You want to be able to optimize your B2B marketing process, everything from how you bring in leads to how you close on sales. And that’s where cold, hard statistics help to shine some light on ways to tweak the process to make it as optimal as possible. The five statistics below will change the way you think about B2B marketing:
#1: Before finalizing a product purchase, 94% of B2B buyers research online
[Source: Marketing Profs]
This is interesting because it shows the outsized role of search in driving the whole B2B sales process. Not only are customers using search to find you in the first place – they are also using search at the end of the sales process, just to make sure they are getting what they really wanted. In short, they’re trying to avoid buyer’s remorse by putting their faith in Google. For the savvy marketer, this means that you simply can’t ignore search and what it means for you.
#2: 59% of marketers say email is the most effective channel for generating revenue
[Source: BtoB Magazine]
Again, this is somewhat of a head turner. Isn’t email, like, a 30-year-old technology? Yet, it’s still going strong. You can chalk this up to momentum and legacy effects, but there’s something deeper going on. What is there about email that makes it so effective? It’s not as immediate as texting or messaging. It’s not as engaging as social media. And it’s not as personal as a face-to-face meeting or telephone call. But email is free, and it’s scalable. You can send 10 emails or you can send 1,000 emails, and there’s not a big difference. But think about phone calls – there’s a huge difference between making 10 phone calls and 1,000 phone calls.
#3: 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal in 2016
[Source: Content Marketing Institute]
Again, this is interesting. The goal of content marketing is mostly to create an evergreen supply of new leads. That makes the way companies approach it very different. If you want more leads, you create more content. And if you want a lot more leads, you create a lot more content. Contrast that to what your approach would be if the goal were to close more sales – less content, longer content, and more detailed content.
#4: 93% of B2B companies say content marketing generates more leads than traditional marketing strategies
[Source: Content Marketing Institute]
While it’s not surprising to see the Content Marketing Institute talking up the benefits of content marketing, there has to be some truth to this. And that’s because content marketing gets to the heart of what customers need and demand – the content is all tailored to helping them answer questions and find what they need to succeed. Contrast that to traditional marketing, which is really about entertaining or having a clever tagline.
#5: When making a purchase, 75% of buyers use social media for their decision-making
[Source: International Data Corporation]
So, this is where Facebook enters the picture. The value here is that people trust their friends most of all, more than any other resource. They respect what people are saying, and they have a belief that things will eventually bubble up to the surface in social media. If it’s appearing in their Facebook news feeds, it must be true, right?
By understanding these five statistics, you’ll be well on your way to improving your B2B marketing.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.