b2b marketing research papers

Social Media Adoption, Usage And Impact In Business-To-Business (B2B) Context: A State-Of-The-Art Literature Review

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• Published: 02 February 2021
• Volume 25 , pages 971–993, ( 2023 )

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• Yogesh K. Dwivedi 1 ,
• Elvira Ismagilova 2 ,
• Nripendra P. Rana 2 &
• Ramakrishnan Raman 3  

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Social media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) companies. The current study focuses on the number of aspects of social media such as the effect of social media, social media tools, social media use, adoption of social media use and its barriers, social media strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of use of social media. This research provides a valuable synthesis of the relevant literature on social media in B2B context by analysing, performing weight analysis and discussing the key findings from existing research on social media. The findings of this study can be used as an informative framework on social media for both, academic and practitioners.

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1 Introduction

The Internet has changed social communications and social behaviour, which lead to the development of new forms of communication channels and platforms (Ismagilova et al. 2017 ). Social media plays an important part in the digital transformation of businesses (Kunsman 2018 ). Digital transformation refers to the globally accelerated process of technical adaptation by companies and communities as a result of digitalisation (Sivarajah et al. 2019 ; Westerman et al. 2014 ). Web is developed from a tool used to provide passive information into the collaborative web, which allows and encourages active user engagement and contribution. If before social networks were used to provide the information about a company or brand, nowadays businesses use social media in their marketing aims and strategies to improve consumers’ involvement, relationship with customers and get useful consumers’ insights (Alalwan et al. 2017 ). Business-to-consumer (B2C) companies widely use social media as part of their digital transformation and enjoy its benefits such as an increase in sales, brand awareness, and customer engagement to name a few (Barreda et al. 2015 ; Chatterjee and Kar 2020 ; Harrigan et al. 2020 ; Kamboj et al. 2018 ; Kapoor et al. 2018 ).

From a marketing and sales research perspective, social media is defined as “the technological component of the communication, transaction and relationship building functions of a business which leverages the network of customers and prospects to promote value co-creation” (Andzulis et al. 2012 p.308). Industrial buyers use social media for their purchase as they compare products, research the market and build relationships with salesperson (Itani et al. 2017 ). Social media changed the way how buyers and sellers interact (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ) by enabling open and broad communications and cooperation between them (Rossmann and Stei 2015 ). Social media is an important facilitator of relationships between a company and customers (Agnihotri et al. 2012 ; Tedeschi 2006 ). Customers are more connected to companies, which make them more knowledgable about product selection and more powerful in buyer-seller relationships (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ). Social media also helps companies to increase business exposure, traffic and providing marketplace insight (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ; Stelzner 2011 ). As a result, the use of social media supports business decision processes and helps to improve companies’ performance (Rossmann and Stei 2015 ).

Due to digitalisation customers are becoming more informed and rely less on traditional selling initiatives (Ancillai et al. 2019 ). Buyers are relying more on digital resources and their buying process more often involves the use of social media. For example, in the research B2B buyer survey, 82% of buyers stated that social media content has a significant impact on the purchase decision (Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Minsky and Quesenberry 2016 ). As a result, these changes in consumer behaviour place high pressure on B2B salespeople and traditional sales companies (Ancillai et al. 2019 ). By using evidence from major B2B companies and consultancy report some studies claim that social media can be applied in sales to establish effective dialogues with buyers (Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Kovac 2016 ; McKinsey and Company 2015 ).

Now, business-to-business (B2B) companies started using social media as part of their digital transformation. 83% of B2B companies use social media, which makes it the most common marketing tactic (Pulizzi and Handley 2017 ; Sobal 2017 ). More than 70% of B2B companies use at least one of the “big 4” social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Additionally, 50% of the companies stated that social media has improved their marketing optimization and customer experience, while 25% stated that their revenue went up (Gregorio 2017 ; Sobal 2017 ). Even though B2B companies are benefitting from social media used by marketers, it is argued that research on that area is still in the embryonic stage and future research is needed (Salo 2017 ; Siamagka et al. 2015 ; Juntunen et al. 2020 ; Iannacci et al. 2020 ). There is a limited understanding of how B2B companies need to change to embrace recent technological innovations and how it can lead to business and societal transformation (Chen et al. 2012 ; Loebbecke and Picot 2015 ; Pappas et al. 2018 ).

The topic of social media in the context of B2B companies has started attracting attention from both academics and practitioners. This is evidenced by the growing number of research output within academic journals and conference proceedings. Some studies provided a comprehensive literature review on social media use by B2B companies (Pascucci et al. 2018 ; Salo 2017 ), but focused only on adoption of social media by B2B or social media influence, without providing the whole picture of the use of social media by B2B companies. Thus, this study aims to close this gap in the literature by conducting a comprehensive analysis of the use of social media by B2B companies and discuss its role in the digital transformation of B2B companies. The findings of this study can provide an informative framework for research on social media in the context of B2B companies for academics and practitioners.

The remaining sections of the study are organised as follows. Section 2 offers a brief overview of the methods used to identify relevant studies to be included in this review. Section 3 synthesises the studies identified in the previous section and provides a detailed overview. Section 4 presents weight analysis and its findings. Next section discusses the key aspects of the research, highlights any limitations within existing studies and explores the potential directions for future research. Finally, the paper is concluded in Section 6 .

2 Literature Search Method

The approach utilised in this study aligns with the recommendations in Webster and Watson ( 2002 ). This study used a keyword search-based approach for identifying relevant articles (Dwivedi et al. 2019b ; Ismagilova et al. 2020a ; Ismagilova et al. 2019 ; Jeyaraj and Dwivedi 2020 ; Williams et al. 2015 ). Keywords such as “Advertising” OR “Marketing” OR “Sales” AND TITLE (“Social Media” OR “Web 2.0” OR “Facebook” OR “LinkedIn” OR “Instagram” OR “Twitter” OR “Snapchat” OR “Pinterest” OR “WhatsApp” OR “Social Networking Sites”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (“B2B” OR “B to B” OR “Business to Business” OR “Business 2 Business”) were searched via the Scopus database. Scopus database was chosen to ensure the inclusion of only high quality studies. Use of online databases for conducting a systematic literature review became an emerging culture used by a number of information systems research studies (Dwivedi et al. 2019a ; Gupta et al. 2019 ; Ismagilova et al. 2020b ; Muhammad et al. 2018 ; Rana et al. 2019 ). The search resulted in 80 articles. All studies were processed by the authors in order to ensure relevance and that the research offered a contribution to the social media in the context B2B discussion. The search and review resulted in 70 articles and conference papers that formed the literature review for this study. The selected studies appeared in 33 separate journals and conference proceedings, including journals such as Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing and Journal of Business Research.

3 Literature Synthesis

The studies on social media research in the context of B2B companies were divided into the following themes: effect of social media, adoption of social media, social media strategies, social media use, measuring the effectiveness of use of social media, and social media tools (see Table 1 ). The following subsections provide an overview of each theme.

3.1 Effect of Social Media

Some studies focus on the effect of social media for B2B companies, which include customer satisfaction, value creation, intention to buy and sales, building relationships with customers, brand awareness, knowledge creation, perceived corporate credibility, acquiring of new customers, salesperson performance, employee brand engagement, and sustainability (Table 2 ).

3.1.1 Customer Satisfaction

Some studies investigated how the use of social media affected customer satisfaction (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ; Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Rossmann and Stei 2015 ). For example, Agnihotri et al. ( 2016 ) investigated how the implementation of social media by B2B salesperson affects consumer satisfaction. Salesperson’s social media use is defined as a “salesperson’s utilization and integration of social media technology to perform his or her job” (Agnihotri et al. 2016 , p.2). The study used data from 111 sales professionals involved in B2B industrial selling to test the proposed hypotheses. It was found that a salesperson’s use of social media will have a positive effect on information communication, which will, in turn, lead to improved customer satisfaction with the salesperson. Also, it was investigated that information communication will be positively related to responsiveness, which impacts customer satisfaction.

Another study by Rossmann and Stei ( 2015 ) looked at the antecedents of social media use, social media use by B2B companies and their effect on customers. By using data from 362 chief information officers of B2B companies the study found the following. Social media usage of sales representative has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Age has a negative effect on content generation. It seems that older salespeople use social media in passive ways or interacting with the customer rather than creating their own content. It was found that the quality of corporate social media strategy has a positive impact on social media usage in terms of the consumption of information, content generation, and active interaction with customers. Also, the expertise of a salesperson in the area of social media has a positive impact on social media usage.

3.1.2 Value Creation

Research in B2B found that social media can create value for customers and salesperson (Agnihotri et al. 2012 ; Agnihotri et al. 2017 ). Agnihotri et al. ( 2012 ) proposed a theoretical framework to explain the mechanisms through which salespeople’s use of social media operates to create value and propose a strategic approach to social media use to achieve competitive goals. The study draws on the existing literature on relationship marketing, task–technology fit theory, and sales service behavior to sketch a social media strategy for business-to-business sales organizations with relational selling objectives. The proposed framework describes how social media tools can help salespeople perform service behaviors (information sharing, customer service, and trust-building) leading to value creation.

Some researchers investigated the role of the salesperson in the value creation process after closing the sale. By employing salesperson-customer data within a business-to-business context, Agnihotri et al. ( 2017 ) analysed the direct effects of sales-based CRM technology on the post-sale service behaviors: diligence, information communication, inducements, empathy, and sportsmanship. Additionally, the study examines the interactive effects of sales-based CRM technology and social media on these behaviors. The results indicate that sales-based CRM technology has a positive influence on salesperson service behaviors and that salespeople using CRM technology in conjunction with social media are more likely to exhibit higher levels of SSBs than their counterparts with low social media technology use. Data were collected from 162 salespeople from India. SmartPLS was used to analyse the data.

3.1.3 Intention to Buy and Sales

Another group of studies investigated the effect of social media on the level of sales and consumer purchase intention (Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Itani et al. 2017 ; Salo 2017 ; Hsiao et al. 2020 ; Mahrous 2013 ). For example, Itani et al. ( 2017 ) used the theory of reasoned actions to develop a model that tests the factors affecting the use of social media by salesperson and its impact. By collecting data from 120 salespersons from different industries and using SmartPLS to analyse the data, it was found that attitude towards social media usefulness did not affect the use of social media. It was found that social media use positively affects competitive intelligence collection, adaptive selling behaviour, which in turn influenced sales performance. Another study by Ancillai et al. ( 2019 ) used in-depth interviews with social selling professionals. The findings suggest that the use of social media improves not only the level of sales but also affects relationship and customer performance (trust, customer satisfaction, customer referrals); and organisational performance (organisational selling performance and brand performance).

It was investigated that social media has a positive effect on the intention to purchase (Hsiao et al. 2020 ; Mahrous 2013 ). For instance, Mahrous ( 2013 ) by reviewing the literature on B2B and B2C companies concluded that social media has a significant influence on consumer buying behaviour.

3.1.4 Customer Relationships

Another group of studies focused on the effect of social media on customer relationships (Bhattacharjya and Ellison 2015 ; Gáti et al. 2018 ; Gruner and Power 2018 ; Hollebeek 2019 ; Iankova et al. 2018 ; Jussila et al. 2011 ; Kho 2008 ; Niedermeier et al. 2016 ; Ogilvie et al. 2018 ). For example, Bhattacharjya and Ellison ( 2015 ) investigated the way companies build relationships with customers by using responsive customer relationship management. The study analysed customer relationship management activities from Twitter account of a Canadian company Shopify (B2B service provider). The company uses Twitter to engage with small business customers, develops and consumers. Jussila et al. ( 2011 ), by reviewing the literature, found that social media leads to increased customer focus and understanding, increased level of customer service and decreased time-to-market.

Gáti et al. ( 2018 ) focused their research efforts on social media use in customer relationship performance, particularly in customer relations. The study investigated the adoption and impact of social media by salespeople of B2B companies. By using data of 112 salespeople from several industries the study found that the intensity of technology use positively affects attitude towards social media, which positively affects social media use. Intensive technology use in turn positively affects customer relationship performance (customer retention). PLS-SEM was applied for analysis.

Another study by Gruner and Power ( 2018 ) investigated the effectiveness of the use of multiple social media platforms in communications with customers. By using data from 208 large Australian organisations, the paper explores how companies’ investment in one form of social media impacts activity on another form of social media. A regression analysis was performed to analyse the data. It was found that widespread activities on LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube have a negative effect on a company’s marketing activity on Facebook. Thus, having it is more effective for the company to focus on a specific social media platform in forming successful inter-organisational relationships with customers.

Hollebeek ( 2019 ) proposed an integrative S-D logic/resource-based view (RBV) model of customer engagement. The proposed model considers business customer actors and resources in driving business customer resource integration, business customer resource integration effectiveness and business customer resource integration efficiency, which are antecedents of business customer engagement. Business customer engagement, in turn, results in business customer co-creation and relationship productivity.

