Why B2B Marketers Must Revisit Their Foundations to Thrive in FY25

Summary

As B2B marketers plan for FY25, it's crucial to revisit the fundamentals of their marketing strategy to ensure future success. This includes reevaluating your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), updating buyer personas, understanding shifts within the buying committee, and conducting a comprehensive content audit. Additionally, optimizing cross-channel alignment and leveraging technology will improve efficiency and impact. By ensuring these foundational elements are solid, marketers can build a strategy that drives growth, stays relevant, and captures new opportunities in the coming year.

By Win Salyards, Senior Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing

As we approach the end of FY24, now is the time for B2B marketers to get proactive about what’s next. Planning for FY25 should be more than just setting new KPIs and aligning on budget. It’s an opportunity to take a hard look at the foundations of your marketing strategy because what worked before may not work moving forward.

Customer expectations shift, buyer dynamics change, and content that once converted may fall flat. If you’re not regularly reviewing key aspects of your approach—like your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), buying committee insights, personas, and content strategy—you’re likely missing opportunities and leaving revenue on the table.

Start with the Basics: Revisit Your ICP

Your ICP defines who you’re targeting and ultimately, where you focus your marketing resources. But markets evolve quickly and if you haven’t updated your ICP recently, you may be chasing the wrong prospects. The companies and roles that were ideal targets in FY23 might not be relevant in FY25. Shifts in business priorities, industry challenges, and even competitive pressures can change who your best-fit customers are.

Action Item:

Evaluate how your ICP has changed in the past year. Have customer needs shifted? Are there new markets or verticals you should explore? Update your ICP to reflect these insights.

Understand the New Dynamics of the Buying Committee

In B2B, the buying committee has always been complex. But today, the number of stakeholders—and the diversity of their priorities—has grown. The roles within buying committees have changed, which changes how you need to communicate. For example, where finance once played a small part in tech purchases, they may now have veto power over new solutions.

Action Item:

Map out your current understanding of the buying committee. Who’s involved in the decision? What are their individual concerns? Identify any emerging stakeholders and rethink how your messaging speaks to them.

Refresh Your Buyer Personas

Like your ICP, buyer personas aren’t static. The challenges your personas faced last year may not be their top pain points this year. Buyers are more informed and have higher expectations when it comes to personalization. If your personas don’t reflect that shift, you’ll lose relevance and miss out on key engagements.

Action Item:

Check-in with sales and customer success teams to understand how customer conversations have changed. What new pain points have emerged? What’s driving purchase decisions today versus last year? Use this feedback to update your personas with the most relevant insights.

Conduct a Ruthless Content Audit

Here’s the hard truth: most companies have a lot of content that simply isn’t driving results. Now is the time to take a close look at what’s working and what’s not. A content audit can uncover gaps in your funnel, outdated pieces that need refreshing, or assets that no longer align with your ICP or buyer personas.

Action Item:

Run a performance analysis on your content. Identify the pieces that have driven the most qualified leads and those that haven’t. Ensure you have content mapped to every stage of the buyer’s journey, emphasizing driving late-stage decisions.

Maximize Cross-Channel Synergy

If you’re treating each marketing channel as a silo, you’re doing it wrong. A successful marketing strategy for FY25 must embrace a cross-channel approach, where email, social media, paid ads, and SEO work in unison to deliver a cohesive customer experience. Misaligned messaging or inconsistent branding can lead to confusion and lower engagement rates.

Action Item:

Review your current channel performance. Are there any gaps or missed opportunities where a more integrated approach could drive results? Align messaging across all channels to ensure consistency, especially when guiding prospects through the funnel.

Leverage Technology for Greater Efficiency

Data and technology are the backbone of modern B2B marketing. If you’re not maximizing the tools at your disposal—CRM, marketing automation, or analytics platforms—you’re likely leaving efficiency gains on the table. Moreover, the insights you gather from these tools are critical for refining strategy and optimizing spend.

Action Item:

Review your tech stack. Are you fully leveraging your existing tools, or are there areas where automation and data could streamline workflows? Identify opportunities to upgrade or enhance your stack to improve personalization and campaign effectiveness in FY25.

Foundations First, Then Growth

You can’t build a growth-focused strategy for FY25 if your marketing foundation is shaky. Now is the time to reevaluate your ICP, refresh buyer personas, review your content, and ensure you’re targeting the right roles within the buying committee. Only then can you execute a strategy that drives sustainable growth and delivers predictable pipeline in the year ahead.

By ensuring your foundation is strong, you’ll be better positioned to capitalize on opportunities, react to market changes, and confidently hit your FY25 targets.

Ready to fine-tune your marketing strategy for FY25? Reach out for a friendly audit today.