Forrester Unveils 2022 B2B Marketing Planning Assumptions

Forrester Research has released its Planning Assumptions for 2022 to help B2B marketers align priorities and make strategic business decisions amid continued uncertainty.

As B2B executives think about building their annual plans, Forrester says its Planning Assumptions can help them understand the key trends that will impact their functions in the year ahead and recommend actionable steps to drive growth.

<p">Among them are the following:

• B2B marketing executives: 35 percent of senior marketing decision-makers say that improving alignment with other marketing functions is critical to supporting their priorities. In 2022, B2B chief marketing officers must ensure heir strategies and marketing action plans synchronize with business strategies, revenue plans, and the functional plans of sales and product teams.
• Marketing operations: Marketing operations leaders must determine their organizations' optimal paths to revenue. Typical B2B customer retention rates stand between 76 percent and 81 percent. With the widespread adoption of recurring revenue models, marketing must maintain a focus on existing customers. Leaders should work together with sales operations and customer success operations to maximize customer lifetime value.
• Demand and account-based marketing: With more than 94 percent of B2B buying decisions now made by a group of three or more individuals, marketers have greater access to interest and intent signals than ever before. Demand and ABM leaders should sense and respond to buying signals in real time and use them to target, trigger, and tailor messaging, creating a shift to real-time buyer enablement.
• Portfolio marketing: Forrester's 2021 B2B Buying Study showed a 59 percent increase in the number of meaningful interactions in which buyers engage throughout the buying process. This increase reflects more buyers taking part in self-guided research and more personal interactions with vendors and third parties. Understanding buyers' journeys and being ready to educate and inform buyers wherever they go is more important than ever for portfolio marketers.
• Channel marketing: Changing buyer and customer needs and preferences, transforming partner business models and value, and growing competition for partner mindshare has created a major shift across the B2B channel. Marketing leaders must ensure their strategies programs, processes, and systems are evolving in ways that will allow channel marketing to ignite, orchestrate, and co-innovate customer value across the partner ecosystem.
• Content:: Content planning must extend beyond buyers' journeys to drive retention and loyalty from existing customers. With 77 percent of B2B customer revenue coming from existing customers, B2B leaders must view content planning through the lens of the complete buyers' journeys and post-sales lifecycles to engage existing customers as buyers and increase retention.