Niedermeier et al. ( 2016 ) investigated the use of social media among salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry in China. Also, the study investigated the impact of social media on building culturally specific Guanxi relationships-it involves the exchange of factors to build trust and connection for business purpose. By using in-depth interviews with 3 sales managers and a survey of 42 pharmaceutical sales representatives that study found that WeChat is the most common social media platform used by businesses. Also, it was found to be an important tool in building Guanxi. Future studies should focus on other industries and other types of cultural features in doing business.

Ogilvie et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the effect of social media technologies on customer relationship performance and objective sales performance by using two empirical studies conducted in the United States. The first study used 375 salespeople from 1200 B2B companies. The second study used 181 respondents from the energy solution company. It was found that social media significantly affects salesperson product information communication, diligence, product knowledge and adaptability, which in turn affect customer relationship performance. It was also found that the use of social media technologies without training on technology will not lead to good results. Thus, the results propose that companies should allocate the resources required for the proper implementation of social media strategies. Future research should examine how the personality traits of a salesperson can moderate the implementation of social media technologies.

While most of the studies focused on a single country, Iankova et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the perceived effectiveness of social media by different types of businesses in two countries. By using 449 respondents from the US and the UK businesses, it was found that social media is potentially less important, at the present time, for managing ongoing relationships in B2B organizations than for B2C, Mixed or B2B2C organizations. All types of businesses ascribe similar importance to social media for acquisition-related activities. Also it was found that B2B organizations see social media as a less effective communication channel, and to have less potential as a channel for the business.

3.1.5 Brand Awareness

Some researchers argued that social media can influence brand awareness (Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Hsiao et al. 2020 ). For instance, Hsiao et al. ( 2020 ) investigated the effect of social media in the fashion industry. By collecting 1395 posts from lookbook.nu and employing regression analysis it was found that the inclusion of national brand and private fashion brands in the post increased the level of popularity which leads to purchasing interest and brand awareness.

3.1.6 Knowledge Creation

Multiple types of collaborative web tools can help and significantly increase the collaboration and the use of the distributed knowledge inside and outside of the company (McAfee 2006 ). Kärkkäinen et al. ( 2011 ) by analysing previous literature on social media proposed that social media use has a positive effect on sharing and creation of customer information and knowledge in the case of B2B companies.

3.1.7 Corporate Credibility

Another study by Kho ( 2008 ) states the advantages of using social media by B2B companies, which include faster and more personalised communications between customer and vendor, which can improve corporate credibility and strengthen the relationships. Thanks to social media companies can provide more detailed information about their products and services. Kho ( 2008 ) also mentions that customer forums and blog comments in the B2B environment should be carefully monitored in order to make sure that inappropriate discussions are taken offline and negative eWOM communications should be addressed in a timely manner.

3.1.8 Acquiring New Customers

Meire et al. ( 2017 ) investigated the impact of social media on acquiring B2B customers. By using commercially purchased prospecting data, website data and Facebook data from beverage companies the study conducted an experiment and found that social media us an effective tool in acquiring B2B customers. Future work might assess the added value of social media pages for profitability prediction instead of prospect conversion. When a longer timeframe becomes available (e.g., after one year), the profitability of the converted prospects can be assessed.

3.1.9 Salesperson Performance

Moncrief et al. ( 2015 ) investigated the impact of social media technologies on the role of salesperson position. It was found that social media affects sales management functions (supervision, selection, training, compensation, and deployment) and salesperson performance (role, skill, and motivation). Another study by Rodriguez et al. ( 2012 ) examines the effect of social media on B2B sales performance by using social capital theory and collecting data from 1699 B2B salespeople from over 25 different industries. By employing SEM AMOS, the study found that social media usage has a positive significant relationship with selling companies’ ability to create opportunities and manage relationships. The study also found that social media usage has a positive and significant relationship with sales performance (based on relational measurers of sales that focus on behaviours that strengthen the relationship between buyers and sellers), but not with outcome-based sales performance (reflected by quota achievement, growth in average billing size, and overall revenue gain).

3.1.10 Employee Brand Management

The study by Pitt et al. ( 2018 ) focuses on employee engagement with B2B companies on social media. By using results from Glassdoor (2315 five-star and 1983 one-star reviews for the highest-ranked firms, and 1013 five star and 1025 one-star reviews for lowest ranked firms) on employee brand engagement on social media, two key drivers of employee brand engagement by using the content analysis tool DICTION were identified-optimism and commonality. Individuals working in top-ranked companies expressed a higher level of optimism and commonality in comparison with individuals working in low-ranked companies. As a result, a 2 × 2 matrix was constructed which can help managers to choose strategies in order to increase and improve employee brand engagement. Another study by Pitt et al. ( 2017 ) focused on employee engagement of B2B companies on social media. By using a conceptual framework based on a theory of word choice and verbal tone and 6300 reviews collected from Glassdoor and analysed using DICTION. The study found that employees of highly ranked B2B companies are more positive about their employer brand and talk more optimistically about these brands. For low ranked B2B companies it was found that employees express a greater level of activity, certainty, and realism. Also, it was found that they used more aggressive language.

3.1.11 Sustainability

Sustainability refers to the strategy that helps a business “to meet its current requirements without compromising its ability to meet future needs” (World Commission Report on Environment and Development 1987 , p 41). Two studies out of 70 focused on the role of social media for B2B sustainability (Sivarajah et al. 2019 ; Kasper et al. 2015 ). For example, Sivarajah et al. ( 2019 ) argued that big data and social media within a participatory web environment to enable B2B organisations to become profitable and remain sustainable through strategic operations and marketing related business activities.

Another study by Kasper et al. ( 2015 ) proposed the Social Media Matrix which helps companies to decide which social media activities to execute based on their corporate and communication goals. The matrix includes three parts. The first part is focusing on social media goals and task areas, which were identified and matched. The second part consists of five types of social media activities (content, interaction/dialog, listening and analysing, application and networking). The third part provides a structure to assess the suitability of each activity type on each social media platform for each goal. The matrix was successfully tested by assessing the German B2B sector by using expert interviews with practitioners.

Based on the reviewed studies, it can be seen that if used appropriately social media have positive effect on B2B companies before and after sales, such as customer satisfaction, value creation, intention to buy and sales, customer relationships, brand awareness, knowledge creation, corporate credibility, acquiring new customers, salesperson performance, employee brand management, and sustainability. However, limited research is done on the negative effect of social media on b2b companies.

3.2 Adoption of Social Media

Some scholars investigated factors affecting the adoption of social media by B2B companies (Buratti et al. 2018 ; Gáti et al. 2018 ; Gazal et al. 2016 ; Itani et al. 2017 ; Kumar and Möller 2018 ; Lacka and Chong 2016 ). For instance, Lacka and Chong ( 2016 ) investigated factors affecting the adoption of social media by B2B companies from different industries in China. The study collected the data from 181 respondents and used the technology acceptance model with Nielsen’s model of attributes of system acceptability as a theoretical framework. By using SEM AMOS for analysis the study found that perceived usability, perceived usefulness, and perceived utility positively affect adoption and use of social media by B2B marketing professionals. The usefulness is subject to the assessment of whether social media sites are suitable means through which marketing activities can be conducted. The ability to use social media sites for B2B marketing purposes, in turn, is due to those sites learnability and memorability attributes.

Another study by Müller et al. ( 2018 ) investigated factors affecting the usage of social media. By using survey data from 100 Polish and 39 German sensor suppliers, it was found that buying frequency, the function of a buyer, the industry sector and the country does not affect the usage of social media in the context of sensor technology from Poland and Germany. The study used correlation analysis and ANOVA.

Lashgari et al. ( 2018 ) studied the adoption and use of social media by using face-to-face interviews with key managers of four multinational corporations and observations from companies’ websites and social media platforms. It was found that that the elements essential in forming the B2B firm’s social media adoption strategies are content (depth and diversity), corresponding social media platform, the structure of social media channels, the role of moderators, information accessibility approaches (public vs. gated-content), and online communities. These elements are customized to the goals and target group the firm sets to pursue. Similarly, integration of social media into other promotional channels can fall under an ad-hoc or continuous approach depending on the scope and the breadth of the communication plan, derived from the goal.

Similar to Lashgari et al. ( 2018 ), Shaltoni ( 2017 ) used data from managers. The study applied technology organisational environmental framework and diffusion of innovations to investigate factors affecting the adoption of social media by B2B companies. By using data from marketing managers or business owners of 480 SMEs, the study found that perceived relative advance, perceive compatibility, organizational innovativeness, competitor pressure, and customer pressure influence the adoption of social media by B2B companies. The findings also suggest that many decision-makers in B2B companies think that Internet marketing is not beneficial, as it is not compatible with the nature of B2B markets.

Buratti et al. ( 2018 ) investigated the adoption of social media by tanker shipping companies and ocean carriers. By using data from 60 companies the following was found. LinkedIn is the most used tool, with a 93.3% adoption rate. Firm size emerges as a predictor of Twitter’s adoption: big companies unveil a higher attitude to use it. Finally, the country of origin is not a strong influential factor in the adoption rate. Nonetheless, Asian firms clearly show a lower attitude to join SM tools such as Facebook (70%) and LinkedIn (86.7%), probably also due to governmental web restrictions imposed in China. External dimensions such as the core business, the firm size, the geographic area of origin, etc., seem to affect network wideness. Firm size, also, discriminates the capacity of firms to build relational networks. Bigger firms create networks larger than small firms do. Looking at geographical dimensions, Asian firms confirm to be far less active on SM respect to European and North American firms. Finally, the study analyzed the format of the contents disclosed by sample firms, observing quite limited use of photos and videos: in the sample industries, informational contents seem more appropriate for activating a dialogue with stakeholders and communication still appears formulated in a very traditional manner. Preliminary findings suggest that companies operating in conservative B2B services pursue different strategic approaches toward SMM and develop ad hoc communication tactics. Nonetheless, to be successful in managing SM tools, a high degree of commitment and a clear vision concerning the role of SM within communication and marketing strategy is necessary.

Gazal et al. ( 2016 ) investigated the adoption and measuring of the effectiveness of social media in the context of the US forest industry by using organisational-level adoption framework and TAM. By using data from 166 companies and performing regression analysis, the following results were received. Years in business, new sales revenue, product type, amount of available information on a company website, perceived importance of e-commerce and perceived ease of use of social media significantly affected social media use. Also, it was found that companies’ strategies and internal resources and capabilities and influence a company’s decision to adopt social media. Also, it was found that 94 of respondents do not measure the ROI from social media use. The reason is that the use of social media in marketing is relatively new and companies do not possess the knowledge of measuring ROI from the use of social media. Companies mostly use quantitative metrics (number of site visits, number of social network friends, number of comments and profile views) and qualitative metrics (growth of relationships with the key audience, audience participation, moving from monologue to dialogue with consumers. Facebook was found to be the most effective social media platform reported by the US forest industry.

The study by Kumar and Möller ( 2018 ) investigated the role of social media for B2B companies in their recruitment practices. By using data from international B2B company with headquarter in Helsinki, Finland comprised of 139 respondents it was found that brand familiarity encourages them to adopt social media platforms for a job search; however, the effect of the persuasiveness of recruitment messages on users’ adoption of social media platforms for their job search behavior is negative. The study used correlation analysis and descriptive analysis to analyse the data.

Nunan et al. ( 2018 ) identified areas for future research such as patterns of social media adoption, the role of social media platforms within the sales process, B2B consumer engagement and social media, modeling the ROI of social media, and the risks of social media within B2B sales relationships.

The study by Pascucci et al. ( 2018 ) conducted a systematic literature review on antecedents affecting the adoption and use of social media by B2B companies. By reviewing 29 studies published in academic journal and conferences from 2001 to 2017, the study identified external (pressure from customers, competitors, availability of external information about social media) and internal factors (personal characteristics -managers age, individual commitment, perceptions of social media-perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived utility), which can affect adoption of social media.

The study by Siamagka et al. ( 2015 ) aims to investigate factors affecting the adoption of social media by B2B organisations. The conceptual model was based on the technology acceptance model and the resource-based theory. AMOS software and Structural equation modelling were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. By using a sample of 105 UK companies, the study found that perceived usefulness of social media is influenced by image, perceived ease of use and perceived barriers. Also, it was found that social media adoption is significantly determined by organisational innovativeness and perceived usefulness. Additionally, the study tested the moderating role of organisational innovativeness and found that it does not affect the adoption of social media by B2B organisations. The study also identified that perceived barriers to SNS (uncertainty about how to use SNS to achieve objectives, employee’s lack of knowledge about SNS, high cost of investment needed to adopt the technology) have a negative impact on perceived usefulness of social media by B2B organisations. The study also used nine in-depth interviews with B2B senior managers and social media specialists about adoption of social media by B2B. It was found that perceived pressure from stakeholders influences B2B organisations’ adoption intention of social media. Future research should test it by using quantitative methods.

