Too often, businesses enter a SEO campaign without a firm gameplan. Or so said Peter Crisafi, Vice President of dzine it, a New York search engine optimization (SEO) and website development company.

According to Crisafi, preliminary research can help make sure that website owners do not make "needless mistakes."

"An online marketing campaign will not be successful if not carefully planned and researched in advance," said Crisafi, whose company also offers web marketing classes through its Expresso SEO program.

"The first step is to do quality marketing research to determine the website’s target audience," said Crisafi. "This will help to determine what avenues to use in the SEO campaign."

Crisafi added that targeting B2B customers requires a different touch than other customers.

For example, he said, a company looking to attract younger consumers should utilize sites like Facebook and other social media outlets. But for a more upscale, business-minded audience, a niche-specific blog coupled with a good online press release campaign is a more effective route to travel.

But in a recent report in BtoB Magazine, Laura Ramos, VP-principal analyst at Forrester Research, echoed that social media may not be the best way to generate sales.

"I’m not seeing a connection between social media and lead generation today," she said.

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