The 8 Fascinating Trends Shaping Outbound Marketing in 2024

Are you tired of hit-or-miss efforts in securing business appointments and failing to convert leads into actual sales? 

When was the last time you checked your outbound marketing's relevance to today's trends? Every year, many marketing patterns change in the B2B space. And 2024 is no different!
So, you must make amends with time and the requirements of the moment to avoid falling behind. 

In fact, over 60% of marketers report traditional/un-updated outbound tactics fail to meet their objectives. So, your business must adopt outbound marketing tactics currently effective in your target market. 

In this guide, we'll walk you through the eight prevalent outreach trends in 2024 that you must know.

Top 8 Outbound Marketing Trends To Learn In 2024

Below is the list of outbound approaches consisting of old and new tactics. These are a combination of powerful techniques that'll help you gain prospects' attention this year:

1. Increase in the Use of AI Integration

In 2024, the use of AI in marketing is on the rise. It means you must become a forward-thinking marketer and leverage this technology. Check out these six ways to enhance your outbound approach with AI along with statistics:

• Create Custom Value Propositions: AI can analyze data collected through outbound sources, such as: 
  • Responses to your cold emails and cold calls
  • Clicks on your paid adverts
  • Interactions with your LinkedIn content and inMails
    
    -to improve your personalized value proposition tailored to individual ICPs. It increases relevance and engagement. 

• Generate Follow-up Emails from Sales Calls: AI can analyze conversation transcripts from your outbound sales or prospecting calls. Then, it can automatically generate personalized follow-up emails, ensuring consistency and saving time. 
• Respond to Objections: AI-powered chatbots can intelligently handle objections when your prospects visit your website as a response to your outreach efforts. They can anticipate particular prospects' concerns for your product by reading through their interactions with your outbound marketing content.
  Thus, they can provide immediate responses and enhance the customer experience.

• Analyze Competitors: AI algorithms can analyze competitor strategies and identify their strengths and weaknesses. You can use these insights to choose informed marketing tactics and positioning.
• Build Target Lists: This tech can sift through vast market data to identify and qualify leads that match your outbound marketing and sales criteria. Thus, it streamlines the process of building targeted prospect lists for you.
• Conduct Research: AI-powered tools help you gather and analyze market data, consumer trends, and competitor insights at scale. 

2. Inclusion of More Interactive LinkedIn Content 

You cannot ignore the increasing trend of using marketing content types your B2B buyers can actively interact with. These pieces of content are more fun than regular texts and engaging to your audience. 

Moreover, interactive formats offer an immersive brand experience to your prospects. They enhance your social media posts where your prospects can spend more than a minute. Such increased engagement in a single LinkedIn post is so essential. 

Why? 

It's because people have only an 8.25-second attention span on average. And it often makes conveying your messaging difficult.

So, enrich your LinkedIn cod outreach with interactive elements like:

• Video Content: Create compelling videos showcasing your products or services, delivering information dynamically and visually appealingly.

• Interactive Infographics: Turn data into an interactive visual feast, allowing prospects to explore information at their own pace.

• Quizzes and Polls: Encourage participation by integrating quizzes or polls into your LinkedIn feed, turning passive connections into active contributors. Utilize the interactive features of the platform to gather feedback and opinions.

• Live Q&A Sessions: Host live question and answer sessions to foster real-time engagement and address queries directly.

3. Emphasis on Social Selling 

This year, more focus will be on targeted posting rather than ordinary ones. And that is possible through social selling. 

The tactic requires you to actively listen to what your target audience says about your brand or niche product across social media. Then, share solutions or educational content accordingly. 

Several statistics show its proven benefits, such as  

Additionally, while social listening, you can:

• Identify key organizational stakeholders with whom it is essential to engage.
• Stay informed about the strategies and actions of your competitors.
• Keep abreast of industry trends and developments.
• Explore potential collaboration opportunities with other brands.

Thus, with this approach, you can leverage social media platforms to:

• Forge meaningful connections
• Understand prospects
• Nurture relationships

-throughout your prospects' buyer's journey. 

Now, let's see how to use social selling:

• Optimize Profiles: Craft a compelling and professional social media profile. Emphasize your expertise and the value you bring to your industry.
• Listen and Monitor: Track social channels to understand industry trends, engage in conversations, and identify potential prospects.
• Share Content: Share relevant and valuable resources that address your target audience's pain points and interests. Be a valuable source of information.
• Engage, Not Pitch: Initiate conversations with the intent to understand rather than sell. Engage in discussions, respond to comments, and build relationships organically.
• Personalize Outreach: Tailor your messages to the individual when reaching out. It showcases a genuine interest in their needs and challenges.

4. Focus on Influencer Collaboration

In 2024, brands will consider strategic partnerships with influencers as a pivotal force. It's because influencer marketing has evolved from a consumer-focused trend to a potent B2B strategy. 

78% of marketers suggest influencer marketing as an effective outreach strategy for boosting brand awareness.

