The nature of the internet is constant change, and this is true of the marketing world as a whole as well. Keeping on top of continuous evolution can be challenging: what is worth your time? What is a waste of time - not to mention a waste of your energy and resources? To help, we’ve zeroed in on three B2B marketing trends taking precedence this year.
Three B2B marketing trends to keep an eye on include:
The days of single point attribution are gone. Brands realize that the buyer’s journey is far from linear, and that multiple touchpoints are integral in converting them. They may see an ad on Facebook, visit your website, check out your LinkedIn profile, go back to your website, download an eBook… which one of these led to the conversion?
It’s more complicated than tracking the last step they took. However, while about 30% of brands have some sort of attribution system in place, the majority looks at only the first and/or last touch.
With a more sophisticated muti-channel attribution model, B2B marketers can assign “credit” for the touchpoints that helped lead to a conversion. This can inform your budget, allowing you to direct your dollars more strategically and to focus on channels that yield results for your business.
This is a perennial B2B marketing goal: while we want to increase the volume of leads, ensuring they are high quality is becoming more critical. Delivering the content (i.e. the information, education, and decision-making evidence) consumers need is key in engaging them at this point in their journey.
Increasingly, online users want video. By 2021, it will account for 80% of all internet traffic. Video is clearly dominating across platforms, and for B2B marketers, LinkedIn is a particularly rich area of opportunity. Create video content that aligns with your target audience’s interests, needs, and stage of the buyer’s journey and distribute them across platforms (e.g. your website, blog, email campaigns, social media, etc.).
Don’t forget text and other content: blogs, infographics, case studies, and webinars are also ranked as top lead gen strategies by marketers.
Many brands cast a wide net in terms of their B2B marketing efforts; they want to reach as many businesses as possible - more leads, more sales, right? Not necessarily. B2Bs need to spend more time and effort nurturing leads. As you know a few high-ticket sales or clients can make all the difference for your company.
In contrast, ABM focuses on select target accounts and utilizes personalized campaigns for each. It is highly customized.
According to research from the Altera Group, 97% of B2B marketers report that ABM has a higher or much higher ROI than other marketing techniques. Most brands are not leveraging ABM, giving you an opportunity to make significant inroads in this space.
Need help making sense of B2B marketing trends? THAT Agency is here; our job is not only following the evolution of the marketing landscape but empowering your brand to navigate it with confidence - and for maximum results.