Success in the context of B2B marketing hinges on your willingness to adapt and embrace new trends. The subtleties of your B2B marketing matter a great deal in terms of engagement and conversions through the sales funnel.
Let’s take a look at B2B marketing trends every business owner, manager and marketer should be aware of.
1. Highlight the Brand
Shifting the focus to the brand as opposed to the nuances of the specific product or service in question has the potential to pay massive dividends.
Develop a distinct brand voice that other businesses will recognize with ease and your business’s B2B marketing will make a lasting impression.
Ideally, your brand and its marketing mantra will reflect the voice of the businesses you market to. Such a voice humanizes your company, making your business that much more relatable to decision-makers at target companies.
Take some time to develop an understanding of the needs and pain points of target businesses, weave those elements into your branding across all channels and your B2B marketing will make a powerful impact.
2. Make Use of Anchoring
Anchoring is centered on stressing the importance of the initial information presented to potential clients. This first impression serves as a bedrock of sorts.
Set the tone at the outset with strategic anchoring shaped by your specific value offering and potential clients will be that much more likely to further explore your unique value proposition.
3. Extend Your Marketing Beyond Text
As time progresses, more B2B marketers are shifting away from text-only content.
Incorporate embedded videos, images, demonstrations, and other more dynamic content into your marketing efforts and you will maximize engagement, boosting sales all the more.
As an example, B2B marketing videos will prompt a segment of your audience to pay closer attention compared to the written word.
Though the written word still serves a purpose in the context of B2B marketing, every marketer should be aware that a growing number of those looking for products and services that will help their business are more inclined to watch a short video than read through paragraphs of text.
Native video, as the name suggests, is a video that appears native to the platform and does not overtly stand out as an advertisement.
4. Marketing Enabled by Artificial Intelligence
AI facilitates narrow targeting along with segmentation that allows for highly effective individualized marketing. AI also empowers companies to perform lead scoring and develop insights into the successes and failures of specific marketing endeavors.
Recognize the fact that marketing data is becoming that much more complex, employ AI in your B2B marketing efforts and you will obtain meaningful insights into your target clients that ultimately help you maximize conversions and retention.
AI marketing tools such as TensorFlow and Google AI make it easier to predict client behavior, facilitate the generating of timely outreaches and ultimately enhance marketing productivity.
5. Mobile-first Marketing
The time has come to pivot away from conventional advertising channels toward mobile devices. Tailor your marketing materials for viewing on mobile devices and you’ll find they make that much more of an impact.
Instead of making the customer education experience pertaining to your value offering challenging, invest the time and effort necessary to facilitate learning about your product or service on a mobile device and you’ll find interest spikes thereafter.
6. Account-based Marketing
ABM, short for account-based marketing, is a highly targeted approach to pinpointing important accounts that can be converted or massaged for even more sales through personalized marketing.
Opt for ABM as opposed to broad-based marketing highlighted by an individualized strategy and it won’t take long for your conversion rates to spike.
In fact, SiriusDecisions reports more than 90% of businesses that employ the ABM strategy boost the value of ensuing deals. One-quarter of the surveyed businesses reported a hike in value greater than 50%.
7. Automate Workflows
Automate your marketing workflows with the right automation tools and you’ll save plenty of time. B2B automated marketing tools bridge the gap to new prospects, prime the sales pipeline, and convert prospects into paying clients.
As an example, direct mail and other automated tools expedite and facilitate the client engagement process.
Businesses that use social media with regularity should also consider taking advantage of a scheduling tool that posts content at specific times to maximize user engagement on the platform.