• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, July 26, 2022

B2B brands are pushing ahead, with 74% increasing their budgets this year — up from 68% in 2021, according to State of B2B Digital Marketing, a study by Ascend2 and Wpromote. 

But they face challenges, including privacy and the loss of third-party cookies.   

Only 36% are completely prepared for impending data privacy changes, although 67% among best-in-class B2B marketers are. Overall, 60% are somewhat ready, and only 4% not at all.   

Email is key to brand strategy as firms deal with the loss of third-party cookies (despite the decline of email open rates as a metric due to Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection). They are employing: 

• Content marketing — 48%
• Email marketing/automation — 45%
• First-party data collection — 40% 
• Investing in technology/CDPs/data clean rooms — 30%
• Upper-funnel paid media campaigns — 28%
• Other — 7%

Of course, revenue is the top marketing objective in 2022. B2B marketers seek to:

• Increase revenue — 51% 
• Improve brand awareness — 37% 
• Improve customer experience — 31% 
• Deliver quality leads — 31% 
• Deliver more leads — 30% 

But the main challenges are different: 

• Delivering quality leads — 35%
• Generating enough leads — 32% 
• Improving customer experience — 32%
• Producing quality content — 31% 
• Aligning marketing and sales — 31%

Despite these imperatives, only 12% plan to significantly increase their marketing budget this year, down from 26% in 2021. But 62% will boost them moderately, versus 42% last year. Another 5% will keep them as is, but few expect decreases.  

Less than a third of companies plan to increase their email budgets this year: 

• Social media—52% 
• Content marketing—44%
• Paid search—32% 
• Email—27% 
• Display advertising—26% 
• Organic search—22% 
• Streaming TV (CTV, OTT)—21% 

Ascend2 and Wpromote surveyed 321 B2B marketing professionals, including 23% from firms with revenue of $100 million to $500 million, 23% with $25 million-$100 million, 20% with $10 million-$25 million, 13% with $1 billion+ and 10% with less than $10 million.  

Of this sample, 34% rate themselves as best-in-class, and 36% as being in growth mode (10% in the last year).

Email ranks third in terms of driving revenue:

• Social media — 50% 
• Content marketing — 47% 
• Email—41%
• Display advertising — 28%
• Paid search — 28% 
• Organic search — 26% 
• Streaming TV (CTV, OTT) — 21% 

In the upper funnel, which is the place for building brand awareness and educating prospects, email is second as a tactic:

• Social media—47% 
• Email—45% 
• Paid search—30% 
• Interactive content—30%
• Site content including blog—23%

But when you get to the bottom of the funnel, when the customer is moving toward conversion, email is first: 

• Email — 44% 
• Social media — 38% 
• Paid search — 31%
• Virtual events — 26%
• Interactive content — 23%

At the front end, brands face these obstacles to successful lead generation:

• Collecting quality data — 41% 
• Creating targeted/engaging content — 37%
• Managing and tracking leads—33%
• Measuring channel performance and attributing leads — 26% 
• Communicating with sales/aligning goals — 25% 
• Tracking touchpoints across channels — 22% 
• Building an efficient tech stack — 19% 
• Targeting with less third-party data — 18%

What are they measuring? The top KPIs are: 

• ROI — 40%
• Conversion rate (lead to opportunity — 37% 
• Website traffic — 34% 
• Cost-per-lead — 33% 
• Attributed revenue — 27% 
• Customer acquisition cost — 27%
• Lifetime value — 25%
• Lead volume (MQL’s & SQL’s) — 23%