Trends and techniques are ever changing forces in the world of B2B marketing. Suffice to say, a lot changed between 2020 and 2021, and the future of B2B changed with it. Let’s take a look at some of the future B2B marketing trends we’re likely to see bearing fruit later this year and into the next.
The first isn’t really a new/future trend, more a trend that was loudly thrust to the forefront of B2B in 2020; digital marketing. Suddenly face to face meetings and physical advertising were forced into the back seat. Now that companies have had to adapt to their marketing strategies being purely online & fine tuning their digital skills now that the audience has understandably widened, it’s going to be hard to go back to normal. Except, could this be the new normal? Digital marketing overtaking more classic methods such as print and TV marketing no longer seems like such a long shot. In fact, research shows that over 70% of people on the internet prefer to learn about products through digital content in lieu of traditional advertising. Now why the hell would you get rid of a tactic like that and refer to past, albeit reliable, methods? The answer is, you don’t. Digital marketing will likely just become known as ‘Marketing’ in the near future, no longer a separate entity but a solid part of every company’s overall marketing strategy.
By the end of 2021, every brand will have some form of social media presence/ strategy. It is already one of the most rapidly growing and promising platforms for B2B marketing, with an incredible nearly 85% of marketers admitting to using social media as part of their brand strategy. I believe that this figure not stretching into the 90s by the end of the year is a lie by any stretch of the imagination, I’d bet my life on it. Ok, maybe not that, but I’d bet my favourite mug on it (it’s a colour changing Thor mug so it’s obviously very valuable)*. Whilst LinkedIn is by far seen as the most effective of the social platforms for B2B marketing, companies are branching out to other mediums such as twitter, Facebook, even TikTok. It goes without saying that not embracing the power of social media is a huge mistake, especially considering a mere 4.5 billion people use it. Just let that sink in for a second. Over half the entire population of Earth uses social media in some form or another. This is why I see it becoming one of, if not the most crucial platform for marketing in the future.
I’ve spoken previously about the rise of artificial intelligence and virtual reality, but as we move towards evolving it at an incredibly fast pace, I believe come 2022 we could be looking at B2B marketing strategies through some very different perspectives. Take chatbots and other forms of AI within sites. Not just for people such as myself who generally wish to avoid speaking to another human unless absolutely necessary, they’ve also proven to us that we don’t actually need to speak to another human for assistance in everything. As they get better and better at analysing our responses and learning all they need about human behaviour, they’ll be able to help marketers more and more with refining their approach to clients and utilising the analytics that responses give them. Not to say AI will replace the need for people all together, B2B at it’s core will remain very human to human interaction reliant, but in the future you may see more and more elements of AI sneakily helping digital campaigns along to better results.
Content marketing is yet another ever changing force in the B2B world. The trend that I’m focusing on however is the emergence of the video. Fewer and fewer people are drawn in by long pieces of information (I hope this blog is not included in that observation), and their brains find it much easier to focus and engage with a variety of mediums. Videos present these mediums all in one self contained platform, with visuals, information and audio all working together to form exciting campaigns and advertisements. Webinars, video calls and podcasts are also excellent ways to push your marketing strategy in a clear, powerful way. Consider cutting down on the fluff in 2021 and start creating a wide, varied web of content to keep those viewers interested from the start of their journey all the way to becoming a client.
Remember to always keep an eye out for new B2B marketing trends that not only improve your overall strategy, but fit in with the direction of your company. I assure you, there are plenty that I haven’t named that are sure to emerge with very little notice.
A mere two days after writing this, I accidentally smashed my colour changing Thor mug into a million pieces. Don’t worry, I have no doubt this won’t affect how important social media is becoming to B2B marketing.
