As marketers try to appeal to younger leadership, they will need digital tactics that appeal to them. We cover five strategies to shake up your marketing efforts.

Traditionally, the B2B marketing space has been linked with yawn-inducing white papers, lengthy presentations, and dry ebooks. While that may have worked for Boomers, the strategy doesn’t go down well with millennials.

A report by the Bedford Group Transearch estimated that by 2020 Millennials would have taken up more than one-third of the workforce globally. These people who at one point held entry-level positions would step up into management-level, entrepreneurial, and leadership roles.

The thing with millennials is that they are known for their fresh perspectives, disruptive innovations, and love for emerging technology. This means that if you want to appeal to this group the yawn-inducing material we mentioned up there, will need a shake-up. To that end, let’s look at five digital tactics to shake up your marketing campaigns.

1.   Re-Evaluate Your Content Strategy

The “content is king” phrase drove many B2B marketers into content production. So we now have an influx of content on just about every topic.

It’s great for the information age we’re in, but not so much for buyers looking for a brand that offers genuine expertise and solutions.

Why?

Because for every marketing team creating authentic content are a hundred others doing a shoddy job and using poor SEO tactics to get ahead.

Tough.

Should you stop creating content? Not at all. I want to give you tips to help revamp your content so you can attract more readership and engagement.

• Know who you are. Create a uniform description of your brand and what you stand for. Get your team to internalize this overview and bring it out in the content they create.
• Know who you are addressing. Flesh out your personas appropriately to help you create content that speaks your target audience’s language. When prospective customers feel understood, it boosts their confidence in your ability to meet their needs.
• Know what you are saying. A half-baked call to action is unlikely to see many prospects gravitating towards your offerings. Think up action-inspiring phrases to get your prospects to act.
• Know what makes your audience tick. Why should audiences care about your offerings? How will it benefit them? What content can you create to appeal to these audiences?

2.   Create Urgency

“Our business solutions will make your life much easier”

“We have solutions for your pain points—it’s our specialty”

“Act soon. We’re certain you’ll be satisfied”

These are a part of the general sentiments that are likely to drive action.

But it’s worth noting that consumers are becoming wary of the urgency techniques brands employ. So, even as you create urgency to get buyers moving, it’s important to do so without hurting your brand.

Top practices include:

• Social call-outs. Adding stats to your product/service pages may help achieve two things—improve popularity perception and activate the sense of “we’ll miss out if we don’t act now.”
• Scarcity messaging. We typically attach more appeal to something that’s in short supply. Set parameters for triggering this message when a certain number of products are remaining or if a particular service option will be closed for a season.
• Inject social proof to bring urgency. Use recommendations to let site visitors know what products/services are popular with buyers. As prospects read the reviews, they will feel more inclined to purchase and enjoy the same benefits.

3.   Influencer Marketing

B2B buyers will hardly make purchases based off a flier they picked up somewhere. It may initiate a conversation but one that’s filled with skepticism and the buyer may insist on plenty of proof before they can consider you.

Now, compare that to partnering with an influencer who holds considerable sway in their industry through the mastery of their expertise and a solid reputation.

You’re likely to have it easier convincing potential customers because people place much weight on recommendations from loved ones, friends, and those they consider experts.

Statistics show that up to 89 percent of marketers who’ve collaborated with influencers have found the strategy quite effective.

Consider the following:

• Come up with definite KPIs. Do you want to enhance credibility? Boost purchases for a particular product/service? Encourage registration for a specific event? Or improve your authority? Be clear about your metrics to ensure you can track performance.
• Analyze potential candidates. Niche experts, industry experts and analysts, customers, internal executives, and customers are all potential candidates. Before settling on one (or several) examine their reach, past or current partnerships with other brands, their followers’ engagement levels, and reputation.
• Set a budget. As with other marketing efforts, there are costs involved in partnering with an influential figure. The fees may depend on the activities required (creating videos/podcasts, blogs/articles, LinkedIn Lives, Twitter chats, etc) and the duration of your collaboration.

4.   Cold Calling

You’ve received referrals? That’s fantastic.

Perhaps you curate amazing ebooks, social media posts, and promotional materials.

All these are superb ways of acquiring new customers, but they don’t work in isolation. At some point, you’ll need to pick up that phone and talk to potential customers.

Cold calling is one of the more adaptable strategies that continue to initiate discussions that lead to partnerships and increased revenue.

Top benefits of this strategy include:

• Helps you identify potential customers. Based on your personas, you have probably built a custom list of brands to contact. Put together customized questions you can ask the prospect to gain insights into their business concerns and qualify them.
• Boosts authenticity. Anyone can set up a website, load it with content, and scam people. Combining a strong online presence with phone calls helps boost your credibility. You have real people making human connections with prospects and building relationships with them.
• Allows you to reach new customers. There are businesses out there that aren’t aware of your existence but may need your business solutions. You can boost brand awareness through cold calling and set up a series of steps thereafter to continue the engagement and nurturing.
• Offers instantaneous feedback. The prospect has a solution in place or doesn’t have a budget presently. Perhaps they are restructuring and are looking at various options. The feedback you receive allows you to re-evaluate your offerings, target a different audience, or leverage sales triggers.

5.   Brand Collaborations

Working with adjacent industries allows you to expand into new markets that you previously had no access to, boost awareness quickly and scale growth. Running co-promotions or assembling limited-edition products/services may help drive revenue for both businesses.

As you consider this strategy, here are some questions to think through:

• Which complementary brands can help your brand access the new markets you’re targeting?
• How wide would you like to increase your distribution? What amount of reach should a potential partner have? Regional? National?
• Do you have the financial muscle to run the partnership?
• What’s the minimum customer base/estimated audience a partner should have?
• How will the partnership benefit potential partners and their customers/audiences?
• What are the potential deal-breakers in a partner?

Answering these questions may help you determine the partners that may fit your business.