B2B marketing trends you should know about in 2022
Due to social and cultural shifts, the decision-making processes of B2B customers have shifted as well. B2B marketing is when one business markets itself to another business. This takes place when the products or services of one company are needed for the other company to operate or improve. B2B marketing has become extremely lucrative, with the global B2B marketing size being valued at $7.72 trillion according to a Grand View Research report. Within the next 5 years, the global marketing size is estimated to be worth over $25 trillion. To take advantage of this and ensure that the B2B marketing is successful, marketers should know and consider following these B2B marketing trends:
Brand Personalisation
This trend, which is not a new trend, is vital for a brand to stand out from the crowd. To personalise a brand, B2B marketers should aim to mirror the voice of their target audience. B2B brands need to explore and understand their target audience’s brand persona and voice. Once this has been determined, the brand voice has to be visible in all marketing areas. When the target audience views the sales, website, social media, and further marketing channels, the brand voice needs to be present and clear. By doing so, their target audience will formulate trust towards the brand, they will be able to relate to the brand, and will feel seen.
Video Marketing
Due to the excess of content available online, the attention spans of audiences have shortened. To grab the attention of a target audience, B2B brands should consider investing in video marketing. There are different types of video marketing that a brand can use, and each serves a different purpose. If a B2B brand aims to showcase its company culture and show its uniqueness, it should create corporate videos. Corporate videos can be shared on business social media accounts, the business’ website, or even over email campaigns. If a B2B brand aims to gain local support, it should invest in TV or radio commercials. If a B2B brand aims to showcase its product or services offered, it should create collateral videos. Collateral videos can be effective when being available on the business’ website, being shared via email campaigns, and even when being a part of sales pitches. One of the most popular video marketing forms now is animated videos. Animated videos are useful to explain complex products or services without boring the target audience.
Intentional Content Marketing
When B2B brands practice content marketing, it is important to make sure the focus of the content is geared towards the customers. By doing this, their target audience will be able to find the solution that suits their needs and wants. This form of B2B marketing should be implemented in all spheres of the brand. The content on the brand’s website should be geared towards the target audience by mirroring their voice and offering products or services that piques their interest. The content and ads on the brand’s social media accounts should serve the same purpose to ensure high engagement across social media.
Improving the customer experience
Enhancing the customer experience improves customer retention and makes it more likely to make sales. There is a range of ways to improve customer experience:
- Determine the reason customers leave the business’ digital platforms
By determining why customers leave a business’ digital platforms, marketers would be able to fix these issues and increase engagement and retention. Customers may leave a platform due to engaging with irrelevant content, content not optimised for a mobile device, a lack of calls to action, and slow loading speed on a website. - Invest in a chatbot
Although many websites are equipped with chatbot’s, some are more advanced than others. Chatbot’s offers users navigation assistance, immediate answers to questions and queries, as well as fast payment options. To ensure an enhanced customer experience, the chatbot a brand uses has to be updated to keep up with the competition.
B2B marketing trends are sure to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of society, but the customer needs to be the focus at all times. By ensuring that the B2B marketing is geared to the customer’s needs and wants, B2B marketers are sure to reach success.