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🛠️ How B2B marketing leaders use AI

Plus: What 2025 will look like for B2B marketing

December 18, 2024

Hello world

The AskCMO team has spent the week digging up the best B2B marketing tools and trends so you don’t have to.

And the best part? You can catch up on it all in the next 3 minutes, right here.

In today’s Tools & Trends roundup:

  • How the SVP of Marketing at HubSpot uses AI

  • How to calculate your marketing budget

  • The world’s first AI influencer agency?

  • Predictions for what 2025 will look like for B2B marketing

  • Global advertising revenue to hit $1 trillion in 2024

  • 5 tips to plan events that people actually remember

  • Is your B2B marketing strategy playing offense or defense?

But before we get into it, we’d love to hear more about what your favorite B2B marketing blogs, newsletters, and podcasts are. We want to make sure we’re bringing you the best content every week.

Share links to you favorite content, blogs, newsletters, and podcasts by replying directly to this email.

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tools and resources

Kieran Flanagan (SVP of Marketing at HubSpot) has turned AI into his personal and professional assistant. Here’s the setup he swears by:

  • ChatGPT for research: A research buddy and second opinion tool. Kieran predicts it’ll soon be a match for Perplexity.

  • Grok: His go-to for trending news and AI updates... perfect for staying sharp and podcast-ready.

You can learn more about why (and how) HubSpot bought newsletters and podcasts to build a next gen B2B content engine in our exclusive AskCMO interview with Kieran.

Want to hit next year’s targets without overspending (or underspending)? This guide walks you step-by-step through setting a marketing budget that’s realistic, efficient, and gets results.

  • Know your efficiency metrics: Learn to calculate CAC Ratio, Payback Period, and LTV:CAC to determine if your spending is driving sustainable growth.

  • Break it down by category: Allocate your budget into clear buckets like headcount, paid ads, campaigns, tools, and events.

  • Track and iterate: Efficiency isn’t set-and-forget: monitor spend, adjust across categories, and stay aligned with your targets.

Business Metrics

MukuAI is an AI influencer agency that claims to make video ad creation 100x faster. It helps users create polished, high-performing videos from any source (website, product, or idea) in minutes.

  • Save time & money: Cut ad creation costs by $100+ per video while slashing the time it takes to make them.

  • Boost results: They claim these videos deliver a 200% boost in ROAS on average.

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News and Trends

What 2025 will look like for B2B marketing

According to Devin Reed, 2025 will shake up how we think about events, influencers, and teams. He breaks down where marketing is headed and how to navigate the shifts to stay successful.

  • Bye-bye conferences: Say hello to smaller, more meaningful meet-ups and dinners instead of massive, soulless events.

  • B2B influencers are rising: Both external influencers and internal employee voices will become key players.

  • Small but mighty: Lean teams will make a big impact by relying on tech, consultants, and smart outsourcing.

Ad budgets are pouring into digital platforms like Google, Meta, and Amazon, pushing global advertising revenue above $1 trillion in 2024... one year ahead of schedule.

  • Ad spend accelerates: Global ad revenue is projected to grow 9.5% in 2024, up from earlier forecasts of 7.8%.

  • Digital dominance: Platforms like Google, Meta, ByteDance, and Amazon are reaping the rewards as marketers shift budgets to digital channels.

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Strategies

CultureCon’s Imani Ellis knows how to make events unforgettable. Her secret? Thoughtful planning that focuses on connection, comfort, and creativity. In this guide, she shares how to level up your next event.

  • Make it personal: Tailor the experience with custom agendas or recommendations to help attendees feel seen.

  • Focus on comfort: From music to decompression corners, creating a welcoming space keeps everyone happy (especially introverts).

  • Plan the guest journey: Use detailed maps for different attendee types to avoid common friction points.

Imani Ellis

Dave Gerhardt breaks down the difference between playing "offense" and "defense" in B2B marketing. While defense might feel safe, it won’t drive growth.

  • Playing defense keeps you safe but stuck: Defense looks like doing what everyone else is doing - blogs, booths, and SEO - without a clear point of view or bold bets.

  • Offense is where the magic happens: The best marketers get proactive: they set the tone, take risks, and focus on building long-term value. You don’t need a huge budget to play offense... just a clear POV and some creativity to pull the market toward you.

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That’s it for this week,

Speak soon

The Ask CMO team

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