Despite persistent financial pressures, business-to-business marketing executives say they expect to spend more money this year on new campaigns and technology upgrades; but with only incremental budget increases expected, deciding where to invest promises to be an exercise in discretion.
According to the results of a joint study conducted by Forrester Research and the Business Marketing Association (BMA), B2B marketers expect to see budgets increase by 6% on average compared to last year. The poll of 56 marketing executives found that a third expect to see budgets rise, while only 22% expect to see a drop in budgetary capital.
The findings, while not as optimistic as those forecast in September by The Sagefrog Marketing Group or in January by AdAge, nonetheless confirm that B2B marketing departments are on the path to rebounding from an extended recessionary slump. According to the Forrester/BMA report, marketing budgets are expected to account for 4% of company revenue, significantly lower than pre-recession averages, but up by 1.5 percentage points when compared to 2012.
Still, the relatively austere increases will require CMOs to carefully choose between priorities as they continue to face increased pressure to bolster key technological resources.
“While CMOs expect to see some moderate budget growth in 2014, expectations for how marketing should spend this mild bounty are higher and range from investments in core programs to technology and innovation,” says the Forrester/BMA report. As a result, “Business-to-business marketing executives must stretch budget dollars across an increasingly fragmented set of funding demands to reach buyers where they are spending their time.”
According to AdAge’s 2014 B2B Marketing Outlook digital will eat up a big splice of the budgetary pie this year, with 80% of polled B2B marketers saying they plan to increase spending in these areas, compared to 67% who said so last year. Meanwhile the number of marketers (47%) saying they plan to expand into mobile channels in 2014 is more than double the number who said mobile was a priority in 2013.
A portion of the new spending will also almost certainly go to social media with platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounting for the largest gains in content marketing investment (+12%), according to AdAge.
However, analysts say demand to bolster mobile and content marketing will leave many CMOs struggling to find the dollars for essential investments in automation, data analytics, and innovation. They’ll also need to juggle necessary trade show spending, which at 20% still constitutes the biggest line item on a B2B marketers budgets.
According to Forrester/BMA, the trick is for B2B CMOs adopt a “portfolio approach” to stretch their budgets further. This means diversifying spending as much as possible through creative budgeting, including investing in assets with high reuse potential, investing in tools that help pinpoint the best use of digital and social media assets, and setting aside money to test out new trends as they emerge.
The goal is to avoid putting too many eggs in one basket to ensure there are still resources left in the event one of them cracks.