The issue: Technology is critical to effective B2B marketing, but it’s also a major pain point for practitioners in the field.

• More than 75% of more than 300 B2B marketers at businesses with annual revenues over $5 million plan to boost their investment in technology over the next year, with 61% expecting a moderate increase, according to a May 2022 survey.
• B2B martech spending will come to $8.51 billion by 2024, up from $6.59 billion in 2022, per an Insider Intelligence forecast.

Best bang for the buck: Many B2B marketers find that their tech stacks are unwieldy and don’t align with those of other teams, says principal B2B marketing analyst Kelsey Voss.

• In a widening sea of martech solutions, many companies have acquired unnecessary tech that they think will solve all known and unknown problems. However, economic conditions and tighter budgets mean that bells, whistles, and shiny objects should only be purchased if they can show tangible impacts on marketing goals while drawing on minimal resources, she added.

Data is the foundational layer: Marketers who are focused on generating quality leads and improved customer experiences to drive revenues are keen to invest in data that can deliver measurable results. But a good portion of marketers say their data isn’t normalized across systems.

• “You can’t possibly coordinate communications and messaging across marketing, sales, customer success, as well as product and HR, if the data isn’t normalized,” says Voss.

Voss predicts the importance of getting complete, normalized, and compliant data will only grow. Marketers will select martech tools that help with third-, second-, and first-party data to navigate privacy and regulatory changes and to help manage data across multiple touch points.

Go further: For more information on the B2B marketing landscape, including changes in buying behavior and customer experience, read our report, B2B Marketing Trends to Watch for in 2023.