“Business to business (B2B) marketers are doubling down on various marketing technology tools in 2016 as they look for new ways to attract the sector’s increasingly savvy customer base,” reports eMarketer this week.
The info comes courtesy of B2B content platform Kapost, which suggests that a wide variety of B2B firms are increasingly turning to marketing technology to get the job done.
“Some 71 percent of B2B executives had already invested, or planned to invest, in a CRM-focused marketing technology like Salesforce,” notes eMarketer. “In addition, 63 percent of executives already had invested, or planned to put more investments, in marketing automation, while 57 percent said they were investing in content management systems.”
Kapost’s review of marketing programs for 2016 revealed that content and social marketing were the two top disciplines cited by B2B honchos.
“Other planned marketing programs like events and inbound marketing were also popular, aligning with marketing technology systems like CRM and marketing automation,” added eMarketer. “Another key component of this marketing technology push by B2B marketers is analytics and measurement.”
How are B2B executives measuring success? The Kapost survey found that 44 percent prioritized content conversions; about 35 percent named external reach metrics like engagement or traffic by channel.