75+ B2B Marketing Statistics to Know in 2020

B2B marketing has changed drastically over the past five years and in order to succeed in 2020, you need to go digital. Not only has the B2B buyer changed—millennials now comprise half of all B2B buyers—but so has the B2B buying process. When researching new products and services, today’s B2B buyer makes an average of 12 searches online and looks for the same digital experience they encounter during the B2C sales cycle. It’s no longer rigidly defined who your buyer actually is—the modern B2B marketing funnel has gotten longer, and while 64% of C-suite executives have final signoff, 81% of non-C-suiters also have a say in purchase decisions.

What that means is you need to provide an online experience that not only captures the attention of all those involved in the B2B buying process, but also nudges them along the sales funnel and into your CRM system. Take a look at the following B2B statistics and inbound marketing stats—the insights should help drive your 2020 B2B marketing strategy.

Looking for help with your B2B marketing strategy? Check out our complete B2B Digital Marketing Strategy Guide »

Below Are Top B2B Digital Marketing Statistics from 2018, 2019, and 2020 that Will Help Drive Your 2020 Marketing Strategy

General B2B Digital Marketing Statistics

• Most B2B buyers are already 57% of the way through the buying process before the first meeting with a representative. (Accenture, 2018)
• 90% of B2B buyers now twist and turn through the sales funnel, looping back and repeating at least one or more task in the buyer’s journey. (CMO, 2019)
• Even in industrial and manufacturing industries, 67% of purchases are influenced by digital (Google, 2019)

• B2B buying cycles are getting longer and more complex—58% of buyers said their decision process was longer in 2017 than in 2016; just 10% said purchase time decreased. Buyers are conducting more detailed ROI analysis before making a purchase decision (77%); using more information sources for research and evaluation (75%), and increasing the number of buying group members (52%). (Business2Community, 2017)
• 80% of B2B buying decisions are based on a buyer’s direct or indirect customer experience, and only 20% is based on the price or the actual offering. (2019)
• The leading reason business buyers have limited engagement with B2B vendors is because marketers are sending them too much irrelevant content (34%). (KoMarketing)

• 46% of all B2B researchers and buyers are millennials. (Google, 2015)
• 67% of purchases for multiple industrial manufacturing and pack-and-ship industries were influenced by digital. (Google, 2018)

Mobile Marketing Statistics

• Mobile usage per B2B worker is expected to increase from two hours a day to three by 2020, driven by millennials, Gen Z, and the increasing use of smartphones by older workers. (Google, 2017)
• Mobile drives or influences an average of more than 40% of revenue in leading B2B organizations. (Google, 2017)
• 50% of B2B search queries today are made on smartphones, and this percentage will grow to 70% by 2020.

• Mobile marketing can accelerate time to B2B purchase by 20%. (BCG, 2017)
• 80% of B2B buyers use a mobile device at work. (BCG, 2017)
• 70% of B2B buyers increased mobile usage significantly over the past two to three years, and 60% expect to continue to increase their mobile usage. (BCG, 2017)
• 60% of B2B buyers report that mobile played a significant role in a recent purchase. (BCG, 2017)
• Mobile use at work will increase to three hours a day by 2020. (BCG, 2017)
• More than 90% of buyers say they’re likely to buy again from a vendor that had a superior mobile experience, compared to 50% of those who report a poor experience. (BCG, 2017)
• The majority of senior executives (92%) own a smartphone used for business, with 77% reporting they use their smartphone to research a product or service for their business. While the majority (93%) go on to purchase that product via the internet using a laptop or desktop, 50% of these executives have purchased IT products for business using their smartphone, with 13% reporting making a purchase between $1,000 to $4,999. (IDG Global Solutions)
• 80% of B2B executives research products or services on a tablet in the evening. (IDG Global Solutions)

