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.

Making your mark as a healthcare technology company or pharmaceuticals supplier can be challenging, especially if your core business focuses on rare diseases. You can find yourself restrained by strict regulations, while trying to address the sensitivities of your various stakeholders.

If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s nobody there to hear it – does it make a sound? It’s the same for your organization’s sustainability practices. If you’re not actively promoting your sustainability initiatives, you’re missing a key opportunity to strengthen your company’s reputation and perception in the public eye, as well as your corporate valuation.

As a digital marketer, finding the right (digital) marketing strategies just keeps getting tougher. It’s a moving target out there – as soon as you find an approach that works, the online game shifts and your targets move on, leaving your online tools in the dust. Banner ads offer a good example. Once a staple in the digital marketer’s toolkit, banner ads have fallen sharply out of favor. It turns out that many millennials, both male and female, simply ignore all online banner ads. The impact of banner ads on other age groups is eroding too.

If you’re a B2B marketer, just about everything you do now falls under the umbrella of ‘digital marketing’. Your marketing strategies have evolved into digital marketing strategies, which in turn guide your digital marketing plan. And in today’s world, you’ve got to have a great inbound strategy to reach your prospects – and you’d better be optimized for mobile, because that’s where and how your targets are searching.

Want to know more about the pros and cons of marketing automation for B2B? Read our marketing automation FAQs to learn more.

The days of the email blast are over. Once one of the key tools in the B2B marketer’s toolkit, the general email blast has, thanks to marketing automation, gone the way of the fax machine. It’s been replaced by customized and personalized interactions, tailored directly to your prospects’ information needs and buying stage – and presumably delivering more valuable leads than any generated through an email blast approach.