Uptake of ‘modern’ digital marketing techniques and technologies is growing steadily throughout the B2B sector, says new research, although budget and data remain the main obstacles. Joel Harrison reports.
Almost 60 per cent of B2B practitioners consider themselves to be ‘modern marketers’ in that they are enthusiastically embracing a broad range of digital marketing techniques. That’s according to a new survey by B2B Marketing in association with Oracle Eloqua, which sought to define what it means to be a ‘modern marketer’ and the extent to which practitioners aligned themselves with this definition.
While almost a quarter of respondents (23 per cent) regard themselves as having completely adopted ‘modern’ digital marketing techniques, and a further 36 per cent having ‘strongly’ adopted them, only 11 per cent had failed to adopt them at all, or only partly adopted them (see figure 1). This demonstrates significant progress towards digitisation over the last two years – in 2011, only 15 per cent of respondents claimed to either have completely or strongly aligned with ‘modern’ marketing. Clearly these ideas are gaining ground within this audience.
Technology is the key driver

In terms of the factors driving migration towards so-called ‘modern marketing’, by far the most popular of the options selected by respondents was ‘ability to track ROI due to new technology’ – which suggests marketers acknowledge the new generation of analytics and automation solutions are increasingly empowering their decisions. This was selected by almost three quarters of respondents – see figure 2. However, ‘maturation of demand generation and lead nurturing’ which often utilises or relies on technology, was only cited by 44 per cent of respondents, suggesting there may be a lag between use of technology and understanding of processes.
By contrast, the impact of ‘media fragmentation’ (28 per cent) and ‘mobile marketing’ (22 per cent) seemed relatively minor in terms of driving changing marketing habits.
Digital doesn’t mean ‘new’
Although there was clear buy-in to and alignment with digital marketing techniques and channels, the results of the survey confirmed once more the ongoing relevance of some traditional (and old-school digital) alternatives. Respondents were asked to identify their three most important marketing channels, the two most popular identified were websites (selected by 76 per cent of respondents) and email (59 per cent); both of which are digital channels, but neither of which are new. Third most popular was face-to-face events (53 per cent) – meanwhile social media came a poor fourth (43 per cent) and online advertising received only 21 per cent.
Don’t splash the cash
Finally, the survey sought to understand the barriers and obstacles preventing marketers from adopting modern digital techniques, and respondents were asked to identify their top three from a list. Perhaps predictably, ‘budget constraints’ was identified as marketers’ number one concern, cited by 54 per cent of respondents. Clearly limitation of marketing investment is a challenge refusing to go away, and in some respects may be seen as a defining characteristic of the B2B sector.
Another perennial challenge in B2B marketing featuring strongly in the results to this question was ‘data’ – with 38 per cent citing ‘poor data collection infrastructure’ and 28 per cent citing ‘lack of data support from sales when evaluating leads’, making data as a whole the second and third most pressing obstacle.
Interestingly, a quarter of respondents cited inability to change – or ‘prevailing belief that existing methods can meet current needs’ – as a major obstacle. This suggests these organisations (or key decision makers within them) have yet to accept the need for profound change. On the other hand, 11 per cent of respondents could not identify any obstacles at all, claiming that they are ‘already modern marketers’. It will be interesting to see how this changes in the next 12 months.
What makes a modern marketer? Read Sylvia Jensen, director of EMEA marketing at Oracle Eloqua, post to find out.