What B2B Tech Marketers Are Planning for 2019

December 26, 2018

Video marketing is slated to be a top trend in B2B marketing in the coming year, with more than two-thirds (68%) of tech marketers reporting they will focus on video in 2019. This is according to an early snapshot of data from the 2019 State of IT Marketing Report [infographic] by Spiceworks.

The percentage of marketers adopting video marketing is up from 49% in 2018. This jump in adoption is likely due to marketers seeing the benefits of video, as a majority (59%) say that video is better at conversion than other marketing content.

The coming year will also see 64% of marketers surveyed adopting an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. While far from a new approach, ABM continues to grow in popularity among marketers. Research has found over one-third (35.9%) of B2B marketers saying that ABM accounts for at least half of their marketing, and many say that it produces better results than traditional marketing efforts.

Influencer Marketing and Purchase-Intent Targeting Are on the Rise

B2B tech marketers’ adoption of influencer marketing is expected to grow to 48% by the end of 2019, up from 31% in 2018. The trend to use influencers through social media and other communities (including friends and family) is especially effective with Millennials, who are becoming bigger players in the B2B world.

Giving marketers the ability to target business shopping for their product or service is also a rising trend for B2B businesses. Up from 29% in 2018, purchase-intent targeting is expected to be adopted by 44% in 2019.

The research identified other trends on the rise:

  • Advertising on emerging social channels (44%);
  • Programmatic ad buying (43%) – a maturing area for B2B marketers;
  • Mobile marketing (41%); and
  • AI-powered data analytics (36%).

These Niche Trends Are Worth Keeping An Eye On

While B2B marketers are clearly focusing on the more popular strategies like video marketing, ABM and influencer marketing, niche approaches are also on the agenda. Generational marketing, which focuses on marketing to segments based on age, is likely to be adopted by 30% of the survey respondents.

Three in 10 B2B tech marketers are also expected to utilize chatbot-powered marketing by the end of next year. Chatbots are already being used for customer service purposes with some success. In fact, Gartner found that about 80% of consumers believed that they would benefit from using intelligent chatbots.

About the data: The data is a result of a study of 350 B2B marketers from tech companies in North America and Europe.

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