It’s that time of year again. Time to look forward to a new year and work on reaching your 2014 marketing goals.
I was recently asked for my thoughts on what B2B marketing would look like in 2014. I don’t have a crystal ball, but here are three trends that I havebeen observing and think will be important in 2014:
The way we look at SEO will continue to change.
During the past few years, Google has brought in a number of changes that reflect the importance of creating high-value content over keyword-stuffed content. One of Google’s biggest recent changes is that Google Analytics no longer shows us what keywords people are using to find our content. With this dramatic move, Google is telling us that keywords should not be the be-all and end-all of our marketing. In 2014, companies will have to rely on great content to attract leads – not keywords.
Old companies. New stories.
As content marketing becomes more popular, B2B marketers will continue to look for new and better ways to engage customers. This means that many B2B companies that have been telling the same story for years are going to look for new stories to tell or a new spin for an old story. They will try to explain why they are relevant and do so in a way that isn’t boring. Hopefully, we will see more fun and creative B2B marketing in 2014.
Case studies and customer testimonials will rank among the most valuable types of content.
Recent surveys have revealed that your B2B buyers want to read reviews from customers that have used your products or services. This means that case studies and testimonials will be important in 2014. The more social proof you can provide, the better.
What do you think will be important to B2B marketers in 2014? Please share your predictions below.
About the testimonials an case studies — one trend I see is the drive towards methods that will show the content to be genuine. It’s all too easy for the owner of a business to get some friends to write fake reviews. And, case studies sometimes skip over the problems to keep them relentlessly positive. Any thoughts on how to make this type of content genuine and trustworthy? How can businesses using testimonials and case studies prove their veracity?
Hi Carl,
Thanks for the comments. When I conduct interviews for case studies, I always ask if there were any issues during implementation and, if so, how did my client respond. Everyone knows that when dealing with complex tech solutions, there will be problems along the way. However, how companies respond can say wonders about working with them. It’s usually a positive to discuss this in a case study.
As for fake reviews, some sites are trying to weed these out. For example, one of my friends runs a business and asked us to write a review about it on Yelp. So, we all went on and wrote fantastic, honest reviews. However, Yelp saw all of these reviews come in on the same day and refused to publish them. So, I guess you need to have customers space out their reviews to avoid this.
Another way to prove your case studies are real is by including the customer’s full name, title and company in the case study. This shows that a real person is willing to attach their name (and their company’s name) to it. You can also include a photo of the person or have them do a video case study.
I hope this helps!
Rachel