Making a noise online

While B2B marketing will revive in 2021, it must look and feel different

The pandemic has battered the economy across the globe in more ways than imagined. Business-to-business

(B2B) companies have been most affected with not many possibilities for regular marketing activities. Does 2021 augur a better start for them?

Will B2B marketing adapt to the changing economic and public policies?

Or shall one look at history and try incremental improvements? My discussions with a number of

B2B top executives threw up several interesting possibilities for the year.

The biggest challenges for B2B companies seem to be retaining customers and increasing brand awareness. Up to 65 per cent of B2B organisations surveyed by Medici Institute in Asia and Middle East expressed these as the top challenges for marketing, as against 40 per cent last year. Hence it is not surprising that more and more B2B companies are now getting into digital media.

The proliferation of social/digital media will only get more prominence this year. It is clear that digital marketing will take a larger share of any marketing budget as acquisition of leads will move more and more into this medium. Companies are embracing digital for quicker and inexpensive results. If you are lagging behind on this front, now is pretty much the right time to get your marketing managers to pull up their digital media socks.

In a similar fashion, we will also see the proliferation of specialised ad agencies in the digital space. We will find an increasing number of creative shops mushrooming in the coming year with focused offerings. For instance, you will see consulting services for the use of appropriate digital media and measurement of results. Existing agencies will increase the breadth of their services. So it will be essential to find the right agency for your needs and it is also possible for you to get specialists for almost all requirements.

Direct mailers in the old-fashioned way will make a comeback this year as e-mailers are showing fatigue. Although digital media is faster and cheaper, specially designed direct mailers will have a better chance to get seen in a world where the physical mail is almost non-existent. Those who have been predicting the total disappearance of the hard copy brochure may slowly eat their words.

Content will become king too. Content marketing will take centre stage more prominently for B2B just as it is for B2C. This will perhaps trigger more software applications being made available for free,

and at a price, for B2B marketers. Syndication of online content will be a normal thing in 2021. This will probably be an after-effect of B2C success in lead generation using content.

With online media becoming important, marketing executives will probably drive more sales than sales staff. Will sales as a function get merged with marketing in the current year? Leads get generated directly by online efforts – qualifying them and directing the right leads to appropriate departments may move to marketing in the coming two years.

The measurement of digital media has still not evolved and does not yet give the desired results. Most enterprises use TRP methods to measure effectiveness of advertising, which is more appropriate for television. In 2021, new measures will emerge to accurately measure the effectiveness of this media. ROI will be paramount in every marketer’s dictionary. In short, it will become imperative to measure every possible activity and compare them. That will be primarily led by software service providers and ad agencies, and most marketers will be forced to spend more on such services. Therefore, one trend that will take shape in 2021 is increased IT spending by marketing.

B2B companies will find it extremely challenging to build relationships over digital media, because there are many more impersonal touch points. Big data applications are already in use in B2C. Data in the internet space is humongous, worrying all types of marketers. This will be more refined and offerings may get more sophisticated in 2021, resulting in different business models in this area. Most critical will be the analysis of compatibility and effective use of such software applications. With so many new things happening online and offline, companies will find that integrated marketing efforts will be more important than ever. You cannot have an online campaign different from your other campaign. You must coordinate your web, mobile, print, TV and other media efforts in a seamless manner in 2021. Otherwise the content and message will get diluted and eventually harm your efforts.

WITH ONLINE MEDIA BECOMING IMPORTANT, MARKETING EXECUTIVES WILL PROBABLY DRIVE MORE SALES THAN SALES STAFF