B2B marketers seek more streamlined approach to marketing tools, cite the need to focus more on clients and customers
While B2B marketers have more data than ever, they cannot harness it in a way that helps them market more effectively with 85% of marketers spending more time than ever managing marketing technology, at the expense of spending time engaging with customers.
B2B martech
Available today, a new study commissioned by the Martech Industry Council highlights the surprising dearth of accessible data and intelligence to B2B marketers. The study of senior marketing leaders in B2B companies suggests that B2B marketers are not taking advantage of data on external channels, such as social media and advertising.
Citing their top frustrations with martech, respondents complained of too many technologies (50%) followed by problems integrating the technologies (49%). The lack of integration created a number of problems including an incomplete view of their funnel with 98% of the respondents indicating that they wanted more information about the individuals and companies in their databases.
According to the survey, while B2B marketers focus their efforts on helping sales grow the business by driving traffic and leads (34%) and retaining customers (29%). Further, the number one thing marketers were asked by sales was if they had more leads, with 54% of those surveyed saying it was the by far the ‘top ask’ from the sales department. The survey also found that martech has become a vast archipelago with 25% of marketers saying they must use over 20 tools with the highest being 98 different tools.
Although 79% said they were seeing somewhat more value from their marketing technologies, 60% were asking for a more accurate understanding of the buyer persona and person most likely to buy. With more than 75% of those surveyed saying they'd prefer to spend more time developing and launching new campaigns, only 11% said they wanted to spend their workdays managing their databases.
The report indicates that, unlike their B2C counterparts, B2B marketers now have more data and marketing technology than ever before. But, unlike B2C, the tools are not yet integrated, and create a challenge for B2B marketers to know their audience.
With the increase in digital marketing in the B2B space, massive amounts of data and marketing technologies are now a part of the enterprise landscape. Yet, “despite their investment in big data practices and technologies, many firms still paddle in a sea of data without the ability to prioritize results and and insights they can use," according to Brian Hopkins and Ted Schadler, VP principal analysts, in a Forrester report.
To that end, the San Francisco software company Leadspace announced today the launch of the first Audience Management Platform for B2B marketing – a concept which, until now, was the sole preserve of B2C marketers. The launch coincides with the publication of this report.
While the marketers surveyed said they know managing their data is critical to success, the vast majority acknowledged that they spend as little time as possible dealing with it. Marketers are looking for a way to automate the data and intelligence gathering process and use it to fuel their primary goal – identified by the survey as supporting sales by generating qualified leads.