A long-standing discussion between B2B marketers and business owners: is SEO or social media better for your digital marketing strategy? 

We’re here to provide you with the details on each strategy as well as how and when to use them. Social media and SEO each have their purpose in B2B marketing, but which one is better depends on your marketing goals. 

Let’s begin in by discussing each strategy individually in the social media vs SEO for B2B debate.

SEO for B2B

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your website show up better in relevant organic search results on Google. If you sell things or services that other businesses look for on the internet, SEO can help you. 

When to use SEO for B2B

SEO helps you reach clients during all phases of the buyer’s journey – particularly during two important phases: awareness and decision. 

Research and Awareness

During the awareness phase of the buyer’s journey, clients research and learn about all their options for a new product or service. They might look at blog posts that compare different options, read about how to DIY that service, and consume other informational articles about their topic of interest. SEO can help your business show up in the search results during this awareness phase. 

Making a Decision

During the decision part of their journey, the client has decided they are going to purchase a product or service they need. This is when they go to Google with an intent to purchase — that’s when you REALLY want to make sure your business is showing up in the search engines. 

If this journey represents how your clients acquire your services or products, then SEO should be a large part of your strategy. It will help you generate organic leads from your website and show up during the most important parts of the buyer’s journey. 

Benefits of SEO for B2B

SEO provides a myriad of benefits for B2B marketers, from increasing web traffic to growing your customer base. Let’s take a look at some of these important advantages that you can gain from an effective B2B SEO strategy: 

1. Increase organic traffic

SEO is all about generating organic traffic. The goal is to get your website showing up for relevant keywords and search queries on Google and other search engines. Then a potential client can click on your website listing and learn more about you. 

The more relevant content that you put out on your website, the more opportunities you have to show up in the search results, thus leading to an increase in organic traffic. 

2. Increase organic lead generation

Lead generation for SEO comes from the searches during the decision phase of the buyer’s journey. When a client does a search with a commercial or transactional intent — they will likely reach out to the businesses that show up at the top of the search results. 

To generate more organic leads, you need to manage your online reputation. Make sure that you have a lot of good, current online reviews. This can make the difference in a potential client clicking on your business and making that first call. 

3. Reaching clients at the opportune moment

The best part about SEO is that you can reach potential clients at the right time. A well-managed SEO strategy will help you show up at the top of the search results when a potential client searches for your offerings. 

Social Media Marketing for B2B

Social media marketing holds an entirely different purpose from SEO. SEO is good at helping you reach potential clients when they are ready to make a purchase. Social media is a good place for building brand awareness with new and potential clients. It allows you to reach them during their “off-time” to continue to expose them to your brand. 

When to use Social Media Marketing for B2B

Businesses can use social media several different ways in B2B marketing. 

Brand Awareness

You can use it to raise brand awareness with new clients who have never seen or heard of your brand before. 

Retargeting

Most social media channels allow you to remarket or retarget your brand to potential clients who have visited your website or viewed your ads before. 

Lead Generation

Another way to use social media is as a lead generation tool when you have a unique discount or free offering — like an eBook or holiday savings deal. You can advertise these deals across your social media platforms with lead generation forms that asks for an email, phone number, and name in order to receive the offering. 

There are many situations when social media marketing is useful for your B2B digital marketing strategy. 

Benefits of Social Media Marketing for B2B

Beyond its multiple purposes, social media poses several advantages for B2B marketers. 

1. Human connection

Even though your marketing efforts may be business-to-business, the people behind those businesses are still human. The human connection you make with your audience through social media marketing is different from the connection you make with SEO. Essentially, your social shares represent just how well you gel in with your audience on a personal level.

2. Advanced targeting capabilities

Unlike SEO, social media allows you to apply specific targeting options to each campaign. This helps you get your message to the right audiences. Whether you want to target specific locations for a new service or retarget website visitors, an effective social media marketing strategy will help you reach your target audience. 

3. Audience engagement & trust

As a brand, you should never underestimate the power of engagement. If you neglect your social media channels, you will essentially be depriving your audience of an opportunity to engage and interact with your brand. Being able to react and respond to your messaging is another great perk to social media marketing. Your audience can share, like, comment and engage with you on a human level, bringing trust into their relationship with your brand.

4. Streamlined processes

Once your social media strategy gets going and you have started to create and post pieces of content to your channels, you can streamline the process. Once you’ve run a few social media campaigns, it’s easy to test out different settings and find what works best. Then it’s as simple as duplicating the best-performing ads (while re-working the copy and graphics) to keep the brand awareness growing!

Plus, when you have awesome content, your audience will share and re-share it themselves, resulting in momentous social media traction. 

5. Increase website traffic 

Social media can help increase your website traffic too. When you create compelling ads and posts for your social channels — particularly if they provide the answer to a B2B client’s problem — users will be more inclined to click on them. 

Keep in mind that there are new social media profiles popping up on the internet every single day. Social media is something that has become an indispensable part of our lives, and nothing can change that. If you decide to get your head in the game and focus on your social media channels to launch your marketing strategy forward, it will only result in you gaining benefits.

How does social media marketing impact SEO? (And vice versa)

While you may be looking at SEO vs social media, we urge you to consider how these two strategies complement one another. After all, the best digital marketing strategy is a multi-pronged approach. 

So, how do social media and SEO complement each other? 

Website Traffic

First, let’s talk about website traffic. Social media marketing, when done well, brings more traffic to your website. Website traffic is important for SEO. Google and other search engines watch how users interact with your website — including how many users, how long they are on your site, how many pages they visit, etc. 

When Google sees good web traffic signals and site engagement, it generally rewards you with higher rankings in the search engines. 

Brand Awareness

As we’ve discussed, social media is a powerful brand awareness tool. When potential clients see your ads on their social media channels, they are more likely to recognize your brand when they are ready to make important purchasing decisions. So, when they do a search on Google to find a new product or service and see your brand’s name, they’re more likely to click on you even if they can’t quite place why they know your name. 

Retargeting

When you generate website traffic through SEO, it provides you with an audience to retarget on social media. You can target those who found your website on Google and continue to expose them to your brand. You might even consider running a deal to your retargeting audience since they are already at least somewhat familiar with your brand. That could be the thing that entices them to finally make that call and become a new client. 

Citations & Trust Signals

Social media profiles act as citations on high-authority websites. When your name, address, and phone number (NAP) information is consistent across each of your social profiles, it helps confirm to Google and other search engines that your information is accurate. 

Social media profiles can also aid in link-building efforts for your SEO strategy. Make sure to include your website link on each social profile, and share blogs from your content marketing efforts on your social channels. 

Always make an informed decision

At the end of the day, you are the one who knows your business and your audience best. Social media and SEO each have their own benefits, and it ultimately depends on your goals and how your clients make purchasing decisions. Use your expertise and intuition to understand where your audience is and how to best reach them.

The best social media strategy is one that also supports your SEO strategy. You can leverage content marketing efforts from your SEO strategy to create posts and ads across your social media channels. You can use website traffic your from SEO efforts to retarget the right audiences on social media. 

Whatever you choose to do, you don’t have to do it on your own. Asset Digital Communications has experts available to help with your SEO and social media marketing efforts. 

Looking for more advice on how to best market your business? Contact us today!