B2B Marketing Challenges 2024

New B2B marketing challenges will bury your business unless you can adapt to a fast-paced world. 

But don’t worry, we’re going to review these challenges and show you how to address them in 2024. Let’s start with the elephant in the room.

The Current State of B2B Marketing

Two words: Artificial Intelligence. 

B2B marketing challenges have never been greater, and that’s largely because nobody has a clear idea of what’s around the corner. 

Many B2B marketing challenges are based on the amount of uncertainty we’re facing. But the most important thing you can do is refuse to be paralyzed. 

Importance of Addressing B2B Marketing Challenges in 2024

Some B2B marketers are going to chase every shiny new AI tool until they’re dazed and exhausted by all the possibilities. Others will hide their heads in the sand and pretend it’s still 2022.

It would be easier to plan your marketing for the next year as if it’s business as usual. But you can’t ignore the B2B marketing challenges that are coming up.

There will be new tools, new challenges, and maybe new marketing channels in 2024. But in the meantime, there are plenty of known B2B marketing challenges in 2024.

Evolving Customer Expectations

Customers are more sophisticated than ever before. They expect you to do certain things their way. Don’t let them down.

The Demand for Personalization

Personalization means more than just inserting your reader’s first name into your email marketing campaigns.

Personalization shows your audience that you know them, you hear them, and you care about them. They know your marketing is automated, but you can win a lot of points for making it hard to tell.

You do this by segmenting your list and giving each segment relevant content. Segmentation, in turn, depends on knowing your audience.

Use every tool you’ve got to track activity and engagement. Invite audience members to participate in surveys and polls. Occasionally have a team member speak to customers in person. 

Most importantly, record all the data you collect, and use it for more and better personalization. 

Increasing Need for Omnichannel Strategies

One of the B2B marketing challenges in 2024 is that your clients don’t necessarily live on LinkedIn. You can’t just run paid search ads on Google and ignore the influence of Bing and other alternatives. 

Some of your potential clients could be hanging out on Discord servers, or getting information from TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts. 

Your business needs to show up in multiple channels and formats to make sure you’re reaching your market. Here are a few ways to make this work:

• Reach out to your clients. Find out which channels they use most often, and look for patterns

• Repurpose your content. Split a longer video or webinar into shorter posts. Convert the transcript into a blog article or an informative email

• Use one channel to promote your content from other channels. For example, if you have a lot of followers on Instagram, start posting “teasers” for your blog or your YouTube videos. Marcus Ramsey leveraged his strong presence on Twitter to build his email list to 14,000 subscribers. 

• Follow the “Dominate and Duplicate” model. Determine which single channel is going to give you the most leverage, and focus the bulk of your resources on that channel. Then repurpose your content for other channels that are less important.

B2B Marketing Challenges from Technological Advancements

We don’t want to imply that AI is behind every technological advancement. But you’ll do well in 2024 by acting on the premise that AI is the most important tech game in town.

Integrating New Technologies

Don’t make the mistake of adopting a new AI tool just to stay on the AI bandwagon. But remain open to tools that can genuinely improve your efficiency and effectiveness. Here are a few ways to do this: 

• Follow newsletters such as The Neuron or AI Tool Report to keep up on the latest tools and developments.

• Keep an eye out for promising new technologies. Look for tech that addresses a specific bottleneck in your business.

• Allocate time and resources to occasionally test and assess new technology. Given the faster pace of technological advancement, you should carry out these assessments at least quarterly.

Navigating Data Privacy and Security

According to ISACA, only a third of organizations are finding it easy to understand their privacy obligations in 2024. Less than half say they are very confident or completely confident in their organization’s ability to achieve compliance with data privacy laws.

If you really want to do away with this B2B marketing challenge once and for all, you could engage a Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer, or CDPSE (yes, this is a real job now).

If your business doesn’t have the resources for this step, you can at least make sure your website and emails are in compliance. 

Work with a platform such as beehiiv which will handle many of these compliance issues for you. Use plug-ins to install standard pop-ups on your website to notify users that cookies may collect their data. 

Content Marketing and SEO Challenges

Honestly, we don’t mean to keep harping on AI, but the truth is many content marketing and SEO challenges are deeply tied to AI.

For example, the widespread availability of AI-generated summaries has enabled users to get the information they want without necessarily seeing all the content the information came from. 

Not to mention, more and more of that content was generated by AI. Which brings us to another big B2B marketing challenge in 2024.

Creating High-Quality, Relevant Content

In 2023, beehiiv became the first email platform to offer AI tools to its users. 

Artificial intelligence means you can easily increase the quantity of content pieces. But it’s up to you to use AI to create better quality. 

Given the increased volume of content being produced, you can probably only win on quality.

Know your audience, understand the kind of content they want, and then figure out the ideal human/AI balance to create the best content possible. 

Adapting to Changing SEO Algorithms

Changing SEO algorithms is not a new phenomenon. But AI (here we go again!) has raised the bar. 

Google’s well-known “people first” Tweet is over a year old now, but it’s still a useful guideline. In case you’re unfamiliar, Google answered the question of whether AI-generated content would be penalized in search engine results. 

They said, “If content is helpful & created for people first, that’s not an issue.”

So the most important question to ask yourself is this: Is your content helpful and created for real human beings?

The Role of Social Media in B2B Marketing

84% of C-level and VP-level buyers are influenced by social media when making purchasing decisions for their company, according to Articulate. More than half of B2B clients use social media to research new products and solutions. 

