b2b marketing makeover

B2B Marketing Makeover: Survey Shows Marketers Aim to Reinvent Themselves By Nancy Pekala Apparently, B2B marketers are...

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B2B Marketing Makeover: Survey Shows Marketers Aim to Reinvent Themselves By Nancy Pekala

Apparently, B2B marketers are ready for a makeover. New research from Crain's BtoB Magazine developed in conjunction with Bizo, a business audience marketing company, reveals significant opportunities for B2B marketers in expanding their marketing mix and leveraging data in more effective ways. (Register for a free webinar March 22 to learn about the survey’s indepth findings. Key survey findings include: •

Email marketing popular but plateauing. B2B marketers ran email marketing at the top of their list of tactics, with 49% of respondents saying they spend more time and resources on email than on other channels. Paid search ranked second (36%), and display ads ranked third (35%). Social media, which enjoys a high adoption rate among B2B marketers, also gets the least amount of their time and resources, with just 29% saying this tactic receives the largest share of their time and resources. More than half (59%) of B2B marketers perceive email to be the most effective channel in generating revenue. However, the marketers acknowledge that their current online marketing mix isn’t meeting sales demand. More than “This is a period of creative re-invention for 60% of marketers report marketers. We have moved from a push their greatest marketing challenge for 2012 is environment, to pull style messaging, to finally generating more leads, and the permission economy. There is still a nearly two-thirds (63%) of tremendous opportunity to further leverage new respondents report their technologies and emerging channels to boost marketing mix either doesn't meet sales demand marketing results.” or they're unsure of whether their mix is effective. As a result, the vast majority of (77%) of B2B marketer respondents revealed they plan to expand or diversify their marketing mix in 2012, and more than half (56%) identified brand promotion as a primary focus. Interestingly, 88% of respondents report that they are using email to promote their brand online. These findings suggest marketers may be over-reliant on some of their more mature, wellunderstood programs and lag in their ability to effectively add new channels to their mix. 1



Marketers struggling to measure ROI. As with most marketing professionals today, measuring the impact of marketing efforts continues to be a challenge for B2B marketers. The survey reveals that 40% cite accurate measurement and attribution of online conversions as a top online marketing challenge. The data also reveals that while email is seen as the most effective channel for lead generation, many marketers are not considering the impact of other channels on the success of email programs, particularly when it comes to full-funnel marketing channels such as display advertising. Fewer than 20% of marketers say they nearly always attribute their leads to multiple marketing programs, while the greatest percentage of respondents (36%) say that they "sometimes" attribute leads to more than one program. More than onequarter (26 %) of respondents say they do not track leads to any marketing program at all or they only attribute leads to one program.



Opportunities exist for data-driven segmentation and targeting. The survey also found that B2B marketers have yet to take full advantage of the benefits derived from targeting techniques across all marketing channels. B2B marketers appear to be most comfortable using segment targeting in their email campaigns, where there is an 84% adoption rate, but only about one-third are using segment targeting in their display, paid search or social media programs. Those that do are also mostly using segments such as industry (65%), geography (56%), job function (55%) and title (49%). The biggest challenge for marketers in this area appears to be a lack of data on users (37%), followed by uncertainty about how to effectively use targeting and segmentation in campaigns (33%).



Online marketing programs lacking in optimization. Across the board, marketers report that their online marketing programs need improvement. Nearly half (46%) of respondents who use email marketing say their program could benefit from increased focus and optimization (e.g., A/B testing), while about one-quarter of those using display ads, paid search and social media report the same. However, email, which is a primary tactic used by B2B marketers, appears to have less room for improvement. Thirty percent of respondents report that email is now a mature and well-optimized part of their mix, and another 46% view email as a core part of their mix. There may be more upside for incremental gains from paid search and display ads, as only 19% and 12%, respectively see these as mature marketing programs, and only 5% of marketers see social media as a mature and well-optimized part of their mix.

John DiStefano, Research Director of Crain’s B2B Magazine, noted, "This is a period of creative re-invention for marketers, in the end marketing will emerge as a stronger more potent discipline. We have moved from a push environment, to pull style messaging, to finally the permission economy. While this contextualizing of the sales funnel presents challenges for some marketers, others are leveraging the new tools to reach their audiences online and drive more targeted, effective campaigns. This data shows that there is still a tremendous opportunity to further leverage new technologies and emerging channels to boost marketing results." Nancy Pekala is the AMA’s Senior Director of Online Content and Editor of B2B Marketing. Share your insights about social selling for B2B organizations in the B2B Marketing Group in AMAConnect, the AMA’s online community exclusively for marketers. Follow us on Twitter @marketing_power.

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