Four in five B2B firms report friction between sales and marketing
The relationship between marketing and sales can often be fraught, despite successful collaboration between the two functions being a cornerstone of commercial success.
In particular, these tensions can come to the fore in B2B businesses. New research from B2B Marketing and The Think Tank finds that over eight in 10 (81%) B2B respondents report friction between sales and marketing around go-to-market (GTM) execution.
Particular areas of dispute include “marketing teams not getting the feedback from sales teams on lead quality or customer insights”, something reported by 56%, or the functions not having integrated technology stacks which creates data silos (also 56%).
Indeed, of the marketers surveyed, under half (47%) report having a structured GTM framework in place.
A go-to-market strategy is a structured plan designed to reach target customers, gain a competitive edge and drive revenue. It covers segmentation, value proposition, pricing, marketing channels and demand generation. However, when marketers were asked to define GTM, 53% were unable to do so correctly.
Over two in five B2B marketers (41%) view GTM as primarily a concern for the sales function, with limited marketing involvement. Meanwhile, 13% consider GTM to be purely brand-building before a launch.
Source: B2B Marketing and The Think Tank
Half of UK marketers now spend more than $1m on creators
More than half (52%) of UK marketers are now spending more than $1M (£765,000) annually on creator marketing, according to research from Billion Dollar Boy.
This figure is higher in the US, where almost three-quarters (71%) of marketers are spending over $1m on creator marketing.
When it comes to concerns around scaling creator marketing investment among UK and US marketers, maintaining authenticity is a top concern. ‘Managing relationships at scale and ensuring creator preference for the brand’s partnerships’ (34%) and ‘maintaining authentic, high quality content and consistent brand messaging’ (34%) are the top concerns for marketers investing in the area.
Other worries around creator marketing include finding the right insight, strategy and creative expertise (31%), identifying and vetting the right influencers at scale (29%) and proving the effectiveness of this type of marketing against business objectives (28%).
Marketers are increasingly leaning on agencies for support for their creator marketing, finds the research, with just 1% managing all creator relationships in-house. There is something of a difference between how UK marketers are outsourcing those relationships between the UK and US. UK marketers are more likely to rely on creative agencies (21% compared to 12% in the US), while US marketers are much more likely to rely on creator marketing agencies (38% compared to just 19% in the UK).
Source: Billion Dollar Boy
Less than one in four consumers fully understand how their data is used
There is a lack of trust among consumers in how their data is being used by businesses. Almost two in three (62%) say they feel as though they have “become the product”, according to research from Usercentrics.
There is a lack of understanding around how businesses use data, with just 23% of consumers saying they fully understand how their data is used. This doesn’t mean there isn’t an appetite to learn, with 42% of consumers stating they read consent banners always or often before sharing their data.
The mistrust and lack of understanding around data that exists is showing up in behaviour, with nearly half of respondents (46%) saying they accept cookies less often than three years ago.
Trust in business data use also varies from industry to industry. Financial institutions (57%) and public institutions (49%) score highest on trust when it comes to collecting and using customer data, while sectors such as social media (28%), hospitality (22%), and automotive (13%) face more of a challenge on trust.
Source: Usercentrics
Reliability of A/B testing on social media is limited, suggests study
A recent study in the Journal of Marketing suggests that online A/B testing in digital advertising may not be delivering fully reliable results.
A/B testing is a popular methodology among marketers to understand what drives ad performance. However, the research finds that marketers using A/B testing on digital platforms like social media may not be able to reliably infer what drives ad performance.
The study, carried out by Michael Braun and Eric M. Schwartz, highlights a phenomenon they term “divergent delivery,” in which the targeting algorithms used by online advertising platforms like Meta and Google target different types of users with different ad content.
The problem with A/B testing on these kinds of platforms is the algorithm may have shown the two ads to two distinct mixes of users. This means that the “winning” ad may have just performed better because it was served to users more prone to respond to it.
Marketers often rely on these kinds of tests to inform strategy. However, when platforms do not explicitly state that these experiments are not truly randomised, it can give marketers a false sense of security about their data-driven decisions,
Source: Michael Braun and Eric M.Schwartz, Journal of Marketing
Marketing budgets hit lowest point across 25 years at start of pandemic
Two and a half decades of the IPA Bellwether Report provides a macroeconomic indicator, as well as a signal of how businesses are treating their marketing spend.
Since the year 2000, the report has asked businesses whether they are increasing or cutting their marketing budgets each quarter. Those responses, recorded as a percentage net balance, tend to track with what’s happening on a macroeconomic level.
For example, the period that saw the lowest reading was the second quarter of 2020, when a net balance of 50.7% of UK companies revised their marketing spend down, as the first Covid lockdown kicked in, curtailing many businesses dramatically. The second lowest point recorded across the 25 years was in the fourth quarter of 2008, when a net balance of 41.7% of companies downwardly revised their marketing spend. This coincided with the financial crash of that year.
The negative spending reaction to the financial crash lasted nine quarters from the last quarter of 2007 (as signs of the crisis began) to the final quarter of 2009, making it the longest consecutive period of a net balance of companies cutting their marketing spend.
On the other hand, from the end of 2012, the Bellwether report recorded its longest period where most companies surveyed upwardly revised their budgets. For 24 quarters, from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the third quarter of 2018, a positive net balance of companies reported they were increasing their marketing budgets.
Source: IPA
