MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The year 2024 will be marked by rapid transformations and challenges. To help prepare marketers for this, LinkedIn has released its trends which involve balancing the art and science of marketing, starting small with AI, and investing in developing people skills.
CMOs will prioritize improving the measurement framework
With continued economic uncertainty and budgets under increased scrutiny, the biggest priority top of mind for CMOs in 2024 is to continue demonstrating marketing’s impact on the bottom line. Over the last year, the CMO role has evolved to have a more direct role in driving revenue and growth, and marketers are focused on proving the impact of their work on sales metrics, like revenue won and return on ad spend, to help strengthen budgets and improve stakeholder understanding about the value of brand building.
While these outcomes are far more difficult to measure, they are the real drivers of B2B growth. Experimenting with new measurement tools such as LinkedIn’s Revenue Attribution Report and CMO Scorecard can help marketers build the financial fluency that’s needed to showcase brand marketing’s direct impact on revenue.
Savvy marketers will balance brand and demand to drive growth
Adapting to a rapidly changing landscape while doing more with fewer resources may now be the norm for B2B marketers. According to LinkedIn’s research, 76% of B2B CMOs globally have felt the pressure to prove short-term ROI, which has pushed them to overly focus on performance campaigns. But lead gen only captures the impact-driven from the 5% of in-market buyers.
According to the 95-5 Rule, 95% of buyers, the source of future cash flows, are out-of-market today. These buyers are best primed by brand advertising, which drives outcomes over longer time horizons. Savvy marketers will push to balance brand and demand marketing, cleverly leveraging the art and science of marketing, to drive memorability, preference, and growth in the long-term. They should follow the 60/40 Rule which states that brands should spend roughly 60% of their budget on brand and 40% on demand.
Marketers that move fast and start small with AI will get ahead
Customers around the world are excited by the potential of generative AI, as 8 in 10 B2B marketing leaders globally plan to increase their use of technology in the next year, according to LinkedIn research. But many feel stuck about where to start, and what investments to make. Marketers who start small and simplify the process by focusing on the use of AI in 2024 instead of 2034, will succeed. They should experiment within the tools their teams already love, and how they can integrate AI within these existing tools. Familiarity will make the transition easier, and this approach can also help maximize tech investments.
People skills will create a resilient and agile marketing team of tomorrow
In the age of AI, marketing leaders will foster a culture of learning, not just to boost AI literacy, but to build innately human skills like leadership, problem-solving, and creativity that will create resilient and agile marketing teams of tomorrow. Generative AI will give marketers more time to focus on the most valuable – human – parts of their jobs, and open more time to exercise skills such as innovative thinking.
Authentic, human-to-human brands will earn trust
In 2024, B2B companies will double down on humanizing their brands to drive growth. In the age of AI, marketers are recognizing the importance of investing in new ways to connect with their audiences authentically, and they’re doing this by leveraging creativity, emotion, video, and humor in their campaigns. They’re also putting people – executives and employees – at the heart of their thought leadership strategies by leveraging a credible voice to build brand equity. Many B2B companies are finding great success with one of LinkedIn’s fastest-growing ad formats, Thought Leader Ads, which allows brands to sponsor posts from their executives and employees to drive engagement and reach.
