We’ve summarised the top five B2B marketing trends that will help shape your digital marketing strategy in 2019 and beyond. What trends will you be taking on this year to help grow your business and improve your impact?
1. Automation, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
When it comes to B2B marketing in 2019, everyone is talking about automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning as aways to drive your marketing efforts further; at DigitalParade, we’re no different.
While we realise automation isn’t the ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to your overall marketing strategy, there are still multiple benefits to hopping onto the bandwagon this year. Not only will it save you time and money by reducing the amount of labour that goes into driving your campaigns, it’s also more likely to put your advertising spend where it is most needed meaning it should be driving a stronger ROI if implemented correctly. What have you got to lose?
2. Personalisation
While personalisation is nothing new to digital marketing, in 2019 brands are really beginning to see its full potential blossom. The evolution of marketing technology in the past few years has meant that we can really drive personalisation as marketers and be a lot more segmented in our approach meaning a better experience for the customer.
Personalisation will be more than just hitting your customer with a tailored email campaign, it will take on a whole new level thanks to the data we’re collecting. We will be better informed about our targeting and with more insight into the behaviours of our core customers including the devices we can reach them on (and we’re talking cross-device here) right down to the landing pages we want to push individual users to.
3. Paid Promotion on Social
According to insights from HubSpot, 75% of B2B buyers use social media to support their purchase decision. While it’s essential to be publishing on social channels organically, we know how saturated they can be and how the algorithms mean it’s necessary to place a budget behind your posts to ensure you have a leading share of voice. Social is after all a ‘pay to play’ space now.
Paid social can have a MASSIVE impact on your marketing efforts and gives you a number of different tactical options to reach your core audience. Out with the basics of interest or demographic targeting, the big players like Facebook & Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to create custom audiences through your own data, find lookalike audiences based on that data and retarget users who have already invested time in visiting your website and potentially purchasing previously.
Ultimately, paid promotion on social media will help B2B businesses increase exposure, drive key traffic to their website, improve other digital marketing tactics such as SEO, can help you generate new and prosperous leads as well as nurturing existing customer relationships. An essential component in 2019 to sit amongst your digital media mix.
4. Podcasting
It’s no secret that podcasts are making a comeback this year. In the UK alone, nearly 6 million adults tune into podcasts on a weekly basis (Ofcom, 2018) and that’s only set to grow.
Podcasts are a great way to develop your content marketing strategy, taking people into a ‘newly accessible’ medium of communicating with engaged listeners. It’s a great way to build brand awareness and establish thought leadership within your industry.
You don’t have to create your own podcast either. Collaborating with successful podcast channels within your industry is a great way of expanding your audience reach while working alongside already respected, valued and established programmes. There’s also ample opportunity now across podcast outlets (Acast, Spotify, Soundcloud etc.) to advertise through airtime and display advertising.
5. Influencer Marketing
The core driver of influencer marketing in B2B is engaging figureheads within an industry or indeed niche groups of desired audience members to create advocacy around your products and services, validating that they are relevant and of value to invest in. The key to driving success through B2B influencer marketing boils down to generating the correct content based on initial groundwork of research into what is resonating in the market and matching that back to what you can offer.
To kick start your influencer marketing strategy, utilise your social platforms to connect with influencers and build up relationships. Invest in social tools that will help you establish just how authentic these influencers are and set KPIs on what you want to achieve from using influencers (social growth, website traffic, sales).
You might want to check out our other posts in this ‘measurement series’ for additional resources : Marketing Automation : Which Tool Is Right For Your Business? and Marketing Automation and Measurement - Making Informed Decisions
B2B expo 2019
On March 27th, at 1230, Theatre 18, our MD and Head of Strategy, David Simpson, will be presenting a lecture titled “DO NOTHING… unless you can measure it” in which he will touch upon the above as well as the recommended approach for marketers in 2019 to ensure they are getting biggest bang for buck in terms of spend and resource, to develop meaningful customer relationships and value.
DIGITALPARADE
DigitalParade will work with you to develop a creative platform and clear roadmap to deliver measurable success across your digital marketing mix.We specialise in using the latest technologies, within web and social app development, delivering bespoke solutions that not only look fantastic on desktop, mobile and tablet but also function seamlessly and aid the overarching strategy within your digital estate.
Learn more about how we can help you connect with your audience hello@digitalparade.com
