For B2B marketers, making the rapid shift to digital required a total reset of strategy and tactics over the past few years. Now, as we’re under pressure to get more results with less resources, it’s time to assess whether your digital marketing, (and your teams that manage them), are ready for scale.
As an agency that has a large base of our clients across European territories, we are always seeking the latest data and insights to support our client’s strategy and delivery campaign performance.
A report, published by ON24, demonstrates how B2B marketers are under significant pressure with a huge demand on reducing budgets, efficiency at an all-time high, capacity reductions and higher costs from suppliers all contributing to budget versus performance management becoming increasingly tough.
Here are the key findings from the report:
Digital maturity differs somewhat across Europe
Despite European countries sharing much in common, many areas differ — from language and culture, to business behaviours and law. Digital maturity is another area where differences are present.
Digital maturity is strongly correlated with business success
Analysis of the data demonstrates that there is a strong link between digital maturity and business success. Of those respondents who exceeded their business goals by a significant margin, more than half (52%) also had the highest maturity level – compared to just 15% of novices. This suggests that B2B marketers who improve their level of digital marketing maturity can expect to see higher levels of performance.
B2B marketers in Europe are less likely to translate strategy into action
The report showed that on average, marketers scored 70% of the maximum in the area of strategy, process, and people – but only 47% in driving action and engagement, and just 33% in experiences and personalisation.
More than 9 in 10 agree that personalised digital experiences help break through the noise with their buyers
However, only one in three use either contact level or account level engagement data to personalise digital experiences and content. Furthermore, not a single digital experience or channel is personalised by the majority of European marketers, including email.
9/10 agree that stronger engagement results in stronger pipeline
Yet, B2B marketers only use an average of 3-4 out of 10 techniques and tactics listed to drive action and engagement
The majority are at least reasonably satisfied with the quality of their digital experiences
However, they may not be meeting their buyers’ expectations. Few are opting to use interactive experiences such as polls, surveys, group chats and quizzes and less than half are using more popular options such as video and content recommendations.
Biggest challenge of marketers is people
The two most commonly-cited challenges were hiring the right people (43%) and a lack of alignment between marketing and sales (39%).
Many marketers feel unsupported in training and development
Only 25% responded that they feel very well supported in their development of skills
So, what does this say for the future of marketing teams?
Our C.E.O Claire Curzon says “Improving performance of digital marketing campaigns will always be driven by the focus on people. The fact that the focal challenge of all the respondents to this report was driven around people, demonstrates the critical aspect the right people play on the end-campaign results.”
“Marketing is (and has always been), fundamentally about understanding people, internally and to external audiences, the core requirement of marketing is to drive effective messages that resonate and enhance communication between the brand, and the people. This report clearly demonstrates the need to focus on buyer and customer experiences, which is not new methodology.”
The survey was run across 12 key countries and in nine different languages, reaching more than 800 B2B marketers across the continent, with the end result being the State of Digital Maturity in Europe (you can download the full copy via the link at the top of this post)
The key takeaway is that organisations, and marketing teams need to be honest and accountable for the marketing activities employed, taking advantage of other teams to deliver personalised experiences and aligned audience journeys.
Please contact us if you would like to talk about your digital marketing strategy and how we can help.
