Recent research has found fewer than 1 in 4 B2B marketers rating their customer experience (CX) as excellent. But with B2B CMOs keeping their focus on CX, what priorities will digital marketers take to improve their customers’ experience in the year ahead? A new report [download page] from Wpromote and Ascend2 takes a look.
Based on a May survey of 321 B2B marketing professionals at companies with at least 50 employees, the report reveals that the top priority for respondents in the year ahead to improve CX is to invest in new content and creative, as cited by 42% of respondents. Closely following, 4 in 10 said they will be expanding their retention strategies to current customers.
Another priority for CX improvement in the coming year is aligning teams and tactics to create a seamless brand experience (36%). This is noteworthy in light of recent data indicating that the biggest challenge for B2B marketers in providing an exceptional experience is lack of communication between teams.
Other priorities for CX improvement include testing new channels and tactics based on behavioral insights (36%), adding opportunities for two-way interaction (31%), unifying data across the entire customer lifecycle (30%) and improving UX/UI and site optimization (25%).
Social Media Valued by B2B Marketers
Social media shows up in various responses across the report as a key channel for respondents. When asked which digital marketing strategy trends they are prioritizing, respondents pointed to new social platforms (37%) as their second-most cited, just behind video marketing (38%).
Moreover, the B2B marketers surveyed were most likely to say that social media is their most effective digital channel for driving revenue (50%), ahead of content marketing (47%) and email (41%).
Social’s value is perceived across the funnel. It is regarded as a top upper-funnel tactic, by almost half (47%) of respondents, edging out email (45%) and ahead of paid search (30%), interactive content (30%) and site content, including blogs (30%).
Among bottom-funnel tactics, social media (36%) is second only to email (44%), and is again ahead of paid search, virtual events, and interactive content.
Other Findings:
- More than three-quarters of respondents expect their budget dedicated to implementing new marketing technology to increase significantly (16%) or moderately (61%) in the year ahead.
- The top industry shift for B2B marketers this year is the shift from lead volume to lead quality, with the latter more of a challenge than the former.
- Only 26% of respondents this year cited the shift from single-channel dependence to a diversified marketing strategy as a top industry shift of focus, down from 35% last year.
- The most-cited challenge to successful lead generation is collecting quality data (41%).
- B2B marketers’ top objective this year is to increase revenue.
For more, download the report here.
