B2B comes of age as marketers find new opportunities

B2B marketing is undergoing a transformation as businesses innovate and experiment with their media choices, including a newfound interest in digital audio, a new WARC study in association with audio streaming service Spotify finds.

Four stats from the Changing Channels in B2B report 

• Two thirds of B2B marketers globally in the tech and telco sectors intend to increase their digital audio budgets in 2021.
• Half are experimenting with channels they have never tried before as they seek to drive reach.
• Four fifths agree that they need to be more focused on building strong brands.
• Half are actively trying to find new ways to tell their brand story.

Key quote

“We’ve created a key piece of research for Spotify and other ad industry players to better understand what matters most to B2B marketers as their business needs shift and the complexity of the marketplace evolves” – Jorrit DeVries, Global Category Development Officer, Tech & Telco Vertical, Spotify.

Four themes from the Changing Channels in B2B report

• Drivers of change

COVID-19 has accelerated digital disruption in B2B, depriving marketers of live events and in-person meetings and fuelling changes in decision-maker behaviour that had begun long before the virus took hold. This is a time of learning and discovery for B2B marketers, as they seek out new, progressive ways of reaching their customers across both live and virtual touchpoints.

• Audiences are changing

With so many people setting up offices at home, the worlds of tech and telco have become consumerised like never before. Add to this the accession of millennials to senior roles within organisations, and you have a workplace where decisions are being made differently, forcing marketers to find new ways to adapt to these changing audiences.

• Greater reach through channel planning

The dominance of digital marketing and the need to reach a more diverse audience have triggered a new approach to channel planning from B2B marketers. It is a time of experimentation and there is still a lot to learn, but the strategy has moved towards achieving a broader multimedia mix, introducing newer channels like audio and streaming.

• Creativity and brand-building in B2B

New challenges in engaging B2B audiences have inspired marketers to put more emphasis on building their brands, in order to provide a secure base from which their content can work harder and more effectively. Creativity is flourishing in tech and telco B2B marketing, as businesses place a new significance on storytelling and finding relevant partners to deliver those stories in compelling ways.

WARC surveyed more than 330 B2B marketers in 10 markets across the world who operate within the tech and telco sectors. Changing channels in B2B includes a deep-dive into each of the four themes, CMO views, data analysis and key takeaways. You can download the report here.

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This article is written by WARC and originally published here

 

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