The digital needs in B2B marketing and sales are changing rapidly. We wanted to know in a flash survey how B2B companies deal with the most important challenges and measures.
Among survey participants, the most important marketing and sales measures are:
We further explored the question of what makes a successful content marketing strategy for B2B companies by comparing the results of the survey to the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks from the Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs, which surveyed 1,798 companies in North America.
The 118 survey participants refer to different customer groups in terms of marketing and sales measures: B2B, B2C and B2B2C
Business-to-Business (B2B) 62.71 %, corresponding to 74 participants
Business-to-consumer (B2C) 19.49 %, corresponding to 23 participants
B2B and B2C hybrid (B2B2C) 17.80 %, equivalent to 21 participants
Sample N = 118, 19.02.2020
The following section discusses the B2B and B2B2C results in more detail.
Source: own representation
| Inbount Marketing / Content Marketing | 60.81% |
| Search Engine Optimization | 55.41% |
| Email Marketing | 29.73% |
| Participation in trade fair | 24.32% |
| Social media marketing | 22.97% |
| Search engine advertising (SEA) | 20.27% |
| E-commerce | 20.27% |
| Advertising in trade magazines | 12.16% |
| Direct marketing | 12.16% |
| Influencer Marketing | 8.11% |
| Online video advertising | 6.76% |
| Display Advertising | 6.76% |
| Affiliate Marketing | 5.41% |
It was also mentioned that maintaining relationships via online and offline channels at the same time was the most important measure.
Source: own representation
| Win new customers | 64.47% |
| Website visitors (traffic) | 57.89% |
| Generate leads | 57.89% |
| Integration with existing systems | 32.89% |
| Segment customers by product | 23.68% |
| Provide ROI on marketing activities | 22.37% |
| Training team, lack of know-how | 21.05% |
| Consideration of data security and privacy | 11.84% |
| Do not know how to start | 6.58% |
| Encounter internal resistance | 3.95% |
It was also mentioned that it is difficult to find the time for content writing internally. Or it is a great effort to find the right external content writers for B2B.
We took a closer look at B2B companies that see digital marketing and sales as not very important and at the same time have other priorities in the company.
Companies that see digital as not very important didn't see a potential ROI on digital marketing projects for 2 years (compared to experienced digital companies at 1 year)
Similarly, content marketing was ranked as a top revenue driver by only 45% (compared to 63%) and SEO by only 36% (compared to 62%).
Only 9% see the task of segmenting customers by product as a challenge (compared to 32% for higher priority companies).
We compared the results from our non-representative study to the larger Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks survey, which polled 1,798 B2B companies in North America. A comparison to find out what the successful B2B companies are doing differently in content marketing:
| Successful companies | Browse | Unsuccessful companies | |
| Use metrics to measure content performance & ROI | 95% | 80% | 62% |
| Deliver content to the right place at the right time | 93% | 71% | 37% |
| Weight informative content more than promotional content | 88% | 66% | 50% |
| Rate their own ability to demonstrate ROI as very good | 84% | 59% | 25% |
| Build a customer relationship | 84% | 63% | 39% |
| Actively nurture leads | 83% | 68% | 51% |
| Create an optimal customer experience along the customer journey | 83% | 52% | 23% |
| Have a documented content strategy | 69% | 41% | 16% |
| Build a readership | 68% | 45% | 30% |
Source: own illustration based on B2B Content Marketing Report 2020, CMI Content Marketing Institute
B2B companies are focusing more and more on inbound / content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) in marketing and sales. The challenges such as gaining new customers, generating website visitors (traffic) and leads require a structured approach. B2B companies, can successfully do content marketing if they plan ahead accordingly:
Use metrics to measure content performance and ROI
Categorize and personalize content along the customer journey: deliver content automatically - when and where a person is most likely to see it
Prioritize customers' information needs over promotional messages
Documented and efficient content delivery and marketing strategy
Continuous building of subscriber lists