5 big challenges in B2B marketing in 2024

For many B2B and demand gen marketers, 2023 was a hard year. Buyers didn’t have a lot of budget and were spending more conservatively. At the same time, marketers themselves were challenged with smaller budgets and an unpredictable economy.

So, what does 2024 have in store for demand gen marketing?

I don’t have a crystal ball, so rather than sharing my 2024 B2B marketing predictions, I’d like to share a list of issues that are keeping me up at night.

Selfishly, I think this list might be more useful for me, too, as it helps clarify what’s most urgent. 😀

So, without further ado, here are some thoughts on what’s ahead this year.

Top 5 B2B Marketing Problems in 2024

1. Attribution is harder than ever before

2. Terrible content accelerated by AI

3. Paid acquisition becoming more expensive and less effective

4. More channels available / the “shiny object” syndrome

5. Buyers avoiding sales reps

Attribution is harder than ever before

Factors driving this:
- The cookiepocalypse
- “Zero click content” -> Buyers almost never visit websites anymore. They’d rather get the info within the social platforms themselves
- Popular analytics software (including GA) showing less data than before
- Dark social

Consequence:
Harder to glean insights on the buyer journey from software attribution

Potential solutions:
✔️Self-reported attribution – i.e. ask buyers how they heard about you
✔️ Surveys or conversations with customers
✔️ Go with instincts and gut feeling
✔️ Don’t worry too much about individual channels or campaigns; focus on overall revenue growth

Terrible content accelerated by AI

Drivers:
- Pressure to create new content faster
- ChatGPT has made it easier to create mediocre content

Consequence:
- Unremarkable content flooding the market, which damages the reputation of brands… and marketers
 
Potential solutions:
✔️ Do original research anchored on real customer pain points
✔️ Develop a unique POV that leads back to your differentiators
✔️ Co-create content with customers, potential buyers & industry experts
✔️ Be radically helpful in your content

Paid acquisition becoming more expensive and less effective

Drivers:
- Platforms pushing features like lookalike audiences & audience networks, which drive up CPM
- CTRs going down, with people preferring to get content and information in platform
- More competition for ad space

Consequence:
- Higher CPC and CPL

Potential solutions:
✔️ Build tight targeting
✔️ Improve creative and content offers
✔️Increase your standards with gated content
✔️ Invest in brand (people are more likely to convert if they recognize the brand)

More channels available / the “shiny object” syndrome

Drivers:
- Popularity of apps like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, which are traditionally not considered B2B marketing channels
- Emergence of networks like Threads
- FOMO / pressure to build presence on popular channels

Consequence:
- Lack of focus

Potential solutions:
✔️Customer research
✔️Commit to dominating a channel before starting on a new channel
✔️Allocate 10% of resources to experimentation, but fail fast and document learnings

Buyers avoiding sales reps

Drivers:
- Aggressive sales tactics
- A majority of buyers are not in the market for a new solution
- Impersonal and irrelevant follow-up motions and cadences

Consequence:
- Harder to connect with buyers (even inbounds)

Potential solutions:
✔️ Work with SDRs to make the follow-up process genuinely helpful to buyers
✔️ Build brand affinity by investing in radically helpful content
✔️ Invest in initiatives that drive word of mouth

Demand gen and B2B marketing in 2024

Despite these challenges, I’m pretty optimistic for demand gen in 2024. The economy is still unpredictable, but some buyers seem to be coming back.

On the other hand, B2B companies seem to be realizing that marketing is a growth driver. Reducing marketing makes your company less competitive, which is exactly what you do NOT want to do when things are uncertain.

More than ever, marketers need to provide incredible value to the business and, just importantly, to the buyers.

My fellow marketers: What do you think? Are any of the issues I shared above off the mark? More importantly, what did I miss?