The State of B2B Marketing 2021 - Lessons and Insights From Today's Top-Performing B2B Marketers - Fortella
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The State of B2B Marketing 2021 Lessons and Insights From Today’s Top-Performing B2B Marketers DECEMBER 2020 p. 1 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021
Introduction
The Changing Role of B2B Marketers
The marketing profession is going through a period of great In this report, we take a close look at these top-performing marketers
transformation. As recently as a decade or two ago, marketing’s so that we can understand what they are doing differently from the rest
primary role at B2B companies was to increase brand awareness and of the pack. We’ll look at how their pipeline responsibilities differ, which
support the sales team. They primarily focused on the top of the go-to-market strategies they employ, what technologies they include
marketing funnel by attempting to grow their reach, get more people in their tech stack, and much more. We’ll also look deeper into the
to feel an affinity for their brand, and make it easier for sales reps to expectations the C-suite has for marketer’s today, the challenges that
close more deals. Their efforts were measured, if at all, in metrics such B2B marketers currently face, and the overall state of B2B marketing
as media coverage, advertising reach, website traffic, and, perhaps, as we head into 2021.
the number of Marketing Qualified Leads they generated.
To most CEOs and CFOs, marketing was viewed as a cost center, but
67%
today, the opposite is true. Now, marketing’s primary role within B2B
companies is to drive direct revenue. According to our survey, driving
revenue (in the form of pipeline, bookings, and client renewals) is the
most important responsibility for two-thirds (67%) of B2B marketers,
whereas about one quarter (26%) say that it is supporting sales through
of marketers say driving revenue
marketing collateral, demos, sales materials, etc. Less than 7% say that is their primary responsibility
86%
increasing brand awareness remains their top priority.
Revenue-driven marketing is not easy, and it requires a shift from the
traditional way that many marketing departments are used to operating.
But the top performing marketers — those who drive an ROI of at least of top-performing marketers say
7x — seem to share several characteristics that set them apart from
average or underperforming marketers. For one, these top performers
revenue is their primary responsibility
start by simply taking more responsibility for revenue and giving it
91%
higher priority, as evidenced by the fact that they are 28% more likely
to rank revenue as their primary responsibility.
are confident they can execute
p. 2 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021What is Marketing’s primary responsibility at your company?
(select the most important one)
Driving Revenue
(i.e. pipeline, bookings, renewals)
67%
Supporting Sales and Partners
(e.g. through marketing collateral, demos, 26%
sales materials, etc.)
Increasing Brand Awareness 7%
None of the above 1%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
p. 3 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021Key Findings
Here are our key takeaways from the survey results:
Goals: strategy, led by Account-Based Marketing (62%),
Two-thirds of B2B marketers say that driving customer size (57%), geography (55%) and industry
revenue (in the form of pipeline, bookings, and vertical (55%). Marketers in the technology field
client renewals) is their primary responsibility. are more likely to go to market by industry vertical
Top performing marketers — those who drive an than marketers in other fields.
ROI of at least 7x — take even more responsibility
for revenue, being 28% more likely to rank it as Challenges:
their top goal. Most marketers cite Budget and Resources (64%)
as their biggest challenge, followed by tracking
KPIs: and measurement (46%), getting quality data
B2B marketers primarily get measured by how (42%), finding the right talent (36%), and aligning
much revenue they bring in and how much their efforts with sales (33%). Top-performing
qualified pipeline they generate, over top-of- marketers have better sales alignment, better
funnel KPIs such as “Awareness Metrics” and processes, and are more focused on getting
“Lead Engagement.” Top performing marketers access to high quality data.
are 17% more likely than underperformers to
take responsibility for upselling and 21% more Technology:
likely to take responsibility for customer retention. B2B marketers employ at least 5 - 6 digital
marketing tools in their tech stack. Top-performing
Go-To-Market Strategies: marketers are 77% more likely to use a Customer
Nearly all B2B marketers (97%) go to market Data Platform and 33% more likely to use video.
through some kind of audience segmentation They are 24% less likely to rely on spreadsheets.
p. 4 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021Survey Results
PIPELINE RESPONSIBILITIES
B2B marketers are tasked with generating a qualified pipeline and driving bookings
With revenue as the main objective for today’s B2B marketers, they When asked what type of pipeline marketing they are responsible
are being measured much differently than their predecessors from for, 85% say that “New leads” are their main focus. But in a sign that
previous decades. According to our survey, top-of-funnel KPIs such as marketers also are responsible for at least part of the entire customer
“Awareness Metrics” and “Lead and Account Engagement” are among experience, a majority (58%) say they’re also responsible for “Upsell/
the least important measurements of their success. Even mid-funnel Cross-sell Opportunities,” and just less than half (43%) chose “Retention.”