While most of the studies focused on the antecedents of social media adoption by B2B companies, Michaelidou et al. ( 2011 ) investigated the usage, perceived barriers and measuring the effectiveness of social media. By using data from 92 SMEs the study found that over a quarter of B2B SMEs in the UK are currently using SNS to achieve brand objectives, the most popular of which is to attract new customers. The barriers that prevent SMEs from using social media to support their brands were lack of staff familiarity and technical skills. Innovativeness of a company determined the adoption of social media. It was found that most of the companies do not evaluate the effectiveness of their SNS in supporting their brand. The most popular measures were the number of users joining the groups/discussion and the number of comments made. The findings showed that the size of the company does not influence the usage of social media for small and medium-sized companies. Future research should investigate the usage of social media in large companies and determine if the size can have and influence on the use. The benefits of using social media include increasing awareness and communicating the brand online. B2B companies can employ social media to create customer value in the form of interacting with customers, as well as building and fostering customer relationships. Future research should investigate the reasons why most of the users do not assess the effectiveness of their SNS. Future research should also investigate how the attitude towards technology can influence the adoption of social media.

Based on the reviewed studies it can be seen that the main factors affecting the adoption of social media by B2B companies are perceived usability, technical skills of employees, pressure from stakeholders, perceived usefulness and innovativeness.

3.3 Social Media Strategies

Another group of studies investigated types of strategies B2B companies apply (Cawsey and Rowley 2016 ; Huotari et al. 2015 ; Kasper et al. 2015 ; McShane et al. 2019 ; Mudambi et al. 2019 ; Swani et al. 2013 ; Swani et al. 2014 ; Swani et al. 2017 ; Watt 2010 ). For example, Cawsey and Rowley ( 2016 ) focused on the social media strategies of B2B companies. By conducting semi-structured interviews with marketing professionals from France, Ireland, the UK and the USA it was found that enhancing brand image, extending brand awareness and facilitating customer engagement were considered the most common social media objective. The study proposed the B2B social media strategy framework, which includes six components of a social media strategy: 1) monitoring and listening 2) empowering and engaging employees 3) creating compelling content 4) stimulating eWOM 5) evaluating and selecting channels 6) enhancing brand presence through integrating social media.

Chirumalla et al. ( 2018 ) focused on the social media engagement strategies of manufacturing companies. By using semi-structured interviews (36), observations (4), focus group meetings (6), and documentation, the study developed the process of social media adoption through a three-phase engagement strategy which includes coordination, cooperation, and co-production.

McShane et al. ( 2019 ) proposed social media strategies to influence online users’ engagement with B2B companies. Taking into consideration fluency lens the study analysed Twitter feeds of top 50 social B2B brands to examine the influence of hashtags, text difficulty embedded media and message timing on user engagement, which was evaluated in terms of likes and retweets. It was found that hashtags and text difficulty are connected to lower levels of engagement while embedded media such as images and videos improve the level of engagement.

Swani et al. ( 2014 ) investigate the use of Twitter by B2B and B2C companies and predict factors that influence message strategies. The study conducted a longitudinal content analysis by collecting 7000 tweets from Fortune 500 companies. It was found that B2B and B2C companies used different message appeals, cues, links and hashtags. B2B companies tend to use more emotional than functional appeals. It was found that B2B and B2C companies do not use hard-sell message strategies.

Another study by Swani et al. ( 2013 ) aimed to investigate message strategies that can help in promoting eWOM activity for B2B companies. By applying content analysis and hierarchical linear modeling the study analysed 1143 wall post messages from 193 fortune 500 Facebook accounts. The study found that B2B account posts will be more effective if they include corporate brand names and avoid hard sell or explicitly commercial statement. Also, companies should use emotional sentiment in Facebook posts.

Huotari et al. ( 2015 ) aimed to investigate how B2B marketers can influence content creation in social media. By conducting four face-to-face interviews with B2B marketers, it was found that a B2B company can influence content creation in social media directly by adding new content, participating in a discussion and removing content through corporate user accounts and controlling employees social media behaviour. Also, it can influence it indirectly by training employees to create desired content and perfuming marketing activities that influence other users to create content that is favorable for the company.

Most of the studies investigated the strategies and content of social media communications of B2B companies. However, the limited number of studies investigated the importance of CEO engagement on social media in the company’s strategies. Mudambi et al. ( 2019 ) emphasise the importance of the CEO of B2B companies to be present and active on social media. The study discusses the advantages of social media presence for the CEO and how it will benefit the company. For example, one of the benefits for the CEO can be perceived as being more trustworthy and effective than non-social CEOs, which will benefit the company in increased customer trust. Mudambi et al. ( 2019 ) also discussed the platforms the CEO should use and posting frequencies depending on the content of the post.

From the above review of the studies, it can be seen that B2B companies social media strategies include enhancing brand image, extending brand awareness and facilitating customer engagement. Companies use various message strategies, such as using emotional appeal, use of brand names, and use of hashtags. Majority of the companies avoid hard sell or explicitly commercial statement.

3.4 Social Media Use

Studies investigated the way how companies used social media and factors affecting the use of social media by B2B (Andersson et al. 2013 ; Bernard 2016 ; Bolat et al. 2016 ; Denktaş-Şakar and Sürücü 2018 ; Dyck 2010 ; Guesalaga 2016 ; Habibi et al. 2015 ). For example, Vasudevan and Kumar ( 2018 ) investigated how B2B companies use social media by analysing 325 brand posts of Canon India, Epson India, and HP India on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. By employing content analysis the study found that most of the posts had a combination of text and message. More than 50% of the posts were about product or brand-centric. The study argued that likes proved to be an unreliable measure of engagement, while shares were considered a more reliable metric. The reason was that likes had high spikes when brand posts were boosted during promotional activities.

Andersson and Wikström ( 2017 ) used case studies of three B2B companies to investigate reasons for using social media. It was found that companies use social media to enhance customer relationships, support sales and build their brands. Also, social media is used as a recruiting tool, a seeking tool, and a product information and service tool.

Bell and Shirzad ( 2013 ) aimed to conduct social media use analysis in the context of pharmaceutical companies. The study analysed 54,365 tweets from the top five pharmaceutical companies. The study analysed the popular time slots, the average number of positive and negative tweets and its content by using Nvivo9.

Bernard ( 2016 ) aims to examine how chief marketing officers use social media. By using case studies from IBM experience with social media it was found that B2B CMO’s are not ready to make use of social media. It was proposed that social media can be used for after-sales service, getting sales leads, engaging with key influencers, building the company’s reputation and enhancing the industry status of key individuals. B2B firms need to exploit the capabilities of processing massive amounts of data to get the most from social media.

Bolat et al. ( 2016 ) explore how companies apply mobile social media. By employing a grounded theory approach to analyse interviews from 26 B2B company representatives from UK advertising and marketing sector companies. It was found that companies use social media for branding, sensing market, managing relationships, and developing content.

Denktaş-Şakar and Sürücü ( 2018 ) investigated how social media usage influence stakeholder engagement focusing on the corporate Facebook page of 30 3PLs companies. In total 1532 Facebook posts were analysed. It was found that the number of followers, post sharing frequency, negatively affect stakeholder engagement. It was found that content including photos facilitates more stakeholder engagement (likes, comment, share) in comparison with other forms. Vivid posts and special day celebration posts strengthen relationships with stakeholders.

Dyck ( 2010 ) discussed the advantages of using social media for the device industry. Social media can be used for product innovation and development, to build a team and collaborate globally. Also, there is an opportunity to connect with all of the stakeholders needed in order to deliver the device to the market. Additionally, it provides to receive feedback from customers (doctors, hospitals) in real-time.

The study by Guesalaga ( 2016 ) draws on interactional psychology theory to propose and test a model of usage of social media in sales, analysing individual, organizational, and customer-related factors. It was found that organizational competence and commitment to social media are key determinants of social media usage in sales, as well as individual commitment. Customer engagement with social media also predicts social media usage in sales, both directly and (mostly) through the individual and organizational factors analysed, especially organizational competence and commitment. Finally, the study found evidence of synergistic effects between individual competence and commitment, which is not found at the organizational level. The data obtained by surveying 220 sales executives in the United States were analysed using regression analysis.

Habibi et al. ( 2015 ) proposed a conceptual model for the implementation of social media by B2B companies. Based on existing B2B marketing, social media and organisational orientational literature the study proposed that four components of electronic market orientation (philosophical, initiation, implementation and adoption) address different implementation issues faced in implementing social media.

Katona and Sarvary ( 2014 ) presented a case of using social media by Maersk-the largest container shipping company in the world. The case provided details on the program launch and the integration strategy which focused on integrating the largest independent social media operation into the company’s broader marketing efforts.

Moore et al. ( 2013 ) provided insights into the understanding of the use of social media by salespersons. 395 salespeople in B2B and B2C markets, utilization of relationship-oriented social media applications are presented and examined. Overall, findings show that B2B practitioners tend to use media targeted at professionals whereas their B2C counterparts tend to utilize more sites targeted to the general public for engaging in one-on-one dialogue with their customers. Moreover, B2B professionals tend to use relationship-oriented social media technologies more than B2C professionals for the purpose of prospecting, handling objections, and after-sale follow-up.

Moore et al. ( 2015 ) investigated the use of social media between B2B and B2C salespeople. By using survey data from 395 sales professionals from different industries they found that B2B sales managers use social selling tools significantly more frequently than B2C managers and B2C sales representatives while conducting sales presentations. Also, it was found that B2B managers used social selling tools significantly more frequently than all sales representatives while closing sales.

Müller et al. ( 2013 ) investigated social media use in the German automotive market. By using online analysis of 10 most popular car manufacturers online social networks and surveys of six manufacturers, 42 car dealers, 199 buyers the study found that social media communication relations are widely established between manufacturers and (prospective) buyers and only partially established between car dealers and prospective buyers. In contrast to that, on the B2B side, social media communication is rarely used. Social Online Networks (SONs) are the most popular social media channels employed by businesses. Manufacturers and car dealers focus their social media engagement, especially on Facebook. From the perspective of prospective buyers, however, forums are the most important source of information.

Sułkowski and Kaczorowska-Spychalska ( 2016 ) investigated the adoption of social media by companies in the Polish textile-clothing industry. By interviewing seven companies representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises the study found that companies started implementing social media activities in their marketing activities.

Vukanovic ( 2013 ) by reviewing previous literature on social media outlined advantages of using social media for B2B companies, which include: increase customer loyalty and trust, building and improving corporate reputation, facilitating open communications, improvement in customer engagement to name a few.

Keinänen and Kuivalainen ( 2015 ) investigated factors affecting the use of social media by B2B customers by conducting an online survey among 82 key customer accounts of an information technology service company. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analysed the proposed hypotheses. It was found that social media private use, colleague support for using SM, age, job position affected the use of social media by B2B customers. The study also found that corporate culture, gender, easiness to use, and perception of usability did not affect the use of social media by B2B customers.

By using interviews and survey social media research found that mostly B2B companies use social media to enhance customer relationships, support sales, build their brands, sense market, manage relationships, and develop content. Additionally, some companies use it social media as a recruitment tool. The main difference between B2B and B2C was that B2B sales managers use social selling tools significantly more frequently than B2C managers.

3.5 Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media

It is important for a business to be able to measure the effectiveness of social media by calculating return on investment (ROI). ROI is the relationship between profit and the investment that generate that profit. Some studies focused on the ways B2B companies can measure ROI and the challenges they face (Gazal et al. 2016 ; Michaelidou et al. 2011 ; Vasudevan and Kumar 2018 ). For example, Gazal et al. ( 2016 ) investigated the adoption and measuring of the effectiveness of social media in the context of the US forest industry by using organisational-level adoption framework and TAM. By using data from 166 companies it was found that 94% of respondents do not measure the ROI from social media use. The reason is that the use of social media in marketing is relatively new and companies do not possess the knowledge of measuring ROI from the use of social media. Companies mostly use quantitative metrics (number of site visits, number of social network friends, number of comments and profile views) and qualitative metrics (growth of relationships with the key audience, audience participation, moving from monologue to dialogue with consumers).

Another study by Michaelidou et al. ( 2011 ) found that most of the companies do not evaluate the effectiveness of their SNS in supporting their brand. The most popular measures were the number of users joining the groups/discussion and the number of comments made.

Vasudevan and Kumar ( 2018 ) investigated how B2B companies use social media and measure ROI from social media by analysing 325 brand posts of Canon India, Epson India, and HP India on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. By employing content analysis the study found that most of the post has a combination of text and message. More than 50% of the posts were about product or brand-centric. The study argued that likes proved to be an unreliable measure of engagement, while shares were considered a more reliable metric. The reason was that likes had high spikes when brand posts were boosted during promotional activities. Future research should conduct longitudinal studies.

