Not all stats were created equal

“88.2% of statistics are made up on the spot” – Vic Reeves

We’ve spent a fair amount of time this past year knee-deep in stats, unearthing the sparkling gems that can change your B2B marketing for the better.

During our furtive foraging, we also uncovered a fair few duds which, if you were to drop them into a presentation, would cause quizzical frowns all round.

Here, then, are our Top 3 Worst and Top 3 Best stats from 2019.

The Worst

1. “96% of people in the UK do not trust what influencers say”

What this essentially boils down to is, if you were to ask your mate Gary down “Does marketing work on you?” he’ll say “No, marketing does not work on me.” But Gary only ever buys Coke, never Pepsi, and he has no idea why. And that’s how marketing works (sorry Gary). We wrote a whole post about this lunatic stat over here.

2. “LinkedIn generates 3x more leads than Twitter and Facebook combined”

This one has been knocking around in some form or another for years, and it remains deeply unhelpful because it doesn’t mean that LinkedIn an intrinsically better lead gen platform than Twitter or Facebook – it could simply mean that marketers are spending more money on LinkedIn.

3.“Traditional marketing generates 50% fewer interactions than digital marketing”

This checks out, sure, but if you don’t know the quality of those interactions, this isn’t a compelling case for increasing your investment in digital. I can send you a text every hour, on the hour, for the next month, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to buy my enterprise HR software.

The Best

1. “82% of B2B buyers wish B2B had the creativity associated with B2C.”

If you take one thing away from this year, make it this: B2B customers are begging for marketers to be more creative.

2. “61% of C-Suite Executives will pay a premium for a B2B service from a brand with a clear vision”

Words like ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ can seem totally divorced from the bottom line,but this isn’t true. B2B buyers are often looking for a partner – not a vendor – which means they’ll pay more for purpose.

3. “71% of executives think branded content is boring, expected and repetitive”

Be in the 29% that doesn’t bore executives to death. It really is that simple.

There you have it – the good, the bad and the ugly of a year spent B2B stat-hunting. You can find a full list of every stat we’ve found here.