Email’s Conversion Rate Outperforms Other B2B Web Traffic Sources

January 23, 2013

This article is included in these additional categories:

B2B | Digital | Email | Paid Search | Search Engine Optimization | Social Media

Optify-B2B-Conversion-Rate-by-Traffic-Source-in2012-Jan2013Of the various drivers of B2B website traffic, email has by far the highest conversion rate, finds Optify [download page] in its “2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.” The study, which examined more than 62 million visits, 215 million pageviews and 350,000 leads from more than 600 small and medium-sized B2B websites during 2012, found email’s conversion rate to be 81% higher than the average (2.89% vs. 1.6%) and 42% higher than the next-best performer, referrals (2.04%).

Paid search (1.96%) also had an above-average conversion rate, with direct traffic (1.64%) closer to the mean. Organic search (1.45%) and social media (1.22%) were the lowest-rated in this regard.

The study also looks at the primary sources of B2B website traffic, comparing them to the top lead sources. The following is a breakout of some of the more notable findings:

  • Organic search was the top driver of traffic to B2B websites (41% share), but accounted for a disproportionately smaller share of leads, at 26.5%;
  • Google dominated organic search traffic, with an average share of 88.2% for the year;
  • Despite accounting for just 4.5% share of site traffic, paid search contributed 10.5% of leads;
  • Much as in the e-commerce space, social media was a fairly insignificant source of traffic to B2B websites, accounting for just 1.9% share of traffic (although its share of leads was higher, at 4.75%);
  • At just 0.8% share, email held just a fractional share of B2B web traffic in 2012. But, email was a far more significant contribute to leads, at 9% share.

About the Data: The data was collected using Optify’s visitor and lead tracking technology and includes only US based .com sites with 100 to 100,000 monthly visits. The digital channel analysis includes websites with a minimum of 10 visits per traffic source each month.

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