“SEO” best form of lead generation in 2012?

Marketing on the web is growing innumerably. With hundreds of viable “services” offered now-a-days I have but noted a few below:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Social Media Marketing & Outreach
• Pay Per Click, media buys, and the like.
• Press Releases, outreach to editors, online PR campaigns.
• Affiliate marketing, such as recruiting online sales representatives for your brand or service.
• Marketing via Email
• and much more.

While we can expand on sub-section after sub-section on the above terms, we will keep it to a minimum.  As a business owner with little to no marketing experience it is difficult to know where and when to invest company time, resources, and allocate budgets. For most companies, it is not a viable option to go through the pain staking process of trial and error with internet marketing strategies and techniques.  Search Engine Land, a popular Internet Marketing news and resource outlet explains in a recent article that a study of 500 U.S. marketers, 65% of whom self-report as B2B marketers and 49% of B2C marketers all credit SEO with having the largest impact on their lead generation campaigns. Though, in both cases, those numbers are significantly higher than both PPC and social media. Cold hard facts ladies and gentlemen.

Additionally, according to the study almost 60% credited SEO as having the biggest impact for B-2-B and 49% felt it had the biggest impact for B2C. What does that mean? It means SEO WORKS!

 

What does this study mean?

The Bottom Line: 500 Marketers are more confident in SEO as a B2B and B2C lead generation source than PPC and Social Media. Think about it…