10 Interesting Digital Marketing Stats

#1

56% of B2B companies incorporate digital marketing, according to WebFX.

Yes, 56% is a majority, but this statistic does beg the question of why 44% don’t incorporate digital marketing. Using digital allows you to reach a wider audience, which can be important for B2B companies, which can have smaller target markets than B2C companies.

Using digital allows B2B companies to refine their marketing efforts and tune them to their audiences, demographically and psychographically and—of course—geographically. Knowing how, when and why your buyers make decisions can help you speak to them when and where they are in their journey. (An excellent example is geo-targeted paid ads. Ask us!)

Digital marketing is a goldmine for creating a more personalized and engaging customer experience. Email marketing, social media and chatbots allow for personalization and interaction with customers in real time. All three tactics can build long-lasting relationships.

Hello, Google Analytics. Digital marketing allows B2B companies to track and measure their results. Measuring gives you the flexibility to change quickly if something is amiss, but metrics also keep decision-makers satisfied because quantitative data create proof—of effort, success or not-doing-that-again messaging and tactics.

#2

Social responsibility is one of the pre-eminent challenges faced across all aspects of business and society today.

According to PR Week, More than a third (31%) of respondents predict it to be the most prominent 2023 trend in the PR world.

Headlines have been conflicted this year about whether social responsibility is important for companies now, particularly with the persistent specter of inflation hanging in the air. Even the Harvard Business Review has questions.

But there are case studies in triumph and many of those involve digital public relations, including some within Fast Company’s examples of success. When we think of digital marketing, public relations doesn’t often make this list, but it can be effective and long-standing, even in a B2B environment. If you’re reluctant to go full PR-is-digital-marketing, consider digital public relations, according to Forbes.

#3

More than 86% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to drive sales.

While it’s true 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn, more than 66% regard the platform as the most effective social media tool in the B2B marketing space.

#4

TikTok is the #1 downloaded app in more than 40 countries.

Despite the ban-or-not controversy brewing around Tik Tok, TikTokers use the app for an average of 1.5 hours every single day, according to Hootsuite—which is more time than any other social platform. Now that marketers can schedule posts for TikTok, it’s a friendlier option for brands and businesses. Are B2B companies using TikTok? Of course. Explore the statistics to find the opportunities.

#5

Organic traffic is considered (69% report it as most-important) the number one performance metric.

Even though some consider traffic a vanity metric, it’s a core reason why B2B marketers use content marketing. It remains a top metric to evaluate content performance, according to SEMrush.

#6

Millennials make between 73% and 76% of B2B buying decisions.

Some research, including a survey done by Forrester Consulting for Outreach, put that percentage as high as 93% of millennials who influence B2B buying decisions. And understanding the comparisons among millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomer counterparts, helps marketers understand the cohorts’ different buying preferences. Specifically, that millennials prefer digital resources and chatbots to having conversations with real people over the phone. They reach first for digital.

According to findings in the TrustRadius 2022 B2B Buying Disconnect: The Age of the Self-Serve Buyer, in which TrustRadius surveyed 2,185 technology buyers (e.g., decision-makers), use of vendor resources has declined since 2021.

“In fact, 41% of Gen-Zers and 29% of Millennials stated that ‘checking review sites’ was the first step in their buying journey and had the greatest impact on their purchasing decisions,” according to a Forbes interview with TrustRadius founder and CEO Vinay Bhagat. “They were also more likely to self-serve their research by starting with a Google search.”

Marketers should consider how their messaging and resources resonate with different generations of buyers, or they risk losing customers to more buyer-attuned competitors. Despite the clear evidence for millennials preferring self-guided resources, research shows 55% of buyer interactions within a deal cycle are self-guided, regardless of generational cohort, so sellers must be technology-enabled and capable of maximizing every interaction.

#7

57% of B2B buyers identified webinars as the top format for gathering information.

B2B buyers’ most-valued content format depends on where they are in their purchase journey, according to Marketing Charts. In early stages, webinars, research reports and blogs are valuable but are replaced by case studies mid-stage and by demos in the final stage.

#8

Despite openness to gated content, a greater share (61%) of B2B buyers are more likely to click on and engage with non-gated content.

According to HubSpot, gated content is a way to drive lead generation, as the content viewer must supply an email or other contact information to access it. It’s usually FCI, or free with contact information.  (We just made that up, but it makes sense.) Gated content includes white papers, eBooks and webinars. Ungated content, such as blog posts and infographics, improves SEO and increases brand awareness.

Ungated content is clicked on more frequently because people are often deterred by the contact form—as it’s a commitment. They have to really want what’s gated to pay for it with their information, particularly if—with another web search—they can find similar information that’s ungated.

Whether you gate your content or not depends on your marketing goals. Are you concerned with lead generation, or do you want online visibility and good search results for brand awareness?

HubSpot advises marketers to consider the content type, also. Longer form content, such as a whitepaper or eBook makes sense to use as gated content. Shorter form content, including blog posts, work well as ungated content. Think about your team’s investment in creating the content, too. Gated content probably took hours of research, writing and designing to create. You may not want to give it away. But blog content to promote the gated content could hit several goals.

#9

Brand authenticity is an essential brand need, say 92% of marketers. It contributes overwhelmingly to the branding process.

Want some proof beyond 92%? We can bring that to you here:https://www.demandsage.com/branding-statistics/.

#10

76% of B2B businesses have developed a formal marketing plan. Almost 25% do not have one—in any form.

This can be resource dependent, as many B2B businesses hustle to manufacture, distribute and sell products and may be hard-pressed to devote energy and people to marketing. And brand marketing is often completely ignored—or debated—because measuring brand awareness or perception is considered tougher than sales metrics. But Google, and other research, show that underestimating B2B brand marketing is a short-sighted mistake. The return on marketing investment (ROMI) on performance marketing, customer advocacy and employee satisfaction are all affected by brand marketing. Particularly in 2023, Google finds brand marketing important in many marketing scenarios, including personalization and customer service.

According to MarketingWeek, many in the B2B sector “focus on short-term demand generation and jealously guard their customer base,” which results in failing to recognize the vast research that proves “the pivotal role brand-building plays in driving B2B growth.”

Why else might a B2B business not have a marketing plan?

Fear of failure, which is a very real possibility. If a business struggles to define meaningful marketing goals (or ties every goal to “make more money”), the chances of failing skyrocket. If B2B businesses fail to test, optimize, adapt, and learn from any efforts they make, they will, most likely, fail. They’ll fail because they won’t know how to improve their strategies or objectives, which means campaigns will likely fail. Also, if B2B businesses think they know their buyers, but do no reflective or deep research to clearly define them, marketing efforts will most likely fail. Buyer cohorts—and their behavior—are changing, even in B2B.

This LinkedIn post has an interesting take on B2B marketing. It focuses specifically on scaling, but we like that the first point is research. Research your goals and strategies, research your buyers, including their demand triggers, and your B2B marketing plan can start to take shape in a meaningful and effective way.

If you’d like more guidance or insight into your current, or future, marketing plan, we can help. Or if you’d like to learn more about public relations, brand authenticity or any digital marketing topic, call or email and let’s start a conversation.

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