B2B marketers target brand building | WARC | The Feed

B2B marketers target brand building

Two-thirds (67%) of senior B2B marketers plan to maintain or increase their spend on brand building over the next six months, despite current economic conditions impacting budgets, according to a new study from LinkedIn. 

The professional network’s global B2B Marketer Sentiment study* surveyed over 1,700 B2B marketing leaders from across the world and found that around half have seen budgets affected in some way, but three-quarters (76%) remain optimistic about their marketing strategy over the next six months.

Why it matters

Brand building is a long-term activity that can suffer during a downturn as short-term measures are prioritised. A majority of B2B marketers, however, understand the importance of continuing to invest in building their brands.

Alongside the expected reasons – a strong brand supports long-term sales (cited by 52% of respondents) and helps it stay top of mind for buyers (42%) – more than a third (38%) also said that it helps them to attract talent, an important consideration in times of uncertainty.

Key findings

• B2B marketers in India are most optimistic about their strategies (94%), followed by Saudi Arabia (92%) and the US (91%); only 56% of marketers in the UK and 50% of marketers in Germany felt positive about their plans.
• As B2B marketers look to do more with less, proving marketing effectiveness to influential stakeholders in the organisation is critical. Of the companies that have seen budgets impacted, 30% say the business does not understand B2B marketing ROI.
• Some B2B marketers see this time as an opportunity to invest in building relationships and trust with customers (28%), and a chance to stay relevant and rethink their brand story (22%). 
• Marketing leaders say creativity tops the list of skills needed for marketers to navigate uncertainty (56%). 

Key quote

“One of the critical keys is to optimise investment in creating future demand while at the same time harvesting existing demand. It takes a strong brand to do this, and a smart interlock of brand and demand activities and investment” – Tom Stein, Chairman and Chief Growth Officer, Stein IAS.

*An online survey of 1,703 senior B2B marketing decision makers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, UAE, KSA, Brazil, Australia, India and Singapore was conducted in mid-September 2022. 

Sourced from LinkedIn