Business leaders take note!
It’s possible we say this every 12 months, but where did the year go? What a year it has been! From being in the office together and actually meeting people face to face, we have also seen the world changing with some exciting new developments in B2B marketing.
With that in mind, we’ve taken some time to reflect on the trends we think will permeate into the new year, and what new trends will start to emerge. In our top pick of B2B Tech marketing trends for 2023, there are some familiar faces and some new kids on the block.
1 – Account-based marketing (ABM) rules B2B
First up, a prevalent topic in our 2023 customer planning sessions this year has been Account-Based Marketing aka Key Account Marketing. In fact, ABM is now used by 70% of marketers, up from just 15% a year ago, according to HubSpot.
Account-based marketing is a technique that focuses marketing efforts on a set of customers within a specific market. Using extremely targeted and hyper-personalised activities to engage each account, it bases the messaging on specific attributes and needs of that account. This is especially beneficial if your target market is wide and varied or your target accounts are large in size.
“Traditionally this approach is highly labour intensive and requires specialised research, usually conducted by someone experienced, making ABM prohibitive for some of our customers”, says Melanie Unwin, Co-Founder, Mogrify.
“The focus is on warming up target accounts who may be early in their buying cycle, before reaching out with the more traditional ABM approaches. We would call these out-of-market prospects, compared to in-market prospects actively looking for your services. The key to making this efficient is to review your resources and create a process that makes it possible for someone less experienced to do the majority of the desk work to warm those opportunities up”, Melanie adds.
Being able to track behaviour, or intent, data is critical to ABM. This intel helps you identify if they’re currently in-market or out-of-market so you can shape your communication accordingly. This might include tracking their activity on websites, in search engines, on social media, and engaging in content.
As Gartner notes, if you are ”a software provider trying to market products to the right prospects, you know that understanding customers’ intent is the key to driving sales. The deeper you dive to understand buyers’ behaviour, the more relevant leads you’ll be able to generate.”
This leads us to B2B Marketing Trend #2.
2 – Get to know Intent Data
Intent data, in itself, is another trend that we will undoubtedly see more of in 2023.
Some ABM tactics rely on data that identifies customers right for your services now or in the future. For example, one methodology could scan for signals that a prospect is researching a new product or service, such as an increase in web traffic from their account or IP address, engagement with your website, or posting various comments on social media that suggest they have a need.
Whether you are monitoring specific accounts from an ABM perspective or are just curious to know who is looking at what, the importance of analysing intent data is only going to grow.
“In Australia, we are seeing third-party intent data providers offering behavioural insight at a contact level. As opposed to the US, however, the privacy implications of this information needs to be worked through, as does the accuracy of the data, before it can be truly harnessed,” says Melanie.
Ultimately, using intent data should mean you can put your prospects on a touchpoint journey, which may start off cold, but after some very targeted nurture, you will become part of their consideration set.
But “how do we track all of this?” we hear you say. That leads us to B2B Marketing Trend #3.
3 – Data-driven marketing automation tools are critical to success
In all aspects of marketing — whether your business is dabbling with ABM or not — without data-driven marketing tools such as marketing and sales automation, you will be unable to reap the rewards.
We predict with a fairly high level of certainty that this will prevail as a marketing trend for 2023. Why? We firmly believe that automation for sales and marketing (when done well) will maximise sales and marketing impact. Not only that, but we also know there are many businesses that are still not utilising sales and marketing automation platforms and are struggling to be effective.
According to Forbes, “In 2023, businesses will understand that data is the key to understanding customers, developing better products and services, and streamlining their internal operations to reduce costs and waste. “
If data is critical to growing your business, then tools and platforms will enhance, manage, and utilise that data so you can harvest the results. Really, they are as important an asset as the data itself.
“We have seen businesses who are stuck using standalone email marketing tools, that have little to no integration between marketing and their database, or worse — are still working out of an excel spreadsheet — struggle. They lack a bird’s eye view on their leads that could give them vital intel”, says Melanie.
4 – Understanding your target audience beyond just their job title
Some marketing tactics will still have a place in the 2023 trends shortlist because they’re absolutely essential. This trend is all about understanding your customer – their needs, their pressures, and what value your services provide them.
“Sitting down with your team and creating a comprehensive and executable strategy, focused on a specific target audience is the objective of our Strategic Kickstarter. It helps home in on important strategic details of your business, so when marketing campaigns are activated, the vision is aligned with the overall business goals.” Melanie explains how Mogrify creates successful marketing strategies.
If 2023 is all about hyper-personalised marketing messages, then to execute any marketing whatsoever, you MUST understand the drivers for your target market and buyer personas. This foundational work is imperative to data-driven marketing
“There is a real winning solution in establishing what your business wants to say to your prospects and in what order. We get to understand their customers so well that together we map out the entire customer journey, and then take them on it over a 3-12 month timeframe.”
By seeing your business through your customers’ eyes, you can really establish what makes you different to your competitors.
5 – Free up budget with outsourcing
Now to our last prediction. Thanks to the economic climate, the spotlight is brighter than ever on the role of the marketer in the business. The focus on ROI drives the need for efficiency and value for money so as budgets tighten up, the risk of an ineffective in-house marketing team is too high. According to Forrester, “B2B leaders are bracing for economic upheaval. Concerns about inflation, higher interest rates, supply chain shortages, and the prospect of a looming recession are already forcing go-to-market leaders to rethink their growth strategies. We’re anticipating organizations will work to minimize risk and focus their resources.”
This is where an outsourced marketing team can benefit small to medium-sized businesses. Where an in-house marketer will likely have expertise in one or two areas, they will inevitably need to engage specialist agencies to fulfil a holistic marketing plan. At Mogrify, our customers access a team of experts working across their marketing, providing a wide range of competencies and skills, plus physical assets and outputs.
If you’re looking for practical solutions for maximising a pinched budget then outsourcing your marketing team might be the answer.
A free consultation with Mogrify could help you decide if this is the path for you! We would also love to know if you agree with our marketing trend predictions for 2023? And what are the focuses for your business – do they align with any of our predictions?
