recipe for launching a successful B2B software startup:

1. Build a great product that solves a real problem
2. Put together an awesome website
3. Invest in SEO (organic search) and/or PPC (paid search)
4. Capture tons of leads from your website and close lots of deals
5. Live happily ever after…

Pretty easy, isn’t it?

If you are lucky enough to have it work that way, power to you! For most of us, reality is a bit more challenging.

#1 goes without saying. I have yet to see a software startup that doesn’t have a great product, at least in the eyes of the founders and funders. That’s a topic for another post, so let’s assume for now it is taken care of.

#2 is obvious. You need a website so people can see how great your product is and how it will make their lives so much better. Some sites are better than others, but most companies can check this point and move on.

#3 and #4 is where things get murky.

But SEO is great, you say, so what could the problem be?

The problem is that SEO is extremely important and valuable when you are fulfilling demand, but has limited value when you are trying to create demand.

Most potential buyers are content with business as usual. They are not searching for solutions. Your challenge is to make them realize the price they are paying for sticking with the status quo and the opportunity they have to improve on business as usual and the associated outcomes.

For that reason, I know very few B2B startups that can fill up their pipeline with enough prospects relying on inbound leads only (be it SEO, PPC, or social media).

Even if you are one of these lucky few, acquiring a new lead is just the beginning. No matter how you get your leads, most of them are not ready to buy today (the statistics say only 5-15% are). The bottom line is that for most startups, SEO alone will not do it.

So what should you do?

Step One: Build a target prospect database

To being with, put together a list of the companies that fit your target buyer profile based on industries, geographies, company size, etc. Knowing these companies by name is the first (and relatively easy) step, but too many companies don’t even do that.

Finding the right contacts within each company would take a more substantial effort. You can do it through content syndication, rental lists, telemarketing, or research tools such as LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Data.com, and the nifty new LeadSpace. If you get SEO leads, you can add the ones that fit your target profile to your database. 

Any way you do it, acquiring these contact names and their email addresses is an investment. To maximize your ROI, use offers with a broad appeal to capture as many prospects as you can. Surveys and industry benchmarks are great examples of content that generates exceptionally high response rates for lead acquisition.

Step Two: Engage buyers by offering content that delivers value

Once you have the contacts and their email addresses in your database, your next challenge is to establish a dialog and keep prospects engaged until they are ready for a sales conversation.

Think of it as a dating process. It requires patience and perseverance. Trying to rush things will only backfire -- especially beware of the killer demo!

Reach out to your prospects with content that highlights the problems you can help them solve and the opportunities you help them capitalize on (notice I didn’t say product or solution). Case studies and best practices surveys and tips make for good lead nurturing offers.

At the same time, don’t be shy about reaching out to your prospects. As long as you deliver value, more is better!

=> Get practical “how to” tips: Download the eBook

Step Three: Follow up!

We live in a busy world. Even the prospects that are interested in your value proposition are too easily distracted by the day-to-day demands of their jobs. It’s up to you to keep your issue at the top of their agenda.

Too many good lead generation efforts go to waste due to poor follow-up. Some research claims that left to sales, up to 90% of the leads would never be followed up. A hot lead that is not followed up in a timely manner will cool down very quickly. Your ability to reach the prospect can diminish by 50% if you wait just 48 hours, and as much as 90% if you wait a whole week.

One company has seen a dramatic improvement in follow-up success rates by aiming to reach every new lead within 45 minutes. Sounds aggressive, but it works!

You can use tools such as LeadLander or most marketing automation systems to alert your reps when a known prospect is visiting your website, so they can catch these prospects when they are most likely to pick up the phone.

Last but not least, the success of your lead conversion requires complete alignment between marketing and sales. You can read more about it here.

Back to SEO.

No matter how many SEO leads you can get, a solid lead nurturing strategy is a must if you want to create a healthy pipeline that translates to predictable sales growth.

Companies that do it successfully typically follow this 3-step process by actively targeting buyers, engaging them in a dialog, and diligently following up to qualify and convert them into sales opportunities. 

Before you build your new website… 4 things to keep in mind

1. Start with a strategy, not design
   
   Because websites can be very eye pleasing, it is easy to think of them as a design project. In reality, a website is essentially a product that has to be managed accordingly. You need to understand who the users are, how they arrive to your site, and what they are looking for. Based on this analysis, you can come up with your website strategy, messages, calls to action, and conversion paths. Only then is it time to get down to the design.
   
   Practical tip #1: if your website company is not asking you these questions before starting your website project, that's a red flag.
   
   
2. Don’t fall into the SEO trap
   
   The most common statement I hear from companies that are looking to build a new website is that they want to improve their search engine positions. While this is a commendable goal, it is not necessarily the one that will get you the most for your investment. This is especially true if you sell a new solution that doesn't fall into a well- established category, which means that you can expect limited search volume. With that in mind, getting the visitors that come to your site to take action (most of them will get there because you have directed them) is probably more important than search engine optimization. See an excellent explanation of the tradeoffs between website conversion and SEO in this Marketing Experiments article (page 68).
   
   Practical tip #2: don’t count visitors that search for your company name as “search traffic”; it’s just another form of direct traffic.
   
   
3. Measure everything
   
   A business website should be judged by how well it helps buyers engage with your company, not how “nice” or “cool” it looks. The only way to tell how well your website is working for you is with ongoing measurement of site performance against your goals. Google Analytics is a must and a good starting point, but truly measuring your website's impact requires that you integrate the site with your CRM and/or marketing automation solution.
   
   What you really care about is how many of your target buyers visit the website and take action on it. Some of the things you would probably want to measure include:
   - Which pages are most visited by target buyers?
   - Which pages lead target buyers to take action (download material, request more information, start an evaluation, etc.)
   - Which offers and content assets lead target buyers to take action?
   
   Practical tip #3: ClickTale is a nifty service that will help you understand how well your pages are structured. It will show you how visitors interact with each page—where they click, scroll, and hover. You can see some of this information in Google’s In-Page Analytics but it's not as detailed.
   
   
4. Build it for change
   
   Don't expect to get it perfect the first time. Even if you do, things will undoubtedly change, with new products to promote, new messages to communicate, new competitors to battle… so make sure your website architecture and back-end are agile enough to allow you to make modifications quickly and inexpensively.
   
   Practical tip #4: Open source Content Management Systems (CMS) have come a long way, providing top-notch functionality and the benefits of a large developer community that continues to improve the system and create new templates and plug-ins. WordPress is my current favorite and seems to be getting a lot of traction with many website developers.

If you have any other thoughts or experiences you can share on building a website, I would love to see your comments! And if you need help with your new website, just drop me a note.