How to adapt your B2B marketing strategy in the age of COVID

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the major factor affecting business for nearly a year. We’ve seen unprecedented losses in consumer activity in some areas; growth in a few. The expectations of both consumers and organizations has shifted completely. This is accelerating ongoing changes in how we operate and market.

The “new normal” of marketing

According to the CMO Survey’s Special Covid-19 edition published in June, company budgets overall have decreased due to pandemic-induced uncertainty. However, Marketing budgets have not fallen by the same amount. Marketing as a percentage of overall spend is actually at an all-time high according to the study. This is even more evident for B2B companies. Driving this change is an actual increase in spend for several areas, in particular Digital Marketing and Customer Experience. These two areas have seen a 9.3% and 10% increase, respectively.

The two most popular marketing objectives in 2020 were:

• Building brand value that connects to customers, and
• Retaining those customers.

Those objectives were colored by an increased focus on activities that helped „Build the funnel” vs non-funnel marketing activities. Marketing that boosted the bottom-line was key.

Stay-at-home orders all over the world forced our entire lives online, including shopping, entertainment and socializing. If your business wasn’t fully digital before, it is now. How did this affect B2B marketing?

The digital shift

While digital transformation had reached most companies by 2020, potential gaps between reality and the desired optimum became crystal clear when lockdowns practically annihilated in-person transactions. Trade shows, conferences, and sales rep visits are, however, not strictly necessary: 62% of B2B buyers say they are able to make purchase decisions based on online content alone.

„We’ve seen considerably more interest in running online webinars for B2B companies,” says Sean Buttigieg, Director at TechGenix. „We have run one to two per quarter in the past; we have three for December already.”

Benefits of going digital

If survival isn’t a good enough reason to invest in your digital marketing channels, here are three more:

• It warms up prospects
  B2B buyers will research independently before ever contacting your organization. Giving them valuable information at every touchpoint will move them gently down the sales funnel, until they are ready. A very attractive quality of great, evergreen content is that it lives on, without any further intervention. This frees up your time and resources to create the next piece.
• It gives value to existing customers
  Reaching out to your existing audience, making sure they are happy, and offering them resources to make the most out of your product/service increases customer retention. Also, satisfied customers will be your best advocates.
• It makes everything trackable
  Every detail of every interaction with your digital content is trackable. This gives you valuable insights, allows you to segment customers for more targeted communication, and help you fine-tune your messaging.

Challenges of the digital transformation

Just because the digital shift is unavoidable, doesn’t mean it’s easy. Some of the challenges you might encounter:

• Less than smooth customer experience
  Most companies struggle with the fast transition to digital, and they are trying to manage with lower IT budgets and reduced staff. In a survey, 80% of respondents said they find it difficult to provide a positive customer experience. Working at a company blinds you to what it looks and feels like from the outside. Buyer journey maps can help you think along the entire process and reveal the weakest links.
• Multiple buyer personas
  B2B decisions are rarely made by one person. Between several layers of approval, conflicting needs, and now the communication obstacles of remote working, the sales process has become incredibly complex. Marketers need to segment the audience according to their intent, role, and persona to target them successfully. Digital marketing actually facilitates hyper-personalization.
• Customer trust at an all-time low
  In uncertain times, we seek out those we can trust. Consumer trust is on the decline, while transparency is more valued than ever. You need to address doubts and fears, without the buyer even articulating them. This takes a thorough knowledge of your audience and masterful communication.

Digital is here to stay, and the change is only going to accelerate. Luckily, there are plenty of examples to learn from, to win in 2020 and beyond.

Tactics to adapt your B2B marketing

None of the following components is entirely new. They just happen to have been the rising stars of marketing in the COVID age. Look through the list now to see if there is any trend you missed!

Email marketing

The most obvious and the most successful B2B marketing tool is still thriving. More than 50% of marketers see the highest ROI from emails. In 2020, the most important trends are hyper-personalization, optimization for mobile, minimalist design, and integration of a social aspect (social media or a peer review system).

SEO

Around 40% of marketers surveyed put website traffic as their top KPI for 2020. This explains why SEO continued to stay relevant this year. The best way to adapt is to make sure your website is easy to navigate, has all important information clearly displayed, and add a blog where you regularly provide value to your visitors.

Webinars

Video is the richest, most engaging content format. Think of it as more than just information sharing. What makes a webinar different from a PDF or a slideshow is the presenter. Their expertise and personality will set your webinar apart. Pick them carefully, then give them free rein. Don’t be afraid of technical mishaps and improvised remarks: they add to your brand.

Support your webinars with ads on social to get the word out, and tap into your employees’ network. Recommendations are always more effective when coming from a human.

"The TechGenix audience has always been very keen to learn about the latest IT trends and solutions and our customers are able to effectively capture that interest with a well-crafted webinar presentation that not only focuses on the sales pitch, but also provides those attending with key takeaways related to familiar challenges frequently faced by today's IT departments. By following this approach, the webinars that we produce for our customers end up being a win-win for all parties.”, says Sean Buttigieg.

Content marketing

While content like blogs and whitepapers remain just as important as ever, 70% of B2B buyers also watch video content throughout the whole buyer journey. This is why you need to have relevant content for all stages of the funnel, in the format your audience is looking for.

Take the time to define your distinct key audiences, and each persona’s buying journey. Do you have the relevant material to help your prospects make sound decisions to solve their business pains? This includes content you create, as well as third-party content from customers, experts, and reviewers.

Personalization

AI is gaining importance in marketing, because it uses massive amounts of existing data to provide highly personalized customer experiences. 52% of respondents in a survey are already using AI tools. If your company has not made the leap yet, now is the time.

Repurposing

Any marketing strategy in 2020 that ignores social will fail. 75% of B2B buyers often get informed and sometimes even make purchases on social media. Your long-form content and webinars provide excellent material to repurpose as social media posts. The juiciest bites of a webinar work well as videos on LinkedIn, while text can be repurposed as Tweets or Instagram carousel posts.

Show up as a human

No matter the format you choose to adapt your business, the main takeaway should be this:

Eventually, there are always real people on the other side, even if your buyer is a large business. 84% of B2B buyers said they wanted to be treated like a human. Talk to them accordingly.

Digital marketing is not machine marketing. It is just another means to reach people and build relationships. People are increasingly comfortable with digital means of interaction; a significant percentage of your buyer personas have grown up this way.

Conclusion

2020 accelerated changes that had already been happening, and brought about unforeseen directions. We have learned that while our entire world endures the COVID-19 pandemic, individual countries, populations, industries, companies - and even departments within those companies - face different crises and occasionally, opportunities.

Human interaction and commerce did not stop; they adapted to new health and safety requirements.

Adaptability has always been one of our critical talents, and those that adapt quickly can still flourish in challenging times.

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