You know that saying “If you build it, they will come”, well that’s not true. You need marketing to generate traffic for your business. Without marketing, no one will see your business, therefore they will not come…
So, where should you start to get your business in front of your ideal target audience? Finding out where your target audience is spending their time is key to generating the right traffic to your business.
There are three main traffic sources for leads in B2B marketing.
- Search Engines
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
While there are many other ways you can generate leads through digital marketing, these are the most popular that we will touch on and the ones we believe are the most measurable and scalable.
Let’s break them down:
1. Search Engines
Search engines, such as Google, will provide you with the majority of your organic and paid traffic. Organic search results are listings on a search engine results page (SERP) that show as a result of factors such as search term relevancy and your search engine optimization efforts (SEO).
Whereas, paid traffic, known as PPC or pay-per-click, is traffic generated from a user clicking on a link or advertisement that you have paid for to appear at the top of the results on the search page.
Search engines are so popular when it comes to online marketing for one reason: INTENT.
Understanding the needs of your target audience and what they are searching for is crucial to being successful in your SEO efforts. You NEED to get in front of people who have the intent to purchase the products you sell or services your offer. If you fail to do this, you can miss out on a ton of potential business.
But through successfully optimizing your website for search engines and thorough keyword research, search engines can be your largest and highest quality source for leads.
If you want to learn more about SEO check out a couple of our other blogs on the topic!
https://www.ajaxunion.com/5-ways-to-improve-your-websites-seo-ranking/
https://www.ajaxunion.com/proven-seo-tactics-from-a-b2b-marketing-agency/
2. Social Media
Social media is where most people spend the majority of their day. Searching, scrolling, shopping, you name it and it can be done on social media.
Today, social media allows you to target your ideal audience with ease. Most social platforms have built-in targeting options for marketing, like Facebook and LinkedIn. And since social media platforms have such rich information on their users, businesses will pay to have their advertisements shown to them.
Each social media network has a variety of these targeting factors:
- Geotargeting: Targeting by location such as country, state, city, and postal code.
- Demographics: Most platforms let you target basic factors such as gender and age. Some will let you go as deep as relationship status, income, and ethnicity.
- Interests: Target your audience based on their interests. Such as marketing, personal development, cooking, etc.
- Devices, networks, operating systems: Get specific and show your advertisements to consumers using specific mobile phones, tablets, or laptops.
Social media is a very influential part of our everyday lives. To be successful in advertising on social media you need to create visually appealing content, personalized messaging, and choose the correct targeting options.
If done right, social media can be a powerful source of traffic for leads.
Check out our other blog on how to master your B2B social media strategy here.
3. Email Marketing
Last but not least, email marketing. Email marketing is exactly what it sounds like. Sending business promotions through email.
Once you have a list, you’ll have people that trust you enough to receive regular emails from you. Those people have tremendous value and can be a great source of traffic and revenue for your business.
Email marketing has been around for a long time as a method for generating leads. This approach continues to have a strong track record regardless of the rise of social media platforms.
Like we stated above, your email marketing lists are compiled of people who have shown an interest in your business at some level, enough to subscribe in the first place. Which places you in a good position to send them emails about your products or services.
With the right strategy, businesses can see positive results with email marketing campaigns.
Even though search engines, social media, and email marketing are the most common and popular traffic sources for leads, they might not be the best for you.
What works for one business may not work for another. That’s why researching your target audience thoroughly through market research is important before starting to advertise.
Remember, marketing is all about testing. It’s very rare that you’ll get it on the first shot!
For more helpful information on B2B Marketing check out our resource library!
Looking for support? Ajax Union has you covered! Schedule a FREE strategy session with us and we’ll give you personalized insights on your B2B Strategy.
