The Top 12 B2B Marketing Challenges (Heading Into 2024)

Marketing teams are being asked to do more with less budget and resources.

“Pipeline is down — what’s the plan to drive demo requests?”

“Our MQL to SQL conversion rates are down — how are we planning to fix this?”

It’s an all-too-familiar cycle of doom that B2B marketers face today — a constant wheel of urgency, stress, and pressure. 

So, the Cognism team surveyed (and talked to) dozens of B2B marketing leaders to uncover their most significant challenges and how they plan on addressing them despite the economic headwinds. 

1. Adapting to new B2B buying behaviour

• B2B buyers are self-serving now more than ever, often completing a significant portion of their research before even engaging with sales.
• Word of mouth and social proof have become paramount in influencing buying decisions. In fact, 96% of consumers don’t trust what they see in ads.
• That means it’s not just about influencing near-term purchasing decisions at the bottom of funnel (capturing demand) — it’s about reaching potential customers much higher in the funnel, so that brand recall can be applied later on when a purchasing decision is more imminent (demand creation). 

Addressing this challenge

• The traditional sales funnel has been disrupted. Marketers need to be where the buyers are, providing value at every touchpoint. It’s not just about selling anymore — it’s about educating, building trust, and providing value far before a buying discussion takes place.
• We must humanise our B2B interactions. Behind every business decision is a person with specific needs, concerns, and motivations. Addressing these can set you apart in a crowded marketplace. Below is an example of how UserEvidence attempts this humanisation on their homepage through copy and design.

• Adopting a product-led growth (PLG) strategy is a trending way B2B marketers are letting buyers take control of their experiences on their websites — this is especially becoming the norm for high sales velocity, low-cost products. 
• Showcasing transparent pricing and plan information, as well as how your product stacks up against competitors is another way to keep prospects engaged on your site. Few buyers desire filling out a demo form just to learn more about pricing information.
• The top three things buyers say tech vendors can do to make them more likely to buy are publishing pricing on the website (71%), making demos or free trials available (70%), and showing customer reviews on the site (35%).
• Utilising interactive demo tools like Demoboost, Navattic and Storylane creates a low-pressure environment on your website, and is a popular tactic for warming up leads before moving them through the SaaS sales process.
• Below is an example of an interactive product tour via Cognism’s homepage, allowing users to click through the product prior to even filling out a demo form.

See how it works in our interactive product tour 👇

2. Overcoming budget and resource constraints

• Limited resources, both in terms of budget and personnel, can hinder marketing efforts. The day-to-day duties of several marketers may now fall on the shoulders of one or two marketers to accommodate for reduced headcount or investment.
• One marketing leader responded to our survey saying — “balancing immediate profitability with long-term business growth is a constant juggle”.

Addressing this challenge

• Budget constraints are a reality for organisations of all sizes today. In fact, 41% of respondents in a recent survey by McKinsey said they don’t have enough resources to increase operational efficiency.
• The key is to be strategic and prioritise initiatives that offer the best return on investment — for example, instead of running 8 campaigns at a mediocre level, execute only 4 campaigns at super high quality. 
• This also means getting better at time management, eliminating distractions, stop checking LinkedIn, stop checking your email every hour, cut out useless meetings, etc. 
• Analyse historical marketing campaigns. See what worked and what didn’t. Double down on the positives and cut waste. There’s no need to try dozens of new marketing tactics next year — chasing shiny objects may do more harm than good. 

3. Finding and retaining the right talent

• We’re currently in one of the most difficult job markets in history — as it now takes companies an average duration of 44 days to interview and sign a new hire.
• On LinkedIn, there is currently one job opening for every two applicants, compared to one job per applicant in early 2022. Analysts say this is only going to get worse.
• There’s a growing demand for skills in data analysis, performance marketing, programmatic marketing, AI prompting, and more. Retaining top talent in these fields in a competitive market is one of the biggest challenges in itself.

Addressing this challenge

• Continuous learning and upskilling are non-negotiables in today’s marketing world. Organisations need to invest in employee development and provide opportunities for growth.
• And it’s not just about marketers — B2B sales teams also need to level up. In this current down market, sellers need every advantage they can get. 
• Cultivating a culture of innovation and autonomy can make an organisation more attractive to top talent. It’s not just about competitive salaries; it’s about providing a platform where individuals can grow, innovate, and make a difference.

4. Measuring ROI and tracking performance

• Demonstrating the tangible impact of marketing initiatives is now more important than ever before — that’s why B2B marketers are tapping into self-reported attribution and merging qualitative data with quantitative metrics — to get a clearer picture of what’s really going on. 
• B2B sales cycles today can be long and painstaking, making it challenging to attribute revenue to specific marketing activities — this is especially true for demand creation touchpoints that happen early on in the marketing funnel. 

