Last updated on December 14th, 2023
For the past decade, visibility and credibility have become fundamental to making a business thrive. In the digital era, it is essential to establish your visibility and credibility in order to showcase the specialized and unique value of your business.
As indicated below, easy access ranks as the top value for B2B buyers. With a few clicks, the consumer must be able to find you and also believe that your business has what it takes to deliver its needs.
As 2023 comes to a close, this article will help you understand how 2024 will look and get a head start on the top B2B marketing ideas.
What is B2B?
Before we get cracking on B2B marketing ideas and trends, let’s first understand what B2B means. B2B is an abbreviation of business-to-business, wherein products and services are exchanged between multiple businesses or organizations, not individual consumers.
A simple example of B2B interactions would be IBM (International Business Machines), a business organization selling its cloud computing solutions to another business, Reliance Industries. Here, the exchange is between two businesses, not a business and a consumer.
What is B2B Marketing?
B2B target audiences usually seek an ROI and a solution to a specific problem. The entire dynamic of B2B is so unique that while many platforms remain the same, the B2B marketing strategies adopted differ from B2C.
B2B marketing ideas cover all strategies to target or sell products or services to other businesses. Considering the stark contrast in the audience’s needs, designing B2B marketing ideas for your business is so crucial that 76% of B2B companies have a formal B2B marketing strategy.
If you’re still wondering how vital marketing to B2B companies is, let’s first understand how B2B buyers prepare before deciding. Here are a few facts:
- The average ROI of B2B marketing is quite lucrative, with content marketing at 300%, and account-based marketing shows an average ROI of 200%.
- The survey below emphasizes that 52% of B2B decision-makers go through extensive research on their suppliers even before accepting a sales meeting.
Without the right B2B marketing ideas, a business finds it challenging to stay on the map and in competition. B2B marketing ideas also tremendously boost brand awareness amongst your potential buyers.
B2B Marketing Ideas to Watch in 2024
Here are some trends that could help your business excel:
Content Marketing
Content as a part of B2B marketing ideas has continued to evolve through past blogs and case studies in recent years.
According to the above data, the one thing that has been proven constantly is its impact on the business. B2B content marketing boosts brand awareness and credibility and generates leads in each relevant field.
To establish the most importance, another statistic ranks blogs and video content as the most used among the various types of B2B content marketing, with audio content as a budding underdog of all B2B marketing ideas.
Among the many content marketing strategies, here are the most effective B2B marketing ideas you could use:
Make High-Quality Blog Content
Research shows that 78% of B2B marketers see increased success with higher-quality content, not to mention that 47% of B2B buyers consume up to five B2B content marketing pieces before making a decision. Focus on quality blog content holds tremendous value in expediting the purchase cycle.
With the help of experts like Wittypen, creating high-quality, fresh blogs or refreshing your existing content can go a long way toward showcasing your business’ position as an industry expert.
Create Engaging Video Content
Video content is one of the leading B2B marketing ideas. This is further proven by the fact that about 84% of B2B marketers use video content.
When incorporated into B2B marketing ideas, engaging video content can showcase testimonials, simplify product information, and help generate organic traffic.
Podcasting for Thought Leadership
The trends of podcasts are quickly gaining tremendous traction, with over 71% of B2B brands considering podcasts to be a top-tier content format. This allows businesses to showcase their expertise in a much easier-to-consume format.
Social Media Marketing
Social media as a B2B marketing idea greatly benefits SEO ranking, brand image, and lead generation.
The statistics above show why using social media marketing as a B2B marketing strategy is on the rise. Here are the platforms that B2B marketers confirm to deliver the most value for these very benefits:
LinkedIn Marketing
Statistics show that about 80% of B2B leads on social media are from LinkedIn, and about 84% of B2B marketers find LinkedIn to deliver value in lead generation as a B2B marketing strategy.
As a B2B marketing idea, its lead conversion continues to be a highlight that all B2B marketing campaigns must incorporate. LinkedIn builds leads and recognition while fostering relationships for your business.
Twitter Advertising
Advertising with the help of Twitter (now known as X) as a B2B marketing idea boosts engagement and awareness. Despite going through a branding or image issue in the past year, it continues to be a handy tool for tracking trends and analytics concerning consumer engagement.