B2B Website Design Statistics

• 45% are looking for personalized content portals.
• 46% will leave a website because of a lack of message (it’s not clear what the company does), and 37% will leave because of poor design or navigation. (MarketingProfs, 2015)
• 22% (11 out of 50) of the fastest-growing B2B companies have a live chat widget on their website. (Drift)
• 42% of companies have a mobile-optimized website (B2BMarketingZone, 2018)
• A personalized web experience can increase sales by 19% (MarTechAdvisor, 2018)
• 44% of B2B marketers say the main reason they abandon websites is that there’s no contact info immediately visible. (KoMarketing, 2015)
• 86% of B2B marketers want to see products and services on a vendor’s website home page, 52% want to see about/company information, 27% want to see testimonials, and 23% want to see marketing collateral. Details about technical support (59%) and pricing (43%) are also important to marketers. (KoMarketing, 2015)
• 69% of buyers indicated that “excessive form field requirements” would deter them from completing a contact form, with 65% stating they wouldn’t submit a form if “too much personal information” was required. If the form included an automatic email subscription, 55% said that would deter them as well. (KoMarketing, 2015)

B2B Email Marketing Statistics

• IT, B2B, and wholesale companies have the weakest mobile email opens, while TV/radio/film, events, and real estate have the strongest mobile email opens. (Campaign Monitor, 2018)
• 79% of B2B marketers credit email as the most effective distribution channel for demand gen efforts. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 78% of executives say that an unsolicited email has led to a face to face meeting or event attendance at some point.  (ITSMA, 2019)
• Marketers see an average of 760% increase in revenue from customized, segmented email campaigns. (CampaignMonitor, 2017)

B2B Ecommerce Statistics

• B2B ecommerce sales are expected to outgrow B2C ecommerce sales by 2020. (Ecommerce Platforms, 2018)
• B2B ecommerce will exceed 12% of all B2B revenue by 2020. (BCG, 2017)

B2B Lead Generation Statistics

• 81% of businesses reported their blog as being critical to B2B lead generation. (Nurture)
• In the B2B setting, events help generate the most leads, while case studies help convert and accelerate the most leads. (Marketing Charts, 2018)
• 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation is their most important content marketing goal. (Ring Lead, 2017)
• 59% of B2B marketers say SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. (Marketing Charts)
• 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative. (Junto, 2017)
• Strategic landing pages are used by 68% of B2B businesses to acquire leads. (Marketo, 2018)

Learn how we increased B2B leads by over 300% with inbound marketing »

B2B SEO Statistics

• 45% of enterprises are investing more than $20,000 on SEO each month. (B2BMarketingZone, 2018)
• 71% of B2B researchers begin their research with generic Google searches.
• 89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process. (Google, 2015)
• 90% of B2B researchers who are online use search specifically to research business purchases. (Google, 2015)
• On average, B2B researchers do 12 searches prior to engaging on a specific brand’s site. (Google, 2015)

B2B Blogging and Content Marketing Statistics

• 51% of B2B marketers prioritize creating visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy. (HubSpot, 2019) 
• Only roughly 20% of the information on B2B websites out there displays characteristics of buyer enablement
• 62% of buyers say they can make a business decision based on online content alone. (2019)
•  69% of successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)

• 86% of buyers say they are “overwhelmed and annoyed” with more than 10 pieces of review content (BizReport, 2018)
• 32% say confusing content makes buying decisions more difficult
• B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost three times more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. (HubSpot, 2015)
• 43% of B2B marketers say blogging is their most important type of content. (Social Marketing Industry Report, 2017)
• 91% percent of B2B marketers are doing content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 53% of B2B marketers have small or one-person content teams serving their entire organizations. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• The most successful content marketers have access to 40% of the total marketing budget, and the least successful have just 14% of the marketing budget. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 75% of B2B marketers without a documented content marketing strategy plan to create one in the next 12 months.

