The marketing landscape is constantly changing and B2B marketers need to make sure they are evolving and adapting along with it. In 2020, B2B marketers will experience new strategies emerging and old trends evolving. Innovations like artificial intelligence and machine learning are already changing the way buyers and prospective customers interact with brands online. With so many channels and streams to choose from, finding the perfect marketing strategy can be a difficult challenge, and nowadays one strategy just isn’t enough anymore. Your business needs to be able to stay agile and work with a mix of tools and strategies that will improve your audience’s buying experience. Staying on top of the most influential B2B marketing topics will help you refine your strategies and B2B marketing goals when the marketing landscape does shift. Here are the most influential B2B marketing topics for 2019.
Content Marketing
78 percent of B2B companies surveyed claimed they use content marketing currently according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2019 trends report, Marketers with a well-documented content marketing strategy are more likely to be successful. In fact, top performers stated that the key benefits of such attention to detail are that they make more effective choices in content development and a keener alignment around common goals. In addition to white papers, blogs, articles and other written online messaging, effective content strategies include visual media like as videos, podcasts, and infographics.
Email Marketing
While B2B marketers have been utilizing direct email marketing since the internet began, that doesn’t mean email marketing is an antiquated tool. When combined with exceptional content, email marketing automation can drive your audience’s engagement. Over the years, email marketing strategies and the technology backing them has changed considerably, but email is still one of the best ways for your company to connect with leads, existing customers, and prospective clients. The best email marketing platforms use powerful tools to target audiences, producing uber-personalized messages programmatically.
Chatbots
According to Business Insider, 80 percent of businesses surveyed stated they are already using or plan to use chatbots by 2020. Why? When your customers want support or questions answered, they don’t want to hear that your office is closed until tomorrow. It’s frustrating for the customer and harms your relationship with new and returning clients who will look for answers from your competitors. In these scenarios, an intelligent chatbot can come to the rescue.
Unlike humans, chatbots are able to answer frequently asked questions about common issues almost immediately, saving more costly human resources for dealing with more complex customer interactions. Chatbots can also harvest new leads and deliver them to your sales team. As an inbound marketing tool, a chatbot can engage your audience after they have viewed your content.
Social Media
Social media platforms continue to be an effective way to spread your brand messaging. From Twitter to Facebook, LinkedIn to Youtube, social media allows B2B brands to center around human interactions. In real-life communication is often stymied by the realities of business. It may be difficult to communicate with important leads if they’re always in meetings, but social media is an alternate method for buyers and sellers to relax, connect, and discuss topics that drive value for both. This is good news for B2B marketers, who can now write content that speaks directly to their target audience instead of keyword-bloated snips and ads.
It’s important to stay abreast of the latest in B2B marketing topics – as you can see, a lot of these B2B marketing channels are now maximized when they are used alongside other strategies. Try mixing and matching a few of these crucial marketing strategies to meet your B2B marketing goals.
