Every year at this time I get asked by many of my clients and colleagues to share my thoughts on what digital trends will be important for marketing—particularly b-to-b marketing—in the coming year. Based on the responses I have already been handing out piecemeal, it struck me that I probably have enough content for a good blog article on the topic. I’ll let you be the judge of that. Please note that while I have been involved in digital marketing for over 20 years now, what follows are my personal opinions based on what I am reading around the net and seeing with my own clients.
So for 2011, what do I think will dominate the digital marketing trends?
I think that 2011 will be more of an evolutionary, not revolutionary year. I think that some digital channels will continue current growth rates while a couple of channels will hit inflection points and begin rapid growth phases. Let’s start with what will continue to grow:
Search Marketing
Search has been in the discussion for so long now, I am starting to see a little bit of “nothing new here” attitude from clients. The reality is, paid search has only continued to grow in importance and effectiveness and has proven to be relatively recession-proof during the last downturn. The change I see happening for b-to-b marketers this year is a shift in the balance from paid search to organic search. For several of our clients we are seeing a tenfold advantage in CPC for dollars invested in organic versus paid search. The challenge for organic search as always been a lack of understanding and/or confidence on the client side regarding the process, benefits and measurable ROI of organic search. As resolution of these challenges become public knowledge, corporate marketer confidence in SEO will continue to grow and the result will be a shift in marketing dollar allocation from SEM to SEO. We have already seen this happening—I think in 2011, it will become more pronounced.
Mobile Marketing
Last spring, we saw many of our clients’ mobile website traffic metrics start to exhibit the classic “hockey stick” upturn. We attribute that shift to increased network speeds, better mobile device capabilities and the b-to-b professional’s need to be “always on.” As our clients deploy mobile marketing to even a greater degree in 2011, the key will be compelling content, especially content in bite-sized portions that are appropriate for both computer and mobile (2nd and 3rd) screens. This means formatting Web content to be easily consumed on a mobile device and moving into online video that is mobile consumable, not Flash-based. As both Sprint and Verizon expand their 4G networks—and AT&T tries to play catch-up—I think that mobile marketing is a continued growth trend for 2011.
Social Media Marketing
I think in b-to-b markets, social media was the explosion last year. This year I see marketers taking a step back and taking a more strategic approach to social media. We saw a few strategic marketers really leverage this channel last year—GE, Siemens and IBM all come to mind—and I think we will see many more corporate marketers follow this lead and integrate full engagement and activation programs into their overall plans in 2011.
Automated Marketing
Marketing automation took huge strides last year as we saw more b-to-b marketers connecting their CRM to their marketing programs in real time. This trend has been brewing for several years, but has always been hampered by the challenge of connecting business processes and IT systems to marketing activities. I think that conquering these challenges has been a long-term process involving growth in demand for ROI measurement, and maturity in the marketing automation tool set that has finally made these programs realistic in most companies. Lead nurture programs will continue to grow as important bedrock components of marketing programs in 2011.
So what digital marketing trends do I think will hit inflection points in 2011?
Content Marketing
The last couple of years has seen an extreme increase in the fragmentation of the digital channel (especially if you consider, like we do, mobile to be part of the digital channel). The common fuel that drives all of these sub-channels, however, is content. The demand for channel-appropriate, compelling, reusable content currently dominates many planning conversations. I think the last couple of years have seen companies dip their toes into the search, social media and automated-marketing waters only to find that the real challenges aren’t technical. The wall that everyone seems to hit is one of not having enough compelling content to maintain involvement in all of the engagement channels they are targeting. I think that 2011 will see content development grow as a primary marketing tactic with planned usage across multiple digital (and some non-digital) channels.
Digital Integration
As mentioned above, while content will be crucial to marketing programs in 2011, integration of that content will also become a recurring theme. I am seeing more online display advertising products that support online channel integration. I am very impressed for example, with the WidgetBox offering from ClickTurn. These products allow marketers to pull together content, images, video, RSS feeds and other dynamic content all into an expandable ad unit using a fairly simple editing interface. What is really exciting about these ad units is that they pull together content feeds from a potentially wide variety of sources while also taking advantage of the demonstrable increases in user engagement that come with interactive and expandable ad units. Products like these will allow marketers to provide microsite experiences within their ad banners while pulling in dynamic content from other sources.
Are there any other trends that I think will be important in 2011?I think we are going to see important growth in online video, as it is a content format that is appropriate and reusable in nearly all digital delivery modes—mobile included.
I think that we will see an important decision relating to online tracking and privacy that will either set retargeting companies like Bizo on a continued growth path or be their death knell.
I think we are going to see a change in the approach to staffing for digital talent in both agencies and marketing departments that will demand that all staff be digitally proficient but limiting pure-play digital talent to production capacities.
That is a top line of what I think. What do you think?
Good insights and valuable post as we head into 2011. Thanks, Rich!
I am most excited about the continued growth with industry publication online capacity. Now we are able to take advantage of the fantastic digital integration opportunities!
Rich – great thinking!
I’ve definitely seen clients moving toward an exploration of full content strategies and marketing automation this year and have already seen more of this in 2011. I think there is a bit of discomfort with or hesitance to enter both of those areas since it is seemingly a new horizon of marketing.
It opens up the opportunity for us as an agency to work with our clients in a model based more on strategic counsel, rather than just as a vendor delivering tactics. Clearly this is the central tenet of IMC, which we’ve always stood for, but I think it poses the “what exactly am I buying?” question from clients tasked with connecting big picture goals to line item budgets.