KPIs such as “MQLs” and “Meetings Scheduled” ranked near the
bottom of the list of ways they get evaluated. Among the top performing executives (those driving 7x
ROI or greater) responsibility for upselling/cross-selling
Instead, the two most important factors that a marketing (68%) and driving retention (52%) is even greater.
department gets primarily measured against are
We would expect that as marketing technologies become more
“Qualified Pipeline” and “Revenue or Bookings.”
advanced and marketers more sophisticated, responsibility for end-to-
More than half of our survey respondents (54% and 51% for Qualified end customer lifecycle marketing will continue to grow. What is certain
Pipeline and Revenue/Bookings, respectively) described these as is that pipeline and revenue generation will be chief among marketer’s
“extremely important.” More than three-quarters described them as goals in 2021.
at least “fairly important.” Interestingly, ROI (37%) is ranked slightly
behind these two criteria, perhaps because CEOs and CFOs, especially
at companies in high-growth mode, prioritize revenue over ROI.
Did you know?
Top performing marketers are 17% more likely than underperformers to take responsibility for
upselling and cross-selling. They are 21% more likely to take responsibility for customer retention.
p. 5 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021How does Marketing get primarily measured?
Not Important Slightly Important Neutral Fairly Important Extremely Important
Qualified Pipeline 5% 6% 10% 25% 54%
Revenue / Bookings 4% 5% 11% 29% 51%
ROI 4% 6% 15% 37% 37%
2%
MQLs 10% 19% 32% 38%
Lead / Account Engagement 7% 8% 17% 39% 29%
Meetings Scheduled 12% 10% 21% 27% 31%
Awareness Metrics 10% 18% 23% 38% 11%
p. 6 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021TOP B2B SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES
Most marketers go-to-market by segments such as ABM, size, geo and industry
In order to hit their revenue goals, B2B marketers know that they have This increased focus on industry verticals is perhaps reflective of the
to be smart about who they target and how they allocate their budget. fact that tech companies often offer cross-industry solutions and
When asked how they break out their company’s go-to-market strategy, therefore must employ distinct strategies for different verticals, i.e.
nearly all marketers (97%) claim to target specific audience segments “solution selling.”
based on at least one or more criteria. Gone are the days of casting
It is worth noting, too, that larger companies tend to rank geography
a wide net and hoping to attract a range of customers. Today’s B2B
as their top go-to-market strategy, which makes sense given that most
marketers are intent on using their marketing dollars strategically to
large companies tend to have a global presence. 69% of companies
target the audiences with the highest revenue potential.
that generate $100 million or more go to market by geography, while
The top way that marketers go to market is by “target, named or strategic 66% of companies with 1,000 employees or more do so, compared to
accounts,” a strategy employed by 62% of respondents. This coincides the norm of 55%.
with the growth of Account Based Marketing (ABM) and the rise of ABM
software companies such as Fortella, Demandbase, 6Sense and others,
which collectively make up a billion dollar industry. The other top ways
97%
that B2B marketers go to market are by customer size (57%), geog-
raphy (55%) and industry vertical (55%). To a lesser extent, they also
segment audiences by their company’s internal product, service
or solution offering (44%) and by buyer roles and titles (42%). of B2B marketers target audience
segments based on one or more criteria
B2B marketers within the technology industry tend to be even more
62%
sophisticated than most. Our survey skewed heavily towards the
tech industry, where 56% of respondents came from, and these
marketers over-indexed on the number of segments they employ
compared to the rest of our respondents for every single choice.
target named or strategic accounts
Instead of ABM segmentation, however, B2B tech
marketers employ industry vertical (68%) as the
most common go-to-market strategy, followed closely Tech marketers are more likely
by customer size (66%), geography (63%) and then to target by industry vertical
by target, named or strategic accounts (63%).
p. 7 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021How do you break out your company’s go-to-market strategy?
(select all that apply)
By Target, Named or
Strategic Accounts 62%
By Customer Size 57%
By Geography 55%
By Industry Vertical 55%
By Product, Service or
Solution Offering 44%
By Buyer Roles and Titles 42%
None of the above 3%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
p. 8 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021TOP CHALLENGES
Top-performing marketers have better sales alignment, place more emphasis on data
When it comes to achieving their revenue goals and marketing
objectives, B2B companies face myriad challenges. We chose to set
What are Marketing’s top challenges?
aside external factors such as competitive landscapes and finicky (select up to 3 answers)
customers, and look at the main internal obstacles facing marketing
executives today. Their top complaint? Unsurprisingly, it’s having too Budget & Resources 64%
small of a budget or too few resources, cited by 64% of respondents.
The other top five challenges they face are, in order, tracking and mea-
Tracking /
surement (46%), getting quality data (42%), finding the right talent and Measurement 46%
building their team (36%), and aligning their efforts with sales (33%).
Top performing marketers (those delivering Data Quality 42%
7x ROI or higher) appear to be more concerned
with data quality than the average marketer. Talent / Team 36%
Though they are 31% more likely to cite data quality as one of their
top three challenges, we believe this is due to the fact that they Sales & Marketing
place more emphasis on getting high quality data than their Alignment 33%
underperforming peers, rather than them having worse quality
data. Meanwhile, these top performers also seem to have better
alignment with their sales teams, as they were 21% less likely to
Tools & Technology 31%
cite it as a top three challenge, and they seem to have better
processes than underperformers, as they cited it 38% less often.
