The Rise Of The Front-Line Marketer In Our New Digital Selling Reality Survey Finds That Marketers Face Big Changes, Challenges & Opportunities in a Buyer-Centric Marketplace

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We live in the experience era, requiring B2B marketing

teams to deliver the same personalized experiences

as their B2C counterparts. Unfortunately, most

organizations have struggled to meet the needs of

today’s digitally-savvy buyers — a trend that was

exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To fuel long-

term growth, B2B marketers must adapt our new digital-

first realities and embrace buyer-centricity.

This report will explore marketers’ outlook in the wake

of COVID-19, revealing marketing teams’ greatest

challenges, such as understanding buyers’ changing

needs and engaging them in the right channel with

personalized campaigns and content. Additionally,

the report will discuss the many roles of modern

marketing teams are playing across the buyer journey,

underscoring the importance of agile execution and

alignment between sales and marketing.

Said the greatest challenge they

have when working with their

sales counterpart is “orchestrating

digital campaigns that incorporate

the sales team across different

stages of the customer lifecycle.”

33%

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Specifically, this report examines: How marketing will lead

digital selling and self-service buying experiences

The importance of personalized

experiences in a digital-first

marketplace

Common execution challenges

to deliver buyer-centricity,

including outdated martech

tools, insufficient budgets and

lack of internal resources

The future of selling

through hybrid go-to-market

(GTM) models

Areas where companies

struggle to drive pipeline and

expansion growth across the

customer lifecycle

Described their marketing organization as a “small

but growing organization where teams wear

multiple hats across marketing functions.” 42%

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Understanding buyers’

changing needs and

business requirements

Engaging buyers at the right

time in the right channel

Creating the personalized

campaign and content that

will engage buyers

Outdated marketing

technology stack

Unpredictable sales

cycles and loss of control

Our legacy GTM model

focused on top-of-the-funnel

and no longer works on

today’s B2B buyer

Inexperience with customer

and intent data and analytics

Internal silos and

organizational inefficiencies

Our company does not

promote a customer

-centric culture

Arming the sales team with the

right content to engage and

accelerate target buyers

63%

57%

49%

23%

21%

21%

18%

17%

17%

11%

When it comes to marketing to today’s B2B buyer, what are your top three challenges?

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When asked a series of questions relating to their ABM

programs, less than half of respondents (48%) agreed that

their ABM programs scale well, indicating one of the many

persistent challenges marketers face to keep pace with

today’s B2B buyer.

Specifically, marketing teams are dealing with small

budgets (49%), poor data quality (38%) and/or challenges

operationalizing and scaling programs (38%). While some

are able to meet the challenge, others are falling behind due

to inadequate resources and adapting to a raplidly-changing

and digital-first B2B ecosystem.

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Small or very

limited budget

Poor data quality

(first- and/or third-party)

Challenges operationalizing

and scaling programs

Weak sales and

marketing alignment

Silos, poor organizational

design and corporate inertia

Existing martech tools are

outdated or ineffective

Lack of relevant content

Wrong skills on the

marketing team

Lack of leadership or

conflicting priorities

Lack of the right resources

with the specialized digital

skill sets

49%

38%

38%

35%

33%

26%

25%

21%

19%

14%

What are the top three internal challenges you face related to creating and launching ABM and/or data-driven personalized marketing campaigns?

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When asked about the current state of

account-centric execution practices, nearly

half of respondents (43%) indicated success

driving pipeline growth during early stages

of the customer lifecycle (awareness and

demand generation).

But perhaps the more telling statistic is on

the outer edge, where only a quarter (25%)

of the respondents claimed success driving

growth across the entire customer lifecycle.

This finding implies that 75% of teams aren’t

ready to market across the entire customer

lifecycle in the new digital reality, illustrating

how very few marketers have successfully

executed against a buyer-centric strategy

that requires digital competency across the

entire customer lifecycle.

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Which statement best applies to the current state of your marketing team’s execution of account -centric best practices?

We successfully

drive growth

across the entire

customer lifecycle

We are ineffective

at driving growth

across the entire

customer lifecycle

We successfully drive

pipeline growth during

early stages of the

customer lifecycle

(awareness and

demand generation)

We successfully drive

pipeline and expansion

growth during early

and latter stages of

the customer lifecycle

(awareness, demand

generation, cross-sell

and upsell)

43%

14%17%

25%

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Highlighting the challenge that marketers lack the

support in our new digital-first reality, respondents

said if they could change one thing within their

marketing team, the majority wanted to eliminate

internal silos. Respondents also wanted more

efficient technologies and empowerment to execute

personalized campaigns at scale.

Twenty-six percent indicated that their one change

would be for “better data and insights,” while 22%

said they would have “better tools.” An additional 25%

stated that they would opt for “faster execution and

agility.” In total, 73% of respondents expressed a desire

to bolster their ability to do the job. Most marketers

know what it takes to get the job done but lacked the

resources and support to execute effectively.

