Saas Marketer - 2023 is B2B Marketing’s Biggest Year

Anyone who knows me (‘me’ being Sam, the guy who writes all of these emails, just in case you didn’t know) knows that I tend to get rather obsessive over new interests. For example, when I was a child, I was obsessed with The Lion King, to the point where, whilst everyone said they wanted to be a ‘firefighter’ or an ‘astronaut’, I’d say I wanted to be a lion. I think I knew, deep in my heart, there was no chance of that happening, but for the life of me, I could not think of anything better.

Now, before you all start hitting that reply button, no, I did not grow up to be a furry. I have some semblance of self-respect.

But I will say, I used to be able to pull off the most realistic fucking lion roar you’ve ever heard in your life. I don’t know if I can still do it, but I genuinely reckon I peaked at the age of six with that sound. I haven’t been able to replicate it since. Now here I am, writing about it in a B2B and SaaS Marketing newsletter.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen (just like Mufasa when he fell off that cliff… Sorry. Sorry. That wasn’t very nice. Poor bloke. Fuck Scar, man. Little dickhead.)

Anyways, let’s crack on with some professional news shall we?

There’s no doubt that over the last few years, the B2B marketing landscape has taken on gradual yet noticeable, significant changes: AI, automation, Web3, LinkedIn - it’s a jungle out there, but no one ever said they weren’t expecting it. Apparently, 2023 is set to be a very important year for B2B marketing according to multiple people. Forbes, Marketing Week and The B2B Institute for LinkedIn’s Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo all seem to agree, but why?

Well, according to a report published by TechNavio in December 2022, Artificial Intelligence was forecast to see a compound annual growth of 21% from 2020 to 2025. This puts 2023 in a rather interesting and pivotal position, because spending in the U.S. is approaching $15 billion on digital advertising, and as B2B seems to have more competition than ever before, Dee Blohm at Forbes reckons that ‘2023 is likely to mark the first breakout B2B marketing campaigns on connected TV (CTV), dramatic improvements in the use of data, and unique new approaches that marry online and offline into a new buyer journey.’

It’s not that the world of B2B understands marketing any less than B2C; it’s just that they’ve had more time and more opportunities to master it. The marketing world in general seems to adore B2C’s marketing, and rightly so; as Weinberg and Lombardo point out, we love to talk about ads from Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Rice Crispies, and all the others, but when it comes to B2B, no one wants to acknowledge it all that much.

One thing that needs to be implemented in the B2B marketing world is the notion of ‘memorability’. If you were asked to think up a famous advert in your head, you might have thought of the John Lewis or Coca-Cola ads, both B2C brands!

But can you think, off the top of your head, of any real memorable B2B ads? Difficult, isn’t it? In 2023, that’s all about to change. As we garner more data and analytics, as our AI technologies grow and develop, B2C may just remain in the past as our legacy. They already take advantage of and lean into their own first-party data to target audiences more effectively, and there’s absolutely no reason B2B can’t do the same!

If we were to look at our audiences’ identities and really target them with laser-like precision, we’d be unstoppable. We could even take tips from one David Allison of Valuegraphics and look at how our values as people can help us pinpoint more accurate market targeting.

So, what’s the point in all of this? Well, in 2023, we’re going to have to hit the B2B industry with better, more thoughtful marketing than ever before. The future of the economic landscape is uncertain, and as Blohm at Forbes points out, ‘B2B marketers should be open to testing tactics that could have a material impact on sales, especially if they aren’t particularly difficult to implement.’

We have so many new tools at our disposal, and we're at the tipping point of it all; we’re making our way through the looking glass, and we need to prepare. A.I. and the large hoards of data we have at our disposal are all just sitting there, waiting to be utilised. There is, quite literally, no excuse not to use them. If you don’t, you’ll fall behind and be left in the dirt whilst everyone else is thriving.

Those who thrive are the ones who embrace change, whilst those who stagnate are the ones that refuse to even dip their toe into it.

Read on the web >>

As always, thank you very much for reading! If you liked this and want to see more or simply haven’t seen us before, feel free to head on over to our website where you can view all of our previous stories!

See you next week 😎

Keep growing,
SaaS Marketer

P.S.

SaaS Marketer Weekly is produced and sponsored by the team at Fame (we start and grow the most profitable podcasts in B2B). So if you want the SaaS Marketer Weekly team helping you with podcasts (not sure that is a good selling point!), then hit reply to this email and we will set up a time to chat :)