Top 5 B2B Marketing Trends for 2022
As we collectively enter the second “new year” in which the global pandemic continues to shape every aspect of our lives, it’s time to stop waiting for the return of business as usual. By now, it’s clear to see which pandemic-driven behaviors have become permanent, offering B2B marketers a new slate of opportunities to connect with our audiences. From content to communication - here’s a look at five of the top B2B marketing trends you can expect to see in 2022.
Video Storytelling
When was the last time you read an entire page of a website or brochure (other than one you were writing)? It’s no secret our attention spans grow shorter and shorter every year as we’re inundated with fast-paced, bite-sized content from all directions. Unfortunately for those of us who actually like to write, our expertly-woven paragraphs are simply not as attention-grabbing to B2B buyers in the early phases of the buying cycle. In recent years, visual content - particularly video - has replaced the written word as the B2B marketer’s communication tool of choice. 86% of marketers surveyed report using video as a marketing tool, and 94% say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service (Source: Wyzowl).
As B2B marketers fight for attention and engagement, videos can offer a variety of visual storytelling opportunities. Explainer videos can simplify complex product or service offerings in a way that’s enjoyable to watch and, importantly, easy to share among colleagues. Short video messages from executives can help humanize brands and connect with employees and customers alike. Even sales presentations can be converted into animated video files, fast and easy for sales teams to share with prospects even before contact is established.
Key metric: average view time. The number of views is important, but the length of time viewers spend watching your video is the real measure of effectiveness. Keep your videos short and high in energy so viewers stay engaged longer, and reap the rewards all year long.
All Communications Channels are Two-Way
As consumers, we’ve all come to expect companies to provide us with a variety of ways through which to communicate with them. A technical issue with my internet provider can be resolved via phone, chat, or email; an inquiry into the status of my furniture delivery can be made through the retailer’s app, chatbox on their website, or an email into customer service, depending on my preferences that day. And as we’ve seen with so many other conveniences, these expectations we have as consumers are rapidly bleeding over into our expectations as B2B buyers.
For marketers, that means changing the way we view our communications channels - from websites to sales emails to social media channels - from “push” to “pull”. In 2022, our websites must change from virtual brochures to true modes of communications, allowing for much more than a simple contact form for buyers. Expect chatbots, interactive pricing tools, and “Request a callback” features to become more and more common on B2B websites. In our sales teams’ emails, expect links to allow prospects to book a call directly on the calendar, without hours of back and forth coordination. While these changes may feel risky at first, they are entirely necessary to deliver the digital buying experience B2B buyers now demand, and those who move fastest into the new paradigm will see the results in their sales.
Key metric: Response time. Take a look at how quickly your customer-facing teams, from sales to customer service, respond to inquiries on average. Then compare this to your own expectations as a consumer. If you’re like most B2B companies, you’re hurting sales and service levels with bottlenecks caused by too few available communications channels.
More Targeted Social Strategies
Show of hands: who’s been guilty of a one-size-fits-all social strategy? I know I have. In prior years, B2B marketers could often operate under the assumption that certain platforms were for B2B and others for B2C, with little commingling between, and that their followers on each platform were similar enough to receive the same messages. This is no longer the case: social media audiences are constantly evolving, and so, too, must our strategies if we hope to connect with them. For example, did you know that in 2021, nearly 25% of all LinkedIn users were millennials, or that nearly half of all TikTok users are 35 or older?
Successful social strategies in 2022 and beyond will expand to more platforms than ever, incorporate more than one goal to fit more than one audience. What’s more, the tactics used to achieve these goals will need to be adapted to fit the platform on which you’re communicating. Simply posting the same advertorial content on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter will cease to suffice, and more nuanced, thoughtful plans will be required for B2B social media than ever before. For a deeper dive into the changing social media landscape and B2B social strategies, check out this post.
Key metric: engagement rate. The best proxy for the effectiveness of your social media posts is their engagement rate - the % of post views which resulted in some sort of interaction (share, like, comment, etc.) Monitoring this metric will help you hone your content to produce more of what your audience wants to see from you, and waste less time on what they just scroll past.
Digital Marketing is the New Marketing
Across the buyer journey, from new sales to service expansions to contract renewals, B2B buyers overwhelmingly prefer virtual sales models. 90% of B2B buyers start their buying journey with an online search (Dialogtech) and are more than 50% through their decision-making process before they reach out to a potential vendor (WebFX). According to a survey by McKinsey, ~70% of B2B buyers prefer remote or digital self-serve when identifying and evaluating new suppliers due to ease of scheduling, reduced travel expenses, and health and safety concerns. All this sounds nearly unbelievable until you consider that 73% of B2B buyers involved in research and decision-making are millennials – and over a third of them are the sole decision-maker (HBR).
Post-Covid, buyers expect the ability to discover, research, compare, and select vendors with little-to-no personal interaction. And don’t expect buyers to be patient while you pivot, either. Research by Forrester shows 6 out of 10 buyers believe their vendors should have figured out how to handle the pandemic disruption by now, and a Qwilr Buyer Experience Study revealed 79% of buyers are frustrated with current sales processes, and 59% desire a simplified, streamlined experience.
Key metric: Buying process satisfaction scores. As marketers, we love to ask our customers for their feedback on our products and services, don’t we? But how often do we ask them about the process it took to get them in the door? Consider asking how easy your company made it for them to find the information they were looking for, to understand your pricing, and to sign your contracts? Even better, ask the customers you didn’t win. The results might just surprise you.
Interactive Collateral
As evidenced by the stats above, B2B buyers in 2022 are moving themselves through the sales process - and they’re doing it digitally. To make complex products or services (and their value propositions) easier to understand, B2B marketers will be creating immersive, interactive collateral that allows prospects to access all the information they need to evaluate a product or service, right from an email or PDF. By reimagining the “brochure” more like a webpage, marketers can provide links to product or testimonial videos, pricing calculators, and other must-have sales tools in a single, easy-to-share digital document. By integrating a product’s entire lineup of marketing tools into a single file, marketers can provide their sales team a way to address buyer questions before they’re ready to reach out, and provide buyers with a seamless experience that reflects an understanding of how they want to buy today.
Key metric: Shares. Embedded tracking links in “Share this file” and other CTA’s will allow you to measure how impactful your content is by seeing how often it’s shared among decision influencers and makers.
Ready to get started with your 2022 Marketing Plans? Drop us a line.