Menu
As we enter 2024, the B2B marketing world is undergoing a seismic shift. Driven by rapid technological advancements, changing buyer habits, and a dynamic competitive environment, marketers are at a crucial juncture. B2B marketing in 2024 will be very different from the past year. Marketing leaders report they are using only 33% of their available technology capabilities, yet 75% of them are faced with budget cuts to marketing technology, according to Chief Martech’s 2024 Outlook report. What’s more, according to Gartner’s 2023 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey, 71% of respondents felt their 2023 budgets were insufficient for fully implementing their strategies. Shrinking budgets and technical debt are serious hindrances to unified marketing measurement and optimization.
Adaptability and strategic foresight are imperative. But first, roadblocks and challenges must be identified and cleared. Every marketing department has dozens of challenges, so where should they start? Based on our experience with Fortune 500 marketing leaders, we’ve distilled it down to the top 5 challenges and 9 key trends that innovative leaders are focusing on for 2024.
1 – Financial Constraints and Resource Optimization
Financial pressures necessitate a more judicious approach to budget allocation, particularly in staffing and technology investments.
2 – Data Management
Garbage in, garbage out. Simple as that. Marketers need to realize the biggest bang for their buck is simple data fixes to improve their existing analytics and applications. For example, correct tagging, contact deduplication, and contact-organization linking goes a long way in improving multi-touch attribution models.
3 – Navigating a Competitive Digital Arena
Standing out in a crowded digital space becomes paramount. This calls for unique value propositions, targeted content, and innovative strategies, all while ensuring alignment with sales teams.
4 – Data Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
The evolving landscape of data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, places additional burdens on marketers. Ensuring compliance requires significant investment in time and resources.
5 – Technological Complexity
The rapid evolution of technologies like AI, automation, and data analytics adds layers of complexity to the marketing tech stack. This presents challenges in integration, skill acquisition, adaptation, and unified marketing measurement.
1 – The Transformative Impactof Artificial Intelligence (AI)
While AI’s short-term effects might be overhyped, its long-term potential is vast. 2024 is the right time to start your AI journey. Marketers should view AI as a complementary tool, enhancing human creativity and strategic thinking. Long-term, AI is poised to revolutionize marketing strategies, transitioning from a supportive role to self-driven capabilities to automate and optimize marketing measurement.
2 – Moving Beyond the Traditional B2B Playbook to BrandGen
The traditional B2B marketing playbook is losing effectiveness. The new playbook emphasizes BrandGen – a combination of brand awareness and intent-based targeting. It also includes the entire customer lifecycle with a holistic approach to revenue, including retention and expansion efforts.
3 – Marketing Data Management
Marketing has always been a user and creator of data. With the rise of marketing data tools, such as Customer Data Platforms (CDP), marketers are evolving to be data managers. Partnering with enterprise IT teams, data-centric marketing departments learn to manage data for marketing’s unique analytics and business processes. Adapting data quality, matching, preparation, governance, and data sharing processes to work for marketing’s business needs allows marketers to be in control of their own destiny, instantly improving analytic outcomes with better data.
4 – The Evolution of Email Marketing
Contrary to predictions of its demise, email remains a vital B2B marketing tool. The focus is shifting towards quality over quantity, with a greater emphasis on personalization and human touch. This evolution aims to make each email more relevant and engaging.
5 – Original Research and Data-Driven Content
High-quality, research-based content is emerging as the new standard for thought leadership. This trend includes in-depth reports and industry surveys that offer unique insights, particularly appealing to executive buyers.
6 – Investing in Owned Media and Engaged Communities
B2B marketers are increasingly turning to owned media channels to distribute content directly to their audiences. This approach involves creating high-quality, publicly accessible content and nurturing a subscriber base with exclusive offerings, fostering a sense of community and brand loyalty.
7 – Blended Go-to-Market Strategies
Companies are recognizing the need to blend various go-to-market approaches, such as Product-Led Growth, Ecosystem-Led Growth, and Community-Led Growth. This holistic strategy ensures that no single approach dominates at the expense of others.
8- Preparing for the End of Third-Party Cookies
The impending phase-out of third-party cookies in 2024 poses significant challenges for B2B marketers. Strategies like focusing on first-party data, contextual advertising, and alternative targeting methods will become increasingly important. This trend has led to the importance of trend # 3, the rise of marketing data management, to better identify prospects and customers.
9 – Embracing Qualified Buying Groups
Innovative marketers are shifting from Marketing Qualified Leads to Qualified Buying Groups, acknowledging that B2B purchases are often group decisions. This approach requires sophisticated AI to identify and target the right group members.
The B2B marketing landscape in 2024 is set to be dynamic and challenging, marked by technological innovation, evolving buyer expectations, and regulatory changes. Marketers must be agile, strategic, and forward-thinking to navigate these changes effectively. Embracing new tools, tactics, and mindsets will be crucial for success. Above all, leading markets must continue their journey to be data-driven, improving their utilization of data and analytics for more marketing processes in order to deliver optimal outcomes.
QSG’s monthly newsletter is filled with insights, best practices, and success stories from our customers’ experiences in utilizing modern technology to improve their business.
