What’s the buzz on B2B marketing?

The importance of B2B marketing for any business today cannot be over emphasised. Having been in marketing for almost two decades, let me first take you through the basics. Through B2B marketing, other businesses are familiarised with your business, brand, the value of the products or services you offer, and thus can translate into customers for your business. Marketing, per se, aims at a host of objectives from delivering prospects to finally increasing sales, simply put, the main difference between B2B and B2C marketing are the two distinct target audiences. The focus of B2B marketing is the service to other businesses, while B2C marketing concentrates on the customer requirements. B2B and B2C marketing may be similar, however, several strategic differences with respect to volume of sales, strategy, goals, incentives, drivers, price points, timelines and of course, processes exist.

So, what’s the buzz in effective B2B marketing today, you may ask? Here are a few top outcome-based trends that we absolutely must highlight.

Automation

Over 50% of demand and account-based marketing (ABM) marketers leverage conversation automation in their tactic mix. Harmonisation of marketer and machines through the use of AI will hit that sweet spot in terms of optimized interactions and delivery mechanisms. One is able to increase efficiency of internal processes, identify and enable members of buying and retention groups, as well as drive accuracy and scale. AI is being used to coordinate conversations across technologies and tactics; between human and non-human participants. Thus, B2B companies are enabled to identify and engage effectively with buyers. While mobile apps are seen to be the chief delivery mechanism for automated conversations in professional and financial services, virtual events are gaining ground in manufacturing.

Hand-picked marketing tools 

As of 2020, it was said that marketers could choose from a selection of over 8,000 marketing tools. Well, in the age of decluttering, it would certainly make sense to take a step back and consider the pros and cons of any tool before on-boarding it. It is not obligatory to go with every single new option that is made available. Important factors to consider when choosing a marketing tool are price and specific results. Select tools that can cover a variety of functions. And by all means, stay with older ones if you feel that they serve the same purpose as new-fangled ones.

Video marketing 

Given that millennials, who are now considered to be the most influential B2B decision makers, consume and engage with high volumes of videos on their mobile devices, it is now a given fact that video content ranks higher than text-based content. Including video links in blogs for example, has proven to attract thrice the number of inbound links as well as time spent on a website.

Use emerging technologies such as VR, AR

Many companies nowadays are unafraid to use emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR and Augmented Reality (AR) as these are the best ways to provide potential customers with an immersive experience of your product or service. Customers too appreciate bold new digital conversation delivery channels to learn about new offerings.

Personalisation

With the abundance of available data, personalisation of communications in B2B campaigns is an absolute must. Using audience-centric, tailor-made personalisation, one can engage more meaningfully and effectively with a likely client, addressing their particular tastes and requirements; and although it definitely requires way more effort, the results justify the means.

Communication (email marketing)

A whopping 83% of marketers still use email as a preferred method of communication with present and future customers. In terms of efficacy, 80% of IT companies state that email marketing has the greatest positive influence on customer acquisition. In fact, open rates for emails on smartphones have risen by 40% while desktop open rates have in fact reduced by 18%

A well-rounded B2B marketing campaign is key to capturing prospective customer acquisition and retention. Adoption of modern processes can definitely up your consistency and efficacy.

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