2015 is already here, and it’s coming in full-force. Holiday festivities and our intermission from work seem so far away. Everyone is hastily getting back into the swing of things, and it’s business as usual. We’ve learned a lot over the past year through our client and internal campaigns and projects – all the while keeping a close eye on what other B2B marketers are experiencing and on trends and events that are impacting the world of B2B marketing. What are the new challenges that we face this year (e.g. what’s inevitable and unavoidable?) What changes are we seeing come out of 2014 and into the new year that will affect how we plan and execute our clients’ strategies? As always, we approach digital marketing not from a “Gee-whiz, that’s neat!” perspective, but from a “What real changes are going to provide opportunities and challenges for our clients?” perspective. From mobile to marketing automation to B2B e-commerce to social and content marketing, we covered the bases with trends we feel will have the most impact on your business. Whether you’re a financial services firm or a specialty chemicals manufacturer, what we’ve proposed is relevant to any brand that is looking to influence the various decision makers along the buyer journey. Our predictions and trends highlight:  What are the business drivers causing the trends  What you can reasonably expect to achieve by adopting them  The business consequences of not adopting them We’ve peppered in compelling research and insights from third party sources (e.g. studies, charts, infographics) to deliver our proof points. We’re here to empower and educate our clients to make some of the most important decisions to meet their business goals and objectives. And, it would make our day to know that you learned something new from what we’re so passionate about doing everyday. What are your thoughts on our 11 B2B marketing predictions and trends for 2015? Have any others of your own to add? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

1. Prepared by Slack and Company
Rich Dettmer
Justina Nguyen
SLACK AND COMPANY’S B2B MARKETING
PREDICTIONS AND TRENDS FOR 2015

2. [ 2 ]
B2B Marketing Predictions and Trends for 2015
As always, we approach digital marketing not
from a “gee wiz, that’s neat” perspective, but from
a “what real changes are going to provide
opportunities and challenges for our clients”
perspective.

3. [ 3 ]
Mobile marketing will reach equal consideration with the desktop in
B2B
What it is: B2B is beginning to
see mobile response rates equal
those of desktop response rates.
What it means: We are finally at
the inflection point in B2B where
mobile marketing channels must
be considered at the same level
of emphasis as desktop channels
Why it matters: If our clients
continue to focus only on the
desktop they will be missing half
(or more) of their marketing
opportunity

4. [ 4 ]
Mobile marketing will reach equal consideration with the desktop in
B2B
• 5.9 billion people are mobile
users out of 7 billion people
worldwide
• It’s projected that by this year,
mobile usage will surpass
desktop usage
• 68% of mobile users are using
Android, while 19% use iOS.
• Mobile is being used more and
more for the purposes of
emails, social media, news, &
research/surveys – averaging
over 50%.

5. [ 5 ]
Marketers will fine-tune their content distribution strategy, with an
increase of using social as a key amplifier
What it is: In 2014, B2B marketers
realized the importance of creating and
publishing content, with “content
strategy” as a core focus. However,
many failed when it came to executing
a successful content distribution
strategy (only 38% rate their efforts as
effective).
What it means: Even if you have the
best content out there, it won’t matter if
the content doesn’t have visibility. Only
26% of marketers are investing in
content distribution, even though more
than half believe they need to.
Why it matters: 54% of the most
effective B2B marketers have a
documented content strategy. Strategic
distribution and personalization of
content is what will set businesses
apart in this hyper-competitive
landscape.

6. [ 6 ]
Marketers will fine-tune their content distribution strategy, with an
increase of using social as a key amplifier
• 26% of marketers are investing in
content distribution, even though
more than 50% believe they need to
• 60% of B2B marketers plan to
increase their content marketing
budgets
• 94% of marketers say that social
media is an important part of their
marketing mix, with 80% indicating
their efforts increased traffic to their
websites
• The focus on social media
distribution will lead to increased
organic usage and increased paid
social media advertising to extend
the reach of content and lead
generation

7. [ 7 ]
Social ad spending and paid amplification will increase
What it is: There are changes in the
social landscape like the decline of
Facebook’s organic reach & decline in
promotional page posts starting Jan.
2015, and Twitter’s new results-driven
business model of its ad platform.
What it means: Content visibility will
become more competitive, and the
demand for ads will increase. Marketers
will need to spend more for their content
(via ads) to reach their audience.
Marketers will also need to take
advantage of Twitter’s performance-
based structure.
Why it matters: With the increase of
content creation and curation, there will
need to be a push to boost content
consumption to stay abreast with
competitors in real-time. Continued
testing and optimization will be key
here.

