B2B Adoption of Digital Marketing Trends

Every year, usually around New Year’s, we are inundated with articles about trends in digital marketing. Most of these articles leave us with the feeling that if we adopt the suggestions, the year ahead will be productive and successful.

Have you ever looked at those articles at the end of the year? How many of those predictions actually came true? In our experience, it is very rare for most of those to have panned out. The question remains – what does that mean for business, and in particular, B2B?

Here are some of our thoughts as to whether or not B2Bs should adopt digital marketing trends or not:

Foundational Digital Marketing Rarely Changes

People who predict these trends are usually looking at the situation with an eye to make waves in the industry. They teach us to embrace what’s new, and the theory is that new is better. Well, with digital marketing, this is rarely the case. At the end of the day, it is the foundational strategies that still work. They’ve always worked.

The foundation digital marketing items include:

SEO. Although the nature of SEO has changed greatly over the years, the fact remains that it is still a vital part of a digital marketing strategy. We still need to consider it as part of a digital marketing strategy.
Content. Content is so important to your digital marketing that is a true foundational item. Content gives you something to share in social media. It improves your SEO results. It stands on its own, adding value to your website and connecting with customers. It’s not going anywhere, and it pretty much never changes.
Social Media. This has changed a lot over the years, too, but all businesses need to have a presence in social media in order to find success with their digital marketing.
Advertising. Advertising, specifically digital advertising, is a vital part of a digital marketing strategy, as well. Digital advertising includes social media advertising, advertising directly on websites, and pay per click.

Sure, there have been subtle changes over the years, but these foundational items will always exist. In these cases, it’s consistency and connecting with your audience that are the most important drivers.

Take a Conservative Approach to Adopting Trends

For all business, it is important to look at these “trends” reports with a conservative eye. Being too quick to adopt trends might do more harm than good. What if a strategy doesn’t pan out, and you dumped resources into it at the expense of working on one of the foundational activities? Well, this could actually set your marking back and you’d lose a lot of momentum.

This conservative approach for trend adoption is even more important for B2Bs. Most of the potential customers have a specific need or problem to solve. They would look to your business to solve it. That’s it. Your goal is to be accessible for when they decide they need what you offer. You don’t do this via a trend, but rather through the day-to-day activities.

Over time, a trend may convert into a best practice. You can adopt it at that time. Otherwise, adopting trends too soon could cause you to lose momentum.