Marketing budgets remain flat in 2023, according to research from Gartner’s CMO Spend and Strategy survey. This comes as no surprise, given recessionary fears, inflation and a talent gap stoking concerns in the enterprise that have knock-on effects on marketing and marketing technology investments. Digital channel spending has also shown a slight decline.
CMOs feel pressure from other parts of the enterprise to cut their technology spending, with 75% of CMOs feeling under pressure. However, 63% of CMOs plan to resist these cuts to some degree, and grow their martech spending, with social advertising spend increasing. Search advertising, SEO and digital OOH are categories likely to take a hit.
Ewan McIntyre, chief of research for the Gartner for Marketers Practice, stressed the need for CMOs to “make a clear value case for martech investment”, in order to secure investment. He likened this process to “not a bigger boat, but a more efficient boat”.
At the Gartner Marketing Symposium and Xpo, Lizzy Foo Kune, VP analyst and Carlos Guerrero, VP advisory in the Gartner Marketing Practice, introduced the concept of “catalytic marketing”. This concept seeks to break free from the cycle of more by embracing catalytic marketing and shift from growing marketing’s scope to growing marketing’s success. This involves creating experiences that bring about change in the customer, rather than attempting to meet customers in every conceivable channel, and leverage customer data to deliver countless relevant messages.
Despite the pressure to realize growth in an uncertain environment, CMOs should not take the familiar route of increasing activity and taking on more projects. The focus should instead be on efficiency and demonstrable ROI, in order to secure investment.
The pressures on marketing and martech investment are real, and require a shift in approach from traditional “customer obsession”. CMOs must make a clear value case for martech investment in order to succeed in this ever-changing environment.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/marketers-under-pressure-to-cut-martech-spend/
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