The results of a recent survey concluded that search engine optimisation (SEO), results in a greater number of leads than any other online marketing strategy.
The survey was included in the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report, presented by US marketing agency Webmarketing123.
Questioning more than 300 online B2B marketers in the late summer of 2011, 57 per cent said SEO was the greatest lead generator for them.
In comparison, less than double at just 25 per cent claimed PPC resulted in the highest number of leads. As for social media marketing, this ranked as highest with only 18 per cent of respondents.
Unsurprisingly therefore, more than 33 per cent said this was where they diverted the majority of their online marketing spend.
The survey also included more than 200 B2C marketers and in total, more than 53 per cent said they were intending to increase their spending on SEO in 2012. Another 43 per cent claimed they would maintain their present spending levels, with only nine per cent looking to reduce their spend.
Despite SEO being with us for a number of years now, one of the most surprising findings was that 38% of all those asked, said they would look to learn more about SEO in the coming year.
Perhaps above anything else, it shows that SEO designed for human consumption is critical to lead generation. Though figures aren’t available, it is also reasonable to suppose that it is important for closing sales, so the effort needs to be on quality over quantity, no matter the spend.
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