Industrial B2B Marketing Trends

You learn a thing or two about your clients when you’ve been in business for nearly fifty years. For instance, we can’t help but notice that the manufacturing sector is decidedly risk-averse and even more trend-averse. But growth means embracing change, however reluctantly, which is why we’ve scoured the industrial marketing landscape to identify a series of current marketing trends that experience tells us will have particular staying power.

The Growth of ABM

Account-based marketing, or ABM, isn’t new by any means. But we’re already seeing growth in this tried-and-true technique, and we expect that to accelerate as more manufacturers diversify their digital marketing plans.

ABM, if you’re unfamiliar, leans heavily on business metrics and analytics; rather than a relentless focus on cultivating new business, it allows you to combine the strengths of your sales and marketing teams to find even more opportunities among your highest-value accounts. Better still: it’s a natural fit for the longer sales cycles to which industrial and manufacturing businesses are accustomed.

B2B Borrows from B2C

One side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is the blurring of what we once thought were bright, bold lines. We’ve all seen it in the erosion of the boundary between the business and personal time, but it’s taking other interesting forms as well.

B2B and B2C marketing, once thought to be as compatible as oil and water or toothpaste and orange juice, are beginning to bleed together. B2B and B2C customer journeys are beginning to look more and more similar, manifested by B2Bs’ implementation of eCommerce websites, changing approaches to content, and much more.

B2B Goes H2H

Some of the changes wrought by COVID are proving surprisingly durable. Case in point: the foothold of “virtual” spaces. Communications have moved from in-person to online for intra-office comms and outreach alike. But we haven’t quite traded high touch for a stream of zeroes and ones; in fact, B2B is embracing H2H, or human-to-human, approaches:

• Personalization of marketing materials via marketing automation for manufacturing
• User-generated content, or UGC, that brings customers’ stories into the manufacturer’s marketing arsenal in the form of case studies, white papers, explainers, and video marketing
• Content marketing that builds and reinforces new connections in interesting and innovative ways
• Trade shows embracing digital spaces or evolving to encompass other forms of outreach like lunch-and-learns
• An expanded focus on ad retargeting that keeps your brand consistently, if subtly, top-of-mind
• Metrics and analytics that allow businesses real-time visibility and agility when controlling their marketing efforts

What do you get for your work with our digital marketing company in Rockford? Pivoting to a high-touch approach that emphasizes customer experience, a human-focused brand can spend its time on relationship building that leads to conversions rather than simply chasing leads.

B2B Marketing Solutions in Rockford, IL

When you’re trying to adjust your marketing mix to meet new challenges and cultivate new opportunities, it can often feel like setting off into uncharted territory. As the old proverb reminds us, when you want to go far, go together; Cain & Company can be a valued guide and partner as you chart a way forward. Get in touch today for help meeting your digital marketing needs while exceeding your expectations.