subject: B2b Business Insights: Ceos Are Younger And More Tech Savvy [print this page] In their jointly sponsored study, 354 top executives at large U.S. companies with annual sales of greater than dollar 1 billion were surveyed. The study identified unique generational differences between different aged executives and explored where they go for information, preferences in terms of how information is filtered and delivered, and what online technologies they are willing to embrace. One of the most important findings of the study for B2B retailers is that the CEOs now comprise a younger and more tech savvy group who are much more willing to use the Internet for their information and purchasing needs.
The study showed that sixty percent of chief executive officers engage in six or more online searches each day. Plus, these CEOs rated search engine information as more valuable than information received from colleagues or from paid consultants. This means that CEOs are much more likely than in the past to find your business and products through an online search.
The study provided some additional, exciting information that should help drive your marketing and promotional activities. The study report noted that, Executives are more likely to click links from content than from ads, but the less intrusive the ad, the more likely they are to follow the link.
- Eighty-six percent occasionally or frequently click on linked words from web articles and content
- Fifty-eight percent click on paid listings in search engine results
- Fifty-three percent click on website banner ads
- Thirty-seven percent click on pop-up or other interruptive ads from websites
Clearly, content and paid search engine listings should form a major component of your marketing plan. Of course, if you are planning to capitalize on content to attract CEO attention, you must 1) develop interesting content and 2) optimize the content to be indexed and ranked by search engine spiders. Secondly, if you plan to use paid search engine listings, you will need to spend time testing for the specific keywords that will attract the CEO audience to your site. Thirdly, attracting a CEO to your site is great but what you really want is for that CEO to either initiate a purchase or recommend your site and your products to his or her purchasing manager. That means the landing page that links from your paid search engine listing has to respond well to the searchers needs and inspire that CEO visitor to move deeper into your site. Finally, you need to transform that visit into a longer term visitor by offering an appealing newsletter, special insider sales emails, a special report on a topic that is bound to be appealing to CEOs or some other mechanism that allows you to 1) gather contact information and 2) gives you permission to make ongoing contact with the person.
