This article for founders and GTM teams looks into why last year's (2024) playbook will no longer serve you well. Old is now old; tried and tested is now trying and testing, and those who don't embrace change will only cause the gap between you and your competitors to grow bigger while you believe you are holding on with your fingertips. It's time to embrace a new reality, enhanced by AI and controlled by you.
We work primarily with B2B SaaS GTM teams, and our message is clear: it's time to buckle up. The marketing landscape has undergone a radical shift in the last 18 months. Budgets are pinched, and buyers have changed how they buy.
According to recent surveys, 71% of CMOs say their budgets are insufficient, and 75% are forced to “do more with less”. Meanwhile, 70% of B2B buyers now prefer to self-educate online (no sales rep involved). In short, buyers are smarter and less inclined to follow traditional buying cycles, so your old tactics won’t work.
Outdated Tactics Are Failing
Spray-and-pray marketing is dead. Generic content and mass outreach just numb your audience. Buyers are overwhelmed: Forrester predicts that thinly customised AI content will degrade the purchase experience for 70% of B2B buyers. Instead of blanketing strangers with white papers, shift to data-driven, personalised content.
OpenView notes, “the traditional B2B playbook will continue to decline in effectiveness,”. In practice, that means investing in original research (surveys, data studies), the new gold standard of thought leadership. Check out Peter Caputa, CEO of Databox, who discusses how he generates thought leadership content for his company's marketing efforts.
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Goodbye spray-and-pray: Mass email blasts, generic ads, and gated eBooks no longer win. Modern buyers demand relevance and value.
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Quality over quantity: Instead of dozens of bland blog posts, create fewer resources packed with unique insights or data (for example, industry benchmarks or case-study reports).
The AI Revolution: Products, Marketing & Sales
AI is reshaping everything. In the past year, AI adoption exploded: 78% of companies now use AI in at least one business function, and 71% regularly use generative AI for tasks like content creation, product design or coding. Sales teams use AI for lead scoring and personalised outreach; product teams bake AI into features; marketers deploy AI for segmentation and testing.
But heed this warning: first-gen AI hype often overpromises. Jon Miller via OpenView warns that AI is “overhyped in the short run” – expect early hiccups like AI “hallucinations” or impersonal copy. Treat AI as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. For now, use AI to augment human creativity (e.g. automate A/B tests or draft outlines) and always review outputs. The long-term payoff is huge: future AI will enable near-self-driving marketing, autonomously identifying target audiences and optimising each campaign in real-time.
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Current wave = co-pilot: Expect glitches (misinformation, tone-deaf messages) as pioneers push generative tools. Use AI for what it does well (data analysis, personalisation at scale) but keep humans in the loop.
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Looking ahead: Keep an eye on advanced capabilities. As one expert predicts, we’ll soon see conversational AI that “automatically identifies the right audience” for campaigns, removing the need for complex segmentation rules. Early adopters of these tools will outpace competitors.
Competitive & Customer Research: Now Table Stakes
Today’s buyers are informed. They scour reviews, check pricing, and compare competitors on their own time. Forrester found 70% of the buying journey can happen without a salesperson. TrustRadius reports 72% of B2B buyers will pay more to a vendor that shows pricing upfront. The lesson: if you don’t understand your market and customer inside-out, you’ll lose deals.
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Know your customer: Build buyer personas from first-party data and interviews. Monitor forums, LinkedIn groups and review sites. This intelligence shapes messaging and product tweaks that win loyalty.
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Know your competition: Conduct regular competitive analysis. What are rivals promising (and failing to deliver)? Ebooks like HubSpot’s “Competitive Analysis” guide reinforce that comparing offerings is critical to differentiation. Use this to refine your value prop and avoid getting blindsided.
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Be transparent: If buyers expect pricing and researchable data, give it to them. As OpenView notes, more companies are providing transparent pricing and self-serve demos just to stay in the game. If you hide pricing or ignore common concerns, prospects will simply move on.
ABM Takes Centre Stage
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a requirement for sophisticated B2B go-to-market (GTM) strategies. Instead of casting a wide net, ABM focuses resources on high-value accounts with tailored campaigns. In fact, GTM experts observe that ABM and demand-gen tactics are blurring into a spectrum of personalised engagement.
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Why ABM works: By zeroing in on target accounts, sales and marketing unite around the same list of buyers. This alignment boosts efficiency: messages are more relevant, sales feel the warm leads, and ROI soars. (Industry studies often cite ABM programs delivering 2–3x higher ROI than generic campaigns.)
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Getting started: Use intent data and firmographics to pick accounts. Then orchestrate coordinated plays – emails, ads, content – across channels, all aimed at those companies. Tie it tightly to your CRM so sales sees every interaction. Companies that master ABM today will dominate key deals tomorrow.
