The 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report

THE 2017 STATE OF B2B DIGITAL MARKETINGA LIVE PREVIEW OF OUR SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT

SABRINA GILMORE KOCHANSKI

Director, Business Development & Client ServicesLAUREN BLECHER SCHERBA

Director, Marketing

WE OPTIMIZE LEAD FLOW FROM

CLICK

TO

CLOSETO DRIVE MORE SALES-QUALIFED LEADS FROM DIGITAL.

DEMANDWAVEIS THE PREMIER B2B DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY.

SEO

SEM

CONTENT

DESIGN

ANALYTICS

Founded in 2004, we are digital veterans with a passion for demand generation.

We drive revenue growth for the best in B2B.

DemandWave is a trusted Google Partner, a two-time winner of the Inc. 500|5000 list, and a two-time member of the San Francisco Business Times’ 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies.

We’ve earned our stripes.

Nearly 200 B2B marketing leaders weighed in on the top priorities and biggest challenges of 2017.

Who participated in this year’s survey?

Percent of survey respondents by job level. Percent of survey respondents by company size.

Director39%

Manager27%

VP12%

C-Level11%

Individual Contributor

11%

11-50 employees27%

51-200 employees23%

201-500 employees14%

1,001-5,000 employees10%

10,001+ employees10%

1-10 employees8%

501-1,000 employees5%

5,001-10,000 employees3%

2017OUTLOOKWE HAVE A FEW REASONS TO CHEERS B2B THIS YEAR.

What is the #1 objective of your digital marketing efforts?

B2B marketers are fully focused on lead quality.

Deliver quality leads47%

Drive more leads23%

Increase marketing ROI12%

Improve brand awareness

9%

Increase website traffic

4%

Other4%

Not sure1%

26% YoY increase in marketers choosing “deliver quality leads” as their top marketing goal for 2017.

Delivering quality leads32%

Measuring and proving ROI

24%

Generating enough leads

16%

Producing quality content

14%

Securing staff and budget

8%

Other5%

Not sure1%


“Delivering quality leads” emerges as B2B marketers’ top challenge, bumping “Measuring and proving ROI” from its two-year streak at the top.

What is your biggest digital marketing challenge?


16%

24%

29%

24%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

2014 2015 2016 2017

Percent of marketers that have chosen “measuring and proving ROI” as their top challenge over the years.

Conversion rate (lead to customer)

31%

Lead volume24%

ROI22%

Website traffic12%

Cost per lead7%

Not sure4%


“Conversion rate (from lead to customer)” at 31% takes the cake for the fourth yearrunning.

What is the #1 metric you use to measure digital performance?

Do you expect your digital marketing budget to increase, decrease, or stay the same in 2017?

B2B budgets are bigger.

Increase, 48%

Stay the same, 43%

Decrease, 6%

Not sure, 5%

Nearly half of marketers plan to spend more this year. Less than 6% are expecting a decrease in budget.

What percent of your overall budget goes to online marketing (vs. offline)?

61-80%25%

41-60%17%

10-25%14%

81-100%13%

26-40%12%

Less than 10%11%

Not sure8%

Confidence in digital is strong. 36% of marketers spend a whopping 60% or more of their marketing budget online.

B2B budgets are bigger.

Which digital marketing channels are the most effective?

B2B marketers have made big strides in SEO.

63% 63%

44%

37%

27%

13%

73%70%

54% 55%

37%

3%

93% 91%

71%

95%

55%

0%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Email Organic search Paid search Social media Display Not Sure

Which of the following channels drive revenue for you? Which of the following channels drive leads for you? Which of the following channels are a part of your digital marketing mix?

Organic search drives revenue for 63% of B2B marketers, tying email at the top spot for the first time.

2017OUTLOOKBUT, B2B MARKETERS STILL FACE THEIR FAIR SHARE OF CHALLENGES.

Which content marketing tactics are the most effective?

40%37%

34%30% 28%

21%17% 15% 13%

6%

53%50%

44%

35%39%

12%

31%

18%

6% 5%

73%

60%

68%

82% 82%

1%

68%

23%

2%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

White papers Webinars Case studies Videos Blogs Not sure Infographics Other None of the above Mobile apps

Which of the following content types drive revenue for you? Which of the following content types drive leads for you? Which of the following content types do you produce?

Even though 82% of B2B marketers use content marketing, only 40% or less can attribute revenue for any given content type.

Marketers struggle to optimize content for quality leads.

Have you ever tried, or are you currently engaged in ABM?

ABM could use a little TLC.

Yes42%

Not sure40%

No18%

Do you think your current ABM strategy is effective?

No50%

Yes38%

Not sure12%

Yes46%

Not sure36%

No18%

Has your ABM strategy produced revenue?

Given account-based marketing’s new found popularity, B2B marketers most likely need time to test and build confidence.

Marketers are scrambling to keep up with marketing technology.

Yes85%

No14%

Not sure1%

Do you have an email nurture program?

Yes50%

Not sure30%

No20%

Do you think your email nurture program is effective?

Do you use predictive lead scoring?

Do you think your use of predictive lead scoring is effective?

