74% of B2B marketers expect budgets to increase next year

Despite all the economic turmoil, 74% of B2B marketers expect their budgets to increase in the coming fiscal year, up from 68% last year, according to a new report. 

However, only 12% expect a large increase compared to 26% last year, according to digital marketing agency Wpromote’s State of B2B Digital Marketing report. Nearly two-thirds expect a moderate increase.

Top five objectives. To no one’s surprise, increasing revenue remains the No. 1 priority among most (51%) for those surveyed. What is surprising is that increasing brand awareness came in at No. 2 with 37%. Also surprising, improving customer experience tied with delivering quality leads for third place with 31% each. They barely nudged out delivering more leads which was a priority for 30%.

Top five challenges. Maybe delivering more quality leads ranked lower because they are seen as two biggest challenges. The next three are improving customer experience, producing quality content and the ever-present improving alignment with sales.

Lead gen obstacles. Some 41% of marketers say getting good data is their biggest problem when it comes to providing sales with quality leads. That’s followed closely by content creation and managing and tracking leads. In a positive sign, only 26% reported a problem with measuring channel performance and attributing leads.

Most effective KPIs. ROI again leads the pack, with 40% citing it. What’s remarkable is that last year website traffic was #1 with 58% and year it only got 34%, putting it third behind conversion rates.

Dig deeper: B2B customer journeys that begin at review sites are significantly shorter

Revenue drivers. Exactly half of B2B marketers said social media was the top revenue driver. However, 53% of executives in the survey said it was email. That’s a pretty substantial divide, especially when email came in third (41%) on the marketers’ list. Content (47%) was the second biggest revenue driver for marketers.

Where the money will go. Here’s where marketers are looking to increase their spend in the coming year:

1. Social media (52%)
2. Content marketing (44%)
3. Paid search (32%)
4. Email (27%)
5. Display advertising (26%)

Why we care. One place B2B marketing is tracking closely with B2C is people’s desire for ever-improving customer experience. Also, both groups are grappling with the near-certainty of new restrictions on the data that they use for CX. Perhaps it’s time for both groups to get together and discuss solutions to their shared problems.