Speaking of B2B marketing innovations, there have been many proven methods but what we’re looking at is the out-of-the-box ‘trends’ that have come through. While technology is constantly changing the B2B marketplace, it is crucial to take a moment and see which ones have stood out from the crowd.
In this article, we’ll look at 4-B2B marketing innovation trends that are making waves in the B2B landscape and where they might be heading in the coming future.
Marketing Podcast
Podcast Insights states that 80% of podcast listeners listen to an average of 7 shows per week.
Interesting, isn’t it?
There are over 29 million podcast episodes as of April 2019, and they are growing fast. In the United States, 51% of the population has listened to podcasts, out of which 49% of listening is done at home, and 22% is done while in the car.
As they say, truly so, ‘Content is the King.’ So along with making the experts talk over your podcast, you should have a strong content strategy as well.
If thought leadership plays a key role in your content strategy, then it’s important to create a scheduled and recurring podcast that includes experts in your industry for B2B brands.
You can invite experts from the same or different industries and the customer network to share their stories. With which you will reach out to more audiences, B2B brands, and thought leaders, eventually.
The key here, to have a good number of listeners to your podcast, is to broadcast the real experiences. Let that be of successes or failures or the struggles and the practical way-outs that have been found to overcome it.
The more genuine your podcast sounds, the higher the chances are that you would reach more people. And no matter how big or small a business you are running, a good marketing strategy will assure some amount of success. However, that’s the part where you can also try influencer marketing as a part of your marketing strategy.
Artificial Intelligence
Today, businesses are successfully using Artificial Intelligence in the form of chatbots as an important customer touchpoint. By using machine learning, artificial intelligence pulls out important data sets and helps strategize future content plans that will resonate with the target buyer. Artificial Intelligence can help efficiently understand your audience and their persona, ultimately reducing marketing efforts to some extent.
As per this survey conducted by Brightedge, 25.69% of the respondents believed that AI would impact businesses big time, especially after customer personalization. AI will also empower marketers by allowing them to focus on more productive tasks.
Thanks to its potential to identify B2B targets for inward and outward marketing initiatives. AI is already bridging the gap between the sales team and potential customers. Artificial intelligence could be one of the most vital steps in B2B marketing innovation.
Email Marketing
Emailing is the traditional way to communicate in office settings, but it is also a simple way to make sales online. So you might wonder why it is listed under innovations. Now here is a fun fact that you should know.
60% of B2B marketers still say that email marketing is one of the most effective channels for generating revenue. No matter where all the innovations are taking us, but Email Marketing is going to be a part of the B2B innovation cycle for a long time.
It’s no longer a game of email batch and blast; brands can now measure and predict the success of their email campaigns through personalization. There are many tools available in the market to help you out.
When there is no time to draft a personalized message for many people, you can simply run an email campaign. Moreover, personalizing every email makes an impact on the receiver. All thanks to technology!
More than 83% of B2B marketers leverage emails as a part of their email marketing strategy. And people who buy products from email marketing spend 138% more than those who do not. Email Marketing is always going to ease the marketing efforts, and with this personalized innovation, it seems to be a more powerful B2B marketing trend than ever before.
The personalization of the emails not only makes them feel important but also talks of the marketing efforts that have been taken behind sending one email. So with this new trend of personalized emails, B2B marketing innovations seemed to have leveled up.
Customer Experience
Further, B2B marketing innovation consists of, Customer Experience. Customer experience has undergone a significant transformation in the last few years.
Netflix made on-demand streaming a nightly activity, Amazon made same-day delivery an expectation, and Google made information readily available at the click of a button or at the voice command of a user. It is now a top priority to make these networks functioning exactly and in real-time. These same practices are being carried over to the B2B province.
According to PwC, buyers look for these top CX features:
- Speed
- Accuracy
- Friendliness
- Knowledgeable help
Think with Google found that 46% of B2B researchers and buyers are millennials. Customer expectations are deeply embedded in their purchasing and lifestyle habits due to their upbringing in the digital-first environment.
Having low ratings, reviews, or negative commentary on Google My Business or any social media platform about your service can irrefutably lead to a bad rep, which will result in fewer leads. Also, difficulty locating information online can immediately turn off the buyers, causing damage to trust, loyalty, and satisfaction.
Are the B2B Brands Customer-Centric Enough?
If you must know, there are only 14% of large B2B companies that are actually customer-centric. This is such a small ratio to have the integrated into the culture of B2B companies. This portrays that B2B organizations need to be more focused on their customers and their needs with respect to B2B brands.
This is also an indication to B2B brands to take the opportunity from the firms to differentiate their brands and also increase the profit by delivering the ultimate customer experience through marketing efforts in the B2B pool.
31% of the B2B marketing organizations have customer centricity as the core component of their organization. That assures almost a third of B2B brands have structure, planned vision, and execution for the customer experience. However, it is yet to get ingrained into the company cultures.
Final Say on B2B Marketing Innovations
Regardless of what innovation or technology you bring to the table, modern buyers expect to be recognized as individuals. Marketing at the end of the day isn’t about B2B market or B2C market, but H2H, i.e., Human to Human.
What top B2B marketing trends are you looking to try in 2021 and beyond? What’s worked for you so far? Let us know in the comments below.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are three trends affecting B2B marketing?
The most popular and real trends in the B2B marketing industry are as follows:
- Podcast Marketing
- AI Marketing
- Email Marketing
What are the types of B2B markets?
We can divide B2B markets into four major categories as follows:
- Producers
- Resellers
- Governments
- Institutions
What are some key B2B Product marketing issues?
Here are some common issues from B2B product marketing:
- Generic Traffic
- Proving ROI
- Ditching Jargon
- Customising content for each stage of the buyer’s journey
- Managing Content
- Integration of Technology
- Aligning the Sales & Marketing