B2B Marketing Trends to Follow in 2024 for Maximum Impact
The B2B marketplace is constantly evolving. For marketers, staying ahead of the latest trends is essential for attracting prospects and driving conversions. Here are 5 B2B marketing trends to follow in 2023 for successful customer acquisition and revenue growth.
Key Takeaways
Create more educational thought leadership content
Implement targeted account-based marketing
Incorporate interactive content formats
Improve sales and marketing alignment
Continuously optimize content for maximum impact
1. Thought leadership
First, prioritize thought leadership and education. B2B buyers value insights and knowledge to inform their decisions. Develop premium content like whitepapers, ebooks, and blog posts that provide actionable advice. Position your company as an authoritative expert via thought leadership content. Useful education establishes trust and credibility.
2. Account-based marketing
Next, optimize your usage of account-based marketing (ABM). With ABM, you target individual high-value accounts versus reaching a broad audience. Research shows 75% of B2B organizations now use ABM. Tailor messaging and campaigns for targeted accounts. Take an omnichannel approach across platforms where buyers engage, including email, social media, events and ads.
3. Interactive content
Additionally, implement more interactive content formats. Plain text and static content have limitations. Incorporate podcasts, videos, quizzes, calculators, and other interactive tools. These formats boost engagement, convey more information, and collect data for customizing sales approaches. Create content around specific buyer pain points for maximum impact.
4. Sales and marketing collaboration
Furthermore, align sales and marketing with shared SLA’s. Improved alignment between sales and marketing teams can increase revenue by 20%, research by Aberdeen Group indicates. Establish clear SLAs for content development, lead qualification and handoff, and campaign execution. Bridge the divide between teams to enhance efficiencies.
5. Continual optimization.
Finally, continually optimize content. Use SEO and analytics for better visibility and performance. Identify underperforming content and make improvements or replacements. Refresh old performing posts with new information. Content optimization gives you an edge against the competition in capturing buyer attention.
In 2023, B2B marketing success requires embracing new trends like thought leadership content, ABM, interactive formats, sales and marketing collaboration, and continual optimization. Following these trends can propel your B2B marketing to new heights.
Tips
- Test innovative new content formats like interactive quizzes, data-driven charts, mixed media and more.
B2B Marketing Budgets and MarTech Adoption Continue Steady Climb
Globally, budgets and adoption of marketing technology for B2B organizations show no signs of slowing down headed into 2023. According to Gartner experts, B2B marketing budgets are projected to increase by 6.4% on average in 2023. This follows estimated growth of 5.1% for 2022, indicating continued momentum. Higher budgets enable investment in marketing staff, tools, and campaign execution.
Marketing technology
Additionally, spending on marketing technology is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10% through 2025, reaching about $700 billion worldwide according to Statista research. Top use cases include marketing analytics, content management, and CRM tools. As B2B marketing strategies become increasingly targeted and tech-driven, MarTech budgets arise.
This trend is further evidenced by 60% of B2B marketers reporting they will increase MarTech spending in 2023, per a Spiceworks Ziff Davis survey. Key drivers include improving campaign measurement, lead management, and sales enablement. The most in-demand tools relate to digital ads, email, and account-based marketing platforms.
Global B2B marketing shows no signs of downward budget or MarTech spending trends amid continually evolving tactics and need for precision. If anything, growth is likely to accelerate further through benefits of technology integration and digitization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: What types of content do B2B buyers find most valuable?
A: B2B buyers find in-depth educational content like whitepapers, ebooks, infographics, and case studies most valuable. They also appreciate blog posts, video tutorials, podcasts, and other formats delivering insights.
Q2: How can I get started with account-based marketing?
A: Begin by researching and selecting target accounts that fit your ideal customer profile. Build detailed buyer personas and customize campaigns and content to align with their needs. Use omnichannel outreach and track engagement across channels.
Q3: What metrics should I track for B2B content?
A: Important metrics include total content views, engagement rate, conversion rate, social shares, and links earned. Use analytics to see which content and formats perform best. These insights inform future content strategy.
Q4: How often should I refresh existing content?
A: Aim to refresh or update high-value evergreen content at least once or twice per year. This ensures information stays relevant. Insert new statistics, examples, trends or other details to give existing content more longevity.
Q5: What sales information should marketing have access to?
A: Marketing should have access to customer funnel stages, closed deal data, and any objections arising during the sales process. These insights help improve lead quality and messaging.
References:
https://www.infosys.com/about/knowledge-institute/insights/Documents/future-customer-engagement.pdf
https://archive.org/details/ecommerceformula00plan/page/26
https://www.statista.com/statistics/259782/digital-marketing-spending-worldwide/
https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/reports/b2b-marketing-trends/
https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/account-based-marketing
https://www.i-scoop.eu/b2b-marketing-trends/
https://www.superoffice.com/blog/sales-and-marketing-alignment/
https://tractify.com/blog/benefits-of-updating-old-blog-posts
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