By Dove Direct on Friday, 04 December 2020
Category: Content Marketing

2021 B2B Marketing Trends Improving ROI

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "2021 B2B Marketing Trends Improving ROI," uncovers the primary B2B marketing trends that industry leaders anticipate will improve ROI in 2021.  The B2B marketing world has undergone substantial evolution over the past several years, so much so that some B2B marketers are taking some cues from B2C marketing strategies.  A few years ago, several data mining organizations began to notice that in the social media world, C-Suite and Executive level management team personnel were responding to and searching for B2B posts and ads, most notably, outside of the LinkedIn environment.  Hence, B2B marketers began to understand that B2C marketing initiatives influenced B2B management behavior.  Former Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney may have been onto something when he stated, "Corporations are people too."  Marketing strategies and the resulting initiatives are now blurring lines for B2B versus B2C marketing.  We've researched B2B marketing trends for the upcoming year.  We contend that now is an excellent time to take a few moments during the holiday season to consider how these B2B trends can aid marketing strategies in 2021.

Quote of the Day: "Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue." - Andrew Davis

Bill Gates once stated many years ago, "If you don't have a website, then you are not in business."  On the heels of that statement, digital content is now the burgeoning thrust behind every B2B marketing strategy, and therefore, all businesses should be taking heed to that reality.


Up-selling Via Retention Marketing

An old hit song, by Johnnie Taylor, entitled "Cheaper To Keep Her," which fits any business model, states it is more expensive to board new clients than keep current loyal ones.  The art of keeping clients in the marketing world is known as retention marketing.  It's also much easier to sell something to an existing client versus trolling for new ones.

Retention marketing is a strategy that addresses maintaining and growing customer relationships, which tends to bring in improved marketing ROI while cementing sales at a much lower cost per sale.  It is similar to picking low hanging fruit.

When you look at profitability from retention marketing strategies, Harvard Business Review stated that a 5% increase in customer retention could result in up to a 95% increase in profits.



Content Marketing is Mandatory

In a multi-billion online user universe, B2B marketers often state that due to so much clutter staring them in the face, it's just about next to impossible to breakthrough.  As a result, many of these B2B marketers shy away from the content marketing commitment.  They may look at this conundrum through a different lens where there are limited choices to move forward.

B2B marketers can walk away and let the sales department rely on cold calling.   They can opt to use much larger budgets and advertise like crazy to move the needle.  Or, they can look to long-term strategic content marketing, which is the most efficient way to approach ROI growth.
In this realm, the successful B2B marketers choose to publish content based on keyword research for search engine optimization and use that approach for both short-form and long-form content creation.  In addition, marketers can profile prospects, customers, partners, and executives to determine buyer personas, add a subscriber element, and lastly, decide to enter a paid promotion for any free, top-performing content.

For example, if your brand experiences a blog post that generates the most reads over a short period, extend that post's life with any of the following. You can place the promotion on social media or Google Ad words to extend the most popular blog post to new users.  Marketing budgets are not set in stone; however, to achieve a great ROI that is relatively predictable, brands in this category generally spend between $4 to $8k monthly.


Print Marketing

Print marketing has been moving up in popularity for B2B in recent years, and technological advances have allowed print to stay abreast of the digital revolution.  Now that the terms "hoax" and "fake news" are bedrocks shaking up the digital landscape, particularly in the social media space, print's trustworthiness is a much sought after medium, so much so that print is considered the most trustworthy medium of all.

The exciting development as a result of disinformation is that people tend to treat the mediums differently.  For example, when one reads an article in a newspaper or the online version because the publisher hails from the traditional newspaper side, real emotions take hold; whereas, that same content, when initially digitally generated, results in a typical first impression that the same information may be a "hoax."

Another aspect that print collateral taps into is that the human species is a touchy, feely kind of animal.  Print delivers that touchy, feely thing, which represents that human tactile experience.  Digital marketing cannot achieve that.  Therefore, using print in conjunction with digital marketing poses a powerful one-two knockout punch.  Lastly, filling up a physical mailbox is always preferable to looking through hundreds of emails overflowing with subscription letters, spam, and junk mail.


Chatbots On the Rise
Chatbots have come down in price, and 67% of consumers reported using a chatbot system over the past year.  As a result, customer and prospect behavior has changed in that these folks now expect a quick communication flow and a 24/7 customer support mechanism.

You can program chatbots to assimilate human behavior, contain frequently asked questions, and even answer questions that fall outside FAQs.  Chatbots can also help direct clients and prospects better navigate websites and are the baseline technology that allows a business to offer more efficient and improved digital experiences.


More Interactive Content

It is an ongoing joke in the marketing community that prospects and clients have a gnat's attention span.  Not sure how they know what a gnat's attention span is, but Microsoft presented a recent story that suggests the average person now has an eight-second attention span.

Looking at something and partaking in something are two completely different human behavior traits that will produce different results.  When a brand requires anyone to participate in interactive content, that brand's engagement level rises.  Consumers are evolving to interact with interactive content, and the storytelling aspect becomes the backbone feature for improved business success.  Actively suggesting to followers to share posts, film videos, use infographics and, of course, implement surveys and quizzes are a few of the options a brand can use for interactive content.


The Net-Net


Voice Search Marketing, Nostalgia Marketing, and Video Marketing are also high on the list of 2021 Trends. Have you given any consideration to implementing any of these trends into the marketing for 2021?  If you haven't, now is an excellent time to consider these trends for next year's marketing strategies.  Thanks for taking a few moments to read 2021 B2B Marketing Trends Improving ROI!

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