By reviewing the above studies, it can be concluded that companies still struggle to find ways of measuring ROI and applying correct metrics. By gaining knowledge in how to measure ROI from social media activities, B2B companies will be able to produce valuable insights leading to better marketing strategies (Lal et al. 2020 ).

3.6 Social Media Tools

Some studies proposed tools that could be employed by companies to advance their use of social media. For example, Mehmet and Clarke ( 2016 ) proposed a social semiotic multimodal (SSMM) framework that improved the analysis of social media communications. This framework employs multimodal extensions to systemic functional linguistics enabling it to be applying to analysing non-language as well as language constituents of social media messages. Furthermore, the framework also utilises expansion theory to identify, categorise and analyse various marketing communication resources associated with marketing messages and also to reveal how conversations are chained together to form extended online marketing conversations. This semantic approach is exemplified using a Fairtrade Australia B2B case study demonstrating how marketing conversations can be mapped and analysed. The framework emphasises the importance of acknowledging the impact of all stakeholders, particularly messages that may distract or confuse the original purpose of the conversation.

Yang et al. ( 2012 ) proposed the temporal analysis technique to identify user relationships on social media platforms. The experiment was conducted by using data from Digg.com . The results showed that the proposed techniques achieved substantially higher recall but not very good at precision. This technique will help companies to identify their future consumers based on their user relationships.

Based on the literature review, it can be seen that B2B companies can benefit by using the discussed tools. However, it is important to consider that employee should have some technical skills and knowledge to use these tools successfully. As a result, companies will need to invest some resources in staff training.

4 Weight Analysis

Weight analysis enables scrutiny of the predictive power of independent variables in studied relationships and the degree of effectiveness of the relationships (Jeyaraj et al. 2006 ; Rana et al. 2015 ; Ismagilova et al. 2020a ). The results of weight analysis are depicted in Table 3 providing information about an independent variable, dependent variable, number of significant relationships, number of non-significant relationships, the total number of relationships and weight. To perform weight analysis, the number of significant relationships was divided by the total number of analysed relationships between the independent variable and the dependent variable (Jeyaraj et al. 2006 ; Rana et al. 2015 ). For example, the weight for the relationship between attitude towards social media and social media is calculated by dividing ‘1’ (the number of significant relationships) by ‘2’ (the total number of relationships) which equals 0.5.

A predictor is defined as well-utilised if it was examined five or more times, otherwise, it is defined as experimental. It can be seen from Table 3 that all relationships were examined less than five times. Thus all studied predictors are experimental. The predictor is defined as promising when it has been examined less than five times by existing studies but has a weight equal to ‘1’ (Jeyaraj et al. 2006 ). From the predictors affecting the adoption of social media, it can be seen that two are promising, technical skills of employees and pressure from stakeholders. Social media usage is a promising predictor for acquiring new customers, sales, stakeholder engagement and customer satisfaction. Perceived ease of use and age of salesperson are promising predictors of social media usage. Even though this relationship was found to be significant every time it was examined, it is suggested that this variable, which can also be referred to as experimental, will need to be further tested in order to qualify as the best predictor. Another predictor, average rating of product/service, was examined less than five times with a weight equal to 0.75, thus it is considered as an experimental predictor.

Figure 1 shows the diagrammatic representation of the factors affecting different relationships in B2B social media with their corresponding weights, based on the results of weight analysis. The findings suggest that promising predictors should be included in further empirical studies to determine their overall performance.

Diagrammatic representation of results of weight analysis. Note: experimental predictors

It can be seen from Fig. 1 that social media usage is affected by internal (e.g. attitude towards social media, technical skills of employees) and external factors (e.g. pressure from stakeholders) of the company. Also, the figure depicts the effect of social media on the business (e.g. sales) and society (e.g. customer satisfaction).

5 Discussion

In reviewing the publications gathered for this paper, the following themes were identified. Some studies investigated the effect of social media use by B2B companies. By using mostly survey to collect the data from salespeople and managers, the studies found that social media has a positive effect on number of outcomes important for the business such as customer satisfaction, value creation, intention to buy and sales, customer relationships, brand awareness, knowledge creation, corporate credibility, acquiring new customers, salespersons performance, employee brand management, and sustainability. Most of the outcomes are similar to the research on social media in the context of B2C companies. However, some of the outcomes are unique for B2B context (e.g. employee brand management, company credibility). Just recently, studies started investigating the impact of the use of social media on sustainability.

Another group of studies looked at the adoption of social media by B2B companies (Buratti et al. 2018 ; Gáti et al. 2018 ; Gazal et al. 2016 ; Itani et al. 2017 ; Kumar and Möller 2018 ). The studies investigated it mostly from the perspectives of salespersons and identify some of the key factors which affect the adoption, such as innovativeness, technical skills of employees, pressure from stakeholders, perceived usefulness, and perceived usability. As these factors are derived mostly from surveys conducted with salespersons findings can be different for other individuals working in the organisation. This it is important to conduct studies that will examine factors affecting the adoption of social media across the entire organisation, in different departments. Using social media as part of the digital transformation is much bigger than sales and marketing, it encompasses the entire company. Additionally, most of the studies were cross-sectional, which limits the understanding of the adoption of social media by B2B over time depending on the outcomes and environment (e.g. competitors using social media).

Some studies looked at social media strategies of B2B companies (Cawsey and Rowley 2016 ; Huotari et al. 2015 ; Kasper et al. 2015 ; McShane et al. 2019 ; Mudambi et al. 2019 ). By employing interviews with companies’ managers and analysing its social media platforms (e.g. Twitter) it was found that most of the companies follow the following strategies: 1) monitoring and listening 2) empowering and engaging employees 3) creating compelling content 4) stimulating eWOM 5) evaluating and selecting channels 6) enhancing brand presence through integrating social media (Cawsey and Rowley 2016 ). Some studies investigated the difference between social media strategies of B2B and B2C companies. For example, a study by Swani et al. ( 2017 ) focused on effective social media strategies. By applying psychological motivation theory the study examined the key differences in B2B and B2C social media message strategies in terms of branding, message appeals, selling, and information search. The study used Facebook posts on brand pages of 280 Fortune companies. In total, 1467 posts were analysed. By using Bayesian models, the results showed that the inclusion of corporate brand names, functional and emotional appeals and information search cues increases the popularity of B2B messages in comparison with B2C messages. Also, it was found that readers of B2B content show a higher message liking rate and lower message commenting rate in comparison with readers of B2C messages.

The next group of studies looked at social media use by B2B companies (Andersson et al. 2013 ; Bernard 2016 ; Bolat et al. 2016 ; Denktaş-Şakar and Sürücü 2018 ; Dyck 2010 ; Guesalaga 2016 ; Habibi et al. 2015 ). B2B companies use social media for enhancing and managing customer relationships (Andersson and Wikström 2017 ; Bolat et al. ( 2016 ); branding (Andersson and Wikström 2017 ; Bolat et al. 2016 ), sensing market (Bolat et al. 2016 ) and co-production (Chirumalla et al. 2018 ). Additionally, it was mentioned that some of the B2B companies use social media as a recruiting tool, and tool which helps to collaborate globally (Andersson and Wikström 2017 ; Dyck 2010 ).

It is important for companies to not only use social media to achieve positive business outcomes but also it is important to measure their achievements. As a result, some of the studies focused on the measuring effectiveness of social media (Gazal et al. 2016 ; Michaelidou et al. 2011 ; Vasudevan and Kumar 2018 ). Surprisingly, it was found that not so many companies measure ROI from social media (Gazal et al. 2016 ; Michaelidou et al. 2011 ). The ones who do it mostly use quantitative metrics (number of site visits, number of social network friends, number of comments and profile views) and qualitative metrics (growth of relationships with key audience, audience participation, moving from monologue to dialogue with consumers) (Gazal et al. 2016 ). Some future studies should investigate how ROI influences the strategy of B2B companies over period of time.

The last group of studies focused on social media tools used by B2B companies (Keinänen and Kuivalainen 2015 ; Mehmet and Clarke 2016 ; Yang et al. 2012 ). By using number of social media tools (Social Semiotic Multimodal) companies are able to improve their analysis of social media communications and identify their future consumers based on their user relationships. Studies investigating barriers and factors adoption of various social media tools by B2B companies are needed.

After reviewing studies on b2B social media, weight analysis was performed. Based on the results of weight analysis the conceptual model for future studies was proposed (Fig.  2 ). It is important to note that a limited number of studies focused and empirically tested factors affecting the adoption, use, and effect of social media. As a result, identified factors were considered as experimental (examined less than five times). It is too early to label these experimental predictors as worst or best, thus their further investigation is encouraged.

Social media impact on digital transformation and sustainable societies

Additionally, our review of the literature on B2B social media identified dominant research methods used by scholars. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used by most of these studies. Closer analysis of 70 publications reviewed in this study revealed the multiple techniques applied for gathering data. Quantitative methods used in the studies mostly used surveys (see Table 4 ).

The data was mostly gathered from salespersons, managers and data from social media platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook). Just a limited number of studies employed consumer reported data (see Table 5 ).

On the other hand, publications using qualitative methods mainly used interviews and web scraping for the collection of the required data. To analyse the data studies used a variety of techniques including SEM, regression analysis and content analysis being one of the most used (see Table 6 ).

5.1 Digital Transformation and Sustainability Model

Based on the conducted literature review and adapting the model by Pappas et al. ( 2018 ) Fig. 2 presents the digital transformation and sustainability model in the context of B2B companies, which conceptualise the social media ecosystems, and the factors that need to collaborate to enable the use of social media towards the achievement of digital transformation and the creation of sustainable societies. The model comprises of social media stakeholders, the use of social media by B2B companies, and effect of social media on business and society.

5.1.1 Social Media Stakeholders

Building on the discussion and model provided by Pappas et al. ( 2018 ), this paper posits that the social media ecosystem comprises of the data stakeholders (company, society), who engage on social media (posting, reading, using information from social media). The use of social media by different stakeholders will lead to different effects affecting companies, customers and society. This is an iterative process based on which the stakeholders use their experience to constantly improve and evolve their use of social media, which has impacts on both, business and society. The successful implementation of this process is key to digital transformation and the creation of sustainable societies. Most of the current studies (Andersson et al. 2013 ; Bernard 2016 ; Bolat et al. 2016 ; Denktaş-Şakar and Sürücü 2018 ; Dyck 2010 ; Guesalaga 2016 ) focus mostly on the company as a stakeholder. However, more research is needed on other types of stakeholders (e.g. society).

5.1.2 Use of Social Media by B2B Companies

Social media affects not only ways how companies connect with their clients, but it is also changing their business models, the way how the value is delivered and profit is made. To successfully implement and use social media, B2B companies need to consider various social media tools, antecedents/barriers of its adoption, identify suitable social media strategies which are in line with the company’s overall strategy, and measure effectiveness of the use of social media. There are various factors that affect the use of social media by B2B companies. The study found that social media usage is influenced by perceived ease of use, adoption of social media, attitude towards social media and age of salesperson.

The majority of the studies focus on the management of the marketing department. However, digital transformation is much bigger than just marketing as it encompasses the entire organisation. As a result, future studies should look like the entire organisation and investigate barriers and factors affecting the use of social media.

It is crucial for companies to design content which will be noticed on social media by their potential, actual and former customers. Social media content should be interesting and offer some beneficial information, rather than just focus on services the company provides. Companies could use fresh views on relevant industry news, provide information how they are contributing to society and environment, include humour in their posts, share information about the team, make it more personal. It is also useful to use images, infographics, and video content.

It is also important for companies to measure digital marketing actions. More studies are needed on how to isolate the impact of specific media marketing actions to demonstrate their impact on the desired business outcomes (Salo 2017 ). Thus, future studies can consider how particular social media channels (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) in a campaign of a new product/ service influence brand awareness and sales level. Also, a limited number of studies discussed the way B2B companies can measure ROI. Future research should investigate how companies can measure intangible ROI, such as eWOM, brand awareness, and customer engagement (Kumar and Mirchandani 2012 ). Also, future research should investigate the reasons why most of the users do not assess the effectiveness of their SNS. Furthermore, most of the studies focused on likes, shares, and comments to evaluate social media engagement. Future research should focus on other types of measures. More research needs considering the impact of legislation on the use of social media by companies. Recent B2B studies did not consider recent legislation (General Data Protection Regulation 2018 ) in the context B2B (Sivarajah et al. 2019 ).

