It’s a fair question… and one we’ve blogged about fairly recently (PPC “vs.” SEO – a choice that really needn’t be made). Now along comes Tom Pick with one of his typically thoughtful pieces on the WebMarketCentral blog, giving us “7 reasons why companies need both”.
As usual, you’ll want to click on over to be edified by all 7; but we found the following pretty compelling…
- SEO isn’t free, either. The clicks are, but getting to – and maintaining – that high position in search-engine rankings costs significant people time and/or money.
- Results while you watch (vs. while you wait). SEO takes time to work; so for a small or new (or newly redone) site, it’s nice to have something working for you that starts just about as soon as you deploy the ad.
- Handle buyers as well as browsers. People nearly ready to buy tend to employ different search phrases than those who are “just looking”, or doing initial research. By cracking that code, you can handle the lookers in SEO – sending them to thought-leadership white papers – and the buyers via PPC, sending them to “closers” such as a product trial or how-to-buy page.
The evidence is pretty clear: using both vehicles helps B2Bs capture more leads than either will alone, and enables them to better handle each lead.