Addressing this challenge

• The best-performing companies are ditching the lead gen hamster wheel and shifting to a proper demand generation strategy with results-based reporting.
• Marketing ops should collaborate with finance and sales teams to provide a holistic view of the revenue impact. It’s also crucial to continuously refine the attribution model to reflect the nuances of the B2B purchase journey.
• Advanced analytics tools and attribution models are essential for accurate measurement. A solution like HockeyStack is modernising how B2B marketing teams attribute results, from first touch to closed won.

5. Identifying and prioritising the right marketing channels

• Unless you’re in an incredibly niche industry, LinkedIn remains a powerhouse for B2B marketing. However, given what we know about word of mouth and influencer marketing, posting only from the brand’s LinkedIn account (and other social media) is a dated strategy.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEO) and PPC are non-negotiables for industries with an active audience in Google and YouTube Search. Although, producing content without alignment on addressing your ideal customer profile (ICP) can lead to wasted investment.

Addressing this challenge

• It’s not about being everywhere — it’s about being where your audience is. Understand your buyer personas, map out the buyer’s journey with your brand, and start building on the channels they interact with most.
• If you’ve identified LinkedIn as a core marketing channel, get more of your marketing, sales, and executive team actively posting. This will help to increase visibility, build trust, and influence your target audience.
• Live, hybrid, or virtual events — as well as educational content (guides, blog, tools, videos) can play a pivotal role in brand awareness.
• Having expert authors, researchers, and guest contributors produce content for your blog, podcast, or video series is another great way to establish credibility. This is also recommended for satisfying Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines for SEO.
• Be conscious of your marketing team’s time and focus. Constantly responding to ad hoc requests from your sales or executive team is a great way to derail your B2B marketing strategy and delay progress.
• Continuously test and optimise. What worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. Stay agile and be ready to pivot when necessary. Below is an example of how a solution like Wynter allows marketing teams to conduct iterative message testing.

6. Adopting and executing ABM properly

• Account based marketing (ABM) strategies are gaining traction, with some marketers dedicating a significant portion of their mix to this approach. However, while ABM can be a powerful strategy, its execution requires precision and finesse.
• The challenge lies in identifying and reaching relevant buyers early in their journey, and being able to show the ROI of ABM efforts.
• Remember, ABM is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. It requires a deep understanding of target accounts, their pain points, and their buying process. Skipping these essential components in ABM can lead to wasted time, efforts, and team resources.

Addressing this challenge

• Collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer success teams is crucial for ABM success. A unified front ensures that messaging is consistent and resonates with the target audience.
• Make sure you’re targeting the right accounts. One marketing stakeholder we surveyed recommended developing an ICP tailored to your products.
• Then, use the ICP to segment the market and create look-alike segments based on existing customer pain points. Engage both product management, to define problem-solving capabilities, and sales, for insights on matching accounts.
• Finally, use this research to create a “propensity to buy” grid to pinpoint a specific target cluster for a personalised ABM campaign.

7. Creating high-quality, fresh content

• Maintaining a stream of fresh, valuable content is a persistent challenge for B2B marketers, especially in an age where the ROI of content marketing is regularly scrutinised.
• Generative AI has posed a threat to the content marketing industry. Some marketers are worried that AI will not only replace content marketing, but several digital marketing roles over the next few years.
• Content distribution is another big issue — because of so much clutter and noise, marketers are struggling to be seen and heard. 

Addressing this challenge

• One of the best ways to solve this problem is by tapping into the easy mode content framework, which breaks content down into a topline narrative followed by supporting POVs with expert insight and collaboration with subject matter experts. 
• B2B audiences seek content that addresses their specific pain points, offers solutions, and provides actionable insights. Generic content that repackages the same perspectives of other brands simply won’t cut it — this is a concept called information gain, and it’s the only way to stand out heading into next year. 
• B2B companies that rely too heavily on Generative AI programs for content creation may fall victim to Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU). This could lead to decreased rankings, and provides an overall poor reader experience for your audience.
• Collaborating with industry experts and leveraging user-generated content can also infuse freshness and authenticity into the content mix.
• Work with seasoned SEO consultants or agencies who can identify content gaps and opportunities, refresh decaying content, and improve your Google Search rankings through incremental backlink building.
• The appetite for multimedia, such as a brand YouTube or podcast, is only increasing. According to the State of Content Marketing, 68% of content consumers now prefer video over text-based content.

8. Aligning marketing and sales teams

• One marketing leader mentioned that the major challenge for their team was aligning with sales and product on go-to-market strategies, customer insights, and swiftly adapting to market shifts.
• Marketing and sales misalignment is not a new phenomenon, but in a down market, ignoring this problem is inexcusable.
• A lack of alignment can lead to wasted resources, missed opportunities, and reduced revenue.

Addressing this challenge

• Implementing shared communication channels, ongoing joint meetings, shared KPIs, and collaborative campaigns can bridge the gap.
• It’s also beneficial to have cross-functional workshops where teams can understand each other’s challenges, perspectives, and opportunities for growth.

9. Overwhelming tech tack

• The plethora of marketing tools available today presents both an opportunity and a challenge for B2B businesses. Have a look at the thousands of martech solutions available today; it’s almost unbelievable.

