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In this post, we’re going to share 50+ B2B marketing statistics that can help you create (and execute on) an awesome marketing strategy in 2024.
Why should you care about this list?
If you don’t have a sense of what’s working & what isn’t, your entire marketing strategy is just going to be a handful of guesses. Some may pan out, others won’t.
TL;DR — If you want to skip ahead, here’s the table of contents
(P.S. you can click / tap on any stat to scroll down for more context & insight on the numbers)
Our collection of the latest B2B marketing statistics
The world of B2B marketing was flipped on its head a few years ago when digital marketing channels made it easier than ever to access your customers.
From the value of email marketing in B2B to the emergence of social media in B2B, there is no longer a question of whether technology has changed the entire industry. But (as we’ll see in this post) the change is still happening and there is lots more to come in the world of B2B marketing.
That’s why understanding the difference in channel usage, consumer behavior and the latest trends is really important for brands targeting a B2B audience.
When comparing the most popular tactics and strategies for generating B2B leads and customers it’s best to review them by metrics like usage, success rates, growth and not just make decisions based on gut instinct.
Ongoing 2024 B2B Marketing Statistics Update
Our team at Foundation is committed to keeping this post updated throughout 2024 and beyond as we capture, conduct and find new research surrounding B2B marketing as a whole. We’ll be identifying to new data around live events, social media penetration, content marketing and other research that we think every brand should consider before investing in B2B marketing in the coming months.
We also recognize that some of the data in this resource is from 2015, 2016 or 2017.
We do this intentionally as we believe that whether you’re creating an email marketing strategy or business case, some stats about human behavior can be important regardless of their publishing date.
At Foundation, we pride ourselves on recognizing that content intelligence – research – is what every digital strategy needs to start with. That’s why we’ve created this list of B2B marketing stats to show you what sets each channel apart.
Let’s dive in!
Macro B2B Customer Statistics
For every $1 spent in email marketing, the average campaign earns $38 in ROI (Campaign Manager, 2016)
Even though less customers than ever are requesting professional email marketing campaign services, email marketing remains to be one of the best ways to reach the most customers.
30% of all searches made on a mobile device are looking for a location. (Google, 2016)
Consider your local marketing strategy and how you can attract those in your community.
Google receives over 100 billion search queries every month (Search Engine Land)
Understand what people are searching for in your industry and make sure you have a presence in their results.
22% of smartphone owners worldwide use their device every 5 minutes (Advanced Web Ranking, 2017)
Distribute your content widely and often to make sure your campaigns are being seen by those who check in with social media on their phones often. Social media is time-sensitive, so be sure to share often.
1 in 5 Smartphone Owners Worldwide Use Their Device Every 5 Minutes (“Always On – A Global Perspective of Consumer Mobile Experience” study, 2017)
B2B marketers need to understand what 1 in 5 smartphone owners are checking every five minutes, and how to use those platforms to efficiently distribute content.
More than 1 in 3 people in Brazil use their mobile devices for over 6 hours a day. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2017)
Are you a global B2B brand? Consider targeting your content best optimized for mobile devices to users outside North America, especially in countries like Brazil, China, and Argentina where people are on their phones for long periods of the day.
Infographic search volumes have increased over 800% (Unbounce, 2012)
Our brains process images and text differently.
34.36% of desktop users click on the first search result they see. (Advanced Web Ranking, 2015)
Knowing the keywords your customer is searching for will bring you miles ahead of your competition. One in three people clicks on the first link they see in a list of search results.
Over half (53%) of emails are opened on mobile devices. (Campaign Monitor, 2015)
Email marketing campaigns need to be optimized for mobile users.
B2B Industry Statistics
28% of marketing professionals have reallocated their traditional advertising budget to digital marketing. (Gartner, 2013)
Digital marketing can reach audiences that traditional advertising typically ignores or overlooks. Marketers across the globe are seeing the ROI on digital and have started to respond appropriately.
86% of B2B companies maintain a blog (The Real Time Report, 2010)
If you combine top-quality content with intelligent SEO and a distribution strategy, traffic will come. Make sure your content stands apart from the other 86% of bloggers who are writing about the same subject.
Over three million blog posts are written each day (Worldometer, updated daily)
Check out this worldometer which tracks every blog post published today. Blogging is still one of the most effective ways to reach your audience with exciting content, but brands must focus on producing unique and engaging work to stand out in this sea of noise.
In a recent survey, over 40% of people admit they skim over blog posts (Hubspot, 2016)
This number is likely much higher! If you’re reading these words right now – You’re in the minority It’s important to make the content highly scannable to encourage users to spend more time on site.
63% of marketers believe their biggest challenge is generating traffic and leads (State of Inbound Report, 2017)
Generating traffic takes work and if you’re struggling to get traffic – You’re not alone. Here’s a podcast that breaks down how brands can leverage content distribution to reach millions.