Leveraging LinkedIn and Other B2B Platforms

One of our writers made a point of posting on LinkedIn every day for three months. On some days, he didn’t know what to post, so he just shared a photo or story from his personal life. 

Surprisingly, these authentic posts got the most engagement in the form of likes, shares, and comments. Even on a platform that’s strictly for business, authenticity still rules.

More than ever, social media is all about making connections. 

Challenges in Creating Engaging B2B Social Content

Although there are benefits to daily posting, solely relying on this strategy is ultimately unproductive. AI-generated content will eventually crowd you out.

But when you share true stories that your readers find relatable, you will attract their attention. If you have solutions to real problems, your content will likely be more popular than AI-generated fluff.

Engaging content comes down to three things: Usefulness, storytelling, and good copywriting. 

The Impact of Economic Uncertainties

Ever since the Covid pandemic, it seems that every month there’s an unprecedented event that impacts the economy in unpredictable ways. Even if you’re not feeling the pain from this permanent uncertainty, you probably have clients who are.

Navigating Budget Constraints

In his book, Stop Hustling Gigs and Build a Business, Joel Block notes that businesses never have problems, they have expenses.

This is a useful piece of information when clients talk about budget concerns. They’re paying you to remove a problem, and if they can’t afford you they’ll be open to alternatives. You should be, too.

Can you offer clients a payment plan or a line of credit? Can you reduce your costs by removing a deliverable or part of your service that your client doesn’t need?

You and your clients need each other, especially in times of uncertainty. It’s important to be flexible and creative.

Adjusting to Fluctuating Market Demands

When the market is uncertain, you should respond by being consistent in your B2B marketing. Keep on posting content and offering solutions.

Your business can be the rock in the swirling waters, the unmoving mountain in the storm. 

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales is marketing and marketing is sales. Too many B2B marketing challenges arise simply because these two teams didn’t pull together.

Enhancing Communication Between Teams 

Leverage AI and project management tools so tasks are clear and each team can see how their efforts are mutually supportive. Transparency about goals and strategies will always improve communication.

Aligning Goals and Strategies for Cohesive Growth

Having a clear vision for your business is your first job. But sales teams and marketing teams have their own, equally valid, thoughts on how to achieve that vision.

Having your marketing people listen in on sales calls from time to time can align everyone’s efforts. Occasionally having a liaison from one team sit in on another team’s meeting could yield good results if it builds understanding between teams.

The Shift Towards Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility

There’s a growing demand, especially among Gen Z, for proof that a business is working towards the creation of a better world. This means more than merely paying lip service to a cause, or adding a rainbow flag to your content. 

Integrating Sustainable Practices in Marketing

Integrating sustainable practices is an even bigger challenge when it comes to B2B marketing, because you have to consider the values and practices of all your clients and vendors as well.

If you are sincere about a cause, and you’re contributing in meaningful ways, you’ll naturally enter the orbit of companies with similar ideals.

This is a great opportunity to form partnerships and alliances with other companies associated with the same values as you.

Communicating Corporate Responsibility Effectively

Whatever values your business upholds, shout it from the rooftops. Share photos of smiling children and dazzling beaches. 

If you belong to a trade association or professional group, keep them aware of the contributions your company makes to the community, and they will also toot your horn. 

Globalization and International Marketing Challenges

When the software developer Subcodevs opened their Canadian headquarters, they had to quickly learn how to sell to a North American market. 

North American clients wanted accountability. They wanted fast answers to their questions. They wanted to know how their money was being spent.

Understanding and Adapting to Local Markets

Subcodevs was able to satisfy a lot of client demands simply by having a team to answer the phones in a North American time zone.

They designed a new format for their invoices which showed more details about work that was done in each billable hour. This transparency pleased a lot of their clients, and their reputation grew.

By understanding how business is done in a given culture, you can tailor the experience and overcome this daunting B2B marketing challenge.

Overcoming Language and Cultural Barriers

You’ve probably heard stories of corporate marketing blunders, usually related to language issues. While most of these stories are unsubstantiated, they’re still useful as cautionary tales.

Having a diverse team is a great first step to increase awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences. If you’re targeting a specific country in your B2B marketing, you’ll have a big advantage if someone on your team is from that country, or at least has experience with the language and culture.

Future-Proofing B2B Marketing Strategies

It’s critical to follow newsletters such as Morning Brew to stay up-to-date with new trends and developments. 

But awareness and adaptability should be built into your company’s culture. How you accomplish this is up to you and your team, but there’s a counterintuitive trend that is poised for massive growth through 2024 and beyond.

You see, marketing channels change all the time. Any given platform can lose its popularity, alter its rules, or even morph beyond recognition. 

In addition to staying alert and flexible, it’s important to have a pool of prospects in a platform that you can control. A newsletter is one of the best ways to do this, which is one of the reasons they are growing so quickly.

That’s why savvy entrepreneurs like Roland Frazier are using beehiiv newsletters to generate millions in revenue. A newsletter can radically improve your B2B marketing efforts, because you are sending content directly to interested parties who requested it.  

The beehiiv platform solves many of the technical issues of a newsletter, such as domain reputation, deliverability, and staying compliant with new email regulations.

Our no-code editor makes your newsletter and landing pages completely customizable. 

You can also increase your following and generate additional streams of income with a few clicks.

If you want to get the jump on B2B marketing challenges in 2024, make a beehiiv newsletter part of your strategy.