Instagram and Visual Storytelling
To set the context before getting into it, currently, Instagram has a monthly active user base of more than 1 billion. Despite such a large user base, as a B2B marketing idea, it has yet to be perceived as B2B-friendly.
However, Instagram is gradually breaking through this perception through advertisements and reels. As a B2B marketing idea, Instagram could show phenomenal results in brand recognition and lead generation.
Email Marketing
Email newsletters and email communications are among the most used distribution channels. The primary reason behind this is the ability of email marketing to appeal to a more personal and direct connection as it reaches an email user directly.
It can also nurture leads and relationships on a different scale, so much so that 8 out of 10 B2B marketers’ email marketing strategies help retain clients.
Let’s understand this B2B marketing idea with various ways it can be implemented:
Personalized Email Campaigns
This B2B marketing idea allows customers to receive emails specific to fulfilling their needs, not just another mass email catering to the masses. Another critical aspect of personalized sender emails is that it helps B2B marketers stay out of the spam folder and within the eyes of the customer.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) via Email
ABM involves sales and marketing to collectively engage specific target accounts considered a good fit for your brand. This is becoming a compelling B2B marketing idea as it helps businesses hone in on best-fit accounts and focuses on converting them into sales.
Drip Email Campaigns
These are sets of automated emails that are sent out based on specific triggers or user actions. An effective drip email effectively builds long-term relationships with your customers.
SEO and SEM
Incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) into your B2B marketing strategy is becoming increasingly vital.
Search ranking and domain visibility can directly impact your business’s brand position. With the help of both SEO and SEM strategies, the increase in webpage traffic can potentially attract high volumes of revenue and business.
Let’s get into these B2B marketing strategies a little deeper.
Optimizing for Voice Search
This B2B marketing idea aims to improve your visibility on the search engine platform dramatically.
With the appropriate use of long-tail keywords and the help of SEO tools offered by Wittpen, you can check and optimize voice search on search engines. This opens up a pathway to easier accessibility for all customers and a much higher ranking on the search engine.
The medium- and long-term benefit of this B2B marketing idea is that there will be organic traffic for your business, which immensely helps lead generation and brand visibility.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
This is one of the most essential components of SEM in a business’ B2B marketing strategy. PPC advertising is a paid method to increase website traffic, and with the correct use of effective keywords in the PPC ad, your business could attract a great deal of traffic and revenue.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing was once used only in B2C but has slowly dribbled into the B2B marketing strategy landscape. This is proven by the fact that about 61% of B2B marketers agree that influencer marketing has boosted their sales revenue.
To understand how to use influencer marketing in B2B marketing, let’s look at the two most trending B2B marketing strategies:
Partnering with Industry Influencers
Through expert testimonials, businesses can use this B2B marketing idea to enhance their brand reputations. With these influencer testimonials undoubtedly lending credibility to your business, decision-makers will be more inclined to initiate a business relationship with you.
Employee Advocacy Programs
This B2B marketing idea revolves around showcasing your employees as advocates, amplifying organic reach by 200%, and expediting the overall sales cycle.
The advocacy program fosters trust among B2B decision-makers, assuring them that entering into a relationship with your vendor entails adopting best practices and delivering value for the employees.
Mobile Marketing
While understanding the importance of mobile marketing, we must remember how much our mobile devices are already a part of our daily decisions.
Mobile devices contribute to a whopping 55% of web traffic. This is one of the vital reasons why adapting sites to be mobile-friendly will be one of the top trends for B2B interactions in 2024.
Considering that B2B mobile marketing expenditures in the US alone amounted to $5.39 billion, the B2B world is on its way to making the most of the B2B marketing idea.
Optimizing B2B Marketing for Mobile Devices
Businesses must incorporate mobile marketing into their B2B marketing strategies and ensure all emails, webpages, and messages are optimized to be mobile device-friendly.
B2B Mobile Marketing Success Stories
Adobe:
Adobe is known to be a creative and marketing software giant with a great hold of its user base. Adobe identified the importance of introducing its creative cloud suite and other solution software into the mobile-friendly space.
