To remain competitive, communications teams must stay abreast of industry trends as technological innovations continue to disrupt the B2B marketing arena. The constant flood of new technology and execution techniques presents marketing professionals with the issue of determining where to focus their efforts.
Keeping up with the latest B2B digital marketingtrends may not result in a total revolution of your organization, but knowing about them will keep you on par with your competition.
You may make strategic decisions by carefully examining your market position and the implications of trends. This article discussed some of the technological innovations that will revolutionize B2B marketing in 2021.
Marketing Trends
Account-Based Marketing
By the end of 2020, 42 percent of marketers questioned said the coronavirus epidemic had changed their ABM objectives. Forty-nine percent of those polled said their aims had shifted to focus on growing businesswith existing clients. As a result of the epidemic, 26% raised their spending, while 30% decreased their spending.
To be successful with this strategy, the sales and marketing teams must collaborate closely. Collaboration between sales and marketing stakeholders may help marketers find the best prospects for an ABM strategy inside the target population.
Small businesses may profit from this strategy and the interconnectedness of sales and marketing teams. They may utilize ABM to focus their marketing resources and efforts on the most promising prospects.
ABM outperforms other marketing activities in terms of ROI by 97 percent. Only 6 of 100 B2B marketers interviewed by Demand Gen Report and ABM In Action said they hadn't utilized ABM yet.
It assists in the synchronization of sales and marketing, as well as the better usage of marketing resources, according to practitioners.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
One possibility for meeting customer experience objectives is artificial intelligence (AI). Chatbots, for example, may provide consumers with a quick response to a simple query. They also provide customer servicerepresentatives more time to deal with other things, such as dealing with more complex situations.
Chatbots are becoming increasingly popular, but they are only one sort of artificial intelligence for marketers. AI is rapidly being incorporated into advertising networks, allowing publishers and advertisers to engage with more efficiency, speed, and accuracy – all at a fixed cost.
When it comes to contentgeneration, AI is still a relatively new technology in the content marketingindustry. It can help with the translation of structured data sets and the extraction of crucial insights or information using machine learning.
However, it is more difficult to convert collected information into organic content. For good reason, this is not a disincentive to experimenting.
Marketing Automation
At this moment, it is feasible to automate almost every aspect of content marketing distribution. Content is now more efficient and effective, from keyword research to content generation and distribution, thanks to the increasing adoption of marketing automation tools, platforms, and plugins. According to Forrester's analysis, worldwide marketing automation spending will exceed $25 billion by 2023.
Although certain Martech choices are more widely accepted, 44 percent of B2B firms already use marketing automation tools. Because these technologies are typically interrelated, it is nearly hard to avoid automation in the current marketing era.
Video Marketing And Augmented Reality
These are the technologies that B2B marketers should not overlook, especially now that advanced digital marketing approaches such as video content and augmented reality are becoming more widely available.
Video marketing is extremely beneficial for B2B companies since it provides a visual aspect to the buyer's journey. More businesses are turning to case studiesfor video material to bolster their marketing efforts.
This is a growing trend in the B2B business; currently, 70% of B2B buyers watch videos while researching a product before making a purchase.
The amount spent on video advertising is predicted to rise more in 2021. Because I'm stuck at home, streaming video has become more of a lifeline.
Videos can both entertain and educate. Branded films might assist B2B buyers in learning about new trends and developing new abilities. Video advertising spending is expected to climb to $12.66 billion by 2024, up from $10.18 billion in 2019.
Augmented reality, on the other hand, has the ability to take video content to new heights. This is especially true when the B2B company has a large product to showcase or a visually attractive website to market. AR might be an excellent way to improve the B2B buyer's journey by letting customers try things out digitally before making a purchase.
Email Personalization
Aside from LinkedIn, email marketinghas shown to be a dependable method of distribution for B2B marketers. Email marketing is the most profitable channel for over 60% of B2B marketers, and it is also the third-best way to obtain information. The first and second options continue to be suggestions from colleagues and industry thought leaders.
Personalization has shown to be quite helpful in raising email margins even more. Seventy-one percent of email marketers that have used customization reported a good or outstanding ROI on their campaign, compared to only 41 percent of those who are still in the planning stages.
It is no longer necessary to send mass emails that provide no results, owing to the availability of templates and technologies that enable personalization, outreach, and audience segmentation easier than ever before. Email marketing performance may now be more easily analyzed and forecasted.
Personalized emails have been demonstrated to increase transaction rates by six times, and email newsletters were among the top three kinds of content used by B2B marketers last year.
Audio-Based Apps And Voice-Controlled Virtual Assistants
Interacting with voice-bots is something that almost everyone appreciates. These are our assistants, who handle all of our requests and act in the manner that we specify.
Consumers are increasingly using voice search to play music, ask inquiries, and get directions. According to one survey, voice search is in great demand among today's audience, with over one billion voice searches completed globally.
This amount is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2021 and 6.4 billion by 2022. Such data highlight the trend's opportunistic nature and the need of incorporating it into B2B marketing efforts.
Predictive Analytics
Predictive analysis is associated with tailored suggestions, and it provides relevant results by utilizing previous user behavioral patterns, consumption, and purchase charts.
If the predictive analysis is unfamiliar to you, it comprises utilizing historical data and analytic techniques to estimate future outcomes.
Marketers may use current technology such as statistical modeling and machine learning to get extensive insights into previous campaigns, forecast consumer trends, learn about behavioral patterns, and change future marketing plans based on determining findings.
Predictive analysis may be used by businesses to attract, retain, and nurture new and existing consumers. Marketers may use predictive analytics to optimize their marketing strategies, generate more leads, convert more consumers, and identify cross-selling opportunities.
Final Thoughts
Every year, technology progresses. Such fast changes need a keen eye, a nimble mind, and a dynamic B2B marketing strategy. Of course, if you want to succeed in 2021, you must be aware of the most important B2B marketing trends.
Consider these tendencies to be instruments for your marketing battle. Every B2B marketing trend, from personalization to artificial intelligence, can assist you in remaining market competitive. Accepting change is the first step in defeating your opponents.
What Is B2B Tech Marketing?
B2B marketing is the act of promoting a company's products or services to other companies, and it includes standard tactics such as email marketing, PPC advertising, SEO, and social media marketing.
What Is B2B Marketing Example?
When one firm's production is necessary for another company to sustain or improve its operations, business-to-business marketing is required. Here are some instances of B2B marketing: A manufacturer of industrial pumps is seeking to advertise and sell their equipment to an oil and gas firm.