Hey there, fellow marketers! Remember the days when B2B marketing was all about manual sweat and grind? Well, hold onto your hats because the marketing world just did a complete 360-degree spin!
We're diving headfirst into a digital era where automation tools and digital strategies are turbocharging business processes.
B2B marketing didn't just stop at digital transformation. In fact, there’s been constant marketing evolution in recent years.
Curious?
Well then, join us as we uncover the 10 mind-boggling ways B2B marketing has shape-shifted over time!
A lot has changed in B2B marketing within a decade. In fact, for marketers like yourself, staying relevant is more vital than ever before!
A leading expert with a close experience in B2B marketing changes, David Reid, Sales Director at VEM Tooling, says -
"Having navigated the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, I've witnessed significant shifts in recent years. Personalization has become a cornerstone, tailoring messages and solutions to specific client needs. Technology plays a pivotal role, enabling data-driven insights that refine targeting and engagement strategies.
Content has transformed into a strategic tool, focusing on value-driven education rather than overt promotion. The rise of digital platforms, social media, and influencer partnerships has widened our reach, fostering authentic connections. Customer experience is paramount, with seamless interactions and prompt responses becoming non-negotiable.
Account-based marketing has gained prominence, concentrating efforts on high-value prospects. Collaboration between sales and marketing has intensified, aligning goals and ensuring a unified approach."
So, let us walk you through an elaborated version of what David Reid explained above.
Whether it's B2C or B2B, customers' buying behavior tends to evolve. It is a side effect of digital advancements.
Thus, marketers drew more towards understanding their buyer behavior over the years.
Let's see how B2B marketers adapt and deal with evolving B2B buyer behaviors:
One of the examples is Pernod Ricard, a B2B E-Commerce company that led the #EngageResponsibly campaign. It was against hate speech and the spreading of misinformation on social media platforms.
Though the internet came decades ago, marketing via digital platforms only saw a boost in recent years. In fact, marketers are spending over $375 billion on digital advertising. Some of the channels that gained popularity among global B2B marketers are:
One reason to adopt these channels is to capture prospects' insights through the AI tracking abilities these channels allow.
In fact, these digital channels help track every click, every view, and every search done by your prospects. Thus, it gives birth to the phenomenon of hyper-personalization.
The Founder and CEO of Bounce, Cody Candee, explains this phenomenon like-
"Over the past few years, B2B lead generation was focused on general personalization but over the last few years, with the introduction of AI technology, it has now moved into hyper-personalization. Traditionally, personalization methods were limited to information gathered from basic search engine queries.
Through the use of AI technology, marketers and small business owners can acquire data from social media engagement, business website queries, chatbot interaction, and even live help and then segment that data into an actionable format. From this information, businesses create individual profiles that can be turned into a required hyper-personalized campaign that touches directly on each individual B2B client's pain points and needs."
B2B marketing today comprises measuring the campaign's effectiveness and optimizing it as per the result. Over the years, various data analytics technologies emerged to enhance target marketing. You may already know many of them, such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Salesforce.
These tools analyze website traffic, lead generation, and sales data in real-time!
Mainly, these tools provide information on the following:
Previously, the sales and marketing departments’ roles used to be different. But now, these two areas collaborate very closely to achieve the defined target.
However, such close collaboration between Sales & Marketing is only possible with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems adoption in B2B.
In fact, many leading marketers like yourself use CRM to maintain a centralized customer/prospect database.
Thus, sales and marketing teams can share and identify qualified prospects that fulfill similar criteria.
For instance, your sales team can provide feedback on which industry they have the highest conversions in. And your marketing department can create customized plans accordingly.
Unlike before, automation is key to streamlining operations in the current B2B space. The use of automated solutions for the following is in trend:
You can find many of your competitors using automated technologies to deliver customized messages to their ideal clients. It saves time and reduces human labor. Moreover, it helps manage:
Among many other B2B marketing tactics, we saw a growth in Account-Based Marketing (ABM). This marketing tactic commonly helps concentrate on specific high-value clients. Further, it helps tailor marketing tactics to meet those clients' requirements.
