Surfing B2B Marketing Trends in 2024 & beyond

CMOs & Founders guide to the latest B2B Marketing trends 

I know how busy you are, particularly CMOs and company founders, so I used this blog to save you some time by summarizing the trends and patterns in B2B marketing that I've picked up over the last few months. 

I hope you find my analysis of the current B2B marketing trends useful.

Top content platforms for Account-based marketing

Account-based Marketing

Account-based marketing has existed for as long as B2B companies have needed to attract, engage, and close complex sales with enterprise companies.

But over the last five years, Account-based marketing has become a significant trend, as prominent as 'AI'.

There's now an entire infrastructure around it, including numerous ABM platforms like 6sense, Demandbase, and Terminus, CRM and Marketing automation tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Marketo, Ad platforms like LinkedIn.

Or organic content platforms like Quora ideally suited to this deep, penetrating, targeted marketing approach.

The great content debate

What does a good 'content funnel' look like? Or can we just secure a new customer with one amazing ad? 

- This seems to be the obsession of quite a few founders, CFOs, and even heads of marketing —could it be a question of money and time? 🤔

And then the 64 billion dollar 💰question (Yes, inflation has affected pricing on this problem, too!): What content is the 'best'—the most likely to quickly convert a key decision maker to a sale?

Here, an organization I've worked with called Netline has some excellent data. And I have to concur with them based on their research of millions of prospects that; 

-  'Webinar fatigue' is bogus. Webinars are still highly effective. 

Virtual Roundtables

Virtual Roundtables were not even on my radar pre-pandemic. What happened? About four years ago, my CMO asked me to create one— around a CPQ solution on Salesforce for publishing executives (a tool to monetize their income). 

It was called 'Working Smarter, not Harder; Surviving and Thriving in the New Age of first-party Data.'

It was a great success: Eight attendees and three new sales opportunities. I continued to run them once every few months. 

But then, at my next company, they had a slick new name: 'Pipeline Acceleration Events,' which the sales team loved. I ran several a month at that company.

Here's my entire campaign, including the roundtable: 

'Working Smarter: Maximizing Productivity and Programmatic success in 2022 and beyond'

Since then, I've continued to run them alongside face-to-face events—particularly the 'Breakfast Event,' which is basically a roundtable but not virtual. 

This has worked well for me, especially when my prospects are time-pressed and not that social (for example, CIOs or IT directors). 

Which channels are the most effective?

I firmly believe in Paid Social media, Email, Google search, and retargeting campaigns for ABM. HubSpot is an inbound expert with extensive data on which channels produce the most significant ROI.

Ebooks, guides, and white papers are still prevalent in the 'C' suite. But recently, there's been a surge in interest in survey-backed reports; 

Who doesn't like to see what their peers are interested in now and where they think opportunities will be over the next few years?

Peer-to-peer content has been a vast, rapidly growing trend in B2B over the last few years. 

In the past, I've managed paid G2 Crowd, Trustpilot, or other company account review sites. Getting good reviews is critical to building good SEO and even closing sales. 

When I worked at the marketing attribution company Visual IQ—Nielsen, we produced a survey-backed CMO report on the State of Marketing attribution.

And here's a guide that it inspired me to produce - looking at the rising video game industry and its corollary in digital advertising: In-game advertising 

We developed a lot of rapport with leaders in the industry, while we built and promoted the surveys.

It's also great for generating high-value, targeted leads who are truly serious about your solutions. We started to get about 100 a month from this report right from the start—from Ad agencies, advertisers, and video game companies.

Typically, those reading large 30-page or more survey-based industry reports are 'in-market', not 'just browsing'.

One issue I've had is working with bland or uninsightful content. B2B content can be dull and repetitive, lacking in vigor and originality. 

Content creators in this field often shy away from the vital risk-taking needed to innovate, and to excite audiences. 

Also, many B2B content strategists and creators kowtow too much to senior management, who are often not content experts. 

It's easy to get steamrolled by someone much more senior into producing work you know is sub-par!

This is similar to the scenario where a rather boring senior or long-time employee constantly speaks at events when the audiences consistently report that this is their least favorite speaker (According to Gartner, 'thought leaders' are much preferred).

What's the point of absolutely 'nailing' your ad campaigns, reaching your ideal buyer persona, at your ICP, and at the perfect time, but then they download your guide, or listen to one of your selected speakers and it's.......................a big letdown?

Your SDRs follow up, and the feedback is invariably:

'The prospect hasn't read the guide yet.'

'They can't remember your talk.'

Or worse - the prospects aren't responding to the SDRs or Sales team at all!

Top Content Challenges 2024 (HubSpot)

You know that they were interested enough to sign up for your white paper on, for example, pick one (of my made-up titles):

1. Cybersecurity

"What's keeping CISOs awake at night: A Comprehensive Guide to Cybersecurity in 2024 and Beyond"

2. Software Development and IT Services

"DevOps and Beyond: Essential Strategies for IT Leaders"

3. Digital Marketing and Marketing Technology (MarTech)

"The Digital Marketing Playbook: Insights for the Modern CMO"

4. Telecommunications and Networking

"Connected Leadership: Navigating Telecommunications and Networking"

You invested heavily in capturing these great leads, so why would you let down your entire marketing process by providing poor-quality guides or white papers?

That's why I first got involved in content strategy and creation as a demand generation leader. 

