B2B Marketing: The Major Trends of 2011
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Dec 27, 2011
Inbound marketing is rapidly growing in popularity if recent survey results are anything to go by. The figures are promising and are good news for businesses wishing to increase their quality leads & brand awareness while cutting down on their marketing budgets.
Nine out of ten B2B marketers are using inbound marketing to grow their businesses, and on average marketers are using 7 different inbound marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals. The most popular tactics are article sharing (79%), social media (74%), blogging (65%), newsletters and mailers (63%), and using case studies (58%). Inbound marketing has now proved itself to be a valuable marketing strategy, but a lot of marketers are being challenged to prove the effectiveness and impact of individual tactics and various distribution channels. Every single industry surveyed has no less than 70% of marketers using some kind of inbound marketing tactic.
What has been the goal of inbound marketing in 2011?
Obviously the goal from business to business depends on the overall marketing strategy, and most marketers are using content marketing to support multiple business goals, led by brand awareness at 69%, customer acquisition (68%) and lead generation (67%). Customer retention and loyalty is another main driver towards inbound marketing (62%). The survey also showed that most marketers are measuring their success by web traffic (58%) and sales lead quality (49%).
What’s the budget for inbound marketing?
In 2011, B2B marketers have been dedicating around 26% of their total budgets to inbound marketing techniques. Smaller companies are allocating a larger portion of their budget to inbound marketing. Almost 60% of all marketers surveyed report that they plan to spend more money on inbound marketing in 2012.
What’s the biggest challenge with inbound marketing?
In 2011, the greatest reported challenge, and one that we wholeheartedly agree with, has been to produce the kind of content that gives value to potential clients and customers. While it’s easy to produce one great whitepaper, doing this consistently over the months is a lot harder. This is where an experienced inbound marketing consultant comes in useful.
Interested in learning more about inbound marketing? Contact SiliconCloud today.
Why not try out our FREE Inbound Marketing and Social Media Workshop?!
