Pushing for top placement in search results is as old as marketing itself, and it continues to be a priority. Internet marketers continue to recognize the importance of search in driving the end user’s internet browsing experience and understand that the odds of attracting a visitor (and the opportunity to convert) improve significantly with search engine placement.

Search engine optimization (SEO), of course, is the discipline dedicated to this endeavor, and the relative maturity of the space has led to the better definition of marketing objectives compared to other areas, such as social media marketing.

According to the latest data from MarketingSherpa, most B2B marketers use SEO primarily to increase their web traffic (55 percent of respondents), with 38 percent using it to increase brand or product awareness, 32 percent for lead generation and 24 percent to improve brand or product reputation. PR comes in with 24 percent. Sales implications drew a lower response rate in the survey, with only 14 percent of B2B respondents using SEO to increase online sales and 15 percent for offline sales.

For IT solution providers, these results suggest that SEO is an effective tool for demand generation. Traffic to a website or blog is an early step in demand generation, especially if you have the hooks in place to draw a visitor into the sales cycle through a contact form or newsletter registration. This is supported by the brand and product awareness and lead generation objectives specified in the survey.

[Source: MarketingSherpa]