Further, the expertise and credibility of your industrial influencers hold the sway to influence key decision-makers. The hallmarks of influencers are invaluable in the outbound B2B sphere. Here's what you can gain from strategic influencer collaboration:

• Extended Reach: When using an outbound approach, you spend your marketing efforts finding and reaching out to potential customers. But, influencer marketing can make the task much easier.
  
  You can leverage a relevant and reputable influencer’s established audiences to grow your brand's reach right away. They help you tap into your niche markets and get highlighted in front of valuable decision-makers.

• Credibility Boost: Showcase your brand name with renowned influencers in your industry to enhance your brand's credibility. Let the trusted figures endorse your message.

• Brand Humanization: Influencers bring a human touch to your brand, making it more relatable and fostering a connection with your target audience.

Now, let us see how you can go about this specific outreach trend:

• Identify Relevant Influencers: Choose influencers whose values align with your brand and whose audience matches your target demographic.
  Most significantly, ensure your chosen influencer has an established presence on all the outbound touchpoints you use. And if not, then ask them whether they are willing to be featured on those touchpoints. 

• Establish Clear Objectives: Define your goals for the collaboration, whether it's brand awareness, thought leadership, or lead generation.

• Ensure Authentic Engagement: Encourage influencers to engage authentically with your brand. Highlight their expertise and experience with your product in your cold email copy, direct mail, LinkedIn posts, etc. Also, ask them to share about the collaboration through their social posts and newsletter.
  Ensure their endorsement feels genuine and resonates with your audience.

• Produce Co-created Content: Work together with the influencer to brainstorm content ideas that align with both your brand messaging and their expertise. Be open to their suggestions and input. It allows influencers to share their unique perspective while integrating your brand message seamlessly.

• Measure and Modify: Implement robust metrics to measure the success of the collaboration. Use insights to optimize future influencer partnerships.

5. Boost in Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Practices 

In 2024, the trajectory of ABM is set to flourish as an essential outbound marketing trend. 97% of marketers say ABM can deliver a higher ROI than other marketing activities.

Hence, you should be ready to embrace this outreach method this year. 

First, let us see what factors are fueling the use of ABM practices at present: 

• Access to Personalized Outreach: ABM allows you to tailor your strategies to specific target accounts. Thus, it fosters a more personalized and relevant communication approach. 

• Assurance of Higher Conversion Rates: The marketing method focuses on a select group of high-value accounts. Thus, it often helps you yield higher conversion rates. Your messaging is finely tuned to resonate with those accounts' needs and pain points.

• Improvement in Customer Retention: ABM does not solely help you acquire new customers. It lets you effectively nurture and retain existing ones. Also, building solid and personalized relationships can contribute to long-term customer loyalty.

• Enhancement in Collaboration between Sales and Marketing: The tactic encourages alignment between your sales and marketing teams. Thus, you can establish a unified approach and better understand your target account needs.

So, let's share some tips for running an effective outbound outreach with ABM strategy:

• Use direct outreach to gather consumer research and insights useful to prioritize accounts. 
• Apply ABM strategy (1:1, 1 to few; or 1 to many) to deliver tailored content to key decision-makers within the target accounts based on the gathered data. 
• Use multiple outbound touchpoints to keep potential clients engaged throughout the buying cycle: 
  • Top-of-funnel (TOFU) activities: Build awareness by initiating contact with target accounts via cold email and cold calls.
  • Middle-of-funnel (MOFU) activities: Nurture stakeholders by delivering targeted content through follow-up emails, warm calls, LinkedIn, and direct mail outreach. Have one-on-one discussions at trade shows where target prospects are present.
  • Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) activities: Engage sales development reps (SDRs) to reach out to accounts to share live demos, schedule one-on-one meetings, and follow up on actionable engagements.

6. Preference Toward Sustainable Marketing

Today's B2B customers prefer purpose-driven brands. Let us look at some statistics: 

• 73% of B2B purchasers are willing to pay a premium for products or services from companies with a clear and compelling purpose.

• According to a Nielsen study, 81% of global consumers feel that companies should help improve the environment.

It means your brand must follow the principles of corporate social responsibility and environmental stewardship. Your sustainable marketing should aim to create value for the business, the community, and the planet.

So, how does it differ from regular marketing? 

Well, your sustainable outbound marketing will require you to promote products or services to minimize negative environmental and social impacts.

Now, let us share tips for performing sustainable outbound marketing:

• Communicate Transparently: Highlight your sustainability efforts and achievements. Transparency builds trust, and customers appreciate knowing the positive impact their choices can have.

• Ensure Product Lifecycle Awareness: Share your product's development process, updates, and eventual end-of-life. Inform your users about eco-friendly features. Also, show energy-efficient practices in your operations and manufacturing.

• Engage with Social Community: Participate in local group initiatives or support causes aligned with sustainability. It helps the community and enhances your brand's image as socially responsible.

• Share Purpose-based Educational Content: Create content that educates customers about your sustainable practices' environmental and social benefits. It raises awareness and positions your brand as a thought leader in sustainability.

