5 ways your B2B brand can use the rest of 2023 to prepare for 2024
The end of the year marks a good opportunity to reflect, reposition, and recharge your B2B marketing strategy.
A lot can happen in a year. You’ve likely met new clients, overcome new challenges, and celebrated new successes. Before looking at how you can move forward, it pays to look back and reflect on those changes. Here are five prompts you can use to start that process and hit the ground running in 2024.
1. Set new objectives and redefine success
A process of reflection will help you set objectives and look ahead. If it’s been a transformative year for your B2B brand, your definition of success may have changed. Perhaps, instead of just meeting financial targets, it’s about recognition and awareness, or doubling down on your business’ sustainability goals. No matter how it’s developed or altered, it pays to take stock and see if your definition of success has shifted.
2. Track industry movements and trends
There’s already a lot of talk about what might be in store for 2024. Forbes says that we should be looking at hyper-personalization through big data and analytics. Content Marketing Institute shares in its 2024 outlook that, while AI is top of mind, there’ll be “greater demand for high-quality content as consumers grow weary of AI-generated content.” As the year continues to come to an end, do some research and take note of the way the industry is expected to develop so you can anticipate those changes if (and when) they arrive.
3. Check in with your customers
As well as checking in with your own business, do the same with your customers. When’s the last time you sent your customers a survey asking whether they’re satisfied with your services, or completed a series of interviews asking for personalized feedback? Their industry will be moving, too, and new trends will be emerging. They may be in the process of rethinking how they define success and will need your help getting there.
4. Complete a content audit
The end of the year offers an ideal opportunity to look at your content output, both in terms of what you published this year and what you intend to publish next. It’s worth noting that Content Marketing Institute found that the three most popular content types among B2B marketers are short articles and posts (94%), videos (84%), and case studies or customer stories (78%). Alongside that, 71% use long articles, 60% produce visual content, and 59% create e-books and whitepapers. As part of the audit, complete a sweep of your social media channels and update the bio, images, or URLs as necessary.
5. Monitor the competition
In the same way your organization and industry has changed, there’s a good chance your competitors have evolved and developed too. The end of the year is a great opportunity to check in with what those brands are doing, what progress they’ve made over the last 12 months, and whether that insight can be leveraged to highlight any gaps or opportunities in your own strategy.
