Some 49% of European organisations are using an ABM strategy, with adoption rates expected to jump by almost 20% by 2020.
According to the 2019 State of IT Marketing report by Spiceworks, 49% of marketers are using an ABM strategy, 44% of marketers are using video marketing, and 43% are using an on-demand content strategy. By 2020, these adoption rates are expected to jump to 66%, 68% and 60%, respectively.
The report showed 27% of companies in Europe expect their marketing budgets to increase by 2020, 49% expect them to remain flat year over year, and only 8% expect a decline. The findings indicate a renewed priority on marketing is driving budget increases and enabling organisations to experiment with new marketing trends and technologies.
The survey of more than 300 B2B marketers across North America and Europe found B2B the tech sector is the biggest spender on paid media, with 30% of budgets allocated toward paid media efforts at European companies.
Investing in top marketing trends
B2B tech companies are also adopting the latest marketing trends, with purchase-intent targeting, influencer marketing, and AI-powered data analytics all expected to see a big boost in adoption over the next two years. By 2020, 50% of European businesses plan to use purchase-intent targeting, 49% expect to use influencer marketing, and 45% plan to use data analytics tools powered by AI. Conversely, only 30% of European organisations expect to use chatbots to support their marketing initiatives and only 15% expect to create virtual or augmented reality-based customer experiences in the next two years.
According to the research, 49% of marketers said measuring ROI will be their biggest challenge in the year ahead. Some 46% said driving conversions with marketing content, and a further 39% said identifying the most effective marketing channels will be their top challenge.
