Does 'Being Findable' mean 'Being Everywhere'?

Posted by Ambal Balakrishnan February 18th 10

"Being findable" is very important in marketing today. However, "Being Findable" doesn't mean "Being everywhere". We asked B2B Marketing experts: What does "Being Findable" mean in today's digital age? Does this mean cross-media, low-volume campaign all year long? Should marketers spread budget across time period and channels or one or two big programs?   Read on to get their insights.

Ardath Albee

Blog Marketing Interactions Twitter Ardath421

"Go Where Your Best Prospects Spend Their Time"

Ardath Albee's Bio

Ardath Albee is a B2B Marketing Strategist. Her company Marketing Interactions helps companies with complex sales and quantify marketing effectiveness by using interactive e-marketing strategies driven by compelling content. She empowers her clients to create customer-centric nurturing programs that leverage strategic story development to engage prospects until they are sales ready. Ardath’s book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale is now shipping! 

Ardath Albee's Tip

Before a B2B company can decide which tactics to use, they need to do some research and develop a strategy for being “findable.” Trying to be everywhere, just to cover your bases, is not a good strategy. That’s equivalent to the batch and blast newsletter sends of old when companies hoped their messages would land in the inbox of someone who might be a potential customer. In today’s marketplace relevance is a critical component you must address.

Consider these five steps for determining the best way to get found:

1. You’ve got to know who your buyers are and learn about their online habits and preferences.

a.    Monitor your competitors or even partners to see what they’re doing and where they’re being found. Then look at who’s there and make sure they are the audience you’re focused on acquiring.

b.    Ask your customers where they go online to find useful information – perhaps even how they found you. Most of them will likely say they found you themselves. Their perspectives and preferences can provide great insights you can use.

c.    Look at the source of origin for the prospects currently in your pipeline.

d.    Create a buyer synopsis as I outline in my book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.

2. Audit your company’s presence online to identify how you’re being found now.

a.    Look at keywords and phrases being used to find your website.

b.    Search for where your company’s content may have spread online.

c.    Make a list of referrers to your website (and blog) and check them out.

3. Match the results from steps 1 & 2 to determine matches and misses.

a.    For the matches, look for how you might improve connecting with prospects in the venues where you both have presence.

b.    Assess the misses against what you’re currently doing and create a plan for establishing a relevant presence on each of them. Prioritize and add each one as you have resources. For example, some companies think they have to be on Twitter. But unless you have a lively blog or fresh content to share often, Twitter may not be the best first step. You need a good content foundation to improve being “findable.”

4. The results of #3 will help you create a roadmap and editorial calendar. Each online avenue will have unique requirements for improving relevance. This could be in style, tone or subject matter – or a combination of all three. The key here is that you need continuous and consistent exposure once you discover the best places to be found.

5. Discover opportunities to integrate your content so it builds a bridge from wherever it is online your prospects find it and your website. Think “hub.”

Being findable is not about seeding one article here and there in hopes it will draw attention. It’s about building a credible presence in the places you’ve determined are the best attraction sources for prospects who could become sales opportunities. There are a lot of ways to be found online. There are also a lot of ways to spend time and resources without generating results. Do your homework and create a route to reach the right prospects because you understand not just where they are, but the most effective way to engage them with your content.

Ardath Albee Recommends

• Ardath Albee's book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
• Download the Guide: Design Nurturing Programs to Drive Sales

Howard Sewell

Blog The Point Twitter HJSewell

"Have an effective inbound marketing strategy."

Howard Sewell's Bio

Howard J. Sewell is president of Spear Marketing Group, a full-service agency with offices in Silicon Valley and Seattle that specializes in demand generation, lead management, and ROI-based marketing. 

Howard Sewell's Tip

I translate "being findable" as having in place an effective inbound marketing strategy.  The most effective inbound marketing program is one that maximizes reach and online presence in the venues most likely to be trafficked by your target audience. 

By definition, inbound marketing is “always on,” 24/7, so that any one potential customer searching at any time for your type of product or service, or simply researching answers to the problem that your product or service can solve, finds you before he/she finds your competition.  As such, inbound marketing provides an effective foundation to a comprehensive demand generation strategy when integrated with more targeted, outbound activity as well as systematic lead qualification and lead nurturing.
 
The four most effective vehicles for inbound marketing are:

• Paid Search (SEM)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social Media (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
• Content Syndication (posting content on third-party sites and networks)
  In a well-orchestrated campaign, all of these vehicles work in synergy and reinforce each other, utilizing a consistent message, offer strategy, and brand identity.

Howard Sewell Recommends

• Howard Sewell’s blog, The Point
  
• The High-Tech Direct Marketing Handbook (Ebook)
• How to Choose Your Carrot: Effective Lead Generation Offers for High-Technology Marketers (White Paper)

Craig Rosenberg

Blog Funnelholic Twitter funnelholic

"Being findable is what you do every day, 365 days a year."

