The most popular marketing tactics used by B2B companies are digital, according to the Sagefrog Marketing Group. When asked which of 16 common marketing tactics they use, 94% of B2B marketers pointed to websites, followed by email (76%), social media (68%), and SEO (58%). More traditional tactics such as direct marketing (48%), tradeshows (46%), seminars (44%), and print ads (35%) appeared further down the list, though they are more popular than search engine marketing (30%), webinars (26%), and online ads (25%).
Digital channels are among the highest sales leads providers. Online marketing and email marketing were named as the top sales leads providers after referrals. The top-3 was followed by tradeshows and events, public relations and direct mail. The popularity of digital channels may also be explained because they provide the best Return on Investment (ROI): online marketing and email marketing are top of the list, according to the report, outranking more traditional, offline marketing strategies such as tradeshows and direct mail.
Social Media Gains in Popularity Social media is gaining in popularity among B2B marketers. 58% of businesses indicated they find its use important or very important, and only 10% dont find it important at all. With an increase of 14% compared to last year, social ranks third among marketing tactics, with 68% of respondents indicating that they use this channel. Social media is still outranked by email Marketing (76%) and websites (94%) as digital strategies. Another growth area is SEO, which increased 11% in popularity compared to 2011, with 58% of marketers using this tactic.
The most popular social media tactics are social networks, with 79% of marketers participating in one or more networks, an increase of 13% compared to last year. All social media strategies show strong increases compared to 2011, with blogs (48%, up from 34%), micro-blogs (37%, up from 26%); video sharing (35%, up from 29%); and forums and communities (30%, up from 19%) making up the top-5. Perhaps unsurprisingly, LinkedIn is the most popular network for B2B marketing, followed by Facebook and Twitter.
Marketing Budgets: Positive Outlook 62% of companies in the Sagefrog study spend 5% or more of their revenue on marketing, and 13% companies allocate more than 15%. This is an increase compared to last year, when 57% of companies were willing to spend more than 5% of their revenue on the marketing budget, and just 7% of companies invested more than 15%. 44% expect to increase their marketing budgets next year (up from 40% last year), 50% expect to keep those budgets level, and just 6% plan to decrease their budgets.
The results of the survey can be found here. . .
