The Role of Search Marketers in Sales

As a search marketer, you may not have thought about how much control you have over various aspects of your company’s marketing strategy.  Practically, however, you are in the driver’s seat.  You sell your creativity through your use of strategies with one goal in mind—to get more customers into the fold.  The better you are at this, the more credibility you have as a search marketer.  However, you cannot force customers to buy any more than you can force people to read your ads.

Instead, you persuade readers to buy based on the strategies you choose.  You hand off the customer to sales people who receive your product–a customer primed to buy based on what you have shown them.

Understanding your role in the entire sales process is key to doing your job well and having a ROI that stands up to scrutiny.

At our Orange County SEO company, we believe that the job of search marketers is to prepare the customer for sales by putting the right message in front of him or her.  Our expertise in SEO link building services and a host of other applications enable us to help you build your sales through strategic internet marketing.

What Does A Search Marketer Do?

Comparing search marketers to others in the sales industry is counterproductive.  We do not directly get paid in sales.  Instead, we lay the groundwork for successful sales by getting the customer to the person who is the expert in “closing the deal.”  We recruit, but we do not sell.

This is difficult for some people to understand, especially when the owner of a web site invests in strategic marketing but does not see an immediate jump in sales.  However, comparing search marketers to sales representatives is erroneous thinking.  Internet sales marketing is just one piece of the sales puzzle that allows you to bring more customers in the door.  Once they are there, it is the job of sales specialists to push the product.

What a search marketer does is get them there so that the sales person can work his or her magic.  In one respect, we are like the guy that stands out by the road wearing a funny costume with a sign that says, “Stop here for great bargains!”  Not a flattering comparison, perhaps, but a rather apt one.  We bring in traffic from the highway; once they get into the store, it is the salesperson’s job to be sure that the customer does not walk out again without a purchase.

However, this analogy breaks down in terms of how we feel about our jobs.  The guy in the dog outfit probably does not care if anyone buys anything, but search marketers do.

How Can Search Marketers Cope?

Search marketers are often blamed for drops in sales, but there are ways they can fight back.  For one thing, it helps to have a good idea of your corporate structure and understand who is ultimately responsible for user experience on your site.

Talk to the people who are responsible for taking the customer from arrival to sale.  Be sure that you meet with them regularly so that you understand what is going on in their world.  This will drive your optimization strategies and get everyone on board for a seamless customer experience.

Talk to Orange County SEO about your internet marketing needs and learn how search engine optimization can help you build a bigger customer base.