Summary
LeadFormix is a highly proactive, cloud based, B2B Marketing Automation 2.0 platform that helps identify & create a sales opportunity by measuring visitor intent. It provides unmatched actionable intelligence to qualify an opportunity accurately and provides a scalable solution for targeted response, using state of the art data mining engine.
LeadFormix can also measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns undertaken by its clients - by measuring the quantity and quality of leads that come on to the website from every source used for the marketing campaigns. The data can be used by Companies to exclude channels that do not yield them any results and concentrate their resources on those that do.
This B2B Social Media Report Card is an effort by LeadFormix to measure and answer some critical questions like -
- Is Social Media marketing useful for B2B Lead Generation?
- How many Leads (Defined as Enterprise Visitors) come to a website through Social Media channels?
- Which are the social media channels which work best for B2B companies - if their goal is Lead generation?
- What does a visitor look for most, once on the website - the phrases of interest which express the intent of his visit to the site?
Data Acquisition Facts
261 B2B companies have LeadFormix code active on their Corporate Website; of these 218 Companies have active social media presence. The data for this report has been collected for a period of 3 months - February 2010 - April 2010.
The website visitor data shared in the report is for all 261 companies, but the social media visitor data is derived from 218 companies - since only these had some social media presence.
Leads in the Marketing Automation space are defined as Enterprise Visitors. Since Customers of B2B Companies are other Enterprises, an Enterprise visitor for the benefit of both Marketing and Sales teams in organizations are viewed as a Lead - who may or may not convert into a prospect.
The pages of interest visited by the visitors is based on the phrases of interest they clicked on and the amount of time they spent on the page - which is an average of more than 20 seconds.
Major Findings
- Every 3rd visitor to a B2B Website is an Enterprise Visitor.
- Nearly 15 percent of Enterprise visitors to a website with active social media presence are from Social Media sites.
- Wikipedia is the most effective social media channel and brings in the most relevant and serious Leads.
- LinkedIn accounts for the maximum number of visitors from any social media site to a B2B website. However the visitors who come in from LinkedIn are more interested in finding out 'who they (company) are?' than 'what they (company) do?'
- Facebook and twitter do not bring in Leads - these can be used as channels to engage with your existing customers, media, or other stakeholders, or for nurturing existing prospects, but not as a medium for generating Leads.
- The Intent expressed by people coming from various channels are different and clearly tell you what kind of social media sites, enterprises use when researching a company.
- Content which is balanced and neutral in its approach and presents facts as against marketing jargon is preferred by enterprise visitors, when researching a company.
- The maximum number of visitors to any site - are direct visitors, people who key in the website address - there is reason to believe this could be a result of word of mouth endorsements or brand awareness campaigns.
- SEO optimization is the least a company can do to ensure - it has a constant flow of Leads to its sites. Search Engines continue to be the most popular medium of finding a vendor, when in the research stage.
- The surprise social media channels were Reddit and Dzone. This could be because a major chunk of the companies using LeadFormix are technology companies.
Sources Of Visits
In the last three months the total number of visitors to all the 261 B2B Websites was close to 4,365,377 of these close to 50% of the visitors came to the sites directly by typing in the website URL. Search Engines are the second highest source of visitors to a B2B website, followed by referral sites.
Among referral visitors - news sites, job sites and social media were prominent - of which social media was the most significant, contributing nearly 15 percent of the referral traffic. Internal referrals were not included since they are not considered a lead source.
Source Of Enterprise Visitors
Of the 4,365,377 visitors to these 261 B2B sites 1,418,171 were enterprise visitors. Of these again the highest number of visitors came directly to the site, search engines ranked second and social media channels were the third most popular source for enterprise visitors. Proving that if a company takes up SEO optimization (includes optimizing keywords, building quality backlinks etc.) and participates in relevant social media sites, it can not only create awareness but also ensure a brimming sales funnel.
Most Popular Social Media Channels Generating Leads
LinkedIn true to its image emerged as the clear front-runner sending both the highest number of visitors and enterprise visitors to these sites. It was closely followed by Wikipedia.
Bookmarking site Reddit and developer site Dzone were the surprise elements of this research - this could be because a significant number of sites which were part of this report are Technology sites with significant presence on both these networks.
Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, Stumbleupon and Delicious were some of the other significant contributors to the traffic. The rest of the traffic was divided into one or more visits from various other sites. Since the numbers were insignificant, they have not been added in this report.
Social media sites most common to almost all B2B companies on our list were LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia. Since these 4 sites are also known to be the most popular in the social media sphere - we have tried to analyze the pages of interest for a visitor who came from each of these sites.
These pages of interest were ones which most people visited once they were on the website. Such data is essential to give marketers an idea on the kind of channels people visit for different kinds of information. In other words you know - when a visitor comes from X social media site - what is the kind of information he is looking for.
The data also helps us understand which social media channels bring in genuine leads and which should only be used to engage with your different stakeholders.
Pages Of Interest Of LinkedIn Visitors Once On The Website
For visitors who came in through LinkedIn to a B2B website - the contact us page was the most visited page followed by the about us page and Careers page.
The data clearly shows that visitors who come in from LinkedIn were looking for more information on the company and the people behind the company (the management), or looking for job openings with the company. Exactly what this professional networking site claims its helps its users with, if they create a profile there and start building their network.
Pages Of Interest Of Twitter Visitors Once On The Website
There has been a lot of buzz around Twitter and many have questioned if the site is useful for enterprises looking for business opportunities. Our research tells us that people who come in from twitter cannot be treated as Leads or prospects. People who come from twitter mostly come to a website in search of content. In fact the highest percentage of visitors to a B2B website from twitter visited their blog page, followed by the about us section. A very miniscule percentage of the traffic actually checked out the products page and even lesser the contact us page.
This data proves - that twitter should not be used by marketers to generate leads, but as a place to engage with their existing customers, the media and prospects they are pursuing.
Pages of Interest of Facebook Visitors Once On the Website
Facebook like Twitter brings people to the site, which is primarily looking for content or some information on your company. Most visitors who came through Facebook visited the About us page first followed by the Blog page.
Information on products and services offered by the company was visited by the least number of visitors.
Pages of Interest of Wikipedia Visitors Once On the Website
Wikipedia emerged as the most effective Web2.0 site bringing in genuine leads. People who came to a website from Wikipedia were clearly in the research stage of their buying decision process, looking for more information on the solutions/products provided by the company. The page visited most once a visitor was on the site were - features pages and products pages, followed by the About us page.
This finding also reiterates the belief that enterprises look for neutral content when researching on a solution or a vendor. Since Wikipedia does not allow - promotional content on the site - it has emerged as the number one source for enterprises to look for neutral content on any probable vendor or solution.
Single Page Visits
When we looked at the social media sites which brought in visitors who visited more than a page on the website, we found that people who came to a website from Facebook and Twitter mostly visited just one page on the site - mostly the page for which a link had been provided on these social networking sites. This further confirms our belief - that Facebook and Twitter are great places to promote your content like blogs and articles.
On the other hand the visitors from LinkedIn and Wikipedia on an average visited more than one page, spending time exploring the website.
Average Time Spent Once On the Website
The other surprise element our data threw up was - the average time spent by visitors from these top social media sites.
Visitors who came to the site from Wikipedia spent more time on the site than from any other site. .
Also, here even though LinkedIn visitors visited more pages the average time they spent on the site was less than those spent by Facebook visitors. Which indicates that while LinkedIn sends the maximum number of visitors and enterprise visitors to a B2B website, the interest of the visitors clearly lies in finding out 'Who they (company) are?' than 'What they (Company) do?'. We state this because the pages most visited by the LinkedIn visitor once on the site - are About us and Contact us pages followed by Careers and Management.
Conclusion
Going by the data unearthed in this report - we can safely conclude that for a B2B enterprise - Wikipedia certainly acts as a source of genuine Leads, who are looking for a solution.
LinkedIn promises to be a great place to create brand awareness among your target audience - other enterprises; since the visitors are more interested in knowing the background of the company than about its product/solution offerings, it may not contribute much towards quality lead generation.
Facebook and Twitter are clearly places for nurturing relationships with interested stakeholders. It's a place companies can share some good content and create awareness about what they do - which may not directly result in Lead generation.
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