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If you could change one thing within your marketing team, what would it be?

Better data

and insights

Faster execution

and agility

Better tools

More buyer

-centric focus

Fewer

solutions

26%

25%22%

14%

8%

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Looking to the future, marketers understand the correlation

between personalization and micro-targeting with buyer

engagement and growth. When asked how important

personalized content, messaging and journeys are to engage

their buyers, 74% said it was “important” and an additional

25% said it was “somewhat important.” With a whopping

99% agreement (and only one dissenter answering “not

important”), that’s about as close to consensus as you’ll find.

Digging deeper into the increased value of personalized

marketing, respondents said they perceived the greatest

benefits to be “higher account engagement” (34%), “more

brand recognition” (20%) and “greater pipeline growth” (17%).

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In 2021 and beyond, how important is personalized content, messaging and journeys to engage your buyers?

What do you perceive as the greatest benefit of personalized marketing?

Important

Higher account engagement

More upsell opportunities

Somewhat important

More brand recognition

Improved conversion and win rates

Not important

Greater pipeline growth

Competitive differentiation

74%

33%

20% 17%

11%

10%

9%

1%

25%

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As companies emerge from the pandemic and embrace

a digital-selling reality, respondents said that their biggest

GTM priorities are “achieving better alignment with sales”

(29%) and “expanding the scope of responsibilities to

include full customer lifecycle marketing” (26%). Both

responses indicate the changing relationship between

sales and marketing and the importance of customer-

facing — or frontline — marketing teams to drive growth.

As those roles continue to evolve over the next few years,

marketers foresee changes in their GTM organizations.

More than half of them (51%) envisioned a hybrid model,

with marketing taking the lead on digital selling and self-

service across the entire customer lifecycle and equal

support from the direct sales team. Another third of them

(31%) see marketing driving all digital selling across the

full customer lifecycle, with lesser support from direct

sales. Marketers clearly anticipate their responsibilities

increasing, led by frontline marketing teams.

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In the aftermath of COVID-19, what has become your biggest GTM priority?

Over the next 1-3 years, how do you envision your GTM organization changing?

Achieve better alignment with sales

Bolster our overall digital marketing programs for a digital-only marketplace

Expand the scope of responsibilities to include full customer lifecycle marketing

Strengthen partner and channel programs to drive other sources of revenue

Improve account-based marketing programs

29% 26% 21% 16% 7%

Hybrid model, where

marketing takes the lead on

digital selling and self-service

across the entire customer

lifecycle with equal support

from direct sales team

I don’t expect any

significant changes

Marketing drives all digital

selling without the need for a

direct sales team

Marketing drives all digital

selling across the entire

customer lifecycle, with

lesser support from the

direct sales team

51%

31%

11%

8%

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This survey illustrates the new reality that marketers face

as the world emerges from COVID-19 pandemic, which

served as a catalyst to accelerate digital transformation

across every industry. In its wake, digital-first buyers

own the entire buying journey. To meet this new

reality, B2B marketers understand their elevated role in

driving predictable growth across digital channels and

orchestrating success with their sales counterparts.

As frontline marketers become the digital architects of

growth, they must be empowered with the right tools

and resources to successfully execute with both precision

and impact.

Looking ahead, the relationship between sales and

marketing will continue to evolve as companies embrace

buyer journey-centric strategies. There’s no question

that while these changes will present new challenges

for marketers, they’ll also present new opportunities.

As B2B buyers demand more self-service options and

digital experiences, frontline marketers will play a central

role fueling growth across the entire customer lifecycle.

Conclusion: In a digital -selling marketplace, the new B2B marketing mandate requires buyer-centricity and flawless executiona cross the entire customer lifecycle.

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Demand Gen Report surveyed 104 B2B

marketing executives and professionals

in April of 2021. The respondents range

from Manager (20%), Director (32%), Vice

President (16%) and C-level (26%) roles.

Respondents work across a variety of

industries, including business services/

consulting (21%), software/technology

(18%), manufacturing (10%) and financial

services (9%). Their companies are equally

diverse, with annual revenues ranging

from under $100 million (43%) to greater

than $10 billion (13%).

About the Survey

About Folloze

Demand Gen Report is a targeted online publication that

uncovers the strategies and solutions that help companies

better align their sales and marketing organizations,

and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of the

publication’s editorial coverage focuses on the sales and

marketing automation tools that enable companies to

better measure and manage their multi-channel demand

generation efforts.

Folloze builds the leading B2B Buyer Experience Platform.

With Folloze, sales and marketing teams can quickly create

rich, personalized, and value-added experiences that

maximize the revenue impact across the entire customer

journey. Top B2B brands, including Autodesk, RingCentral,

Cisco, and ServiceNow trust Folloze to boost customer

engagement, revenue growth, and expansion across their target accounts.

About Demand Gen Report

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