Having the latest martech stacks is critical for successful marketing, yet most brands have failed to understand its crucial role in 2020. Going forward in 2021, marketers must watch out for innovative tools that will help to generate more leads and sales.
The B2B marketing landscape has been completely transformed, thanks to the rapid adoption of marketing automation and other innovative technologies to survive the COVID-19. Rahul Sachdev, CEO, Fortella, says, “The pandemic accelerated digital transformation for every company – large and small. Like every business function, B2B Marketers have gone ‘all digital’.”
Yet, many brands are still struggling to learn the importance of going digital and are not able to leverage technology stacks to their advantage. Even though many B2B marketers have a formal marketing plan, it won’t be as effective as it was in the pre-COVID scenario, unless it is transformed to meet the demands of the new normal. Hence, brands must incorporate the use of a structured framework to develop a workable plan and constantly iterate to improve the process.
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Below are a few trends that brands must keep an eye on to increase their leads and sales in 2021:
Having a foolproof plan
Though having a formal plan in place won’t seem to help in the currently dynamic marketing space, brands must still have a plan in place. If not there’s a likely chance, they will miss on opportunities and B2B marketing activities.
In 2021, brands should focus on experimenting and use a combination of in-house and out-sourced expertise. This enables them to get the best RoI from their out-source investment, and at the same time allows them to invest in external resources when it is necessary.
Leveraging Email & Social Media
When looking at the success of B2B organizations in 2020, email has emerged as a critical component of their success. Most of them admit that implementing email in the marketing strategy has enabled them to drastically increase their ROI.
Targeted Email communication enables brands to build customer trust, increasing their chances of conversion. Apart from Email marketing, Social media can play a key role in gaining trust in B2B marketing. By delivering the right content and retargeting, brands can maintain interest among their user-base.
Focusing on Customer Experience
Delivering an exceptional customer experience has played a key role in the success of many brands in 2020. To keep the momentum going, they are trying different ways to further enhance their customer experience offering.
“Prioritizing customer experiences really hit its stride in 2020 and will continue to dominate all categories of software in 2021 — especially when building software and tools for the no-code generation,” says Zeb Evans, CEO and Founder, ClickUp. He further adds, “Customization, ease of use, seamless integration, automation – these will become the expected features instead of the competitive edge and will greatly impact long term adoption of a tool or platform.”
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Investing in Revenue Based Metrics
2020 has been a struggle for CMOs to get the required budgets for their team. Most had to let go of their employees and operate with an extremely stringent budget. However, experts predict the scenario will change in 2021.
To gain the required traffic and traction, brands are expected to increase their investment in marketing, specifically the ones that promise a greater ROI. According to Rahul Sachdev, “B2B Marketers who focus on revenue-based metrics such as pipeline and bookings will reap the rewards of these digital investments and will be the big winners.
Our recent study of B2B Marketers shows that two out of three B2B marketing cite revenue generation as their primary responsibility. However being a revenue focused marketer requires a different strategy. Our study found that top-performing marketers — those driving a return on investment of 7x or above — do a better job of audience segmentation, have better sales alignment and more standardized processes, and are more focused on getting access to high quality data and measurement.”
To keep the businesses intact and survive and thrive in the post-pandemic era, which hopefully begins with 2021, brands should religiously follow the above trends.
