B2B Marketing Strategies and Trends for 2021

With 2020 being a rollercoaster for every type of business, whether they flourished or struggled, many B2B marketers are looking ahead to 2021 to build new, robust strategies. While there is still much uncertainty on the horizon, it’s still important to create a clear 2021 marketing strategy. Here, we’ll explore what we expect to see in B2B marketing strategies for next year.

But first, let’s do a quick recap of what we saw in 2020.

Quick recap of 2020 trends

As you all know, the year started off pretty strong and the economy was great. However, with the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns, travel restrictions, event cancellations, and overall fear of an economic downturn created havoc for a lot of companies. In late March and early April, we saw a rash of companies cancel their entire marketing programs, pause all ads, and furlough employees. While this may have been a necessary business tactic for some companies to survive, it did end up stalling out lead generation which caused a further strain on the business.

In April and May, we saw a shift to focus on content marketing and inbound lead generation campaigns. As leaders started to see that we were in for the long haul of uncertainty, they looked to marketing channels that worked and were safe for their employees and their prospects (especially since anything in-person like tradeshows or networking events were canceled). For many companies, a solid B2B website design and digital marketing plan suddenly became imperative. In addition to an influx of companies looking to revamp or rework websites, we witnessed a greater desire to create thought leadership and educational articles. The only issue with the new focus on content marketing is that it’s a long-term strategy, not a quick results campaign.

From June on through the rest of the year, companies started looking for more creative ways to reach their target audience. With most companies being remote, they couldn’t cold-call the office, and dropping in was completely out of the question. Instead of meeting new prospects in person on a tradeshow floor, they had to settle for virtual conferences and tradeshows – which let’s be honest, the conference and tradeshow hosts are still working out the many kinks of a virtual event. Sales teams began to put more pressure on marketing for other ways to generate leads and B2B website leads became more valuable internally.

Many B2B companies have shifted resources to inbound marketing (or assigned more value to it) and are contemplating tactics to reach a new audience. Things like outbound email campaigns, purchasing lists, account-based marketing campaigns, and paid search ads are being considered more often by companies that previously relied on tradeshows and in-person sales. All of these shifts make sense when looking at the current marketing landscape.

Now, let’s take a look at what B2B marketers can expect or should consider when drafting their 2021 strategy.

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