These are the best B2B marketing strategies for 2023 based on current trends. Get access to the 10 best tips leading into the new year.
Marketing has undergone a transformation over the last several years as technology has continued to develop. Although a great deal of marketing was already moving toward digital, the trend accelerated enormously to where decision-makers prefer to interact with vendors remotely for the entire buying process.
A hybrid work model is here to stay and so is AI, which is also shaking up digital marketing leaving some marketing directors unsure about the future. And while AI is still on tentative footing, it still offers many valuable time-saving benefits and insights.
We’ll walk you through the best B2B marketing strategies for 2023 that will help you connect with your customers.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. And in just two months, the app had 100 million active monthly users, making it the fastest-growing app of all time. That alone should tell you that people are interested in AI and its ability to generate content quickly.
But AI in content planning and development is nothing new. Many SEO tools have been providing topic ideas, keyword clusters, content outlines and key points for a few years now. And in fact, these tools are still better for SEO purposes than having ChatGPT write a blog for you.
Why? ChatGPT content is still in its earliest phases and has so much to learn. It lacks a clear story arc with a closing that ties back to the beginning like people enjoy reading. It doesn’t know how to build in keyword clusters and touch on related questions people might be asking.
Google has stated it can detect AI-written content and your website will suffer if you publish such content. Your best course of action is still to write your own content or work with a skilled copywriter.
The power of AI for SEO is in creating stronger frameworks for website content and blogs. You’ll find the best tools still in an SEO program and not the flashy new tool that amassed so many users in such short a time.
ChatGPT can be helpful for drafting other types of content, such as email marketing campaigns, internal communications programs or social media posts. But you should still review the content carefully and adjust it to match your brand’s voice and tone.
Seamless AI is a good tool for creating high-quality cold email lists. But like other AI tools, you have to know how to use these email lists to warm up the leads and remove uninterested parties quickly to avoid harming your brand.
As systems get smarter thanks to AI and better programming, consumers expect immediacy even more. Companies that were still holding onto personal follow-up from a representative have found it is certainly time to embrace marketing automation and the value it brings.
Marketing automation is completely customizable, even allowing you to send out follow-up emails from a representative based on a territory or other segmenting information. So everything will still look personal but your representatives will have more time to work with the warm leads and your prospects will get an impressive first interaction with your company.
The more personalized the marketing automation experience is, the more it will help warm up marketing leads. Drafting various buying journeys within your software will produce the best results because it offers the most customized experience.
An astounding 70 percent of decision-makers prefer digital interactions with their vendors. And according to the research, that trend will continue to grow for the next 5 years.
Gone are the days of marketing creating an introduction for the salesperson to visit the customer. Now customers can schedule their video conference with the salesperson the moment they see an ad for your company.
A major shift that has contributed to this trend is the fact that millennials have become decision-makers. Baby boomers started retiring around 2010 and Gen X slowly overtook them to become the largest generation in the workforce. But by 2016, millennials outnumbered Gen X workers and remain the dominant force today.
Millennials grew up with technology and are extremely comfortable using it. They can hardly remember the days before their smartphone was always in their hand and they are skilled at using that smartphone to find the products and services they need to succeed in business.
Slowly, social media is taking over as a prime way to generate leads, and companies need to adapt their lead generation funnels accordingly. Social media allows customers to interact with your business and has become the primary way consumers are first introduced to a brand.
This means that social media ad spend has seen a small increase over the last few years, and that trend will likely continue into 2023 as marketers continue to see traction with meeting prospects on social media.
If you’re going to automate customized interactions with customers and prospects, you have to know them, including their pain points and challenges. Instead of focusing on topics, marketers need to focus on what’s driving the customer to seek out solutions like your product.
No longer can you blindly market the benefits your product offers. You have to take it one step further in knowing with great depth and clarity what drives your customer. Buyer personas are not just a cute way to describe who your customers are. Personas should inform everything you do in your B2B marketing strategy for 2023.
Understanding your customers will help you develop content that matches their search intent. It will help you show that you understand your customers when you’re interacting with them early on in the sales funnel. And it could be the driving force behind your customer choosing you when the decision-making time comes.
When we say content, many people automatically think of written text. While that’s one powerful form of content, it certainly isn’t the only one.
Searchers now have options for how they view information related to their searches. They can see audio files, examine images and play videos directly from the search engine. And as such, your company’s content needs to be in all these places.
Content in 2023 is multi-channel. You’ll need the best graphs and depictions that showcase your value and answer questions about your industry. But you’ll also need engaging and helpful video that shows your customer the value that you bring.
Speaking of content, the best content you can develop is original research and thought leadership that makes you stand out from your peers. Research can help you build trust with your potential customers. And it shows you’re in tune with the industry in a profound and meaningful way.
You cannot just write content to generate website traffic because, at this point, everyone is doing that. Instead, you need to develop content that demonstrates your influence in the marketplace and makes a customer know they want what you have.
As new communication methods and technology have entered the B2B marketing space, companies have adopted them quickly. But it has meant managing up to a dozen different software programs and looking for ways to integrate them.
But as technology has developed, we also have greater options for all-in-one platforms that handle everything from CRM to online chat. All-in-one software, like HubSpot, offers greater customer insights as we can integrate all activities that we’re engaging in. And we can see every touchpoint with our customers to better understand their impact and the needs of these customers.
Now is the time to rethink your technology. Everything from website hosts to payment gateways is an opportunity for improving your customer experience and offering your company greater insights into what matters most to your customers.
Testing different messages, layouts, images, etc. is nothing new. But with improved technology, it’s easier than ever to complete A/B testing to learn more about our customers. You can test everything from email messages to landing page design to understand your customers in a whole new way.
Where you place a call to action button and what that button looks like could be a driving force behind the number of conversions you experience. But you’ll never know until you run a test. Speaking to customer needs in a subject line could be less impactful than using numbers to grab attention. But again, you won’t know until you test it.
Each customer base is unique and requires different strategies. So even if you have well-written personas and think you know your customers, take time to get to know them even better using A/B testing. And make sure you’re retesting at least annually to make sure you’re still using the best strategies that resonate with your customers.
No one knows for certain what 2023 has in store for B2B marketing. But one thing is certain – technology will continue to be a driving force and those who lag behind in adapting to millennial buyers who want a fast, digital experience will likely watch their competitors take over their industry.
New Light Digital is a modern digital marketing agency offering forward-thinking methods that deliver results for lead generation and sales. For the best B2B marketing strategies for 2023, schedule a free consultation with us to discuss your goals for the year ahead.
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