The year 2014 revolved around social media marketing, where the content ruled the kingdom (played the most important role in service advertising between businesses). But, what’s in store of B2B digital marketers in 2015?
B2B marketing, over the last few years, has practiced a seismic shift in both strategies and policies. The day-to-day evolution of B2B marketing is highly focused on better attracting and engaging target audiences. B2B marketing trends in 2015 will continue to underscore this shift.
Here are five marketing trends to give you a jumpstart on your big projects for the rest of this year and next.
Today, nearly 60% of the U.S population owns a smartphone. This proves that mobile world is becoming the first screen of choice for almost everyone, including the executives to check their email, surfing the internet, communicate, research, etc. The use of mobiles on the rise has made it natural that mobile environments will become significant when it comes to B2B marketing. The first step is having a responsive and fully functional mobile website – it’s no more optional.
Now, people interpret with your marketing strategies and efforts through a mobile lens which affects every facet of your business. Although, many B2B firms have great content, but they lack the tools and technology to deliver a mobile experience. Therefore, in 2015, brands will endeavor to create captivating and personalized digital experiences for their business users with mobile-optimized elements and dynamic content along with offline activities.
By now, business clients are well versed with what content marketing is all about and why they should be doing it. The fast forward B2B firms (86%) today use content marketing. According to the latest research from Content Marketing Institute, in 2015, the majority of B2B firms are expected to upsurge their content marketing budgets and content volume as well.
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It is thus needless to mention here that B2B firms will continue to trust content marketing as a cornerstone of their overall marketing strategy. The main point here is to upgrade the content marketing —evolving into a much more strategic, justifiable and measureable prospectus. Below are a few content marketing trends to look for in 2015:
- Documented content marketing strategy to be the top priority.
- Extra attention and priority given to ROI.
- Additional emphasis on the mobile experience for all content.
- Assigning more budget and resources to content marketing activities.
- Mixing of paid and owned media to boost distribution and consumption.
- Less focus on quantity, more focus on quality – well-written content
- Highest impact on visual content such as video, photos and web graphics
- Increased usage of SlideShare as a platform for content marketing.
Since the commencement, marketing and sales in almost every business, shares a combative association. But, due to the need of the hour, this is getting changed in 2015. To get the maximum value from the new buyers, close communication between marketing and sales teams is crucial in B2B.
According to SiriusDecisions, B2B organizations with tightly aligned marketing and sales achieves 24% faster revenue growth and 27% faster profit growth over a three-year period.
Organizations are now turning to marketing automation in order to provide an infrastructure to coordinate marketing and sales activities through increased communication, more transparency and measurement. In 2015, B2B firms are increasingly adopting ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their sales and marketing teams through better alignment where marketing automation plays a vital role.
Well said, “Old is Gold”. We learn from the past and we rely on the past. For all those who have ignored the traditional tactics of B2B Marketing, it’s time to revive them back; some of those traditional strategies are starting to make a comeback.
One of such tactics ready to make a comeback is the PRINT. Leveraging print in the right way, in an era of email deliverability challenges and digital overload, can actually help firms engage their audience uniquely. It not at all means using those old tri-fold brochures and sell-sheets from the past. The key is to find unique and different ways to leverage print so that it can actually provide a fantastic medium for longer-form content.
Additionally, companies need to adopt a more client-centric, well-formulated, education-oriented and ROI-driven approach to their trades and events.
It’s time to really get to know your clients! Micro-targeting is about drawing from data and analytics to better understand the target audience and responding in real – time with targeted messaging and content that is personalized to their specific needs. It aims at improving the client journey through more targeted 1-to-1 interactions which means much more individualized approach to your content and building relationships.
With more comprehensive and meaningful personalization, B2B Companies are heading towards more “micro” targeted marketing activities with an eye to increased relevancy. Dynamic content served up in emails and on certain sections of the website will also play a large role in increasing personalization.
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