B2B trends to expect in 2022

With the pandemic still having dramatic effects on businesses worldwide, keeping on top of B2B marketing trends and including them in your 2022 marketing plan is as important as ever. It can determine where your marketing resources and efforts should be directed.

We’ve consulted several worldwide B2B marketing experts to identify the top trends B2B marketers can expect in 2022.

1. Make measuring ROI of marketing a priority

Number one on the list of expected B2B marketing trends in 2022 is to prioritise monitoring ROI (return on investment) of your marketing activities – identifying what’s working and what isn’t.

That’s easier said than done as some platforms are far easier to track than others.

Facebook marketing continues to be an ROI winner – it’s quick, cheap, and easy to measure. It’s important to know that social media marketing is now overall the number one marketing channel, beating even brand websites and emails.

As a B2B marketer, you should be monitoring the ROI of your marketing activities to ensure you’re getting a big enough bang for your buck.

2. Choose influencer marketing to grow your audience

With online shopping at an all-time high, it has become crucial for your brand identity to be relevant in the social media sphere. Influencer marketing has ballooned and will only get bigger in 2022.

Needless to say, marketers are turning evermore to influencers. Influencers can reach an audience whose attention you might find difficult to grab with other paid marketing.

The smart strategy is to choose the influencer wisely. A well-chosen micro-influencer can have a greater impact than one with a larger audience where your product gets lost in the maelstrom.

3. Create case study endorsements for effective marketing

Quite simply, case studies are inspiring. They are living demonstrations of your product in practice.

Case studies help to explain the product or brand in situ and how it can be a success for potential customers.

Case studies can be produced in various formats. Videos are a highly effective and easy-to-digest form of information and are quickly growing in popularity – see point 6 below. They can be used across multiple platforms and don’t take a great deal of time or money to create.

4. Increase brand awareness for long-term success

Brand awareness is the key driver to securing long-term trust and loyalty. It is seen as being even more important than increasing engagement, advertising products, lead generation and deal closure. Clearly, marketers are thinking long-term.

A key word is ‘trust’. Paying attention to customer needs is vital, which needs to be supported by a reliable product with ongoing enhancements.

Many people have been almost expecting businesses to fail during the pandemic. That’s why it’s important to maintain contact and awareness, and let customers know you are still there for them. Strong brand awareness will help you ride out the highs and lows of current consumer behaviour and help you emerge as robust as ever.

5. Use an online content approval system

With remote working at an all-time high, an online proofing tool for your creative content is essential for many brands.

It keeps track of the creative process, who has seen a job and who has made changes without the need for traditional forms of communication. It’s a powerful tool to ensure content filters through the approval process while maintaining an audit trail.

An online content approval system could streamline your creative workflow.

6. Use video channels for marketing

Video storytelling has become the fastest growing type of content. The rise of TikTok is largely responsible, and so too is the increased use of YouTube. It has been shown that viewers retain significantly more information from a video than from text.

TikTok now has over 1 billion monthly active users and is hard to ignore as a marketing channel. Many brands are using it to reach their audience and present product demonstrations in a creative way.

While Facebook and Instagram remain popular, LinkedIn should be considered as a platform for posting B2B videos. As always, it depends on your audience to get the best results.

7. Improve your website

It’s important to get the CX (customer experience) of your website right. Websites that are difficult to navigate or are slow to load are a turn-off for users.

Google hates slow-loading web pages and will punish them in the rankings. Marketers are realising that reducing load speed will help their page rank higher, leading to greater click rates.

Furthermore, personalisation of websites can add a powerful new dimension to your website. By using Automation capabilities, content on your website, such as headlines and images, can be personalised to the individual.

Keep an eye on…

AI (Artificial Intelligence) helps to make content creation more efficient by leveraging customer data to anticipate their next move and improve the customer journey. It’s a growing force in B2B marketing.

NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are becoming big business. Non-fungible, in simple terms, means unique and irreplaceable. Think of it as buying a piece of online art and having exclusive ownership. B2B marketers are using it to provide tokens to access limited edition content.

And… genuinely help a charity

Another expected trend in 2022 is that brands will be seen to align themselves more closely with charities and social causes.

Instead of jumping on the cause of the day and simply sharing a social media post as a show of support, companies will devote genuine resources to supporting a charity or social cause throughout the year.

Icon helps you stay up-to-date

Keeping up with marketing trends in the B2B world is not easy. There are so many choices, so many avenues, so many demands. It can seem like you need to turn your strategy around on a dime.

It’s good to know that Icon Visual Marketing is here to help.

Our expert B2B marketing team can help you keep your marketing plan on-trend and relevant.

We can work with you to map out a strategic plan and make the most effective marketing choices, ensuring your goals are met, your brand identity is strengthened, and you come in within budget.

Read more about the work we do for our clients, drop us a line, or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.