It should come as no surprise that digital marketing is still reigning supreme when it comes to marketing. Knowing current digital marketing trends is critical to staying on top of your marketing and using digital strategies effectively. As more and more companies embrace digital marketing, there’s more competition. How can you rise above the noise and get noticed? The first step is to keep up with these vital digital marketing trends for building materials manufacturers.
5 Digital Marketing Trends that Every B2B Marketer Should Know
While the building materials industry is unique, it is a B2B industry – so it’s important to look at larger trends within the B2B space. What marketing tactics are on the rise, or have historically been effective for B2B marketers?
1. Sales and Marketing teams must work together
Chances are that if you’re in a strictly sales or marketing role, you had to read that one twice. There has long been tension between the two departments: Marketing works to bring in leads, hands them over to Sales, and learns that the leads are not sales qualified. This leaves both departments frustrated! But why? It all boils down to a lack of communication and documented strategy. When Sales and Marketing work together, they can agree on what a qualified lead looks like and create content that will draw that type of lead in and support them through the whole buying process. Instead of blaming one another, the Sales and Marketing teams can support one another.
2. It’s time to put mobile first
It’s certainly not the first time you’ve heard that you need to think about mobile users. People are increasingly using their smartphones or tablets to access the internet, so it is well past time to have a mobile optimized website. Business decision makers spend a lot of time on mobile: they are likely to use their mobile devices to research their problems and make purchasing decisions. If your site isn’t mobile responsive (or it’s slow!), you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities.
3. Influencer marketing is on the rise
Though it’s typically thought of as a B2C strategy, influencer marketing is becoming more popular within B2B spaces as well. Why? Because people listen to other people! If you can find bloggers or social media influencers within the building materials space, it’s worth it to work with them.
Content Marketing
4. As of 2017, 85% of manufacturing marketers used content marketing
And that number is only growing! So what does this mean for you? First, if you’re not using content marketing, you’re behind. Second, it means that there’s more competition than ever before: chances are good that your competitors are using content marketing to reach your audience. So how can you reach them first?
5. Multimedia content is continuing to rise in popularity
If you’ve been using content marketing for a while, chances are you have a blog. That’s good – blogging is essential to content marketing success! But it’s not the only way to put your content out there, and if you treat it like it is, you’ll miss out on a lot of opportunities. People are much more likely to watch videos, listen to podcasts, or even read infographics than they are to simply read through copy. It’s time to experiment with the type of content you put out there; change it up and see what resonates with your audience.
No matter what tactics you decide to use, content marketing is critical to your success. If you don’t already have a documented content marketing strategy (only 31% of manufacturing marketers do!), now is the time. When your marketing strategy is documented, everyone in your company is working toward the same goals, and implementation of your content marketing becomes much more efficient.
How to Use Digital Marketing Trends for Building Materials Manufacturers
Why is it so important to know and understand current trends? Digital marketing is always changing, and staying on top of your marketing efforts is the best way to continue growing. Do you need help building your digital marketing strategy or creating content to attract your audience? We can help.
