B2B marketing benchmarks with tips

B2B marketing is being researched more and more, and that gives us valuable insights. We use them to refine our strategies and make them more effective. We've lined up the key findings from recent research for you. Discover how long the average journey takes from first interaction to purchase, how many stakeholders are involved, and how important demand generation is in combination with a proactive content strategy. Here are the 8 key insights you shouldn't miss.

192 days

Length of the buyer journey

On average, it takes 192 days from the first interaction (first touch) to purchase, with 32 touchpoints (Source: Dreamdata). From the first interaction, it takes an average of 34 days to the first contact and 84 days to the first sales opportunity. For organisations with more than 250 employees, this process takes an average of 242 days, while for organisations with fewer than 50 employees it takes an average of 147 days. This means the buying process varies considerably depending on the size of the organisation. 

Tip: to really calculate the ROI on a closed deal, you'll need (a lot of) patience. 

35% of the customer journey is self-directed

According to Gartner, 35% of the customer journey is completed independently, without actively searching for specific content. That's why it's important to offer your content proactively to your ideal customer. This content must be genuinely valuable and really help them in their buying process. It means you can't wait for potential customers to search for your information; you need to actively provide them with useful, relevant content to support and influence them throughout their customer journey. 

Tip: increase the availability and accessibility of content to support the self-directed customer. 

2-10 stakeholders

Number of stakeholders in the buying process 

On average, two stakeholders or departments are involved in a purchase. In a B2B purchase, the number of people involved can rise to ten (Source: Gartner). Take this into account when developing content. By creating content that is relevant to different stakeholders, you can influence the buying process and make sure all the key decision-makers are well informed and consider your solution. 

Tip: develop personalised content aimed at the different roles within the Decision Making Unit. 

5% of your market is active

Only 3% to 5% of the total market is actively looking to buy at any given moment (Source: B2B Institute). This means traditional demand capture methods such as SEO and SEA reach only a small part of the market. For the remaining 95% of the market, you need a demand generation approach to spark interest and stimulate future purchases. 

Tip: focus on building brand awareness and generating demand by staying top of mind with potential customers. 

80% start with a shortlist

Starting point of the

According to research by Bain & Co, 80% of all purchases start with drawing up a shortlist of possible suppliers or products. Of these shortlists, 80% of the selected companies are ultimately chosen for the purchase. This underlines how important it is for companies to get onto these shortlists, because once they're on them, there's a good chance they'll actually be chosen. It shows how decisive the initial consideration and selection are in the buying process. 

Tip: make sure your company is on this shortlist through proactive relationship building, PR and networking. 

60% branding 40% sales

The ideal split of your marketing budget

The ideal split of B2B marketing budgets is 60% for brand building and 40% for performance marketing (Source: Binet & Field). Brand building focuses on long-term strategies such as increasing brand awareness and building brand preference. Performance marketing focuses more on direct, measurable results such as lead generation and sales. This split helps companies both strengthen their brand and achieve their sales targets. 

Tip: invest 60% of your marketing budget in brand building and 40% in performance marketing to drive long-term growth. 

Only 16% work together

Marketing & sales alignment

Research shows that marketing and sales target the same customers in only 16% of cases (Source: B2B Institute). This means there is often a misalignment between the two departments, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. Effective collaboration and alignment between marketing and sales are crucial to make sure both teams focus on the same target customers, which increases the chance of success. 

Tip: implement measurement tools to monitor the impact of branding and demand generation activities, and use the same suspect lists in which touchpoints are tracked (through a CRM). Also consider company recognition software such as Leadinfo to show sales teams which suspects are visiting your site, and push these interested companies into your CRM so sales recognises them and is kept informed. 

12 months' wait for success

When do you see results from demand generation?

Demand generation leads to significant improvements in marketing results. It can result in a 79% increase in website visitors, a 76% increase in the number of opportunities in the pipeline and a doubling of the number of branded searches (Sources: Refine Labs & Aron Even). After 3 to 6 months, the first interested leads (hand-raisers) start coming forward. After 12 months, the results become significant, with an increase in new business (Source: CP Marketing by CoLab). 

Tip: focus on the number of opportunities, hand-raisers, direct traffic, brand awareness and social media followers. And be patient as a CEO or CCO if you don't see leads pouring in within 2 months. Especially with 'high-ticket sales' involving orders worth hundreds of thousands, you'll need to keep this up for at least 1.5 years. 

B2B marketing is changing. The key to success lies in adapting to the new reality, with customer focus, data-driven insights and the integration of sales and marketing at its heart. Partout's marketing team is happy to help! Contact us for more information.