10 B2B marketing statistics to keep you on the bleeding edge

Online marketing data doesn’t lie—at least most of the time. That’s why we love statistics. Analyzing raw numbers is a fantastic way to see the reality of marketing and improve your chances of getting a profitable return on your efforts.

Here are 10 revealing B2B marketing statistics that will improve your bottom line as technology changes and new platforms emerge.

1. What blogging does for B2B sales.

When it comes to B2B content marketing statistics, this one shouldn’t be ignored. Social Media Examiner’s 2017 survey of over 5,700 marketers found that B2B marketers are more likely to use blogging (75%) compared to B2C marketers (61%).

While this difference isn’t huge, it implies that B2B marketers rely more heavily on content to drive sales—probably because substantially longer B2B sales cycles require more nurturing and thus more content.

You should definitely invest in blogging. But as you’ll see, you shouldn’t overlook opportunities in other channels, like AdWords, LinkedIn ads, and podcasts.

2. Are you doing what everyone else is?

Get a leg up on your competitors… or they’ll leave you in the dust.

Social Media Examiner’s Industry report found that marketers plan to increase their use of videos (75%), visuals (73%), blogging (65%), live video (61%), and podcasts (26%), in that order.

To get noticed, you need to stop doing what everyone else is. Marketers today are underappreciating the power of live video, podcasting, and Facebook messenger bots. By entering these frontiers now, you can establish market dominance.

But let’s be real: you won’t build momentum if you start a podcast and stop posting episodes regularly. While many people know this, they have a hard time following through. Don’t be one of those people. In this department, consistency is the key to beating your competition.

3. What video marketing means for conversion rates in 2018…

Vidyard and Demand Matrix found that landing page videos can increase conversion by 80%.

YouTube has been around since 2005, yet many marketers are only just starting to capitalize on the  marketing power of video. Some prospects don’t like to read but love watching or listening. Video captures their attention and convinces them to convert.

Testing a video on your landing page doesn’t have to be costly. Camera video quality is more affordable than ever before. You can even record and launch a decent video in under five minutes with just your phone.

4. Looks like 21% of Americans have adopted this new channel … Have you?

According to Edison Research Center, 21% of Americans age 12 or older have listened to a podcast in the past month.

These numbers are only increasing every year. Podcasts are the new radio—they fill in dead time with entertainment or information while you’re working out, driving, waiting in line, eating, shopping, or in the shower.

Get familiar with how podcasts work and how they’re different from radio. For example, podcasts give a user more control over what they want—they can skip ads and listen at a faster speed if they so choose.

If you take this route, you need to really understand what you’re working with. Listen to a podcast. Live and breathe a podcast. If you don’t, other marketers will leave you in the dust. Playing to the native details of how podcasts function is vital to attracting and maintaining subscribers.

5. We rarely get 96% agreement on anything…

As reported by Demand Gen, 96% of B2B buyers want more content from industry thought leaders.

Becoming a thought leader is an excellent opportunity for B2B marketers to get more sales by improving the prospect journey. Since credible thought leadership is scarce, you can educate and win the favor of followers by occupying this niche yourself.

One way to do this is to create “round-up” content that curates opinions from existing leaders in your industry. Round-up posts are a fantastic way to engage leads, and it’s a win-win situation—the influencers you quote get exposure, and you become a thought leader without having to rely on your thoughts.

The second way is to forge your own following. Put out consistent, data-driven content (hint: like this post) to meet the demand and rope in attention.

6. Is your marketing team lean and mean?

The Content Marketing Institute’s latest annual report found that 53% of B2B respondents have small or one-person content teams. Therefore, it’s critical to leverage the most out of what you have. Likely, most of your competition is very resourceful with their employees’ time. Therefore, it’s more critical than ever to capitalize on what’s already working and cut the fat.

Move into new platforms and mediums and leverage the underpriced attention. Thinking creatively and testing new marketing tactics will help you strike gold and get the most out of your time.

7. The trend that will change the world of business.

Komarketing found that 60% of marketers have a documented personalization strategy.

This B2B marketing statistic is astounding because two of our experts, Shlomo Trachtenberg and Camille Bosley, just wrote articles mentioning how personalization will play a significant role in the future of marketing. While 60% is substantial, that still leaves a hefty 40% on the table.

A crystallized personalization strategy is critical to building trust with your prospects and converting them into customers. Many marketers have broad messaging that hurts their inbound marketing ROI. Customers prefer a product tailor made for them as an individual with unique circumstances, not something generic that barely addresses their problems.

Get to know your customers and prospects. Sit down and chat with them. Find out about their pain points, hopes, and dreams. Many marketers skip this step and end up addressing the wrong desires on ads and landing pages.

8. We love email, but we’re HubSpot Platinum Partners for so much more.

Statistica found that only 31% of B2B marketers use marketing automation to increase revenue. This digital marketing statistic illustrates that many companies don’t realize the strength of email, one of the most valuable marketing channels.

Email enables you to remarket to your prospects affordably over time in a way that builds trust and persuades them to buy.

Plus, marketing automation tracks prospect and customer interaction with your brand and personalizes your messaging, better equipping your sales team to close the deal. What are you waiting for?

9. Advertising misperceptions are ruining your ROI.

Unlockd surveyed 100 mobile operators, 100 advertisers, and 1,000 consumers. They found that 85% of advertisers think the mobile advertising experience is positive for the user, with 3% admitting that it could be negative. But only 47% of users consider the experience positive. The main reasons for a negative attitude were the sheer volume of mobile advertising (40%) and poor or irritating format (36%).

Reduce the frequency your ads show to each unique user, and make sure ads appear more naturally as part of the user experience. Failing to do so repels potential customers.

Does this discrepancy between what advertisers and users think surprise you?

10. The truth about Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

Virtual reality (VR) is no longer just a gimmick. Sales of VR and augmented reality (AR) devices will reach $1.8 billion (£1.3bn) in 2018, according to a new report from CCS Insight. And a staggering 22 million headsets will be sold this year alone (up from 1 million headsets in Q3 of 2017, as reported by Canalys).

So, what does this mean for marketing?

It’s still too early to leverage VR and AR’s full capabilities. However, they will eventually roll out full-force on new mediums, such as social media, Internet browsing, live event experiences, voice search, and business communication. Have a strategy prepared for when these devices go mainstream, or you’ll miss the gold rush.

Conclusion

Change is the only constant in marketing—and those who don’t keep moving will become irrelevant. Most people prefer the comfort of familiarity. But for those who are willing to change things up, embracing new and promising marketing trends is a huge opportunity.

But forming a strong strategy goes beyond jumping on every new trend—because there will always be duds that waste your resources. Properly analyzing and respecting the digital marketing growth and market share can help you prioritize, which improves your chances of magnifying the number of leads and sales that pour in.

What do these B2B marketing statistics mean to you?

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