What’s up in the world of marketing these days? What’s working? What’s not? How do I know what’s going to work for my business? There are a lot of questions to be answered and a lot of options to be considered, but before you panic, hear us out. Marketing statistics provide clues to guide you to the newest and best marketing strategies and channels.
When an organization is unfamiliar with marketing, it can be scary to spend money on it, so it’s only natural that the parties responsible for approving the spend want to know how effective their efforts will be. And while “Will my marketing campaign be successful?” seems like a fairly straightforward question, the most accurate answer is, “it depends.”
You want a successful marketing strategy in 2018, and we want that for you too, so we’ve pulled together some useful marketing statistics on what B2B organizations say is effective, and what isn’t.
Make a Plan and Know Your Market
It’s been proven that companies who write out a marketing plan and goals are much more likely to achieve them.
- 60% of companies who have a documented strategy rate themselves highly in terms of content marketing effectiveness, compared with 32% of those who have a verbal strategy. (Content Marketing Institute)
Knowing who your prospects are and what they need is central to successfully marketing your product or service.
- 71% of companies who surpass lead and revenue goals have documented personas. (Cintell)
- 64.7% of companies who exceed lead and revenue goals have updated their personas within the last six months. (Cintell)
- For companies who exceed revenue goals:
- 82.4% are conducting qualitative interviews (both customers and non-customers).
- 70.6% are interviewing the executive team.
- 58.8% are interviewing sales people.
- 52.9% are reviewing CRM/MA data.
- 52.9% are interviewing customer success teams. (Cintell)
- 70% of companies that failed to meet revenue and lead goals did not conduct qualitative persona interviews. (Cintell)
- High performing companies were 2.3x as likely to research the drivers and motivations of their buyers. (Cintell)
Content Is King
Without the right content or offer, you’re dead in the water.
- 80% of business decision-makers said they prefer to get information via articles, not ads. (Roper Public Affairs, 2012, Source: Content Marketing Institute)
- 88% of B2B organizations are using content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)
- Conversion rates are nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%). (Aberdeen)
- 42% of B2B marketers say they publish content multiple times per week or daily. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 83% of B2B marketers said that lead generation was the most important goal of content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)
- The most effective B2B marketers allocate 42% of their marketing budget to content. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 60% of B2B marketers say that producing engaging content is their biggest marketing challenge. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 50% of B2B marketers outsource at least part of their content to an outside agency. (DemandWave)
Make Your Voice Heard
Once you have some goals in place and you know where to find your target personas, it’s important to select the methods in which you are going to reach your market. Hint: choosing just one generally isn’t good enough.
- B2B marketers use an average of 6 advertising methods per campaign. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 62% of B2B marketers have a marketing automation system in place. (DemandWave)
Here are some options you could include:
Blogging
- B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those who don’t. (Marketo)
Social Channels
- 78% of small businesses now get at least a quarter of their new customers via social media. (Marketo)
- 44% of B2B marketers have generated leads via LinkedIn. (Marketo)
- 93% of B2B marketers use social media content. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 66% of B2B marketers rated LinkedIn as the most effective social platform. (Content Marketing Institute)
White Papers
- 82% of B2B marketers use case studies. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 66% of B2B marketers say that white papers are their most effective lead generation platform. (Demand Gen)
- 69% of enterprise buyers say they consume white papers when evaluating a technology purchase. (eccolo media)
- 38% of decision-makers say that white papers were the most influential form of information in their decision process. (eccolo media)
- 81% of B2B marketers use eNewsletters. (Content Marketing Institute)
- 77% of B2B marketers say that email is the best medium for driving early-stage leads. (Demand Gen)
- 72% of multi-channel attribution B2B marketers said that email drives revenue for them vs. 44% for marketers without attribution. (DemandWave)
- Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. (The Direct Marketing Association, 2015, Source: HubSpot)
Organic Search
- The first position on Google search results on desktop has a 34.36% clickthrough rate. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015, Source: HubSpot)
- 49% of B2B researchers using mobile devices for product research do so while at work. (Google, 2015, Source: HubSpot)
- 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing organic search presence is their top priority for inbound marketing. (HubSpot)
- B2B researchers do 12 searches on average before engaging on a specific brand’s site. (Google, 2014, Source: HubSpot)
PPC & Retargeting
- For ads with a quality score of 10, cost per click decreased by 50% compared with an ad with a quality score of 5. (WordStream)
- Having a call extension on a PPC ad can improve the CTR by 10%. (WordStream)
- 64.6% of people click on Google Ads when they are looking to buy an item online. (WordStream)
- 55% of B2B marketers say search engine marketing (SEM) is the most effective paid method for promoting/distributing content. (Content Marketing Institute)
Video & Podcasts
- 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers. (HubSpot)
- 65% of podcast consumption happens on a mobile device. (Lowerstreet)
Measure. Improve. Repeat.
Successful marketing campaigns are a bit of a moving target because the market can change and so can the technology. Keep measuring so you can keep improving.
- 74% of companies that weren’t surpassing revenue goals did not know their visitor, lead, MQL, or sales opportunities. (HubSpot)
- Less than 30% of small businesses use website analytics, call tracking or coupon codes. 18% of small businesses admit to not tracking anything at all. (MediaPost)
- One-third of marketers say they don’t know which digital marketing channel has the biggest positive impact on revenue. (MarketingProfs)
More Than Marketing Statistics
These marketing statistics provide some insight into what’s working now for B2B marketing and offer you guidance when deciding on the tools and strategies to use for your digital marketing.
However, successful marketing is more than trends and statistics. Whatever your marketing goals for 2018, you need the right strategy, messaging, content and channels to get noticed.
If you’ve been wondering how you can pump up your marketing in 2018, the TPM team is here to help. Give us a shout.