Data Quality is King: CRM & Pipeline Health
Clean data isn’t glamorous, but it’s the bloodstream of your pipeline. Accurate CRM records and marketing lists mean the difference between growth and wasted effort. When data is outdated, campaigns miss their targets, leads slip through the cracks, and retention suffers.
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Maintain hygiene: Regularly purge duplicates and stale contacts. Enrich records with up-to-date firmographic and technographic info. (Industry stats often warn that 2–3% of CRM data decays every month – a small error today is a huge gap tomorrow.)
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Integrated systems: Ensure your CRM, marketing automation and sales tools speak the same language. Modern CRMs (like HubSpot or Salesforce) now offer custom objects and deep analytics to track complex deals. For example, HubSpot’s custom objects and revenue-line item reports let you model multi-tiered subscription deals – a big edge for B2B SaaS. Use these features to build an accurate picture of your pipeline by product, region, customer tier, etc.
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Data-driven forecasts: With high-quality data, predictive analytics thrive. You can trust your pipeline health reports and spot churn risks early. If data breaks down, even the best lead-gen efforts fail to convert into revenue. (Think: an email campaign might generate MQLs, but if your CRM tags and scoring are off, sales will chase dead ends.)
Email: Essential but Not Everything
Email marketing isn’t dead — far from it. Over 40 years in, it’s still the B2B channel of choice for delivering offers and nurturing relationships. In fact, Adobe reports that 56% of B2B buyers prefer to receive offers via email, more than any other channel. Email remains critical for retention, upsells, and customer engagement.
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Quality over quantity: As one expert notes, email isn’t dying but “evolving”. Bombarding inboxes yields fatigue. Instead, focus on relevance: personalised content, from real people (C-suite or account reps), not generic blasts.
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Beyond email: Don’t rely on email alone for new acquisitions. Younger buyers also use Slack, Teams, chatbots and social channels for info. Integrate email with LinkedIn outreach, webinars, events, and interactive content. Use email to maintain the relationship after it starts, not just as a cold-open channel.
Custom CRM Tools: Gain a Competitive Edge
Generic CRMs get you started, but custom-built solutions win the war. B2B SaaS leaders are extending their CRM with custom objects, deal-line items, and bespoke reports to mirror their unique business model.
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Custom Objects: For example, HubSpot’s Custom Objects let you track anything (like product SKUs or subscription terms) that standard contacts/deals can’t. This means your CRM truly reflects how your business operates.
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Revenue Reporting: New CRM features let you break down revenue by product line or month. This insight helps pinpoint which offers drive growth and which need attention. Instead of a black-box pipeline, you get granular visibility.
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Automation & Workflows: Use custom fields to automate hand-offs. For instance, when a deal reaches a certain MRR, trigger a renewal workflow. Such tailored automations ensure nothing slips through and every customer is served the right way. In short, building on your CRM (or hiring an expert to do it) can become a sustainable advantage over companies stuck on vanilla setups.
Frameworks & Expertise: The Arise GTM Advantage
You’re not alone in reinventing GTM. Proven frameworks can accelerate the process. For instance, the ARISE Go-To-Market Methodology (by Arise GTM founder Paul Sullivan) provides a structured approach to orchestrate product, marketing and sales alignment in today’s world.
Similarly, concepts from Go-To-Market Uncovered and other GTM thought leaders emphasise integrating demand-gen, ABM, and data strategies. These frameworks turn theory into action: aligning teams, setting KPIs beyond MQLs (think ARR growth, customer health) and enforcing “test-and-learn” disciplines across the pipeline.
No tool or tactic stands alone. Executing a modern GTM plan means syncing people, processes and platforms. Often, that requires fresh expertise. Bringing in experienced GTM consultants or agencies (like Arise GTM) can supercharge the learning curve.
They inject best practices, objective benchmarks, and often have proprietary playbooks tailored to SaaS. In rapidly evolving markets, leadership shouldn’t go it alone; external partners can help you move faster, avoid pitfalls, and build resilient systems from day one.
Future-Proof Your GTM
The bottom line? 2025 demands a new GTM playbook. Old-school broadcast tactics won’t fill your pipeline. Buyers expect personalised, data-driven experiences. AI and ABM are now baseline capabilities. And without clean data and cross-team alignment, even brilliant strategies will eventually fizzle out.
The good news: teams that adapt will pull ahead. Start by auditing your stack (is your CRM setup flexible enough?), investing in customer intelligence, and training your team on data-driven methods. Lean into frameworks like ARISE GTM to structure your plan. And don’t hesitate to bring in outside experts – the fastest route to innovation is often collaboration.
Now is the time to act. The future belongs to those who build smart, scalable GTM systems today. Talk to Arise GTM to implement these strategies and lead the pack in 2025.
