Three strategic essentials for 2024
Keeping things human in a shifting landscape

2023 demanded resilience and resourcefulness from B2B marketing leaders who grappled with the challenge of making budgets stretch further, accomplishing more with less, and justifying ROI like never before. As the new year starts, there hasn’t been a miraculous shift in the landscape to solve all these challenges (sadly), but there is the chance to reset and refocus on strategic priorities.

In this article, I consider the areas of focus that should be forefront for all B2B marketers looking to achieve success this year.

1. Generative AI: Transforming Marketing Dynamics

There is no doubt in my mind that generative AI will completely transform the marketing function. It brings so much opportunity for efficiencies and innovation in our programmes and campaigns. That being said, it brings the risk of inundating the market with mediocre content and adding more noise into the market for buyers to navigate (as if it wasn’t tough enough already). Success in 2024 hinges on navigating this everchanging landscape effectively:

• Martech ecosystem readiness: Ensure your marketing technology ecosystem is equipped to leverage generative AI effectively. If the basics aren’t already in place, 2024 is the year to audit and ensure meaningful investment, adoption, and integration.
  
  
• Human touch amid automation: Despite AI's prominence, human interactions remain essential; strive to balance automation with personal engagement and consider human strategies across your digital touchpoints.
  
  
• Creativity to drive differentiation: Generative AI has the potential to create vast amounts of content – and making it the core of your marketing operations can be tempting. But whatever you do, it needs to be meaningful, not only to your brand but also valuable to the buyer. Creative strategies help businesses stand out by injecting uniqueness, originality and genuine meaning into their messaging and visual identity. Setting them apart from competitors using similar AI-generated content by providing real value to the buyer.
  
  
• Team training and alignment: While driving experimentation and encouraging adoption will be key to survival, equip teams with the necessary skills and align them with broader business policies and procedures.
  

2. Brand: A Cornerstone in the Shifting Landscape

Brand reputation must take centre stage this year. Timely brand awareness is crucial for visibility when buyers make decisions. Up to 90% of buyers have a set of vendors in mind before doing any research, and 90% of them will choose a vendor from the day one list, according to a recent survey by Bain and Google.

• Brand awareness and equity: Focus on building brand activities to ensure visibility when buyers are ready to make decisions. Take stock of how much of the marketing budget supports this as a starter, incredibly many businesses I spoke to in 2023 shifted to bottom-of-funnel activities leaving this area exposed. To achieve long-term growth it must become a priority for ongoing investment.
  
  
• Authentic brand story: Review and refine your value proposition and brand story to align with audience expectations. Far too many organisations lack the depth to their value story and don’t have one that is customer-obsessed. To nurture a buyer, this is a foundation for success.
  
  
• Creative impact: Strive for creative and impactful activities that deliver richer, more authentic experiences that truly resonate. In a world where marketing teams have shifting priorities and need to deliver fast, it can be easy for creativity and content innovation to be downgraded.

3. Customer Experiences: Pivoting in the Digital Era

With Gartner reporting 75% and Forrester reporting that 70% of B2B buyers prefer to buy online without interacting with a salesperson, customer experiences become paramount in 2024. Brands must develop connected strategies that deliver a positive experience to cater to self-serve buyers.

• Back to basics: I mentioned earlier that martech readiness was critical for successful generative AI adoption, but it comes to the forefront again when we consider delivering a connected customer experience. Auditing, adoption, and integration can feel like a cumbersome exercise amid immediate needs, but it’ll pay off in the long run and shouldn’t be avoided.
  
  
• Dynamic buyer journeys: Acknowledge the non-linear nature of customer journeys and adapt strategies accordingly. Fuel all stages of the buyer journey with content that inspires. Of course, content should be appropriate to your audience’s need and the objectives of the activity, but delivering digital experiences is an opportunity for your brand to cut through
  
  
• Nurture and personalisation: Prioritise customer nurture around your key accounts with high levels of personalisation. And focus on the optimum channels based on your insights, vs relying on email or other siloed activities.

This one is probably the area we see the most challenge in, as it requires collaboration from across the business where roles and responsibilities are often blurred. Customer experience is a business goal, so marketing teams need to make sure they have a seat at the table to lead their strategic influence in this area.

Metrics and collaboration that drive success

As we step into the new year, it's imperative to rethink traditional metrics and consider alternative approaches for meaningful results. I have listened to several marketing teams who are focused on activities to meet their targets, none of which they believe add value to the long-term business growth objectives.

Move away from traditional MQL metrics and explore alternative indicators of success. Acknowledge that financial metrics, while crucial, are no longer the sole indicators of success. Appreciate the intangible aspects of return on investment as a vital component of success, and ensure the wider business and brought into the approach. Education is often needed here to showcase our craft.

Making sure you focus on improving the quality of your buyer data will be the catalyst for more effective marketing. Enrichment, and ongoing ownership of contact data, will drive more segmented, personalised and effective marketing activity and empower marketing and sales to achieve meaningful successes in 2024.

As my final thought in the quest for success during 2024, don't forget the basics. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the next big thing; look at how many businesses were not yet ready for the metaverse revolution in 2023. To ensure success we need to strong foundation for our marketing strategies. One that is aligned with the sales priorities and business goals.