• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 8, 2021

Email is the most-used marketing tactic by B2B brands and is a top source of leads, according to The 2021 B2b Marketing Mix Report, a study by Sagefrog Marketing Group.  

Yet email is far down the list in terms of spend, even as overall spending is rising, especially in the digital area.  

Marketing makes up 5% of the total company budget for 5% of B2B marketers. And it comprises more than 15% for 13% of firms. 

Another 13% say marketing is 15% of their total budget, and 21% put the total at 10%. Another 13% list it as 1% of budget, and 10% put it at less than 1%.

Here are the tactics they use:

Email marketing — 84%

Social Media and Social Media Advertising — 75%

Blogging And Content Marketing — 69%

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — 60%

Trade shows & Events — 54%

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — 46% 

Public Relations — 44% 

Seminars & Webinars — 43%

Video Marketing — 38%

Print Advertisements — 27%

Telemarketing — 13%

But priorities are different when it comes to increasing the spend. Spending is going up in these areas:

• Website Development — 51% 
• Digital Marketing — 44% 
• Content Marketing — 33% 
• Branding — 27%
• Social Media — 22% 
• Marketing & Sales Collateral — 21%
• Marketing Automation and CRM Software — 21%
• Advertising Spend (.g., Google) — 16%
• Email Marketing — 16%
• Tradeshows and Events — 11%
• Direct Marketing and Print Advertising — 11%
• Public Relations — 10%
• Marketing Planning and Strategy — 8%
• Video Marketing — 6%
• Other — 3%

Judging by this, most firms have their email systems in place and do not have to spend more on them.

And that’s just as well, because email is a top source of leads:

• Referrals — 65%
• Email marketing — 38%
• Search engine optimization — 33% 
• Social media — 33%
• Tradeshows and events — 30%
• Inbound and content marketing — 30%
• Search engine marketing (SEM) — 21%
• Public relations — 17% 
• Other — 13%
• Print advertising — 8%

The report also lists marketing automation platforms by popularity. MediaPost does not endorse this ranking.

• HubSpot — 40%
• Adobe/Marketo — 16%
• Other — 16% 
• Pardot by Salesforce — 13%

Social media use is growing, with 62% saying they have see ROI from paid social. However, 33% are not using that channel, and 5% have tried it but haven’t generated ROI.

The most used social media channels are:

• LinkedIn — 86%
• Facebook — 79% 
• Twitter — 60% 
• Instagram — 60%
• YouTube — 56%
• Vimeo — 10%
• Do not use social media — 5%
• Other — 3%
• Snapchat — 2% 

In another finding, 76% of B2B professionals have a marketing plan. In addition, 38% rely on in-house resources for their marketing, while 56% use a combination of in-house and outsourced resources.  

The top B2B objectives for 2021 are: 

- Increasing sales leads

- Converting leads to customers

- Increasing brand awareness

- Producing thought leaders

For this 14th annual study, Sagefrog surveyed B2B professionals across several industries. Of those polled, 21% were at the C level.