Process 26%
Did you know?
Execution 21%
Top performing marketers are 31% more
likely to cite “data quality” as a challenge. Executive Alignment 20%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
p. 9 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021THE MARKETING TECH STACK
Top performing marketers value the importance of data in driving business outcomes
It takes a lot of technology tools to be a successful marketer in 2021,
and the average marketing team uses at least 5 - 6 digital marketing
tools in their tech stack. CRM platforms like those from Salesforce and
Microsoft Dynamics 365 were tied for the top spot with email marketing
tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact, which are used by more Did you know?
than 8 out of 10 (80%) marketers. Close behind are social media
management tools such as HootSuite and Sprinklr (79%), marketing Top-performing marketers
automation tools such as Eloqua and Marketo (78%), and web analytics are 77% more likely to use
tools such as Google Analytics and Adobe (76%).
Top-performing marketers (again, those generating 7x ROI or more
a CDP and 33% more likely
for their companies) seem to value accurate and aggregated data to use video platforms.
more than average marketers and use it to help drive better business
outcomes. For example, top performing marketers are 9% more
likely to use Web Analytics, and they are 27% more likely to rely on They are also 24% less likely
Attribution tools to track their marketing performance. Meanwhile,
39% of top performers use a Customer Data Platform such as Segment
to rely on spreadsheets.
or Optimove, compared to just 22% of average or underperforming
marketers. In other words, top performers are 77% more likely to use
a CDP. They also use video 33% more often than other marketers—
61% to 46%.
One thing they rely on less than other marketers are spreadsheets.
Recognizing that they are fast becoming an inadequate and archaic
tool, top performing marketers are 24% less likely to include
spreadsheets as part of their tech stack.
p. 10 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021Which of the following digital marketing tools are currently in your tech stack?
(select all that apply, even if it comes in a multi-function platform)
80% 80% 79% 78% 76%
CRM Email Marketing Social Media Marketing Automation Web Analytics
67% 53% 53% 51% 51%
Events Lead Routing Account-Based Business Intelligence / Sales
Marketing Analytics Engagement
50% 47% 44% 33% 27%
Video Spreadsheets Third-Party Data Attribution Customer Data
Providers Platform
p. 11 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021Results Methodology
Marketers report 4x to 7x ROI To help us better understand how B2B marketers
are operating and what their roles are within their
Of those marketers that are able to report on the organizations, Fortella conducted a study from
ROI of their efforts, most report an ROI between August to November, 2020, of senior-level B2B
4x and 7x. Smaller companies report a higher ROI. marketers across a range of industries and
Nearly 25% of marketers, however, are not able company sizes. Of the 117 respondents, the vast
to track their ROI and do not know. majority (73%) were Director-level or above,
including 29% of C-level executives and 17% of
Vice Presidents. From an industry perspective,
Up to 80% of sales pipeline more than half of the respondents (56%) came
either comes directly from or from the technology industry, with the rest made
is influenced by marketing up of an assortment from finance, manufacturing,
media and other verticals.
On average, about 41 - 60% of a B2B company’s
sales pipeline comes directly from marketing, and 70% of the respondents came from companies
61 - 80% of it is at least influenced by marketing. with at least 100 employees, while 30% came from
The larger the company and the more revenue large enterprises with 1,000 employees or more.
they make, the more of their pipeline is produced However, startups and SMBs were represented
by marketing campaigns. as well, with 30% of respondents coming from
companies with less than 100 employees. Similarly,
58% of respondents come from companies
making $50 million in annual revenue or more.
p. 12 | The State of B2B Marketing 2021About Fortella
Fortella enables B2B CMOs and marketing leaders to run
marketing with revenue centricity by planning, tracking, and
optimizing their marketing activities through a modern,
easy-to-use application built to connect revenue goals with
marketing actions.
B2B sales cycles are typically long, include multiple buyers and decision makers, and require different strategies for
different business segments, and buyer personas. Fortella sifts through data to understand how these differences
affect conversions, win rates, sales cycles, and deal sizes, but then makes it easy to cut through the noise by replacing
spreadsheets and clunky tools with a modern application for managing pipeline plans for future bookings goals.
Fortella provides a one-stop destination to track marketing pipeline performance against revenue goals and see
real-time and historic metrics by segment and sales territory. Armed with their revenue-centric metrics, such as sourced
and influenced pipeline, deal sizes, win rates, and conversion times, plus actionable recommendations and accurate
forecasts, CMOs and marketing leaders can quickly adjust their demand generation tactics before it’s too late.
Fortella’s AI-based recommendation models pinpoint the account and buyer persona attributes to deliver best
revenue outcomes. These recommendations are easily operationalized through integration with existing CRM,
marketing automation, advertising, and other marketing tools.
With Fortella, Marketing is singularly driven by revenue and continuously optimizing
their actions toward achieving their pipeline goals. They are also making smart
decisions and budget tradeoffs to take their marketing dollars further.
Contact us or request a demo today.
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