Stay Competitive With This Years’ Top B2B Marketing Trends

Change is the only constant you can count on with digital marketing. Each year brings new fads, technological advancements, and paths forward for businesses to win new clients. 2018 will be no different, which is why we’re digging deep into some of this year’s B2B marketing trends.

Before we start, I want to clarify something.

These ideas I’m putting in front of you aren’t fly-by-night schemes that will be here one day on gone the next. These trends are factual, proven methods that can help lay a foundation for years to come as new patterns emerge.

Now, let’s take a look at the three most significant B2B marketing trends for 2018.

1. Better Automated Nurturing

Imagine sending a single email to the hundreds of email addresses on your marketing list manually. You may not have to imagine very hard if you’ve done it before!

It would take hours!

Marketers have been pushing the boundaries of automation technologies for years to help alleviate the burden of some of the more repetitive tasks. Instead of taking half a day to send one email, you can create an entire string of emails in that same amount of time.

Whether you’re scheduling social media posts, setting up a CRM, or creating automated emails to nurture leads, automation in marketing will only increase in the coming years. Laying the groundwork now is the wisest path.

2. Content Marketing

Content is in some ways as old-school you can get with marketing, but that’s the enduring beauty of it making our trends of 2018. It’s one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach future clients.

Customer journeys are longer and more filled with decisions, especially in B2B arenas where your potential clients have numerous options. Content marketing allows you to acquire and nurture leads through your sales funnel like no other technique.

Although 9 in 10 businesses use content marketing to attract clients, very few have a documented strategy. Consequently, most B2B content fails to produce visible results. The correlation is clear – successful content relies on a documented strategy and effectively enacted tactics.

Make sure you’re tracking your KPI’s.

To deepen the issue, there have been questions about whether we’ve reached “peak content,” and whether the trend of content is going to last.

The short answer is: It’s going to last.

The long answer is that the right type of content – specifically thought leadership – is a proven method that can provide valuable insights to your audience and be an essential tool in your Buyer’s Journey. This means staying away from self-promotion and sales and focusing on ways to connect and educate. Emphasize high caliber content that makes you stand out from the crowd instead of just churning out lots of material this year.

3. Change the (Social) Channel

When it comes to B2B marketing trends and Social Media, Twitter is king, right?

Fasten your seatbelts, because what I’m about to say may surprise you.

If you have to pick between Twitter and LinkedIn, you should go with LinkedIn this year.

Why?

Twitter has been unable to grow its user base in 2017, while LinkedIn is on the rise. The reason boils down to platform improvements.

LinkedIn has long been seen as little more than a digital resume, but it’s actually received a bit of a facelift in recent months that brought many improvements to bear. The user experience has improved, InMail is more natural to track and analyze, and there are more opportunities for B2B marketing to yield results. Connecting with prospects leads to sales, and LinkedIn is evolving toward that trend.

If you haven’t spent some time on LinkedIn with your marketing, you’re already at risk of dropping behind your competition.

2018 is set to be another landmark year for technological advances and marketing innovations. If you’re looking for a way to catch up – or stay ahead of the competition, I highly recommend checking out our Ultimate Marketing Checklist below! It has everything you need to refine your digital presence and start capitalizing on these B2B marketing trends.