Vertical search, SEM, and Business-to-business merchants

[mandy]

There is solid evidence that b-to-b marketers who allocate significant resources to both search engine optimization and keyword buys can get far ahead of their competitors. The reason: Their customers are researching purchases for their companies online, and their competitors generally aren't there to greet them yet...

The key to effective search engine marketing (SEM) for b-to-b merchants is understanding how to use search in conjunction with the rest of the marketing mix, says Hursh. It's also important to understand that many b-to-b sales cycles that begin online will convert offline, he adds. Though long sales cycles are nothing new in b-to-b, most business merchants are still working to figure out how the Internet fits into the mix.

“We're generating activity online, then the closure of the sale occurs offline,” Hursh says. “What we call an online-to-offline conversion is kind of a new phenomenon [in b-to-b].”...

full article: http://multichannelmerchant.com/webchann...ty_012007/