Are B2B marketing playbooks due for a rewrite?

CMOs are tasked with spearheading a revolution in Marketing objectives, digital transformation, and customer-centricity, which demands innovation and bold experimentation. Many CMOs, however, still rely on legacy playbooks about what constitutes B2B Marketing or a B2B buyer, limiting their creative approaches and differentiation.

"The digital landscape is very congested - everyone is fighting for the same spot on LinkedIn." - Global Marketing Manager, Logistics Industry, Singapore

"What channel works for what segment of the market is not easy to determine. That's where it gets complex, especially in a market like India that isn't homogenous." - CMO, Business Services, India

According to the survey results, content development and distribution is the core marketing responsibility that has most increased in importance (second only to performance measurement and analytics), reflecting the increase in customer touchpoints and need for relevant content.

"The discipline of creativity remains a true priority: You need people who can shape an idea and bring it to market and have the confidence to do that.” - Global Brand & Marketing, Professional Service, UK

Increasing importance of core Marketing responsibilities - content development and distribution second only to measurement

How marketers deliver content to meet the needs of new digital channels needs to evolve.

"Content delivery hasn't changed, but the format of it, how you customise it into a bite-size, digital-friendly manner, has."
VP Marketing, Pharmaceuticals, China

One example of this is the increased focus on short video content and the needs of a younger audience.

I've put more budget into digital… like short videos. It's more accessible to potential customers, especially the younger generations."
CMO, Business Services, India

The increase in the volume and variety of content required, as well as the shift to
automated production, has shifted the locus of creation towards agencies, with
respondents reporting they have "very much increased" or "increased" their
collaboration with content development agencies more so than any other type of
specialist agency, with 60% leveraging Gen-AI in content development.

Where is AI being leveraged in your B2B Marketing approach?

In a crowded online environment where marketers are all vying for buyers’ limited attention, innovation and experimentation are key – both in what is considered a ‘B2B channel’, the kind of content a buyer is presumed to want, the accessibility of that content, and the appetite for test and learn – there is no innovation without failure.

Marketers that are evolving from a reliance on rational, product-education messaging to ‘full-brained’ approaches that infuse behavioural science and creativity show they understand both customer, and the human making the decisions.

The 2023 Global B2B CMO Survey was conducted by EssenceMediacom and NewtonX, and is based on a study of 188 senior business-to-business (B2B) marketing leaders across North America, EMEA, China and Southeast Asia.