Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we market technology and FinTech brands has changed. In fact, the way B2B companies market, in general, has transformed.
We’ve seen businesses change their core messaging and adapt their marketing strategy to a ‘serve, not sell’ mentality. We have also seen the rise of personalisation and empathy in marketing.
B2B marketers have moved towards a more human approach to marketing as they’ve realised there is a real person with real problems behind the brand’s name.
Technologies have also become more advanced, and with that, we’ve seen clever and more accurate positioning and data in B2B marketing.
Although we saw some brilliant marketing transformations in 2021, we’ve also seen a fair few marketing fails. Some campaigns have completely missed the mark and fallen flat, hybrid events have had their flaws, and some marketing campaigns failed to meet the brand’s intended audience.
In the first TechTalks of 2022, the MD of CopyHouse, joins some of the best technology marketers in the industry. This includes; Vanessa Dal Busco, Founder of Ad Lumin, Brendon Craigie, Chief Executive Officer of Tyto and Stuart Cameron, Content Lead and Strategist at CopyHouse. They discuss the marketing wins and fails of 2021 and look into the strategic approach to B2B technology marketing in 2022.
When looking at your 2022 marketing strategy, it's always ideal to set reasonable and manageable short term goals right from the very beginning. These short term goals should contribute to the overall marketing vision.
When setting these goals, it's always important to break them down into clear segments or chunks and plan how you can achieve them. The last thing you want is to be overwhelmed by your strategy because the goals are unattainable.
“You have to remember that 2022 is a new year. Therefore, you have new opportunities awaiting. At CopyHouse, we are helping brands refresh their content marketing strategy by revisiting their business objectives and setting goals and targets that align with those objectives.
Once they have this in mind, building a content marketing strategy that is unique to them and manageable has supported their marketing efforts.”
- Stuart Cameron, Content Lead and Strategist at CopyHouse.
When setting these goals, Brendon Craigie suggests that you must “think about how you make yourself relevant” by researching trends and looking at how you can jump on them.
For example, Tyto publishes an annual study looking at the most influential individuals working in technology from across the UK, France and Germany.
The research shows that one-fifth of the influencers are women. As a marketer, Brendon suggests that you can take this information and see how you can impact that figure. Do you perhaps have a female CEO or leader performing exceptionally well? If so, are you able to share her story and build her personal brand? Through building their personal brand, you’re able to change the number of female leaders and create a mark on your industry.
Researching and looking into trends that can amplify your brand's image is a great starting point to creating goals that can be tracked throughout the year.
A noticeable trend seen in the last year was how brands started to connect with their audience. There was no longer a need for cold messaging or bland interactions. B2B marketers realised the importance of reaching out to the person behind the brand.
“The pandemic induced behavioural change, and most of last year was all about branding and content. In the B2C world, platforms such as TikTok lead the way, but in the B2B sector, video storytelling and content dominate.
LinkedIn is where personal brands have really found and developed themselves. However, to form relationships with customers you haven’t met yet, creating content is a low investment and authentic way to get your name out there. There is such a huge opportunity for those investing in thought leadership content and creating stories that get their brand noticed.”
- Vanessa Dal Busco, Founder of Ad Lumin.
To build this relationship with your target audience and create a strategic marketing plan
that is effective, you must first create a customer avatar and dive deep into your buyer persona.
This means looking at who your audience is, their challenges, and how you can help them overcome these obstacles.
By understanding your audience, you can then create content that relates to them and solves their problems. This can help boost your brand recognition and make your brand a thought leader within the industry.
Did you know that when the pandemic first struck in 2020, 94% of B2B content marketers changed their marketing strategy?
This unknown variable changed the trajectory of how all marketers conducted their annual marketing plan. In this TechTalks episode, panellists were asked, how can marketers best prepare for the unknown when shaping their B2B content marketing strategy?
The simple answer is, “to remain adaptive and flexible”.
When hit by the pandemic, Copy House lost over half its client base in the space of a day. Instead of throwing in the towel, the team researched what industry requires their services most and targeted that sector. Now, as a content marketing agency thriving in the technology and FinTech sector, CopyHouse is constantly adapting their marketing strategy to fit current trends and tackle rising issues.
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