2022 looks to be another exciting year for the telecommunications industry with new innovations continually being developed for UCaaS propositions and seamless enablement of the working environment that it provides.
Flexibility has always been a focal point of the B2B landscape – and not just in the telecommunication sector. The less flexible a company is, the more likely they are to be left behind by their competitors. Offering the latest services and even diversifying a product portfolio enhances the development efforts that are gaining prominence, such as lead generation tools, database management, social selling, video content, and much more. For marketers looking to adopt the latest growing trends in sales and marketing, here are our top 5 that we would recommend you look to add to your next marketing strategy.
1. Bringing your marketing and sales teams closer together
In recent years, the roles have changed for a typical marketer – they are no longer perceived as the ‘colouring in’ department. They now work more like a calculator than a crayon. Everything is data-driven and organised through a process. Sales-alike, they are no longer just waiting to pounce on a lead given to them by their telemarketing team. They actively promote themselves on LinkedIn and generate their own leads through tactics like video prospecting.
Times are changing for the way leads are created and how the content behind them is generated and decided. Numbers now drive your marketing teams. With every email campaign, the open rate of your email determines the audience type. The number of engagements within a social media post can determine the style of your posts for the next month. Marketing is now just as much of a numbers game as it is about creativity, but more on this in point 4.
Not so long ago, your best way of creating new sales leads was by cold calling. It was time consuming, gruelling and often not done by a salesperson. Fast forward to 2022, everyone has the ability to have a substantial audience right at their fingertips with little cost involved – social media.
Today, successful salespeople reach out to their own prospects, promote themselves, and continually build their audience on social media platforms like LinkedIn. By having a greater understanding of these marketing concepts, they will secure the leads they need to lock in more deals.
2. Social Selling is here to stay
Rewinding to late 2020, when social selling first immersed itself in the channel as an alternative selling method that people could do from home, it was a trial-and-error method for all companies not already in the SaaS space. Software as a Service companies have been selling through the likes of LinkedIn for years, but now it’s here to stay for any company looking to grow dynamically. With all aspects of the buyers journey now available digitally, salespeople are about to close a deal from their home office or office. Social selling is a key aspect for any sales and marketing people looking to grow their own brand and maximise their audience on social platforms such as LinkedIn.
You might be thinking, ‘this is more of a sales trend’, but the ability of social selling has changed the type of content that marketing teams produce. Content marketing has seen an increase of 187% since 2020, meaning people love expanding their knowledge through a white paper, infographic, video or a blog like this. Your sales teams will thank you for the extra content that they can leverage when talking to people on their social channels.
3. Automated Processes
Enhancing customer experience is a key driver to any UCaaS or SaaS business, and automating processes helps deliver just that. Customers expect a smooth digital experience throughout their entire buying journey. Automated processes don’t always have to involve a huge expense, it can just be an automated email when they hit a trigger point on your website.
Making sure your digital customer experience is embedded in your organisation will help establish you as a trusted company to your customers. Those who invest in the way their customers interact with them will win.
4. Data-Driven Marketing Content
Traditionally, marketing teams were seen as the creatives of a company and the department was had more of an artistic focus. Put more bluntly, marketers were occasionally seen as the people in a company who would make a presentation look more visual, or they’d be the ones creating the perfect back story or narrative to a product. Now, however, thanks to the ever more evolving digital environment, marketing teams are driven through more science and their content is determined through the data that’s compelled through digital platforms.
In a reverse role to salespeople being more focused on lead generation and their personal brand, marketers are now more than ever driven by data. The content created, whether it’s for a blog post, a new product release or a new campaign idea, will be determined through the data they are using. Analytics and reports are becoming more and more accessible through platforms like Google Analytics, HubSpot and Hootsuite etc that marketing teams are much more knowledgeable about their target audience than ever before.
5. Engaged through Video
There’s no denying that video content has taken the social media world by storm. In 2020 alone, the number of videos uploaded increased by 80% to the year before. The impressive stats speak for themselves, and we think it’s something you definitely shouldn’t ignore for your 2022 marketing plans. The biggest driver for video is short-form content (videos under 1 minute). With the popularity of platforms like TikTok and YouTube shorts increasing enormously over the last year, short-form video content has increased by over 140% in 2020. Now we’re not saying to go out there and start making company-style TikToks but creating shorter and snappier variants of video content is a great way to keep your audience engaged, regardless of what platform you’re pushing it out on.
At Pragma, we get a kick out of going the extra mile to support our resellers whatever the challenge, trends and opportunities in the market. We would love to learn more about your business and how we can play a role in growing your business in 2022 and beyond.
Already a Pragma reseller partner and want to book a marketing update to discuss how we can help you with the latest collateral, lead generation tactics or recommendations? Please get in touch at marketing@wearepragma.co.uk.