67% of B2B Marketers Expect a Rise in Their 2016 Demand Gen Budgets

New research shows that B2B marketers are expecting overall budget increases in 2016 and they predict that more money will be funneled toward demand generation efforts than last year.

In fact, the “2016 Demand Generation Benchmark Report” from Demand Gen Report has revealed that 67 percent of B2B marketers expect their demand generation budgets to rise this year.

About 63 percent of respondents claim that their overall marketing budgets are set to increase, and 39 percent say that they expect to see their demand generation budgets rise 20 percent or more. In 2015, just 21 percent of respondents saw an increase of 20 percent or more.

As the investment in demand generation grows, 83 percent of respondents stated that focusing on lead quality over quantity is one of their top priorities. Additionally, 71 percent are focused on improving campaign results, while 61 percent would like to improve sales and marketing alignment.

Marketing automation (42 percent), multichannel lead nurturing (41 percent) and retargeting (39 percent) are the top three tactics being used by B2B marketers to drive leads.

How B2B Marketers are Meeting Lead Goals

In order to meet revenue and lead goals, B2B marketers continue to fine-tune their strategies. The “2016 Benchmark Study on Understanding B2B Buyers” report found that creating buyer personas is helping many organizations achieve their objectives. About 71 percent who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented personas.

Only 26 percent of organizations with established buyer personas miss their goals. High-performing companies were almost twice as likely to understand the challenges of their buyers compared to their counterparts.