B2B Marketers Prioritize Content in Search Marketing Efforts

June 9, 2014

Regalix-B2B-Marketers-Most-Significant-Search-Marketing-Trends-June2014Roughly 8 in 10 B2B marketers from around the world (but primarily in North America) say that their content marketing and SEO efforts are at least somewhat integrated, per results from a Regalix survey [download page], making content marketing the most highly integrated with SEO of a variety of digital marketing disciplines. About three-quarters are creating content as part of their organic search marketing, and respondents clearly indicated that the rise in the quantity and quality of content creation is their most significant search marketing trend.

Asked to rate the significance of several search marketing trends, each of the respondents rated the rise in the quantity and quality of content creation as being at least significant, with 7 in 10 rating this trend highly significant. Roughly 9 in 10 also indicated the surge in video searches and the deeper convergence with social media to be at least significant, although only one-third or fewer saw those as being highly significant.

Interestingly, almost half of the respondents view the continued growth of mobile ads and mobile content as being not significant at all.

The importance of content marketing makes more sense when considering respondents’ top organic search goals, which are to: provide educational/informational content; establish oneself as thought leader; and drive traffic to website. The top goal for paid search, though, is to accelerate lead generation.

As a result of its influence, content marketing is capturing a greater share of B2B marketers’ budgets than a variety of other disciplines, including social media marketing. Nevertheless, three-quarters are using social to boost their SEO efforts, with LinkedIn and Twitter perceived as being the most effective. That’s not surprising, given that B2B buyers and decision-makers (in the US) tend to heavily over-index in their use of those platforms, according to a recent MarketingCharts Debrief, “Reaching and Influencing B2B Buyers and Decision-Makers” [download page].

Other Findings:

  • B2B marketers are using keyword strategies at different stages of the customer buying cycle, focusing on the use of generic informational keywords at the top of the funnel, and turning more to specific features such as cost, benefits as well as special offers and discounts further into the cycle.
  • While a majority of respondents are using organic search during each stage of the customer buying cycle, the use of paid search tends to decrease post-purchase.
  • 6 in 10 respondents are using responsive web design as part of their mobile SEO efforts.
  • Conversion rate is by far the most-used PPC metric, while site traffic metrics take the lead for measuring SEO efforts.
  • B2B marketers’ top-cited SEO challenges are: staying abreast of search engines’ indexing algorithms and technology updates; and measuring ROI.

About the Data: The results are based on an online survey of 376 B2B marketers of which 83% were from North America, 11% from APAC region and 6% from Europe. Respondents included CMOs and mid-level marketing professionals from leading B2B companies.

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