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Inbound marketing statistics every B2B marketer needs to know

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5 Mar 2015 | by Ian Blake

Inbound marketing has changed the very fabric of B2B marketing. Get the hard facts with these inbound statistics all B2B marketers should know.

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The very way B2B buyers engage with brands has changed. As a consequence B2B marketers need to align themselves with this new way of buying. Interruptive outbound marketing is becoming increasingly ineffective as inbound has risen as a major source of growth and revenue for smart B2B marketers globally. Meaningfully connecting with audiences and engaging them with quality content (the very essence of inbound) generates results that traditional, outbound tactics simply can’t replicate.

Various online resources, such as HubSpot’s 2014 State of Inbound Marketing Annual Report, provide valuable insights into the evolving world of inbound marketing. In this blog, we identify and explain some of the most powerful inbound statistics every B2B marketer should know.

Content statistics

Content is king when it comes to inbound marketing; driving engagement with your audience through blogging, informative offers and email is what makes inbound not just possible, but profitable. The following are key statistics on inbound marketing content for B2B marketers:

  • Marketers that make blogging and quality content a priority are 13 times more likely to have positive ROI. The actual content you regularly provide audiences with is the biggest driving factor for inbound performance. B2B marketers with a consistent, campaign-oriented blogging plan generate significantly more traffic than those who don’t.
  • Blogs with featured images attract a significant 94% more views than those without. A sizeable majority of your desired audience (and the entire population, in fact) are visual learners; attaching related images to your blogs and offering visual content, such as infographics or videos, can set your B2B marketing efforts ahead in generating traffic.
  • Blogs provide over 97% more indexed links for B2B websites, as well as over 430% more indexed pages. This leads to higher search engine rankings, and drives further traffic to your site. Optimised content and organic SEO accounts for roughly 14% of all inbound marketing leads. This being said, content is only a part of the inbound equation. Context systems like CRMs are also essential to drive ROI and personalise the buyer journey.
  • Keeping your audience informed is central to inbound marketing methodology; this is why 61% of B2B marketing teams list webinars as the most effective content marketing practice. To drive potential buyers through the sales process, B2B marketers must keep their audience informed at all stages of the sales funnel. When it comes to leads in the middle of your company’s sales funnel, an educational webinar is a promising tactic to drive conversion.

Inbound cost statistics

Of course, we can’t talk about inbound without bringing up the cost. What drives inbound ROI, and how much does a consistent inbound strategy cost in relation to outbound? Check out these stats on the value that inbound marketing provides B2B companies:

  • Inbound marketing costs B2B marketers (on average) 60% less per lead than outbound. Inbound strategies abandon the advertising focus of marketing for a more buyer-centric approach, delivering quality content to audiences when and where they want it. For B2B companies with 51-200 employees, specifically, cost per lead through inbound is 3x less expensive than through outbound.
  • B2B marketers can save as much as €20,000 per year by prioritising inbound over outbound. With lower cost per lead and higher conversion rates, inbound marketing offers  greater value than outbound in virtually all aspects.

Social media statistics

Inbound marketing for B2B companies is incomplete without an active social media presence. To provide some insight into the crucial role social media plays in inbound strategy, here are some of the most relevant social stats marketers should consider:

  • Around 44% of B2B marketers report they have generated leads through LinkedIn, compared to only 30% of marketers using Twitter. When it comes to B2B social media, business-oriented LinkedIn proves much more effective at engaging target audiences than Twitter or Facebook.
  • 62% or marketers report that social media has become an integral role in crafting a marketing campaign. The most effective inbound campaigns are those that use social media interaction, as well as blogging, CTAs and landing pages, to attract audiences.
  • Twitter posts with statistics generate over 5% more retweets than those without; B2B audiences want to see the hard data on trends and activity that affects them. Including statistics in your social media posts catches attention, and creates a tangible element for your content.

Inbound methodologies have been proven to generate valuable B2B leads and convert audiences with more efficiency than outbound efforts. It’s our hope that these statistics have provided some valuable insight into the way inbound works for B2B marketing. The very landscape of marketing has changed; if you’re not incorporating inbound into your B2B strategy, you’re missing out on huge growth opportunities and putting a cap on your conversion potential.

Sources for the statistics above were taken from hubspot.com

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