As we step into 2024, B2B technology marketers must stay abreast of demand generation trends to effectively drive business growth. Here are five trends that will shape demand generation strategies in the year ahead:
The quest for authenticity: balancing AI and human expertise
Generative AI, which can autonomously ideate content, generate creative text, and analyse data, is rapidly transforming the B2B marketing landscape. This technology can streamline repetitive tasks, such as writing blog posts and crafting visual content to free up marketers to focus on strategic initiatives. The technology is not a replacement for the expertise of specialised comms teams but can augment their ability to bring effective campaigns to market faster.
In 2023 most of the AI deployment in marketing was focused on content creation, but excessive reliance on AI for copywriting can have negative consequences, including copyright infringement, the proliferation of false information, and a decrease in overall content quality. As audiences become more skilled in identifying AI-generated content, authenticity will become a key differentiator for B2B technology vendors, with sector and technology expertise remaining the defining feature that sets marketing departments and PR and marketing agencies apart from the rest.
Campaign optimisation & agile marketing
This year we’ll see automation and AI tools becoming ubiquitous to scale analytics and campaign optimisation strategies. As competition intensifies on digital channels, driving up Cost Per Click, campaign optimisation will be non-negotiable to achieve the expected ROI.
Digital advertising channels have started introducing optimisation tools that marketers must master to steal a march on the competition. From rapidly generating and deploying A/B tests to quickly identifying the best performing messages, to analysing vast amounts of data from multiple ad channels to deliver accurate reporting and discover trends, there is a plethora of options that can help comms and marketing teams become more agile in 2024. Having the right marketing and technology partner to experiment with these tools will be key to accelerating understanding and deployment for B2B technology companies.
Enhanced personalisation & ABM strategies fuelled by intent data
Analytics tools deployed within the CRM will enhance lead qualification and nurturing. In-depth analysis of users’ behaviours on the website, including the type of content consumed and the topics, can fuel enhanced automated nurturing workflows, and by combining engagement analytics with AI-generated (or informed) content, marketing teams can deliver personalised messages at scale. Companies that will leverage these trends will be able to deepen the relationship with the target audience and enhance the effectiveness of remarketing campaigns.
Regulatory pressure
Marketers will need to pay more attention to how data is collected, stored and managed throughout the entire funnel. Whether a company is collecting data in person at trade events, via digital advertising, or by leveraging partnerships with third-party platforms and influencers, gaining consent to engage and analyse preferences and behaviours across multiple platforms will be crucial to enable the benefits of the tools mentioned earlier in this article.
In this landscape, conversational marketing (chatbots/messaging platforms), email marketing, and dark socials can be useful tools that can help collect valuable first-party data and enable privacy-compliant demand generation. The reward for those who maintain high compliance standards will be building a community of highly engaged contacts that can be consulted and remarketed over the long term, growing the value of the nurturing initiatives exponentially.
Multichannel engagement and alignment
With the average number of decision-makers involved in a single purchase soaring, and the constant threat of a recession looming, CMOs will be looking for ways to make their budgets go further.
In this context, integrated communications will be an effective strategy to align PR, content marketing, demand generation, and lead nurturing resulting in optimised budgets and ensuring consistent messages across multiple channels. Partnering with a B2B technology PR agency that can apply its sector expertise across any content format and comms channels can help CMOs maximise their resources in 2024.
