There's no denying that the world is going through a massive digital transformation. Our ancestors would have called us wizards should they see how far we've come. It all began with the Industrial Revolution; since then, marketing has taken different forms and shapes.
Two years ago, businesses had to rethink their B2B marketing strategy to keep up with the seismic shift caused by the pandemic. And since then, numerous marketing techniques and tactics have proved effective and have performed impressively in every application.
We'll be exploring these ageless B2B marketing trends you need to watch out for. Brands like Adtraction, Metapic, and even Tradedoubler, have elements of these trends in their marketing because they are effective. That was how Vanguard boosted its conversion rate by 15% with the help of Persado, an Artificial Intelligence. Let’s get to business!
1. Influencer Marketing
The use of influencers is a B2B marketing trend projected to exceed $16 billion in 2022 thanks to social media. There's no denying that influencer marketing is lucrative, and marketers are spending more compared to other marketing strategies.
In 2021, the brand, Zara, set a world record when it reached over 2 billion people and 300,000 mentions on Instagram – beating even the giant company herself. Influence cannot be disputed. That is why brands like Society Icon have it at the core of their marketing strategy.
Since B2B influencers build a following through their expertise, a shoutout from them is all your brand needs to experience a gold rush. If you don’t know how to get started, you will most likely benefit from Society Icon.
2. Content Marketing (King)
Every marketing team has a content marketing strategy. Irrespective of the techniques or approaches they adopt, the common denominator that all audiences love is clear and well-written content that answers their questions.
Content marketing encompasses all the channels you can think of: blogs, videos, eBooks, interviews, social media posts, and lots more. With these channels, you're collectively promoting your product without actually promoting the product. We consider Klarna’s blog a good example of a great blog, and that is because they understand the importance of content marketing.
This strategy is like killing multiple birds with one stone. For instance, content marketing can become an incredible tool for building your brand's reputation. Consistently, you develop valuable relationships with your customers without sweating for it.
3. Personalization
The key to your digital marketing strategy is relating to your audience on a personal level. Think about it; you receive tons of emails daily. You probably click only the ones you can relate to out of those emails, correct?
Sometimes it's the email that addresses you by your name, coupled with a personalized subject line that often gets your attention. Research by SupperOfficie shows that emails with the recipient's name on the subject lines increase the open rate by 20%.
That's only but one example of personalization. Other ideas that might help include focusing on your target's pain points, not your selling point. Then, when you understand your audience's problem, let that be your link to connect with them on a personal level.
4. Marketing Automation
There's nothing more tormenting than spending time on repetitive tasks that can otherwise be done by software. Marketing automation is one of these emerging B2B marketing trends that we expect to be around for a long time.
You can set workflows with automation, determine your target audience, deploy digital strategies, and more. This system allows you to focus on things that matter, on the big picture, instead of mundane, repetitive tasks.
In return, you react to customer actions in real-time, optimize marketing strategy, improve overall efficiency, and have more time to focus on other essential aspects of the business.
5. AI and Machine Learning
Vanguard is, after all, one of the biggest investment firms in the world. But it faced a problem when it wanted to promote its institutional business. They could not stand out from the noise with every financial institute using the same messaging and language.
To ratify this, Vanguard employed the help of Persado, an AI language platform that helped find out the exact phrases and words that resonate with customers. Persado also helped them understand when to use certain words, emotions, CTAs, and emojis; conversion rates increased by 15%.
Believe it or not, AI has come to stay. With the rapid advancement in speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning, marketers see massive potential in the application of AI in B2B marketing.
Takeaway!
Devising a marketing strategy is never an easy process. Most of the time, it takes trials and errors and multiple rounds of A/B tests to determine what works and doesn't. And when you do hit the jackpot, it's also vital to stay ahead of trends as they may very well shift.
The only constant thing in marketing is that there is no constant. It is a dynamic world that regularly challenges you to improve and try something different. However, one thing that should remain constant is updating and keeping up with demands, and staying in touch with with latest B2B marketing trends.
That is why we are here - to help you grow your business with helpful guides, tips and latest industry updates. Free free to join our subscribers to receive our weekly special picks :)
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