Marketing Research Chart: Capture B2B leads with 2012’s most effective SEO tactics

Jul 24, 2012

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Marketing Research Chart: Capture B2B leads with 2012’s most effective SEO tactics

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SUMMARY: We surveyed 1,530 marketers during this year’s B2B Benchmark Study to find what works in online and offline marketing. Check out this week’s chart for a detailed look at one of this year’s most effective marketing tactics.

by Jen Doyle, Senior Research Manager

Marketing Research Chart: Effectiveness of SEO Tactics for B2B

Q. Please indicate the level of effectiveness (in terms of achieving objectives) for each of the SEO tactics your organization is using.

Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart

In a recent survey of 1,530 B2B marketing professionals, we discovered search engine optimization (SEO) to be one of the most effective lead generation tactics for 2012. In fact, it came in just slightly behind website optimization (42%) with a compelling 38% of respondents ranking it as a “very effective.”

So, we decided to dig a little deeper and find out what exactly B2B marketers are doing to achieve and maintain high organic search rankings. In the above chart, we analyze the effectiveness of various SEO tactics for B2B organizations.

Content creation tops the list as the most effective tactic for SEO. As organizations increase website content, they are able to achieve higher rankings, and a greater number of listings in the search engine results pages. This ultimately leads to increased inbound traffic from search engines.

Content creation also supports organizations’ social marketing efforts, and when integrated with an existing SEO strategy, this can be highly effective in improving results achieved from SEO campaigns.

For additional data and insights about B2B tactics, join us in Orlando, August 27-30, for MarketingSherpa’s B2B Summit 2012, or download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.

Useful links related to this research

MarketingSherpa’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report

Local Search Marketing: 6 tactics to take advantage of a search marketing category with less B2B competition

7 Signs That You’re Overvaluing Search Engine Optimization

Long-tail Search Marketing: SEO how-to content and videos earn 9% conversion rate

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Comments about this Chart

Jul 24, 2012 - Marc Engelsman of Digital Brand Expressions says:
There is ample evidence in other MarketingSherpa and other search industry reports that point to the importance and effectiveness of external link building so wonder why it is lower on the chart here. One thought is that external link building is very time consuming and difficult to execute so the effectiveness rating may be more a reflection of not doing it well enough to acheive results.

Jul 24, 2012 - Dusan of Pink ZebraLIon Marketing, Inc. says:
What's the distinction between blogging and content creation? Don't you create content every time you blog? Anyway, in my neck of the woods, link building tops the list... if you ask which of the techniques you use is most effective. Blogging and social media come up at the top if you ask, which techniques that exist are most effective.

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