B2B Marketing Is Going Through a Technological Revolution and CMOs Are Ready to Invest

Much of the chatter about digital transformation has focused on the innovative ways that consumer-facing companies like Nestle, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, Dell and Unilever have used technology to go from traditional marketers to cutting edge. Yet the unrelenting investment and increasing technological sophistication of the business-to-business space is seeing a new slate of companies elbowing their way into the conversation.As B2B companies pour money into the systems and technologies needed to transform their marketing operations into truly global digital performance engines, we will continue to see a steady rise in marketing spend as chief marketing officers leverage their new capabilities and ability to drive (and measure) return on investment on an unprecedented scale. Because of the marketplace’s overall digital transformation, B2B CMOs are now in a better position to argue for more ad spend.Last week, eMarketer announced its first B2B digital advertising forecast, predicting the space will total $4.6 billion in 2018, up 13 percent from this year’s projected total of $4.07 billion. What’s more, when comparing next year’s forecast versus 2013, B2B digital ad budgets will have grown by 111 percent in just five years.Mobile is a growing part of the mix, with spend reaching $1.91 billion next year, “slowly eroding the desktop/laptop share” according to eMarketer analyst Jillian Ryan. Simplification, interoperability and increasingly powerful targeting and analytics are driving increased investment across both desktop and mobile for B2B marketers.