Navigating the Complexities of B2B Marketing

Today’s B2B marketing landscape is more complex than ever before. As a CEO, understanding these complexities at a high level can help you make informed decisions around your best first steps when it comes to making a more serious investment in marketing and choosing the marketing model that best fits your company.

Here are some of the ways B2B marketing today is more complex than ever before:

• The explosion of B2B Marketing Channels: The sheer number of marketing channels now available – from traditional print and broadcast media to digital platforms such as social media, search engines, email marketing, content marketing, influencer marketing, and more – can be overwhelming. Each channel requires its own strategy, approach, nuances, and understanding of best practices. Plus, the technology and requirements of each of these channels are constantly changing and evolving, and what worked last year may no longer work this year.

• Constantly Evolving B2B Marketing Technology: New tools and technologies are continually emerging, each promising to transform the way you do marketing. However, with so many options, it can be challenging to decide which ones are right for your business. Moreover, integrating these technologies and ensuring they work together efficiently is a task in itself.

• Heightened Customer Expectations: Today’s B2B buyers are more demanding than ever before. They expect personalized, relevant experiences that align with their unique needs and preferences. Meeting these expectations requires a deep understanding of your target audience and the ability to deliver the right message at the right time.

• Changing Buyer Behavior: The way B2B buyers prefer to consume information and move along the buyer’s journey is changing. This means that marketing methods that worked even one year ago may no longer work today. It also means that every small marketing detail is very important. It’s tough to keep up with these changes and understand what’s working today, what’s not working, and why.

• Data Overload: The ability to collect and analyze data has revolutionized marketing. But with so much data available, CEOs are often faced with the challenge of identifying which metrics matter and how to use this information to make strategic decisions. In addition, the ability to track metrics is constantly changing, and the metrics that were easy to get before may no longer be available today. Further, the availability of data can lead to too much focus on metrics when it comes to marketing, and too little focus on the creative nuances of marketing, such as messaging and positioning that often make all the difference.

• Skill Gaps: Modern marketing requires a wide range of skills, from strategy development and positioning to data analysis to content creation, SEO, social media management, and more. Building an expert team that covers all these areas can be time-consuming and expensive, and evaluating these skills can be challenging as well.

• Regulatory Challenges: As privacy concerns rise globally, understanding and complying with regulations like GDPR and CCPA become critical. Non-compliance can lead to penalties or damage to your company’s reputation.

Understanding the Complexities of B2B Marketing Can Help You Make Informed Decisions:

All these complexities create a challenging environment for B2B CEOs. However, knowing these complexities exist can help you, as a CEO, understand the types of marketing talent and resources you may need. 

For example, you may have been considering bringing on a junior marketing generalist, but would this person have the skills, experience and deep B2B knowledge needed to navigate all of the challenges and complexities of marketing today? Or would it make more sense to invest in more senior marketing leadership first – and if so, what would that look like? 

Next Steps: The CEO’s Ultimate Guide to Building an Expert B2B Marketing Team in Today’s Complex Marketing World

To help you make important decisions around your B2B marketing investment, we’ve created a comprehensive 33-page eBook: The CEO’s Ultimate Guide to Building an Expert  B2B Marketing Team in Today’s Complex Marketing World

In this eBook, we walk you through the six most important questions B2B CEOs need to answer in order to build their first marketing team and choose the right B2B marketing model for their stage of business:

1. How Do You Know It’s Time to Invest in Marketing? 
2. What are B2B Marketing Best Practices?
3. How Has B2B Marketing Become More Complex?
4. What Are the Top Challenges in Getting Started in Marketing?
5. What Does a B2B Marketing Team Look Like?
6. Should You Hire In-House or Outsource?

You can download the eBook RIGHT HERE

If you have any questions about this blog post or the eBook or would like to schedule a consultation with myself and Jen Kelly, NIM’s Founder and one of the Fractional CMOs to get more guidance around your next steps in marketing, you can send her an email or book a consultation time.

Nicole Croizier is the lead Fractional–CMO at New Initiatives Marketing Inc.  Take charge of your marketing success today with us as your Fractional CMO + Marketing Team.  Since 2009, we’ve been supporting mid-size b2b businesses worldwide through effective implementation and execution of marketing strategy. Not ready? Sign up and learn from our monthly newsletter.