Making sense of the B2B marketing mix

Independent digital marketing and ecommerce community Econsultancy has recently launched the B2B Internet Statistics Compendium. Its purpose is to make it easier for B2B marketers to find the information they need to make sense of an increasingly complex and fast-changing marketing landscape.

There’s been a great deal of B2B-focused marketing data published recently. In a sector that’s become increasingly dependent on reaching out to new business across multiple channels, it’s never been more important to get the mix right.

According to Econsultancy, here are some key B2B marketing trends to keep an eye on...

Traditional channels still feature heavily in the mix

According to data released by Circle Research, the Institute of Direct Marketing and the Association of B2B Agencies, the share of spend on digital marketing channels overtook that of traditional channels toward the end of 2010. Yet, as The B2B Barometer report highlights (in addition to other research released by Google), this was less the result of significant growth in dominant digital channels, and more a reflection of the diversification of online opportunities.

Trade shows, for example, remain the biggest investment for B2B marketers. While 28 per cent of B2B marketing budgets were allocated to this channel in 2010 (according to Google), projections from Circle et al indicate that 17 per cent of UK budgets will continue to go towards events of this kind well into 2012.

Twitter joins LinkedIn and Facebook as a top-ranking social channel

Last month Circle Research also released some interesting data about the use of social media channels among B2B marketers.

The use of social channels is becoming mainstream, with 78 per cent of B2B marketers engaging in social media marketing. This widespread adoption has changed the ranking of the top social channels, with Twitter now dominating the B2B social mix and used by 85 per cent of B2B marketers.

LinkedIn, formerly the top-used social channel for B2B marketers, still retains its popularity with 77 per cent of B2B marketers using the service. Facebook and, more interestingly, YouTube are also proving popular channels, used by 67 and 66 per cent of B2B marketers respectively.

Video is growing as both a social and content marketing tool

The rise of YouTube as a key social channel for B2B marketers is also highlighting its value as a content marketing tool. According to B2B Content Marketing published by MarketingProfs and Junta in 2010, video was holding its own at around the middle of the tail of content marketing strategies last year.

41 per cent of B2B marketers were using YouTube and similar services while traditional formats, such as print magazines, were slightly favoured (42 per cent) and many predominantly text-based content options, including white papers (43 per cent) and case studies (55 per cent), were even more popular.

Investment in video as content marketing strategy was predicted to increase significantly within 2011. However, Google forecast that 35 per cent of B2B marketers already using online video will increase their video budgets. B2B Online echoed these predictions, stating that more than half of B2B marketers will increase spending on online video this year.

B2B marketers are undoubtedly finding themselves in an increasingly multi-channel environment, but trends are proving quite different within the sector compared to those encountered by B2C companies. As traditional channels continue to uphold their value amongst emerging digital channels, the drive for B2B businesses to stand out from the crowd via the content they produce has perhaps never seemed so pertinent.

It will be interesting to see whether video and micro-blogging channels will reflect their worth in the competitive B2B marketing mix, as we approach 2012.

Learn more...

Econsultancy's B2B Internet Statistics Compendium is a comprehensive collection of the most recent B2B statistics and market data publicly available on online marketing, e-commerce, the internet and related digital media.

Author Luke Richards is a freelance writer, researcher and consultant living in Falmouth, UK. Much of his work focuses on digital areas such as SEO and online PR, as well as social media technologies and emerging methods of online collaboration.

This article was first published by Econsultancy, the leading independent digital marketing and ecommerce community.

 

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