5.1.3 Effect of Social Media on Business and Society

Social media plays an important part in the company’s decision-making process. Social media can bring positive changes into company, which will result in improving customer satisfaction, value creation, increase in sales, building relationships with customers, knowledge creation, improve the perception of corporate credibility, acquisition of new customers, and improve employment brand engagement. Using information collected from social media can help companies to have a set of reliable attributes that comprise social, economic and environmental aspects in their decision-making process (Tseng 2017 ). Additionally, by using social media B2B companies can provide information to other stakeholders on their sustainability activities. By using data from social media companies will be able to provide products and services which are demanded by society. It will improve the quality of life and result in less waste. Additionally, social media can be considered as a tool that helps managers to integrate business practices with sustainability (Sivarajah et al. 2019 ). As a result, social media use by B2B companies can lead to business and societal changes.

A limited number of studies investigated the effect of social media on word of mouth communications in the B2B context. Future research should investigate the differences and similarities between B2C and B2B eWOM communications. Also, studies should investigate how these types of communications can be improved and ways to deal with negative eWOM. It is important for companies to respond to comments on social media. Additionally, future research should investigate its perceived helpfulness by customers.

Majority of studies (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ; Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Rossmann and Stei 2015 ; Agnihotri et al. 2012 ; Agnihotri et al. 2017 ; Itani et al. 2017 ; Salo 2017 ; Bhattacharjya and Ellison 2015 ; Gáti et al. 2018 ; Gruner and Power 2018 ; Hollebeek 2019 ) investigated positive effect of social media such consumer satisfaction, consumer engagement, and brand awareness. However, it will be interesting to consider the dark side of social media use such as an excessive number of requests on social media to salespeople (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ), which can result in the reduction of the responsiveness; spread of misinformation which can damage the reputation of the company.

Studies were performed in China (Lacka and Chong 2016 ; Niedermeier et al. 2016 ), the USA (Guesalaga 2016 ; Iankova et al. 2018 ; Ogilvie et al. 2018 ), India (Agnihotri et al. 2017 ; Vasudevan and Kumar 2018 ), the UK (Bolat et al. 2016 ; Iankova et al. 2018 ; Michaelidou et al. 2011 ). It is strongly advised that future studies conduct research in other countries as findings can be different due to the culture and social media adoption rates. Future studies should pay particular attention to other emerging markets (such as Russia, Brazil, and South Africa) as they suffer from the slow adoption rate of social media marketing. Some companies in these countries still rely more on traditional media for advertising of their products and services, as they are more trusted in comparison with social media channels (Olotewo 2016 ). The majority of studies investigate the effect of social media in B2B or B2C context. Future studies should pay attention to other contexts (e.g. B2B2B, B2B2C). Another limitation of the current research on B2B companies is that most of the studies on social media in the context of B2B focus on the effect of social media use only on business outcomes. It is important for future research to focus on societal outcomes.

Lastly, most of the studies on social media in the context of B2B companies use a cross-sectional approach to collect the data. Future research can use the longitudinal approach in order to advance understanding of social media use and its impact over time.

5.2 Research Propositions

Based on the social media research in the context of B2B companies and the discussion above the following is proposed, which could serve as a foundation for future empirical work.

Social media is a powerful tool to deliver information to customers. However, social media can be used to get consumer and market insights (Kazienko et al. 2013 ). A number of studies highlighted how information obtained from a number of social media platforms could be used for various marketing purposes, such as understanding the needs and preferences of consumers, marketing potential for new products/services, and current market trends (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ; Constantinides et al. 2008 ). It is advised that future research employs a longitudinal approach to study the impact of social media use on understanding customers. Therefore, the following proposition can be formulated:

Proposition 1

Social media usage of B2B companies has a positive influence on understanding its customers.

By using social media companies can examiner valuable information on competitors. It can help to understand competitors’ habits and strategies, which can lead to the competitive advantage and help strategic planning (Dey et al. 2011 ; Eid et al. 2019 ; Teo and Choo 2001 ). It is advised that future research employs a longitudinal approach to study the impact of social media use on understanding its competitors. As a result, using social media to understand customers and competitors can create business value (Mikalef et al. 2020a ) for key stakeholders and lead to positive changes in the business and societies. The above discussion leads to the following proposition:

Proposition 2

Social media usage of B2B companies has a positive influence on understanding its competitors.

Proposition 3

Culture influences the adoption and use of social media by B2B companies.

Usage of social media can result in some positive marketing outcomes such as building new customer relationships, increasing brand awareness, and level of sales to name a few (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ; Ancillai et al. 2019 ; Dwivedi et al. 2020 ; Rossmann and Stei 2015 ). However, when social media is not used appropriately it can lead to negative consequences. If a company does not have enough resources to implement social media tools the burden usually comes on a salesperson. A high number of customer inquiries, the pressure to engage with customers on social media, and monitor communications happening on various social media platforms can result in the increased workload of a salesperson putting extra pressure (Agnihotri et al. 2016 ). As a result, a salesperson might not have enough time to engage with all the customers online promptly or engage in reactive and proactive web care. As a result, customer satisfaction can be affected as well as company reputation. To investigate the negative impact of social media research could apply novel methods for data collection and analysis such as fsQCA (Pappas et al. 2020 ), or implying eye-tracking (Mikalef et al. 2020b ). This leads to the following proposition:

Proposition 4

Inappropriate use of social media by B2B companies has a negative effect on a) customer satisfaction and b) company reputation.

According to Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework environmental context significantly affects a company’s use of innovations (Abed 2020 ; Oliveira and Martins 2011 ). Environment refers to the factors which affect companies from outside, including competitors and customers. Adopting innovation can help companies to change the rules of the competition and reach a competitive advantage (Porter and Millar 1985 ). In a competitive environment, companies have a tendency to adopt an innovation. AlSharji et al. ( 2018 ) argued that the adoption of innovation can be extended to social media use by companies. A study by AlSharji et al. ( 2018 ) by using data from 1700 SMEs operating in the United Arab Emirates found that competitive pressure significantly affects the use of social media by SMEs. It can be explained by the fact that companies could feel pressure when other companies in the industry start adopting a particular technology and as a result adopt it to remain competitive (Kuan and Chau 2001 ). Based on the above discussion, the following proposition can be formulated:

Proposition 5

Competitive pressure positively affects the adoption of social media by B2B companies.

Companies might feel that they are forced to adopt and use IT innovations because their customers would expect them to do so. Meeting customers’ expectations could result in adoption of new technologies by B2B companies. Some research studies investigated the impact of customer pressure on companies (AlSharji et al. 2018 ; Maduku et al. 2016 ). For example, a study by Maduku et al. ( 2016 ) found that customer pressure has a positive effect on SMEs adoption of mobile marketing in the context of South Africa. Future research could implement longitudinal approach to investigate how environment affects adoption of social media by B2B companies. This leads to the formulation of the following proposition:

Proposition 6

Customer pressure positively affects the adoption of social media by B2B companies.

6 Conclusion

The aim of this research was to provide a comprehensive systematic review of the literature on social media in the context of B2B companies and propose the framework outlining the role of social media in the digital transformation of B2B companies. It was found that B2B companies use social media, but not all companies consider it as part of their marketing strategies. The studies on social media in the B2B context focused on the effect of social media, antecedents, and barriers of adoption of social media, social media strategies, social media use, and measuring the effectiveness of social media. Academics and practitioners can employ the current study as an informative framework for research on the use of social media by B2B companies. The summary of the key observations provided from this literature review is the following: [i] Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the most famous social media platforms used by B2B companies, [ii] Social media has a positive effect on customer satisfaction, acquisition of new customers, sales, stakeholder engagement, and customer relationships, [iii] In systematically reviewing 70 publications on social media in the context of B2B companies it was observed that most of the studies use online surveys and online content analysis, [iv] Companies still look for ways to evaluate the effectiveness of social media, [v] Innovativeness, pressure from stakeholders, perceived usefulness, and perceived usability have a significant positive effect on companies’ adoption to use social media, [vi] Lack of staff familiarity and technical skills are the main barriers that affect the adoption of social media by B2B, [vii] Social media has an impact not only on business but also on society, [viii] There is a dark side of social media: fake online reviews, an excessive number of requests on social media to salespeople, distribution of misinformation, negative eWOM, [ix] Use of social media by companies has a positive effect on sustainability, and [x] For successful digital transformation social media should change not only the way how companies integrate it into their marketing strategies but the way how companies deliver values to their customers and conduct their business. This research has a number of limitations. First, only publications from the Scopus database were included in literature analysis and synthesis. Second, this research did not use meta-analysis. To provide a broader picture of the research on social media in the B2B context and reconcile conflicting findings of the existing studies future research should conduct a meta-analysis (Ismagilova et al. 2020c ). It will advance knowledge of the social media domain.

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Dwivedi, Y.K., Ismagilova, E., Rana, N.P. et al. Social Media Adoption, Usage And Impact In Business-To-Business (B2B) Context: A State-Of-The-Art Literature Review. Inf Syst Front 25 , 971–993 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-021-10106-y

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B2B Market Research: Key Methods & Strategies (2023)

September 2, 2020

What is B2B market research?

B2B market research is the systematic and objective collecting and analysis of information connected to the business-to-business (B2B) market. This study assists businesses in better understanding their target consumers, the competitive environment, and general market dynamics.

B2B market research methodologies might include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and data analysis. The information gathered may be utilised to acquire insight into client demands, preferences, and habits, as well as discover market trends and opportunities. This data may then be utilised to guide strategic product development, pricing, marketing, and sales choices.

The purpose of B2B market research is to assist businesses in making educated decisions based on data-driven insights rather than assumptions or guesswork. Companies can better understand their consumers and the market if they first understand them.

Adience is a b2b market research agency . See more about them here.

Behind every good consumer product is a string of B2B transactions, involving multiple B2B products and services. Let’s take the example of a chocolate bar:

• The companies supplying the raw materials and ingredients to the chocolate bar manufacturer are B2B organizations
• The chocolate bar may be manufactured at a ‘co-packing facility’ rather than in a factory operated by the brand owner. That co-packing facility is a B2B organization
• The brand owner may get advice from professional services organizations such as marketing agencies. They are all B2B organizations
• The brand owner may sell to businesses as well as consumers. So they may themselves be a B2B organization

In short, B2B is big.

And B2B markets differ from consumer markets in several ways .

First, there are significant differences in terms of who is being sold to :

• In B2B, there are far fewer customers to sell to
• The gap between the highest spending and lowest spending customers tends to be higher
• Decision-making units are larger
• Decision-making units are also more volatile because people move roles/companies
• Decision-makers are harder to engage and locate

Second, there are differences in terms of what is being sold and where :

• Spend on products tends to be higher in B2B markets
• Products are more customized and complex
• Products are likely to be sold through multiple distribution channels

Third, there are differences in how B2B purchases are made :

• The B2B buying journey is long as it has more stages and stakeholders
• Buyers require more information throughout the buying process
• B2B purchases are (slightly) less emotionally driven

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research is the practice of exploring B2B buyers’ attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. This knowledge is used to inform sales and marketing strategies for B2B organizations.

Why do businesses conduct B2B marketing research?

B2B organizations use B2B marketing research to achieve a variety of business objectives .

First, they use it to build market segmentations , including developing:

• Buyer personas
• Customer or market segments
• Competitor/marketplace maps

Second, they use it to better understand the buying process , including determining:

• Who influences and makes decisions (i.e., the decision-making unit)
• The inter-personal dynamics within the decision-making unit
• How and where customers find them
• What drives the target audience to select a provider (e.g., price)
• Finding out why they won or lost a sale

Third, they use it to develop their brand , including understanding:

• Perceptions of their brand
• What makes their brand unique versus competitors’
• What keeps customers coming back
• What the target audience thinks of potential new messages or straplines
• The optimal marcomms channels and messaging frameworks
• The optimal brand architecture

Fourth, they use it to track perceptions of their business , including measuring:

• Brand equity (e.g., awareness, consideration)
• Customer satisfaction and loyalty
• Performance in crucial decision-making criteria (e.g., price, ease of doing business)
• Which products or services are most appreciated

Fifth, they use it to develop products and services , including:

• Generating new ideas and opportunities
• Testing product and service ideas
• Developing go-to-market strategies
• Optimizing pricing
• Developing market forecasts

Finally, they use it to develop content and thought leadership , including:

• Developing content strategy and identifying key topics to engage your audience
• Developing research-based content and thought leadership reports
• Tweaking existing content and messaging to resonate more

Most businesses only have time or budget for a small number of projects each year. In our experience, there are a few projects that B2B organizations should prioritize :

• Exploring what matters to customers and identifying segments . Not all customers are the same. B2B organizations often segment their customer base by firmographic factors (e.g., size, sector). Segmenting by customers’ motivations, behaviors or ‘jobs to be done’ can help to set a foundation for all future research
• Monitoring performance. Once an organization knows what matters to customers, they then need to check that they are meeting customers’ expectations. Generally, agencies recommend measuring Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is not always relevant in B2B markets, as the nature of loyalty is different , so it should be used with caution if at all
• Identifying what is on the customer’s mind. Research can help businesses to keep on top of what keeps their customer up at night. For example, it can identify the trends and threats customers are responding to, which should inform product and service development. It can also inform the creation of content about how to respond to these trends and threats

What are the key methods for conducting B2B research?

