The start of a new year always brings a raft of predictions around the top trends that will change the B2B marketing landscape over the next 12 months – but before you jump on the bandwagon, it’s important to consider what’s best for your business.
While some trends gain popularity because they’re a truly useful way to reach B2B audiences, such as content marketing and account-based marketing, other trends are merely a flash in the pan (QR codes, anyone?). So before you invest time and money in the latest B2B marketing fad, it’s wise to stop and think about whether it’s really likely to contribute to your marketing strategy and deliver the results you’re looking for.
Let’s take a look at some of the trends we expect to see in 2020 and how they measure up to more traditional approaches…
Mainstream marketing or a personalised approach?
In recent years, B2B brands have begun to realise that personalisation can make a real difference when it comes to connecting with customers – a ‘spray and pray’ approach to marketing just won’t cut through the noise. This is a trend that’s set to continue this year; personalisation emerged as the top strategy B2B marketers would be taking in 2020 in a recent survey by Smart Insights.
Since account-based marketing (ABM) appeared on the scene, however, it’s no longer enough to simply ‘insert first name here’ in your emails. Identifying those customers that can bring the most value to your business and the key decision-makers within these businesses is the first step, but really getting to grips with their individual challenges and requirements – and tailoring your communications accordingly – is also crucial. If you can show them how your organisation can help them to achieve their unique strategic ambitions, you’ll get their attention – and hopefully their business.
Brand awareness or pure performance?
Performance marketing appeared as a new trend in B2B Marketing’s 2019 Trend Tracker, ranking highly amongst both in-house teams and agencies to be named the fourth highest trend overall. It’s not hard to see why – businesses want to see tangible results from their marketing campaigns, and with performance marketing they only pay when a specific action (e.g. a generated lead, sale, or click) occurs.
The rise of digital marketing has enabled B2B marketers to measure their marketing activity in greater detail than ever before, and having the ability to measure everything from your brand reach to the conversion rate can provide some really valuable insights. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon any activity that isn’t 100% measurable – attending events and featuring in trade print magazines are still great ways to build awareness of your brand within your target audience. Just take what you learn about what works and what doesn’t from your performance marketing, and apply it to your offline marketing.
Written or visual content?
As more B2B organisations have embraced social media, many have also started to experiment with video content, which earns three times more engagement on average than text posts on LinkedIn. The crowded nature of social platforms and the need to reach time-poor decision-makers is driving many B2B marketers to shift away from long-form written content towards eye-catching, easily digestible visual content such as videos and infographics.
Ultimately, different people will prefer different forms of content, which means there’s a place for both visual and written content in your marketing campaigns. Longer written forms of content still have an important role to play – 79% of B2B buyers say they’re most likely to share a white paper with their colleagues, for example – as providing in-depth, insight-rich content is a great way to establish your business’s reputation and expertise. But it’s always worth considering how you could repurpose a piece of content to ensure it reaches as wide an audience as possible – e.g. could you pull out stats from your white paper to use in an infographic? In today’s digital world, offline channels can also be overlooked, but can also be a valuable way to support online content and maximise your reach. This way, written and visual content go hand-in-hand.
When you’re faced with a new year and a new budget, it can be tempting to try out the industry’s latest buzzword, and taking a fresh approach can often breathe new life into your campaigns. Just be sure to take the time to consider whether it’s right for your business first – that way, you’ll be leading the pack rather than simply following the crowd.
