40+ B2B Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks to Inspire Performance Throughout 2015

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May 28, 2015: Boston Fort Point DistrictHere in the Greater Boston area, we’ve finally shaken off a bitter winter and look forward to the warmth of summer.

But as the Memorial Day holiday weekend passes us by, how does the progress of your B2B online marketing initiatives look?

Are you well on your way to hitting your goals or struggling to maintain performance?

As we move into the end of the first half of the year, its important to reassess online marketing performance and make certain we don’t lose track while enjoying the summer.

One of the ways I stay motivated is through the re-evaluation of key statistics and industry benchmarks. This review is not only about validating the strategic paths chosen but to inspire excellence in execution as well.

For example, according to The Content Marketing Institute, at least 86% of B2B marketers are now engaged in content marketing, as detailed in their 2015 B2B Content Marketing Report. In order to succeed, you need to be better and smarter than the competition around you.

Here are over 40 key B2B marketing performance statistics and benchmarks, designed to inspire and motivate your online marketing initiatives as we head towards the second half of 2015 and beyond.

New Marketing Data

As I sat down to write this column, I was excited to realize KPCB’s Mary Meeker just released the 2015 Internet Trends report (20 years after the inaugural “The Internet Report” was first published in 1995). While the full report can be accessed via web page and SlideShare, here are some of the first takeaways I found, in preliminary review.

  • In 2014 we realized 7 billion mobile subscriptions, with a 30% smartphone subscription penetration rate. Since 2010, that’s approximately 52% growth in mobile subscriptions and 600% growth in smartphone subscriptions.
  • Mobile data traffic across the globe was up 69%; Mobile video traffic across the globe was up 55%.
  • In the United States market, 24% of our media time is spent on the mobile device yet only 8% of advertising dollars are aligned there.
  • Compare this to 18% of advertising dollars spent on print advertising when only 4% of our media time is spent in that medium.
  • In the US, 2.8 hours per day is spent viewing information via mobile device (roughly 29% of total time). That is a 700% increase since 2010.
  • 50% of Facebook’s daily active users (DAU’s) watch 1 or more videos per day; 53% through shares and as much as 75% via mobile device.
  • In Q1 2015, there were approximately 4 Billion video views per day on Facebook.
  • For millennials, 87% agree with the statement that their smartphone never leaves their side, day or night.
  • 60% (of millennials) believe that in the next five years, everything will be done on mobile devices.
  • Adware grew 136% to +400K apps on mobile devices, between 2013 and the first three quarters of 2014, giving attackers access to personal information like contacts, which can be used to launch phishing attacks.

In addition to a treasure trove of data and performance indicators, the presentation illustrates how behavior online has already evolved as a result of technology innovation and will continue to evolve in the years to come.

I highly recommend review.

In the meantime, here are several other key B2B performance benchmarks to consider and inspire, loosely organized by topical relevance.

The Significance of Content Marketing

  • 67% of B2B buyers rely more on content to research and make purchasing decisions than they did a year ago. (source)
  • Nearly 64% of B2B technology buyers indicated that they read between 2 to 5 pieces of content before making a purchase. (source)
  • 68% of business owners believe outside reviews (done by some person or entity not related to the company) are the most important indicator of whether or not they can trust a new B2B vendor. (source)
  • Nearly 60% of agencies and brands consider content marketing to be “very significant” to their marketing strategies. (source)
  • From KoMarketing / Huff Industrial Marketing: 53% of respondents indicated that “Thorough Contact Information” was a must have in establishing vendor credibility. The next highest was “must have” was “About Information / Team Bios” at 14%. (source)
    B2B Content Establishing Credibility
  • When asked what types of content assets were missing on most company websites, 51% of respondents in our survey report indicated, “Thorough Contact Information (phone / email / address).”
  • 58% of survey respondents from our report indicated that they prefer not to release their phone numbers when completing online form submissions.
  • 37% of survey respondents from our report indicated that they will visit a vendor website 3 – 5 times before making a purchasing decision.

Focus on Customer Experience

  • 60% of CMO’s believe the role of culture is “very influential” in enabling the brand experience. (source)
  • 78% of companies will try / are trying to differentiate through customer experience in 2015. (source)
  • 81% of marketing executives are shifting their budgets to become more customer-focused (vs. channel or product-focused). (source)
  • 62% of organizations view customer experience provided through contact centers as a competitive differentiator (source)
  • Over 50% of CMO’s believe that in the next three years, marketing more than any other channel (IE, sales, support, etc) will be responsible customer experience moving forward. (source)
    Customer Experience Marketing
  • It is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer. (source via whitehouse.gov)

The Impact of Mobile Device Adoption

  • 60% of B2B marketers consider mobile as a “crucial enabler” and conduit of their overall sales. (source)
  • Via same report, 53% of B2B marketers reporting that they have integrated their mobile marketing into their overall strategy.
  • For small businesses specifically, only 56% of those surveyed in Clutch’s 2015 Digital Marketing Survey indicated that have responsive, mobile-friendly websites. (source)
  • As of April 2015, more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan. (source)
  • In the 4th quarter of 2014, US mobile queries (tablets + smartphones) were roughly 29 percent of total search volumes.(source)
    Comscore Search Queries by Device in Q4 2014

Video Marketing & Advertising

  • Approximately 91% of companies with revenues over 500 million, are using digital video, making it the top form of digital advertising among organizations of this size. (source)
  • Four times as many online consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it. (source)
  • Via same report findings, one quarter of consumers lose interest in a company if it doesn’t use video.
  • And also from the above report, 80% of consumers say a video showing how a product or service works is important when learning about the company.
  • 46% of marketers cite video as their most effective form of content but 59% indicated that video is the most challenging type of content to develop. (source)
    Screenshot (1)
  • Whereas only 14% of consumers remember the last display ad they’ve seen, 80% can recall the video ads they’ve watched online in the last week. (source)

The Promise of Marketing Technology

  • The marketing technology landscape has basically doubled in vendor size, having grown to as many as 2,000 potential vendors, across over 40 technology categories, in the past year. (source)
  • 31% of senior marketers claimed that marketing automation was their biggest challenge to date. (source)
  • Nearly 54% of respondents to a survey run by Spear Marketing indicated that their marketing database includes poor, inaccurate data. (source)
  • Nearly 60% of marketers in the B2B sector don’t think their marketing campaigns are effective, especially when it comes to demand generation. (source)
  • 65% of marketers believe that marketing automation is “very important” to the overall success of their campaigns, however, a lack of in-house expertise looms as their most challenging obstacle to overcome. (source)
    Ascend2 Screenshot
  • 88% of B2B companies plan on implementing marketing automation in their organizations by the start of the 2017-2018 financial year. 43% currently have some form of marketing automation solution already in place. (source)

Final Thoughts

Obviously industry benchmarks are only part of the equation. Its critical to re-evaluate internal performance benchmarks and even competitive data to determine where opportunities lie and success has already been found.

That said, as B2B marketing programs are reviewed and scrutinized as we make our way into the second half of 2015, industry statistics and benchmarks help validate existing decisions and guide new initiatives.

How are industry benchmarks guiding your B2B marketing programs as we work our way into the summer? I would love to read your perspective via comments below.

Image via KoMarketing’s SlideShare Profile<</a>/em>

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Derek Edmond
As a part of the team of Internet marketing professionals at KoMarketing Associates, Derek focuses on developing online marketing strategies - search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media - for clients, ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. As Managing Partner of KoMarketing Associates, Derek leads strategy, direction, and growth of the organization.

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