B2B Marketing Predictions for 2021
“The only way is up, baby, for you and me now,” Yazz and the Plastic Population.
Let’s be honest, 2020 wasn’t a great year. As Yazz might be saying:
“We’ve been broken down
To the lowest turn
Bein’ on the bottom line
Sure ain’t no fun”
Although as B2B marketers, COVID impacted our businesses less than if we were in the hospitality sector there were a lot of good reasons to want to say goodbye to 2020. The big question is what does the new year have in store for us? Here are my top five predictions for the year.
Forget the “New Normal”
The “new normal” must hold a record for becoming an over-used cliché in the shortest time ever. If you’ve used this lazy shortcut to describe anything: whether it’s working from home or sales people not being able to visit customers, then you should be ashamed. There is no “new normal” because 2021 will look very different from 2020.
We won’t be returning to the “old normal”, either. 2021 will hopefully be a year of transition where us humans begin to conquer COVID-19. How we live and work will change throughout the year, with some things returning to look more like our 2019 lives, although other things will be very different. We will begin to return to our offices and discover the joy that is brought by a closed door or the effectiveness of face-to-face interaction. Equally we will use Zoom, Teams and other video conferencing tools far more than we did before the pandemic, although with breaks to discuss things our your colleagues face-to-face and to actually get work done!
We will Consult our Supplier (and Customer) Naughty and Nice Lists
Admit it, you have a mental list of the people and organisations who helped you in 2020, and also a list of the ones that didn’t. It would be easy to focus on the anger that some organisations have caused by their approach during the COVID crisis, but I’d like to focus on the positives.
Relationships and trust matter. They’ve always mattered. But the pandemic made it extremely obvious which suppliers and customers wanted a partnership with you. The businesses that behaved well, and saw partnership as a two-way thing between, errr, partners will reap the benefits. There are many of my clients who helped Napier during the pandemic, and I want to repay the debt that I owe for their loyalty and support. I’d like to think that one benefit from the pandemic is that businesses will recognise the benefit of supporting both their suppliers and customers, whatever the global situation.
I’m sure a lot of you will be saying that this is all about experience. I agree! Making working with your organisation a great experience for your customers, suppliers and other stakeholders is now a key source of competitive advantage.
We Stop Obsessing over Marketing Technology
I think we’ll stop obsessing over marketing technology in 2021. In recent years a lot of B2B marketing has been about having the latest shiny tool in our marketing toolbox. Please hear me out so you understand why we won’t be so focussed on the Martech landscape in 2021.
The truth is that marketing tools are now really good. Even basic tools can generate some pretty cool campaigns, and the more advanced systems offer capabilities we didn’t even imagine 10 years ago. So 2021 is the time to put our efforts into using the tools.
I believe that the benefits of marketing technology are so great that having a martech stack is now an entry ticket to B2B marketing: you simply will be left behind if you haven’t invested. Equally now that a huge proportion of tools are “good enough” for most organisations, so obsessing over the marginal differences is a waste of time. So we will be in a situation where organisations will have committed to their marketing stack, the competitive advantage of changing vendors will be far outweighed by the effort, and so we will allocate all of our efforts to using the tools we have.
The RoI of Podcasts will Increase Rapidly
I believe we are about to see the perfect conditions for B2B podcasting to grow in 2021. An increasing number of people listened to more podcasts than ever before in 2020, and as the return to offices means we have commuting time to fill, that trend will accelerate. Our own podcast, Marketing B2B Technology, has been a huge success, and we attracted great guests last year. This year looks like it will be even more popular.
Of course you don’t need to launch your own podcast. In fact that could well be a bad idea. B2B marketers will realise the value of podcasting and start actively helping their executives to guest on relevant podcasts, a much lower level of commitment that doesn’t require the time and effort to build your own audience.
Virtual Events won’t Disappear, even when Physical Shows and Conferences Return
D’oh! This is obvious. Although Zoom fatigue is a real problem, you have to admit that the well-run virtual events are cheaper, and often a much better experience. than travelling to a conference centre or showground.
Conclusion: Embrace the Change
There are going to be huge opportunities for B2B marketers in 2021 as we emerge from the challenges of the pandemic into what we all hope will be a better world. But you’re going to have to embrace change: there is no “normal”, whether new or old, only continual change (and that is such an exciting prospect). I’ll leave you with this insight from S Club 7:
It’s a crazy world but tonight’s the right situation
Don’t get left behindI can feel the music movin’ through me everywhere
Ain’t no destination baby we don’t even care