7. Rise in Podcast Marketing

Did you notice the continued growth in podcast listenership? And what does it mean for your business? You guessed it right! Podcast marketing is the next trend to follow for your outbound outreach. 

Even statistics reveal a surge in audience engagement, as there's an 8.7% increase in listenership compared to last year. 

Up to 44% of C-suite executives actively listen to business podcasts. It makes using this method to reach your audience even more compelling. 

So, without much delay, let's explore essential tips to use this tactic to reach your target audience:

• Collaborate with Guest Experts: Invite experts and thought leaders as guests to share insights and discuss relevant topics. It adds credibility to your podcast and broadens your reach by tapping into your guests' networks.
  Encourage audience interaction through Q&A sessions, surveys, or live discussions. It creates a sense of community and allows you to address specific concerns or questions from your target B2B audience.

• Promote Across Platforms: Share your podcast episodes across various outbound platforms, such as:

• Guest Posts or Interviews:

• Collaborate with other podcasters in your niche for guest appearances or interviews.
• Promote your podcast episodes on their platforms, reaching a new audience interested in your topic.
• Provide value during the interview and offer listeners a reason to check out your podcast.

• Paid Advertising:

• Consider running targeted ads on social media platforms or podcast directories to promote specific episodes.
• Use compelling visuals, copy, and targeting options to reach your ideal audience.
• Monitor the performance of your ads and optimize based on engagement and conversion metrics.

• Social Connections:

• Create engaging posts on LinkedIn, and share the link through InMail or DM to target connections to promote your podcast episodes.
• Share teaser clips or quotes from the episode in LinkedIn groups where your target prospects interact with you.

Also, ask the guest speakers to share the podcast link in their posts. You can additionally use SEO-friendly titles and descriptions to enhance discoverability and attract a wider B2B audience.

• Analyze Performance: Track metrics such as listener demographics, engagement rates, and download numbers. It'll help refine your content strategy and better understand your B2B audience.

8. Amplification of Consumer Data Privacy Compliance

B2B consumers in 2024 will remain increasingly aware of their privacy rights. 94% of businesses revealed consumers won't partner with them if they don't protect their data adequately. 

Thus, ensure your outreach efforts adhere to stringent consumer privacy policies, such as:

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): It covers the processing of personal data of individuals within the European Union. Obtain explicit consent for data collection, inform users of data usage, and provide an option to opt-out.
• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act): It focuses on the privacy rights of California residents. Your company must:
  • Disclose data practices
  • Allow users to opt out of data sales. 
  • Refrain from discriminating against those who exercise their privacy rights.
• California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA): This act enhances and expands upon the CCPA. It introduces additional rights for your consumers, such as:
  • The right to limit the use of sensitive personal information.
  • Establishment of a dedicated enforcement agency.
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): It primarily focuses on restrictions regarding telemarketing calls. Yet, it includes provisions related to consumer privacy. The act requires you to obtain prior express written consent before making telemarketing calls or sending automated text messages to consumers. 

The TCPA also mandates maintaining a "Do Not Call" list and prohibits calls to numbers listed on it.

• Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR): The act sets rules for telemarketing, including restrictions on deceptive and abusive practices. It requires you to:
  • Disclose certain information during calls
  • Honor the National Do Not Call Registry
  • Adhere to specific calling time restrictions

Don't get overwhelmed!

Here are the ways you can maintain outbound marketing compliance:

• Perform Transparent Data Collection: Communicate the purpose and scope of data collection to consumers. 

• Run Regular Compliance Audits: Conduct periodic audits to ensure ongoing compliance with data privacy regulations. Stay informed about updates or changes in legislation that may impact your outbound marketing practices.

• Secure Data Storage: Implement robust security measures to safeguard collected data. Embed encryption and secure storage mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access and protect consumer information.

• Provide Opt-Out Mechanisms: All communications should offer easy-to-apply unsubscription options. Respect user preferences and promptly honor any requests to stop receiving marketing communications.

• Educate Marketing Teams: Train marketing teams on data privacy regulations and best practices. Ensure everyone involved in outbound marketing activities understands their role in maintaining compliance.

• Document User Consent: Keep detailed records of user consent for data collection and processing. Documentation is crucial in demonstrating compliance in the event of an audit.

• Assure Privacy by Design: Integrate privacy considerations into designing and developing marketing strategies, platforms, and campaigns. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of privacy breaches.

Conclusion

Get ready to thrive in 2024 by staying abreast of evolving outbound marketing trends. The above list gives you a good idea of how and where you should consider investing your resources this year and beyond. 

Partnering with a specialized outbound marketing agency like Revnew can streamline this process. Our experts are equipped to create trend-specific strategies while ensuring compliance with relevant regulations.

Take the next step towards enhancing your outbound campaigns by scheduling a discovery call with us. Fill out the form now, and let's discuss how we can elevate your marketing efforts in alignment with current trends and regulations.