Being forced to work from home is less likely to concern B2B marketers than those in B2C businesses, a new study shows.

MarketingWeek and Econsultancy surveyed 872 B2B respondents and 617 in B2C marketing roles.

They found that 51% of B2B marketers said their business was already very proficient at enabling remote working, and 42% believed their business would not be compromised by this alternative way of operating.

This contrasts with around 34% of B2C respondents saying their companies were already very strong on enabling remote working; only 27% of them believed their business would not be compromised by the new system.

Other key findings include:

- Only 11% of B2B marketers believe their organisation will definitely be compromised by remote working, versus 21% of their B2C counterparts.

- While 36% of B2B marketers have seen demand for their services decline, on the B2C side, 43% say the same.

- While 58% of B2C marketers have stopped hiring, this is less of a concern among B2B marketers (49%).

- While 53% of B2B marketers say their technology teams are well prepared to support remote workers, only 43% in B2C say the same.

- Creative collaboration by remote means is more of a concern for B2C marketers, with 76% worrying that this will suffer, while 66% in B2B roles say this is the case.

- Trouble accessing data remotely is expected to be a challenge for 43% of B2C marketers and 29% in B2B.

Both business-facing and consumer-facing businesses have been delaying product launches and new campaigns in roughly equal numbers due to the virus outbreak, the research shows.

While 60% of those in B2B say they’ve had to put marketing efforts on ice, that figure is 57% for B2C marketers. Close to two-thirds of both groups are reviewing their budget commitments, and over half (53% of B2B and 54% of B2C marketers) have put new product launches on hold for now.

Sourced from Marketing Week, Econsultancy