It’s clear that the customer-first, digital transformation fueled by the pandemic continues into the new normal, as digital budgets continue to go up and marketers look to build better customer experiences and opportunities to engage on digital channels. The newly released 2021 State of B2B Marketing report from digital marketing agency Wpromote and B2B content marketing firm Ascend2 helps digital marketers identify what they’re prioritizing and where B2B orgs are still struggling.
“We’ve seen B2B brands lag behind B2C in digital for years, but 2020 sped up the clock and forced B2Bs to take a hard look at their digital strategy,” said Wpromote’s chief relationship officer Mike Stone, in a news release. “This data backs up what we’ve been seeing out in the market: the most successful B2B brands have recognized this as an opportunity and taken the initiative, building out mature digital strategies in record time and are now capitalizing on those 2020 gains.”
The research reveals:
- 68 percent of B2B marketers report that they expect digital marketing budgets to increase
- 42 percent of B2B marketers do not have a plan in place to handle data privacy changes
- The most important objectives for B2B marketers are increasing customer engagement, improving customer experience, and improving brand awareness.
- Producing quality content, improving customer experience, and delivery of quality leads top the list of challenges for companies with annual revenue of more than $10M
- Social media, content marketing, and email are the most effective channels for driving revenue
While the increases in budget and marketing tech investment point to the continued growth of digital marketing strategies for B2B organizations, the gaps opening up between the most successful marketers and their less successful counterparts are likely to grow, especially when it comes to customer experience and data readiness.
