INFUSE Insights Report: Voice of the
Marketer 2024

Summary

Introduction

As we approach the end of another year, it is a fitting moment for those in B2B marketing to reflect on the effectiveness of their 2023 strategies and contemplate how to refine and devise new approaches to accomplish their goals in 2024.

This second annual INFUSE Insights Voice of the Marketer report showcases the evolution of the B2B demand generation space.  As buyer scrutiny increases, the buying cycle becomes more sophisticated, forcing marketers to catch up with innovation and develop strategies that resolve pain points and encourage funnel velocity. This research covers:

How to tackle buyer scrutiny
Go-to-market (GTM) models
Nurturing strategies and how to leverage BDRs across all engagement channels
The future of content marketing
The power of demand intelligence
The evolution of AI

The market is shifting fast

The market has grown, right-sized, and then evolved through GTM

"The 'growth at all costs' mindset, when the need for post-pandemic revival at most organisations was a major driving force, has now been replaced by significant dampening of PE/VC investments and increased buyer scrutiny. As a consequence,  we find ourselves in the era where GTM is the new demand—a shift underscored by buyers assuming a defensive position for the foreseeable future.”

As such, 2024 is poised to be shaped by the following trends:

GTM should not only drive demand but also seamlessly integrate with RevOps to formulate a comprehensive growth strategy for B2B organisations.
ABM remains the predominant GTM strategy.
Buying group demand strategies are still in their early stages, with many marketing teams focusing on leads at target accounts rather than addressing the complete buying committee in a true ABX fashion.

Audience overview

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: AUDIENCE PROFILE

To compile our data, we reached out to marketers across the globe and from B2B organisations of all sizes. The predominant focus was on the technology sector, and the individuals we interviewed held decision making authority, with titles ranging from Manager to C-level executives.

The GTM challenge

The trend of organisations demonstrating an intense drive to boost sales poses a significant challenge for GTM models in 2024 as marketers feel the pressure of having to cater to pressing sales demands to meet revenue goals.

Simultaneously, sales teams need to align with the evolving preferences of B2B buyers, who now dedicate less time to direct sales interactions and more time to self-serve research and engaging with content.

The majority of marketers are measured by their impact on revenue and pipeline, steering away from measuring success against arbitrary marketing activities and vanity metrics. This marks a departure from last year's focus on lead quality, conversion rates, and lead volume, evolving towards a broader commitment to revenue attribution and pipeline metrics. The primary indicators of success are the creation of pipeline opportunities and the generation of revenue, aligning with overarching revenue goals.
However, the foremost challenge identified in this transformation is the generation of sales-ready leads, signaling a notable shift toward prioritising tactics integral to driving sales engagement. This underscores the necessity to align marketing efforts with tangible business outcomes but also signals a strong drive to boost sales, potentially at the expense of maintaining effective marketing strategies.

These challenges are symptomatic of a systemic misalignment within GTM models. In the current environment, the pressures have led marketers to approach their sales teams as clients, rather than prioritising the buyers as the primary clients. This imbalance in the GTM strategy significantly influences the experience that teams can provide to buyers, consequently affecting the outcomes they can anticipate.

The death of “random acts of marketing”

Key findings

60% of respondents said they need to demonstrate how much revenue and pipeline are influenced and generated by sales and marketing. For the majority of marketers, this signifies a shift from marketing value being limited to the performance of specific activities to revenue attribution. This is a positive move toward a focus on more strategic and comprehensive programs and less experimentation.
Last year’s top three priorities were lead quality, conversion rates, and lead volume, followed by content creation and improving alignment. This year’s change shows a radical shift in focus from a more granular view of lead generation and elements of nurturing to a broader focus on revenue attribution and pipeline considering the role of all marketing activities as a whole.