By Ed Pierce, President of ITA Communications. Fleet.
February 4, 2022
Sagefrog Marketing Group just issued its annual B2B Marketing Mix Report, a resource that has become a valuable year-end tool for B2B marketers in a variety of industries and certainly will be of interest to service providers to the fleet industry.
While there are many insights in the report that are based on the opinions and experiences of professionals across several B2B industries, we have included some of the highlights and encourage marketing teams to download the entire report.
Conference Attendance, Down; Social Media, Up
Not surprisingly, given the pandemic, fewer professionals are hosting and attending tradeshows and events, reducing the impact of a traditionally reliable tactic for B2B marketers. But as more businesses rush to improve their online presence, digital tactics have taken center stage.
Social media jumped from the second most implemented tactic to the first this year, and SEO became a little more important than blogging and content marketing for many survey respondents.
Marketing Activity Trends
1. Social Media & Social Media Advertising – 83%
2. Email Marketing – 75%
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – 61%
4. Blogging & Content Marketing – 57%
5. Virtual Events & Webinars – 44%
6. Public Relations – 44%
7. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – 40%
8. Tradeshows & Events – 38%
9. Print Advertising – 27%
10. Video Marketing – 26%
11. Telemarketing – 14%
12. Other – 2%
Marketing Budgets Are Growing
Marketing budgets have gone up over the last two years, and they’re still on the rise. When asked how their company’s marketing budget will change from 2021 to 2022, the majority of survey respondents shared that they’ll be allocating more to their marketing efforts.
For some organizations, this additional spend may come from an annual revenue increase or an ability to consistently meet budgeting goals in previous years.
Working with a tighter budget might mean making small SEO improvements to your website over a longer period of time or recycling high-performing content assets before creating new ones. But it’s much easier to strategize and see success when marketing teams have access to all the resources, they need to be productive and achieve results.
Marketing Budget Changes for 2022
• Stay the Same – 38%
• Increase – 58%
• Decrease – 4%
A Look at Tactics
Social media is climbing the ranks as a top area of marketing spend, even as website development and digital marketing continue to hold the top two spots of the modern marketing budget. More money is also going towards advertising, such as third- party spend on Google Ads, as well as tradeshows and events, email marketing, public relations, planning and strategy, and video marketing compared to past years.
Although survey respondents implemented the tactic less this year, increased spend on tradeshows and events might be explained by the shift to digitally hosted and attended activities. For larger audiences, this often requires some type of online platform that enables video streaming, networking, sponsor sales, and other complex virtual features—which can be expensive whether outsourced or homegrown.
Top Areas of Tactical Spend
1. Website Development – 41%
2. Digital Marketing – 37%
3. Social Media – 34%
4. Branding – 27%
5. Content Marketing – 26%
6. Advertising (e.g., Google) – 22%
7. Tradeshows & Events – 21%
8. Email Marketing – 18%
9. Marketing Automation & CRM Software – 17%
10. Public Relations – 14%
11. Marketing & Sales Collateral – 12%
12. Direct Marketing & Print Advertising – 11%
13. Marketing Planning & Strategy – 9%
14. Video Marketing – 8%
15. Other* 3%
*Networking Events
2022 Planning
Social media also tops the list of marketing and sales strategies that interest B2B professionals the most as they look to ahead to 2022. Up nearly 10% from last year, personalization ties with social media, and video marketing follows close behind.
2021’s push for greater personalization in tactics like email, inbound, and account- based marketing is encouraging more teams to adopt new best practices and complementary approaches.
Marketers also plan to invest more in digital marketing and experiment with brand storytelling.
New Marketing & Sales Strategies for 2022
1. Social Media Marketing – 41%
2. Personalization – 41%
3. Video Marketing – 39%
4. Digital Marketing – 35%
5. Account-Based Marketing – 33%
6. Brand Storytelling – 33%
7. Influencer Marketing – 26%
8. Podcasting & Livestreaming – 25%
9. Retargeting – 24%
10. Inbound Marketing – 23%
11. Other* 4%
*Referral Marketing
12. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Automation – 23%
13. Virtual Events – 21%
14. Conversational Marketing (Chatbots) – 19%
15. CRM Software – 19%
16. Mobile-First Strategy – 11%
The complete report, available at https://www.sagefrog.com/resources/2022-b2b-marketing-mix-report/ provides useful graphics to accompany the survey results.
Based on these trends, marketers 2022 should take into account prioritizing paid and organic social media in your marketing program, making the most of LinkedIn for targeted lead engagement, focusing on building better brand awareness, developing with personalized marketing communications, and increasing the marketing budget to uncover more opportunities in 2022.
If you have a specific marketing issue or question, drop me a note at [email protected]. Text or call me at ITA Fleet Communications: 484-957-1246
