B2C (business-to-consumer) marketing and B2B (business-to-business) marketing differ in their respective strategies, applications, targeted audiences, and the way they communicate with prospective customers. B2B targets more than individuals: the challenges, interests, and needs of individuals buying on behalf of, or for, their organisation.

As the calendar winds down, you must prepare for the B2B marketing strategies you will implement in 2023. It’s not child’s play to research and understand forthcoming trends and predict what will thrive. 

However, some B2B marketing trends are best to consider in 2023. From video marketing to social selling, here are some of the best B2B marketing strategies that could benefit your business next year.

Video marketing

Whether advertising on YouTube or creating videos for your social media accounts, video marketing is among the most effective ways to catch visitors’ attention. You can use this tool on any social media platform, both in advertisements and organically. 

And no matter if it’s a multi-minute compilation or a six-second bumper advertisement, video marketing is nowadays one of the most efficient and popular methods of capturing your targeted audience’s attention. Video has an online usage reach of more than 90% nowadays, with marketers increasingly embracing video as a promotional tool as the number of video consumers grows year-on-year. 

Businesses that embrace video marketing usually enjoy the following advantages:

• Increased user understanding of products and services

• Improved lead generation game

• Increased brand awareness

• Reduced support calls

• More traffic and sales.

Social selling

B2B companies must take advantage of social media because it shows no sign of slowing down in 2023 and beyond. It’s a powerful tool; to profit from it, you must understand your target market. You can’t escape B2B research because it’s crucial. It helps identify consumer concerns, needs, and pain points, which aid in creating an effective digital marketing campaign. 

B2B research also helps determine your industry’s risks and opportunities and better understand your competition. You should look beyond your company when creating effective marketing media and track your progress as the months pass by. Similarly, you should look beyond the needs that are being met by some of your competitors and seek out unmet needs you can satisfy to reach a wider audience.

You can’t benefit from social selling if you don’t listen to your audience’s voice, analyse your competitors, and determine strong and weak points in your industry, and that’s why B2B research is important.

Besides enhanced branding, you’re also catching internet users’ attention and delivering the proper message through effective research for your social selling strategy, which is among the top reasons why you’re implementing B2B strategies in the first place.  

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has become a massive trend for B2C companies, and not only. B2B companies have started to jump on the bandwagon, too. For example, Cisco, a networking and communication corporation, collaborated with celebrities and influencers to promote their products online and at conferences. They produced high social media engagement rates, besides exposing their brand to a broader audience—that of those influencers’ followers. 

There are many ways to take advantage of influencer marketing, even though mastering it isn’t child’s play and can become complex and costly. However, if you’re effectively running such a campaign, you may benefit from the following aspects:

• The “halo effect”. This concept refers to the tendency for one positive attribute of a product, company, brand, or person to positively influence feelings or opinions in other areas. Simply put, if you’re in a highly competitive industry, influencers and creators can create the “halo effect”, boost confidence in your company’s offerings, and inspire purchases. 

• Increased value. When you do it correctly, a creator’s content can provide plenty of value to your audience. From partnering with chefs to create recipes to working with artists to film video tutorials, there are many ways in which brands worldwide collaborate with creators.

• Avoided ad blockers. Most internet users skip YouTube’s ads. However, they’re tuning into their beloved creators and are more prone to watch an influencer testing and promoting your product or service.

Blogging

Blogging has grown in popularity, and for good reason. You’re connecting with more potential customers by presenting your products online and reaching out to a broader audience through blogs. Because you are exchanging your knowledge for theirs, blogging is a win-win situation for both your organisation and your clients. You may remarket to them on social media by using their website visit and utilise your website visitor identification software to contact them directly. Once your blog is up and running, it’s easy to manage, and no matter how many articles a month you’re posting, they will still boost your website traffic.

Here are some tips for creating a successful business blog in minutes:

• Pick a blogging service

• Host your blog on your main website

• Consider your ideal site visitors

• Brainstorm business-related keywords

• Write your first blog posts.

Website personalisation

B2B website personalisation is gaining ground in digital marketing. It is about the ability to change the view of your website according to your website visitor’s geographic location, industry, demographics, and even the organisation they work at. When prospective clients conduct research, this technology may help your business stand out from the crowd.

Because you’re displaying your clients a customised representation of your webpage based on their individual needs, website personalisation can also increase your conversion rate and lower your bounce rate.

Now that you’ve covered the B2B marketing trends for 2023, assess their success.

Tracking and evaluating the new B2B marketing trends and deciding which ones to take advantage of is critical since you’ll want to know if the tools used are providing a good R.O.I. 

Compare your current data to the previous year’s data to discover if your numbers are improving. Remember that every new marketing trend you explore will have different ways to measure success. Another good tip is to set S.M.A.R.T goals for 2023.

A lot goes into developing new marketing strategies. However, whether you want to start a blog or make minor changes to your current marketing approach, B2B marketing trends may help your business flourish if you use them wisely.