To help you plan for 2020, I’ve collected a wide variety of B2B marketing stats you can use to frame and support your marketing strategy.
Thought Leadership
Decision-makers are deeply engaged, and consumption of thought leadership is growing. There was an 8-point increase in the amount of weekly reading in 2018. (Source)
55% of decision-makers use thought leadership to evaluate potential vendors and partners. (Source)
58% of sellers said that they believe thought leadership directly led decision-makers to award business to their organization. (Source)
Thought leadership drives growth with existing customers. 55% of decision-makers increased the amount of business done with an organization. (Source)
61% of high-value decision-makers are more willing to pay a premium to work with an organization that has articulated a clear vision versus one that does not publish thought leadership. (Source)
Quality thought-leadership pieces are scarce. Only 18% of pieces get high marks from decision-makers. And, just 53% are rated as good. (Source)
Brands underestimate the impact of thought leadership on trust in an organization and enhancement of a brand’s reputation. (Source)
57% of decision-makers said their preferred format for thought leadership is “snackable” media that can be digested in a few minutes. (Source)
Customer Success Content
60% of B2B buyers search for peer reviews, testimonials, and case studied. (Source)
Software buyers who sought feedback from their peers are 2.5x more satisfied with their purchase. (Source)
90% of buyers who read positive customer success content claimed that it influenced their purchasing decision. (Source)
71% of B2B buyers in the awareness stage and 77% in the evaluation stage cited testimonials and case studies as the most influential types of content. (Source)
Tech B3B customers search for pricing (73%), peer reviews (60%), and more. (Source)
94% of B2B Marketers use LinkedIn to distribute their content. (Source)
50% of LinkedIn users say they are more likely to buy from a company they interact with on LinkedIn. (Source)
LinkedIn is the most effective social channel (74%) followed by Facebook (51%). (Source)
Content Marketing
By 2020, 85% of customer interactions with brands will take place without speaking with a human. (Source)
B2B marketers have used content marketing successfully over the last 12 months to create brand awareness, educate audience(s), build credibility/trust, generate demand/leads, and more. (Source)
93% of the most successful B2B content marketers report their organization is extremely/very committed to content marketing. (Source)
A documented content marketing strategy is often a key indicator of content marketing success. The most successful content marketers are far more likely than their less successful peers to have a documented content marketing strategy (65% vs. 14%). (Source)
B2B marketers say the top benefits of a documented content marketing strategy are that it aligns the team around a common mission/goals and makes it easier to determine which types of content to develop. (Source)
74% of B2B content marketers say they’ve used or developed long-form content in the last 12 months. (Source)
B2B marketers rated blog posts/articles, white papers, and case studies to be the most effective types of content for the early, middle, and late stages of the buyer’s journey, respectively. (Source)
What types of content are most effective for moving prospects through the funnel? Top-ranked are customer testimonials and case studies, blog posts, and white papers. (Source)
Who creates B2B content for your brand?
Spending on content marketing is increasing. (Source)
Blogging
Companies that blog have far better marketing results. The average company that blogs has 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages. (Source)
Audience Research & Nurturing
77% of the most successful B2B content marketers use personas, compared with 36% of the least successful. (Source)
Many technology content marketers (65%) said they use personas, and another 20% planned to use them by the end of 2018. (Source)
About three out of four B2B content marketers seek feedback from sales and use website analytics to research their audience. (Source)
B2B content marketers nurture their audiences primarily via email and educational content like white papers. (Source)
69% of technology content marketers say they always/frequently prioritize the audience’s informational needs over their organization’s sales/promotional message. (Source)
Leave a Reply