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B2B businesses are constantly innovating and coming up with new advertising techniques. In an ever-evolving world, it can be tough to know where to put your money. Here are some trends that may help you as you inspect your marketing strategy for 2016 and beyond.
1. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IS A KEY INDICATOR OF SUCCESS
With more and more focus on the digital experience and how to market to an oversaturated audience, customer service has taken a back seat to engagement and the constant push for fresh content. However, as many are discovering, a great customer experience can be its own form of positive marketing. As a result, manyB2B businesses are reinvigorating their efforts toward the positive customer experience.
2. CONTENT MARKETING IS A MUST, BUT MOST BUSINESSES HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO ACHIEVE IT
According to the Content Marketing Institute , only 44% of B2B businesses say they have a clear understanding of what it means to be successful at content marketing. With so much chatter about content being king and the continual emphasis put on developing content, you would think it would almost be second nature at this point. However, over half the B2B businesses don’t have any idea what a successful content marketing strategy even looks like.
3. LINKEDIN LEADS THE WAY
According to ME Marketing Services and the Content Marketing Institute , LinkedIn is the most common platform B2B businesses use for their content marketing strategy. It also is credited with being the most successful avenue for reaching customers. LinkedIn is followed in succession by Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
4. ADVOCACY MARKETING IS THE NEW BUZZWORD
It is commonly known that many businesses put more effort into getting people to purchase with little follow-up. Advocacy marketing is the idea that works in reverse. Rather than directing efforts toward the process leading up to the sale, many B2B businesses are finding success in utilizing happy customers as advocates. By converting loyal customers to advocates, many companies are growing their current customer base by word-of- mouth.
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5. VIDEO CONTENT IS ON THE RISE
According to Knowledge Tree, video content is responsible for approximately 2/3 of consumer traffic. This is a huge number you should not ignore. Need a fresh approach to content? Put some effort into developing interesting and pertinent videos and you will not be disappointed.
6. DIGITAL MARKETING IS DISAPPEARING
This trend has been slowly creeping up on us, and if you believe the guys at Business 2 Community , digital marketing is almost at an end. This could signal a slight relaxing in the B2B world. All this really means is that the idea of digital marketing as a category all its own is at an end. Digital marketing is now the way of the world and therefore does not need to be treated as a separate marketing strategy, but rather, it is your marketing strategy.