Craig Rosenberg's Bio

Craig Rosenberg is Vice President, Products and Services at lead generation company Tippit. Prior to Tippit, Craig was a consultant helping venture-backed Silicon Valley startups build their inside sales and lead generation teams.

Craig Rosenberg's Tip

The Process of Being Findable.

First, some definitions:
Being Everywhere – Which means, being everywhere -when you open a web page, watch a golf tournament, drive down the highway, your organization is there to be found.  This is a domain exclusively for the biggest budget advertisers in the world – oh and guess what, it may not be that effective anymore (see Pepsi pulling out of Super Bowl advertising) nor is it truly possible if you use simple math.

Being Findable – when someone searches for a something related to your product or service, they find you.  This is not confined to people searching for a solution but also people searching for an answer to a business problem your solution solves (ex: How do I generate more qualified leads?) or just helpful information that helps them do their job better. (ex: The 7 rules of the connected marketer)

The process of “being findable” is not easy to thoroughly discuss in a brief blog post, but in general, I think there are four steps:

1.     Identify your target personas – This is an uber-critical exercise for marketing departments and the organization as a whole.  The question you are answering is “who is (are) my target buyer(s)?”.  By the way, tip #1: there isn’t just one target buyer.  You should identify the organization types, various roles in the decision making cycle, etc.  Understand what their business objectives are, what they do every day, etc.  This will tell you what keywords to focus on, where to place media, etc.  Remember, we can’t be everywhere; we just want to be findable by the RIGHT person.

2.    Create targeted remarkable content – It’s the year of content marketing and in order to be findable, you have to play the content game.  Being findable is not just about a banner ad, its about distributing content that your target personas wants to download and read.  The content should be the following (below list created by @scottalbro and @cjablonski):
    a.    Helpful – Does it help solve problems?
    b.    Timely – Can your target audience relate to it?
    c.    Interruptive – Is there a captivating element that grabs and sustains attention?
    d.    Entertaining – Is there a novel or enjoyable aspect that is well-conceived?
    e.    Shareable – Does it have a viral quality? Would an influencer want to forward it, or post it?
    f.    Progressive – Is there a call to action or “next-steps”?
    g.    Versatile – Can it be leveraged across media channels?
    h.    Crowd-sourced – Does it involve customers or partners in the spirit of cooperation?
    i.    Efficient – Is it concise, perhaps in an effective list format?
    j.    Integrated – Does it fit with your existing or upcoming marketing pieces?

3.    Distribute – ok, so now we know “who” we want to have find us and we have the content we want to attract them with…now lets be “found”.  There are number of elements to distribution:
    a.    SEO – Is my site ranking for relevant keywords my personas care about
    b.    SEM – See above
    c.    Social Media – You have a lot of choices in what to do in the social media world.  Understand where your personas are, connect with them and “be findable”.  Example: Facebook is not a place to get C-level trucking executives but a trucking online newsletter may be – bottom line: be smart about your choices.  Social media looks free, but it isn’t.
    d.    Third Party Media Sites – What sites do I need to be seen and heard on?  Remember, buyers prefer peer and expert sourced content before vendor content.  They will spend 70% of their buying cycle away from a vendor-specific site.  If you want to be “findable”, you have to be where your buyers are and that means, unbiased third party websites. There are two types of third-party media sites:
        i.    Larger, aggregated sites – these are sites that have a variety of content focused on b2b buyers.  Examples of these sites are Focus.com, IDG, CMP and others.  These sites will push your target buyer to your content.
        ii.    Targeted, vertical specific sites – There are sites focused on your target verticals (transportation, k-12, whatever that may be).  The volume here is low but really targeted.
    e.    Events (offline and online) – Yes, trade shows and workshops still work if they have your target buyer.  Workshops work the best, creating intimate surroundings for your buyers versus the circus-show trade show.

4.    Move from campaign-centric methodology to a factory – Sophisticated marketers today have moved away from the “ups-and-downs” of campaign specific marketing strategies and create 24-7 demand generation factories.  Sales isn’t waiting for you to launch this “pretty campaign”, instead they want you filling the funnel every day.  Being “findable” is what you do every day, 365 days a year.  

Related Articles  

• ClickInsights: What ROI metric should B2B marketers use in this digital marketing era?
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• ClickInsights: How can B2B marketers use content effectively for demand generation?
• ClickInsights: What is the biggest mistake to avoid in B2B Content Marketing?
• ClickInsights: Tips on how B2B marketers should leverage social media
• ClickInsights: Tips on how B2B marketers should do Content Marketing    

 

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