Our partner Omobono shares some insights from the latest research into B2B digital marketing, ‘What Works Where?’
We’ve looked at B2B digital marketing from two aspects this year. Firstly, what are marketers doing and what do they think works? Secondly, what are buyers doing to keep abreast of industry developments, identify and choose suppliers?
We surveyed 96 senior B2B marketers, responsible for a total budget of £70 million, and 224 senior B2B buyers with a collective buying power of £150 million. We uncovered the top four priorities.
1/ Deepening customer relationships
2/ Influence – the name of the game is thought leadership
3/ Finding the right channels for each situation
4/ Spend vs. effectiveness – measuring return on investment
What the marketers said
The number 1 priority is the same as last year. Strengthening thought leadership has dramatically increased in importance, at the expense of raising brand awareness. It’s as though B2B marketers have clocked the fact that being known isn’t enough; you have to be known for something, some specific expertise.
Social media is on the increase in terms of budget (now taking 13% of the budget) but interestingly buyers don’t use it to keep abreast of information and trends in the industry nearly as much as you might think.
Three channels dominate, as per last year: web, email and social media. But two other channels have come up quickly to sit nearly alongside social media: microsites and online video/webinars/podcasts. We wondered whether mobile would increase its share of wallet, but while it’s increasingly perceived as an effective channel, spend on it has only increased by a couple of per cent.
Finally, although digital is absolutely part of the B2B marketing mix, it’s hard. One of the most significant factors, highly relevant to this discussion, is the fact that many of the challenges which were identified were about the importance of content – creating cut-through, staying innovative, creating quality content. And if the two biggest objectives are about deepening customer relationships and building thought leadership, you can see why this is so critical.
What the buyers said
Buyers use a wide range of sources to stay informed, and they actually put a lot of value on supplier websites and information sent via email, newsletters and webinars. They like video too, but they are not heavy social media users. LinkedIn, as you might suspect, was number 1, with 65% of buyers using it regularly for business. So, cease to invest in your own website at your peril, perhaps?
Buyers are not consuming detailed information, such as supplier websites, via mobile, choosing instead to use it for Twitter and Facebook.
An important finding is the importance of face to face contact, and personalisation. As you might expect, tailored offers work much better than generic approaches – but there’s a heavy emphasis on the importance of building relationships, whether in person or through a personalised digital approach.