The State of Organic Marketing in 2022

Why organic marketing, and why now?

Organic marketing is a crucial and growing part of any organization’s digital toolkit. Unlike other forms of digital marketing, organic is earned, not owned. It doesn’t require paying to get in front of potential customers. SEO is all about answering peoples’ questions and providing value, or what we at Conductor call customer-first marketing.

Organizations are waking up to the value of SEO, and it’s here to stay. To name a few reasons why this shift is occurring:

• Organic search delivers over half of all trackable website traffic
• Customers click through at a higher rate on organic results than on paid media
• A relevant organic search influences 39% of all purchasers (opens in a new tab)

The COVID-19 pandemic has only emphasized the importance of the digital experience, as in-person events shut down and customers turned online to find the answers to their questions. It also disrupted the workplace (opens in a new tab), sending remote teams scrambling to maintain productivity and morale. This happened in tandem with changing investment priorities (opens in a new tab) from the C-suite, both from a budget and headcount perspective.

Despite the pandemic, the majority of marketers are growing SEO investment right now—they know that the customer journey increasingly starts and ends online, and they want to capture some of billions of searches occurring every day.

This is true for B2B as well as B2C companies. Increasingly, decision-makers and consumers want to do their own research, and search provides them the opportunity to do so. In fact, 61% (opens in a new tab) of B2B decision-makers start the process with a web search, while a whopping 87% (opens in a new tab) of all retail shoppers do the same. Organizations can and should provide answers to these searchers by using SEO, turning each piece of content a lifetime investment.

57% of B2B marketers are saying that SEO generates more leads (opens in a new tab) than any other marketing initiative

In this report, you’ll learn about the state of organic marketing in 2021 and where it’s headed going into 2022. We asked hundreds of top marketers all about their organic programs, from headcount to process to technology. Then we analyzed their responses to answer critical questions that will inform organic marketing strategy next year and beyond.

Specifically, you’ll find:

• Reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on goal attainment, budget, headcount and productivity
• Predictions for the future of marketing from the people that do it best
• Information about the techniques of top marketing teams, from structure to software
• SEO priorities for 2022 and beyond

For each topic, we provide additional insights based on:

• The organic maturity level of different organizations and its impact on performance
• Company size, whether mid-market or enterprise
• Different marketing roles, ranging from the marketing leaders to digital practitioners across SEO, content, and web teams

Here’s a preview of what we found:

Changing sentiment on a variety of topics due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Specific budgetary impacts broken down by channel

The impact of in-house vs. outsourcing on SEO performance

Top strategic priorities from digital leaders going into 2022

For all the inside info on the state organic marketing, download the report now.