The Top B2B Marketing Trends to Prioritize

The Top B2B Marketing Trends to Prioritize

B2B marketing is undergoing seismic transformations. With a focus on attracting and engaging a better target audience, tactics, tools, and strategies are evolving that underscore the need for better data, better customer experience, and better marketing attribution. The catalyst behind these evolutions is the realization that the line between B2B and B2C marketing has blurred; campaigns must be humanized to target people, not organizations. Several B2B marketing trends have emerged that center around those three core needs: data, customer experience, and attribution. Continue reading to learn more.

50% of B2B customers are searching for and reviewing products on their mobile devices. How it works: MASTERING MOBILE MARKETING Business gets done on the go, and reaching today s decisionmakers means designing campaigns and high-impact content that renders seamlessly on multiple mobile devices and platforms. For many B2B companies, it also means app development to drive engagement and enhance the buying journey. According to the U.S. Mobile App Report, consumers spend 52% of their mobile time using apps, and Localytics discovered that over 50% of app users elect to receive push notifications on their smartphones. Why it works: According to a study reported at CMO.com, mobile B2B traffic will outpace mobile B2C traffic in the coming years. Currently, over 50% of B2B customers are searching for and reviewing products on their mobile devices. Further, a study by Acquity Group on procurement showed that 35% of respondents made a B2B purchase on a mobile device in 2014. * marketing technology reviews on Industry Index

52% of all B2B businesses incorporate mobile sales. Increasingly, mobile is the future of B2B marketing. According to a recent survey, about 52% of all B2B businesses incorporate mobile sales, and 75% plan to use it by the end of 2015. In addition, 42% plan to increase their mobile marketing budgets this year. Responsive web design, mobile email marketing campaigns, and mobile app development are logical starting points in a mobile marketing strategy, followed by integrating CRM and marketing automation software with mobile for better data collection and analytics. Contextual awareness is also essential in mobile marketing; today s B2B decision-makers use more than one device. Marketers need insight into which devices their audience members are using for which activities along their path to purchase in order to identify pain points in the cross-screen experience.

How it works: Marketing execs leverage big data and analytics to better identify target audiences and respond in real-time with personalized content that addresses their specific needs. According to Tim Asimos of Circle S Studio, We will see a push for more comprehensive and meaningful personas, leading to more micro targeted marketing activities with an eye to increased relevancy and effectiveness. ENHANCING MICROTARGETING & PERSONALIZATION Why it works: Microtargeting and personalization improves the customer experience by creating timely and relevant one-to-one interactions.

How it works: Marketing departments support digital campaigns with an interrelated stack of marketing technology tools to ensure a unified and consistent user experience across all marketing channels. CORRELATING DIGITAL STRATEGIES Why it works: Using a marketing technology portfolio enhances brand awareness, drives engagement, and shortens the sales cycle by coordinating and optimizing campaign elements such as websites, landing pages, and paid amplification strategies.

TOP 4 SOCIAL NETWORKING PLATFORMS THAT B2B MARKETERS USE LinkedIn 91% Twitter 85% Facebook 81% YouTube 73%

How it works: Influencer marketing, at its core, means leveraging thought leaders and other individuals who exert influence over a company s target audience. Properly executed, influencer marketing helps C-suite executives and internal experts find a trustworthy voice that promotes the brand s or individual s thought leadership or trust factor. INVESTING IN INFLUENCER MARKETING Why it works: LinkedIn s ebook, The Sophisticated Marketer s Guide to Thought Leadership, states that influencer marketing leads to more inbound inquiries, increased close rates, shorter sales cycles, and increased customer loyalty. Prospects are much more likely to convert after being influenced by trusted sources.

60% of marketers with a documented content marketing strategy considered their strategy highly effective. How it works: Content marketing priorities will focus on crafting a documented strategy, evaluating ROI, incorporating video and infographics, integrating content marketing across all channels, and increasing resource allocation to content marketing strategies. FINE-TUNING & PRIORITIZING A DOCUMENTED CONTENT STRATEGY Why it works: According to the Content Marketing Institute s B2B Content Marketing Report, 60% of marketers with a documented content marketing strategy considered their strategy highly effective compared to only 32% who only had a verbal strategy. The study also indicated that only 21% felt that they were successful in tracking ROI; the vast majority planned to increase efforts in this area.

How it works: Marketers are moving beyond last-click or last-event attribution models and employing advanced attribution platforms that analyze data from marketing campaigns at a granular level to pinpoint the channels, cadences, assets, mediums, etc. that proved most effective. Why it works: Accurate and holistic attribution data gives marketers actionable insight into what drives conversions. This enables dynamic resource allocation to ensure the best ROI. INCREASING EFFORTS IN MARKETING ATTRIBUTION * Jebbit campaign funnel

How it works: Alison Murdock, VP of marketing at 6sense, a predictive intelligence tool, defines predictive intelligence like this: Unlike predictive lead scoring, which uses heuristics and static attributes to rank score existing leads, predictive intelligence taps into behavioral data from CRM and marketing automation and the much larger B2B web to identify buyers who are actually in market to buy specific products or solutions. EMBRACING PREDICTIVE INTELLIGENCE Why it works: Predictive intelligence delivers a higher quality lead, shortens the nurturing process and buying cycle, and promotes a more personalized experience by allowing marketers to deliver the right message to the right buyer at the right time.

