[Research Round-Up] LinkedIn/Ipsos Survey Examines the State of B2B Marketing

Source:  LinkedIn and Ipsos

(This month's Research Round-Up discusses some of the significant findings from a recent global survey of B2B business and marketing leaders conducted by LinkedIn and Ipsos.)

This spring, LinkedIn and Ipsos conducted a significant survey of B2B business and marketing leaders located around the world. The B2B Marketing Benchmark survey used a sample of 1,954 B2B leaders from eight countries. Survey respondents were CFOs, CMOs, and senior-level marketers.

The survey included participants affiliated with companies of various sizes operating in a variety of industries. Survey data was collected from March 24 through May 5, 2023.

LinkedIn and Ipsos reported some survey findings for subsets of the total survey sample. In the survey report, the term B2B leaders refers to the full sample of survey respondents. The term B2B marketing leaders refers to CMOs and other senior marketers (81% of the total survey sample). The term C-suite refers to CMOs and CFOs (38% of the total survey sample).

The objective of this research was to examine several factors currently affecting B2B marketing, including the state of marketing budgets and spending priorities, and the strategies and tactics B2B marketers are using to drive growth. Here's a brief summary of some of the significant findings from this important survey.

Marketing Budgets and Spending Priorities

Despite the uncertain economic environment of the past several months, most respondents in this survey reported that their marketing budgets are in reasonably good shape. About 6 in 10 (59%) of the respondents said their marketing budget had increased over the past year. And two-thirds (67%) said they expect their marketing budget to increase over the next year.

LinkedIn and Ipsos asked survey respondents to rank four marketing objectives in terms of how much of their marketing budget would be allocated to each objective. The following table shows the percentage of survey respondents who ranked each objective as their top spending priority.

Unfortunately, the survey report doesn't include a definition of "Lead Generation" or "Demand Generation." So, it's impossible to determine how these objectives were defined in the survey, or whether they were defined at all. If they weren't defined in the survey instrument, it may be more accurate to combine the percentages shown for these objectives in the above table.

It's also somewhat surprising that only 15% of the survey respondents ranked account-based marketing as their top spending priority.

The LinkedIn/Ipsos survey clearly showed that survey respondents are primarily interested in acquiring new customers. Overall, about 70% of the respondents said their marketing budget is primarily focused on generating new business rather than on retaining existing customers.

Marketing Strategies and Techniques

LinkedIn and Ipsos also asked survey participants about their views on various marketing strategies and techniques.

The survey revealed that most B2B marketing leaders place significant importance on brand building.

• 70% said their team understands the importance of brand building and that they have the right creative skills on their team to support brand-building efforts.

• 60% said their company had increased spending on growing brand awareness in the past year.

• 59% said their C-suite had increased the importance of brand building given economic conditions.

The survey also asked B2B marketing leaders what marketing techniques they plan to use in the coming year. The three most frequently identified techniques were:

• In-person events (60%)

• Video (59%)

• Thought leadership content (57%)

The two marketing techniques deemed to be most effective by B2B marketing leaders were in-person events (21%) and thought leadership (20%).

The survey report contains many other valuable insights, including several findings about the evolution of the CMO role and the skills that are needed in marketing. And, like almost every other survey I've reviewed in the past several months, this one also has some interesting findings relating to artificial intelligence.

This is an important survey, and I encourage you to review the full 86-page report.