Set in a market segment where formats like PDF were not entirely mobile-friendly, their B2B marketing strategy generated mobile apps that allowed their B2B consumers to use their product features seamlessly through their mobile devices. Also, their cloud services allowed users to transfer work across their devices.
Spotify:
Spotify employed a B2B mobile marketing strategy by balancing its Freemium and Premium memberships through in-app advertisements. Enterprise Marketers establish partnerships with brands for targeted advertising.
To thank the top partnerships, Spotify released a creative “A Song For Every CMO” campaign, where personalized songs are released about the CMO of each of the top partnership brands. It was made available through its in-mobile streaming app for the public.
Spotify showed a deep understanding of client preferences, extending its B2C practices to B2B to uniquely strengthen its relationship with its clients.
AI and Automation
In 2023, leveraging AI and automation into B2B marketing ideas has opened doors to vast information. Here are some examples of how using AI and automation has changed the B2B marketing landscape:
1. AI in Data Analytics
With AI’s help, businesses can now collect consumer information and comb through it to offer data-driven decisions for valuable insights and personalized experiences and achieve better results.
In fact, Wittypen AI tools also use data analytics to assist in scheduling content according to your industry so that your content reaches the maximum audience possible.
2. AI and Automation in Leads and Sales
After automating tasks and using AI, businesses can generate more efficient leads while sharing details, such as the likelihood of converting into a sale. This streamlines lead and sales generation.
3. AI in Customer Experience
With the help of AI in B2B marketing ideas, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, businesses can assist their customers 24/7 and provide a more robust experience and problem resolution.
4. AI in Website Content and Performance
Using AI algorithms to sift through clicks, reads, and interactions, AI can help businesses optimize their webpage performance to improve customer experiences.
To top it off, using AI brief generators by experts like Wittypen allows you to use AI to keep your webpage current and relevant.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC can have a significant impact on your B2B marketing strategy. A business could use photos uploaded onto Instagram by an industry expert as testimonials.
According to a survey, over 90% of B2B buyers trust peers in their industry. This is why this B2B marketing strategy helps increase brand trust and credibility through word of mouth.
B2B Marketing Examples
With all the key marketing trends in mind to thrive in the B2B industry, here are a few success stories that have left a mark:
Freedom to Transform: Oracle
Enterprise data solution MNC Oracle made excellent use of a video marketing campaign to send a message to all small and medium businesses. They created an educational campaign to increase their brand awareness and get them to think about their solutions.
They proceeded to make several infographics and product explainer videos, such as the one below. In this video marketing campaign, they also shared links to their platform that equipped users with their tools, learning pages, and even engaging with their communities.
This B2B marketing idea cleared up the misconception that Oracle was limited to large businesses and, in the end, opened up the possibilities of cost-effective solutions for many more businesses.
Personalized Email Campaigns: Double Your Freelancing
DYC, also known as Double Your Freelancing, is an education company that helps thousands of freelancers. With the help of the company founder, Brennan Dunn, DYC realized the need to create personalized email campaigns with additional segmentations.
They, in turn, create industry-specific combined with conditional algorithms for CTAs, copy, and even testimonials to ensure every potential customer receives a specific message tailored to their demographic and interests.
And the result? This B2B personalized email campaign proved so successful that it showed an astounding 250% increase in conversions.
Subverting Expectations: FedEx
In 2015, world-renowned logistics and shipping company FedEx already catered to large businesses. They did not have much social presence, and anyone looking outside would not have expected FedEx to focus on it.
But with social media marketing, FedEx made a remarkable turnaround by quickly garnering a massive follower base that has now grown to 319K on Instagram, 324K on Twitter, and 3 million likes on Facebook.
FedEx used this marketing strategy to improve the brand image phenomenally, and B2B customers could view FedEx’s commitment to delivering wherever needed.
Trolling Boris Johnson: Monday
In 2019, a management software company, Monday, put up physical ads in London that said, ‘Manage anything. Even London’, then mentioned some of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s failed projects.
By trolling Boris Johnson, Monday had garnered quite some attention among the people in London, and along the way, Monday managed to showcase their platform’s features and ease of use with this B2B marketing idea.
Instagram Placement Ads: Airtable
Airtable’s workplace organizational talents are evident throughout their Instagram profile. Airtable has long known that B2B prospects typically see Instagram ads above organic postings. Instead, they used Instagram as a landing page.
