5 New Year Resolutions For B2B Marketing In 2024
Following the holiday slump that many B2B businesses endured over December, plenty are keen to hit the ground running in January. This often means rolling out exciting new plans to make this year the best yet in terms of new business, returning customers and ROI.
But what exactly is it that will give your business the competitive edge in 2024?
At Approved Business we have come up with the 5 top things that you should be implementing or improving upon in your B2B marketing strategy this January and beyond – so don’t let these resolutions disappear like joggers in February – stick to them throughout 2024. We are confident you’ll be reaping the rewards this year and beyond.
1. Focus on your Upper Funnel
By the time customers are ready to buy – they already have a shortlist of brands that are top of mind and around 95% of customers will eventually go with one of these brands.
If you are not creating brand awareness, if you are not targeting customers before they are ready to buy you are potentially losing out on this 95%.
So, get visible.
- Post daily on social media.
- Aim to become a thought leader in your area of expertise.
- Utilise video marketing.
- Build and use your mailing list for email marketing.
- Use creative, attractive, and entertaining content as well as informative content.
2. Improve Customer Experience
Your website should be easy to find and easy to use on any device. If your website is not optimised for mobile devices then you are losing out on customers who you frustrate rather than draw in. It should load quickly and be easy to navigate.
Your contact details should be clear and your response times fast – consider AI for this – chatbots, if well set up, can give your customers what they need at any time.
Use surveys and user questionnaires to help you find any snags in your customers’ experience and regularly test it out for yourself too.
3. Embrace Ethical Working
This doesn’t just mean paying a bit of lip service by saying that you are an inclusive business and doing a quick online course to ‘tick the boxes’, nor does it mean making up some ‘green credentials’. Your buyers are savvy and more and more people’s ethics are being reflected in their buying choices. DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion means actively promoting “the fair treatment and full participation of all people”. This should be reflected in your hiring practices, workplace policies and procedures in your content and in your whole customer experience. Consider showing diversity in your pictures, using inclusive language, and having multiple language options on your website for example.
Demonstrating that you are truly embracing DEI and environmental concerns in your business attracts customers with studies suggesting that your ROI could increase by up to 35%.
4. Try Influencer Marketing
No, this is not just a trend for celebrities and B2C businesses. 2024 is set to be the year that B2B influencer marketing explodes.
Influencer marketing utilises people and products on social media that have a large dedicated following by collaborating with these businesses or individuals for endorsements, product placements or outright recommendations. Finding the right partnership is key; take the time to research influencers and their audiences to check they are the right fit. Also, ensure you have a specific influencer marketing strategy with its own set of targets to ensure that you are working towards a shared goal.
5. Be Less ‘Professional’ and more ‘Conversational’
Increasingly, consumers in both B2B and B2C spheres want to be spoken to in natural conversational ways. This means including contractions, colloquial and informal language. It means less ‘jargon’ and language that tries to impress and more simple language that is easy to read and digest and that through storytelling entertains as well as provides information.
Need Help to Stick to These Resolutions?
Those who seek support to help them stick to their New Year’s resolutions will have more success in doing so.
- If you want to get fit – hire a PT.
- Want to be more creative? – sign up for an art or pottery class.
- Want to smash your sales and marketing targets for 2024? – Work with us at Approved Business. We can help you with your website design – removing snags that put off your customers and creating seamless easy-to-use design. We will also aid you with social media and email marketing and even help you with other content creation including video.
Just get in touch and see how we can support you and your business in 2024.