According to a new LinkedIn report, B2B marketers are more optimistic about the outlook for the next 12 months with increased optimism fueled by bigger budget prospects and the support of their financial peers. Surname.
The professional network surveyed nearly 2,000 marketing and finance leaders around the world about their plans for the next year and found that two-thirds of B2B marketing leaders expect their budgets to increase in the coming year. next year.
In the marketing sector, budgets have been under pressure this year due to escalating costs as inflation threatens B2B and B2C marketing budgets.
But the report seems to show that the majority of B2B marketers have the backing of their CFOs. According to the report, 60% of CFOs surveyed said they were optimistic about the marketing team’s ability to drive revenue.
Tom Pepper, senior director of EMEA and LATAM at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, claims that the financial-led endorsement in the “B2B Marketing Benchmark” report shows the “financial fluency” of marketers. Marketing is improving.
He added: “In times when conditions are tougher and people are looking at the bottom line and looking for profitable growth, marketing is often where organizations go to save.
“One of the biggest challenges for any marketer is proving the value of marketing to business results.”
However, he believes marketers have become better at sharing facts and figures that demonstrate the importance of branding and marketing. According to the report, 80% of B2B CMOs say they have learned the “language of finance” to help them with more marketing budgets, and 84% say that strengthening their skills in this area helps their CEO/CFO understand brand value. marketing.
There are indications that this is successfully translating into an investment allocation with a split of money between long-term and short-term outcomes. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said that branding has become more important.
Pepper believes the growing importance of brands in B2B and the discontinuance of campaigns focused solely on lead generation is reason for optimism.
“Branding will be very important for B2B,” he said. “Over the past year or so, we’ve started to see marketers demonstrating the importance of brands and how brands drive value for an organization.”
Pepper believes there are a lot of “untapped opportunities” around branding in the B2B space, especially at such a challenging time for businesses. Marketers will have to think creatively about how to build brands in this space. “Don’t forget that you are actually marketing to people, not businesses,” he adds.
According to the LinkedIn report, despite the overall increase in trust, the tech industry was judged to be the outlier, with 26% of respondents from the industry saying their budgets had decreased. Respondents from the tech industry were also more likely to say that their budget was allocated to generating new leads, rather than building a brand.
The report also shows that the use of general AI tools is on the rise. Three-quarters of those surveyed say they plan to use AI to create “more content in less time,” and 55% say they plan to use the tool to increase efficiency in their marketing efforts. his group.
