What works where in B2B digital marketing?

New research by Omobono and The Marketing Society has revealed that B2B marketers are facing key challenges in digital, including a widespread digital skills gap and ongoing difficulty measuring return on investment.

Our research on What Works Where in B2B digital marketing, now in its fourth year, explores senior business marketers’ objectives, budgets, activities and challenges.

The latest results show that:

• B2B marketers’ top priority is thought leadership
  Which has narrowly beaten customer relationships as the number one priority for the first time since the research started in 2011.
   
• 39% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on digital
  This figure has barely changed in the last 3 years, despite the increasing importance of digital marketing.
    
• The digital channels to focus on are social media and mobile
  B2B marketers say that social media is the most effective channel for meeting their objectives. And the majority say that mobile is crucial or important to their digital marketing strategy.
   
• Measuring return on investment is a key challenge for B2B marketers
  Two thirds (66%) measure ROI but only 16% are confident in the accuracy of their ROI measurement.
   
• There is a digital skills gap in B2B marketing
  70% of B2B marketers say their team has gaps in the digital skills they need. Missing skills include analytics and reporting, strategy and planning, and research and insight.