2. Laura Ramos, Vice President, Principal Analyst
WEBINAR Which Tactics Work Best In The B2B Marketing Mix? The Results May Surprise You
Laura Ramos, Vice President, Principal Analyst
Matt Camuso, Research Associate
May 4, Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern time

4. Image source: Amazon (http://www. amazon
Image source: Amazon ( Wikimedia Commons ( and Oracle (

5. In B2B marketing, what you say is more important than where you say it.

6. Agenda
The state of B2B program budgets
Which tactics work best?
Three ways to boost your B2B mix results

7. Who did we survey? 15% 30% 38% Primary industries 84% 16%
IT consulting
Business software
Financial services
Professional services
Information technology
84%
16%
Exclusively B2B
Mostly B2B
15%
20,000+ employees
30%
$1 billion+ in revenue
38%
Executive marketers
Base: 97 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q North American B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

8. B2B program spend averages a steady 6%
“What percentage of annual revenue did you spend on marketing in the past fiscal year?” 7% 6% 4%
*Base: 97 marketing executives; *Source: Forrester’s Q North American B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey
†Base: 132 marketing executives; †Source: Forrester’s Q North American B2B Marketing Budget Online Survey
‡Base: 49 marketing executives; ‡Source: Forrester’s Q North American B2B Marketing Budget Online Survey

9. Smaller firms spend a larger percentage
“What percentage of annual revenue did you spend on marketing in the past fiscal year?”
Average spend: 6%
Large firms: 3.4%
Smaller firms: 8%
Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey Note: We excluded responses of “Don’t know.”

10. 2016 budget expectations remain bullish
versus 51% in the past year
versus 8% in the past year
Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

11. 2016 spending plans reveal few surprises
“What percentage of planned 2016 program budget will be spent on the following?”
Base: 68 B2B senior marketers; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey Note: We excluded responses of “Don’t know”

12. Expect increases in digital and content
“Do you plan to increase/decrease spending on the following?”
Decrease
Increase
Decrease
Increase
Base: 68 B2B senior marketers; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey Note: We excluded responses of “Don’t know” (top five responses accepted).

13. Yet marketers struggle to prove value
“Which describes your top three challenges in setting marketing budgets?”
Base: 91 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

14. What makes a successful B2B marketing mix?

15. When it comes to tactics, not much works
50%
A majority of marketers failed to rate any single tactic as “very effective.”
Base: 68 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

16. Awareness: PR and sponsorships stand out
Influencer/press relations can work as well as events at less cost.
Apply sponsorships to highly targeted industry/role-specific opportunities.
Base: 68 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

17. Demand: a mix bag of opportunities
Count on Webinars to deliver demand.
Telemarketing gets a mixed review.
Hospitality pays off in intimate settings.
Rethink digital.
Base: 68 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

18. B2B marketers still face digital hurdles
“Do you agree or disagree with the following?”
Responses of 4 and 5 on a scale of 1 [strongly disagree] to 5 [strongly agree]; the top two and bottom three responses are shown.
Base: 68 B2B marketing professionals; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

19. Digital must pay off across buyer lifetime
“How have you measured the impact of digital on your business?”
Base: 68 B2B senior marketers; Source: Forrester’s Q International B2B Marketing Budget And Spending Online Survey

20. Three ways to make your B2B marketing mix deliver higher ROI

21. To make your B2B mix pay off, make it . . .
Engaging.
Customer- centered.
Digital.

22. Capture interactions to digitize events
Participants networked with speakers, sponsors, and each other.
83% used app = 5,600+ interactions
Source: National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (

23. Use events to boost community activity
Image source: Influitive (

24. Use video to make abstract tangible
Image source: Intel (

25. Personalize experiences to incite action
Image source: Oracle (

26. Center your content strategy on customers

27. Make buyer’s journey the foundation for content strategy

28. Tell more stories
Image source: Domtar ( and Boston Scientific (

29. Atomize your primary points of view
Image source: Intel (

30. Compel buyers with content built for their journey
What your customers want
What you can provide
Market trends and a future vision
Real challenges they can relate to
Engaging and aspirational content
Present unbiased market data.
Focus on audience relevancy.
Offer thought-leading content.
DISCOVER
Peer approaches and successes
Assessment of current capabilities
A vendor and provider landscape
Share peer use cases.
Assessment on relevant needs
Overview of solution category
EXPLORE
ROI validation
Confidence in the specific solution
Situation-specific insights
Business cases and estimators
Unbiased solution reviews
Sales enablement tools
BUY

31. Make digital your top priority

32. Make your website the hub of online experiences
Demonstrate customer empathy.
Design for quick testing
and iteration.
Create seamless interaction across customer-facing disciplines.

33. Focus on digital content that matters
Validate your approach.
Differentiate from competition.
Describe business opportunities.
Highlight expected outcomes.

34. Lead with digital when planning
Image source: The United Sidecar Association ( and The CrankCase (

35. Treat mix like a portfolio of investments.
Image source: AAAMP (

36. Assess your digital maturity

37. Recommendations
Boost your digital savvy to make hard-won budget gains and produce higher ROI.
Shift seamlessly between digital and physical contexts — this includes sales!
Invest in digital (tactics, processes, and skills) to make marketing dollars pay off.

38. Image source: TrinityP3 (http://www.trinityp3.com/)

39. Laura Ramos