As your business contemplates a new year, remember that forecasts can help you to thrive and meet the demands of your customers. Whether in life or business, forecasts identify the rising trends your field has to watch out for and know what to prepare for in the coming year. To better anticipate marketing budget allocations, as well as team efforts for 2021, trending B2B concepts and strategies, are key.
Trends taking the market by storm
Following are six marketing trends that focus on B2B power in order to generate more leads for your business and boost your revenue potential in 2021.
Omnichannel Marketing
In this modern age, consumers no longer browse through a single channel for brands. Instead, omnichannel marketing addresses the need to consistently transition from one channel to another. By giving customers a consistent and unified experience—whether it’s through brand personality, customer service, or providing information—potential leads are more likely to convert to sales.
In essence, omnichannel marketing is being able to reach customers from different platforms, all while maintaining an integrated experience. Businesses that employ omnichannel marketing retain their customers at a higher percentage rate compared to their peers. The unwavering interaction through the brand’s website, social media platforms, or email amplifies B2B and B2C experience.
For instance, e-commerce brands that fuse together all digital touchpoints customers engage in like social media, mobile apps, and websites into shoppable touchpoints can return astounding financial results. With traditional street-side businesses that offer customers face-to-face products and services, utilizing a consistent offline and online shopping experience with in-store pickup or delivery contributes to a stronger brand image. Hence, omnichannel marketing presents a greater success for the operation.
Virtual Events
With no clear timeline as to when social interaction and hosting in-person events will be back to “normal” due to the pandemic crisis, welcoming virtual events is the new marketing solution. As of this year, almost 50% of B2B marketers have been organizing virtual events, which will only continue to rise in 2021. The access to advanced technology means there’s no reason promotional launches of new products, celebrating partnerships, or brand exhibits have to be canceled altogether.
Plan the way you would a face-to-face event when coming up with a topic, theme, program, and giveaway. However, this time, deciding on the right virtual event platform instead of location needs to be the focus. The challenge of keeping your audience engaged during the event must be addressed to avoid the many stimuli and distractions found at home. You could plan and brainstorm compelling ways to keep the event engaging no matter where users are tuning in from.
The key is to stick to the basics of indicating promotional plans, inviting relevant speakers, and those who inspire. The additional effort of increasing interaction by addressing participants, using smartphones to explore online exhibits, or optimizing the group chat box is a great method to use. After all, throwing a successful virtual event can effectively relay the same information as in-person events would have before the pandemic struck.
Native Video Advertising
As a B2B marketer, leveraging your native advertising is a powerful move to make, especially when a large proportion of sales are happening online. That’s because native and organic ads are a seamless part of the online user experience, providing brand exposure and information without disrupting and annoying the user. Native video advertising harnesses the inherent popularity of video in homegrown ad placements on high-quality publisher sites, where they are much more likely to engage and delight the audience.
Furthermore, existing marketing videos can be promoted in a local manner very easily. It’s just a matter of uploading your current videos to a native advertising platform and focusing your targeting on the most relevant audiences for the video message. Native video has been shown to achieve impressive view rates and completion rates, much better than those of social media or YouTube, which means that native video is definitely a strategy to try for B2B marketing in 2021.
Podcast Marketing
Podcast listeners have increased tremendously during the pandemic and will only continue to get higher post-pandemic 2021. Leveraging on this marketing trend is ideal for making an impression across your target audience. There are several podcast marketing game plans to utilize in order to get your campaign recognized, whether you want to advertise on an existing podcast or create one of your own.
Whether it’s through embedding your brand’s content through casual mention, having guest collaboration, or distributing episodes through multiple platforms, listeners effortlessly learn more about your products and services. It’s a good idea to come up with a podcast name with the number one keyword you wish to be known for, then creating content around those themes.
Besides, repurposing marketing content from existing material can even be an added benefit for starting a podcast, so maximize content used in your podcast episode into infographics, blog posts, or a Youtube video.
Augmented and Virtual Reality
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are a hit and making a mark with digital advertising and marketing at a rapid pace. Investing in development tools enables your brand to provide an immersive experience to customers and other businesses, especially with the GenX and millennial populations. An ideal way to support the B2B buyer’s journey before making a commitment is harnessing an AR and VR tour.
By showcasing the use of a product, providing opportunities for B2B or B2C to experience your products is one step above regular promotion tactics. It’s known that the most creative companies are using AR and VR to compensate for the effects of COVID-19. It’s anybody’s guess when the pandemic will end, and certainly, people will be wary to go back to their regular routines so soon. Thus, brands are now getting creative using AR and VR to give customers experiences that mimic in-store experiences from home, creating engaging games that delight customers, and more.
Influencer Marketing
In the past year, digital marketers practiced influencer marketing plans of action and for 2021, the practice is only here to stay. Partnerships with influencers who have gigantic followings is a powerful strategy to leverage on. Consumers trust an individual’s opinions who have already worked to build their brand.
And in a B2C environment, influencer marketing yields a high return on investment (ROI) that shows a thriving overall bottom line. In terms of the B2B influencer campaigns, consumers base their buying decisions on the level of connection and impact the influencers have on their lives. As customers engage with influencers who have similar niches and interests as them, building on the right partnerships can bring the right amount of exposure, leads, and revenue to your brand. It’s a complete win-win.
All Marketing Trends In a Nutshell
As the B2B digital marketing trends to watch for in 2021 are sure to accelerate, it’s time to put your knowledge into action. Not only will it help you prepare budget allocations more effectively, but it will also point you in the right direction to create a more engaging customer experience and convert more leads.
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