According to the 2014 B2B Barometer Report, an annual study comprised of 116 B2b marketers in the U.K., the outlook continues to be positive when it comes to revenues: 87% predicted that their company’s profits will increase over the next year, an increase of 7% compared to 2013. The report is published each year via a collaborative effort between The BMC, IDM and Circle Research, all based in the U.K.

Other Findings

Besides a more positive outlook on profits over the next 12 months, the barometer study also had some additional interesting findings about the most-used strategy trends in B2B Marketing as a whole:

trends

The study found that content, social media, and personalized marketing were the most-used strategies used this year. Insights from experts included in the report state that content is more successful for B2B marketers when they have an opt-in form or call-to-action in order to users to take advantage of some types of long content, like e-books and exclusive case study reports.

In addition, the next three trends are not a big surprise to most B2B marketers: [big] data, marketing automation, and mobile. These three areas have long been used by B2B marketers in order to better optimize and automatic their marketing campaigns to fit a variety of target audiences via their preferred channel (whether that is email, mobile, or both).

Trend Shift Decreases

The report also covered areas where spending was increasing, as well as decreasing:

trend-decrease

While the three biggest increases (content, social media, and SEO/PPC) are fairly obvious given the trend graph above also shows a surprising decrease in three areas: direct mail, other advertising, and print ads, all with a decrease of more than 20%.

Even though this study was conducted in the U.K., it draws similar conclusions as many of the other B2B marketing studies done this year.

 

 

graphs via screenshots of 2014 B2B Marketing Barometer report.

Kelsey Jones

Kelsey Jones

Founder/Chief Marketing Consultant at Six Stories
Kelsey Jones helps clients around the world grow their social media, content, and search marketing presence. She enjoys writing and consuming all kinds of content, both in digital and tattered paperback form.
Kelsey Jones
Kelsey Jones