Especially in B2B online marketing, numerous trends are in the hand. A distinction between a short-lived hype and a forward-looking trend is often not easy. Our annual trend paper regularly informs you about trends that make a closer look worthwhile. Anyone who knows the fast-moving market of B2B online marketing knows that there are also trends such as the sea. Often it is not easy to find out which trend is relevant for the industry and your own B2B Company. We take a look into the future for you and tell you what trends you should remember in 2023.
- Influencers:
Confidence and loyalty in B2B brands can be increased: this is achieved through the strategic use of multipliers, testimonials, and influencers. The goal is to win people over for their own B2B brand. These ideally share the values, the enthusiasm for the company, and its products. This is also true in B2B authentic and credible influencers. Forecast: Influencers can strengthen confidence in a brand, but also weaken it. What is already successful in B2C also works in B2B. Because of recommendations from others, we give greater confidence. This should take advantage of B2B companies and rely on influencers. - Streaming:
Visual communication is becoming increasingly important in the B2B environment as well. Particularly complex topics, products, and solutions in need of explanation must be comprehensibly processed and communicated in a new way. By using live videos, B2B Online Marketing can communicate most directly with the target group. Forecast: Streaming is available for B2B companies. Especially if the company already relies on videos and content marketing but even beginners have many opportunities to get started with live videos.
- Integration:
Integration of the networking of sales, marketing content, and B2B online campaigns. It is high time that obsolete thinking has to give way to new integrative thinking and acting between marketing and sales. After all, the best results are achieved when all departments sit at one table.Forecast: Firms that drive the integration of sales and marketing will ultimately benefit greatly from target-market and target group-oriented B2B online marketing. - Emotion:
In B2B too, purchasing decisions are based to a large extent on emotions because an emotional attachment to the products arises automatically through the daily occupation with these. And indeed, it makes sense to involve emotions. After all, the goal is to get enthusiastic about your own brand, your products, and your employer. Forecast: Even B2B brands are emotional. In order to work this out, creative approaches and strategies are needed. They contain a very high potential for online communication and cross-media campaigns.
- E-commerce:
Customer needs are constantly changing in e-commerce. Correspondingly, the sales department also has to be reoriented and optimized over and over again with e-commerce strategies. Forecast: In principle, all products can be offered online. Whether preconfigured or freely selectable products, consumables, or capital goods. Accordingly, e-commerce has a high to a very high potential for sales – however, the industry is crucial here. Outlook: Trends such as e-commerce, influencer marketing, or streaming will be important in 2018. Apart from these trends, other topics will also be important. The future in B2B is probably the biggest challenge with the language-based search. Targeting will also take up more and more space. With new technologies and methods, hitherto unimagined possibilities of a homogeneous customer approach on the web arise.
And also in the service will change a lot. Customers also want to receive information and help via social media platforms. This will be transferred to B2B. WhatsApp or Snapchat creates new forms of dialogue here.
Big Data is and will remain a dominant topic. These include concepts, processes, and well-maintained CRM databases and finally, visualization will gain more and more. The trend will go away from the pure text. In the future, marketers will have to focus more on images, illustrations, and videos on communication. A hurdle, but at the same time a great opportunity for B2Bs.
Conclusion:
Trends in B2B come and go. Keep your eyes and ears open and try out which trend suits you. Dare to go on unknown paths. Live streaming and emotions also have a high potential for your online marketing in B2B. And think ahead: The importance of e-commerce will become more important. And: Already now you should look for a better connection between marketing and sales.
