10 B2B Marketing Trends that need to be part of your 2019 Marketing Plans

1. B2B Marketing Trends
for 2019
November 2018

2. Online Reputation Matters
• Online reviews influence 60%+ of B2B purchase decisions
• Negative Reviews cost you customers (30 on average)
• Reviews = legitimacy
• Reviews help your SEO (8+ reviews ~ 10-15% traffic growth)
• Your rating is important: each star may contribute to 5-9% in
revenue growth

3. The Rise of Micro Moments
An Intent-rich moment when a person turns to a device to act
on a need – to know, go, do, or buy.

4. Micro Moments
Business buyers want what they want, when they want it.
They’ll buy from brands who deliver on their needs.
Omni-Channel is BIGGER THAN YOU THINK!

5. Search Can’t be Ignored
• Decision-makers do an average of 12 searches online before
engaging with a brand.
• 80% B2B research is multi-screen
• 68% of research is online
• Decision makers are often 75% decided before they reach out

6. Search Trends
• Offline is influencing online
• Queries are becoming more specific
• E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust)
• Digital assistants & voice search
• “near me”
• Keywords matter, BUT, context, intent, and topics is rising
• The right content, structured the right way
• Technical SEO & Schema
• Penguin & Panda still matter – 5 yrs later

7. Marketing Automation
“Good marketing automation takes into account the evolving
needs of your leads, and the behaviors and interactions they
have with you across all of your marketing channels, not
just email. Using behavioral inputs from multiple channels
such as social clicks, viewing a pricing page or consuming a
particular piece of content gives marketers the context they
need to fully understand a lead’s challenges and how to guide
them down the funnel. “

8. Marketing Automation
• Reassessing:
• Am I ready for Marketing Automation?
• Does lead scoring make sense right now?
• Going beyond email
• AI & Predictive Analytics

9. Database Marketing
• Email is still hot….

10. Database Marketing
• But it’s not just email anymore!
• Messenger Lists
• Facebook groups

11. Social Advertising Works!
• 93% of B2B Marketers using social
• 86% combining paid & organic social
• 59% believe paid social more effective than organic social
• LinkedIn is cool again
• Retargeting
• Audience is everything
• Facebook & Instagram work too!

12. Rise of the B2B Influencer
• Case Studies
• Testimonials
• Social
71% of B2B buyers in the
awareness stage and 77% in
the evaluation stage cited
testimonials and case studies
as the most influential types
of content. (Hawkeye Study)

13. Content Marketing
• Storytelling in B2B
• Thought-leadership
• 6-8 touches before a user becomes a lead!

14. Website Considerations
• Design for conversion points
• User is in charge
• Ease of communication
• Site speed
• 1 sec delay = 11% loss in pageviews
• 1 sec delay = 7% reduction in conversions
• 79% of users who are unhappy with website
performance are less likely to buy
• People buy from People
It’s not
about
you.
Really.

15. 2019 Action List
• Create a reputation management strategy & set goals!
• Find 1 more way to make it easier for prospects to contact
you
• Audit your online competition – are they making it easier
than you?
• Invest in SEO
• Don’t waste time on marketing automation unless you’re
generating too many leads

16. 2019 Action List
• Not generating enough leads? Let’s talk social advertising,
PPC, SEO and content marketing.
• Ready to expand your database marketing?
• 1 case study per quarter – and USE it!
• Audit your website
• Your marketing is not an expense. Don’t underinvest.