The B2B Institute: 2030 B2B Trends
In 2020, The B2B Institute from LinkedIn published a report called “2030 B2B Trends: Contrarian Ideas for the Next Decade”. Here’s a summary of five themes that the paper covers.
Contrarian but correct: Marketers often assume that making the right decision guarantees success. But if your competitors make the same decision, then you have no advantage. You don’t just want to be right. You want to be the only one who’s right.
The war on brand: Sales activation increases sales in the short term by targeting in-market customers. Brand building delivers long-term growth by influencing future buyers. However, while the optimal budget split in B2B is 50/50, only 4% measure campaign effects beyond 6 months.
The benefits of brand: In B2B, brand building has 7 benefits. (1) It makes sales activation more efficient, (2) It builds long-term sales. (3) It decreases price sensitivity. (4) It enables new category entry. (5) It develops distinctive brand assets. (6) It aids talent acquisition. (7) It improves meeting acceptance.
Blockbuster marketing: Disney has an 'algorithm' that substantially improves their odds of achieving creative success: Creative Success = (Big Bets) on (Familiar Stories) with (Distinctive Styles) in (Every Channel). This also acts as a good guide for B2B marketers.
The death of hyper-targeting: Hyper-targeting commits 5 crimes. (1) It uses inaccurate third-party data. (2) It assumes a single stable buyer. (3) It ignores influential non-buyers (such as employees or regulators). (4) It undervalues non-trackable behaviour. (5) It increases media costs.
The whitepaper brings together a lot of valuable learnings into a succinct narrative.
Download your free copy here.
Highly recommended.