Internet Marketing and Search
Engine Discoverability Pilot
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partners
Kickoff and Agenda
• Introductions
– Allison Dawson, US Dynamics Marketing Manager
– Jennifer Tomlinson, Marketing Manager, Worldwide
Partner Group
– Dave Foreman, Interactive Limited
• Introduce two pilots to key CRM partners across
the US
– Search Engine Optimization (individual partner effort)
– Paid Search Landing Page (collaborative effort)
• Next Steps and Calls to Action
Overview - Organic and Paid Search
*84% of technology buyers begin their online searches with one of the
major search engines
•
Organic/natural search
–
–
–
An effective search engine optimization
(SEO) program will enable search
engines to rank your Web pages high in
search results by improving the organic
content of the pages
Strong search performance can be your
most cost-efficient online strategy
Immediate and measurable results, such
as increased site accessibility and more
qualified site visitors, inclined to
purchase
•
Paid search
–
–
–
–
–
Text and display ads that appears in
search engine results when customers
enter keywords
Paying for the privilege of getting better,
higher placement on search engine
results pages
Advertiser pays only if a user clicks on
your ad/text listing
Critical to competitive standing
Performance can be tracked all the way
through to conversations and sales
Paid
Organic
*Statistic from
MarketingSherpa &
KnowledgeStorm
Top organic search results do not include
Microsoft Dynamics CRM partners
Snapshot of 20 organic rankings in
Google when searching for “CRM”
(no geography specified)
•
•
•
•
•
#2 organic ranking is Salesforce
#3 organice ranking is
crm.dynamics.com
5 competitors with ranking #2 and #5
(salesforce, sugarcrm, zoho, sap,
netsuite)
3 partners, rankings #10, 15, 19 (2
ISV, 1 multi-vendor, but geared to
IBM- Avidian, oncontact, crm.com)
Top 3 paid search ads are competitive
(Salesforce, QuickBase and Numara.
Neither Microsoft’s Corporate Campaign nor The
Partners' Campaigns are at the Top of PPC Listings for
High Traffic Keywords
Competitive Challenge
• Partners Cannot Compete With the Major
Brands such as SalesForce.com
– Partners do not have the budgets to target high
volume keywords
– Most partners lack the experience to develop first
class landing pages
• Given their budgets, Dynamics partners end
up competing with one another (on Microsoft
Branded Search Terms)
Brand Keyword Dogfight
Enriches Google…
At the expense of our Partners while
confusing customers
Broad CRM Keywords Require 15 Dollar Per Click Bids
Just to Show Up on The First Page of Google
Broad CRM Keywords (such as CRM) Have 75 Times
More Traffic Than Branded CRM Keywords (such as
Dynamics CRM):
Keys To Successful Online Marketing
• All effective online campaigns are built on two pillars to
achieve high conversion rates (leads):
– *Best Practices - requires experience and a sustained effort
– Feedback Loops - statistical significance of test data is
critical for learning and evolving
• Online marketing evolves quickly and requires constant
improvements
• A minimum of $5,000/month would be required to:
– Proper design and implement a first class landing page
– Get statistically significant volumes for split testing
– Adapt site according to test results
*Refer to conversion-rate-experts.com for more info.
Group Marketing Can Leverage
Partner Resources
• Group marketing can focus campaign manager
and Partner efforts on strategic planning rather
than working on many individual (and often,
competing) campaigns
• Group marketing will produce higher traffic levels
that will allow for more rapid and accurate testing
of landing pages
• Group marketing will create a wealth of feedback
about actual sales that result from specific
campaign improvements
Page Search Landing Page - Cost
Impact on Partners
• Proposed fees will be $800/partner per month –
Partners may increase monthly spend levels at
any time
• In some cases Partners may have monthly
budgets that can shifted to cover some or all of
this cost
• If goals are achieved, average cost per lead will be
$250 by within 60 days (lead costs should decline
dramatically as landing pages are tested and
improved)
Pilot Proposal- attack on two fronts
• Pilot One: SEO (individual effort)
– Assemble group of high performing US
Dynamics CRM partners as focus for
website and search optimization. Goal
of increasing discoverability of US CRM
partner websites
– SEO audit of participating partner
websites
– Update partner websites with SEO
tactics
– Measure before/after search ranking
and website results with traffic and
conversion numbers
– Partners will work with Microsoft
approved SEO vendor
– Partner cost is $1500 (after MS co-funds
50%)
– Managed by Outrider, Microsoft and
approved SEO vendor Axelerate
• Pilot Two: Paid Search Landing
Page (collaborative effort)
– Assembling a group of CRM Partners
who are willing to co-invest on a
Microsoft Dynamics CRM pay per click
campaign
– Interactive Limited will host the page
and will use Bing and AdWords to drive
traffic to an optimized landing page
– The landing page will be split tested and
the campaign will be continuously
improved using advanced landing page
optimization tools
– Partner cost is $800/month
– The project will be monitored by
Microsoft Dynamics Marketing
managers
– Managed by Interactive Limited
Pilot 1: What can I expect if I
participate in SEO?
