• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 31, 2022

Email marketing remains a leading tactic for B2B brands. But social has knocked it from the top slot, according to 2022 B2B Marketing Mix, a study by Sagefrog Marketing Group. 

Last year, email was utilized by 83%, versus 75% for social. This year’s list is as follows: 

• Social Media & Social Media Advertising — 83%
• Email Marketing — 75% 
• Search Engine Optimization (SE0) — 61%
• Blogging and Content Marketing — 57%
• Virtual Events & Webinars — 44%
• Public Relations — 44%
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — 40% 
• Tradeshows & Events — 38% 
• Print Advertising — 27%
• Video Marketing — 26%
• Telemarketing — 14% 
• Other — 2%

The stakes are growing because 58% of B2B marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets this year, while 38% will hold steady. Only 4% foresee a decrease. This continues the steady rise seen over the past two years.  

Here are the areas in which they are increasing their spend: 

• Website Development — 41%
• Digital Marketing — 37%
• Social Media — 34% 
• Branding — 27%
• Content Marketing — 26%
• Advertising (e.g., Google) — 22% 
• Trade show & Events — 21% 
• Email Marketing — 18%
• Marketing Automation & CRM Software — 17% 
• Public Relations — 14% 
• Marketing & Sales Collateral — 12%
• Direct Marketing & Print Advertising — 11%
• Marketing Planning & Strategy — 9%
• Video Marketing — 8%

Yes, email ranks near the button, but it still went up by 3% over last year. In contrast, digital marketing fell from 44% in 2021 to 37% this time around. Social media went from 22% to 34%. And brand marketing remained flat at 27%. 

But email remains high as a source of sales and marketing leads:

• Referrals — 54% 
• Social Media — 43% 
• Email Marketing — 35% 
• Inbound & Content Marketing — 31% 
• Tradeshows & Events — 28% 
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — 26% 
• Public Relations — 13%
• Telemarketing — 11%
• Direct Mail — 10%
• Other — 7%
• Print Advertising — 6% 
• Email has dropped 3% from 2021. 

(Note: Other includes network events, clutch reviews and outbound sales). 

What tools are they using? Of those polled, 61% are deploying some type of marketing automation software, and these are the most popular platforms among this group:

• HubSpot — 47% 
• Other — 25% 
• Marketo — 17% 
• Pardot by Salesforce — 15% 
• ActiveCampaign — 11%
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud — 10%
• Adobe — 7%
• Oracle — 4% 

HubSpot remains at the top, and has grown by 7% over last year. Marketo is up by 1%, Pardot by Salesforce by 2% and the other category by 9%.  

These are the most-used social media channels:

• LinkedIn—85%
• Facebook—71%
• Twitter—61% 
• Instagram—49%
• YouTube—45%
• Pinterest—8% 
• TikTok—7%
• Vimeo—7%
• Snapchat—2%
• Other—2%
• Do not use Social Media—2%

What’s next for B2B marketers? The respondents are adding these marketing & sales strategies in 2022:

• Social media marketing — 41%
• Personalization — 41%
• Video marketing — 39%
• Digital Marketing — 35%
• Account-Based Marketing — 33%
• Brand Storytelling —33% 
• Influencer Marketing — 26%
• Podcasting & Livestreaming—25% 
• Retargeting — 24%
• Inbound Marketing — 23%
• Artificial Intelligence — (AI) & Automation — 23% 
• Virtual Events — 21%
• Conversational Marketing (Chatbots)— 19% 
• CRM Software — 19%
• Mobile-First Strategy —11% 
• Other — 4% 

B2B brands are well-organized—70% have a formal marketing plan. And, of those polled, 51% use both in-house and outsourced resources, while 41% do everything in-house and 8% rely totally on outsourcing. 

The top objectives for 2022 are: 

1. Increasing Brand Awareness 
2. Increasing Sales Leads
3. Increasing Website Traffic
4. Converting Leads to Customers
5. Producing Thought Leadership

For this, the 15^th annual report in this series, Sagefrog surveyed managers or directors (46%), coordinators or specialists (21%), C-Level executives (17%), vice presidents (9%) and assistants (7%).  

Of those, 33% were in marketing & advertising, 24% in professional & Business Services, 23% in Software & Technology, 18% in Healthcare & Life Sciences, 12% in Industrial & Manufacturing, 12% in Other and 7% in Financial & Insurance.