The business effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for years. However, the consequences of the pandemic are not identical for all companies. Different industries and firms face disparate consumer trends, resource availability, and revenue potential during the pandemic and its aftermath. As a result, companies operate in one of three modes: survival, adaptive, or growth. B2B leaders: To discover which mode your company is in, read “Assess Your Recovery Potential” before reviewing our spending recommendations.

Make Spending Changes In Six Categories Post-COVID-19

Marketing and customer experience (CX) leaders at B2B firms control or influence a wide swath of spending — and our advice reflects that. Our research includes budget recommendations on more than 80 line items for B2B professionals across all three operating modes: survival, adaptive, and growth. To make this huge body of advice easy to use, we’ve split it into six categories and collected them here.

  • Technology: Our technology advice includes over 25 items related to marketing technology, channel delivery tech, and CX-related technologies like customer feedback management and prototyping tools. (Spending advice for technology — time to read: 8 minutes)
  • Services: Our services recommendations include changes to your spending on marketing and CX agencies and consultancies. (Spending advice for services — time to read: 6 minutes)
  • Media: Our advice on media spending includes more than 20 items in the digital advertising, offline advertising, and organic/earned media categories. (Spending advice for media — time to read: 6 minutes)
  • Staffing: Our staffing-related recommendations focus on budget, not number of employees or FTEs. (Spending advice for staffing — time to read: 5 minutes)
  • Data and research: Our advice on data and research spending changes focuses on competitive intelligence and benchmarking studies. (Spending advice for data and research — time to read: 2 minutes)
  • Content: Our content recommendations focus on spending changes for syndicated marketing content, events, and product documentation. (Spending advice for content — time to read: 3 minutes)

Clients can dive deeper into our spending advice for their company by scheduling an inquiry with a Forrester analyst.

Not a client? Visit our COVID-19 hub for further insight on responding, managing, and leading during a pandemic.