Regardless of how they evolve, trends are always something that a business owner should be aware of in order to maximize sales and marketing efforts. Here are some of the most current and common B2B marketing trends that may help propel your business’ success throughout the rest of the year.
1. Video Marketing
Video marketing has been on the up and up for a while now, and it’s trending to take over 2017. Scroll through any social media platform right now and video content, livestreams and “stories” are front and centre. Why is video so popular? A survey done by HubSpot reports that 45% of respondants watch at least an hour or more of video content on Facebook and YouTube per week:
It’s easily consumable, highly engaging and can generate a healthy ROI when done well. You can get creative with live Q&A events, product demonstration videos, highlights of live events like conferences or tradeshows, or behind-the-scenes tours of your offices or warehouses.
2. Artificial Intelligence
A few months ago, Forrester Research predicted that businesses would invest more than 300% in artificial intelligence in 2017. They reported that access to AI will drive an “insights revolution” when integrated with machine learning.
“Through the use of cognitive interfaces into complex systems, advanced analytics, and machine learning technology, AI will provide business users access to powerful insights never before available to them. It will help to drive faster business decisions in marketing, ecommerce, product management and other areas of the business by helping close the gap from insights to action.”
3. Native Advertising
Sharethrough describes Native Advertising as “a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed”. Native ads are basically blended into regular content, so that it’s difficult to differentiate between the two, which makes for a much less intrusive and obvious ad placement. This form of advertising has increased chances of being shared, it can be consumed more readily by the reader (who may even gain educational benefits from it), and it can be very cost effective for the advertiser. Check out sponsored posts on LinkedIn, and throughout Sharethrough, Buzzfeed, Forbes or Business Insider for native advertising opportunities.
4. Influencer Marketing
With the growth of social media and video has come a fairly new form of marketing: influencer marketing. Most of you will be familiar with influencers on social media: these are the YouTube stars with millions of views and subscribers, or Instagram bloggers with millions of followers. Brands everywhere will work with these influencers to promote their products or services, or livestream a product “unboxing” or demo.
On a broader scale than just social, influencer marketing is the act of finding and working with anyone who is already influencing customers or viewers in your market or industry. If someone who’s opinion you trust recommends or reviews a business highly, then you’ll be that much more likely to work with that business in the future, right? Working with influencers will help you increase targeted leads, while building a solid reputation at the same time.
Summary
This certainly isn’t a comprehensive list of all current trends in the scope of B2B marketing, but it does contain some common, popular initiatives that are picking up steam so far in 2017 that you should definitely consider.