2020 has been unique as a year. Businesses and consumers alike had to adapt to the circumstances and introduce some changes to their operations and lifestyles, respectively.
The pandemic has heavily impacted many industries, something which we could not have fathomed a year ago. Consumer behavior changed drastically during this year, which required fast adaption from businesses.
While some adapted faster than others, the impact was nonetheless significant enough to cause behavioral change. As this memorable year draws to an end, we will leave you with seasonal holiday trends to finish things on a high note.
B2B Marketing Trends
It’s a time of opportunities:
Holidays are the time where everyone else rewinds and gather energy to start the new year on the right foot. Nonetheless, it is also the time of year where search activity gets high, perhaps the highest, than during any other time. With the lockdown forcing restricted travel, gatherings will be virtual; hence, there will be more traffic online.
The latter means that there is more opportunity for your ads to be shown to the right audience. As a general practice, your content should reflect the theme, which is the holiday. Also, it is highly suggested that you advertise for humans, not for businesses. Decision-makers are humans, and they will be on holiday, too. The reading pattern changes, and themed, valuable content, or ads for that matter, will not go unnoticed.
Investing more time into creating valuable content or ads for your audience will help you capture their attention and turn them into prospects faster than just posting “inorganic” content. Or worse, targeting them with a general campaign. Your content should focus on solving their current problems or target one of their pain points.
When you plan to content or adverts, keep in mind that you should not break their inbox or spam their screens with your adverts. While it is true that the holidays are when you can grab the most attention, it can rapidly go the other direction. Do not stifle your prospects, as this is their time to rewind. So, it would be helpful if you found the right balance between being useful and being spammy.
Leftover Budgets
While you might think that end-of-year deals (or campaign) might be a little challenging to accomplish, the reality can be slightly different. Just as your business sets a budget for the year, so do your clients or prospects.
This behaviour is not categorical but rather universal. At least, with any company that has sound financial plans. Spending money for its sake is not common, and it is rare, especially this year. Generally, at the end of the year, two scenarios would unravel. The first is an entirely depleted budget, and the second being a cash surplus.
If we consider the best-case scenario, which is the two events being equiprobable, you have 50% of your prospects having a stack of cash burning a hole in their pocket. For the most at least, companies would like to spend that leftover budget since consistency is craved by business, particularly ones operating in niches. And so, there are opportunities for last-minute deals to be closed.
Moreover, however, seldom they are, some companies are looking for partners to start the new year strong. They are indeed present and on the lookout for opportunities shall they present themselves. With an upping of your advertising game and content generation, you might end up presenting your prospects with the right opportunity they are looking for before the end of the year.
Such a case is a win-win scenario that every company is looking for before earth finishes its orbits around our solar system’s center. Hence, do not be so quick to let go. There is always opportunity if you know where to look.
Strategic Placement
The most effective way to reap the benefits of the holiday season is through strategy. While this might be a tad abstract or dramatic, it is nevertheless true.
Just like in chess, moving your pieces in the right order, in the right place, at the right time would eventually, and ideally, win you the game. We can say the same for the holidays. While this task can be overwhelming if left to the last minute, it can also be why you will have a fantastic new year.
As mentioned above, the decision-makers of most companies would be out-of-office or mentally prepared for the holidays. While valuable content and the right adverts can get you far, you will go the extra mile if you mix your efforts with strategic placement.
The reasoning behind this is conspicuous. If psychology has taught us anything, the human mind makes its most brilliant conceptual thinking when it is relaxed. If one would think about what is required of decision-makers to build strategy, conceptual thinking is the answer. Roughly defined, conceptual thinking relates to the abstraction of systems. When one invokes such a function, one relies heavily on intuitive and logical thinking. And intuition is the key takeaway of this paragraph.
When one uses their intuition, one relies, however loosely, on their reflexes. In other terms, what comes to mind first. What if your brand was what came to their mind first? How does that sound?
Presumably, intriguing.
The key to achieving this is to build brand relevance through strategic placement. Aside from the fancy words, it is a practice we adopt quite commonly. Mind you that the relevance of such practice reflects not its ease of implementation. It would require thorough research on your part before any relevant thought of execution would come to mind.
Part of the human experience is to have patterns that shed light on behavior. What is required to do is understanding the way decision-makers navigate the web for information retrieval. Understanding the underlying mechanics behind search terms, visited blogs, and articles read would allow you to place your content or your adverts strategically.
Your content will also need to showcase how your brand goes hand in hand with theirs. With frequent exposure to your brand message, your brand name will slowly, but surely, entrench itself in their minds. The wanted end goal you are trying to accomplish. Next time they would need to think about a brand that offers your services, your brand name would be among the first to come to their mind – naturally, too.
But ensure that your brand message is relevant to your prospect’s operations. If you are operating in the tech industry trying to target business operating in the food industry, do not share content about how particle accelerators are changing our understanding of fundamental physics. While particle accelerators are an impressive feat of human technology, they are not related to the food industry.
While there are myriad ways your business can get ready for the holiday season, these tips will be an excellent start to get your business into the right place before turning the corner of the new year.
Happy Advertising!