• More than half of all B2B buyers view at least eight pieces of content during the purchase process, and 82% of buyers viewed at least five pieces of content from the vendor prior to purchase. (Forrester) 
• 80% of business decision-makers favor getting brand information via an article series more than ads (Content Marketing Institute)
• The five most engaging phrases to include in B2B post headlines on social media are “the future of,” “X ways to,” “need to know,” “in the world,” and “of the year.” And keep them short: while the most engaging headlines for consumer posts run between 12 and 18 words, the most effective length for B2B headlines is in a five to 10-word range. (BuzzSumo)

• 49% of B2B marketers say articles are the most effective type of content for moving prospects through the sales funnel (Statista, 2017)
• 76% of B2B marketers prioritize content quality over quantity. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 90% of B2B marketers say the leading attribute of content marketing effectiveness is “audience relevance” (Statista, 2018)
• The top 2 technologies B2B organizations use to assist with content marketing are analytics tools (86%) and email marketing software (85%). (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)
• The average number of audiences B2B marketers create content for is 4. The average is higher in large companies (5) and lower in small companies (3). (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)
• The top 3 types of content B2B marketers use are social media content (95%), blog posts/short articles (89%), and email newsletters (81%). (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)

B2B Video Marketing Statistics

• 81% of businesses use video as a marketing tool (Experian, 2018)
• 96% of B2B companies plan to use video in their content marketing over the next year. (Social Media Today)
• 73% of B2B marketers say that video positively impacts marketing ROI.
• 70% of B2B buyers and researchers watch videos on their path to purchase.

B2B Social Media Statistics

• 84% of B2B marketers use paid distribution channels (like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and more) for content marketing purposes. (Content Marketing Institute, 2019)
• 75% of B2B buyers use social media to support their purchase decision. (HubSpot, 2017)
• 45% of marketers have gained customers through LinkedIn. (Quick Sprout)
• 65% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn paid ads. (HubSpot, 2018)
• LinkedIn is 277% more effective in generating leads than Facebook. (HubSpot, 2018)
• Only 47% of marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn. (HubSpot, 2018)
• Businesses on Twitter generate twice the amount of leads as opposed to those not on the platform. (HubSpot, 2018)
• Facebook (89%), LinkedIn (81%) and Twitter (75%) are the three most used social media channels by B2B marketers.  Instagram is up and coming. (MarTechAdvisor)
• 33% of B2B businesses use Instagram.

B2B Marketing Analytics and Measurement

• 35% of B2B content marketers can measure ROI, 47% admit that they can’t measure ROI and 18% aren’t sure. (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 68% of B2B companies have not identified their sales funnel. (Marketing Sherpa)
• 52% of marketers say their company’s ability to measure and analyze marketing impact is either sub-par or non-existent.
• Just 28% of marketers say they are “very effective” at demonstrating the value of their marketing efforts to their peers. The majority (69%) say that they are only “somewhat effective” at it. (KoMarketing, 2017)

What B2B Buyers Want More Of

• 44% would like access to an ROI calculator for buying decisions.
• 96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
• 73% of B2B buyers say they want a personalized, B2C-like customer experience. (Accenture, 2017)
• 71% of B2B buyers say customers increasingly want B2C-like experiences – faster response times and 24/7 availability—but nearly half (49%) say they’re failing to deliver the personalized experiences their customers crave.
• 80% of U.S. marketers said they wanted to use integrated marketing and advertising technology from a single vendor. (Google, 2018)

Love These B2B Marketing Statistics for 2020? Looking for B2B Digital Marketing in 2020? Trust the Experts at Blue Corona!

Navigating the changing B2B digital marketing landscape isn’t easy, especially if digital isn’t in your background. When it comes to things like content marketing, marketing automation, social media, and lead generation, it’s best to leave the hard work to the professionals. Everyone at Blue Corona KNOWS B2B marketing like the back of their hand—we’re a B2B company and we have complete confidence in our marketing strategies and methods. I’d love to share that expertise with you, so give us a shout and I’ll have my people call your people.

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