By Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing
Here are the ten B2B marketing trends I’m already seeing and expect we’ll see more of as we hit our stride into 2023:
1. Bottoms-up Budgeting
Not just because of economic head-winds, and not only about pipeline. I expect we’ll see more disciplined and justified budgets that make a case for a more advanced and well-rounded marketing strategy – including and well beyond demand generation programs.
2. Ecosystems
Partners are about more than just pipeline, and we’ll see channel marketing programs evolve to address a much wider range of symbiotic organizations.
3. Full GTM Mapping
Many CMOs are already addressing the entire customer journey, which evolves and spreads to include evangelism, referrals, land-and-expand opportunities and more.
4. Adoption Marketing
A specific focus on the first days and weeks of a brand-new customer relationship. How quickly can you help validate that the decision your new customer made was the right one?
5. Share of Voice
Not just PR clipbooks, but a real evaluation of your brand’s external presence across media, content, social, etc.
6. Intent > Context
Where the message is communicated (and received) is less important than precision around when and why.
7. Predictable Forecasting
For too long we’ve addressed attribution in the rear-view mirror, i.e. what worked and what gets credit. Moving forward we’ll see far more B2B marketers think about how attribution predicts future performance.
8. SOM vs TAM
We talk too much about total addressable market, and not enough about the serviceable obtainable market. Your real opportunity is a subset of subset of the companies in your industry or market. Do you know what attributes they have in common? What percent of your GTM motions are focused precisely on your SOM?
9. More Process, Less Technology
I am already seeing a push from many companies to reduce the size of their tech stack, and in other cases prioritize processes before adding new tools. In some cases, a more consistent process can make existing tools (and other resources) do the job just fine.
10. Purpose-Driven Marketing
How does your marketing strategy directly reflect your company’s values and purpose? How are you thinking about your marketing’s carbon footprint, as well as how your efforts are positively impacting the careers and lives of your employees, partners, prospects and customers?
What do you think? Are there any we missed? Let us know in the comments below!