Marketing research tends to use a mix of:

• Qualitative primary research – in-depth and exploratory techniques
• Quantitative primary research – structured techniques
• Secondary research methods – using publicly available data to answer questions about business decision-makers’ behavior and attitudes

Primary research methods engage directly with the target audience to elicit insights into their attitudes and behaviors. Most B2B marketing research projects include some element of primary research.

Our experience is that secondary research is also essential for each project. Behavioral datasets are a far better way to understand how people act or think than asking individuals for their opinions directly , so secondary research should be used in parallel with primary research to validate the results.

Looking at each technique in turn…

#1. Qualitative research

Qualitative methods are necessary for B2B research for four reasons:

• B2B markets are small, and the target audience can be niche. In some instances, quantitative research isn’t even possible
• B2B markets are more complex, and understanding them requires more detailed questions
• The B2B decision-making process tends to be more opaque, and qualitative techniques allow us to pick up non-verbal signs
• B2B decision-makers are accustomed to doing things on their terms, and tend to respond better to more open, exploratory techniques

Indeed, qualitative research is often the only way to achieve the following business objectives:

• Generate and develop new product and service ideas
• Obtain a detailed understanding of B2B decision-making processes

Qualitative research is also needed, in parallel with quantitative research, to:

• Evaluate reactions to websites and promotional materials
• Explore perceptions of a company, brand or product
• Identify the optimal brand positioning or marketing strategy
• Develop market segments
• Develop content marketing and thought leadership

There are a variety of different qualitative techniques that you can use when conducting research, including:

• In-depth interviews, which can be conducted face-to-face, by telephone or by videoconference
• Ethnography, which should be done in-person, but can be approximated using mobile apps
• Focus groups, which can be done face-to-face or online

Not all of these techniques are relevant to B2B marketing research due to the hard-to-find nature of the target audience.

In many projects, one-on-one interviews via telephone/videoconference are preferred. For specific audiences (e.g., junior decision-makers), it is sometimes preferable to conduct focus groups (online or in-person) or remote observation by mobile app.

Regardless of the qualitative technique used, it is essential to follow best practices:

• Don’t just speak to customers and prospects, make sure to interview internal stakeholders, who will have a wealth of insight into the target audience
• Use skilled (and independent) qualitative interviewers and moderators, who can limit bias and improve the quality of insights
• Use a range of techniques (e.g., projective questions, neuroscientific techniques) to dig deeper and elicit responses you wouldn’t get through direct questions

#2. Quantitative research

Quantitative techniques are necessary for B2B research for three reasons:

• You can conduct many interviews cost-effectively, which is useful when the research is going to inform critical business designs
• Quantitative research is more structured than qualitative research, which limits bias and makes it easier to compare responses between individuals or groups of individuals
• Quantitative data sets can be the foundation for some fascinating analysis (e.g., combining with CRM data or doing statistical analysis). It can also help to settle contentious internal issues

Indeed, quantitative research is the only way to achieve the following business objectives:

• Validate and test a product or service concept
• Identify the optimal pricing strategy
• Track and manage brand perceptions and levels of customer satisfaction
• Identify changes in market trends and patterns

Quantitative research is also needed, in parallel with qualitative research, to:

Quantitative research can be conducted online, face-to-face, or by telephone. In B2B marketing research, online surveys are typically preferred because they are more time- and cost-efficient.

However, online research is not always possible – for example, you may not be able to access a list of potential respondents’ emails. In those instances, the survey needs to be conducted via telephone. Face-to-face surveys are scarce in B2B due to the nature of the target audience.

Regardless of the quantitative technique used, it is essential to follow best practices:

• Be comfortable with smaller sample sizes than consumer surveys
• Be careful about where you are sourcing participants (see below)
• If you’ve done qualitative research, use it
• Don’t just speak to customers (or prospects)
• Use a range of techniques to dig deeper and unlock hidden insights

#3. Secondary research

Typically, qualitative or quantitative interviews tell only part of the story. Often there is additional information available, both online and offline, that could help us to obtain a better understanding of an issue.

Secondary research – also called ‘desk research’ – can be a cost-effective, easy, and quick way to access even more information.

Information gathered through secondary research is often used to help with the design of the primary research questions, e.g., coming up with a list of competitors to include in a survey. However, desk research can also help with some of the core objectives for a project.

So what are the benefits of secondary market research? In our experience, it can help with the following project objectives:

• Understanding the structure and size of a market
• Uncovering brand perceptions
• Gathering competitive or customer intelligence
• Building lists
• Developing an initial understanding of the buying process
• Informing content marketing strategy
• Exploring industry trends
• Undertaking a risk analysis

Once you know what you are looking for, you need to know where to look. There tend to be ten types of information source that are useful in B2B secondary research:

• Government datasets of business (e.g., census.gov, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Special government reports (e.g., rulings by competition and consumer protection authorities such as the FTC)
• Company directories and databases
• Market research reports (e.g., marketresearch.com, Statista)
• Company websites, especially Investor Relations pages if they exist
• Online communities (e.g., LinkedIn groups, review sites, and specialist online communities)
• Business departments of academic institutions
• Trade associations
• General, business and trade press
• Social and search tools

Each source helps with specific objectives:

How do you find B2B research participants?

The target market for B2B research is small. Those within the target audience are hard to find and may not be willing to take part in a study.

To make the process easier, cast the net as wide as possible. It’s not a problem if you find contacts who are not relevant to the research. It is better to screen out irrelevant people than to miss relevant people.

There are 12 potential routes for finding relevant business decision-makers :

• Purchasing a list (or research panelists). Buying a list can be an effective but expensive way to acquire potential contacts. Panels and sampling marketplaces are even more costly, but unlike lists, they are notoriously unreliable for B2B research. Very few B2B decision-makers are likely to be on a research panel. And even when they are, the cost of recruitment can be prohibitive relative to other options
• Leveraging internal data or knowledge. A critical resource for B2B market research recruitment is a company’s database or CRM. This database is likely to contain customers that might be worth interviewing. There are also likely to be individuals in client-facing roles (e.g., sales) who can point you in the direction of prospects
• LinkedIn. LinkedIn is an excellent starting point for any project in which you need to recruit B2B decision-makers, especially if you cannot leverage internal lists or knowledge. Some decision-makers may not have profiles, and others may not log in regularly or have accurate data. Even then, in most industries, LinkedIn is likely to be the biggest and most up-to-date database for finding potential research participants
• Twitter. Twitter is not seen as a ‘B2B social network’, and it is far less structured, but it has its uses when you are trying to identify business decision-makers. Specifically, the Lists and Followers/Following functions can help you to find potential interviewees
• Industry events/conferences. Industry events bring together many people with similar job titles. In some instances, it can be useful to attend them to research the audience directly. But industry events can even be helpful if they happened in the past, or if you are unable to attend. That is because some conferences/events publish lists of attendees or exhibitors, which can be a useful source of potential research participants
• Industry associations/communities. Industry associations/groups are often an excellent recruiting resource for B2B research. They may allow you to attend meetings or advertise in publications. More importantly, you can take a look at group membership, attendance, or speaker lists to identify people who may be able to take part in your study
• Online forums. Online forums can be useful for the same reason as industry associations, i.e., you can search through membership lists. Many forums also allow you to post questions, or invite people to take part in research (or more accurately, to ask them to complete a screening questionnaire to check they are eligible)
• Trade journals and magazines. Trade publications tend to be targeted at specific verticals (i.e., industry) or horizontals (i.e., job function/role). For some B2B research projects, they can be a handy recruitment resource. You can pay to place a banner ad on a trade website/magazine/newsletter. In other situations, for example, if you are looking for thought leaders, lists of magazine contributors can be a great source of potential contact
• Competitor marketing materials + website. Competitors publish a lot of information about themselves that can be used in B2B research recruitment. Many companies talk about which companies they work with on their websites. Some also reveal their clients’ names and job titles, often through testimonials or case studies, which can be valuable if you are trying to gather competitive intelligence
• Training and professional development centers. Some companies provide continuing education to business professionals. In a small number of instances, they allow companies to invite their students to participate in research
• Your website or marketing materials. Just as you can purchase a banner ad on a trade magazine’s website or purchase space in a trade magazine’s newsletter, you can also publish content on your website or in your newsletter. The success of this approach depends on the level of engagement your customers have with your marketing efforts, but it can, in some instances, help to improve response rates. The downside of the approach is that it can require a lot of time to set-up, and it biases the responses towards site visitors. Therefore, you should combine it with other techniques
• Past research. At the end of research interviews, we tend to ask participants if they’d be open to taking part in future studies. Not everyone is open to the idea, but many consent as long as the request is reasonable. This approach makes it easier to identify potential interviewees when you are trying to target a similar target audience While this approach is cost-effective, there are potential pitfalls around data privacy (due to GDPR and CCPA), so you have to ensure you are getting consent to store and use the interviewees’ data

Each route’s effectiveness will vary depending on the specific audience or project, so you may need to experiment with several of them for each project.

How do you best engage business decision-makers during research recruitment?

Once you have identified potential interviewees, the next step is encouraging them to participate in research. Or, in the case of qualitative research, encouraging them to complete a screening questionnaire to make sure they meet the eligibility criteria (see next section).

In our experience, there are six things to consider when trying to engage business decision-makers:

• Personalize your outreach
• Use multiple methodologies (e.g., LinkedIn, phone call, email)
• Avoid peak business times
• Be patient – businesspeople are not always available when you engage them – and allocate more time for recruitment than you might for a consumer study
• Be open to revealing the research sponsor if necessary
• Make a case for why they should participate. A variety of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ incentives can be used to explain to the decision-maker, or their gatekeeper, why the research may be of interest. For more information on the optimal approach for incentivization, click here

How do you screen business decision-makers to ensure they are relevant?

In both qualitative and quantitative research, a critical step is to ‘screen’ potential respondents to ensure they are the right person.

In quantitative research, this is conducted as part of the main questionnaire. In qualitative research, it is done separately, i.e., the individual is ‘screened,’ and then an interview is scheduled for a later date.

This screening questionnaire typically has two types of questions:

• Screening questions, which check that the individual meets specific eligibility criteria. For example, they are based in a country or sector that is in scope
• Profiling questions , which check that you are achieving a ‘mix’ of individuals. For example, you may be running a project that targets large businesses. Any industry vertical may be in scope, but you still need to ask a question about each company’s primary activity to make sure that you’re not just interviewing individuals who all work in the same sector

Here are a few things to consider when designing a screening questionnaire to ensure it is optimal:

• Avoid broad definitions
• Focus on job responsibilities, not job titles
• Check that they can speak knowledgeably and be articulate
• Keep it short. As a general rule, we suggest a maximum of 10 screening questions

How do you conduct B2B research projects to ensure they lead to action?

We have three guiding principles to ensure that insight always leads to action:

• Involve internal stakeholders – engage those who will approve or execute business decisions coming out of the research
• Go beyond the interviews/survey – use publicly available information, as well as information that is proprietary to the client, to give a more rounded view of the issue
• Tell a story – use story-telling and visualization techniques to make presentations memorable and easier to digest

Chris Wells

Chris Wells is a B2B marketing researcher and strategist. He was previously on the management team at B2B research specialist Circle Research, winners of the Best Research Agency at the 2016 MRS Awards. Chris has helped to deliver hundreds of research and strategy projects for B2B organizations.

Got a B2B market research project you’d like to discuss?

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Mastering B2B Market Research: A Step-by-Step Guide

Market research is pivotal to any business’s success in the digital world. You need it to understand your customers’ needs and preferences, identify threats from competitors, track market trends, reduce churn risk…the list goes on and on.

However, your business type will dictate how you conduct market research and which metrics are most important to meeting your goals. For example, if you’re a B2C company, you’ll aim to understand individual consumer behavior and preferences. But if you sell primarily to other businesses, you must conduct B2B market research. The nuances between the two are subtle but important.

Keep reading as we walk you through the basics of B2B market research, including different methods and tools, so you can make informed decisions and stay competitive in an ever-evolving digital environment.

What is B2B market research?

The core of market research is all about collecting and analyzing data about a target market or defined segment . It’s an intricate process that gives you the insights you need to make the best decisions for your business, including product launches, market expansions, marketing campaigns, budget allocation, and more.

But who you are researching depends on your target audience . Business-to-business (B2B) market research focuses on understanding businesses’ needs, preferences, and behaviors rather than individual customers. You define your consumer as the business itself.

