In the world of B2B marketing, strategies and tactics continue to evolve in response to changing customer demands. The six trends below are worth a closer look because they give insights into what strategies and tactics are currently being deployed effectively by B2B marketers today.
#1: Whitepapers remain the most effective form of B2B lead generation
B2B marketers were recently asked to rank the most effective forms of B2B lead generation, and whitepapers (recommended by 53% of the marketers) came in #1. On the surface, that might seem a bit surprising. After all, whitepapers are decidedly low tech. But the reason why they are so effective is because they are often laser-focused on particular industries or markets. They give an in-depth look at facts and figures for an industry that simply aren’t available anywhere else.
#2: LinkedIn is still the most popular social network
By some estimates, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their marketing strategy. But other social networks are rapidly catching up, with Facebook (used by 84% of marketers) and Twitter (used by 87% of marketers) right behind.
#3: Your homepage only gets 10 seconds of attention
On average, people only spend 10 seconds on your homepage before leaving if they don’t find something immediately relevant to convince them to stay. So you have a very limited window of opportunity to convince people to stay. Give your homepage the 10-second test to see if you’re really optimizing this valuable piece of internet real estate.
#4: Google search ads are not as effective as you might think
At one time, SEO and search engine marketing were the only way to really win on the internet. That meant hiring teams of people to study Google keywords, develop ads and content based around those keywords and hope that your company somehow ended up on the first page of search results. But now, the latest studies show that 80% of people ignore Google-sponsored ads.
#5: There’s a direct correlation between blogging and sales leads
On average, companies that blog generate 67% more sales leads per month than companies that don’t. That’s why many companies embrace blogging as part of their inbound marketing strategy. Think of a blog as a “magnet” that attracts people to your website, without having to go to all the expense of running Google paid ads (see #4 above).
#6: Content marketing needs a strategy to be effective
61% of the most effective B2B content marketers meet with their content team at least once a week (and sometimes daily) to come up with new content ideas. The big concept here is that content marketing needs to be part of a bigger strategy. And that strategy requires weekly check-ins and other measures to make sure that everything is flowing smoothly.
So, putting all this together, it’s possible to see a few big trends emerge, such as the growing dominance of social media over traditional search and the ongoing attempt to find content that will resonate with prospects and customers. In many ways, it feels like someone is always moving the goalposts, but that’s part of the challenge of developing a truly effective B2B marketing strategy.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.