8. [ 8 ]
Social ad spending and paid amplification will increase
• 70% of marketers will increase
spending on social media marketing
– Marketingsherpa.com
• Social advertising spend increased
by 40% in 2014 and will top $8.5
billion, growing to nearly $14 billion
in 2018.
• Top metrics used by marketers to
measure social media success
include: social media traffic,
audience engagement, audience
growth rate, overall brand
awareness, and lead gen.

9. [ 9 ]
Marketing automation will be considered the “standard” demand
generation and management approach
What it is: Marketing automation has
long been predicted to become the
standard approach to direct
marketing. This is the year in B2B
where the majority of savvy
marketers will adopt it.
What it means: There will be a
fundamental shift in the way demand
generation is handled for B2B
companies. This will make for a
bumpy year for many marketers, but
will yield improved results.
Why it matters: Marketing
automation has been found to
increase demand generation
performance by as much as 18%
while reducing resource
requirements for program
management.

10. [ 10 ]
Marketing automation will be considered the “standard” demand
generation and management approach
• As more and more companies
are now utilizing marketing
automation, training on the
technology is becoming a
more important initiative and
mandate from the C-Suite
• Marketing automation is also
getting cheaper, now that there
are dozen of alternatives for
all-in-one solutions – which
means more widespread
usage

11. [ 11 ]
Video content creation, consumption, and advertising will continue to
grow
What it is: In Q4 2014 alone, 38.2
billion videos were watched (+43%
from 2013). Videos continue to be
one of the top 5 most effective tactics
for B2B marketers. (82% report
success)
What it means: Video is being used
more and more as a way to talk
about products and services instead
of a long whitepaper or article, along
every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Why it matters: Attention spans are
declining and expectations of content
are growing. Not only is it important
to create attention-grabbing, quality
visual storytelling, but it’s also crucial
to have a video distribution strategy
in place.

12. [ 12 ]
Video content creation, consumption, and advertising will continue to
grow
• 73% of B2B marketers use video
as a content marketing tactic
• The popularity of whitepapers as
a B2B content marketing format is
actually declining in relation to
more interactive, easily digestible
formats such as video
• In 2014, the use of video content
for B2B marketing increased by
8% to 58%, while the use of
infographics topped the adoption
list increasing in usage by 9% to
52%.
• Video content can increase the
changes of front page Google
ranking by 53 times
• 50% of those who viewed a
marketing video went on to make
a purchase for their business

13. [ 13 ]
“Content alignment with the buyer journey” will be the new black
What it is: In order to properly
automate a marketing campaign,
marketers must identify content and
offers that are appropriate and
compelling to each target audience
at each point in the buyer journey.
What it means: Marketers will be
required to audit their content to find
where it aligns with their target
audiences and where they have gaps
in their messages and offers.
Why it matters: In order to take
advantage of the opportunity offered
by Marketing automation, B2B
marketers have to have content “in
the can” for each stage of their
automated programs.

14. [ 14 ]
• 79% of marketing leads never
convert to sales; 61% of B2B
marketers send leads directly
to sales, while only 27% of
those leads are qualified
• Aligning content with the
buyer’s journey yields 73%
higher average conversion
rates for marketers who do vs.
those who don’t
• Content aligning may open
your audiences’ eyes to goals
they may be missing or pain
points they need to change
“Content alignment with the buyer journey” will be the new black

15. [ 15 ]
B2B Marketing will play a much larger role in B2B sales
What it is: As B2B buyers
behavior becomes more self-
service, B2B marketers will take
on more and more of the buyer
journey.
What it means: In order to
maintain a consistent voice to the
B2B buyer, it is critical that
marketing and sales become
more aligned in messages and
content.
Why it matters: A lack of
alignment between marketing and
sales will create a buyer journey
that “hits a cliff” at the point the
journey switches from marketing
to sales.

