B2B Marketing trends in 2023

Last week we looked ahead for what 2023 will hold for industry trends, which included predictions about the rise of businesses in the sustainability and Ai sectors.?

Now we’ll take a closer look at the marketing trends that all B2B businesses should know for 2023. No matter how great your product or service is, without a strategic marketing campaign, you can’t expect to continue growing your startup.?

As the business landscape continues to evolve, so do the strategies and tactics that companies use to reach and engage with their target audiences. In the B2B world, staying on top of the latest trends is crucial for staying competitive and driving growth.

As one can expect, the uncertain economic conditions and aftermath of Covid has changed what once worked for B2B marketing. Additionally, the rise of Ai and digital technologies has narrowed the rift between buyer and seller. More reliant than other generations on social media and devices, Millennials and Gen-Z make up the majority of B2B consumption, which also changes the mindset of the B2B marketer.?

While there are plenty of strategies that will undoubtedly become best practice for B2B marketers in 2023, we stuck with these three main predictions.?

1) Strengthen your marketing strategy for changing consumer habits

This is all about addressing buyer behavior and understanding not only what it is they want to buy, but also through what channels.?

One way in which B2B businesses can do this is via influencer marketing. Through the continued dependence on social media, the traditional ways consumers chose why they want to buy a product has changed and are instead basing their buying choices off indirect sources. While influencers may or may not pick up on your product on their own, B2B businesses can create partnerships with them to adjust to the changing consumer landscape.

Some examples of how B2B companies can use influencer marketing include:

• Partnering with industry experts to create educational content, such as webinars, white-papers, and blog posts.
• Collaborating with key decision-makers to create customer testimonials and case studies.
• Leveraging the reach and credibility of influencers to promote new products or services.

It's important for B2B companies to carefully select the right influencers for their target audience and ensure that the messaging aligns with the company's overall marketing strategy.

Partnerships aren’t just for influencers, however. Finding businesses with similar customer bases, but from other industries are fantastic opportunities for launching referral programs.

2) Develop your demand generation strategies

The debate between more traditional lead generation and demand generation is prevalent more than ever as we go into 2023.

Lead generation (lead gen) typically involves capturing contact information, such as a name and email address, from people who express interest in the business's offerings. The goal of lead generation is to build a list of qualified leads that can be nurtured and converted into paying customers.

Still not completely developed, demand generation (demand gen) is a broader marketing strategy that focuses on creating awareness and interest in a company's products or services in order to drive sales. This includes content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and events.?

While lead generation is a component of demand generation, demand generation also includes creating a positive brand perception, building thought leadership and establishing a strong market presence.

2023 will be an excellent year for B2B marketers to fully build out the demand gen playbook. Rather than repeating predictable processes, demand gen will push marketers to creatively build on existing strategies.?

3) Diversify content and provide value over everything else

What ties both demand gen development and adjusting to changes in buyer behavior is diversifying the content you produce and making sure it is value-driven above all else.

Creating content won’t just be typing up some blog posts and calling it a day. Short-form video content created specifically for certain platforms will continue to be huge for B2B startups.?

There are several ways to use video content, particularly in B2B. It can effectively communicate complex information and ideas in a visually engaging and easily digestible format, and be used to demonstrate a product or service in action, showcase customer testimonials, and build trust with potential customers. Video also allows for easy sharing and can be used across a variety of platforms, making it a versatile marketing tool.?

Most importantly, B2B marketers will need to continually ensure that all the content they are producing provides direct value to their audience. Whether that be through testimonials or thought-leading, value driven content will build trust through the brand, which will only increase its credibility.?

There are a lot of changes occurring with what seem to be daily ground-breaking innovations in tech. While these innovations will definitely come of use, what’s important for B2B marketers to remember is sticking to human-to-human connection and personalization. Whether that’s by using influencers or speaking directly to your customers via a video testimonial, this is the underlying trend that will drive all others in marketing for 2023.