It is our duty, speaking from the account management side, to work with clients to do just what you’re doing here with this blog post – to engage with clients in the conversation, highlight the why/how, provide them with a clear road map complete with what they can expect, and walk them through the process.
It’s always great to stay on top of industry trends, but more important not to forget this: just because it’s trendy, doesn’t mean the people you’re trying to communicate use it. Much more important in my opinion to found your communications squarely in the types of media that your target markets use—then to use them wisely.
Great stuff, Rich, but I think there’s one area you skipped—Mobile apps for smart phones and tablets. Knowing you, I’m betting that you really didn’t mean to skip it. There’s probably more than a paragraph on the topic, and I’m guessing you’ll cover it in another post.
For me, I think there’s been a lot of hoopla about this being a B2B application gold rush. In order for a mobile app to gain traction, it needs to solve a customer problem.
My prediction is that several will sit on the sidelines until the dust settles on all the platforms. Android and iPhone are the fastest growing platforms—overtaking Windows Mobile, but I read a recent Gartner report that still has BlackBerry at the top.
The problem with that though is that established brands are missing out on an opportunity to get more customers to become brand advocates. Already we’re beginning to see a proliferation of software companies developing apps that help solve problems.
For example, Multieducator Inc. created a series of formulators to help plumbers, Architects and Builders to streamline everyday tasks. A missed opportunity for a major plumbing or HVAC brand.
One the other hand, some brands have already taken the plunge. USG has a materials estimator, Douglas Laboratories developed a patient supplement tool for physicians, and GE Healthcare developed an OEC radiation safety iGuide. However, it also presents a huge opportunity for those who are looking for a competitive advantage. What better way to get a customer to become loyal to your brand, than providing them with a tool to make their job easier.
Would be interested to get YOUR take on all this.
Excellent post, Rich, and anxious to share it with clients. It seems to me that the more sophisticated mobile devices and movement of companies to offer their content designed for the 3rd screen are a huge opportunity. Regarding social media, the trend of clients to step back and take a sober look at its use for business is wise. We recently conducted a survey for a client and found that just 46% use social media for business and it was 6th on a list of 10 choices for receiving information from the company. I believe that we will see a maturation in the use of social media-both content and channels-so that the future looks like a better marketing opportunity than the present.
I concur with Ron–companies that develop and launch a mobile app just because they can run the risk of disappointing their customers. I’m reminded of the brochureware web sites that many companies launched in the late ’90s.
Content strategies are the fuel for effective IMC campaigns. They deliver on the promise of IMC: delivering the right message to the right audience through the right communication channel.
As usual, “rich” insights from Rich.
The ongoing challenge as these digital trends emerge and evolve is to not make the mistake–or let our clients make the mistake—of rushing to tap these channels just because everybody else is doing it if it’s not right for them. This takes discipline and yes, sometimes bravery. And it takes self-awareness of your brand, too.
True–social media can make a company seem “with it”, but if the brand experience overall is contrary to the social media strategy, this can be perceived as inauthentic and do more damage to the brand than good. This is not to say that a brand perceived as stodgy shouldn’t try any of these digital trends. But it’s important to first understand where your brand is in its brand lifecycle and how customers and prospects perceive the brand.
From an IMC perspective, we talk about understanding where buyers are in the sales cycle and assigning tactics to trigger behaviors that move them towards purchase, re-purchase and loyalty. While this is certainly true, I believe it’s equally important to understand the brand cycle to ensure that our digital choices reflect the brand accurately.
On another note, I believe that while clients are increasingly embracing the relevance of content marketing, they sometimes lose heart because they worry that it means “blowing everything up” or worse, that it will take too long to perform audits, develop strategies and move to implementation. We need to help them understand that one immediate way to expand even existing content is to take long-form content (white papers, case studies) and repurpose them into bite-sized videos that encapsulate the key take-aways. While white papers and case studies still get downloaded and eventually read or scanned, today’s busy business person appreciates information in quick, easy-to-digetst, sound bites. These are relatively quick ways to repurpose existing content and make it more relevant and approachable.
Informative roundup, Rich. Agree with Ron about the vast potential of problem-solving apps in b-to-b… and am liking Vicky’s comment that if you build it, they will not necessarily come.
Had a couple of extra thoughts pertaining to social media in our b-to-b space:
- I think things will get reallllllly interesting when/if a (dominant/high-profile) peer-review driven site that protects anonymity (a b-to-b version of Yelp) emerges that covers our markets. Imagine IT managers dishing on their experience with Brand X routers….middle managers comparing the values of their outsourced consultants….procurement people rating the reliability of silicone suppliers… CMOs giving uncensored opinions about their marcom agencies. When that happens on a large-enough scale, the transformation from a marketer-controlled conversation to a market-controlled conversation will truly be here.
- Agree with the notion that “doing social media” in the b-to-b world requires a more strategic approach than merely setting up a Facebook page or getting your engineers to write blogs, hoping the market pays attention. Part of this strategic challenge will be to take a hard look at the extent to which buyers/prospects are *passionate* enough about the issue/product/service in question to devote their precious time to discussing it online. Besides the work we do for clients, I’m most passionate about things like politics, vintage guitars, and, this week, HDSLR cameras. And that’s the kind of stuff I find myself learning about and discussing most online. So how passionate are our markets about the b-to-b products and services they recommend or purchase as part of their day-to-day job responsibilities? Should we expect them to devote their discretionary time to Tweeting about things like road salt, servo valves, commercial office space or software implementation providers? A key question our industry needs to get its head around, IMO.