B2B Marketing Predictions for 2023, by TBO’s Shyam Sunder
By: Shyam Sunder, Vice President of Marketing at TBO.Com
It’s exciting times for B2B Marketers as businesses continue to find increasing value in marketing investments and marketers breaking the shackles and boundaries created by themselves over many years. In fact, from all that I can see and hear, 2022 has been a pivotal year for the community especially from a long term brand building, creativity and full funnel marketing perspectives. And for someone like me coming from years of building consumer brands across retail fashion, fmcg and retail banking sectors, the timing of moving into a B2B Travel Tech business cannot be better!
Here are my Top 3 Predictions for 2023 which will make a significant impact on our businesses:
The year of fresh mindset, perspectives, frameworks and ideas : As with most things in life – it starts with the mind. One of the finest white papers written on B2B Marketing is ‘The Objectivity Trap” by the great Rory Sutherland, one of the most innovative marketing minds and writers in the world today. In this paper, Rory champions the need for – creating magic by going beyond logic, marketing as a mindset and not just media budget and avoiding reductionalism to achieve growth. The essence of his message is the call for a new mindset and approach to marketing. Breaking conventions. Shed the old and embrace the new. And blaze new trails of innovation and creativity. Lets keep in mind – The 5th paradigm of Marketing will see technology and data analytics getting standardized. Its Innovation and Creativity which will drive brand differentiation and growth.
The year when Brand Marketing will be the new Performance Marketing: Traditionally B2B businesses have overly focused on performance marketing i.e lead generation – resulting in de-valuing brand advertising. A recent YouGov study of 1700 B2B marketing leaders published by Linkedin Collective confirms how companies are focusing on brand building to drive faster recovery after the downturn. Combining lead-gen with long-term brand building will be the key as 95% of our potential buyers aren’t ready to buy. Embracing the 95-5 rule – 95% of investments for ‘out-market’ audiences for them to be ‘in-market’ in the future. Easier said than done in most organizations. Its really upto marketers to make the shift from bottom to top funnel marketing priorities and demonstrate success from the change.
The year of H2H marketing: Essentially, all businesses B2B or B2C are, people business. Inside the 4 walls, cabins and cubicles of workspaces are humans coming to work. At the recently concluded B2B World Fest 2022, Raja Rajamannar, CMO Mastercard put it simply- ‘Mastercard is an overwhelmingly a B2B brand but is seen as B2C. The reason for that is that we dont look at our brand from this lens. From a brand positioning and communications perspective we are a people to people brand. While the dynamics of the decision making varies in the B2B and B2C worlds, the emotions, feelings, aspirations and decision making triggers of people in both worlds are the same.’ This new paradigm shift in our thinking while approaching customers can be a game-changer for B2B marketers. Rational, dull and uninspiring messaging pushed to customers will be replaced with emotional, creative and inspiring messaging pulling customers to you. Behavior and insights-led customer personas can lead to high engagement high impact campaigns and results. Humanizing our brand across all brand marketing efforts will be the key to marketing effectiveness.