6 B2B Marketing and PR Resolutions for 2021

New year, new goals. Are you being tapped to deliver more this year, with similar budget and resources? Here are six strategies for making a bigger marketing and PR impact in 2021.

1. Fuse storytelling and digital. Digital advertising exploded in 2020. This year will bring more of the same: Morningstar projects online advertising will grow another 20% in 2021. The result will be higher costs, extreme market saturation and lower levels of engagement. How do you stand out and generate positive returns? The answer: Prioritize storytelling. In 2021, develop deeper campaigns that resonate emotionally and take your prospects along a journey. Every marketer has the same tools at their disposal. The difference lies in what and how we communicate. To break out, focus first on solving problems, eliminating pain and sharing something new – not the same old marketing-speak everyone else promotes. Tap your PR team to help develop real stories – with characters (your personas), a setting that resonates (market trends), real conflict and a compelling resolution. Integrate those stories into your digital outreach.
2. When it comes to social, stop, listen and be intentional. Make 2021 the year you rethink your organic social media strategy. Do you know what channels your buyers are using? Do you know where they go, who they follow and what types of content they engage with online? Better yet: Do you have actual goals for your social strategies? Increasing follower counts and likes don’t count. Far too many of us are guilty of oversharing and under-listening. We post on Twitter because everyone else is doing it. We have an Instagram because someone told us it was good for recruiting. In Q1, make time to develop social media goals that align with business and marketing objectives, and fully audit and analyze your social media landscape. What posts generated a positive return last year? What are your competitors doing that you can hijack? Are you leveraging partners and influencers to expand your network? Give yourself the space to go deep on what’s working and what’s not, and use the results to create an actionable blueprint for making an impact, being intentional and connecting with your community.
3. Experiment. The same old marketing gets the same old results. Carve out capacity and budget this year to explore new marketing and PR strategies. Start by checking out fast-growing tech companies outside of your market. What are they doing that you could test or adopt? Brainstorm with your internal team and agencies – what do they see working elsewhere, and what idea have they always wanted to recommend but held back? New doesn’t always mean good, but you won’t know until you try. Aim to create a culture that fosters innovation, allows for failure and makes room for experimentation.
4. Be transparent, purposeful and direct with internal communications. Your people are your biggest and most important asset. And while our collective outlook looks better today than it did six months ago, we are still in unchartered territory. As a leader, everything you do and say, or fail to communicate, sends a message. Marketing and PR professionals are in a unique position to help executives communicate more purposefully and thoughtfully internally. If you’re not being tapped for corporate communications today, step up and make it a priority. The impact on culture, retention and performance is substantial.
5. Expand your voice and awareness. Media and news consumption skyrocketed in 2020. So did self-learning, given the majority of in-person events had to be cancelled. This dynamic creates meaningful opportunity to educate the market and build brand awareness through media relations. The right coverage can strengthen your brand, increase visibility, generate new business, ease sales conversations and attract investor attention. The best coverage, over time, can even shape the way the market thinks and buys – strengthening your approach and de-positioning your competitors. If you often hear statements from sales like “no one knows who we are,” or “they haven’t budgeted for a solution like ours” or “they said their current approach is good enough”, it’s time to invest in PR and media relations.
6. More video. More visuals. Demand for video content has been rising for years and the pandemic acted as an accelerant. Consider that even before COVID-19, 87% of people said they wanted more video from brands. And according to Insivia, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to only 10% when reading it in text. While B2B video marketing is far from a new trend, consumption remains incredibly high. In 2021, resolve to use more video across your marketing strategy – casual executive takes, customer case studies, campaign overviews, going live on LinkedIn and Facebook, and more. The same can be said for visuals – the easier your content is to consume, the more engagement you’ll see.

If you’re ready to make these resolutions real, drop us a line and we’ll talk you through where to start, what to watch out for and how to make it work.