BENEFITS OF INCORPORATING THESE TOP TRENDS These marketing trends share similar goals: increasing awareness and engagement, improving the customer experience, developing more detailed buyer persona to focus sales and marketing efforts, and shortening the lead nurturing/buying cycle. Many companies have successfully embraced these trends to help them reach their marketing objectives.

Dell s enterprise division targets CIOs and CTOs of large IT organizations to market and sell hardware and software security solutions. Traditional content marketing tactics were becoming less effective, and Dell needed a way to attract these high profile buyers with the goal of driving conversions through white paper and content downloads. Dell decided to take this rather mundane experience of simply asking potential leads to download a whitepaper and make it more interactive. Dell used Jebbit s Content Quiz campaign to instead challenge it s audience to take a quiz that unlocked the white paper by answering a few questions about information security. This resonated much better with its audience, increasing the time they spent on the site by 5.2 times and increasing the volume of leads by 3.4 times.

Not every trend is right for every business; some, like clearly articulating and documenting your content marketing strategy, applies to businesses of all sizes and should be a priority. HOW TO KNOW WHICH TREND IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS Investing in mobile marketing is another scalable trend that applies to every business. While B2B marketers tend to think that mobile is the domain of B2C, the increasingly mobile behavior of B2B customers proves otherwise. Larger businesses can implement a fully integrated mobile marketing strategy while smaller ones can focus on optimizing a mobile website, designing content specifically for mobile, and adding mobile social plugins and mobile apps. While a smaller company may not look at app development specifically, it can consider its presence within other mobile apps, specifically social apps like LinkedIn.

B2B companies that market to IT Users and CIOs especially can t afford to overlook a mobile strategy. The 2014 IDG Enterprise Customer Engagement Survey revealed that 62% of IT decision-makers would be less likely to do business with a company following a poor mobile experience, and 54% said a poor mobile experience would negatively impact their opinion of the brand. The keys to identifying which trends work for your business include evaluating your marketing resources and department bandwidth, and identifying your target audience. Large companies have access to elite enterprise-level marketing solutions that easily integrate top marketing trends such as predictive analysis and microtargeting. Smaller companies may find scalable SaaS platforms that enable a more comprehensive content marketing strategy to exploit emerging trends in that channel. Knowing which marketing trends drive success for your business also includes understanding where your target audience lives. Businesses targeting CIOs require a different approach than those targeting CMOs or CEOs, for example. CIOs download an average of seven assets throughout the purchase process (eight for enterprise companies versus six for SMBs), and rely heavily on product reviews/expert opinions, case studies, and social media in their buying decisions. For CEOs, however, the number one driver in the final stages of the purchasing decision is professional network influencers, according to a study by IDC.

HOW YOU CAN IMPLEMENT THESE MARKETING TRENDS TODAY A common theme among these marketing trends is the importance of improving the overall customer experience through digital marketing. Enhancing microtargeting and personalization, mastering mobile marketing, integrating platforms and technologies across the entire purchasing journey, and fine-tuning your content marketing strategy all emphasize giving priority to the customer s experience. And each is underpinned by the need for better data quality that unifies sales and marketing information within the CRM.

A good first step in harnessing these marketing trends involves investing in technologies that enhance the customer experience. Post-Click Engagement platforms such as Jebbit optimize the experience once a customer interacts with your brand, leading to increased conversion rates and overall improvement in campaign performance and ROI. Microtargeting and personalization platforms improve the lead nurturing process and can lead to an overall bump of 19% in sales. Implementing a triggered, personalized email component may lead to a 25% increase in open rates and a 52% increase in click-throughs. Predictive analytics was previously available to only the largest corporations. Cloud-based B2B SaaS solutions now exist that comb a company s existing CRM and marketing automation platform, making it easy for any size organization to implement. Companies that use predictive analytics enjoy high double-digit increases in leads and sales.

Embracing these trends will help businesses improve lead generation, increase conversion rates, shorten the sales cycle, and lead to better return on investment. Overall, marketing execs should focus on scalable solutions that improve data collection and analytics, especially with an eye toward incorporating predictive intelligence in lead generation, microtargeting, personalization, and marketing attribution. CONCLUSION Focusing on technologies that improve the overall customer experience is another top B2B marketing trend; Post-Click Engagement platforms and enhanced content marketing strategies that deliver timely, relevant, and highly personalized content will be given priority. Influencer marketing will also gain prominence as B2Bs look to build market share. Finally, expect mobile marketing to command a larger portion of an organization s resources and attention as B2B users increasingly rely on mobile devices to help them in their purchase decisions.

Though many of the best practices outlined here can be applied to static landing page campaigns, there are certain advantages to creative and interactive landing pages that merit special attention. All of the examples used were powered by Jebbit to create an experience tailored to a specific audience and marketing objective. Reach out to us to learn how you can create these types of campaigns for your brand. LEARN MORE www.jebbit.com marketing@jebbit.com 617-514-0030