If there is one constant at each year's end, it’s that there will be countless predictions made for the next year. As B2B marketers, we like to be ahead of the curve and prepared for what’s to come.
What will be the next big thing? What will gain traction? What will soon be obsolete? With so many predictions out there it’s hard to decide what to focus on. We took a look across the landscape to see what prognosticators are predicting for 2023; read on for our take on 3 to understand as you build out your plan for 2023:
Prediction 1 – Increased focus on current customers
In their Predictions 2023: Winning B2B Organizations Refocus Around The Customer, Forrester predicts 3x as many CMOs will make customer health a top priority. And as a result, they expect growth strategies to focus on the retention, cross-sell and upsell of existing accounts. We know that focusing on current customer health is crucial to maintaining your clients. This prediction takes into account that the new year will bring more economic uncertainty. And, in that uncertainty, marketers will want to protect existing revenue streams.
But another interesting point to note is that in our 2022 State of Data report, 32% of the C-suite responded that they expect a focus on net-new logos, while only 13% expect revenue to come from existing customers. Even further, over half of execs expect to drive revenue through net-new logos and cross-sell/upsell opportunities equally.
Our take:
The bold B2B marketers that invest in finding both net-new customers and new buying groups in current customers in unexpected ways will position their companies for growth into the next year– and their careers as well. How? One way is to use intent data to mine for new demand beyond your current Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Not all industries or companies will be facing headwinds in 2023, and buying groups are changing. Include a step on your planning workflow to question your current assumptions about who is in the market for your solutions.
Prediction 2 – Rising use of AI in marketing
Will 2023 finally be the ‘year of marketing AI’? Chiefmartech and MartechTribe predict that generative AI and AI for dynamic personalization usage will accelerate in 2023.
AI is gaining traction in the marketing landscape. There are emerging tools that support content generation—allowing marketers to create more content, oftentimes at low cost. Generative text AI can support blog writing, social media or even personalized sales emails. These tools can synthesize tons of information and turn it into unique content. There’s also generative image and video AI that can help create great creative when you don’t have time or resources to do it all yourself. In short, these tools can help create good content faster without breaking the bank.
AI could also make personalization easier and more relevant. New AI tools can expand on the typical data used to drive personalization and incorporate psychographics. By leveraging psychographics, you can better adjust your messaging and how you approach your leads.
Personalization is a hot topic in B2B marketing. AI tools to support personalization and gather intent intelligence could be key to driving sales. It helps us collect information about in-market prospects and drive engagement by resonating with a prospect’s business needs. Using these types of tools to better engage leads and personalize content may be worth exploring in the year ahead.
Our take:
There are established AI tools available that you’re probably not taking full advantage of, like tools that use intent data to identify in-market buyers. These provide a better starting point to integrate AI and see a more immediate return while you test out newer approaches in a methodical way.
Prediction 3 – Economic uncertainty will lead to more eyes on budgets
In their 2023 outlook survey, the IAB noted that media budgets get evaluated much more frequently in times of economic uncertainty. The majority -- 63% of respondents -- reported they were evaluating and reforecasting more frequently. Economic uncertainty leads to more focus on budgets. And more often than not, marketing gets the most scrutiny.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean cuts across the board. In our recent study, we found 85% of marketers were planning to invest more in technology that supports marketing and sales in the coming year. Over 90% of the marketers we surveyed agreed that replacing, updating or consolidating tools in their current tech stack would make it function more efficiently. Marketers are optimizing their martech to address data normalization and integration across tools, improve data quality and fill gaps in their existing technology. While you’re fine-tuning your budget for the next year, learn more about how your peers are approaching budget in Breaking Down the Data: Marketing Revenue and Budgets.
Our take:
Whether or not you have more, less or the same budget, investing in programs that can be tied directly to results like leads will be critical. And no—that doesn’t mean you need to buy more tech. You can add these programs using your existing tools and resources with a trusted partner. With a partner, you can better optimize your existing tools and power your pipeline. By working with Anteriad, Lenovo saw a 20% increase in leads and 32x ROI.
2023 is right around the corner
At Anteriad, we’re well versed in driving engagement with your existing audiences (as well as acquiring net-new), leveraging intent data to inform and warm your pipeline and executing efficient programs that deliver pipeline and revenue. We can help you reach your goals in the year ahead with solutions for Audience Identification and Activation, Demand Generation and Performance Marketing, Analytics and Intelligence—and our Anteriad Marketing Cloud to bring everything together.
