Is It Time to Change the Channel on B2B Marketing?

When I started out in industrial marketing in the late 70s, both the sales funnel and the marcom tools needed for it were few and far between — and relatively simple.

We created a trade journal print ad offering a free color brochure. We mailed the brochure to the prospects who requested it. Then a sales rep followed up to make the sale.

In addition to brochures and print ads, the other major B2B marcom tools were primarily trade show exhibits, direct mail, postcard decks, press releases, and planted feature articles in the trade journals.

Today, that funnel has largely been supplanted by new multichannel marcom models and methods. But which are the most popular and prevalent?

Veteran copywriter Steve Slaunwhite says, “Recently, I've been doing informal surveys of B2B buyers who are under 30. I ask them to describe their typical buying journey. Here's what they're telling me:

“For a product: Search Google, visit the product description page, read online reviews, talk to a sales rep.

“For a professional service: Search LinkedIn, read a few recent posts of the prospective service provider, visit their website, set up a call or meeting.

“When I ask about email for getting to know the company or professional, staying in touch, getting special offers, product/service updates, etc. they say they prefer social media.”

Steve says he found that younger B2B buyers have a growing dislike for email. I have also noticed a growing minority of B2B marketers using SMS texting — both as a follow up, and less often, as a marketing outreach tactic to cold lead.

Social media, defying my predictions to the contrary, has become a go-to marcom channel — with LinkedIn leading the list. HubSpot[1] says the top channels used by B2B marketers are social media, websites, blogs, and yes, they also still say email.

According to an article in ANA Business Marketing SmartBrief (5/31/23), 70% of companies surveyed plan to increase their marketing budgets this year. Of those, 56% are spending that increased budget on social media — their top choice — vs. only 40% on paid search, the #2 choice.

Another phenomenon of note today is prospect’s reduced reliance on salespeople. In the 20^th century, after the prospect requested a product brochure, marketing handed off the lead to the sales team, who then provided whatever additional information the prospect wanted to know.

Today, with content-rich B2B websites, the prospect can get a lot further long with his product research on his own, before speaking to a sales rep. In fact, some B2B e-commerce enables customers to place orders online, with no salesperson involvement.

Bottom line: the multitude of marcom tactics, tools, and channels now available to us today makes effective planning of omnichannel B2B marketing campaigns more complex and challenging than ever.

But at the same time, when properly planned and executed, these more sophisticated sales funnels, integrating both print and digital, can often reduce marketing costs, increase sales, and improve ROI.

About the author:

Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter specializing in B2B and direct marketing. He  has written copy for over 100 companies including Sony, IBM, AT&T, and Intuit. McGraw-Hill calls Bob Bly “America’s copy copywriter.”

Bob is the author of 100 books including The Copywriter’s Handbook (St. Martins). He can be reached via email at rwbly@bly.com or on the web at www.bly.com

[1] https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-channels