BizReport : Search Marketing : January 23, 2013

Report: For B2B, Twitter tops Facebook

According to new data out from Optify, email and search are two hot spots for Business to Business (B2B) marketers. The study also shows that B2B consumers are reacting differently to the social space, especially when it comes to engagement. Facebook is the place where typical social shoppers with engage with brands according to other research, but Optify's researchers found that, in the B2B space, Twitter is more important. According to Optify's research Twitter outperformed Facebook 9 to 1 for lead generation campaigns. Other interesting findings include: • Social Media contributes only about 5% of traffic leads for B2B's • Email holds a 2.9% conversion rate, the highest engagement rate for B2B campaigns • The average conversion rate is 1.6% • Organic search traffic is the biggest lead generator Organic search traffic is responsible for more than 40% of traffic to B2B sites. Researchers found that Google outperforms other search engines in the B2B space, just as it does in the B2C space. "Google has long proven to be the uncontested leader in the search market, and as our research shows, that authority will only continue into the foreseeable future," said Doug Wheeler, CMO of Optify. "With such a clear domination of search, we believe that marketers should diversify their marketing programs beyond organic search. It will come as no surprise if Google decides to monetize elements of its organic search data such as referring keywords, access to analytics or other, currently free services, leaving marketers no choice but to adhere to its terms." Researchers studies more than 62 million visits from over 600 million small- to medium-sized B2B websites in 2012 to come to their results. Link To; OPT - http://www.optify.net

by Kristina Knight