To get 1 B2B lead, you need to send around 306 emails. (Belkins, 2023)
That’s how cold emails work; sometimes you might get a reply from your first email. Other times, you might spend months nurturing potential customers to get a meeting scheduled.
Blog posts with 6-13 word titles attract the most clicks (State of Inbound Report, 2017)
Short is not always the sweet spot, but don’t get all Victorian in your titles either. Keep it a happy medium.
48% of marketers are adding Youtube to their content distribution channel plan for the next year (State of Inbound Report, 2017)
Video isn’t going anywhere. Most marketers are ramping up their strategies to include video production as a top priority.
50% of LinkedIn users say they are more likely to buy from a company they interact with on LinkedIn. (Ironpaper, 2017)
LinkedIn is not only a network to connect with other B2B professionals, but it is a way to attract customers. That’s why it’s important to keep your page up-to-date with information like your website, employment history, digital business card, etc.
When an employee shares company content, their CTR is two times higher than if their company were to share the same content. (Ironpaper, 2017)
People respond well to people, not companies without a face. Employees who use LinkedIn should be encouraged to advocate for their company’s content on their personal pages.
In 2017, it has been reported that 80% of B2B social media leads stem from LinkedIn (Ironpaper, 2017)
This stat makes it clear that increasing your LinkedIn profile is a worthwhile time investment for marketers.
70% of B2B marketers in 2016 plan to create more content in 2017. (LinkedIn, 2015)
The content marketing industry is growing rapidly.
Companies that blog 15 or more times per month drive 5x more traffic than companies that don’t blog. (Hubspot, 2016)
It’s important to keep writing even if you already have an archive filled with useful blog posts. New content will drive traffic.
50% of B2B Marketers see producing content consistently as a top content marketing challenge. (LinkedIn, 2015)
Creating content isn’t easy. If it was, more people would be in the game. The key is to create quality content consistently.
80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn (LinkedIn, 2015)
LinkedIn is a great platform to use for making connections that follow into other social media channels such as X (formerly known as Twitter) or Facebook.
An average of 2% of all revenue is spent directly on a company’s B2B marketing budget (CMO, 2014)
This is a relatively small amount of money to spend on a marketing strategy which is proven to increase sales across the board.
B2B industry professionals list lack of budget (59%) and the inability to reach the right people at the right time (39%) as their biggest obstacles (CMO, 2014)
If more money was allocated for a B2B marketing strategy, the second problem of not reaching people would become less of an issue.
The typical blog post is 1,050 words long. (Orbit, 2016)
Longer blog posts are quickly becoming the norm. Readers respond well to in-depth pieces that show an investment of time and research. The most successful blog posts combine 1,000+ word counts with quality infographics and visuals.
While over 30% of marketers think voice search is the next big trend, 60% have no strategy to incorporate it into their business strategy (EConsultancy, 2017)
Technology changes fast and marketers have to stay on top of their game to keep up with the voice search technology their audience is already embracing.
46% of B2B marketers hire through sites like UpWorker to outsource content creation (B2B Content Marketing Report, 2016)
Don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to outsource the creation of your content. Time is money, and most other marketers are focusing their grind on other tasks.
46% of B2B marketers say that professional quality photography is critical (CMO Council, 2016)
It is worthwhile to invest in quality professional photography and many believe it is critical to branding strategies.
58% of B2B marketers pay to advertise on search engines and believe it is the most effective paid method of digital marketing (Consalta)
If you’re not utilizing ad space on search engines, your competition likely is, and your customer will hear about them first.
1 in 3 B2B marketing professionals say finding new hires who are trained in content marketing is more challenging than ever (Content Marketing Institute, 2014)
Many new graduates from traditional marketing programs come from institutions who have not invested in learning about the newest advances in digital marketing.
64% of B2B marketers hire freelancers to outsource writing projects. (Top Rank Marketing, 2014)
Ask yourself: does it scale? You would be surprised to learn how hiring a capable writer can save you time and money while also giving a fresh perspective to your subject matter.
29% of marketers repurpose existing content (Curata, 2016)
Repurposing content is a great strategy for working with what you’ve already worked hard to create. For example, a podcast can become a blog post, and a blog post can become a SlideShare, which can become an Instagram story.
71% of B2B technology marketers deem X their preferred social media tool for a product launch (Webequity, 2016)
News can travel fast on this platform and given the popularity of X with B2B marketers, it has become the choice to use to make an announcement.
More than 51% of B2B buyers depend on video content to research their purchasing decisions (Demand Generation Report, 2016)
Videos can help improve engagement by offering informative and interactive content of products and services to help prospects and customers make better decisions.
Email marketing was the most used B2B marketing tactic in 2019, used by 84% of marketers (Sagefrog, 2019)
Email marketing allows for more of a conversational style of communication with your prospects and customers while helping you reach a higher ROI.
