Business to Business Marketing on Search Engines � A Largely Untapped Marketing Tool

I ran across an article that provided some interesting insights about how B2B marketing differed from most of the discussion that I hear about ecommerce in general.

The first idea that struck me was this:

"When it comes to business to business, marketing is crucial. In a world where prices are rarely listed online, a B2B company almost always has the opportunity to differentiate itself on its own terms after the initial contact is made. With the right marketing tool, such as SEO, a B2B company can easily stand out from the crowd."

What this says to me is that B2B sites are different in that they do not have the same pressure to emphasize price as a decision factor. Now, it is true that price is not the only differentiator for retail sites. It may not even be the most important differentiator. We have discussed research findings that indicate there are lots of other reasons why searchers are attracted to and willing to do business with a particular site. Primary among these is trust, and a certain comfort level that derives from trust. Searchers will not respond to a site that they do not trust, even if the price is lower than other competitive sites.

This article points out that B2B sites are different in how they can convey that message that establishes trust, and that price is almost something that does not enter into the equation.

The second idea that I found particularly interesting is this one:

Using SEO as a Key Marketing Tool
E-commerce companies are more readily embracing SEO as a business to business marketing tool because they are technologically savvy and because their businesses already depend on the Internet to survive. However, e-commerce companies only make up a small fraction of the number of companies that are actually out there. There are many B2B industries where there is currently little or no competition on the search engines, and the ones to move first and use SEO as a key marketing tool will reap the highest rewards."

I have often said that evaluating a business's ability to create a presence on the Internet is always relative to how intense the competition is in the specific arena the business competes in. That may seem obvious, but I am often surprised when investigating the competition for a new client prospect at how ineffective I believe the competition to be. There are still many business niches where the main competitors have just not gotten the SEO message. There is no doubt that this will change, and is changing all the time, but it does mean that there is still lots of opportunity on the Internet for businesses of many different types to step in and establish themselves effectively over the web.