Iron Horse recently conducted a survey targeting 400 B2B marketing leaders to gain insights into where the fastest growing companies plan to invest their resources during the upcoming 2024 budget planning season.
Traditionally, marketing teams primarily focus on acquiring net new logos. However, our survey suggests that marketing priorities have shifted in three significant ways. Here are the key findings from the survey.
B2B marketing leaders are focusing investments on efficiency, retention and upsell/cross-sell.
Firstly, there is a concerted effort to enhance efficiency, which means optimizing processes and resources to achieve better (and preferably less costly) overall performance. Secondly, retention is a high priority, as has always been the case, except now marketing is getting more involved in preventing customer churn by preserving and nurturing existing customer relationships to maintain ongoing satisfaction and loyalty. Lastly, B2B companies are further integrating their marketing teams into the process of implementing upsell and cross-sell tactics to help grow revenue streams from their existing customer base.
Content marketing platforms are the next frontier in martech adoption.
Content marketing technology is the top technology investment for high-growth marketing leaders surveyed, regardless of their investment priority. These platforms can improve efficiency, enable data-driven decision-making, foster personalized customer experiences, and ultimately deliver a competitive advantage. So, it’s no surprise that marketing leaders who identified efficiency as their top focus were 43% more likely to identify content marketing platforms as their top technology investment than those focused on the other two outcomes. Given the importance that relevant, audience-centric content plays in the self-serve buyer’s journey, investing in tools that make it more efficient to deliver and track engagement with personalized content at scale is a sure-fire way to increase profitability.
B2B marketing leaders are betting on relevant content to retain and engage existing customers.
Recognizing the significance of online interactions, B2B marketing leaders at high-growth organizations are looking to increase retention by creating more engaging and valuable experiences for their existing customers. Two specific ways they intend to do this are by building audience-centric content and holding virtual events catering to the specific needs and challenges of existing customers.
The Iron Horse insight.
Driving growth in 2024 lies not only in increasing efficiency, but in driving retention and expansion within existing accounts. Marketing teams are poised to play a pivotal role in these three areas of focus. Beyond the traditional function of customer acquisition, marketing is instrumental in cultivating and strengthening relationships with existing customers, as well as creating awareness of products or services that may align with their evolving needs. Read our entire Investment Insights Report for 2024 Budget Planning to get the complete picture on how B2B marketing leaders plan to propel their brands into a new era of success.
