B2B Marketing Post-COVID-19: Making Positive Improvements

Publitek’s parent company, Next 15, surveyed marketing decision makers to see how they believed business and marketing strategy would evolve due to COVID-19. Among B2B marketers—Publitek’s clients—many have a surprisingly positive view!

Overall, despite the dramatic and lasting changes to business models, COVID-19 could be responsible for positively changing the way we all work.

Positive business impact overall from the COVID-19 outbreak

27% of all respondents

48% of tech/software respondents

20% expect dramatic change in business models

15% no change

Changes in work habits, technologies, products and metrics

97% The top area of change is in everyday work habits, such as remote and flexible working becoming more commonplace.

To what extent do you expect to evolve as a business in each of the following areas over the coming year?

Significant changes

Some changes

No changes

Way in which people are working

62

35

3

Taking products to market

36

55

9

Technologies used

27

60

13

Products/services offered

21

52

27

How success is measured

19

57

24

Those in strategic and marketing roles see COVID-19 changes as being more permanent – due to efficiency and beliefs that customer expectations will shift.

COVID-19 will act as a catalyst to digitization

Digital sales team

Demonstrating products and services remotely

Fewer physical events

Business expect rise in 'digital events'

Our sales team can cover more ground and present more fluidly using screen sharing. There will be some return to physical meetings and demonstrations, but we will push for more virtual events - lower cost to host, sales team can be more productive and potentially reducing our carbon outputs.

We will need to stimulate initial interest and take customers through the sales stages in a more virtual world… I believe this will provide huge new opportunities for us.

We didn’t lean heavily into conferences and trade-shows, but they are obviously off the table now… we expect the old ways in which we would engage physically with customers to possibly never return.

We were very heavy on physical events, but I expect us to be far more digital to be able to reach with more precision and be more measurable. Covid-19 has accelerated this thought.

Coming year: Content accelerates digital marketing

What proportion of activity is currently conducted via digital channels?

75%In one year

58%Currently

Which areas will be prioritized?

58%

Content marketing

58%

Social media

55%

Virtual events

54%

Demand/lead generation

49%

Thought leadership campaigns

48%

Search marketing (SEO,PPC)

48%

Marketing automation

A picture emerges, driven by the need to increase demand to reverse sales slumps, rebuild reputations, and demonstrate expertise through content.

2/3of tech b2b marketers see content as strategic

73% of tech B2B marketers want c-suite thought leadership on social media

That’s why B2B marketers will ramp up content marketing and elevate C-suite leaders on social platforms.

Marketers will tend to consolidate agency relationships

Do you expect to diversify or consolidate your partner/ supplier landscape in the coming year?

Graph - 5% Clear diversification strategy, 13% General movement to diversify, 49% No change, 26% General movement to consolidate, 6% Clear consolidation strategy

Top skills they look for:

Ability to demonstrate ROI and value
Ability to make evidence-based or data-driven decisions

Businesses are increasingly looking to their partners for genuine insight, based on data and evidence.

COVID-19 is bringing deep and permanent changes to marketing

Virtual forums + digital buyer journeys + thought leadership + content

Let us help you prepare to make positive changes in your marketing in 2021. We’re the tech B2B experts, and would be happy to share our insights and expertise with you. Click here to request your free consultation.