16. [ 16 ]
• B2B organizations with tightly
aligned sales and marketing
operations achieved 24%
faster three-year revenue
growth and 27% faster three-
year profit growth
• The objective of marketing and
sales alignment is knowing
when a process is working and
when it isn’t
• Improve communication
between departments, set
measurable goals/guidelines,
improve transparency, and
build mutual respect
B2B Marketing will play a much larger role in B2B sales

17. [ 17 ]
Email will come roaring back as spam subsides
What it is: Acceptance of a
variety of email certification
standards including Domain Keys
Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender
Policy (SPF), and DMARC
(Domain-Based Message
Authentication, Reporting and
Conformance) are making a real
dent in spam traffic.
What it means: If B2B marketers
follow the rules, their emails will
make it through while spam gets
stopped at the server level.
Why it matters: With the growth
of automation, it will be key to
have high deliverable rates on
scheduled and triggered
messages through email.

18. [ 18 ]
Email will come roaring back as spam subsides
• The email deliverability score
for B2B marketers has
increased from last year, as
many databases contained
less outdated/incorrect email
addresses.

19. [ 19 ]
Marketing applications will appear on wearable technology
What it is: Wearable technology is
becoming more widespread, which
opens up a whole new way to
connect.
What it means: Because current
adoption is low, it’s a great time for
low-stakes experiments on marketing
strategies with wearable tech.
Why it matters: This is the holy grail
of marketing: delivering the right
content at right time and at the right
place. As technology becomes even
more embedded into our daily
routines, marketers can expect a
data flood from the ocean of
information collected by apps.

20. [ 20 ]
Sales Percentages
Marketing applications will appear on wearable technology
• Multi-screen marketing,
responsive design and
integration with other devices
will be areas of focus as
wearable technology becomes
more widespread
• By 2018, the wearable
technology market will rise to a
value worth $5.8 billion.
• Although Google Glass web
browsing only accounts for a
small part of the total online
traffic, it’s incidence has also
rise 135%, more than the
growth of tablet (39%) and
mobile growth (38%)

21. [ 21 ]
The B2B e-commerce market is big and about to get bigger
What it is: B2B ecommerce has
lagged behind consumer
ecommerce as B2B organizations
have been challenged in serving
up multi-touch, multi-decision
purchases through ecommerce
What it means: Increasing
support for repeat purchase
models and service oriented
ecommerce models has
increased the match between
B2B needs and ecommerce
capabilities
Why it matters: 2015 will be a
year that sees and acceleration of
B2B entities trying and adopting
ecommerce business modules

22. [ 22 ]
The B2B e-commerce market is big and about to get bigger
• B2B ecommerce is growing
slightly faster than US online
retailing at a rate of 19%,
compared to 17% for B2C
ecommerce
• At over $500 billion in total
sales, the market is an
increasing target for
innovators, developers, and
retailers

23. [ 23 ]
Integrated customer experience marketing in B2B will be a point of
emphasis in 2015
What it is: Consistent branding
and messaging across the entire
customer experience has long
been a goal of B2B marketers but
is a challenge given the
complexities of multi-decision
buyer processes
What it means: Increased
visibility of customer interactions,
particularly through web reviews
and social media has increased
both the focus and the
measurability of the customer
experience
Why it matters: Savvy B2B
marketers will use both direct
research and a variety of social
signals to measure and optimize
their customer experience so that
it is consistent and integrated
across all customer touch points
and channels

24. [ 24 ]
Integrated customer experience marketing in B2B will be a point of
emphasis in 2015
• 71% of B2B marketers agree
that their customers’ rising
expectation for consumer-like
convenience experience
impacts how to interact with
them
• It’s predicted that by 2020,
customer experience will
overtake price and product as
the key brand differentiator
• 85% of B2B marketers view
customer experience as critical
to achieving their strategic
growth priorities