White Papers and Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Terms Tied to IT Purchasing Cycle

Google and TechTarget recently performed an extensive study of the searches performed by 2,200 professionals who play decision-making roles in IT purchases. Their conclusion?

IT purchasers change their search terms as they move through a multi-month purchasing process.

The search patterns of IT purchasers fall into three distinct types. Each type of search is associated with a phase of the purchasing process for IT products and services.

Phase I: Awareness

TechTarget and Google found that IT purchasers begin by searching for information about an issue or problem (e.g., data leak protection or VoIP quality).

In this phase, searches might include keywords such as "risk," "troubleshoot," and "optimize."

Phase II: Consideration

Once IT purchasers are familiar with the nature of the problem and the types of products available to address it, they begin searching for information about specific products and solutions.

In this phase, keywords might include the word "solution," as well as specific brand names.

Phase III: Decision-making

Finally, as they focus on a few key vendors in preparation for making their final selection, IT purchase search for information comparing one product to another. They no longer search for general information about the problem; they understand the problem well and want detailed information about product capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

Searches will likely include product names and the word "comparison."

The Changing Prevalence of Search Keywords in IT Purchasing Cycles

The chart below shows how keyword searches evolve across the three phases of the purchasing cycle: Awareness (of a problem), Consideration (of various approaches to solving the problem), and Decision (as to which product to choose).

Conclusion for marketers: Make sure you have content and search keywords that address each phase of the buying cycle.

Content Is Still King in IT Marketing

Another finding of the Google/TechTarget research is that content remains vital for marketing and selling IT solutions to SMBs and enterprises.

White papers, email newsletters, and case studies still play important roles in helping customers understand technology and best practices, and in helping customers with choose one product over another.

Customers look for different types of content in different stages of the purchasing process. This slide summarizes the study's findings about content types and purchasing phases.

White papers are important in the awareness and consideration phases of purchasing. They're much less important in the final decision-making stage. By then, customers are interested in product comparisons, case studies, and, above all, trial software.

The table below describes how customers use various types of content.

One conclusion from this study: Social media, however popular, doesn't eliminate the need for traditional marketing, when it comes to selling sophisticated IT products or products in highly competitive markets.

Additional Thoughts from Google

When I first blogged about the Google/TechTarget study, Google's Mark Martel offered these additional thoughts:

1. The research suggests that search is an important brand discovery mechanism for business technology buyers. This is especially true in fast changing or niche tech markets. Non-branded queries, in particular, can play a key role in familiarizing buyers who are not yet familiar with your brand. With these keywords, marketers must carefully balance lead capture with the possibility of driving off early-stage buyers who aren't informed enough yet to know if they want to give up their personal registration information, and may not have information about program budgets that are often required to get white papers or product demos. Getting this balance right has strategic implications for post-click web design (content focused on basic education and positioning, softer offers and generally more content available without registration), success metrics for these terms (page views, time on site, downloads, etc. vs. registrations/leads), and paid search bidding strategy (may want to bid more aggressively to improve visibility of your brand on results pages).
   
   Keep an eye out on what type of listings searchers on these terms will encounter - click through to these listings and understand what type of "brand map" a potential buyer is likely to build out. Improving your visibility in both the search pages and on publisher sites a searcher is likely to click through to from non-branded queries can be critical to getting your products and services in the buyer's consideration set in the first place.


2. With branded queries, the average visitor can be assumed to have a bit more knowledge of your business. Goals here should be to remind searchers of your value proposition, effectively differentiate your brand from the competition, provide useful resources that help the visitor choose - or make a case - for championing your brand, and helping serious buyers move forward in the buying process. Advertising on branded queries and creating relevant content than is indexed organically can also present opportunities to present useful comparative resources to buyers considering your brand and/or nearby competitor brands. On balance, the research suggests being more aggressive about registration capture, on-site chat offers, behavioral follow-up emails, or advertising re-targeting may prove more ROI positive for the marketer because buyers may be more receptive and in a buying mode.


3. While every marketer loves sales-ready leads, TechTarget CEO Don Hawk made a great point in his closing address [ at a TechTarget conference where this research was presented ] when he said that one of the risks in this economic environment is a kind of circular, self-fulfilling prophecy with paid advertising and demand gen programs: Marketing can become so focused on more efficiently capturing hot leads, it stops producing leads altogether. There's got to be some resources allocated to introducing potential future buyers to the brand for the overall pipeline to be healthy - even in a downturn. This is all-the-more true for products and services with longer buying cycles.