B2B Marketing Trends

BBMARKETING TRENDS Insights from the Frontlines of B2B Marketing

1 Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 02 Chapter 1: Business Buyers Expect Increased Personalization ............................................................... 03 Chapter 2: Marketing and Sales Alignment Engages B2B Buyers ........................................................... 05 Chapter 3: High-Performing Teams Leverage Account-Based Marketing ............................................. 07 Chapter 4: AI, VR, and AR Offer Innovative Engagement Opportunities ............................................. 12 Chapter 5: Data Drives Intelligent B2B Marketing Decisions ................................................................... 16 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 18

2 Introduction B2B marketers now face challenges that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. Business buyers are savvier and more connected than ever, and they expect always-on, highly personalized buying experiences. These days, we can’t just meet the needs of our B2B customers. These customers – regardless of whether they’re buying for themselves or their companies – expect their needs to be anticipated. B2B marketers are increasingly using a mix of account-based marketing (ABM), artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics to connect the right customers with the right content at the right moments. To get a full understanding of the challenges and transformations affecting today’s B2B marketers, we collected B2B-specific data and insights from the following sources: • State of Marketing, Salesforce Research • State of Sales, Salesforce Research • State of the Connected Customer, Salesforce Research • 2018 ABM Benchmark Study, Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) • Predictions 2019: B2B Marketing And Sales, Forrester Research • Virtual And Augmented Reality For B2B Marketers, Forrester Research These findings will give B2B marketers a set of clear benchmarks for how to succeed today, as well as new ideas about how to prepare for future changes coming to their industries. Data Sources State of Marketing Connected Customer Forrester State of Sales ITSMA

3 CHAPTER 1 Business Buyers Expect Increased Personalization The majority of business buyers now expect brands to anticipate their needs and deliver personalized experiences on par with what they’ve received as consumers. Fortunately for B2B brands, business buyers are willing to help brands personalize their customer experiences by providing relevant data and information for use in future marketing initiatives. This data can help brands develop a more unified view of their customers. 69% 60% 46% of business buyers expect of business buyers are comfortable of B2B marketers have a companies to anticipate with companies applying relevant completely unified view of their needs personal information in exchange customer data sources for personalized engagement Data Sources Connected Customer State of Marketing

4 Customer Data is Key to Personalization A unified view of customer data is great for business. High-performing B2B marketers are more capable of using customer data to create relevant, personalized experiences for their buyers. For many B2B brands, personalization has been a major catalyst for both customer advocacy and brand building. Percentage of B2B marketers who say personalization improves: Brand building* 92% Customer advocacy* 81% High-performing B2B marketers are 9.4x more likely than underperformers to be completely satisfied with their ability to use data to create more relevant experiences. High performers 66% Moderate performers 26% Underperformers 7% *Includes answers of major or moderate improvement

5 CHAPTER 2 Marketing and Sales Alignment Engages B2B Buyers Data shows that more than half of B2B marketing teams feel empowered to collaborate on projects, meet common goals and metrics, and share customer data with their sales teams. This is great news, as 55% 53% sales and marketing alignment is key to successfully engaging customers in real time — a top priority and a of B2B marketers feel empowered of B2B marketers feel empowered to collaborate with sales to share goals and metrics top challenge for B2B marketers. with sales Data Source State of Marketing 51% of B2B marketers say there is a free flow of data between their sales and marketing teams

6 Real-time lead engagement capabilities help sales and marketing teams work more efficiently and win more business. The majority of B2B sales teams who receive real-time, automated opportunity alerts say those notifications make them more efficient. However, only 34% of sales teams currently receive such alerts — so there’s room to improve. Most business buyers also say that sales teams’ awareness of marketing initiatives is a factor in winning their business. High-performing B2B sales teams are 2.1x more likely than underperformers to collaborate with marketing to understand leads: High performers 83% Moderate performers 66% Underperformers 41% 74% 85% of business buyers say of B2B sales reps who receive sales’ awareness of marketing alerts to key actions required campaigns is important on opportunities say these to win their business* alerts help them do their job better *Includes answers of critically or very important Data Sources Connected Customer State of Sales

