Research carried out by Intelligenzia points out growth trends for B2B companies in the coming years .
At least 75.4% of professionals leading the Marketing area of B2B companies are betting on the use of data and the integration of Artificial Intelligence and the use of chatbots in the relationship strategy with the market. This is one of the conclusions of the survey The Status of B2B Marketing – 2022 edition, with 290 professionals from the areas of Marketing and Communication, between the months of July and October of last year.
The increasing proximity to technology is a consequence of the effects of the Digital Transformation that occurred in Marketing after the pandemic caused by Covid-19, which radically changed the way companies communicate. This change had an even greater impact especially in B2B – more traditional sectors such as manufacturing, for example, have always depended on events and face-to-face contacts to generate new business.
Paradigm shift
New digital strategies and the introduction of technologies have led companies to seek out more suppliers – and, in fact, there has been an increase in the number of companies that rely on some level of cyprus whatsapp data outsourcing of their Marketing areas. In 2021, at least 73% of companies reported relying on suppliers to support their operations. To give you an idea, in 2019 this number was 48.4% – that is, the increase recorded was 24.6%.
Regarding the hiring model, the numbers remain consistent compared to previous years, with 76.1% of companies opting for separate agencies – only 23.1% of respondents rely on integrated agencies to perform all services. This also reflects the current market itself: press offices and marketing agencies are still separate competencies in the market.
At the same time that the number of companies outsourcing marketing operations has increased, the number of marketing employees has also increased. The number of companies with only one marketing employee has decreased by 14.2%, while the number of marketing departments with two people has increased from 11.8% to 20.6%.
The hiring of agencies and the increase in Marketing areas during the pandemic reveals the effort that B2B companies made during the period in an attempt to replace more traditional ways of generating business, requiring more human and financial resources.
The press in focus
For the first time in recent years, press relations services have appeared in the focus of hiring new suppliers by B2B companies. At least 63% of respondents said they hire press services – Digital Marketing services appear in second place, with 60% of hirings.
The impact on the search for this type of supplier is due to the boost in traditional media – which gained more audience after the pandemic. The consequence is that the press vehicles had a huge peak in audience – which has been slowing down in 2021.
Social media: no surprises
Today, the main social media channels used by the B2B segment continue to be LinkedIn (78.3%), Instagram (46.8%) and YouTube (33.9%) – Facebook currently ranks fourth, with 25% of the preference. In 2019, Facebook was preferred by 76.7% of survey respondents. Two years later, the social network's erosion due to fake news, data leaks and low engagement by a younger population has driven companies away from social media, which has seen a 51.7% drop in companies' preference for this channel.
YouTube has been used more as organic media and little in paid media due to its low results in delivering qualified leads for B2B. Paid investment is concentrated on LinkedIn and Facebook/Instagram – the most important media for the segment historically.
The B2B Marketing Status was conducted by Intelligenzia involving professionals from the Southeast, South, Central-West and Northeast regions, focusing on Technology, Industry and Services companies. At least 58.7% of the companies have over 100 employees; 15.9% of the companies have 50 to 100 employees; 15% of the organizations have over 500 employees and, finally, 10.4% of the organizations whose leaders participated have 11 to 50 employees.