Inbound Marketing ROI

With SEO and Inbound Marketing, You’re Building, Not Buying

One of the toughest things a consultant or contractor has to do is convince their potential client of the gains they can make in sales/revenue by employing their services.

The whole inbound marketing SEO thing, when viewed holistically, is so easy to grasp that I often forget many CEO’s have never heard of it or studied it. This leads to a lot of skepticism on their part, as the sales funnel and various steps web visitors take to make a purchase can appear cumbersome.

It helps to have statistics like these below. The content you search optimize and market via social media channels and on your website is forever. The email subscribers you add and the following you build doesn’t disappear once your budget is tapped. All of those webpages that market your product, and all of the spots on Google’s page one you now occupy, they’re not going anywhere for a long time. 

(Note: If you’re already using HubSpot and need an experienced HubSpot trainer / expert to teach your team advanced features or campaigns, contact me at corttafoya@gmail.com.)

Search Engine Optimization

The following are statistics come from studies done by industry leading SEO companies.

• 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

• Google owns 65-70% of the search engine market share.

• 70% of the links search users click on are organic.

• 70-80% of users ignore the paid ads, focusing on the organic results.

• 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.

• Search is the #1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%

• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.

More Blog Statistics as They Relate to Business and Marketing (01/2013):

• Businesses with websites that have 401-1000 web pages get six times more leads than those with 51-100 pages. (Source: @HubSpot)
• B2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. (Source: @FactBrowser)
• B2C companies that blog generate 88% more leads per month than those that do not. (Source: @HubSpot)
• On average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages. (Source: @HubSpot)
• Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to 30%. (Source: @AnaTrafficCafe)
• Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog. (Source: @ThinkCreative)
• 81% of marketers rated their blog as useful or better. (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing, 2012)

The overall conclusion is this: Google is beginning of peoples’ online experience, especially when it comes to shopping. This organic connection between store and consumer leads to close rates that are 6-7 times higher than other marketing channels. Organic search results are more popular than paid ads. We no longer live in an age where you have to be at the very top of page one to see your SEO efforts pay off.

Lastly, content marketing (social media, blogs, videos, etc.) exponentially increases its value when that company’s website is employing best SEO practices. If you’re already doing content creation and social media, explore having a freelance SEO expert join your team.

To schedule a free consultation, call me at 916-710-3306 or email me at corttafoya@gmail.com.