Featuring:

Craig Moore, VP, Principal Analyst and Ian Bruce, VP, Principal Analyst

Show Notes:

As they plan for 2022, marketing leaders find themselves in a Groundhog Day scenario. The effects of the pandemic continue to ripple throughout the economy, with varying degrees of impact across industries and geographies. Questions around whether offices will reopen and if in-person events will resume still linger. How do marketing leaders plan given the many unknowns? Vice Presidents Craig Moore and Ian Bruce explain on this week’s podcast episode.

Nearly two years into the pandemic, marketing leaders have learned to plan within shorter time horizons and with a good dose of agility. “There’s a lot of real-time analysis and pivoting based on what happened yesterday,” says Bruce. For some clients, he adds, the pandemic has been a long A/B test of sorts (many events versus fewer events; working in the office versus working remotely), prompting them to evaluate long-held assumptions.

Yet there already are some learnings. Companies are focusing more on existing customers rather than over-indexing on new buyers. More are experimenting with recurring revenue models, including companies with product-based offerings. And as more buying interactions shift to digital, greater visibility into these interactions is helping to facilitate trust and coordination between sales and marketing, Moore says.

A key area of opportunity — and a major challenge — heading into 2022 and beyond will be to move past traditional success metrics and instead gauge performance based on the attributes that matter most to buyers. Among these is trust, given the high-stakes nature of many B2B purchases. Understanding which factors are most important to earn buyers’ trust will help marketing leaders secure a competitive advantage for their companies.

At the end of the episode, Moore and Bruce offer their takes on the most important near-term steps B2B marketing leaders should take to successfully navigate an unpredictable year ahead. Listen to the full episode to learn more.