• Implementing data integration systems can be a seriously daunting task. 
• For example, integrating your CDP or CRM, such as HubSpot or Salesforce, is no walk in the park. 
• Managing your CRM data itself can become a literal nightmare for operations teams. 
• Achieving a unified view of customer data across platforms is often elusive, and can contribute to data inconsistencies.

Addressing this challenge

• Consolidating single-point solutions and replacing them with bundle solutions is growing in popularity — even if the bundle solution only completes the function partly as good. 
• Have honest conversations with your vendors that aren’t generating positive ROI, and be willing to terminate those relationships sooner rather than later.
• Underutilisation of marketing tech is another big issue — many tools send a recurring invoice to companies, only to discover that the tool is barely being used, or that the primary stakeholder of the tool has left the company. 

10. Differentiating from the competition

• The B2B market is saturated with dozens of players per category. Everyone pretty much says the same thing, so how do you know which solution is the right choice for your company?
• Feature parity is commonplace (software with identical features across the board, even for several plans). This makes differentiation even more difficult.
• Pricing and plan structure, while important, is no longer a top value prop for customers. In fact, 58% of customers in a Forbes survey said they’d pay more for better customer experiences with brands.
• According to the B2B Institute, the 95:5 rule states that a staggering 95% of B2B buyers are not actively seeking to purchase at any given time, while only 5% are active in their software search.

Addressing this challenge

• In a sea of similar offerings, differentiation is paramount. Are you speaking to a targeted audience when someone lands on your site? Can prospects immediately understand your product offering and the value it provides?
• Creating a new category is not always realistic. Companies like Figma, Notion, Deel, Oyster, Klaviyo, and Gorgias decided they were better off positioning themselves as a new “subcategory” versus comparing how they’re marginally better than a competitor — Gorgias didn’t try to take down Zendesk. Klaviyo didn’t try to take down Mailchimp, etc. 
• Another way to differentiate might be verticalisation — where instead of calling yourself a CRM software, you can niche down into CRM for real estate, as an example. 
• Another way to differentiate could be comparison teardown content — for example, DCKAP built Snaplogic vs. Mulesoft vs. Boomi to explain how their own data integration solution stacks up against these iPaaS power players. 
• Regular market research and feedback loops can also help in refining and communicating what makes your brand truly stand out.
• Effective storytelling, customer testimonials, and case studies can be powerful tools in highlighting a brand’s unique value proposition. Below is an example of how Superhuman approaches testimonials through a ‘Wall of Love’, as opposed to showcasing several review website badges that feel impersonal and devoid of context to its viewers.

11. Data privacy and remaining compliant

• A respondent said that targeting B2B decision-makers is getting increasingly difficult with data protection and privacy (new cookie consent laws).
• Regulations like GDPR and CCPA have set stringent standards for data collection, storage, and usage. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and reputational damage.
• Data privacy is not just a legal obligation; it’s a trust pact with your customers. Breaching this trust can have long-term repercussions.

Addressing this challenge

• Regular training sessions for marketing teams can also help in reinforcing the importance of data privacy. For example, revisiting your email opt-out flow to ensure you’re remaining compliant and avoid getting flagged as spam.
• Email marketing used to be simple — you’d collect opt-ins based on consent and grow an audience. Today, with marketing automation — growth hackers have overly abused the system. And of course, due to data breaches, sensitive customer information can be sold to data brokers on the dark web. 

12. Capturing and delivering high-quality leads

• Demo “no-shows”, prospects gone ghost, unanswered emails, etc. These are all-too-familiar scenarios for SaaS salespeople. While it’s tempting to call out a lack of sales skills for these problems — it could actually be indicative of a lead generation problem.
• One of the marketing leaders we surveyed said that marketers often prioritise bottom-of-the-funnel channels due to their simpler attribution, leading to misleading reports of business impact with low-quality leads.
• Even Jon Miller, the “Godfather of Marketing Automation” has recently admitted the GTM playbook he developed 10 years ago is obsolete. 

Addressing this challenge

• To adapt to the evolving B2B buying dynamic, marketers should educate the C-suite on alternative demand creation tactics like community engagement, executive social presence, and brand building. 
• By reallocating funds from traditional channels to test new demand creation tactics, marketers can showcase their long-term effectiveness in generating quality leads.
• Understand that effective lead generation is a practice of quality over quantity. It’s better to have a handful of qualified leads who are genuinely interested and fit your ICP than lukewarm prospects who may have just attended your webinar.
• It’s essential to continuously refine lead generation strategies based on feedback from sales and actual conversion rates. Collaborative efforts between marketing and sales can lead to more effective lead nurturing and higher conversion rates.

If capturing high-quality, high-intent leads is a top priority for your marketing team over the next few quarters, you can’t go wrong with Cognism.

What’s so great about Cognism? You’ll get precise contact information, enriched data, and crucial buyer intent signals – ensuring that your sales team can engage with leads who are genuinely interested and ready to buy.

Still not convinced? Check out these customer stories to learn more.