ABM is nothing but a thorough analysis of suitable accounts, followed by personalized messaging creation. An effective ABM strategy provides:
The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, or what we can call it Covid-effect is unavoidable for both B2B and B2C marketing. As a marketer, we’re sure you can feel the drastic reduction in the social meetings with your clients. Moreover, 70-80% of B2B decision makers want digital-self service or remote brand interaction.
Here's what a Forbes 30 under 30 Entrepreneur, and founder of Rephrase Matthew Ramirez, says about B2B evolution-
"Industries that were once reliant on traditional, in-person sales approaches, such as IT and insurance companies, have been compelled to adapt and embrace the realm of digital marketing in order to effectively connect with their desired clientele. This transformative shift has brought about a profound change in how businesses engage with their target audiences. Conventional marketing strategies, including billboards and door-to-door sales, have noticeably declined in prevalence, making way for the ascendance of social media and digital platforms as the preferred channels for reaching and engaging with target markets."
Thus, marketing approaches in 2023 look way different from 2019. Instead of social events, there is more inclination towards virtual meet and greets. B2B sales interactions are happening through virtual events by using some of the tools like Zoom, Teams, etc.
Nowadays, you can notice a reviewed interest in Dark Social marketing in the B2B sector. Dark Social refers to social sharing through private channels, such as:
These channels are not easily trackable by traditional web analytics tools. Marketers may use:
-to estimate dark social traffic.
But, in comparison, dark social marketing is often more organic and authentic than content shared on public platforms. As such, people share the content because they genuinely find value in it. They don’t do it to project a certain brand image or gain social approval.
Interestingly, more than 70% of all business social shares are dark. Through this tactic, you’ll see marketers like yourself sharing and discussing information without the public scrutiny of social media platforms. Thus, it fosters a sense of intimacy between the customer and the brand.
Product-led Growth (PLG) B2B marketing has risen, mainly in SaaS customer acquisition strategy. Hence, instead of sales pitches, products have become the primary drivers of the following:
PLG creates a seamless and user-centric product experience. It empowers users to experience the value of the product directly. As a result, it encourages self-adoption and viral referrals of the product. One of the most famous examples is ChatGPT.
PLG has the potential to stay longer in the B2B marketing space as it:
Besides PLG, Solution-led Growth (SLG) has also gained popularity. It is a strategy that involves:
SLG goes beyond a single product and offers a holistic marketing approach. It consists of interconnected products/services to meet diverse customers’ needs.
With this strategy, B2B marketing opens doors to provide end-to-end solutions. SLG aims to achieve the following:
Here we concluded the 10 ways B2B marketing changed over the years. Now, let us move ahead to see current B2B marketing trends.
Knowing the changes or updates in B2B digital marketing is not enough; you must also understand trends. So, here are some of the current trends in B2B marketing that you should be aware of:
LinkedIn mainly serves businesses and professionals. Over 98% of marketers use LinkedIn to grow their leads. Its capacity to target particular audiences makes it a popular platform for B2B marketing. Several advantages of using LinkedIn for B2B marketing include:
Content distribution marketing attracts and engages potential customers with valuable content sharing. 73% of B2B marketers use content marketing. Thus, the competition is only growing higher. Some benefits of B2B content marketing are:
Influencer marketing entails collaborating with people with a sizable following on social media or other platforms to advertise your product or service. It raises brand awareness in the best way possible. The following are some advantages of influencer marketing in B2B:
The recent growth of digital marketing directly influences B2B marketing’s increased spending on digital channels. Some of the popular channels include:
Some benefits of shifting marketing approaches to digital channels are:
You've probably noticed that strategic cold email marketing campaigns are rising in the B2B space. It focuses on creating personalized and compelling emails and sending them to prospects unaware of your brand. In fact, it’s a great tool to reach out to prospects and create meaningful connections that lead to conversions nowadays.
Some popular cold email elements are in trend:
We've delved into some pretty exciting shifts within the realm of B2B marketing. Now, here's a golden ticket – team up with the pros. Revnew is here to be your guiding light. We've got this all-in-one solution for your marketing goals. Our experts? Oh, they're like your marketing strategy's mentors.
We're not just about pretty words, though. We insist you go through our collection of client success stories. And, If you want to learn more, contact us here.