For the past three years, search engine optimization (SEO) underwent several changes and modifications. Strategies that worked before are simply not producing results now. What made your keywords dominate the SERPs may not be as effective as before because of the following:
- Google prefers to give user-focused sites such as review platforms higher position thant product sites
- Google search results return more content than product pages
- Product category keywords are dominated by big brands or established websites
Google made the changes to its algorithm to align SERPs after it found that buyers are making generic searches and don’t use product-specific keywords at the beginning of the purchase process. This is important because if you want your helpdesk software to generate sales, you need to get the buyers’ attention at the earliest contact point in the purchase journey, which means you need more than SEO to attract organic leads.
In this article we will share six effective tips that you should understand and implement if you want to promote your helpdesk software online. Following our advice will allow you to make sure that your marketing is up to par with the new trends of getting organic leads.
1. UseB2B review platforms
B2B review sites operate similarly to consumer review outlets such as Yelp! or TripAdvisor. Popular B2B review platforms like FinancesOnline are very useful services that allow companies to easily discover business solutions (mostly SaaS products). This is especially important with the rapid growth of this type of software over the past few years caused by their affordability, scalability, and simple setup. Because of the vast selection of helpdesk solutions, many people find it hard to choose a particular software that suits their needs. B2B review platforms have proven to be a incredibly convenient way to analyze their top choices from a single place, rather than visit vendor sites one by one, which is very impractical and time-consuming. This dynamics makes B2B review platforms almost like a second-tiered SERP. This is because buyers who search for a “helpdesk software for small business” in Google will most likely end up on a page of one of the popular review sites. But here’s a tricky question for you – will the buyers see your helpdesk products at once on these review sites or will their attention be grabbed by your compeitors?
Here’s how a product review page looks like in one of the B2B directories: FinancesOnline.com
You need to understand that while your software may be listed in most of the top B2B review sites, so is the software of your competitors. To get the upperhand in your category, you will most likely need to take advantage of the site’s premium marketing plans. Review sites usually provide vendors with a free listing and a standard review, but it’s the same package all other vendors in your category get. You can get a lot more exposure by using the premium marketing plans. That said, keep in mind that most marketing offers are not intended to sugarcoat your product. They will allow you to highlight your key features and grab attention to your software with a premium positioning. For example, on FinancesOnline you can get a premium account that will make your product show up on the first page of the helpdesk category. What is more, your product will be suggested as a premium alternative even when users compare products of your competitors. Increased exposure can have a huge impact on your conversion rates and is the most efficient way to beat your direct competitors.
Here’s how a product can be highlighted when a client is comparing his or her options
Where other helpdesk options receive the standard basic reviews, your app can get a very thorough review that contains a detailed analysis of your strong points, a full list of features and examples of how thay can be applied to solve actual problems. B2B buyers are looking for service they can use for a long time, so they’ll expect as many details as possible before they decide which one they want to buy. If you don’t have a detailed analysis of your app they may simply choose your competitors because they offer them a deeper insight into their product’s capabilities. Here’s an example of a detailed product review that show potential buyers how a product works and demonstrates its strengths and real-life applications.
Review sites also give out awards that can highlight your quality and win you more leads. Here are some awards from FinancesOnline.
FinancesOnline and many other review platforms also offer lead generation campaigns that will let you direct potential customers into your landing page. Because these people are already interested in your product conversion rates from such prospects are really high: 14% on average. Once again, if you run a lead generation campaign on a review site it’s very important to get a premium position in order to maximize your potential and steal clicks from your competitors. If you want to get all the key advantages for your review you can easily request a premium promotion of your product here.
2. Write for high-traffic sites in your niche
Producing high value content is another effective way to get organic leads. The trick is to write great content for sites that are relevant to your products, in this case, websites and blogs that talk about customer service as well as professional groups in other industries. A huge number of these websites will be keen on getting free, high quality content that will satisfy their editorial requirements. Bear in mind that you will be writing about issues, solutions, and similar topics. It is best that you refrain from discussing your product to avoid looking like a salesperson pitching a product. Instead, you should project yourself as a credible expert on the subject (which you ought to be). By talking about customer service concerns and real problems they face, you establish yourself as an authority on the topic and you become a potential source of information and solutions for potential customers out there. In most cases, you will be given a byline with credentials, which can contain information about your company, software, and a link back to your website.
Before the opportunity to write as a guest expert arrives, you need to define how to choose and prioritize the sites you want to write for. To get you organized, create a spreadsheet and filter out prospective sites with these key information:
- Influence level of the site: whether it’s high or low based on pagerank, brand, shares and likes
- URL of contact page where you can get in touch with the website
- Platform type, whether it’s a media site, blog, professional group, etc.
