Report analysed the digital footprint of 509 of the top business-to-business organisations in the Thames Valley and Solent and discovered: 80% of these companies have fundamental problems with their online presence that directly impact their sales.
It is identified 8 key digital marketing signals. Then we gave each a weighting based on how important they are. Then scored each business to find out how likely it is would be that a customer or prospect could find them and then find the information they needed. Three of the finding are:
Only 21% of companies had ever tried using Google AdWords and many had implemented it ineffectively.
79% of companies not using Google my Business, a free service that helps clients find your company both online and in the real world.
Less than 6% of companies were using remarketing.
Dr John Woods of Sharp Ahead said: Although there are some outstanding examples in our survey of B2B companies doing digital marketing really well, the overall picture is that most B2B companies in our survey sample are neglecting their digital channels. Many companies are ignoring basic requirements like having a mobile-friendly website. Its quite a surprise: these are substantial companies with turnover of 10M/yr and upwards, so they really should have the resources to invest in digital.
Dr Woods continued B2B companies neglect digital marketing at their peril. In even the most conservative and slow-moving B2B industries, buyers are increasingly using digital channels to find and select suppliers, so a strong digital footprint is essential for long-term competitive success. Theres a great opportunity for B2B companies in conservative industries to achieve spectacular market share growth by investing in digital. We predict that B2B companies with weak digital marketing will be overtaken by their more digital-savvy competitors over the next few years. Well repeat our survey later in 2016 to test this prediction.