B2B marketing teams are increasingly tasked with achieving more results with fewer resources, especially amid global economic uncertainty that intensifies the focus on short-term revenue gains.
However, savvy marketers understand the importance of maintaining a robust pipeline without relying solely on immediate wins. They recognize the need to drive engagement across mid- to low-funnel prospects while continually expanding their reach to new audiences and potential customers. All the while, they prioritize maximizing every dollar spent to ensure optimal return on investment (ROI), now considered the paramount metric in marketing.
In this article, we’ll explore strategies to pinpoint and prioritize your most effective channels and tactics, areas where budget adjustments can be made without sacrificing performance, and the pivotal role of B2B demand generation in partnership with trusted allies as a cornerstone of your overall strategy.
It’s Really About Doing the Most with What You Have –
To clarify, 2024 budgets are expected to remain steady or slightly increase compared to last year. Rather than facing reduced funding, B2B marketing is challenged to achieve more with similar financial resources.
Gartner initially sparked discussion about “more with less” when many CMOs felt their budget constraints hindered goal attainment. However, recent analyses indicate that budgets have stabilized around 9-9.5% of overall revenue following the pandemic’s impact.
Moving into 2024, a significant portion of businesses anticipate modest budget increases, according to a survey by Sagefrog Marketing Group. Only a minority reported decreases, with the majority either maintaining or slightly expanding their budgets. Forrester’s 2024 planning guide echoes this trend, forecasting that many marketing leaders foresee budget enhancements in the coming year.
While B2B marketing budgets are not in crisis, there’s definite pressure to achieve higher performance, drive revenue, and optimize operational efficiency.
B2B demand generation is all about efficiently converting promising leads into revenue by harnessing precise data insights and strategic collaborations. This method ensures engagement with prospects actively seeking solutions, thereby streamlining the path to generating tangible business outcomes. The emphasis lies in maximizing every interaction to drive swift and meaningful impact in the marketplace.
While marketing teams may now have stable budgets, they no longer operate with the generous funding levels seen before the pandemic, typically around 11% of total revenue, during the hyper-specialization era. Today’s B2B marketers cannot afford to operate in isolated silos, focusing solely on specific channels like social media, email, or landing pages.
While it’s crucial for marketers to excel in their respective domains, teams can’t afford to have specialists who can’t contribute across different areas, such as a social media copywriter unable to assist with inbound copy or analyze email response metrics. This approach is inefficient and hampers agility in capitalizing on labor-intensive late-funnel opportunities as they arise.
Investing in a B2B Marketing Data Scientist is a wise strategy to extract maximum value from your marketing efforts. While teams can manage basic dashboard analysis, a Data Scientist excels in uncovering nuanced insights critical for informed decision-making. At ProjectPro, we emphasize the pivotal role of data science across eight key areas in marketing, from refining audience segmentation to optimizing opportunity assessment. This expertise extends to supporting cross-functional initiatives such as product pricing strategies, ensuring comprehensive alignment with business objectives.
The investment required for a B2B Marketing Data Scientist is moderate, typically ranging from $60,000 to $80,000 annually in the U.S. By reallocating resources strategically, businesses can enhance their analytical capabilities and leverage data-driven strategies to drive revenue growth effectively. Integrating a Data Scientist into your team not only enhances operational efficiency but also strengthens your competitive edge in today’s data-driven marketing landscape.
Outsourcing offers valuable access to specialized skills like data enrichment, thought leadership content creation, and strategic consulting, but it can become expensive for day-to-day operations. According to the Sagefrog survey, the primary motivation for outsourcing is often time and resource constraints, which isn’t always cost-effective.
To optimize your approach, consider cross-training your existing team (as discussed in Idea 2) to handle essential tasks internally. This approach not only reduces reliance on outsourcing for routine functions but also allows you to strategically allocate your outsourcing budget towards building strategic partnerships. For instance, partnering with a B2B Demand Generation Specialist enables you to refine your demand generation strategy and adjust resources based on fluctuating pipeline needs. By reallocating funds from less critical areas such as social media scheduling, you can invest in crucial roles like a Data Scientist, enhancing your analytical capabilities and driving impactful business outcomes.
This strategy ensures that outsourcing is used strategically to maximize efficiency and ROI, focusing on high-impact initiatives while maintaining control over operational costs.
Evaluate each channel and tactic you utilize to gauge their impact on your bottom line. While multi-touch attribution isn’t flawless, you can analyze next-step conversions in your buyer’s journey and reasonably estimate downstream deal closures.
A surprising discovery may await you. For instance, despite the resurgence of in-person trade shows as a favored channel for high-value opportunities, research from FirstPage indicates their ROI (85%) lags significantly behind webinars (430%) and other digital channels. Participation in trade shows can be notably costly.
Certainly, maintaining an omni-channel B2B demand generation strategy is crucial, which includes leveraging in-person events. However, to effectively drive revenue growth, it’s essential to prioritize budget allocation towards the most impactful channels based on credible performance metrics.
Effective demand generation strategies hinge on delivering timely messages through appropriate channels when buyers are receptive. For instance, email excels in nurturing prospects during the mid-stage of their journey, whereas high-touch methods like phone calls are more effective and though more costly, they excel in driving engagement in the crucial low-funnel stages. When prioritizing revenue for the current quarter, reallocating resources towards these impactful last-mile tactics becomes essential.
To optimize your approach, review your journey models meticulously and identify activities that consistently propel prospects towards the next conversion step. Leveraging insights from your newly appointed marketing data scientist can significantly enhance this process, ensuring precision in targeting and maximizing engagement at pivotal points in the buyer’s journey.
Data Finds the Right Customers, Drives Revenue –
In today’s evolving market landscape, B2B marketing demands a heightened level of strategic precision in prioritizing projects and optimizing budget allocation to demonstrate ROI effectively. This post has explored six strategies to foster agility within your team and harness data-driven B2B demand generation as foundational elements of a revenue-focused strategy.