B2B marketing has evolved a lot in the past few years. This business sector has moved from impersonal cold calling to engaging digital brand building in a blink.
In 2021, the global B2B marketing size is valued at $7.72 trillion. This number is anticipated to reach $25.56 trillion by 2028.
Undoubtedly, B2B marketing is riding on a wild horse that is not stopping anytime soon. That means B2B brands need to keep an eye on the latest B2B marketing trends to grow their businesses in the coming years.
In 2022, many new and old B2B marketing trends will resurface to take digital marketing one step ahead. So, let’s buckle up and watch out for these 20 B2B marketing trends in 2022.
20 B2B Marketing Trends That’ll Decide Your Fate in 2022
B2B marketing has seen it all – innovative content marketing, creative social media marketing, influencer marketing, and more. But this doesn’t mean B2B marketing is done here.
No, in fact, B2B marketing will evolve more in the coming days, so you better be prepared for B2B marketing 2.0. And let’s start your preparations with these 20 B2B marketing trends:
1. Engaging content
Content marketing has always been a big B2B marketing trend. But in 2022, you can’t expect results by publishing a few SEO blogs on your website.
You have to personalize your content marketing efforts and produce high-quality but engaging content. Never forget that 52% of B2B customers will purchase after reading content on a vendor’s website.
Therefore, you have to produce a variety of content in 2022, like ebooks, infographics, research papers, and more.
2. Marketing automation
This is not a new B2B marketing trend. But you have to accelerate your marketing automation rate in 2022. The reason?
B2B brands are focusing on multiple-channel marketing today like email marketing, social media, content, and so on. For this, sales and marketing teams have to constantly collaborate and work on the same wavelength. And for that, it is important to arm them with the right marketing tools.
As per Zapier’s quarterly Automation Confidence Survey, 30% of employees believe that automation software can save business money and time. Therefore, you have to use various marketing tools in 2022, like:
- CRM tools to capture and nurture leads
- Data management and integration programs
- Social media marketing tools
3. Video marketing
Video marketing will take the front seat in 2022. According to a Cisco study, 82% of online traffic will be coming from videos by 2021.
Therefore, video marketing is the new B2B marketing trend that you can’t ignore today. Businesses have to create engaging video content to promote their services like product tutorials, testimonials, behind the scene videos, and more.
For example, Taulia is a boring and technical invoicing app. But the company has created a very funny video to excite people about their product.
4. Email marketing
No, email marketing isn’t dead. In fact, the global email marketing size is projected to increase up to $17.9 billion by 2027.
However, email marketing will be more personalized and targeted in 2022. Instead of blasting a standard email to random people, personalized emails will be sent based on the user’s intent and position in the sales pipeline.
So, B2B brands need to start segmenting their email lists today to prepare targeted email campaigns in 2022.
5. Account-based marketing
Lead scoring-enabled ABM or retention marketing will also make an appearance in 2022. In this marketing approach, marketers will retain existing customers rather than target new customers.
The benefit behind this B2B marketing strategy is that existing customers convert faster and fewer resources are required to nurture them. The current customers are already familiar with your products and work style, so there’s no need to educate them about your business.
6. Share real stories
Do you know 81% of consumers want to trust a brand before making a purchase decision?
That means you have to first earn your consumers’ trust before selling them. And for that, sharing real brand-building stories is helpful.
When you share stories like how you build your brand, which marketing strategies you followed, and how your team works together to build a customer-centric product, this bridges a gap between you and your customers. All these personal stories will help your customers to connect with your brand and trust it.
7. Visual marketing
Many people peg video and visual marketing the same. But both marketing approaches are separate. Visual marketing is an umbrella term under which all visual marketing aspects harness like infographics, stock images, and more. On the flip side, video marketing is all about video content.
Thus, visual marketing has a broader hemisphere, and it focuses on the overall visual identity of your brand. Under visual marketing, B2B brands have to focus on building an innovative visual presence by:
- Building an aesthetically appealing website
- Using high-quality stock images on the website
- Creating a business logo
- Selecting brand colors using color psychology, etc.
8. Social media marketing
Really? Well, we might sound like a broken record here. But social media marketing is something that B2B marketers can’t ignore in 2022.
According to the latest Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn benchmark reports, social media is the best way to grow organically. Plus, social networks give an opportunity to build a relationship with customers, understand pain points and monitor your business growth in real-time.