Referrals are the top source of B2B marketing leads, according to 63% of marketers (Sagefrog, 2019)
This indicates that B2B marketing can still be successful by networking and word of mouth.
By 2020, 80% of the B2B buying process will take place with zero human contact (Forrester & Gartner, 2018)
This means that people want to self-educate themselves about products and services before engaging with a brand.
50% of B2B search queries today are made on smartphones, and this percentage will grow to 70% by 2020 (Boston Consulting Group, 2017)
The amount of time spent on mobile devices at work is growing. This increase is driven by a mix of the younger generation and the usage of mobile by older workers.
Personalization will be the top strategy for 47% of B2B marketers in 2020 (Sagefrog, 2019)
Incorporating personalization into your marketing allows for the engagement of customers or prospects by communicating with each as an individual.
Digital marketing is the top area of marketing spending for 56% of B2B marketers in 2020 (Sagefrog, 2019)
It’s clear that strengthening your online presence is a top priority for B2B marketers to help them to increase brand awareness and reach target audiences.
69% of successful B2B marketers have a documented content strategy (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)
Without one, you might end up creating content that doesn’t offer value, and therefore doesn’t convert the way you hoped it would.
35% of content marketers say online communities is the best promotion tool (Databox, 2019)
Hundreds of B2B marketers were surveyed and it was found that online communities are the best option when it comes to promoting content. Some 35% say it’s their preference, followed by 28% voting for organic social and 11% for paid social.
B2B Customers Statistics
94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content distribution (Content Marketing Institute, 2015)
Marketers use an average of six social media platforms to focus their branding strategy on. These include: LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Youtube, Google+, SlideShare, Instagram, Pinterest
In 2015, 46 percent of B2B professionals are millennials (It’s now over 50%) (Think With Google, 2015)
Millennials have an intuitive understanding for social media and are keen to use these skills in their professional life. As a B2B Marketer, you should understand the behaviors and preferences of millennials to ensure that you can connect with them on their terms.
200 million people use ad blocking technology (Content Marketing Institute, 2016)
Content marketing skills have become extremely valuable because consumers are becoming better than ever at evading advertisements.
The average person will only spend 37 seconds reading your article (Content Marketing Institute, 2016)
Make sure your content is short, sweet, and skimmable because most people will only read the headline and introduction.
76% of Facebook users visit every single day (Business2Community, 2017)
It’s important for B2B brands to go where their audience is spending the majority of their time. 76% of Facebook users are leveraging their newsfeeds to get news, information, and entertainment on a daily basis.
Consumers In The B2B Industry Perform an average of 12 Searches Before They Contact A Vendor (Hill Web Creations)
People aren’t searching for brands, they’re searching for solutions to their problems.
B2B Decision Makers Are Spending 760 Minutes A Week On Facebook (ComScore, 2017)
The vast majority of B2B decision makers understand that Facebook is the best place for digital marketing. They’re spending over 12 hours a week on Facebook.
75% of Facebook users are using it for professional advantage (Hootsuite, 2016)
While you might consider Facebook to be used for personal social networking, most people are also using it professionally. Compare this to the 78% percent of users who use LinkedIn professionally. Facebook is catching up.
Consumers use mobile apps for entertainment and social activities and mobile web for accessing information about education, work, current events and other relevant topics (“Always On – A Global Perspective of Consumer Mobile Experience” study, 2017)
It’s important for B2B marketers to understand what type of content users will be most receptive to. App users are more interested in lighter, more entertaining content while web browsing users are more interested in hard hitting news content.
More than 9 in 10 mothers are active on a social networking website or service (Edison Research, 2017)
From 2015 to 2016, women’s entrepreneurship rates increased by 10 percent on average versus 5 percent for males.Know your audience, and use that knowledge to your advantage. If mothers are using social media, it’s time for you to consider it as an opportunity.
34% of marketers are STILL not paying for their social media management tools (Advanced Web Ranking, 2017)
Many marketers choose to use the free versions of Hootsuite, Buffer, Bitly, and Klout. You don’t necessarily need to use a paid version of these apps to drive results but there’s no question that investing in top content curation tools and top social media management tools can help.
Professional SEO services are requested by almost 30% of all customers (Advanced Web Ranking, 2017)
Improving your own and your team’s SEO knowledge is a worthwhile investment. SEO skills are in high demand.
If you need help with this, get in touch with our team! One of our specialties at Foundation is auditing and optimizing content for search.
Creative and personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than a generic phrase. (Experian, 2016)
The data shows that personalization drives real results, especially in email marketing campaigns as email hosts become better at filtering advertisements and spam.
Wrapping It Up
Which stats are jumping out to you the most? Share this post on X with the one (or more than one) that you think is going to help you make 2023 the best year yet!
[Updated January 01, 2023]
