B2B Digital Marketing Trends

Gili Rosenbaum-Tumarkin, June 2016

Introduction: Digital Marketing for B2B

• Digital marketing is a top priority for B2B marketers today.

• One of the greatest changes in B2B stems from the fact that most current B2B researchers are Millennials – and they are used to using digital platforms for any research needs. Therefore, marketers need to adjust tactics, to reach this decision-making group.

• According to a survey of marketing executives by Gartner (2015), from 2015: “B2B companies are showing a growing appetite to reach customers directly with digital commerce initiatives and they are looking to engage customers directly to better understand their needs, preferences and behavior.”

Gartner, “Gartner Survey Reveals That Digital Marketing Is Now

Mainstream”, Nov 2015; Regalix, "the State of B2B Marketing", 2016

online77%

traditional ("offline")

23%

Online vs. Traditional: Which is your first priority? (Regalix, 2016)

Leading Digital B2B Marketing Tactics

• The Regalix study found that digital marketing was the most effective method for 37% of B2B marketers, while 11% chose traditional (“offline”) marketing, in 2015.

• Website (86%) and email(72%) led the pack of digital channels that marketers found effective in meeting their goals in 2015, followed by SEO (54%) and social(52%).

Which of the following digital/online distribution channels proved to

be effective in meeting your marketing goals in 2015?

Regalix, “State of B2B Marketing 2016”, Jan 2016

Digital B2B Marketing

• According to eMarketer, marketers expect content marketing and marketing automation to

have the most impact on business in 2016.

eMarketer, “B2B Marketing Automation—What's New in 2016”, Apr 2016

Demographic Shifts Affect B2B Marketing

• According to a Google/Millward Brown

report, 89% of B2B researchers use the

internet during the B2B research process.

• The report shows that in 2014, 18-43

years old accounted for almost half

(48%) of all B2B researchers, an increase

of 70% from 2012 (27%).

Google/Millward Brown, "The Changing Face of B2B Marketing”, Mar 2015

B2B Researcher Demographics:

• Realizing that its B2B audience is now

younger and digital-oriented,

Caterpillar utilized Youtube to launch

4 videos for its "Built For It" brand, in

an effort to make its Cat brand look

more human, approachable, and

relevant. Click to watch

The B2B Digital Path to Purchase

• Business decision makers usually don’t have a

specific supplier in mind when they start their

research. According to Google/ Millward Brown

about 71% of online B2B researchers start

on a generic query, so they're looking for

product first, not a specific company.

• Business buyers do not contact suppliers

directly until 57% of the purchase process is

complete.

• 42% of researchers use a mobile device during

the B2B purchasing process, with 91% growth

in use over the past two years throughout the

entire path.

• Purchase rates on mobile are up 22% in the

past two years.

Google/Millward Brown, "The Changing Face of B2B Marketing”, March 2015

On average, B2B researchers do 12 searches prior to

engaging on a specific brand's site (up from six

searches in 2012)

The B2B Mobile Path to Purchase

Accessing content via desktop remains common, but 8 in 10

B2B buyers said they also use smartphones for that same

purpose.

In 2016 in the U.S, 79% of B2B marketers said they had a

mobile-friendly site, an increase compared to the 57% of

respondents who had one in 2014.

• Atlas Copco launched its mobile

“Construction App” to showcase

information on the company’s products

and services.

• Users can use the app to request

quotes, contact the company, find the

nearest Atlas Copco location based on

their current location, engage with Atlas

Copco in its social media channels, view

a video gallery and get the latest news.

eMarketer, “B2B Marketing Automation—What's New in 2016”, Apr 2016; Schieber Research

B2B Content Marketing

• A September 2015 study by the Content Marketing Institute

(CMI) and MarketingProfs, found that 76% of B2B marketers in

North America said they expect to create more content in 2016

than they did in 2015, and more than half said that they plan to

spend more on content marketing over the next 12 months.

• Best in class B2B marketers allocated 46% of their marketing

budgets to content marketing in 2015, compared to 28% in

average.

Expected Change in

B2B Content Creation

(2015 vs. 2016)

Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs, “2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America”, 2015

eMarketer, “More B2B Marketers View Content Marketing as an Effective Tactic”, Jan 2016

Content Marketing Goals: Lead

generation (85%) and sales (84%)

are the most important goals for B2B

content marketers over the next 12

months.

Video Content

• In line with the demographic shifts, 70% of B2B

buyers and researchers are watching videos

throughout their path to purchase. That's a 52% jump

in two years.

• Top content: product features + How To videos.

• When asked what they did after watching, B2B

researchers said they talked to colleagues, looked for

more information, visited a brand's website/store, or

shared the video.

Google/Millward Brown, "The Changing Face of B2B Marketing”, Mar 2015

Nearly half of the researchers watching

videos are viewing 30 minutes or more of

B2B-related videos during their research

process, and almost 1 in 5 watch over an

hour of content.

• Xerox sponsored content on “The Week”, creating 60 pieces of

short-form videos for a series called “Business Made Simple”,

which was owned by Xerox. They added a navigational link on

their header, a rotational unit of content on their homepage, and

it was promoted on their social channels as the social channels

of the experts. Xerox ended up with 70K views on the hub, with

a 180% engaged visitor rate to Xerox (which is 3x the average

engagement) (Source: Business2community)

Live Video

• Live video may become a significant vehicle in driving B2B

sales, as it enables companies to feature products /

services (on the marketing side), and offer ongoing support

(on the business side) effectively.