Unlike B2C market research, which focuses on the interactions between a business and individual people, with B2B market analysis, you’re studying how different businesses work together, what they can offer each other, and how to create a mutually beneficial relationship. While most of the time, B2B market research methods will focus on how you can sell to another business; you may also use it to find new opportunities for partnerships and collaborations.

The importance of market research to B2B companies

Like traditional online market research , B2B analysis is crucial as it helps you understand where you stand vis-a-vis competitors. With it, you can identify your market position and better understand where new opportunities lie. It will also help you find new customers and better engage with existing ones so you see a greater return on your investments.

B2B user research will help you make well-informed, data-driven decisions , especially if you follow a systematic approach using a market research tool like Similarweb.

Here are some of the main benefits of B2B market research:

Define your target audience –   In this case, your target audience is other businesses rather than individual customers. Like traditional audience analysis , you must define their pain points, preferences, and online behavior. Understanding their challenges is crucial for developing products and offering services that meet their needs.

Build loyal customer relationships – Customer satisfaction is important for any business, but for B2B businesses, it’s essential for retaining customers. You’ll be able to build strong relationships by continuously meeting their needs.

Pinpoint promising market opportunities – Which geos are you looking to go after primarily? Are there new areas that could increase your market share , or should you focus on a more niche audience with less competition? Determining where your book of business is largest will affect how you run campaigns and where you invest the most effort. B2B user research will also help you understand if there are any regulatory or cultural differences in the regions you’re hoping to expand to.

Conduct competitive analysis – Any good strategy starts with competitive analysis . Find out what your competitors are offering their customers and how your offering compares.

Optimize your pricing strategy – B2B research can help you understand how much your customers expect to pay for your service, given market conditions and competitor pricing. Make sure that the price you offer is comparable to the service you are providing.

Mitigate any risk – When launching a new product, entering a new market , or attempting to reach a new audience, you need reliable data and insights-driven research to mitigate risks.

Uncover industry trends – Detect, monitor, and analyze any trends in your industry that could affect what customers are looking for. This includes emerging players, new technologies, the state of the economy, and more.

And then innovate – Once you have a better idea of the trends shaping consumer behavior, you can improve your existing products or create new services to keep up with ever-changing demand.

Different types of B2B market research methods

There are a variety of methods you can use to conduct your research. We suggest using a mix so you’re not limited to only one strategy, as each will help you answer different questions.

Let’s take a look at the four main types of B2B market research :

Primary market research

Primary market research is the first-hand collection of data. This data can be obtained through a variety of B2B market research tools, but your main focus is looking directly at your customers’:

Web Metrics – Use website traffic analytics to understand how you perform online compared to your competitors. You should check if specific market segments outperform others and try to find out if it’s because of a specific offering or UX. Don’t forget to measure engagement metrics , such as bounce rate , pages per visit, and session duration , to understand how your audience interacts with your website.

Web metrics analysis using the Similarweb platform.

Observation – Install software that records visits and creates heatmaps of your website so you can understand your user’s journey through your site. This type of research can work in parallel with website analytics, qualifying any findings that you make about user experience on certain pages.

What are you waiting for?

Start using digital intelligence and build a winning market research strategy.

Customer surveys – Surveys are an extremely effective form of B2B user research to help you learn more about your current customers. Distribute questionnaires and polls to your database via email, site chatbot, or social media. Ask questions that can give you qualitative data ( what type of business are they? ) and quantitative data ( how many employees do they currently have working for them? ). You should include both open-ended and multiple choice questions so you can get some personal feedback from your customer ( what’s a new product or feature you’d like to see us offer? ), as well as answers to important pre-determined questions ( how many people in your team currently use our product? ).

Focus groups – If you want to get even more personal, then focus groups are a great way to get a small group together to discuss your business. You can choose either customers or prospects depending on the questions you’d like to ask and the conclusions you want to make.

Secondary market research

Secondary market research uses data that has already been published. Unlike primary market research, which is for your eyes only, secondary market research is available to anyone. While it’s not exclusively yours, this data type is preferred for anyone hoping to keep costs low or have quick access to the information they need.

Government reports and census data – Government organizations frequently publish reports that are great high-level overviews, including the state of the economy and the conditions of financial markets. Most of these reports are published annually or quarterly, so check often for the most updated version to get the freshest data.

Competitor websites – Imitation is the highest form of flattery! A great source of secondary market research is to look at what your competitors are doing. Check out how they highlight competing features, cover blog topics, and target SEO keywords. You could also conduct a SWOT analysis to pinpoint your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Competitor marketing channel mix using the Similarweb platform

Media outlets – Check the news and other media publications to see if any major events are affecting your industry. It’s a great way to keep up with current events impacting your customers.

Qualitative market research

Qualitative market research is one of the best ways to understand customers’ feelings about a brand, product, or service. It measures what comes to their mind whenever they hear your company’s name. It takes more time to analyze the results than other market research types, as it’s more about emotions- and opinions-based.

By understanding the sentiments of your customers, you will be able to shape and develop products, services, and digital strategies that are most important to them.

Here are a few methods for B2B qualitative research:

• Focus groups
• Case study or whitepaper
• Online forums
• Ethnography

Quantitative market research

Last on our list is quantitative market research , which focuses solely on collecting, analyzing, and comparing data. This is where you’re crunching the numbers. This data can forecast trends, size a new market , validate a market entry plan, or establish customer patterns.

Since the data you collect will be reliable, you can replicate and automate processes with a similar methodology. Often, there are fewer variables in data collection compared to qualitative research. There are three core methods of data collection that you’ll use to conduct quantitative research:

ABM campaigns

ABM stands for Account-Based Marketing. Although ABM campaigns can be considered more of a marketing tactic than traditional B2B research, it’s important to understand the high-value accounts that can drive the most impact for your business.

For example, let’s say you’re Hubspot , a software company that sells a content management platform for ecommerce businesses. With your platform, these companies can list inventory, track sales, follow up on deliveries, and even collect payments in one place. After conducting market research, you discover an up-and-coming ecommerce player that fits your target audience. This company has the chance to bring with it a substantial pipeline.

Finding up-and-coming ecommerce players for ABM using the Similarweb platform.

Rather than casting a wide net and launching a new marketing campaign in the hopes that someone at this company will click on your LinkedIn Ad or open an email, you run an ABM campaign.

Because ABM campaigns are more personalized, your marketing efforts will complement that company’s pain points, products, and even staff. For ABM campaigns to be effective, you want to make sure that you focus on strategic high-value accounts, use tailored messaging to build stronger relationships, and align your efforts with sales to nurture the relationship further.

How to conduct B2B market research using Similarweb

Now that you know the ins and outs, it’s time to learn how to do B2B market research.

You may not know where to begin or which metrics are the most important, but having a market research tool like Similarweb is invaluable.

The tools you’ll find inside help you make sense of all that data so you can solve the most complex business challenges with data-driven decisions. Although the uses are endless, here are four ways you can use Similarweb to conduct B2B market research:

1. Company research

Use the company research tool to understand how your customers are performing online while also pinpointing new potential prospects based on their digital footprint.

With Similarweb, you can uncover the digital strategies and tactics of any company by device, country, and marketing channel, compare full-funnel traffic , engagement, and conversion metrics.

This is an important step of B2B market research for two reasons. First, you can show your customers how your product or service directly impacts their growth online by monitoring changes in metrics from before and after they started working with you. Suppose you’re trying to find new prospects. In that case, you can use Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence to analyze the industry you’re targeting and discover the top-performing companies that would be lucrative business partners. Once you’ve identified these companies, you can also use Similarweb Sales Intelligence to validate and find the best leads.

2. Competitive benchmarking

While most of your B2B market research will look at your customers, you always want to watch the competition. That’s where business benchmarking comes in. Our Benchmarking tool compares and measures your business’s digital performance against competitors or the industry average. It’s a great way to determine industry best practices and identify opportunities for improvement.

You can use this data to pinpoint underperforming marketing or sales strategies , optimize your content , and even find areas for new market growth.

Here are some KPI ideas we recommend when benchmarking your business as part of your B2B research strategy:

• Increase web traffic by __%
• Launch x new products into a new target market within the next ½ year.
• Increase monthly active users on a mobile app by 5%
• Engage users – improve session duration or growth rate by __%
• Increase app store ranking by 5% on Android and/or iOS
• Reach top 2 results on ranking on (define keywords)
• Improve share of voice in ___ topic from __% to __%.
• Increase brand awareness – improve branded traffic share by __%

Benchmarking Traffic and Engagement metrics with Similarweb

3. Audience analysis

Knowing who you sell to is pivotal to your B2B market research strategy. That’s where audience analysis comes in. Understanding your target demographics allows you to build customized product offerings and personal marketing strategies.

Here’s an example of using Similarweb to conduct audience analysis. Unpack demographics for any site or industry you choose, including data on gender, age, location, interests, browsing habits, and more.

Using Similarweb to understand your audience’s demographics

4. Marketing channel performance

With insight into how different marketing channels are performing , you can find out the most effective ways to reach potential customers and ensure that you’re allocating the right budget for paid advertising.

Similarweb Marketing Intelligence makes this type of research easy. Look below at a snapshot from within our Marketing Channels tab, providing an overview of performance across direct , organic search, social media, email, paid search, and display ads. Check which convert the most and where the highest channel traffic comes from. For the ecommerce industry in the US, direct and organic search drive the most traffic to the top websites , whereas referrals and paid search are the most effective paid marketing channels.

Take the first step in acing B2B market research

B2B market analysis is key to staying ahead in the digital landscape. It will guide you through customer needs, competitor landscapes, and market trends.

Empower your business with comprehensive market insights and stay ahead of the curve with Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence. Whether you’re just starting or consider yourself a seasoned market research pro, we have all the necessary tools.

Take the next step in refining your B2B market strategy – sign up for Similarweb today.

Become a market research pro

Start using digital intelligence to grow your business online.

B2B market research is the process of studying a business’s needs, preferences, and behaviors as a whole rather than individual customers. You define your target customer as the business itself.

Why is B2B market research important?

B2B market research is important as it helps you understand where you stand vis-a-vis competitors. With it you can identify threats, get a better picture of new opportunities, and find out how to connect more with your customers. It will also help you find new prospects to increase ROI.

What are the four main types of B2B market research? 

The four main types of B2B market research include primary, secondary, qualitative, and quantitative.

How can you use Similarweb to support your B2B market research? 

You can use Similarweb Digital Research Intelligence in various ways to support your B2B market research, including company research, competitive benchmarking, audience analysis, marketing channel performance, and more.

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The ultimate guide to b2b market research.

14 min read Knowing how your target customers are going to act and what they’re looking for can be the difference between business success and failure. Read our ultimate guide to B2B market research to understand how to carry out and use research to expand your business potential.

What is B2B market research?

B2B market research is the process of gathering data on what potential customers are looking for and what they need . The research can cover everything from brand perception , product fit, customer service requirements , sales and marketing strategies, and more.

It involves taking a sample of your target audience and understanding their motivations and preferences. By researching how your potential audience thinks, feels, and behaves , your strategic planning for attracting your target market will be more effective.

Not only that, but when you have them on board, you won’t risk creating an experience gap where your customers aren’t getting what they expect. You’ll be better able to predict future trends and tackle issues before they happen.

Download the market research eBook guide now

Differences between B2B and B2C market research

There are differences between B2B market research and B2C market research.

For example:

• B2B research might be looking at more complex and niche markets. Enterprise and other large businesses often have very focused or very complicated market audiences, whereas B2C might be a bit simpler in nature.
• B2B customers may need more convincing than B2C customers, which means research needs to be more in-depth. Your target audience will need greater incentives to choose you – so your research needs to be detailed enough that you can make the most attractive offer.
• B2B customers might be more scarce – meaning you need to have a competitive advantage. Understanding how your offering is perceived w hen compared to your competitors is more important when the customer pool is smaller.

What are the benefits of doing B2B market research?

With business research behind you, you can more effectively target customers and encourage engagement with your brand. The more tailored your offering is to what they want, the more they’ll spend with you.

Up-to-date insights on customers’ mindsets

Your potential customers’ needs and desires may change frequently, and keeping up can be tricky. Basing your future plans on past customer behavior might not be accurate. B2B market research can help you stay on top of any new developments and keep ahead of market fluctuations.

More significant customers

If you’re looking to target more than just small fry, you’ll need market research to understand exactly what your competitive advantage is – or what you have to do to get one.

Performance monitoring

Asking potential or current customers how you’re doing on a regular basis means that you can tailor your approach to fit their needs and expectations . Rather than guessing how you’re doing, you’ll have proof of your success (or failure).

B2B market research methods

There are many different types of market research , so it’s worth doing your homework before launching any research campaign. However, there are some common research types and tips that can help you to get started.

Primary research methods: pros and cons

B2B marketing research is usually divided into two types of research: primary and secondary.

Primary research is where your brand speaks directly to the target audience to get data and insights. This type of research can be qualitative research or quantitative research (more on that shortly).

