B2B CMOs face a challenging year, from ensuring customer retention to addressing employee burnout. How they approach these issues now will have long-term effects on businesses and careers.
Younger buying committees, changing expectations about the purchasing process, overly complex tech stacks, and unstable economic conditions are challenges facing the B2B market. These elements are altering how marketers can reach, interact with, and keep hold of business clients. 2023 could be the most challenging year to date, following a period in which the world emerged from lockdowns only to face widespread economic uncertainty. Although hiring freezes and reduced marketing budgets are in place, CMOs are still under pressure to accomplish the same or even more with less money.
In 2023, the imminence of a recession has posed challenges for software companies worldwide. It’s also important to remember that at least 50% of the software buyer’s journey is spent consulting independent, third-party information sources, per a recent Gartner Digital Markets survey. This prevents software providers from influencing customers’ choices.
B2B marketers must adjust their business models to remain relevant and put their goods in front of customers at the right time. Marketers should keep up with the most recent developments in software marketing to better plan and carry out their promotional activities this year.
Businesses must prioritize cost-effectiveness for better ROI, scale and pioneer new integrated technologies, and enhance the customer experience to expand and maintain a competitive advantage.
Also Read: B2B Marketing Automation
A Change in Purchasing Patterns
This apparent discrepancy between the budget plans has an easy solution. Recent years have seen a shift to remote work, and decision-makers have used technology to keep their businesses running smoothly. Many companies that updated their technology infrastructure have prospered, and the initial investments they made in IT frequently paid for themselves while also increasing the productivity and resilience of their organizations.
Business leaders see more potential for return on technology investments now that they understand technology’s important role in enabling success. Due to this shift, the outdated idea that marketing is just a cost that businesses must bear has changed. Most businesses don’t plan to reduce their IT spending, even in the face of a likely recession. Organizations will actively look for ways to use technology to increase efficiency, particularly in areas where they can reduce long-term costs.
Vendor Priority: Protect Existing Revenue Streams
While there will be opportunities for tech vendors, continuing with the same strategies, or “business as usual,” won’t work any longer. While businesses are upbeat, they are also being cautious.
Reevaluating current vendor contracts is one of the essential cost-cutting strategies businesses plan to use to prepare for tighter budgets.
In other words, B2B tech vendors should now prioritize actively taking measures to retain existing customers as buyers carefully examine agreements and subscriptions to determine whether products and services can be canceled, scaled back, or replaced.
Businesses can implement the following preventative measures to safeguard against a downturn:
- Strategic reorientation to prioritize particular opportunities and market segments
- Modifying goods or services to increase their competitiveness
- In a changing business environment, the perception of the value of tech vendors’ products or services should be up to date with any shifts in consumer mindsets and any potential strategic changes.
- Tech vendors must continue emphasizing their long-term value as customer needs shift to stay competitive and relevant.
What Buyers Want Currently
Marketers should expect growth in products that help businesses “do more with less” as buyers concentrate their IT spending. IT decision-makers will continue to look for solutions that assist with actively:
- Reduce operating costs by streamlining processes or substituting more cost-effective products for existing ones to increase efficiency.
- Increase collaboration or communication to facilitate productivity.
- Reduce risk by strengthening resilience and preventing expensive downtime or security breaches.
- Boost top-line revenue by enhancing the customer experience or luring in new clients.
What Tech Marketers Should Do Next
Customer needs and perceptions have changed since the pandemic sped up IT modernization three years ago. Given the likelihood of an impending recession, tech vendors who adjust their product offerings and messaging to meet customer needs will be well-positioned to succeed. Vendors frequently make the mistake of oversharing “speeds and feeds” and comprehensive product information without considering how the technology might provide solutions to real-world issues.
Vendors stand to gain and lose simultaneously as IT buyers scrutinize their tech stacks and current providers, depending on their capacity to adjust their product strategy to the new buying environment and customize their messaging to appeal to their audience. Thousands of vendors have flooded the B2B tech market with messages. The messaging must precisely capture ITDMs’ attention. Utilizing personalization and data to target the most relevant people, is the next step in cutting through the noise.
Competitive Strategies to Attract and Keep Customers
The company’s sales and customer success representatives should have a good idea of which customers are considering a renewal and which aren’t. Still, newer technology can offer even more information about account behavior. Intent signals can show whether members of a buying group are actively looking into products similar to yours, which is a warning sign that they are speaking to your rivals. When that happens, it’s time to re-engage these clients through a coordinated effort involving client success, sales, and marketing to ascertain why their needs aren’t being met and what can be done to keep them.
Marketers can use data to overtake their rivals in market share as many IT buyers reevaluate vendors. Technographic information, for instance, can show which businesses are currently utilizing competitors’ goods. With this knowledge, marketers can start omnichannel campaigns that are specifically targeted and offer customers strong incentives to switch.
Product messaging must align with customers’ current concerns, wants, and needs if marketers are to engage with new prospects or poach existing users. It makes sense to adjust messaging at this time to highlight the long-term benefits that brands can offer. Even as use cases change in a potential recessionary environment, businesses should concentrate on facilitating increased productivity, maintaining long-term value, providing savings advantages over rival offerings, and explaining why investing in the products makes sense.
Also Read: Why ABM Should be a Core Component of B2B Marketing Strategies
Make an argument for keeping customer experience (CX) investments
Quantify the results of CX initiatives, such as increased revenue and market share, to illustrate the value of maintaining CX investments. Companies that have estimated the relationship between customer satisfaction and financial results are more likely to report CX budget increases.
Transmit data-driven results to the appropriate functions
Data is crucial when it comes to the customer experience. Utilize data-driven insights based on intent data to guide decisions and ensure clients’ needs are met promptly and correctly. To better understand a customer’s behavior and preferences and to deliver customized experiences that promote engagement and loyalty, companies should collect and share customer data, such as purchase history or feedback ratings.
Recognize what lies ahead to seize opportunities in the future
Be proactive and take advantage of trends to stay ahead of the game. With a better understanding of how customers interact with the goods and services aligning with the trends mentioned here, brands can provide better customer experiences. Marketers who follow this strategy will be able to seize untapped opportunities in the future and beat their rivals to the punch.
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