Top Marketing Trends for B2B Businesses in India – 2020

In the not-so-distant past, B2B brands in India updated the company blog, developed their websites or social media content only when time and budget allowed.

 Fast-forward to 2019. These B2B Indian brands have recognised the need to generate more content, but few believe that content marketing investments can generate actual business outcomes.

 As we gear to 2020, we have visible results from more developed markets that marketers will rely increasingly on content to achieve business improvement and grow their bottom lines.

Why are these stats relevant to Indian markets?

Developed B2B sectors in India have embraced e-content and e-sales wholeheartedly since 2017, with social media marketing emerging as the most popular marketing tactic. However, there are very few who get it right.

For the sectors, which are still uncomfortable putting their business and knowledge out on the table – content marketing is slowly growing on as a needed channel of communication.

This growth is fuelled by the changing demographic of B2B Buyers and decision makers.  An increasing number of millennials (ages 23 – 38) are stepping into decision-maker roles within their organizations. As these digital natives stand at the helm of many B2B purchasing decisions, it’s crucial to understand the ways in which millennials are redefining the traditional notion of B2B sales.

B2B Content Marketing Reason No. 1

B2B Millennials don’t buy the same way as their previous generations, so B2B sellers must adapt or change their communication strategy from push and promotions to educate, inform and create awareness.

The whole circle of finding vendors, engaging with them, and ultimately deciding to work with one, is now decided primarily online by B2B buyers, who are guided by web searches. It is believed that 71% of B2B researchers start with a generic search rather than searching for a particular company.

They do an average of 12 searches before engaging with a specific brand’s site, hence they are 57% down the sales path by the time they engage with a preferred brand’s website, meaning they have already spent a fair amount of time educating themselves with the enormous amount of information available to them on the internet.

Content Marketing Tip 2020: ensure that your brand is present in various ways on different channels to emerge as a choice in web searche

B2B Content Marketing Reason No. 2

Content is an easy platform to talk to your Target Audience where they are and at their time

New age B2B buyers are the same consumers who have grown up using technology at their fingertips. They are comfortable and confident using technology to make purchasing decisions, and they value the speed, accessibility and instant gratification that mobile devices and social media provide.

Content Marketing Tip 2020: Use relevant digital content and technologies that allow the comparison of product features, availability, price, etc., and provide the convenience to place orders, without having to meet physically or talk to a sales rep over the phone.

B2B Content Marketing Reason No. 3

Customers like a more personalized conversation – which sounds like it’s talking only to them!

People love reading content, which is written specifically for them. Also, people love to read stories.

Buyers expect a personalized experience from websites, social channels and offline sales.

Massy content, generic websites and untargeted communications are not going to hit the nail on the head.

Personalized recommendations and targeted communications based on individual preferences is almost mandatory for nurturing leads and keeping customers.

Content Marketing Tip 2020: address your intended customer and their pain areas using ‘you’ directly in your written content. Inculcate visual story telling for a more significant faster impact.

Why Content means Business

The above-mentioned statistics are for more developed markets, but it is a proven model that content marketing WILL ADD TO ROI if done and measured right.

Many times, companies eagerly jump into creating a company blog or register for each social channel, but when they don’t see immediate results, it causes uncertainty and leads to eventual failure.

The problem doesn’t lay in their ambition to undertake a content marketing approach, the problems come from three common areas:

• The complexity of the content marketing ecosystem

• A lack of experience or understanding with content marketing

• Technical measurement issues associated with how audience consumes content across various devices today.

An external agency can help map actionable and measurable content objectives that align with overall company goals to measure marketing ROI.

In the meanwhile, to get started, check out our 3 point content checklist and tips for creating effective content.

Content Creation Tips for B2B Indian Businesses 2020  

• Short-form content rules in social, video, blogs and website content

• Long form content in the form of white papers, case studies etc is essential to prove to customers that you know how to fix different problems that they find occurring in their business. Also, these resources establish one as a thought leader in the industry.

• Use a simple tone, cut through technical jargon and speak directly to your customer.

• Try getting in cross-guest posts, influencer articles and customer reviews and testimonials

• Be Voice Assistant friendly: we are seeing a paradigm shift in Google search results ever since various voice assistants like “Google,” “Siri,” “Cortana,” and “Alexa” have emerged. Instead of typing their queries, people are asking Google to find a solution by giving voice-instructions. For example, to know more on social media you would type “social media trends or tips” On the other hand, with voice assistants, you would say, “how can I improve my social media marketing”

• Repurpose and constantly tweak content to meet different platforms. For e.g. if you have an article, use it as a blog on LinkedIn, short form post on Facebook, podcast it on a channel, talk about a certain highlight on video and tweet parts of it on Twitter.

It is content quality that drives marketing and business performance. Rebrand Advisory is a B2B sales focussed branding agency with an integrated approach towards brand strategy and sales communication. The Rebrand Advisory team has the skills and industry expertise to help your B2B brand achieve better results from content investments. At RBA, we help clients build brand awareness, enhance credibility and drive new business.