Did you know over 61% of B2B operators have no formal marketing plans? Marketing expenses amount to about 10% of the total budget at 1/​3 of B2B companies. If your clients are hesitating to develop a formal marketing plans, share the details of Sagefrog Marketing Group’s latest Marketing Mix report and encourage them to think about how they’re spending their ad money.

B2B businesses may not have marketing plans, but they know where they're spending money every year. Here’s how the media mix breaks out:

• Website development 63% (represents the number who participate in this activity)
• Trade shows and events 53%
• Digital marketing 47%
• Social media 29%
• Direct marketing/​print advertising 25%
• Marketing collateral 25%
• Marketing/​automation and analytics 22%
• Marketing planning and brand strategy 18%
• Public relations 14%
• Other 4%

It’s easy to understand the investment B2B operators are making in trade shows and events. Fifty-​one percent say these activities are a top source of leads. The only channel which delivers more leads is referrals (86%). Not surprisingly, respondents in this survey say sales leads (67%) will be the top objective for their marketing efforts in 2018. Marketers are also after converting leads to customers (47%), increasing brand awareness (37%) and boosting web traffic (35%.)

Sagefrog asked business owners which marketing tasks take up the most time. Nearly eight out of ten, 79%, respondents say email creation, sending and tracking is a huge commitment. The same number of B2B operators say social media also requires time and energy that could be better spent on core business activities. These businesses also say that SEO is one of the top four lead sources, but 55% say they spend a great deal of time trying to get organic search right.

These issues may explain why 63% of B2B companies outsource at least some of their marketing chores and this number is growing every year. In this survey, 20% of B2B companies say they’ve outsourced all marketing tasks. The results of the Sagefrog survey can be the perfect way for you to open a conversation with clients and prospects about why they need to buy marketing services from you.