Last week, we reviewed the outlook for content marketing in the B2B space. Now, Sagefrog Marketing Group is out with
its forecast for 2021 B2B marketing, and their analysts expect B2B marketers to boost video and ABM in 2021. In addition, B2B operators will be looking for help from outside vendors.
Budget Allocated to Marketing
How much will B2B businesses allocate to marketing expenses? Around 21% of operators said their marketing budget would amount to 10% of total expenses. And 32% of businesses plan to hold the marketing cost line item to 5% of total expense.
Next year, the most frequently used formats in the B2B space will be:
- Email 84%
- Social media (paid and unpaid) 75%
- Blogs and content 69%
- SEO 60%
The less frequently used formats will be print advertising (27%) and video
marketing (38%).
Keep in mind that the most frequently used marketing formats aren’t always the biggest cost item in the budget. Marketing leaders say that a top expense for them is website development (51%). Digital marketing (44%) and content marketing (33%) account for significant expense too. Some companies say that branding (27%) and social media (22%) represent big expenses. Analysts called the increase in the number of companies spending heavily on branding notable. The number went from 17% to 27% and may be a reflection of marketers wanting to maintain visibility during the pandemic.
The Marketing Plan
Help your clients understand the importance of establishing a marketing plan and measuring progress toward important goals. When they commit to these objectives, it will be easier for you to show the return on the investment they make with you. The most common objectives for a B2B marketing plan are:
- Increased sales leads
- Conversion of leads to customers
- Improved brand awareness
If your prospects are obsessed with generating sales leads, that’s great.
Let them know that most B2B marketers point to the following activities as
generators of leads:
- Referrals 65%
- Email marketing 38%
- SEO 33%
Social media continues to be an important marketing channel for B2B
operators. The format is proving its worth as 62% of users report an ROI from this channel. In particular, they may be talking about LinkedIn which allows users to pay for sponsored content and LinkedIn InMail.
Most B2B marketers believe they’ll develop a formal plan for the upcoming
year. Around 76% of B2B marketers said they would do so for 2021. And with so many new marketing formats available to businesses, it’s not surprising that 56% use a mix of in-house resources and outside contractors to handle their needs. In addition, 6% of B2B operators completely outsource all of their marketing chores.
B2B Marketers to Boost Video and ABM in 2021
If your B2B prospects haven’t been talking about ABM, it might be time to
let them know about this popular trend. Every business strives to land their
dream accounts. This process might take months or years of work. But once that customer signs on, your prospect will have achieved an important goal. The dream account may increase their revenue by 100% or it may open doors to sales in an important new vertical. The point is, leading a dream account down the sales funnel requires applying dedicated resources and budgets. In 2021, 46% of B2B operators will engage in some form of ABM. Your prospects will also be spending more money on video marketing (41%), influencer marketing (38%) and AI (38%).
Help your B2B clients achieve their objectives and understand their
audiences by checking out the local account intelligence reports in
AdMall by SalesFuel. Remind them that analysts expect B2B marketers to boost video and ABM next year.
