B2B Marketing trends to grow your business
By now we are all well versed in the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, in terms of how it forced us to reimagine our personal and work lives, and how businesses had to adapt to these changes almost on the fly. Three years on and some of these changes have fallen away, while others have become a permanent part of our work and lives. Along with these come changes in consumer behaviour and how marketers need to adapt to them.
In their whitepaper, B2B marketing trends that affect the bottom line, software company Foundry outlines the latest trends to consider, which include:
1. Personalisation
While personalisation and great customer experience are usually the territory of big consumer brands, considering that “80% of buyers are more likely to make buy from a brand that provides personalised experiences”, this is a trend that B2B marketers would do well to consider.
2. Engagement
To find more value from their leads, marketers should make use of engagement to qualify them. By assessing the lead’s behaviour, marketers can see where they are on the buyer journey – do they need more information to nurture their journey, or are they ready to buy? Collect the data, insights and intent signals to decide how best to respond with highly targeted content.
3.Content
Where there was a tendency in the past to inundate potential leads with copious amounts of content, these days marketers need their content to focus on value and building relationships. B2B marketers can incorporate the following trends to grow their businesses:
- Content Experience (CX) is an emerging trend that focuses on creating meaningful content, that is specially tailored to engage with prospects across the buying journey. This content needs to be visually appealing and immersive.
- Account-Based Experience (ABX) makes use of teams from marketing to sales to build a cohesive experience for the customer.
- Video and podcasts are thriving and are an effective way to reinforce the human touch and to demo products.
- Mobile-first design has become a ranking factor for Google.
4. Channels and social media
Personalisation can be achieved here by allowing customers to decide how best they would like to engage with your business. Content helps to create the buyer experience, but it needs to be tailored for the platform or what channel customers choose. Mix up your social media by getting a range of people to contribute, get a mix of people to contribute, don’t be afraid of niche topics and remember most people will look to social media before deciding to buy.
With these trends in your B2B marketing arsenal, you can capitalise on the attention economy to grow your brand and your bottom line.
Sharon Peché - Marketing and Communications Manager - KYOCERA Document Solutions South Africa