9. Mobile marketing
According to the SaleCycle 2021 Ecommerce Stats & Trends Report, 68% of online traffic was mobile-based in 2020. That means more people prefer to buy or search for brands on mobile rather than desktop.
Thus, you have to streamline your B2B marketing efforts for small screens. Whether you are designing websites or creating digital ads, keep mobile users in mind.
10. Use chatbots
Chatbots are yet not a new B2B marketing trend. But due to the pandemic, people are avoiding physical interactions and prefer to communicate with businesses virtually.
Unless you are using an automated call center system or CRM platform, it will become harder for you to provide virtual sales and help desk services to your global customers.
In this situation, chatbots can come handy. Using chatbots, you can provide immediate assistance to your customers without increasing the burden on your team. Chatbots can help to improve your online customer experience in no time.
11. Emotional marketing
B2B marketing has always been to the point. It is focused on products/services more. Thus, human emotions are never targeted by B2B marketers.
But it will change in 2022. B2B marketers have to steal a page from their fellow B2C marketers’ playbooks to stimulate emotions through marketing campaigns. Targeting social issues and audience pain points, B2B marketers have to create marketing strategies in 2022.
12. Voice marketing
Google says 27% of people prefer to use voice-based searches online. This means marketers have to explore voice-based marketing channels in 2022 to reach more people.
You have to optimize your content for voice search. Marketers need to manipulate tools like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri.
13. Focus on buyer’s intent data
Data is the new friend of digital marketers. It helps them to better understand targeted audiences and strategize marketing campaigns.
Today, marketers have multiple channels to gather real-time buyers’ intent data to create personalized marketing strategies. Using cookies, website trackers, and other data collection services, B2B marketers can easily collect the buyers’ intent data to take effective actions.
14. Budgeted marketing
Big companies are pumping huge business resources into digital marketing today. This is making it harder for small businesses to grow online.
But thankfully, there are many budget-friendly digital marketing strategies available that can help SMBs like content syndication, SEO optimization, and more.
15. Run digital ads
Traditional advertising methods are both expensive and slow for modern businesses. Plus, traditional TV commercials or billboards will not provide real-time analysis and budget control options.
That’s why digital advertising spending has reached $46.5 million in 2021. So, you have to channelize your advertising budget on digital ads to gain better insights and reach your targeted audience.
16. Omnichannel marketing
B2B marketers also have to follow an omnichannel marketing approach in 2022. Omnichannel marketing allows marketers to gather leads from various marketing channels.
Also, customers can connect with brands using a preferred marketing approach. Additionally, when B2B organizations are allocating 5% of their total budget to marketing, it is a good idea to explore as many marketing channels as you can.
17. Virtual events
Virtual events gained a lot of popularity during the pandemic. Online events are hosted by B2B companies to establish direct communication with their customers. This helps to understand the pain points of potential leads and walk them through the sales funnel.
18. Influencer marketing
This B2B marketing trend has been rolling on the top since 2020. In fact, 90% of marketers find ROI from influencer marketing higher than other marketing channels.
So, you should connect with the top influencers in your industry and collaborate with them to grow your business in 2022.
19. Predictive analysis
B2B marketers should not only focus on marketing their brand today. They should think of evaluating marketing data to make wise business decisions.
For this, marketers should use monitoring tools, analysis techniques, historical data, and predictive methodologies. This helps to better optimize marketing campaigns to drive maximum output.
20. Engage with the audience
This might be the last B2B marketing trend on the list, but it is the most vital one. Today, people want to build a real connection with brands.
They don’t want flowery marketing lingo or false promises. People just want to know their brands. So, you should use different marketing channels like social media and content to engage your people in 2022.
Ready to Follow Top B2B Marketing Trends!
You must be now excited to deploy all these 20 B2B marketing trends in 2022. So, we will not hold you any longer and let you grow your business.
Just want to add a parting note that you should try different marketing trends in 2022 and constantly follow the results. This way, you can customize the B2B marketing strategy for your business.
About the author
Sumeet Anand is a B2B Marketing Expert skilled in SEO, Social Media Marketing, and Content Marketing. He helps brands and businesses out there generate leads with his top-notch content strategies and is featured on various major media publications across the globe. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
