Contributed by Nick Gaudio, Director, Account Strategy at Goodway Group B2B marketers’ roles are changing. They must understand their buyers by leveraging the unique advantages of programmatic media: economies of scale, layering of insights and data, and cost-effectiveness. More than half of US B2B marketers already buy advertising programmatically and 40% plan to dedicate between ¼ to ½ of their media budget to programmatic in 2016. Though the shift toward programmatic ad integration will take time, a few strategies can help marketers reach decision makers more effectively today.
B2B Digital Marketing Toolbox
Mobile
- Time spent on mobile devices will surpass all other screens by 2017
- US employees spend 10 hours per week on their mobile phones doing work outside regular office hours
- B2B professionals use mobile devices more than 50% of the time to research purchase decisions
- 64% of B2B marketers plan to increase mobile marketing budgets in 2016 and beyond
Tip: Make mobile a focus of your B2B campaigns
Event Marketing
- 21% of B2B advertisers recognize event marketing as the largest expense in attracting customers
Tip: Include a digital strategy specifically dedicated to attracting event sign-ups Tip: Use hyperlocal targeting to capture all device IDs at conferences to establish a pool of users to retarget following events
Content Marketing
- 80%+ use content marketing to generate demand
- 37% of B2B decision makers consume at least 6 case studies, articles, or webinars before making a purchase
Tip: Employ editorial-style native advertising to optimize chance of influencing purchase decisions
Email Marketing and Lead Nurturing
- 89% of B2B marketers use email marketing
- 53% of marketing professionals note low click-through rates as a leading challenge
Tip: Utilize first party data match targeting tactics to reach users across the web as additional touch-points beyond email
Social
Tip: Use occupation-based targeting on Facebook and LinkedIn to reach decision makers Tip: Get your message in front of highly targeted business buyers by using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates As director of account strategy at Goodway Group, Nick uses math to help make clients heroes. Leveraging years of industry analytics experience from Digitas and Millward Brown Digital, he provides strategic advisement and knowledge development to ensure all client campaigns succeed. Nick believes that numbers tell stories and that good campaign strategy is a delicate blend of craft and science. When not talking programmatic, he can usually be found in his kitchen laboratory.