A Better Way for Marketers for Very Small Businesses to Choose Key Terms: Ask Sales Reps

Marketers for all businesses, especially those for very small businesses without a lot of resources, often use automated tools to choose somewhat relevant terms that get the most traffic. The thing is, you want to choose terms that drive sales, not just traffic.

            There is a lot of info out there about choosing key terms for metatags and content and there are a lot of good tools to help you do that.  The most important thing to keep in mind, though, is how your potential buyers are searching for what you are offering.

            As with many aspects of marketing, the sales team can be a huge help—they almost always understand buyers better than anyone else in the organization. Thus, they are a good resource for choosing key terms and phrases.  Note that I said “resource” not “authority”. The sales team will be able to make suggestions that set the strategy in motion—or take it in a different direction. But they won’t understand the nuances of search.  

            Unless what you are selling is really unique, think in terms of phrases, not single terms. This helps search engines match users to what you are selling.  The number of people that go to your site and reach out to contact you also increases because you’re more likely to have what they were searching for.

            If you want to hedge your bets, work with your sales team to start with a strong key term, i.e., “High Performance Servers” and then add to it: “High Performance Servers for Enterprise AI”.  That way you significantly increase the likelihood that your potential buyers are clicking through to your site.

            The issue that marketers always run into is that, as far as management is concerned, the volume of website traffic is a primary performance indicator. In reality, a much better metric is Visitor Engagement. This lets management know whether you are attracting the kinds of visitors that will lead to sales.

            For a no cost discussion of your situation and how we can leverage metrics-based marketing to grow your business call 630-363-8081 or email jeanna@smartprcommunications.com. Find out more about our Core Marketing Solution for Very Small Businesses