Neils Bohr, the Danish Nobel Laureate in Physics once stated, "It's hard to make predictions, especially about the future." This is especially true today given the very strange times we are living in. The year 2020 enforced the B2B marketers to have a mental shift in seeing marketing as a mindset for growth and not just as a tactic for customer acquisition.
Harvard Business Review rightly states "Covid-19 has changed the world of B2B sales. About 50% of B2B buyers are holding off on purchases. However, businesses that have been less hard-hit — namely in the technology, e-commerce and marketing sectors — can read that 50% statistic in reverse: Half of B2B buyers are not holding off on purchases, meaning deals in their markets are still moving forward.”
So if you think that your marketing plan of 2020 was a waste, think again! You can still repurpose your strategies and future-proof your plan for 2021 with below 3 additions:
Agile Marketing Built on Core Purpose
Imagine, you are a CFO. One marketer comes in with a plan to deliver 10,000 leads for the sales department. The other marketer comes in with a plan to increase brand awareness. Who do you think is going to get the money?
74% of B2B marketers set goals,
but only 3% achieve them.
Why?
In all likelihood, the performance marketer may win this battle by achieving the short-term sales activation. However, as per the B2BInstitute.Org, “the B2B marketers are beginning to realise that they have over-invested in lead generation tactics.” It’s time for organisations to invest in brand building and drive their content framework on why they exist and who they’re built to serve to navigate through unprecedented change.
As per the study conducted by Deloitte’s Global Marketing Trends 2021, it states ”Among 405 C-suite executives, 41% said that implementation of digital technologies and platforms that react more quickly to customer needs is of prime importance.” Agile marketing requires a single, unified organisational view of the customer and that view can only be achieved if the organisation knows its purpose.
Ultimately, it’s upon the CMO to help the C-suite articulate a vision and help strike a balance in budgeting between developing omni channel presence & brand building.
Empathy At The Core of Content Strategy
What’s more important – efficiency or empathetic human experience? Moving fast and striving for efficiency will always be important for businesses, but in times of crisis, what is unchanging are people’s values.
67% of B2B content teams say
they mostly create top-of-funnel
type of content.
And according to Marketing Charts , 38% of customer read more than 5 pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson. It all comes down to content.
The in-person events & large-scale trade shows may not see the light of the day anytime sooner. Virtual experiences will have diminishing returns as technology can’t fully compensate for in-person interactions. Therefore, your core messaging will set the tone of your empathy and more humane outreach. B2B organisations will be required to view themselves as human entities that mirror—and support—the values of those they are built to serve. Every speed-to-market pivoting and efficiency will play to foster this human connection.
Embracing MarTech
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) & ‘Near Me’ Location Marketing are two big bets of 2021.
“Personalised Content (56%) and Advanced Data Management (43%) are key to ABM's success. Marketing and sales teams that take an ABM approach together are 6% more likely to exceed their revenue goals than teams that are less ABM-advanced.”
Many stakeholders are also performing ‘near me’ searches to find a B2B brand. They are using online channels such as Google, Baidu or Bing on various devices such as desktop, smartphone or even a navigation system. According to Google, 70% of all the searches in B2B are non-branded which gives us an idea of how important a good local presence is!
CMO’s would likely want to own the brand experience and shape it for the better. This means meeting stakeholders with a consistent, accurate and relevant messaging at all touch-points. There are three ‘near me’ phases which combine to form the B2B ‘Near Me’ Brand Experience: Search, Discovery and Reputation.
In conclusion, businesses who proactively plan for resilience and make investments as part of an offensive strategy, leverage the data and think about how you can help your customers — and ultimately their customers — will emerge from this pandemic in a position of strength.
Does your company need assistance with B2B Marketing Strategy? Speak with one of our marketing experts to find out how we can help.
