Part 1: State of the Market: Tactics in a New World

What Go-to-Market tactics are being employed and will now shape the industry as we move forward?

Long term planning returns but with built in agility

Insight 1: Marketing planning cycles return quicker than expected, with an ability to be agile

Since March 2020, EI has been tracking the ability of marketers to plan long term go to market strategy. At the onset of Covid, all marketers moved to short term reactive planning (Graph 1) to respond to the crisis. whilst 46% of Barometer respondents are now able to plan for 6 months and beyond (Graph 2). Although EI's clients have managed to turn attention back towards long term goals, they are also building frameworks that allow for agile quarter by quarter planning for any volatility that continues to present itself in the market.

Insight 2: It is a myth that virtual events have a shorter lead time

32% of media providers are planning 9 months+ and a very small proportion have short timeframes. Where it was originally thought that virtual events were quicker to produce, it appears that for large events and conferences, existing production timelines are still required; an increased need for higher quality content and speakers in a virtual world means there is no corner cutting room in production cycles. In line with marketers, media providers, however, are planning smaller webinars and bespoke roundtables throughout the year to offer clients audience engagement touchpoints as they continue to build short-term quarter by quarter plans.

Our marketing strategy will have to be highly agile, meet shorter-term goals, and edit key messages to suit customers.

Our marketing cycles have accelerated where we used to plan for a full year but now it's only a quarter-by-quarter basis where we can shift budget and change strategies to remain agile.

Digital acceleration and the rise of social for relationship building

Insight 3: Lack of in-person engagement fuels unprecedented digital acceleration within the Go-to-Market Strategy

The huge tactical shift in Go-to-Market Strategy from an in-person environment to a pure digital-first approach has been a catalyst for increased speed to market as B2B marketers seek to engage audiences online in an increasingly competitive ecosystem. With the need for timely content, speed of delivery to relevant audiences is a must. Along with the need for speed is a build of the right tech to execute digital go to market campaigns successfully, whether it be for tracking campaigns, SEO, social strategy, data analytics or more.

Insight 4: Social Channels provide a route to lead engagement in lieu of F2F discussions at physical events

EI's clients see social media as an indispensable marketing tactic for any business that wants to remain pertinent and gain exposure, in today's busy online world, where face to face events cease to exist. The right social channels offer an ideal platform for editorial content establishing brands as trusted leaders in their field, as well as engaging leads through conversations. Marketers need to learn how to measure it’s success, whilst suppliers need to enhance their non- pure editorial social handles.

What has been the biggest change to your strategy?

Move to digital channels; emphasis on timely content - quicker to market

Huge reliance on digital channels in the absence of F2F requiring a build of the right tech and using it impressively and usefully for clients.

We have also reduced the number of whitepapers for more digestible content to reflect that our audience has less time than ever before. And turned to social to replicate hallway conversations.

Insight 5: Virtual events no longer a temporary fix, but a newly established Go-to-Market channel in their own right

It is clear that the digital events channel has matured over the course of the year and this is hopefully set to continue. There has been a major learning curve though in how to utilise virtual events as part of a go-to-market strategy, with mixed experiences reported. Tactics in the new world require marketers and media suppliers to ascertain what is best in class for a virtual event from a digital perspective rather than applying a physical lens to them. The purpose and strategy across all event elements from networking/booths/delivery of content all needs reassessing. Education is key as virtual events are here to stay

I think people are appreciating you can't take the format and agendas of in-person and just flip to virtual. Needs a total mindset shift and re-building, not just pivoting.

Event strategy - moving from physical to virtual and identifying what that new strategy and contact acquisition/lead gen channel looks like.

Insight 6: ABM becomes a significant part of Marketers' strategic playbook

With big levers in the market being disrupted, ABM has continued to grow as a core part of marketers' Go-to-market Strategy. Currently 70% of EI's clients are employing an ABM strategy. Of those surveyed, the majority are using this strategy to grow existing accounts or to improve client engagement and retention (Graph 1). In an environment where f2f engagement no longer exists, where there is an increased difficulty in getting people’s attention and where there is a risk of digital saturation, the need for relevancy, hyper-personalisation for 'the audience of one' is even greater. EI has seen a significant upshot in the number of clients requiring ABM reports to support them in this process.

Those organisations like the FT and Innovation Leader who try to do more/different/better in the virtual space seem to do better than those who are trying to replicate a physical event.

Marketer's perspective on Innovation

We had to pivot to delivering our large annual congress as a digital event and it gave us an opportunity to launch new non-event initiatives and products to strengthen our role in the ecosystem we serve.

Media Provider perspective on Innovation

Insight 7: Take the plunge with innovative strategies and new third party offerings to circumvent fatigue and digital saturation.

With the pandemic creating a global shift to a digital marketing strategy for B2B marketers, there is huge pressure to gain traction in an increasingly crowded market. Responses to the Barometer showed there is a real hunger for marketing innovation across events, ad formats, social, and content. Innovation will need to be radical and play a central role in determining strategic plans and go to market messaging for marketers to continue to engage their audiences. Brands (both B2B and media) who are responsive in creating new opportunities for their clients to leverage will strengthen their position in the new digital ecosystem, and survive.