B2B

Salesy, self-serving content is a major turn off for B2B technology buyers. To keep their interest, B2B marketers must develop thought leadership-based programming featuring up-to-date information that will help customers do their jobs better.

As B2B buyers increasingly migrate to online venues, they avoid the interactions that once gave salespeople an edge in customer knowledge. More than ever, B2B brands must rely on marketers to fuel growth, but are companies up for the challenge?

A growing number of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are betting on generative AI and hoping to reap the benefits. But the technology is still evolving and prone to occasional "hallucinations" and inconsistent output. SMB marketers should start to experiment with employee-facing applications, rather than customer-facing use cases, to reduce the risk of negatively affecting revenue as they iron out any bugs.

While B2B companies are plugging video into their marketing dashboards, many remain skittish about how to incorporate the medium into a robust third-party marketing strategy and subsequently use their social channels to reach their customers and prospects.

As they face increasing pressure to provide adequate returns, marketers need to establish clear guidelines for where to invest and ultimately prove the effectiveness of marketing automation. They also must implement test-and-learn scenarios to continuously optimize automation investments, cease lower-performing marketing activities, and personalize their marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

Christine Maguire, GM and VP of global business at Tripadvisor and board member at the U.S. Travel Association, says that to keep up with consumer travel demands these days, brands need to deliver seamless experiences, which increasingly requires technology, generative AI, and long-term thinking.

While revenue marketing is ultimately about transitioning marketing from a cost center to a revenue driver, that doesn't mean B2B companies can ignore objectives like brand-building and bolstering the customer experience. Despite the inherent friction between the two, sales and marketing alignment is crucial.

Pipeline marketing, or widening the sales funnel throughout every stage of the customer journey, is becoming a more effective way for B2B marketers to generate revenue, according to a recent study. But the process is not linear. It's more of an ecosystem, in which marketers need to be able to respond quickly with the right tools to keep wayward customers and prospects on track.

"The B2B Marketing Benchmark" report released in June by LinkedIn and Ipsos notes a growing number of B2B organizations recognize the importance of branding, which they had previously relegated to the back burner. The report also found that three quarters of respondents plan to use or keep using generative artificial intelligence to aid marketing efforts.

The fifth annual "Marketing On My Mind" report from Brand Keys, based on a survey of more than 500 CMOs, offers insight into what's top of mind for marketers facing what the report calls a "perfect storm" of miseries. Inflation and a possible recession, as well as pressure over increased profits/shareholder value, top the list.

Intent data — which gathers clues that indicate whether individuals or companies might have an interest in a product, service, category, or topic — is giving marketers more confidence about communicating the value of their data-driven marketing programs to decision-makers.

Whether B2B or B2C, there's a growing onus on marketers to balance brand-building with lead-generation activities to spur customer loyalty and get people to feel good about their company. The strategy is not nearly as simple as it sounds.

The findings from a recent McKinsey study, which polled 3,800 B2B decision-makers in 13 countries, found that market-share winners — companies that boosted their market share percentage by 10 percent or more last year — are delivering "a great omnichannel experience backed by personalized marketing."

While email is still a marketing workhorse for B2B companies — 76 percent of respondents in a recent survey credited email marketing for the company’s success — many brands are struggling to find adequate resources and internal support and investment. Is AI the answer?

The consumerization of B2B advertising has been developing for the past few years. But it’s only more recently that business-to-business firms have set their sights well beyond a fixed set of buyers, devoting hefty budgets to events that used to be the sole domain of consumer-facing brands.

Compared to older buyers (read: baby boomers and gen Xers), gen Zers rely less on vendors and more on independent sources of information. To get in front of buyers doing their own research, B2B marketers need to devote more resources toward improving how their company shows up in search and amplifying positive mentions and ratings in analysts' reports.

Peter Fader, a marketing professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, says B2B companies tend to lump too many customers and prospects together and fail to see those buyers who are the most serious about establishing long-term relationships. Changing the equation requires marketers to get a better read on the definition of customer lifetime value.

A recent study coproduced by Chief Marketer and One Trust presents a bit of dichotomy for B2B firms: Although marketers are being tasked with taming their budgets, nearly 80 percent of the study's respondents said their budgets were either increasing or staying the same this year.

Bruce Biegel, senior managing partner at Winterberry Group, says B2B marketers still lag behind their B2C counterparts when it comes to digital marketing spending. That's starting to change, albeit gradually.

Voice assistants present B2B companies with an opportunity to bolster their marketing efforts, spread their creative wings, and develop new revenue streams. But in their pursuit of getting their message out via chatbots, marketers must be careful that they develop a consistent tone and can distinguish their brand from the competition.