Attached as a PDF are some interesting B2B statistics on Digital Marketing (circa 16/17). What is this data telling us as marketers? What changes do businesses need to make to improve enhance their marketing strategies? Thoughts? Comments?

4.1 Overview A survey of marketing and sales professionals by Ascend2 (www.ascend2.com) explored strategies for B2B digital marketing. This chapter presents the findings of the survey. 4.2 Objectives The following are the most important objectives of a digital marketing strategy (percentage of respondents): Increase customer engagement: 49% Increase sales revenue: 48% Increase leads for sales team: 48% Reach new customer segments: 48% Increase brand awareness: 40% Improve customer retention: 23% Reduce marketing costs: 11% Reduce customer service costs: 5% Twenty-seven percent (27%) of B2B marketing professionals said their company was very successful in achieving important objectives; 62% said their program is somewhat successful. 4.3 Effectiveness B2B marketing professionals consider the following to be the most effective types of digital marketing (percentage of respondents): Email: 54% Website/blogs: 48% Search engine optimization: 47% Social media: 43% Content: 38% Paid search (PPC): 24% Mobile (SMS): 9% E-commerce: 8% BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING 2016-2017 27 Copyright @ 2016. Richard K. Miller & Associates. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/2/2019 8:38 AM via UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE AN: 1205931 ; Miller, Richard K., Washington, Kelli D., Richard K. Miller & Associates.; Business-to-business Marketing 2016-2017 Account: unibalt.

4.4 Program Execution The following are the most difficult types of digital marketing to execute (percentage of respondents): Social media: 49% Content: 42% Search engine optimization: 39% Mobile (SMS): 34% Paid search (PPC): 23% Website/blogs: 23% E-commerce: 19% Email: 11% 4.5 Challenges The following are the most challenging obstacles to digital marketing success (percentage of respondents): Lack of an effective strategy: 51% Inadequate budget: 38% Lack of training/experience: 32% Inability to prove ROI: 30% Useless metrics/analytics: 25% Increasing competition: 24% Lack of innovation/creativity: 22% Lack of marketing software: 13% 4.6 Market Resources Ascend2, 36 Links Lane, Marstons Mills, MA 02648. (800) 762-1595. (www.ascend2.com) BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING 2016-2017 28 Copyright @ 2016. Richard K. Miller & Associates. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or applicable copyright law. EBSCO : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 10/2/2019 8:38 AM via UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE AN: 1205931 ; Miller, Richard K., Washington, Kelli D., Richard K. Miller & Associates.; Business-to-business Marketing 2016-2017