What B2B Marketing Tactics Are Up, Down, Flat? (Survey Sneak Peek)

Last week, we talked about the changing B2B marketing mix ("Is Traditional B2B Marketing Dead?" which caused a heated debate about whether these changes are real and consequential). Let's take a look at some data. We are currently conducting a social media survey among B2B marketing professionals, and one of the questions is aimed at better understanding what activities marketing teams are doing more or less of than 3 years ago. Here are the preliminary results for this question (click chart to enlarge | n = 176).

Marketing tactics that are trending up
The biggest increase in marketing activity over the last 3 years is reported for social media where 81% of respondents say that they are doing more of it (not surprising considering social media use in B2B was still nascent 3 years ago). The next big jump is in content creation - 68% of respondents have increased this tactic in their marketing mix.

This supports the observation that companies are increasingly using content marketing to influence and guide prospects through the buying cycle. Website activity is also up, with 56% of people using it more aggressively than 3 years ago. Email marketing is slightly up - likely a reflection of the increasing adoption of marketing automation platforms that heavily rely on email to communicate targeted, customized, and behavior driven messages.

Marketing tactics that are trending down
Now let's look at the activities that are down over the last 3 years. A usual suspect, direct mailings, is used less by 55% of the people who responded to the survey. Not surprising considering the often low response rates and difficulties tracking conversions, in addition to the comparatively higher cost of direct mail. Same with print advertising, which is used less by 62% of respondents.

Marketing tactics that are flat
A couple of tactics have maintained their share in the marketing mix over the years. Events and Webinars, for example, are still executed at about the same level as 3 years ago by 50% of the marketers polled in the survey (although Webinars are trending up, and so is online advertising with 42% of respondents keeping it a about the same level and 37 percent increasing investment compared to three years ago).

Want to read the survey report?
If you are interested in receiving the survey report, please contribute to the survey.

Please feel free to share the link with your B2B marketing colleagues and friends - here is the link to forward: http://bit.ly/socsurvey.

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