7 CHAPTER 3 High-Performing Teams Leverage Account-Based Marketing Designed to focus attention on high-value customer Top B2B marketing teams are 1.6x more likely accounts, account-based marketing (ABM) programs than underperformers to collaborate with are inherently collaborative efforts shared between sales teams on ABM programs: marketing and sales teams. Compared to their underperforming competition, high-performing High performers B2B marketing teams are more likely to collaborate 54% effectively with sales teams on ABM programs. Moderate performers The same is true of sales teams — high performers are 42% more likely to execute jointly with marketing on ABM Underperformers programs. Citing the value of ABM programs, one-third 34% of B2B marketers are currently planning to build them on their existing marketing automation platforms. High-performing B2B sales teams are 2.2x One-third of marketers will build more likely than underperformers to execute ABM programs on their existing MAPs. ABM programs jointly with marketing teams: High performers 82% Data Sources Moderate performers State of Sales State of Marketing 67% Underperformers Forrester Predictions 2019: B2B Marketing And Sales, October 2018 38%

8 Among B2B marketers using ABM, the programs Percentage of ABM users who now account for more than a quarter of their total have had their program for: marketing budgets. This expense is worth it, as nearly half of ABM users say the programs deliver higher ROI 3+ years than comparable marketing methods. 17% Plus, the best may be yet to come, as the majority of marketers using ABM have only had their programs in 1–2 years place for less than a year. 32% less than one year ABM now accounts for 28% of 52% total user marketing budgets. Data Source ITSMA Percentage of ABM users who are experiencing the following: 77% 45% of ABM users are of ABM users are seeing at least achieving 10% or double ROI compared to greater ROI’ other marketing methods

9 As it’s still early days for many ABM programs, some users Agreeing on the selection of ABM accounts report certain challenges — most of which have to do with 18% properly using data to deliver personalized experiences. Justifying the ABM costs and proving ROI 17% ABM challenges faced by B2B marketers: Selecting marketing technology tools that best support ABM 12% Getting data and reports to track results Integrating marketing technology tools to support ABM 35% 12% Personalizing marketing to key account contacts Hiring ABM marketers with the right experience, skills, and talent 34% 10% Getting adequate budget to support programs and resources Differentiating themselves from competition at the account level 30% 10% Developing customizable, scalable campaign assets 30% Data Source Educating sales on the process and value of ABM ITSMA 26% Keeping up with demand from sales teams requesting ABM 22% Getting buy-in from sales account teams 18%

10 There are many opportunities for ABM users to adopt Contact data or predictive vendors to additional marketing technology platforms to bolster find relevant contacts at accounts their ABM programs. Some, like lead management 35% and digital advertising, are already popular. Others, like social listening and chatbots, are just beginning to gain Predictive analytics tools for account selection traction. 33% Content management ABM technology platforms 31% used by B2B marketers: Business intelligence or ABM data aggregators to measure results by account Marketing automation for lead management and nurturing 29% 71% Digital advertising and retargeting Social listening 66% 20% Insights to gather market, account, and stakeholder intelligence Orchestration for intelligent account plans across teams and channels 51% 15% Website personalization to serve relevant content Chatbots or conversational interfaces 41% 15% Lead to account matching Data Source 37% ITSMA Dimensional mail to integrate personalized direct mail into digital marketing 37%

11 Many ABM users see opportunities to further integrate Contact data or predictive vendors to marketing technology tools. Predictive analytics for find relevant contacts at accounts account selection, website personalization, and 13% account-specific data aggregators currently rank Content management among the favorite options. 12% ABM users plan to adopt the following Social listening applications in the next 12–18 months: 12% Predictive analytics tools for account selection Marketing automation for lead management and nurturing 32% 9% Website personalization to serve relevant content Digital advertising and retargeting 29% 9% Orchestration for intelligent account plans across teams and channels Lead to account matching 26% 7% Business intelligence or ABM data aggregators Dimensional mail to integrate personalized to measure results by account direct mail into digital marketing 22% 7% Chat bots or conversational interfaces 17% Data Source ITSMA Insights to gather market, account, and stakeholder intelligence 13%

12 Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the shiniest new “Artificial intelligence (AI) will give us the tools to tools in the ABM toolbox. Today’s marketers are make ABM faster, smarter, and more scalable. already looking to invest in AI to boost the future No, we can’t deliver human-like conversation with impact of their ABM programs. bots—yet. But technology will help us manage ABM will remain as much an art as a science, but and manipulate the avalanche of data we collect AI has great potential to streamline the data-heavy while giving us time to focus on the more strategic elements of ABM strategy and program development. and creative aspects of our jobs. AI will also make us more efficient as budgets get squeezed and resources kept constant.” — Bev Burgess, Senior VP, ITSMA