Only ten photographs appear when you click on their profile. For Instagram placement, Airtable’s marketing team runs ads frequently. Traffic is used to direct prospects to their product.
This intelligent B2B marketing idea is one of the many steps that helped Airtable grow 400% in 2019.
Account-Based Marketing: Couchbase
Enterprise database solutions company Couchbase launched a product built on technology that was usually for a high-tech audience. However, many businesses had no interest or time to invest in anything that complex. This put Couchbase in a tough spot.
Couchbase then began extensive research, and it is with their research and ABM (Account-Based Marketing), Couchbase used keyword volumes and social persona data to create precise and niche content for the target accounts.
This B2B marketing idea helped Couchbase find its target customers and focus entirely on securing a business relationship with these target customers. With the help of the ABM B2B marketing idea, they could gain high-value businesses and build up 1.5 million USD in their sales pipeline.
Startups.com’s Podcast
Startup.com is an online startup accelerator that deploys content marketing by hosting a podcast called Startup Therapy Podcast. While tackling pain points and answering questions that startups face, the hosts, who are serial entrepreneurs, boosted the company’s credibility.
360Learning’s Reality Show
With its full-fledged reality TV show, Onboarding Joei, or, as they refer to it, “unscripted docu-series,” 360Learning goes above and beyond. Currently in its second season, the show follows Joei as she begins working for a tech business.
The show demonstrates how Joei finds out about her job, the company’s culture, and her responsibilities, among other things. It’s about Joei’s transition into her role.
This theme aligns well with 360Learning’s B2B marketing idea of assisting businesses in transforming their internal experts into trainers and streamlining the professional development process for all parties.
Chris Walker’s Founder Brand
Chris Walker is the founder and CEO of a demand generation agency called Refine Labs. He is also a great example of how founders can use their brand to market their company.
With a clear strategy for content marketing in mind, his posts, comments, and topics he engages in are related only to demand generation topics. This allows him to increase Refine Labs’ brand awareness as a founder, thought leader, and personal branding.
With the help of content marketing, he can also market to his B2B audience and improve business credibility and engagement.
Dave Gerhardt’s Viral Video
When creating this video, entrepreneur Dave Gerhardt used the perfect balance of humor and offbeat thinking.
With almost no promotions, the video carried the quirky message: ‘Life is too short to work for a CEO that doesn’t get marketing.’ It quickly went viral, with more authenticity than a regular video marketing ad.
The only reason it was recorded as a B2B marketing idea was the CTA at the end of the video, which increased the brand recognition to the tune of how many impressions the video created.
Conclusion
With 2024 quickly approaching, it is more important than ever for businesses to invest in the current booming B2B marketing ideas and trends. Hopefully, these trends and success stories have got you eager to get cracking on B2B marketing ideas of your own.
And this is where we come in! At Wittypen, we are seasoned experts in the field, well-versed in achieving your marketing goals.
So what are you waiting for? Stay ahead of the curve and reach out to us as the opportune moment to channel that marketing energy is now!
FAQs
What are some innovative B2B marketing strategies for 2024?
Innovative B2B marketing ideas for 2024 would include increased use of social media platforms like Instagram, leveraging AI and automation to generate and streamline leads, and using account-based marketing.
How can personalized marketing boost B2B success?
Personalized marketing allows for increased engagement with customers. Instead of generic content delivered to a large group of customers, segmented marketing considers target audiences’ interests and behaviors, boosting B2B lead generation and sales.
What role does AI play in B2B marketing in 2024?
AI helps collect large amounts of data and, with the help of AI algorithms, can help offer enhanced and personalized insights into B2B decision-makers. In 2024, the role of AI will be in data analytics, enhanced customer experience, and lead generation.
How can social media advertising benefit B2B businesses?
With B2B businesses gaining a foothold in their brand personas and voices, social media advertising and its vast user base dramatically boost brand recognition and customer engagement.
Why is data-driven decision-making crucial for B2B growth?
Data-driven decision-making is crucial as it enables enhanced personalization of content for customers and helps measure marketing performance metrics such as lead conversion rate and sales revenue. With data-driven decision-making, B2B marketing ideas can be adapted to the changes in market dynamics.
