Australian B2B marketers feel the pressure of doing more with less budget: LinkedIn
Australian B2B marketers are feeling the pressure of doing more with less marketing budget in uncertain economic conditions, a LinkedIn study has found.
The study has found that 42% of Australian B2B marketing decision-makers think marketing is not an important investment area for their business.
Consequently, 1 in 5 (23%) B2B marketers feel that the biggest challenge during this period of economic change is doing more with a reduced budget.
1 in 4 (26%) believe their business does not understand B2B marketing ROI. With budgets under more scrutiny than ever, proving ROI will be crucial for marketers in the months ahead.
The top areas where B2B marketers are experiencing budget changes currently are events, partnerships, and sponsorships (38%), along with the retention and onboarding of agency partners and specialists (35%).
However, they continue to invest in research and thought leadership, and below-the-line campaigns remain steady with just 29% cutting these tactics.
The majority (81%) of B2B marketers remain positive about the next six months, although with a shifting focus.
59% claim they will reduce B2B branding-building spending in the next six months, despite brand-building taking up more than 50% of their available budget for over half of the marketers (53%).
Samantha Cuclifee, managing director, B2B Merkle said: “If we think about our job as B2B marketers, especially in today’s world with all its uncertainties and resulting impact on business, we have to effectively build brand with demand strategies to find opportunities to convert today and in the future – whether that’s in 6 months or 2 years.
“The purpose of brand in this context is to not to generate awareness, but to build category eminence and mindshare so that when audiences are in the market to purchase, your brand is front of mind. Once the role is defined, the creativity to establish brand distinction can be unleashed.”
Joel Acenas, commercial marketing manager, Personal Systems HP ANZ, said: “The distinct line between brand building and demand generation is getting more and more blurry. This allows us to push our creativity to activate traditional demand generation activities and channels in ways that can further build the brand that excites our audience to be more engaged and ultimately measure the ROI that we can report back to the business.”
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