Privacy and the attention economy - What B2B marketers need to know

As an agency and trusted partner for clients, it’s important we stay up to date with the latest thinking and influences on B2B marketing. In this first in a short series of posts, we’re looking at the some of the important trends that are going to impact strategy and implementation this year.

What does the future look like?

We think the senior people at a platform like LinkedIn probably have their finger on the pulse when it comes to what is impacting B2B.

Reading between the lines, to us, this means identifying and profiling the essential needs and behavioural attributes of target groups. This might not be anything new, but we think going deep into segmentation, targeting and positioning is essential as marketing becomes ever more fragmented.

The Cookiepocalypse and Zero Party Data

We’re seeing consistent changes to digital privacy settings – and the soon to be death of third-party cookie. This will put the digital advertising industry especially is something of a crossroads. Tracking and attribution have been essential to giving marketing spend meaning for some time but with third-party cookies being removed it will be harder for marketers to take a steer from purchase patterns. This move means marketers will have to tap into ‘zero party data’ as Linkedin call it – or information that consumers willingly share with brands they trust. This will help both validate user intent and deliver personalized experiences. Whilst this may sound scary to many SEOs and webmasters, zero party data may well dramatically improve the quality of data, the warmness of leads and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

What does this mean for b2b marketers?

We think there are five distinct impacts of these changes. 1. It’s likely that the channels where we can target certain audiences (like LinkedIn and other social sites) will become even more bloated with adverts as brands compete for the same attention. 2. It’s not enough to just get in front of people, you need them to remember you, care about you and want to keep in touch with you. So, investment in brand becomes crucial. 3. Content marketing and storytelling is more important than ever – but you must act like a publication, not a salesperson, to be successful. 4. Loyalty and advocacy programmes will become more important, as will email marketing and building proprietary databases. Anything that you own and manage – rather than pitching your tent on rented land (see point 1 above particularly). 5. Multi-channel marketing will become more important, with experimental and non-traditional channels offering the opportunity to stand-out. ROI will be measured in actual sales over the year… no more vanity MQLs or analytics Worried about changes to data and privacy? Interested in exploring how to turn these mandated changes to your advantage? Start a no obligation conversation click here.