13 CHAPTER 4 AI, VR, and AR Offer Innovative Engagement Opportunities B2B marketers are increasingly adopting AI to power Business buyers who expect personalized, the personalized, “Amazon-like” customer experiences “Amazon-like” customer experiences now expected by business buyers. 69% B2B marketers who are using AI in 2018 In the past year, AI usage amongst B2B marketers has 30% grown 23%. The majority of these marketers are using AI within their marketing platforms to optimize mid- B2B marketers who were using AI in 2017* cycle engagement. 24% *Note: 2017 data is based on responses of “currently use extensively” on a four- point scale, whereas 2018 data is based on responses of “currently use” on a More than 20% of marketing three-point scale. platforms will use AI to optimize Data Sources mid-cycle engagement. Forrester Predictions 2019: B2B Marketing And Sales, October 2018 Connected Customer State of Marketing

14 B2B marketing leaders have been contemplating the Ways in which B2B marketers use AI: implications of AI for the past several years. Facilitate online experiences with offline customer data Despite the growing popularity of AI, no dominant use 61% case for the technology has emerged. This may simply Drive next best offers in real time be because use cases for AI are as dynamic and varied as the technology itself. 61% Improve customer segmentation Data Source 60% State of Marketing Create dynamic websites and landing pages 59% Personalize overall customer journeys 58% Facilitate offline experiences with online customer data 56% Personalize channel experiences 56% Programmatic advertising and media buying 56% Automate customer interactions via social media or messaging apps 54% * Data based on marketers who currently use AI.

15 B2B marketers are also beginning to use AI technology “VR and AR offer the most help beyond their marketing automation platforms. Almost half of B2B marketers use connected devices, to B2B marketers whose offerings and one-third have added voice-activated personal typically share one or more of the assistants (like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa) to their toolkits. following characteristics: They are More than one-quarter of B2B marketers also use expensive to ship, difficult to visualize, virtual reality (VR); which allows users to interact with or hard to comprehend.” digital environments, or augmented reality (AR); which projects objects on physical environments. For a relatively minor initial expense, VR and AR solutions “Siemens is using AR to expand the can help B2B companies in many industries win range of offerings the company can business and close deals. showcase at events. [...] Dell EMC is B2B marketers using the following using VR to enable prospects to see how technologies in 2018: its equipment can dynamically reconfigure Voice-activated personal assistants a data center based on changing demands 33% Virtual or augmented reality — a benefit it could not demo with 28% physical equipment because neither the data nor the hardware reconfiguration B2B marketers using connected devices: processes are visible.” 2018 45% Data Source 2017* State of Marketing Forrester 30% Virtual And Augmented Reality For B2B Marketers, September 2017 *Note: 2017 data is based on responses of “currently use extensively” on a four- point scale, whereas 2018 data is based on responses of “currently use” on a three- point scale

16 CHAPTER 5 Data Drives Intelligent B2B Marketing Decisions Data enables personalized customer experiences, informs creative messaging, and allows organizations to measure performance. Put simply, it’s what drives 50% of B2B marketers measure intelligent decision-making in marketing, at every level. success and ROI with marketing analytics. Approximately half of B2B marketers currently measure their success with analytics — but there are many other exciting opportunities for B2B marketers to make use of data. Data Sources State of Marketing

17 Most B2B marketers track revenue growth, which is Metrics and ratios for marketing and sales qualified leads the classic benchmark for business performance. 56% However, data can also show B2B marketers other Marketing tactic ROI useful information about their campaigns, customers, 54% channels, and spending. Customer referral rates and volume Metrics tracked by B2B marketers: 52% Revenue growth Cost per lead 74% 52% Sales effectiveness Social media analytics 63% 51% Customer retention rates Customer acquisition cost 62% 51% Customer satisfaction metrics like NPS, CSAT, and SPS Digital engagement rates 60% 49% Customer acquisition rates Mobile analytics 59% 47% Marketing ROI Lifetime customer value 59% 44% Web traffic and analytics Data Source 56% State of Marketing

18 Conclusion Through marketing and sales alignment, AI-powered ABM, and dynamic data usage, B2B marketers everywhere are finding creative and innovative ways to deliver the personalized buying experiences that their customers have come to expect. In turn, this newly personalized marketing approach has led to increased ROI, customer advocacy, and brand building for companies in a variety of industries. To achieve true success in B2B marketing today, you’ve got to use a mix of digital technologies to anticipate the needs of your buyers, and exceed their expectations for every brand interaction and purchase experience. With sales and marketing teams in all industries moving swiftly to embrace digital transformation, the B2B space will only become more connected and personalized — well into the future. If you’re looking for ways to infuse your B2B marketing strategies with the latest trends, read our e-book showcasing 7 Inspiring B2B Marketing Campaigns.

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