Do you use lead scoring? Do you think your lead scoring is effective?

Do you use website personalization?

Do you think your use of website personalization is effective?

Yes72%

No21%

Not sure7%

Yes47%

No29%

Not sure24%

No67%

Yes20%

Not sure13%

Yes54%

Not sure25%

No21%

No67%

Yes29%

Not sure4%

Yes49%

Not sure40%

No11%

Yikes! Confidence in marketing technology is lacking across the board.

HOW TO DELIVER QUALITY LEADSUSE THREE STEPS TO TACKLE THE #1 B2B PROBLEM.

1. Make sure you can optimize content for qualified leads.The challenge is not only data overload, but data segmentation.

Organic Search Marketing Automation Social Channels Digital Advertising

AdWords

LinkedIn Ads

Display

CRM

Again, while we’ve seen improvement, 24% of marketers still struggle to measure ROI.

Implement multi-touch attribution reporting.

1. Make sure you can optimize content for qualified leads.

One client achieved a 199% increase in pipeline opportunities in just 5 months after implementing attribution.

Create content people actually like.

Source: Google/Millard Brown Digital, “B2B Path to Purchase Study.”

STEP 2

71% of buyers who see personal value will purchase a product.

68% of buyers who see personal value will pay a higher price for a service.

To put it simply, make content your potential buyers actually like. And, with consistency.

Create content that attracts, engages, and converts.

With Buzzsumo, you can measure trending topics by keywords or phrases across all social networks.Use search and social data to inform content creation.

Evaluate the funnel from an organic search perspective. Do you have enough content to cover the buyer’s journey?

Buyer Stage

Awareness

Evaluation

Purchase

Content Type & Title Keyword Theme

Educate prospects on the value of your product & foster thought leadership.

Build the business case for why the prospect needs to invest in your product or service.

Give the prospect a reason to choose you over your competitors.

Product Page: Premium Ad Inventory “buy premium ad

inventory”

Glossary/FAQ: TubeMogul Ad Glossary

“What is display advertising?”

Webinar: Display 2.0: Reinventing Display Advertising.

“Display advertising best practices 2016”

Use search and social data to inform content creation.

Analyze search volume. Focus on long-tail, high-converting keyword themes first and work up to competitive, high-volume terms.

Sear

ch V

olum

e

Keyword Length

High competition; informational searches

Low competition; transactional searches

Low

High

Short Long-tail


Be proactive with competitor data. Identify what’s working and what’s not working.

Source: BrightEdge Competitor Analysis


It’s also essential to align search intent with your content topics.

Informational Transactional


Are these informational or transactional keyword themes?

Buyer Stage

Awareness

Evaluation

Purchase





CTA

Download “5 Things to Know About Display.”

Subscribe to more insights by email.

Request a Demo / Get In Touch



Product Page: Premium Ad Inventory

“buy premium ad inventory”




Here’s where content mapping for ABM comes into play.

Buyer Stage

Awareness

Evaluation

Purchase





CTA Industry Specific

“Why Display Advertising is Key for Software Brand Awareness”

Add softwareindustry case study examples to landing page.

Sprinkle in software industry examples when presenting.

Download “5 Things to Know About Display.”

Subscribe to more insights by email.

Request a Demo/ Get In Touch



Product Page: Premium Ad Inventory

“buy premium ad inventory”




Deliver your message to the right leads at the right time.

Build a cross-channel nurture program.

STEP 3

79% of marketers say their email open rates don’t exceed 20%.

Source: Hubspot SlideShare, “Multi Channel Lead Nurturing.”

Create a remarketing funnel to nurture leads at each stage.What behavior types should trigger each content offer?

Awareness

Consideration

Comparison

Conversion

Retention/Upsell

BEHAVIOR AD OFFER

Visit to a service page. “Request a Demo” ad.

Downloaded “buyer’s guide” eBook.

Limited-time, free trial offer.

Completed first purchase. Geo-retarget to advertise user events. Offer webinar training sessions.

License is about to expire. Limited-time offer for discounted renewal or service upgrades.

Remarketing with Google Analytics opens the door to infinite audience capabilities.

We can segment by behavior and remarket via the Google Display Network.

Test different remarketing methods.

We can serve text, image, and video display ads to those that visited the demo page but did NOT complete the form as they surf the web.

We can also remarket to demo page visitors when they search for relevant terms on Google via RLSA (Remarketing Lists for Search Ads.

A search like this might normally be too broad for a standard search campaign, but a viable keyword for RLSA.


Or, we can take an account-based approach via Google Customer Match.

Now we can specifically target Marketing Directors in the software industry that visited, but didn’t convert.

*Requires 1,000 matched emails.


While not a remarketing play, this tactic can complement email nurture tracks and serve ads by company, as well.

Bonus: Test LinkedIn ads for additional ABM coverage.

B2B Marketing Audience B2B Software Marketing Audience

We customized the report by industry to serve specifically to our list of ABM accounts.

800.619.1570 [email protected]

Get your customized action plan to start driving more qualified leads today.

Sign up for a B2B marketing audit.

The 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report

Marketing

Transcript of The 2017 State of B2B Digital Marketing Report