As we kick off 2018, it’s time to take a look at key B2B marketing trends that are expected to emerge in the year ahead. Continuing a pattern from recent years, 2018 will see the ongoing evolution of many B2B marketing developments from years past, and several newer concepts will become more mainstream. So what trends will likely have the biggest impact on growth in the year ahead? Here’s a list of three B2B marketing trends to watch in 2018:

1.   Expanding role of B2B marketing

To meet the demands of today’s global and increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s imperative for B2B marketers to expand their roles. Today’s B2B companies face a growing number of unique challenges such as talent shortages, changing buyer personas and increased competition. While these organizational challenges will require cross-departmental collaboration to solve, marketing is well-positioned to lead the charge.

We’re already seeing marketing’s increasing involvement with initiatives traditionally owned exclusively by human resources, sales and operations. 2018 will definitely see marketing’s expertise put to greater use throughout the organization. These opportunities include:

• Talent recruitment: Marketers will play a more significant role in helping their companies develop and execute employer branding and recruitment marketing strategies.
• Talent retention: HR teams will also ask marketing to assist with retention-driven initiatives such as improving internal communication and developing more useful company intranets.
• Customer experience: As more businesses launch formal customer-experience initiatives, marketing teams will be asked to play a significant role in the cross-functional process.
• Business development: Sales teams looking to narrow their focus and expand their reach will rely on marketing to develop and implement impactful campaigns.

2.   Continued growth of content marketing

For many years, content marketing has been a popular technique to acquire and nurture B2B leads. As the sales cycle becomes longer, businesses will need to connect with prospects and customers at various stages of the customer lifecycle. Content marketing is highly effective for educating and converting prospects into customers.

Although nearly 90 percent of B2B marketers use content marketing as a core component of their online marketing strategy, only 37 percent of them have a documented content strategy. According to those same benchmarks, lack of strategy is the primary reason why content initiatives fail.

To make content initiatives effective, implement a documented content strategy and measure content marketing ROI. Set the goals you want to achieve through content marketing and measure them through KPIs such as website traffic, brand awareness and customer engagement as well as the all-important measure of sales and revenue.

3.   Explosion of thought leadership marketing

The sheer volume of B2B content available has led many to question whether content marketing is worth the hype. But a recent study by Edelman and LinkedIn reveals that thought leadership content containing valuable insights does play an important role throughout the entire B2B buyer’s journey. The results from the study are important reminders that B2B content marketing should be laser focused on promoting authentic thought leadership, as opposed to self-promotion and overt sales. In 2018, B2B content marketing will focus on creating quality, original, thought leadership-oriented content that educates buyers and provides insight into the caliber of innovative thinking a firm is likely to deliver.

Identifying trends, not fads

There are certainly a variety of other B2B marketing trends that will likely pick up steam in 2018. These include marketing automation, cross-platform promotion and data analytics. While this list contains just a few examples of how B2B marketing will shift in 2018, the biggest takeaway is that increasingly B2B organizations are recognizing the value of marketing and its potential for greater contribution to bottom-line success. To help develop a marketing and communications strategy that will capitalize on these and other trends, contact Trade Press Services today.