Perhaps, just like any other year in the past, 2019 may have been a roller-coaster ride for many B2B content marketers. You may not be any different from them. Before we wrap 2019 and prepare for a new year- 2020, let’s reflect on this year so far through these numbers:
1. In 2018, only 39% of B2B content marketers had a content marketing strategy. This number, however, jumped to 65% among top-performing organisations (source).
2. 66% of marketers used blogs in their social media content.
3. 62% of organisations having 5,000 or more employees create daily content.
4. 56% of businesses want to increase their spending on content creation.
What does 2020 usher in for content marketers?
Image Credits: Pixabay
For B2B marketers to ace the content marketing game in 2020, they should know about the following trends that are likely to shape the realm:
1. Substantial focus on the prospect
Just like all other years where your prospects and customers are kings and queens, 2020 will not be any different for B2B marketers. The clients of B2B marketers take the centre stage in all marketing initiatives as always.
Marketers cannot afford to do anything in vain now; gone are the days when they could put together loads of useless data and tech. Doing “great marketing” requires marketers to shift the focal point to their prospects and clients, delivering messages and experiences that get a fair share of their knowledge and wallet. It’s all about pushing the revenue curve further up.
2. Use of meaningful metrics
B2B marketing has become highly data-driven in the past few years, and the trend is likely to continue even in 2020. Today, Google Ads, Google Analytics and other automation tools allow marketers to track how well or how bad their campaigns have performed in the digital space. The year 2020 will be about choosing measurement metrics that are more meaningful.
Both in-house marketers and agencies will have to think about what data they want to leverage to make decisions. Whether it’s social media or search engine marketing, data will drive many marketing actions in 2020. Ultimately, the winning metrics are likely to be things those that affect the bottom line.
3. Creating personalised experiences
The buzz around “content personalisation” and “creating content experiences” is there in 2019 and will be there in 2020 too. B2B marketers have to start thinking about how online audiences wish to experience content and how they can deliver that, instead of how they “consume” content. It has become all about creating personalised experiences.
To deliver tailored experiences to audiences, marketers will have to embrace emerging marketing technologies. They have to invest in resources that run on AI and machine learning to enhance the experiences of audiences. This will also require them to bring different stakeholders/departments across the organisation on one page.
Image Credits: Flickr
4. Video marketing will always be there
Eighty-five percent of all the US internet users viewed online video content monthly on any of the devices they own. Also, 54% of consumers expect to see more video content from brands they like. With so much demand for video content, no savvy B2B marketer can keep video marketing out of their strategy in 2020. They have to create relevant, meaningful and highly appealing video content to increase engagement and push people down the conversion funnel.
But it’s just not about creating any video. The trend is to go “live” these days. About 13% of all online traffic will come from live video by 2021. Almost every major social media network, be it Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn, is now supporting live video streaming. So, B2B marketers should do more of it in 2020.
Image Credits: Pixabay
Bottom line
Content marketing is something not everyone can master without guidance. For B2B content marketers, the ballgame is slightly tougher owing to their niche target market. However, they should remember that merely producing content for the sake of it will fail to add any value to users, and hence, nobody will convert.
The key to success lies in creating good-quality, insightful and relevant content that informs, engages and inspires buyers to take action. Creating such content will always align with their time and talent and deliver the desired ROI.
Feature Image Credits: Pixabay