With B2B organizations finally viewing marketing as an investment rather than a cost center, proper resources allocation are happening for a B2B marketing budget.
2022 has been a year of optimism for B2B marketers. With organizations recognizing the critical role their marketing departments have played to sustain their operations, they have increased the or on the path to improving their marketing budget in 2022. In fact, as per a 2021 report from CMO Survey, titled “Managing and Measuring Marketing Spends for Growth and Returns,” overall marketing expenditure in 2022 is expected to grow 13.4%, more than twice as it was in 2021.
Such optimism provides B2B marketing with an opportunity to effectively plan a B2B marketing budget in 2022 and beyond.
Here are five ways that B2B marketers can successfully plan their marketing budget to extract the highest value from it as possible:
Make alliances with agencies
Also Read: B2B Marketers Deal with Poor Quality Prospect Data
Having an increase in the marketing budget is still not enough. B2B marketers should also plan to optimize it to improve efficiency. As per the industry, achieving efficiency with the marketing budget requires B2B marketers to partner with an agency. Along with efficiency, B2B marketers can effectively align their objectives with marketing priorities that increase the value of agency partnerships.
As per the 2021 Forrester Consulting report, titled “Ready Together,” around 75% of B2B decision-makers were pleased with their agency. Moreover, in the next three years, more functions are expected to be performed by external agencies.
Establish markers
Succeeding with B2B marketing budgets requires B2B marketers to establish markers throughout the year while keeping tabs on the account.
B2B marketers need to check how their campaigns are performing and where adjustments need to be made. This will ensure flexibility to shift whenever necessary, to reestablish funds in different verticals, enabling the B2B marketers to extract the most ROI.
Plan for long-term
The buyer journey in B2B marketing is often lengthy, and marketing budgets that are viewed with the same long-term outlook can yield better results to B2B marketers. Also, marketing budgets that allow for regular measurement of marketing messages to continue on a long-term basis can play a vital role in the success of the B2B environment.
Also Read: How CMOs can Enhance Customer Experience Strategy
Remove the distracting elements
Most B2B marketers, when they start to plan their marketing for next year, immediately hop on it. Some B2B marketers, without taking the bigger picture, copy the same elements of the marketing budget from last year. But, in today’s uncertain environment, relying on this approach to succeed can often result in wastage of resources.
Instead of straight jumping in, B2B marketers should reflect on their organization as a whole. They should identify what areas in the marketing budgets need their immediate attention.
Prepare for the worst
There is no doubt that B2B marketing budgets have increased or will continue to increase in 2022. However, the uncertainty in today’s economic climate can witness budget cuts down the line. Thus B2B marketers should prepare for such uncertain situations. They should reassess their past strategy and formulate a plan to effectively navigate such uncertainties.
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