What do you think is the highest-priority marketing objective of print businesses today? To drive sales revenue or drive lead generation? Recent research shows that lead gen is #1.
This was surprising to me at first because you can’t pay the bills with leads. But looking at it another way, new leads are the fuel that keeps most sales engines running. Revenue is for today. Leads are for today and tomorrow
So can print businesses get leads beyond networking, referrals, and cold calls? From a digital marketing view, SEO (search engine optimization) can be the lowest-cost internet demand generation channel over the long term. This strategy reaches ten times as many prospective buyers as social media. Equally as important, SEO-based content can better reach prospects who are actively in the market (searching for content and resources for their print needs).
To get your print business’ website ranked organically at the top of a Google results page is almost always preferable to paying Google for a sponsored ad. For paid search, the average cost per conversion is $56. For paid display ads, it’s $91. If it takes 10 conversions to get a sale, those costs add up quickly.
So in the last five years, the average company increased its SEO budget by 33%. More than half of execs say their highest-ROI marketing activities are search-related, with SEO and content marketing leading the way.
It’s great to know that SEO reaches more new viewers than social media and it reaches people with buying intent, but SEO isn’t immediate. Getting highly ranked may take six to nine months or more. But once you get there, #SEO is more ‘sticky’ and durable. Your message doesn’t disappear as it would if you were paying for Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn ads. Once you stop paying those bills, the ads stop. The value of SEO endures.
After all, while every print business wants new revenue, you can’t put the cart before the proverbial horse. SEO and content marketing drives low-cost new leads, which helps drive new revenue. It’s all connected.
A solid digital marketing expert will help you produce relevant content and get you high-authority backlinks. It doesn’t happen overnight, but the process works for the patient and is determined.
David Murphy is the founder and CEO of Nvent Marketing, a marketing agency specializing in digital marketing for the print industry. David has 30+ years of experience in the graphics and document print production industry. He has served as a board member and advisor to print organizations and associations including Sustainable Green Printing Partnership (SGP), Print Industries of America (PIA), Association for Print Technologies (APTECH), and Electronic Document Scholarship Foundation (EDSF). David was also awarded the Idealliance Soderstrom Society Award for Print Industry Leadership.
David can be reached at dm@nventmarketing.com.