Netline says that the C-Suite is 21% more likely to want to read a White Paper, than the rest of their B2B audience.

Remember that this is a blog post, so I will keep it succinct. However, I will add one last trend that everyone in B2B marketing is talking about: team development and team building. 

To thrive in 2024 and beyond, you need to attract and retain some of these top marketing skills in your team.

     

Even more importantly, as part of this trend, you need to be aware of, the exponential rise in freelancers and contractors 

In 2023, 52% of Gen Z workers and 43% of Millennials were freelancers. The shift is catching on globally: 

Gartner predicts that independent workers will make up 35% to 40% of the global workforce by 2025, and could be in the majority by 2030.

It's critical to get ahead of this trend to assert a competitive advantage over many companies that don't want to or don't understand how to incorporate freelancers into their marketing teams today.

ABM & Sunk Cost Fallacy: A Billion Dollar Blunder or Comedy of Errors?

Recently, a hiring manager contacted me about a job I'd applied for, which she said I was perfect for. It looked like an excellent fit to me as well. However, the office was far from me.  

I live in Central London. This job, as head of Demand Generation, was in Manchester, which is a 4-5 hour drive, and over 200 miles from my house.

The job was described as 'hybrid.' Given the distance, I assumed this meant being in the office once a week at worst, at best, once a month, or a couple of months.

I had worked in a similar role in Cambridge, about a two-hour drive and 60 miles away, in 2019, pre-COVID, where 'hybrid' meant precisely that.

Right at the start of the interview, I explained that my seventeen-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was struggling with her 'A' levels (the final school exams that determine which university you can attend).

She is also going through some mental health issues; therefore, I wanted to be home for a considerable part of the week to support her (and drive her to school).

However, despite my explanations, this hiring manager insisted I be in the office twice a week. Her reason was that the C suite had just leased an expensive office that 'they now needed to fill.'

Judging by how this hiring manager described it, this company's investment in an office was not going well. Besides, I thought, If management wants people in the office so badly, couldn't they come up with a more compelling reason than to fill an expensive office with bodies? 🤔

The irony was that this was one of the plethora of 'company culture' companies—some of which, unfortunately, don't seem to 'drink their own Kool-aid.'

This company advocates for making the workplace more empathetic, worker-centric, and reasonable. Yet they want me to force their irrational and emotionally tone-deaf decision on me before I have even started working for them!

I suggested taking on the freelancer or contractor role since the hiring manager said she was desperate to fill this role as quickly as possible. 

- I suppose my skillset is in short supply in the local area?

However, this company, devoted to improving corporate culture, couldn't bring itself to consider such a flexible option.

That evening, I was talking with my good friend Professor Orri Stefansson. 

He is a professor of  Philosophy who specializes in decision theory and ethics. His current research focuses on decision-making under extreme uncertainty.

Orri was intrigued by my story. He said, 'This is a perfect example of 'The Sunk Cost Fallacy'! 

You've bought a costly yet unbelievably uncomfortable pair of shoes that you cannot return to the shop for a refund. So you must wear them every day until they are worn out!'*

This story also demonstrates that independent experts within or outside organizations can be invaluable in changing such crazy decisions.

It's one of the reasons why, in the past, I've delighted in hiring accomplished & sometimes maverick freelancers. They tend to be 'straight shooters'.

They are not charming you with flattery just to get ahead. They are typically driven by a passion for the job alone. They are direct and honest in their feedback.

And often, they are your most talented assets.

Besides, it's one of the fastest-growing employment trends, so I might as well get used to hiring contractors & freelancers before they become 50% or more of the workforce!

Here are a few of such 'Sunk Cost Fallacy' situations, drawing from my 20+ years of experience, alongside some more well-known ones:

1. Continuing with a website refresh that had gone wrong and was crashing our SEO traffic. I've seen this happen at two different companies.                       
2. I worked at a company where no one acknowledged that the ABM system was ineffective. This was a different system bought before I started there. Since the company was focused on field marketing, nothing was done to fix it.  
3. The company's founder told his investors they had a fully functioning product. Yet even the head of product said this company did not have 'product fit.' However, the investors continued to support the company until it folded.                                                                                                                                                                                         
4. I worked at a company that sunk a massive amount into CRM and marketing automation implementation, which involved numerous issues. I was brought in to try and fix it. It would have been easier to start again. This story ended positively for me because a few years ago, I got to implement, onboard, and train the company on a (successful) purchase of a HubSpot CRM and marketing automation platform! 
5. A country invades a country and expends immense efforts to win the war, which it can't do. The government has trapped itself in a quagmire. However, it cannot accept defeat since this would mean many of its soldiers would have 'died in vain'.                                                                                 
6. The Sunk Cost fallacy is sometimes called 'The Concord fallacy' because the French and British governments continued funding the doomed supersonic airliner long after it was likely that it would not be commercially viable.

 *My father, Sir Kenneth Parker, commented on Orri's point: Interesting on sunk cost. What might be missing on the shoe analogy is budget constraint. The purchaser might not be able to afford another pair, or money for another pair might earn a better return/more welfare elsewhere. After the War it was commonly said that Germany had an advantage because it was compelled to re-build its factories with state of the art equipment. British industry struggled on with 19th century rubbish because the cost of replacement was high and it was not clear whether the investment would improve net returns. Undoubtedly a mistake in that instance.