Pros: This type of research gets to the heart of your particular audience, and gets words directly from your participants’ mouths.

Cons: It can be costly and time-consuming to gather large amounts of data and analyze it. Your B2B participants may not have the time or the inclination to help you in your research, meaning you need to make the experience quick, easy, and engaging.

Secondary research methods: pros and cons

Secondary research is research that has been conducted by a third party and is publicly available.

Pros: This type of method is important, as it can yield information from outside your experience that can inform your results. For example, asking people directly for answers (primary research) might not actually reveal their real intentions. Sometimes, understanding audience behavior is easier when using secondary research.

Cons: You’ll have to evaluate what third-party data is actually useful for your needs. This research can also be biased, or be inaccurate – you need to check your sources thoroughly.

Qualitative research: pros and cons

Qualitative research involves the collation of data that can’t be summed up in numbers. It’s helpful for understanding potential explanations of behavior , rather than providing an exact explanation. Using this type of research, you’ll be able to form a hypothesis about your target market and potential customers.

You might use the following methods for qualitative research: :

• Focus groups
• Open-ended survey questions

Pros: This type of approach is specifically useful for B2B market research as you might not have a large enough target audience to get quantitative data. Given this market’s complexity, you might need in-depth, smaller discussions to get to the bottom of certain behaviors or perceptions.

B2B decision-makers are also likely to respond better to a personalized approach, rather than being quantified. You can build a closer relationship with your customers if you ask them questions in a more personalized setting.

Cons: This is a time-consuming approach to research, and it can be difficult to analyze insights for comparison. The interviewer can also skew results, making it difficult to maintain an unbiased approach. For groups, scheduling can be an issue.

Quantitative research: pros and cons

Quantitative research collects information that can be defined numerically. It’s much more definitive than qualitative data and is often used to prove a hypothesis with empirical evidence.

You might use the following approaches for quantitative research:

• Questionnaires

Pros: Using numerical data makes comparisons easy, and you can gather a greater number of responses in a more cost-effective way. It’s easier to reduce bias as there’s no interpersonal element. B2B decision-makers are also able to easily fit this into their likely busy schedules.

Cons: Though you will get concrete data using this approach, it’s hard to get nuance from structured results summarized in numbers. There might be less incentive to respond to a questionnaire or survey as it feels less personal, and answers might not be as in-depth.

How to carry out B2B market research

Identifying your research topic: exploratory vs specific research.

You might already know what you’re looking for when conducting your research, but sometimes you’re just looking for patterns and trends that you’re not aware of. This is where exploratory vs. specific research comes into play.

Exploratory research is generic and open, where you’re not looking for specific answers. You might use open-ended interviews with your panel or individual customers to get the lay of the land. Qualitative data is more helpful for this approach.

Specific research is for when you know the parameters of your research topic (a problem to solve, the success of a specific product). Your approach will likely be more structured and use quantitative data.

Choosing participants

Your participants are ideally formed of your target audience to get results that you can use to make informed strategic decisions. You’ll need a good sample size and a mix of participants to get useful results, and you should screen your participants for suitability before you carry out your research.

For B2B international market research, you might need to use a few different approaches to choosing participants. For example, you might:

• Ask your current or forthcoming customers: The best way to understand what attracts customers you want to your business is to ask the people who’ve already followed that path.
• Create your own research panel : This requires a lot of effort but can pay dividends, as you can access this panel repeatedly.
• Access an existing research panel or buy a list : This is a costly approach, and B2B customers are unlikely to participate – but in some cases, it can be a good start.
• Advertising on your website, a trade journal, or an industry community: Accessing participants may be easier if you advertise in spaces where potential customers might be.
• Sourcing competitors’ contacts : Your competitors’ clientele are a good source of information for competitive intelligence.

Engaging your participants

Our best tips for engaging your participants are:

• Personalizing your approach to each participant
• Offer multiple methods of response to allow for preferences and availability
• Avoid carrying out market research at peak times of the year or day
• Provide a good reason why they should take part in your research. This could be potential service improvements or tailored products, or a financial incentive to encourage them

Deciding on your B2B market research questions

The questions you decide to use can have a marked difference on the resulting information that you get. Choosing the right questions very much depends on what your goal is, and your questions will vary depending on whether they’re closed or open-ended .

Read our guide to market research questions to learn more

Choosing when to carry your research out

You might have a specific reason for carrying out your research at a certain time – a new product launch , for example – but market research is useful at all stages of a B2B business.

You do need to establish a timeframe in which to carry out your research, however. This helps you to tie your results to specific instances and narrow down reasons why particular data has been gathered.

Collecting and analyzing your data

The quantity of data you receive can be significant – so having a plan for how to analyze the information you get is key. This is where Qualtrics’ market research solutions, such as Qualtrics Core XM , can help.

How to use your B2B market research

Once you’ve completed your market research, it’s time to use the insights you’ve gained. It’s all well and good gathering information – taking action is where the true benefits of market research lie.

Here are a few ways in which you can leverage the data you’ve collected and get a good return on investment .

Create detailed market segments

You might use your B2B market research to create:

• Buyer personas : Who within each customer business are you aiming your efforts at?
• Customer segments : How can you create products and services that will fit the different types of customers you’re aiming to attract?
• Competitive intelligence : What can you offer that your competitors don’t?

Improve brand perception

Your research can help you to tackle:

• Brand perception : How do customers think of you? How aware of your presence are they ?
• USP : What is unique about your brand when compared to others?
• Customer retention : Why do customers continue to choose you over competitors?
• Marketing strategy: How can you leverage your brand perception in your marketing and inform sales strategy? How are your current efforts perceived?

Develop products and services

By undertaking market research, you can get feedback on:

• New product and service concepts : What do your customers want to buy?
• Current product and service development: What are customers currently keen on, and how could you improve?
• Pricing : How do customers currently feel about the prices of what you offer?
• Forecasts : What will the market for your products and services look like in the future?

Optimize the buying process

You can utilize your market research to understand more about:

• Decision-makers : Who makes the decisions about making a purchase, and how can you target them?
• Drivers : What makes a customer choose one brand over another?
• Wins and losses : Why did you win a pitch, or why did you lose a customer?

Measure success

Your research results can help you to track success across the following areas:

• Brand equit y : Does your target market think well of your brand? How aware are they of your existence?
• Customer satisfaction and loyalty: Are your customers happy and will they come back?
• Performance against decision-making factors: Are you successful in attracting customers with your price, ease of use, and more?
• Product and service success : How successful are you in selling your products and services?

How Qualtrics can help with your B2B market research

Qualtrics’ solutions can help you avoid pitfalls and develop market research reports that help you to actively improve your business success.

Business decisions are most accurate and cost-efficient when backed by data, meaning your B2B market research needs to be thorough and easily integrated into your business operations.

Rather than hiring a one-time B2B market research consultant, our solutions – such as Qualtrics Research Services – help you to create ongoing market research campaigns that provide you with valuable data that’s actionable.

Read our market research eBook guide for more insights.

Nail your market research with our all-encompassing market research eBook

Related resources

Market intelligence 10 min read, marketing insights 11 min read, ethnographic research 11 min read, qualitative vs quantitative research 13 min read, qualitative research questions 11 min read, qualitative research design 12 min read, primary vs secondary research 14 min read, request demo.

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More From Forbes

Why originality is the new golden rule in b2b content marketing.

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Sean Shea is a philanthropist, TEDx speaker and founder and CEO of ViB , a company that generates quality leads for B2B companies globally.

Nobody wants to read content produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI). Not when they could be reading original content written by actual humans.

The AI boom of the past year seemed to be a golden opportunity on the content front. But it failed to deliver.

That’s not to say there’s no room for AI. As long as it’s never used at the cost of prioritizing original content .

Is generative AI sabotaging your content goals?

Generative AI is set to reach a staggering $136.7 billion market size by 2030. While you read this, the internet is being flooded with content generated by AI technology. Especially since 58% of marketers (registration required) have adopted generative AI for text creation.

Here are a few reasons why that’s a problem.

1. AI lacks new insight.

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Content can be created quickly and with little effort, leading to pieces that lack insight and thoughtfulness. In other words, real value .

Of course, not every post needs to be a philosophical discourse. But, if you’re like me, you’re selective with the content you consume. I think it’s important that it gives you something to think about, or it inspires you, or it challenges you in some way.

2. Search engines apply penalties.

Search engine guidelines are clear—regardless of whether generative AI was used, they reward content that is unique and provides value to the reader.

So, while it may seem like a golden opportunity to have AI hit all your SEO keyphrases, there’s a chance your content winds up working against you.

And, even if you create AI content that performs well now, there’s no way to ensure your content isn’t penalized in the future by algorithm changes.

3. Limitations and errors are common.

In one Google survey, 70% of business leaders were concerned about producing misleading content. Given AI’s tendency to hallucinate “facts” and provide sources that don’t exist, it’s no wonder there’s apprehension here.

Wrong or misleading information can have devastating effects on your business, potentially cutting into your revenue as a result of:

• A loss of brand trust.

• Customer issues with a product or service (and greater than normal refund requests).

• Legal repercussions.

Speaking of brand trust, I haven’t even touched upon AI’s limitations when it comes to cultural references and other more subtle nuances in language.

How can companies stay ahead with truly original content?

The most effective way to avoid the problem of search engine penalties, errors, limitations and AI detection (AI detectors have gotten very good over time) is simply to have a human play a central role in controlling the content. That could be in briefing, writing, editing and more.

However, adding a human writer doesn’t necessarily make the content unique, insightful or useful to the reader. So, how do you reliably and consistently create valuable, original content?

1. Publish new research/data.

Especially if you’re in B2B, you can create or sponsor studies (or research) under your brand that you can then share with your industry. Companies do this all the time, and it’s a worthwhile exercise to establish your brand as a reputable source of original, insightful industry information.

A good way to start is by simply conducting a quantitative research study around your end users, i.e., to survey a segment of your target audience.

From a content perspective, you can take advantage of this research to build out a variety of content types, including infographics, social media posts, white papers, blog posts, email campaigns, press releases and even talks and videos.

2. Compile thought leader opinions.

As an expert in your field, you’re already keeping up with what’s going on, the key players, trends and what the future may hold for your industry. This puts you in the unique position of being able to meaningfully create content around what other thought leaders are saying.

Industry newcomers and veterans alike value pieces like these because they’re digestible, and your insights help them keep up with trends. And it’s another great way to build credibility for your B2B brand.

3. Become a key source for industry news.

Similarly, another way to create valuable content worth reading is to be a reliable source of emerging concepts or news in your industry. Again, people want the latest updates, and your B2B brand (or you as a thought leader) can help them by being the first to publish industry news.

More importantly, this positions you as a reputable primary source so that when other industry players are publishing their news content, they can cite you.

4. Invent and innovate.

And there’s no better way to capture your industry’s attention than doing something truly innovative. What does that entail? Since you’re the expert, you probably have a better idea than most, and your B2B brand is probably already doing something that makes it unique.

Take advantage of this fact, as sharing your own innovation may be the inspiration other brands need to better your industry overall.

Stand out from the crowd.

Standing out in an AI-dominated world isn’t that hard, and with these tips, you can gain a competitive edge with original content.

Whatever you put out, and whether you leverage generative AI, just make sure it aligns with your brand and contributes to your industry in a helpful, meaningful way. Not only will this resonate more strongly with your audience, but it will also cement your brand’s position as a trustworthy, reliable expert.

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Amidst budget cuts, a quickly evolving digital world and changing buyer behaviors, 86% of B2B marketers are turning to personalized 1:1 marketing — specifically, 1:1 email communication. This finding was revealed in “ The Future of 1:1 Marketing Report ,” which emphasized the power of personalized marketing communications.

The research — conducted by email signature management platform Exclaimer — discussed the power of personalization in a time where 55% of B2B marketers believe it’s harder to reach customers due to an increased difficulty capturing customer attention (82%), a rise in required touchpoints (65%) and trouble differentiating against competitors (58%).

“By prioritizing bespoke interactions over generalized mass marketing, marketers are better poised to address the unique needs of their audience — increasing engagement and brand loyalty,” said Carol Howley, CMO at Exclaimer, in a statement. “Especially in today’s loud, digital landscape, a personalized marketing strategy will make your audience feel like valued individuals as opposed to just another nameless prospect, fostering deeper connections that last.”

Previously released research from Exclaimer provided more color around email and personalization, as more than half (52%) of prospects and customers leverage email as their main channel of communication, and 38% indicated that personalization was one of the main factors that made them trust business emails.

However, to execute an impactful personalized marketing strategy, implementing the right technology is imperative: 72% of B2B marketers found CRM systems most beneficial in tailoring their marketing efforts, followed by social media and marketing automation tools (55%) and AI and machine learning (36%).

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