- Industry where the site belongs
You can write topical articles related to problems and issues your potential clients face.
3. Write topical content on your blog
Writing your own blog builds up your credibility as an expert in your field and your potential of generating organic leads increases as well. As you talk about topics that your audience can relate to, you project yourself as someone who really knows something and is not just a salesman trying to convince people to buy his product. As people perceive you as an expert, your credibility also rubs off on everything you support and make, your software included. This will then become a huge factor when a buyer is in the process of making a buying decision.
A blog with a regular inflow of content provides you with additional SEO mileage, too. This means that by constantly churning out high quality content, you give your product precious exposure in SERPs. Remember that SERPS are now influenced by content, not product.
Finally, having an online repository of your thoughts and opinions provides media, peers, researchers, and the academe with a place where they can look up (and possibly quote) your views on various topics. This plays to your benefit especially if you want to be seen as an expert in customer service and hope that people will want to know your thoughts on the subject.
Here are some tips on how to promote your blog:
- Write about helpdesk or customer service not as a product you promote, but as a topic that actually concerns businesses
- Make your content easy to share, for example by transforming articles into infographics or tweets or quick quotes
- Invite other experts to write on your blog
- Pitch your blog content to media as press material
4. Create an alliance with a complementary software
A package deal is always an attractive thing, especially in the world of software. If you are a helpdesk software vendor, you can tap into the market of another software by co-promoting their products. The key is to team up with another software vendor that complements the product you sell. This is not a means to reduce advertising costs, but rather an effective tool in presenting your product to a market that you couldn’t access before. Most vendors already do this via product integration. But don’t limit yourself to integration, form an alliance! Here are some useful tips on how to elevate integration to alliance marketing:
- Display ads on each other’s sites
- Prioritize each other’s app in the integration list
- Organize a webinar that includes the allied vendor as guest speaker
- Invite the allied vendor to write for you as guest blogger
- Mention each other’s app in social media posts
Another thing to remember in forging an alliance is that the vendor should have a positive reputation and be associated with a strong brand. Also, it is essential to check if the vendor has other products that directly compete with your software. Lastly, always align yourself with a vendor that has similar goals and aspirations, such as going global with their product.
Freshdesk can (and probably did) create an alliance partenership with top CRM apps that it integrates with.
5. Talk to B2B consultants with long mailing lists
Many software vendors reach out to potential clients by accessing the mailing lists of B2B consultants. These professionals build long mailing lists for the sole purpose of monetizing them by sharing them with businesses that rely heavily on email marketing, helpdesk software vendors included. Marketers like Perry Marshall and Daniel Levis are known for sharing their large mailing lists with a large set of business and professional audience. When picking a B2B marketer, you need to determine whether the contacts in their mailing lists will likely be interested in your product. These B2B marketers can charge for a revenue share off the campaign or a fixed fee for every email campaign. That said, they do not sell your software. They just need topics to write about to sustain their audience.
It doesn’t sound that dreadul, really. As a helpdesk vendor, surely, you or your team encountered a number of issues that you’ve resolved or covered while developing your software. Likewise, you can also discuss starting an online enterprise, since many of the SaaS dynamics are intended for an e-commerce framework. Develop any of these original ideas into a webinar topic and the probability of generating organic leads off these B2b consultants will rise.
6. Use paid advertising to promote value
Sometimes, you just have to advertise to promote your product. But in the world of organic leads, you don’t promote the product, you sell the content. Today’s buyers are all looking for significant, relevant content. Promoting content ensures that you get in contact with your buyers at the earliest point and grabbing their attention right then and there.
You can implement ad networks to promote a webinar, ebook, or whitepaper. You can also choose to use content distribution network (CDN), sometimes referred to as content syndication or content discovery platform. Popular content delivery outlets like Taboola and Outbrain post your content ads on other content websites like news sites or blogs. This is often the section headlined as “Across the Web” or a similar that appears at the bottom part of the site’s main content. CDN also implements pay-per-click or cost-per-mile models, depending on the network.
CONCLUSION
Organic leads are essential because they have a high conversion rate, mainly because customers themselves initiate the process. That means the interest in a product already exists. All the vendor has to do is make sure that their product is visible and easily found once the search begins. As SEO algorithms have been modified, SERPs are no longer the main source of organic leads. B2B review sites like FinancesOnline and CDNs are now considered as reliable sources of organic traffic. If you want organic leads, then perhaps it’s high time you tap into all these channels and watch your conversion rate increase.