Attracting Traffic to Your B2B Site
A steady flow of web traffic is essential to the success of your business. After all, your website is ultimately a round-the-clock marketing tool. As a result, the more online attention you drive, the more likely you are to receive new leads and customers.
Online B2B tactics differ greatly from those integrated into B2C counterparts, and insight into the sources of B2B web traffic is integral. According to Optify Inc.’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, direct traffic accounts for only 40% of website views. Ultimately, understanding the performance of alternative primary sources will enable you to tailor more effective, site-specific solutions.
Organic Traffic = 41% of All Traffic
Organic traffic refers to site visits from search engines like Google and Bing. The higher up your business is in search results, the better. Many businesses consider this the best type of web ranking because it is typically acquired based on content – and a top ranking can last longer than a paid search ranking.
Keep in mind the following:
- Organic web traffic accounts for 26.5% of website leads.
- Google is still king. In fact, 90% of all B2B organic traffic is via Google’s search engine.
- Due to new encrypted searches, only about 41% of B2B referring keyword data is available. (learn more)
- 50% of previously tracked keyword data is no longer available because of encrypted searches, so be sure that you setup a separate profile in analytics to track landing pages in place of blocked keywords. This will give you some insight as to the visitor’s origination.
Paid Search on the Decline for B2B
Paid search campaigns should not be run by all B2B companies – it is not a “one size fits all” traffic source. Why? Consumers rarely engage with online ads, so paid search campaigns can fail to produce results. As a result, close to 10% of companies surveyed in 2012 discontinued their paid search campaigns. But, of those companies surveyed that proceeded with such efforts, most experienced average to above-average conversion rates. The verdict on this specific source: analyze paid search potential before you invest to see if it is an avenue worth any value for your objectives.
Email Marketing
The highest conversion rates can be traced to email marketing. An excellent source of direct engagement for B2B companies, email marketing is proving to attract the most page views per site visit and can be attributed to 9% of leads. While email trails as a key traffic source, at just 0.8%, it is evident that targeted email communications result in leads – which are what ultimately count most.
Social Media Not a Key Factor in Online B2B Marketing
Before spending time to invest in a social media campaign, know that this source only generates about 4.75% of website leads and makes up about 1.9% of traffic – thus ranking the lowest among all other major outlets. According to Optify, these low rates may be related to social media content being focused heavily on driving awareness instead of leads.
If used properly and actively, engagement and conversion rates can be acceptable, with the strongest conversions coming through Twitter. This platform outperformed both Facebook and LinkedIn in the Optify study, generating 82% of social media leads.
How to Make This Data Work for You
Knowing which sources generate traffic and conversions for your website, as well as your competitors’ websites, can give you invaluable insight into visitor behavior – and can ultimately help to increase visitor action. Use analytics tools to identify the most effective traffic sources and tailor your website to your specific market.