Top B2B Marketing Trends for 2024

(Source)

The dynamic world of marketing is constantly changing, forcing professionals to regularly update their knowledge and skills. The year 2024 is no exception, as new and exciting trends are emerging – some can dramatically affect the way we interact with our audiences.

It’s AI again

The use of AI tools has become an undeniable trend embedded in the daily routine of every marketer. However, does it affect the quality of content?

Generally, AI needs to be dosed correctly and its role in the facilitation of certain aspects of your work needs to be considered very carefully. However, it is not advisable to outsource your ads or texts for your content strategy – and even more so the expert articles – to AI. The more unique, lively and native such pieces are – the better.

In everyday routine, it is recommended to use Microsoft Copilot, as it has built-in GPT-4, which is relevant to the paid version of Open AI’s chat GPT. Google’s Gemini and Deepl Write have also proven to be good for working with texts.

In addition, it is advisable for all marketers to check sentence structures with the help of AI in Grammarly to sound more correct for the native speakers. Microsoft has released Designer, a service that allows quick generation of AI visuals on a given topic, which can sometimes be useful for social media.

As for advertising tools, back in 2023, Google announced several new AI features for Google Ads. One of the most interesting is the semi-autonomous creation of advertising assets. After a few prompts, Google Asset Creation for Performance Max creates custom images, videos, and text for your campaign. The validity of any automation for your particular case should, of course, be tested in a real-life situation.

TikTok Creative Assistant can help to simplify the creation of content for the social network. It works like a chatbot – you give it ideas for posts and advertising scenarios related to your brand, or ask it to show similar TikToks and receive some feedback in order to get inspiration and generate your own videos.

Facebook has AI at the heart of Advantage+, a continuous improvement tool for targeted advertising. The platform uses machine learning to automatically adjust ad targeting based on pixel data, clickstream history, and the audience that interacts with your content. It’s a cool feature that helps optimize budgets and time spent testing simple targeted campaigns.

With every marketing platform and social media outlet competing for your advertising budgets, you can expect more and more automation and simplification with the help of AI. In fact, it’s not like there’s a risk to the profession in the widespread use of AI, because the ability to apply all these tools to speed up, optimize, and simplify will still be moderated by a professional.

By the way, many ERP and CRM products have also introduced Copilot virtual assistants designed to simplify the user experience and make working with systems more efficient. The same is true for popular email platforms like MailChimp or the visual editor CanvaPro. Currently, the quality is far from satisfactory, but – provided there are high-quality prompts and a good AI model – text-related content can be really beneficial for marketers and sales teams.

We will see in a couple of years which of these innovations will take root. Not everyone today uses the once much-hyped Alexa or Siri, so let’s cool down and take a look at the real life situation later.

Video content

Content marketing is traditionally in the spotlight. Articles are a must, good platforms for distribution are always in demand, and proper testing of topics for coverage and readability is quite a serious task.

But the main trend is video content. And yes, in 2024, we still lack relevant professional video content for the B2B sector. This is also due to the fact that the potential target audience wants to remain incognito, and the generation of video content, podcasts, serial interviews, or articles is a project that requires constant injections of effort and money. Stakeholders don’t see audience growth and get burned out. Most B2B podcasts come and go in a flash. Mainly because it’s really hard to gather a large enough audience to justify the effort.

But even now you should expect a new class of podcasts to emerge with the main goal now divorced from attracting listeners. That is, it will become a way to communicate and strengthen self-brands, form micro-communities, and generate discussions without advertising or massive reach.

Now, keep in mind that your audio or video podcast can engage different focus audiences through guest speakers and collaborations. Add convenient formats like shorts, reels, TikTok, and keep in mind that video content is 40% more likely to be shared than text content. Thus, you can start working with the decision-makers regarding your products – they will trust your expertise and your personal brand.

Also, we’ll see B2B marketers using video in more creative ways. For example, short clips posted on LinkedIn can be a link to attract new subscribers to your YouTube channel.

It’s important to note that if you’re still not generating video content as a B2B marketer and you’re worried about the quality of the shooting, editing, speakers, availability of ready-made content – congratulations, it’s not that important anymore. You don’t need a team, expensive equipment, and dozens of hours to edit each video. A simple, authentic video in which you talk about a complex topic in clear terms will attract the attention of your target audience because it’s relevant to the request. Simplify the complex. In small steps. And do it regularly. This is how you create value content about a product or service without advertising.

An important psychological aspect: many people nowadays have a growing sense of loneliness, which is why there is a trend for long videos, reviews, interviews, stories, and even city walks. This is not a unique content, but its main task is to create the illusion of live communication in our digitalized world (hi there, all the fans of the Black Mirror series).

And don’t forget to do cross-sharing with active hyperlinks in all your social networks, involving your professional community or LinkedIn contacts in these actions.

These Zoomers

TikTok is becoming increasingly popular for promoting B2B products and services. The entertainment network has become a powerful tool. Older members of Gen Z are turning into key decision makers in fast-growing businesses, and we need to communicate our products or services through all available channels to reach this demographic.

One more thing to remember – this network and Instagram have literally started to replace search engines: 3/5 of Zoomers say they would prefer a short video platform to Google when searching for answers and products. So when looking for suppliers for work or trying to learn something about a particular product or service, it’s safe to assume that they’ll go to TikTok to do it.

B2B communities

This is nothing new: join professional communities, network, create your own communities. Be active in crowd marketing – comment on posts that are relevant to your customers’ pain points in an expert and non-promotional way.

Systematically expand your circle of contacts on LinkedIn. Warm up your expertise by demonstrating knowledge, experience, and your opinion on trending events, bills, and releases. Mix corporate content and promotions with value-based content in a ratio of 3/7 in favor of the latter.

Brand ambassadors

The strategy of recruiting several corporate mouthpieces is considered somewhat risky. But it works, because a B2B service or product often requires a referral, and if there is none, yet your potential clients regularly see a demonstration of expertise in their feed, then on a subconscious level, this translates into a similar sense of security. That is, a potential customer will be more likely to contact you when the need arises. This is the so-called “influencer marketing” – a long game, but the sales cycle for business services is also quite long.

It works not only on LinkedIn and not only for sales. If we talk about some HR brands, the presence of brand ambassadors among the team who are happy to share their career experiences, do storytelling on client cases, repost news, announcements, photo reports – it is a huge boost for recruitment and positioning among target candidates. It’s also a kind of introduction to the company’s culture and values, which helps you sift through candidates who are relevant to your worldview and vision at the feedback stage.

So, don’t hesitate to motivate and engage your employees in generating valuable content about your company, services, or products. It’s a win-win: the employee grows, fulfills ambitions, feels important, and you have a brand ambassador for your target audience.

Unique data

Various studies, analytics, deep dives into the topic, tutorials and personal interviews with customers, etc. are of great value here. This is definitely the content that has a practical purpose.

Almost every company has customers, and they are a great source of stories and opinions about your industry or product. You can talk to them about how they use it, what advice they could give to businesses – touching on industry issues like that can create a lively discussion. The idea is to use their original experience to educate others and create unique content.

Conclusion

As of 2024, it is only the synergy of all tools and multichannel activity that can produce real results. A B2B marketer is a full stack specialist, visionary, and strategist. We juggle words, visuals, and channels of contact with our target audience to find an effective strategy. Thus, it’s vital to keep up the pace, believe in ourselves, and be inspired to grow.