With rapid changes occurring every year in the business and marketing world, new trends can be difficult to keep up with. There are some B2B methods that continue to be effective throughout time, but more often than not trends change so intensely every year that companies have to pivot their strategies along with them. 

What Is B2B?

Business-to-business, also referred to as B2B, is a mutually beneficial relationship between two businesses. This transaction typically happens between retailers and wholesalers and the companies who purchase from them.  

This is different from business-to-consumer, B2C, marketing because B2B tries to appeal to those who buy products on behalf of their companies instead of appealing directly to consumers. 

How Is A B2B Relationship Beneficial?

A B2B relationship allows both businesses to expand their reach and gain new clients. This is a great way to raise up other people or businesses while providing healthy competition to businesses similar to yours. 

Past B2B Strategies That Still Work

While new information and research comes out every year that highlights new and innovative B2B practices, there are some tried and true practices that are still widely effective today. Some of these influential practices include:

• Personalization- Creating an environment that fosters close personal relationships with other businesses is a great way to grow your own business. It has been shown that taking the time to build a personal and friendly relationship with a business that you are partnering with opens up communication and creates a stronger connection and increases trust. 
• Having a sales representative- This B2B practice may seem dated, however, sales representatives are masters of communicating effectively. They can be responsible for maintaining your business’s image and creating a personal, professional, and streamlined voice for your company through email, social media, or any other medium that you use. 
• Search Engine Optimization- SEO uses keywords or phrases in order to increase traffic to your website. This strategy has been proven effective year after year. One of the reasons why is because every year SEO practices update and modernize which allows businesses to use a strategy that they feel comfortable with but with a new twist.

Keeping up with new B2B trends is necessary for growth, however, utilizing and mastering older methods that still work is a great way to ensure that your business’s growth has aspects that remain consistent. Having proven strategies that stand the test of time in addition to modern strategies will create an optimal balance for your business and make keeping up with the new trends a lot easier and less stressful. 

Current B2B Strategies To Implement

Every year, depending on the circumstances, B2B trends change. Businesses should adhere to the new trends in order to grow their businesses more effectively. Due to the world health crisis that took over the world in 2020, businesses had to alter their B2B strategies significantly, placing the vast majority of their marketing online. Still, in 2021, these strategies remain similar with some revisions as the world gets ready to change again. Some of the most influential B2B practices in 2021 so far include:

• Collaborating with influencers- Ever since the rise of social media, social media influencers have been found to be very effective for selling products and services to their fans. Many fans place lots of trust in these influencers and find themselves more likely to interact with a business or a product if an influencer promotes it. This market is worth billions of dollars and is expected to grow an additional 7 billion dollars over the next few years.
• Appearing on videos and podcasts- A representative from your business doesn’t have to necessarily appear in person or through voice on any of these mediums unless they’d like to! However, these mediums are very influential on their viewers and listeners. Many people go to Youtube when looking for a product review. Additionally, many podcasters take time during their show to promote products that catch the attention of their listeners. There are two ways to approach this market, you could either send an influencer, podcast host, or Youtube star a product of yours and pay for them to talk about it or you could wait for one of those people to begin using your product organically. The first option is very proactive and has been proven effective, especially as Youtube has 5 billion viewers every day and podcasts have 68 million weekly listeners.
• Responsive marketing- Paying attention to what is happening in the world can be an indicator of what changes need to be made to your marketing strategy. In 2020 when the world went into lockdown, many businesses altered their marketing strategies in response to the pandemic. There was a rise in online and televised marketing as more people were at home to interact with it. Trends like this may come and go depending on what’s going on in the world but adapting to the changes in real-time is a great way to showcase the flexibility of your business. Due to how well this marketing strategy worked, many businesses have said that they will continue to use this type of marketing in the future. 
• Email marketing- Creating and applying a personalized and inviting email marketing system is a great way to maintain and grow your business. Many people every year subscribe to email notifications from businesses, because of this, it is essential to send marketing emails that are eye-catching and offer worthwhile deals and promotions. It is estimated that over 80% of people subscribed to email marketing respond or interact with the emails, making the content in the emails crucial to their interaction. 

These strategies, both old and new, are strong ways to begin promoting your business. Businesses and companies have been proven to be very responsive to these strategies in recent years, however, choosing just one or two strategies to focus on may not be as effective as combining multiple. Creating an ideal combination between past and present B2B strategies will allow your business to be more dynamic and consistent in its marketing.