Four Bad Habits That B2B Marketers Should Forget
Strategize for the new decade
The digital landscape is constantly evolving – as is the marketplace – so why haven’t our digital marketing practices evolved alongside it? We’ve entered a new decade, meaning the time has come for B2B marketers to finally leave their bad habits behind in the 2010s where they belong.
Here are four perpetual B2B marketing errors that have not only survived but are still regularly implemented. Putting an end to these requires a change in mindset and a strategy overhaul, here’s how to do it…
1. Unresponsive Design
Designing your websites, content and campaigns with a desktop-first mentality is a dated approach to marketing. In a short 10-year period, website traffic from smartphones has increased from 2.9% in 2010 to 52.6% in 2020! Smartphone ownership also rose in the same period from 11% to 45.12%.
With that being said, it seems bizarre that there are still countless websites, landing pages and other forms of content that appear out of sync, poorly formatted and simply unreadable when viewed on a mobile screen.
The days of the desktop being our primary source for all things digital are long gone and it’s time to start implementing a mobile-oriented approach to design. Nowadays, when visitors encounter something unresponsive they back out immediately as there are plenty of other options out there.
Acclimatising to this method might take time, but it should be your number one priority considering the speed at which we are going mobile. Ensure that your existing and future content is responsive to a range of mediums and screen sizes by testing and re-testing before launch.
2. Production Over Strategy
If you were to take a look at the current state of content marketing in your niche, it would seem that the objectives attached to the very early stages of the marketing channel are still highly prevalent a decade later – the lack of evolution is startling.
In 2010, the first-ever B2B content marketing benchmark report recognised the three immediate challenges facing content marketers, which were the following:
- Whether you’re producing engaging content
- Whether you’re producing enough content
- Whether you have a sufficient content production budget
Notice the trend? The aim was simply to produce, produce, produce. There was never a true emphasis on strategy – which made sense, considering Google’s now long outdated ranking factors.
The problem lies in the fact that content marketers still believe in content production as the best tactic for success a whole decade later.
From now on, you should create and refine a solid content strategy that outlines an effective route and plan for your content. Your vision should be accurately reflected in each piece of content rather than a deluge of aimless production. Sometimes less is more.
3. Aimless Influencer Marketing
If you cast a wide enough net, you’ll inevitably catch some fish. Influencer marketing uses the same principle; whereby, if the price is right, individuals with huge social followings leverage their popularity to advertise pretty much any product or service that’s offered to them.
2017, in particular, gave us a handful of major influencer faux pas, where popular celebrities made headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Fyre Festival, Pewdiepie and Kendall Jenner to name a few.
In Kendall Jenner’s case, her appearance in the now-infamous Pepsi exposed the darker side of influencer marketing and opened our eyes to the deception involved when vast sums of money are on the table.
The advertisement showed Kendal using a can of Pepsi to diffuse tension between a police force and protesters. It was then immediately accused of undermining the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the Vietnam War protestors of the 1960s and early 1970s in what Time Magazine went on to call a “glaring misstep”.
Pepsi and Jenner were relentlessly shamed on a global scale across both social and traditional media, leading to the ad being pulled within just 24 hours! The ordeal proved that marketers could no longer throw money at a popular influencer simply to supplement their lack of a real message.
Marketers should properly vet and research their influencers to ensure the individual aligns with their own philosophies. Micro and nano influencers could prove to be a better option compared to macro and mega influencers as was discussed in our previous article: “Understanding the Importance of Micro-Influencers”
4. Self-Centred Narrative
The vast majority of B2B marketers are guilty of an overtly self-centred narrative. They intentionally or unintentionally form a portrayal that’s almost entirely focused on self-gratification rather than focusing on the needs of their customers.
It’s an easy mistake to make. From a marketer’s perspective, appealing to the customer by glamorising your own achievements may seem like a concrete approach. The numbers themselves don’t lie:
- 88% of B2B marketers admit their homepages mainly talk about their own companies, products and services.
- 13% of B2B marketers use narrative to tell a story, walk buyers through a persuasive argument, or show empathy with customer concerns.
- 28% of B2B marketers mirror the language that their target audiences and decision-makers use when talking about those problems.
Customer-centricity is the way forward. Customers don’t want to read about your achievements, they’d prefer to hear about how you could help them. Centre the conversation of your brand to revolve around customer solutions and how to help them. Be empathetic to the customers’ problems by forming a narrative that’s easy to view from their perspective.
Wrap Up
B2B marketers who adopt a mobile-first and customer-centric approach, as well as form a comprehensive strategy for both content production and influencer marketing will stand in good stead for the future of digital marketing.
However, the constantly shifting marketplace means you’ll need flexibility, so it’s important to remember that even these changes may eventually be viewed as outdated!
