Top three trends of 2023 that will shape Business to Business CMOs’ planning
The famous saying that “spending money to get money” is essential and true is without any controversy. When studying high-growth companies, that paradoxical theory is what is put under their organizations. Simply said, they spend money to earn more money.
So, let's disclose where we should start. Marketing expense as a percentage of revenue. Forrester’s 2022 B2B Marketing Survey revealed that just over half (51%) of enterprise companies that grew annual revenue by over 20% in 2021 invested 6.1% to 9% in marketing. Conversely, only one-third of enterprise companies that were flat to declining in annual revenue invested that range.
The main question is: where are they investing? According to the conducted survey, top three areas that of critical importance for high-growth companies to support their marketing strategy are:
- Addressing the changes of customer behavior
CMOs should critically insist on rigor to trigger marketing efforts that would be tilted toward high reputation, demand creation, post-sale engagement and last but not least personalized experience. Marketing should prioritize the purpose of boosting demand, brand awareness and reputation, engagement and enablement programs. This framework fully supports the customer lifecycle. With planning to increase marketing budget by 1%-9%, do not forget to anticipate significant revenue increase as well.
- Leading a specific purpose-driven brand
The brand purpose is defined as the statement on how an organization intends to change the world for the better. These days, it is more than obvious that all the brands are being held to higher standards. In this regard, the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a strategic function for the organization is worth mentioning. Customers make a decision of buying a product or service and investors are rewarding the companies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. We have conducted a thorough B2B Marketing Survey for 2022, that states the fact that brand and communications organizations’ major focus to ensure continuous growth should definitely be on building a brand purpose that aligns to its brand mission, vision and undoubtedly to its CSR goals.
- Finally, boosting post-sale customer engagement
B2B organizations should focus on systematically supporting post-sale customer engagement, as it will ensure retaining customers, as well as growing existing accounts. High growth enterprise companies mostly comprehend the importance of customer engagement. Actually, it is estimated that 35% of marketing decision-makers who own an authority of managing customer engagement, plan to increase the budget dedicated to customer engagement by 10% or even more. It would be implemented through focusing on the connection between post-sale customer engagement and sharing customer experiences and presenting the impact of customer advocacy and references.
We wish you good luck with your 2023 business and budget planning. Once again, I would like to emphasize the fact that what lies ahead will require a “spend money to make money” approach. B2B CMOs can definitely request a budget allocation for the upcoming fiscal year, relying on emulating what other high-growth companies have already managed to successfully achieve. Even if all else fails, make sure to remind your naysayers that cost-saving decisions that satisfy the needs of “now”, would take years to undo, while having a long-term impact on the brand, customers and a number of other critical business aspects.