• Month one: SEO audits of participating
partner websites by Microsoft approved SEO
vendor; gather website performance metrics
before updates
• Month two: SEO site updates made to partner
websites
• Month 3-9: website performance and search
engine result rankings tracking (post SEO
work)
Pilot 1: Partner Gives/Gets - SEO
• Gives
– Access to website analytics
data pre-SEO audit
– Access to website
manager/marketing manager
to work with SEO agency as
needed
– Commitment from partner to
participate actively in SEO
process
– Agreement to share metrics
from website and rankings
with Microsoft
– $1500 co-funded fee, payable
to SEO vendor Axelerate
• Gets
– Full website and search engine
audit report
– 10 hours consulting time from
SEO agency to make website
updates
– 6 months tracking of website
progress after SEO fixes in
place
– Access to Microsoft approved
SEO vendor at reduced price
(retail value $6000)
– Benefit from Solution Profiler
updates made to
www.microsoft.com/dynamics
website partner listings
Pilot 2: What can I expect if I participate in
the paid search landing page?
• Secure group of at least 5 partners
• Work as a group to determine campaign direction and lead
routing
• Execution:
– Month 1 – all funding put toward development of two test
landing pages and set up of a pay-per-click campaign
– Month 2 – all funding dedicated to PPC advertising costs
– Ongoing:
• 80% PPC advertising costs
• 20% program management fees from Interactive Limited
• Monthly – Regular rhythm where Partners can have impact
on the campaigns, learn from the group marketing effort
and have full access to the campaign managers
Pilot 2: Partner Gives and Gets- Paid
Search
Gives
Gets
• *Min $800/month to cover page
set up, clicks costs and campaign
management fees
• Provide feedback about lead
quality, sales pipeline and wins
generated from the campaign
• Participate in monthly meetings
to provide suggestions to improve
campaign
•
*Campaign will be managed at a cost of
20% of ad spend by Interactive Limited.
•
•
•
•
•
Leads from a landing page that is tested and
optimized using industry best practices at an
anticipated cost of around $250/lead
The economies of scale needed to create and
test landing pages that use feedback tools,
split testing, lead capture forms, videos,
white papers etc.
Direct input into the landing page design, ad
copy, and offers provided on group calls
Complete transparency into how leads are
generated and distributed
Full access to analytics data
Access to best practices information and test
results that may help them improve other
web marketing campaigns they are currently
running
To Summarize
• Partners may choose to participate in one or both pilots
• Pilot 1: SEO
– Partners optimize their own web sites using Marketing Services
Bureau vendor Axelerate (individual projects)
– 50% co-funded by Microsoft (will cost participating partners
$1500)
• Pilot 2: Paid Search Landing Page
– Collaborative effort where partners are working together for
mutual benefit
– This may be more attractive to partners who have already done
work to optimize their web sites
– $800/month to participate
Next Steps
• If you have individual questions or would like a
follow up call, please email us directly (cc your
PAM):
– Pilot 1: SEO, Jennifer Tomlinson jesidd@microsoft.com
– Pilot 2: Paid Search Landing Page, David Foreman
dave@interactivelimited.com
• Please let your PAM know whether you are
interested in one or both pilots by Wednesday,
October 14th so we can get started!
Questions?
Appendix
Long Term Vision For
Group Online Marketing
• Pool financial resources of Partners to develop
centralized high volume Internet campaigns using
best practices and feedback loops
• Enable Partners to focus marketing on competing
brands rather than lead cannibalization
• Secure long term co-funding from Corporate so
campaign can use more sophisticated tools to
improve feedback and results
Online Marketing Examples & Other
Work By Interactive Limited
Visit ERPSoftwareBlog.com to see a group blog created by Interactive Limited and Anya Ciecierski for Dynamics
GP Gold Partners. Launched in June of 2009 with 12 Partner/members, the site now has 24 members who
contribute posts. The site already ranks #8 on Google natural search results for “ERP Software” and is on
track to have 3000 visitors for the month of August 2009.
Interactive Limited has worked with over 35 Microsoft Dynamics Partners over the past 10 months. Projects
have included complete site designs, optimization and campaign development. References available upon
request.
For a sample CRM landing page created by Interactive Limited with annotations:
http://crm.interactivelimited.com/SampleLandingPageMSCRM.jpg
For examples of the basic process of Internet marketing optimization refer to this slide show from one of the
top experts in the field:
http://www.marketingexperiments.com/images/multifiles/articulate/webclinic-04-22-09/player.html
For an overview of landing page optimization tools from another top expert:
http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/articles/101-google-website-optimizer-tips/
Presented by:
David S. Foreman
dave@interactivelimted.com
888-800-0999