See how top B2B SaaS marketers generate demand

What did we uncover?

Some marketers are meeting these challenges head-on by increasing campaign experimentation and rethinking their content, word-of-mouth/referral, and social media strategies.

Others are falling behind as impatient CEOs, unrealistic expectations and lack of resources have placed them in a fight for daily survival.

What we do know is that 2024 will force B2B Tech/SaaS marketers to revisit decade-old demand playbooks and update them to reflect how today’s B2B buyers want to engage.

What you’ll learn

1. Many CEOs are impatient and don’t understand that marketing is a long-term game.
   This creates unrealistic expectations for many marketing leaders and is leading to marketer burnout and in some cases, job turnover.
   
2. Sales cycles have become longer, more complicated, and maintaining engagement is challenging driven by more decision stakeholders, decision paralysis, and a higher ROI threshold to buy.
   Overall, marketing has become more difficult in terms of tactics, tracking and meeting expectations.
   
   People are difficult to reach because they are not in traditional offices near a desk phone, and more difficult to engage because of the loss of rapport building from face-to-face interactions (it’s easier to lose attention span on video calls).
   
   Buyers are more risk-averse than ever so motivating them to act is also becoming a monumental challenge.
   
3. The demand tactics that used to work, are no longer working.
   Fresh approaches are needed to stand out in crowded markets and among cold-call fatigued buyers.
   
   Instead of “going big” on a few large investments (e.g. large trade shows/events), marketers are stretching their budget across smaller events and campaign experiments looking for ROI.
4. Performance marketing costs continue to rise, despite declining effectiveness and ROI.
   Customer acquisition costs are rising significantly as paid media costs are escalating, yet conversions to revenue are falling.
   
   The result is an increased need for marketers to experiment with new channels and tactics to connect with in-market buyers to build revenue pipeline in the short-term, while trying to “play the long game” of creating brand awareness and creating demand.
5. Word-of-mouth channels (such as online communities) represent huge untapped potential and B2B marketers know they are not taking advantage of them.
   Marketers claim the biggest factors include lack of a strategy and resources (staffing, funding) to integrate WOM into their marketing strategy.
6. Content quality and message relevance must improve to engage buyers for lead generation and revenue pipeline.
   Marketers acknowledge they need to get better with segmenting and tailoring both messaging and content. Most are comfortable creating white papers, webinars and value calculators for late-stage buyer stage use.
   
   However, when it comes to podcasts, video channels and other self-service content, most are not staying committed to the formats long enough to see ROI. Several agree that where possible, interactive content improves engagement and video seems to outperform podcasts.
   
7. Marketers still struggle to understand “what a good sales lead” (SQL) looks like in terms of agreed attributes with Sales.
   Marketing leaders are attempting to participate in win/loss analysis along with Sales, but MQL quality becomes a “Sales problem.”
   
   SaaS companies report that despite their attempts to pursue PLG strategies, their products are too complex for self-service buying and require sales assistance.
8. Marketers need to broaden their focus beyond customer acquisition to include retention and expansion to grow revenue.
   SaaS marketing leaders were most vocal about the failures of “growth at all costs” and the aftermath of the SaaS bubble of VC investing and crowded categories.