B2B Marketer

As B2B marketers prepare for a new set of challenges, they're counting on ramping up their social media channels and virtual events throughout 2021 — and most likely beyond — to steel them for the future.

With lower-than-average CPMs, B2B companies are turning to digital advertising to combat the decline in their traditional marketing channels. This reallocation doesn’t equate dollar for dollar, but there has been enough of a budget shift to drive substantial growth via paid digital channels.

Across the country, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are suffering from closures, restrictions, and changes brought about by the novel coronavirus, and many are scrambling to do what they can to stay in business. To help, a number of B2B brands, including Deluxe, Vistaprint, American Express, and The UPS Store, are developing tools, grants, and resources for SMBs.

With digital engagement accelerating, B2B marketers are starting to soup-up the look of their websites and other assets. However, many companies have a hard time connecting improved design with the top and bottom lines.

While the impact from the crisis has varied, most B2B sectors are scrambling for effective ways to boost their marketing efforts to retain customers and find new ones.

Despite the pandemic, the appetite among B2B buyers remains relatively strong. But marketers need to take this time to find more purposeful ways of serving their customers and prospects.

Brands have a growing opportunity to capitalize on the interest in B2B-related content and deliver value to audiences tasked with meeting business objectives in an uncertain environment.

Regardless of where B2B brands are on the social media spectrum, generating solid returns from LinkedIn requires careful planning, insight, and continued stick-to-itiveness.

Since coming aboard in 2018, UPS CMO Kevin Warren has been methodically rebuilding UPS’ marketing organization around what he calls “the new digital imperative.” Toppling traditional marketing tools is just one aspect of a multifaceted plan.

In a post-COVID world, digital interactions with customers and prospects will rise dramatically, and e-commerce transactions for expensive B2B purchases — long the domain of in-person sales — will become much more common.

The ongoing and dramatic changes in the workplace offer B2B marketers new opportunities to jump-start their digital communications, both internally and externally.

With most every brand having to recalibrate its digital capabilities, CMOs have a new opportunity to help shape their company’s future — and increase the overall value of marketing.

The implosion of live B2B events and the accelerating shift to a virtual model will require marketers to be both fast and nimble when crafting their online conferences.

B2B marketers continue to struggle with making the most of their growing marketing technology stack. A major part of the problem: Too many companies rely on individual technology purchases rather than foster an integrated approach.

Valerie Beaulieu, U.S. CMO at Microsoft, brings a highly balanced approach to B2B marketing to tackle the most pressing issues facing marketers.

With most every business reassessing overall spending due to the coronavirus outbreak, it’s an opportune time for B2B companies to reassess their email marketing strategy and ensure that the audiences receiving their emails are getting immediate value.

Being simpatico with vendors themselves — and not being in thrall to social media messaging or online reviews — can be highly influential in the B2B purchasing process.

With insightful customer data that can be shared with sales, B2B marketers can start to fracture the walls separating their sales and marketing organizations, enabling them finally to pursue revenue growth based on a collaborative, customer-first approach.

Companies that let marketers steer the sales-enablement process exceed their revenue goals much more so than brands that put sales reps in charge, says a new report. And the C-suite is taking note.

The onus is on marketers to spot regional or cultural trends that may impact their business category and/or products and services — even if the company lacks a significant global presence.