Five B2B Marketing Trends to Watch for Businesses under 100 Million in 2021

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With 2020 well behind us it’s important to stay on top of the latest trends in marketing especially when so many companies have had to pivot.

While the basics of marketing tend to stay the same, the mediums and the preferred communication styles tend to change over time.

The biggest change from last year was the explosion of e-commerce, the increase of social media consumption, and video conferencing (zoom anyone?) become a norm for almost everyone.

So, as we are moving through 2021 what does the rest of this year look like for B2B Entrepreneurs?

Personalization is coming for your Business

An astounding 72% expect businesses to personalize their communication and engagements throughout their buying journey.

While personalization used to be the domain of Billion dollar companies, with technology, such as Hubspot, it’s making it easier than ever to personalize your marketing with the CRM that you’re using.

Whether that means personalizing basics such as using their name or integrating client data such as their size, their title, and role.

Email Marketing is making a come-back

While many have proclaimed that email marketing has died (and died again) it’s now making a resurgence as email marketers are doing a better job, people have been checking their emails, plus the spam filters have gotten a lot better as well.

While the average open rate is only about 21% per Mailchimp, you’re able to reach a lot of people while being only average. Now, there are a lot of tools between AI to figure out the right time to email, personalization to improve engagement and open rates, as well as setting the right expectations when someone opts into your email list.

Often companies are now segmenting their list to create more tailored messages for their audiences thereby also increasing open rates that way while delivering a better user experience.

AI has arrived

While AI has been talked about for years, it’s now arriving in the B2B world with some real-world solutions that while they’re still developing are driving increased complexity and competitiveness.

Some AI solutions are creating blogs, ads, landing pages, etc that are doing better than their human counterparts. While not all content is there, the AI helps to improve the functionality of marketing and those that take the leap early will be able to build a competitive advantage.

Chatbots

Chatbots may have arrived a few years ago but they are now taking it to a new level with increased utilization, improved functionality, and increased expectation of being able to speak to someone right away.

While we were all sitting at home ordering things on Amazon and them instantly arriving, we have now come to expect the same of B2B services.

This means that if you don’t have a chat or message option on your website you’re already behind.

Content Marketing continues to Dominate

Stats from Content Marketing Institute:

  • Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads.
  • Content marketing has lower up-front costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid search.
  • 615 million devices now use ad blockers, which means your ads are not being seen by as many people.
  • Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without blogs.
  • Content marketing rakes in conversion rates 6x higher than other methods.

All of these stats show that for long-term success in the B2B space you will need to continue to position yourself as an authority and deliver amazing content to both rank on Google as well as drive more conversions on your site.

Working with an Agency that is staying on top of the latest trends is vital to ensuring your business is moving forward and isn’t being left behind by your competitors.