• Facebook’s News Feed algorithm seams to prioritize live video while the

broadcast is ongoing, meaning it appears higher in people’s feeds.

Facebook is also sending push notifications when videos are live, and alerts

people when they’ve missed a live video.

Personalized Content

• Personalized experiences are now a requirement of

businesses, not only private consumers.

• According to Forrester Research, Customers will

reward companies that can anticipate their personal

needs and wants, and expect the marketers to know

the business’s unique needs; and according to

Accenture, 54% of B2B buyers said they would like

suppliers to offer personalized recommendations

across interactions.

• Yet according to Accenture, most B2B enterprises

are not set up to deliver a seamless omni-channel

experience, citing “difficulty sharing customer data

between channels or locations” as the top barrier.

Accenture and SAP Hybris, “Mastering Omni-Channel B2B Customer Engagement, 2015

Forrester, “The 2016 Top 10 Critical Success Factors To Determine Who Wins And Who Fails In The Age Of The Customer”, Oct. 2015

• CSC (the Computer Sciences Corporation), for

example, used reverse-IP lookup, targeting 245

companies with custom content and ads across

multiple channels at optimal times, seeing a dramatic

lift in account engagement from 108 of those

companies.

• Reverse IP is a process that identifies the visitor by

company and then provides demographic information,

including industry, company revenue size and

location, enabling marketers to provide personalized

content to the visitors.

PropertyCasualty 360, a financial services company, has

segmented its Twitter activity by having multiple Twitter

accounts, each with a specific and industry focus – and a face

behind each account.

Social Media Platforms

• Facebook dominates in the B2C space (top choice for 65%

of marketers). However, for B2B marketers LinkedIn is more

important than Facebook and Twitter.

• Worldwide, 41% of B2B marketers choose Linkedin as the

must important social media platform for their business (with

only 9% B2C marketers), followed by Facebook and Twitter.

Social Media Examiner, “2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report”, May 2015

• Facebook is offering a retargetingprogram that allows companies to show ads to their target market after they express interest in the company and the services or products it provides.

Empowerment through Mobile Apps

• many businesses are now offering mobile apps as a leading

tactic to offer added value to their customers, using the app

as the marketing instrument.

• In January 2016 Facebook announced its

new Instant Articles feature, allowing

publishers to optimize their content so

readers can access it instantly on Facebook.

• In April Facebook also announced scannable

profile codes for its Messenger app. Users

can scan other users or businesses code

with their camera to start a conversation.

• In 2016, WhatsApp Messaging app has announced it will start testing

tools that allow its users to communicate with businesses and

organizations that they want to hear from, like banks, or airlines.

B2B Community Marketing

• Businesses are using group / community platforms to

engage their customers, and build loyalty.

American Express OPEN manages groups on various social

media platforms, to help business and offer a sense of

community and support.

Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality

• Virtual and augmented reality technology can

be used as a B2B marketing tool to showcase

products and services at events and trade

shows, to create 360-degree conferences and

meetings, or as an engagement tool for

potential clients.

• In April 2016, The New Zealand Government has

partnered with Samsung and started using virtual reality

technology at trade shows to give an insight to food

buyers about the produce from New Zealand.

• The visuals of the VR experience presents people with

landscapes of agricultural New Zealand and introduces

them to the places the products are made.

The Drum, Samsung and the New Zealand government test virtual reality as a B2B marketing

tool, Apr 2016

Reviews, Referral & Advocacy

• Reviews and referral programs provide a way to

turn clients into advocates willing to refer people

and generate new users.

• Referral programs are moving online, with

dedicated micro-sites and sharing options.

• Platforms such as Influitive

/ Customer Advocacy use

customized portals where

companies can invite their

top customers to engage

and provide feedback in

order to earn different

rewards.

• Google Apps for work offers a referral program for users to

recommend Apps to people they know and receive a $15 reward

for everyone who signs up (up to $1,500 per domain) with

additional coupon codes for additional referrals.

• In 2016, SAP launched its SAP Anywhere Referral

Program for small and medium-sized enterprises,

offering a £750 finder's fee for every referral that

convert to a paid deal.

• SAP is offering participants access to SAP-branded

marketing materials and a personalized dashboard to

monitor the status of their referrals and track payments

from SAP

Gamification

• Alibaba offers a Gold Supplier service, a premium membership for approved suppliers on the platform. Members are provided with comprehensive ways to promote their products, maximizing product exposure and increasing ROI.

• Gold Supplier members are authorized to display the Gold Supplier icon to demonstrate that their business has been verified by a third agency as a legally registered business.

Gamification is a tactic that enables top users to benefit from their loyalty, displaying a

badge that demonstrates their status.

In conclusion…

• Generally, B2B marketers should utilize the same tactics used by B2C

marketers. Yet specifically for B2Bs, there is an added value in content

and mobile apps, as these seem to drive loyalty and empower

customers.

• B2B marketers should use metrics to choose the best tactic: sales lead

quantity and quality; sales; higher conversion rates; brand lift; customer

renewal rates; etc.

Thank you