The past year has brought many changes to the B2B marketing world. From AI revolutionising content creation, to video becoming the medium of choice for customer engagement, new trends have emerged while others have slowly been eclipsed.
As a full-service B2B marketing agency, The Marketing Pod has closely monitored these trends. And as the year went by, we’ve had plenty of opportunities to discuss them with our B2B clients, implement them in their campaigns, and evaluate their effectiveness.
So, with 2023 drawing to a close and the new year in sight, it’s time to take a look at the most effective strategies to maximise your B2B marketing ROI in 2024.
Key takeaways from 2023
Content: quality over quantity
The need for high-quality content has dominated the B2B marketing landscape in 2023, and will remain the cornerstone of effective campaigns in the year to come.
The keyword here is “high-quality”, meaning that merely producing volumes of content for SEO purposes will no longer be viable. B2B buyers have become increasingly demanding and discerning, and require tailored content that addresses their specific pain points.
At the same time, the continuous improvement in search engines algorithms means that stuffing content with keywords will no longer work. Search engines have become incredibly sophisticated in recognising content that genuinely addresses readers’ questions and search intents, while penalising content that has been solely written with SEO in mind.
The rise of short-form content
2023 also reaffirmed the importance of having a good content mix. While long-form assets such as whitepapers and reports are still crucial to demonstrate thought-leadership, short-form content has risen in popularity and is predicted to be front and centre of 2024 content marketing activities.
“Short-form content such as one-minute videos or visually engaging infographics is essential to grab the attention of time-poor B2B buyers,” explains Monia Dal Checco, Content Writer at Pod.
“However, long-form content is great at a later stage of decision making, when your prospects are looking to delve deeper into a specific topic to make up their mind about a potential purchase.”
You can read more about the power of a good B2B content mix here.
The power of community
Once the domain of B2C marketing, in 2023 community engagement has definitely entered the B2B arena, too.
“B2B marketers are recognising the value of building communities around their brands,” explains Pod’s Digital Campaign Manager, Emma Thompson. “Online forums, social media groups, webinars and more offer the possibility to engage with industry experts, foster meaningful connections, and amplify thought-leadership.”
In 2024, we will likely see this trend become increasingly common in B2B marketing, with more brands creating digital as well as in-person opportunities for community building.
Sales integration
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing campaigns that are aligned with business goals generate three times more leads than campaigns that are not. Marketo Engage also reports that marketing campaigns that are integrated with sales have a 50% higher chance of closing deals.
It’s no surprise that B2B marketing efforts are more effective when the C-suite, sales teams and marketing department all work together. The novelty lies in the fact that B2B marketers now have access to a host of intuitive tools to facilitate collaboration.
“CRM systems like HubSpot combine marketing and sales seamlessly so that businesses can qualify leads and use automation to make this process even more efficient,” explains Pod’s Digital Marketing Lead, Raven Wheatley-Hawkins.
“HubSpot allows you to report on everything that can impact a campaign’s ROI. By having an all-in-one marketing and sales platform, it’s easier to ensure prompt communication among teams and to avoid siloed information.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the power of an integrated sales and marketing CRM, you can find out more about Pod’s HubSpot Platinum partnership here.
Emerging trends in 2024
An omnichannel approach
In 2024, we will need to take the concept of integrated campaigns one step further: it’s the era of omnichannel campaigns.
B2B buyers are increasingly being influenced from a wide variety of channels, and seamlessly navigate among various digital and physical touch points. For example, they might attend an industry event, connect before and after the event through a dedicated digital platform, decide to join a forum with industry leaders they met, and continue to regularly engage with those leaders’ social media channels.
As a result, businesses must embrace a truly omnichannel approach to marketing, ensuring a consistent and coherent brand experience across all channels.
Thoughtful ESG messaging
While the popularity of ESG advertising has significantly dropped in 2023 (1), the focus on organisations’ sustainability and social value is not going away anytime soon. Consumers and stakeholders are still interested in seeing how the companies they support can contribute to a greener and more equitable world, but are also increasingly wary of vague sustainability and social value messaging.
Rather than avoiding ESG-based campaigns altogether, it’s important to take a thoughtful approach to ESG marketing and lead with science-backed messaging, ensuring proof points are available for each of your key messages. In the case of green marketing, that can mean assessing your current carbon footprint and delivering regular progress reports to communicate the impact of your decarbonisation initiatives.
“Leverage the power of data and analytics to understand the decarbonisation landscape,” suggests our Business Development Manager, Carl Thomas. “Use data to identify key insights that can inform marketing strategies and measure the impact of your marketing efforts on decarbonisation goals.”
ABM and hyper personalisation
With B2B buyers requiring ever-more tailored services, it’s no surprise that account based marketing (AMB) and hyper personalisation are going hand in hand to deliver highly bespoke messaging.
This strategy is particularly effective at maximising campaigns’ ROI: Forrester Research has recently revealed that companies using AMB achieve a 20% increase in sales productivity.
However, it is the scale of personalisation that’s going to change in 2024. Gone are the days where adding the customer’s first name to an email subject was enough to make it more tailored. B2B marketers will now need to delve into data to analyse the customer journey and suggest content and experiences in line with their specific needs and preferences.
B2B marketing leaders and C-suite decision-makers must stay abreast of these trends and adapt their strategies accordingly to achieve optimal results. By embracing personalised marketing, leveraging data, fostering community engagement, and prioritising omnichannel experiences, businesses can enhance their marketing effectiveness and achieve sustainable growth in the ever-evolving B2B landscape.
Could we help you boost your B2B marketing ROI in 2024? Why not email us at hello@marketingpod.com to arrange a chat?
1. https://fundamentalgroup.com/insights/competitor-alerts/ESG-advertising-falls-further-out-of-favour-in-Europe
