Are you the one who’s going ahead with their preparations for the year? Check out these 7 useful digital marketing trends for your B2B in 2018 to get more customer attention.
People all over the world are making resolutions for the year and preparing to make it a success. And the digital marketers in the B2B world are not behind! They are one step ahead of their preparations for the year. They have already set out to shake hands with the developments in digital marketing that are expected to conquer the B2B world in 2018.
Digital marketers are looking forward to a transformation in 2018 and are training themselves for it. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, and Virtual Reality, etc., are expected to be a gateway to digital marketing trends in 2018. Such trends will drive the way marketers interact with B2B customers and allow them to offer a more personalized experience.
Indeed, 2018 is set to be a year in which digital marketers in B2B will leverage these technologically advanced trends in their marketing strategies to customize the purchasing journey of B2B customers. This write-up sheds light on all those developments that would allow B2B’s digital marketers to gain a competitive advantage for a successful year ahead.
So, without much delay, let ‘s talk about the 7 not-to-miss B2B digital marketing trends in 2018.
1.Increased Personalization With Artificial Intelligence
Personalized marketing remained the focus of B2B marketers in 2017 and would continue to grow in 2018. Testing the website, segmenting the B2B customers, and eventually providing individualized experience to each customer will become the top marketing strategy. And Artificial Intelligence ( AI) will provide constant support in the form of customer data for the offering of personalization to B2B buyers.
Whether it’s one-to-one messaging for individual rewards, smart anticipation product recommendation, fast & smart chatbot interaction, or optimized transmission frequency, AI will do the work for marketers.
2.Video Marketing For Higher Engagement
Fuelled by social media, video marketing has become a popular medium for content consumption. YouTube, with 42 million unique monthly viewers and other video sources, gives advertisers more incentives. Integrating videos into the B2B purchaser’s journey will be the top trend to improve engagement.
As 80 % of users prioritize live videos over blog posts, an exponential increase in the use of live videos (especially professional ones) is also on the cards. Video streaming consumption will also continue to grow and be key to the mobile marketing strategy of digital B2B marketers in 2018.
3.Integration Of Augmented Reality With Social Media
Augmented Reality is not a new concept for social media. Through face filers on Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, taking AR to every phone device, digital marketing will also see AR’s convergence through social media. Integrating AR into social media advertisements and posts shared on these sites would make it possible for B2B marketers to experience a higher level of buyer engagement.
IKEA is already preparing to use this ingenious technology to show the appearance of a particular piece of furniture in the house even before purchase. Several other companies will hop on the AR bandwagon, exhibiting their lifelike products on social media to drive B2B consumers further into the sales funnel.
4.Hyperlocal Targeting Smartphone Users
According to a 2017 research by Junto, more than 18% of the local searches made on mobile devices reap sales in less than 24 hours. Google Posts and Facebook Local, introduced in 2017, have allowed buyers to search on a more localized platform. This will increase the number of local searchers and customers on the B2B site exponentially.
In 2018, the digital world of B2B will eventually become hyperlocal. Marketers should pay more attention to using the digital world to reach and interact with B2B customers doing local searches. In Reality, major brands will also enter the local market to target local searchers and buyers.
5.Machine Learning To Power Marketing Automation
Machine learning is expected to take an upward swing in 2018 and drive marketing automation for highly segmented marketing. As of now, 50.4% of businesses do not use any form of segmented targeting for their audiences. Yet machine learning will fuel marketing automation and start segmenting B2B customers according to their purchasing behavior.
The analytical process called ‘clustering’ will be used to evaluate, organize, and segment data into small clusters. Besides, machine learning would allow marketing automation to analyze this customer data in real-time, thereby enabling it to send instant push notification for an ultra-relevant transaction. Marketing automation, powered by machine learning, would offer personalization and make the buyer ‘s journey frictionless.
6.Big Data For Lifecycle Marketing
Lifecycle marketing will become the leading trend in providing personalization in B2B marketing Companies that have used big data for personalized lifecycle marketing have agreed to earn 10 % higher revenue. Further companies will use this important tool to improve their ROI this year. In 2018, big data, showing customer actions, will allow marketers to set up specific offers and deliver B2B buyers at the right time on their buying journey.
It would offer personalization at all stages of the sales process, making it difficult for the customer to leave empty-handed. Marketers will analyze consumer behavior data to determine their buying stage and use it to send out ultra-personalized deals and offers to lock up sales.
7.Growth Of Voice Marketing
Voice search was a trend that came to the fore in 2017. It changed the way B2B buyers searched search engines and created a ruckus for marketers in the digital landscape. Even Google said that more than 50 percent of all search queries on the search engine giant would become voice queries by 2020. With only two years left for 2020, B2B marketers would begin to focus more attention on voice queries in 2018.
These queries are not normal search queries but have a more conversational tone. Keywords in the text will be changed from short-tail to long-tail keywords in a conversational tone. Marketers will prepare for voice queries by adjusting their material to higher rankings.
And these are the top seven B2B digital marketing trends that B2B marketers can not miss in 2018. A careful analysis of these patterns shows that the year will be filled with excellent prospects for B2B marketers. They would get ways to reach out to the buyers to personalize their buying journey through various advancements in technology.
Having these trends in mind and integrating them into the marketing strategy would drive B2B customers further down the sales line and help marketers increase leads, lead generation, and, eventually sales.