The party to bring improvements in the marketing industry never stops. In the last few years, we have seen many innovations & improvements that nobody would have thought about in their wildest dreams, and they worked like magic. You might be wondering what 2021 B2B marketing trends you should follow and you’re here for a treat.
Staying up-to-date with the trends and strategies is the key to success in the B2B market. So for instance, if you’re looking forward to expanding your business through a Chinese B2B platform, follow these trends for a successful B2B venture.
Let’s dive deep into the 2021 B2B marketing trends!
Top 2021 B2B Marketing Trends You Must Know!
We will go through some of the most efficient 2021 B2B marketing trends which are:
- AI & Chatbots
- Retention Marketing
- Interactive Content Creation
- Nostalgic Marketing
Keep up with us and know what all the hype is and how you can implement them.
§ LinkedIn Can Do Wonders for You!
Using social media platforms for B2B marketing is not a new concept. They are powerful, there is no doubt about that, but many business owners still believe that Facebook or Instagram are the best B2B marketing platforms which have been proven wrong.
According to a study by Oktopost, 80% of the B2B leads have been generated via LinkedIn in the past few years. If your aim is to build a reliable brand image for your B2B business, then LinkedIn is where you should be.
LinkedIn is an astounding platform that can help you with almost everything, including networking, advertising & sales, developing brand thought leadership, and using organic content for specific prospect targeting.
Prioritize LinkedIn, it is one of the top 2021 B2B marketing trends!
§ AI & Chatbots are Taking Over, for the Good!
Nobody like late replies, whether it’s from a friend or a B2B seller. The difference is that you won’t be losing leads if you reply late for that text from your friend, but if you miss a query from a lead, you could lose a client.
Almost 80% of the business buyers want real time interaction with the businesses they are interested in. The initial approach taken by most of the B2B marketers is using AI for gathering data and answering the lead inquiries. Implementation of AI and chatbots saves time and gives every potential lead a personalized response.
For instance, if a potential customer visits a Hong Kong B2B marketplace, asks a question through the live chat and gets a prompt response, he or she is more likely to do the business there. On the other hand, if a customer does not get a response for hours, he or she might lose the interest and drop the idea of even visiting the marketplace again.
Chatbots are used across industries and have been successful wherever used till now. They can be seen providing assistance to the B2B buyers and the sellers in the future. If you use the Chatbots efficiently, your customer engagement will be increased, the business connections will be improved, and client satisfaction will be boosted overall.
So what’s holding you back from implementing Chatbots on your website?
§ Retention Marketing is the New Fad
There is nothing wrong with trying to generate new leads and get new clients/customers with time, but retaining the old and existing clients is as important.
Retention marketing is one of the oldest marketing tactics as we can imagine, that’s because it’s easier to sell again to an existing customer rather than finding new ones. Over the time, the competition gets thicker, and it gets harder to retain customers. Sometimes your competitors would offer tempting prices or services to your customers and you could lose them.
According to a Harvard Business Review, you can gain 95% increase in profits if you get successful in increasing as low as 5% customer retention.
During and after the pandemic, the dynamics of marketing have been changed and implementing retention marketing tactics is important. To keep your loyal customers from going anywhere, you have to try your best and keep them connected with you.
A few top methods to retain customers are:
- Constant Communication with the Customers.
- Non-Stop Customer Support.
- Requesting Feedbacks & Testimonials
- Interactive Surveys
- Appreciating Customers
Keep them in practice and you’re more likely to retain customers.
§ Make Your Content Interactive
You may be optimizing your content for search engines using SEO tactics to get a better reach, but is your content interactive enough?
Many business owners and SEO consultants make this mistake, they create content just to get a better reach but not to entertain and intrigue the audience. Visitors often scan through blogs, articles, or website pages and just leave after seeing a bulk of text thrown in the way. Even though your content might be top-notch, not everyone will spend time reading it thoroughly.
To make anyone intrigued in your content, make it interactive and somewhat entertaining for the visitor. It may seem hard but it’s quite easy if you think about it.
All you need to do is spice up your content with Infographics, create interesting quizzes related to the topic, and make videos as well. These simple things can add so much value to your content this is one of the most effective 2021 B2B marketing trends.
On the other hand, when your content tells a story and offers interaction as well, the viewers are more likely to share it on their social media as well as tell their friends about it.
§ Hit them with Some Good Old Nostalgia
The world went marbles in 2020. Everyone was trapped inside, looking for comfort and reminiscing about the good old days before the pandemic. You can use this situation in your favor and use the nostalgic emotion as a way to boost your strategy.
Wondering how to do it? Well, it’s pretty simple. All you have to do is understand your target audience or market, spend a little time researching on the cultural trends and discontinued services or products and reintroduce them in your way.
If you can’t reintroduce a product or service, then you can just simply use the nostalgia inducing slogans, taglines, and/or rhythms in your content and other marketing strategies. It will invoke the nostalgic feeling, making your marketing campaign seem familiar to your targets.
The comforting, nostalgic feeling will hit their soft side and will surely make them come back and check your business later on.
Wrapping it Up!
These were the top B2B marketing trends of 2021, which could help you out in any case. So don’t waste another moment and start brainstorming ideas and following & implementing these trends in your B2B marketing campaigns.
Anyhow, all of these trends are not like the seasonal trends which gain traction quick and disappear quicker. The probability of these trends to work in 2021 and beyond is very high. So every single second you will spend on perfecting your campaigns around these trends, it will be worth it in the long run.
You are just one step away from success!