As we get ready to close the books on 2018, let’s take a moment and think about the year to come. What B2B marketing evolutions and trends will have an impact in 2019?

Will content (marketing) still be king in 2019? Well, there is going to be an uprising. But it isn’t another platform or tool that’s threatening to disrupt content’s reign. The threat is actually from too much content. The sheer volume of content that is being created is making it increasingly difficult to reach your targets. Marketer Mark Schaefer coined the term “Content Shock” to describe this phenomenon, where the amount of available content vastly exceeds our ability to consume it. For B2B marketers, this means that your content has to be powerful enough to break through the noise and draw your prospects to it, offering them true value. So given today’s crowded marketplace and ever-increasing amounts of content, how can you ensure that your content reaches your desired audiences?

Whether you’ve decided to start with sustainability reporting because your company is required to, or because you simply want to share your sustainability story, a good first step is to make sure you understand the regulations that apply to your company, and how they are currently being addressed.

In many organizations, sales tools are like an iceberg. There’s the 10% that are above the waterline – the tools that everybody knows and uses - and then there’s the 90% that, for whatever reason, never see the light of day. Whether people simply can’t find these tools, or they don’t like them, the end result is the same – it’s expensive and frustrating to create a library of tools that sales just doesn’t use.

Just as the old model of news dissemination has been shattered – a few dominant outlets now replaced by a cacophony of voices - so has the traditional approach to healthcare marketing. Your healthcare B2B customers are turning into B2C right before your eyes, side-stepping your funnel and doing research and evaluation on their own, without seeking a contact with your sales team. According to a 2017 study by research company Forrester, 68% of B2B customers said they preferred to do their own research, rather than interact with a sales rep. This is a big change over 2015, when this figure was only 40%.

Are there any B2B companies today who aren’t using social media? Probably not very many. But while most B2B organizations are using social media, many are still not using it as effectively as they could be. In many cases, beliefs that their customers aren’t using social, or even concerns about risk and compliance are holding some B2B companies back. And even for those B2B marketers who are actively using social, calculating the marketing ROI for social media programs can still be a challenge.

De tech & marketingwizards van Facebook, Instagram, Google en LinkedIn zijn achter de schermen weer druk in de weer geweest om uit te kunnen pakken met nóg spectaculairdere, interactievere en vooral nog méér digitale marketingupdates en features. Kortom, nieuws waar je als digitale marketeer maar beter van op de hoogte bent. Wij hebben de laatste nieuwe marketingtrends voor jou even in een mooi overzichtje gegoten:

Can you hear what your customers are really saying? For many marketers, the information they receive about customer comments or complaints is mostly anecdotal. A key account manager might mention that clients really like one particular product attribute, or that they have no use for another. The business development team might pass along what they’re hearing from prospects. Comments on social media or on your website give you some insight, but typically only capture feedback on a single topic or event.

First things first – is your organization already reporting on its sustainability practices? More and more companies are engaging in sustainability reporting, as this study from KPMG demonstrates, for all kinds of reasons. For some it’s now legally mandatory. In Belgium, for example, large enterprises employing more than 500 people are now legally obliged to report on their social and environmental impact. This is in line with EU Directive 2014/95/EU, which stipulates that large companies in member states must now disclose information on their sustainability and diversity practices, effective for financial years beginning on or after January 1, 2017.