Time to budget like a commercial marketer

Now you’re back from your hols, the likelihood is that if you’re doing marketing in a B2B firm, you’ll be into early thinking or conversations about your 2025 budget. This is an important and often challenging annual engagement which you must approach thoughtfully to secure the resources you think you’ll need, balanced against the realities of what your business can afford to invest. But once you’ve secured your budget, what could you change about how you spend it that would help make these negotiations a breeze next time?

Firstly, by way of context, it’s likely that B2B CMOs and other marketing leaders will need to make their budgets go further next year. B2B marketing budget growth has been slowing since 2023 and according to Forrester’s Budget Planning Survey, this trend is expected to continue with only 35% of B2B marketing decision makers expecting a budget increase of more than 5% in 2025. The majority expect an increase of just 1% to 4%. When you factor in inflation, this isn’t much of a gain.

So rather than relying on more budget to increase marketing impact, think about channelling your inner “commercial marketer.” The commercial marketer is a term introduced in 2024 by B2B Marketing’s Propolis Community, as something we all need to become to solve the issue of trust and influence currently facing many marketers. If used correctly, marketing should be the main growth engine for a business, however the reality remains that when times get tough, marketing is the first area to get cut back. Becoming a commercial marketer is a way to change perceptions and prove our worth in order to drive the value that we know we can whilst protecting our budgets and careers.

Here are 5 tips for how to approach your budgeting like a commercial marketer:

1). Stay focused on growth

Remember that all the business cares about is growth. From a marketing perspective this translates to using the brand and reputation to create value; building engagement amongst your target audience; and generating demand for your products and services. Therefore, every penny spent in your budget must be aligned to at least one of these things.

Then, make sure you are prepared to clearly demonstrate the impact on growth the business’ marketing investment is having. A top tip is to report the bad news too – you will garner far more credibility and greater buy-in for making changes next time by telling the truth about what didn’t work, as well as what did. Having robust, accurate reporting will help get you in a position where you can use data to drive better informed budgeting decisions in the future.  

2). Keep it fresh

Using the rationale “because we did it last year” is a quick and easy way to waste lots of your budget.

Every penny spent should be properly questioned as to its expected return. You’ll need to build the right governance processes to do this effectively and leave everyone in no doubt as to what it will take for a programme or tactic to be signed off or to be repeated the following year.

Commercial marketers will apply a founder’s mindset to planning and budgeting – staying externally focused and curious, learning and adapting to stay ahead. This requires a deep understanding of the industry you’re operating in, your target market and the opportunities within. Then using that insight to inform your decisions. I’d also recommend you build some flex into your budget to allow for agile decision making, so you can make rapid adjustments and improvements throughout the year as circumstances change, rather than just following through on the same plan.

3). Talk the same language as the business

To enhance our strategic impact, B2B marketers need to stop talking the language of marketing and start talking the language of the business. More precisely, the language of finance and sales. Remember, growth is all the business cares about. So, when pitching for budget or presenting a new initiative for sign off, by all means carry on thinking about clickthrough rates, downloads, event attendees etc, but if you’re talking to the CEO or CFO, ensure you can relate everything back to impact against their metrics, especially revenue. The easier it is for the business to understand how an investment can help them achieve their business goals, the greater your chance of getting buy-in. Change your narrative from “this is a great marketing idea” to “this will help deliver our business goals in this way.”

4). Get comfortable saying no

Work in partnership with the business to identify the top commercial priorities most likely to yield the biggest impact against growth targets. Budgets should then be assigned only to activities that support those priorities, being ruthless to say no to requests to support any products or services that don’t make the list. If you have historically spent money on other things, then question why. Resources will be tight and if you try to cover too much, you’ll spread your resources too thin and dilute your impact everywhere. Taking a data-driven approach to where you place your bets and what you will say no to, will help ensure you maximise the commercial impact of your marketing investment.

5). Tailor your approach

Choose your marketing approach for each commercial priority carefully as its rare a one-size-fits-all approach will work. Instead, consider the business objectives, growth potential and the business’ ability to capitalise, and use these insights to identify where in the funnel to focus efforts. For example, you may wish to use engagement programmes and thought leadership for solutions where you want to become known, versus straight to demand programmes for your core solutions where you are already established and trading market share with competitors. The tactics and therefore the amount of budget required will differ by programme type.

The commercial marketer mindset

Whether marketing budget growth remains slow or not over the next few years, adopting the mindset of a commercial marketer will always be the right approach for B2B marketing leaders who want to deliver maximum impact and value. Budgeting like a commercial marketer is about more than just allocating funds – it’s about strategically aligning your marketing efforts with the business’ growth objectives.

By staying focused on growth, challenging past spending habits and speaking the language of the business, you’ll not only be better placed to protect your budget (and maybe secure a larger increase!), but enhance your influence within the business too.