B2B marketing confidence survives budget pressures
Content and digital marketing are top strategies for B2B teams despite flat or cut budgets.
Although 60% of B2B marketers report budgets being cut or staying flat 2021 through 2022, more than half (52%) claimed to be optimistic, or very optimistic, about their team’s performance. 21% were pessimistic or very pessimistic.
The data comes from a survey of 539 B2B marketers conducted by research and advisory firm Demand Metric for Integrate, the precision demand marketing platform. Among other key findings:
- 12% did report budget increases.
- More than three-quarters said they were expected to have achieved as much or more this year as in 2021.
- One quarter reported that they are attempting to meet their goals with smaller teams.
A low profile for ABM? Perhaps surprisingly, only around a quarter of those surveyed reported using ABM as a strategy. The top strategy was buyer-driven cross-channel campaigns, followed by inbound/”always on” marketing and traditional outbound demand gen.
No fewer than 53% expect to decrease investment in ABM in 2023.
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A difficult environment. The factors contributing to budget pressures and general uncertainty are likely obvious, but the report does rank them. Inflation is in the lead, closely followed by the lingering impact of COVID, fear of an economic recession, global political instability and the disrupted supply chain.
Marketing strategies and the martech stack. Content creation and digital marketing are the leading areas of investment for these B2B teams. Around half of those surveyed are satisfied or very satisfied with results from their current marketing approach, with 34% identifying as neutral.
Around half of respondents also thought their marketing technology stack supported the approach well, or very well (compare more than 60% in a different B2B survey complaining about stack complexity). Only 5% thought their stacks included no redundant solutions.
Half of marketers in this study expect to achieve more this year than they
The State of Marketing Budgets 2022 Report (Integrate/Demand Metric)
did in 2021. This confidence is reflected in the overall optimism
marketers expressed in this study, with more than half (52%) feeling optimistic
or very optimistic today compared to one year ago…
Why we care. Budget cuts, inflation, pandemic, war? B2B marketers seem undaunted; they’re all about getting the job done, and they’re fairly happy with their strategies and the martech that supports them. Congratulations.
But 95% noticing redundant solutions in the stack? Is there time in your day for an audit, or is that something IT should be handling?
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About the author
Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.