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B2B Marketing Predictions: Video, Data, AI Chatbots
The bad news is that marketing isn’t going to get any easier in 2024. The good news is that if you use these three predictions to work both smarter and harder in the new year, your marketing output is sure to improve.
Marketers can expect to push harder in three key areas: producing video content, collecting first-party data, and keeping humans in the chatbot loop. None of this will be easy, but enterprising marketers will benefit in 2024 by following these trends.
Green light: marketers rely on video
How popular is video content?
According to statistics compiled by Oberlo:
- 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands.
- 66% find short videos to be the most engaging type of content on social media.
- 86% of marketers use videos as a marketing tool.
Obviously, marketers listen to what their customers are saying. But in 2024, marketers can expect to double or triple their video production.
Video will be everywhere this year and it’s easy to see why. The video channel is a powerful way to increase audience engagement, showcase products, and build deeper connections with potential customers.
ANA forecasts that livestreaming will grow in importance, “enabling real-time interaction and authenticity as brands host live events, product launches and behind-the-scenes experiences to deliver immersive and compelling content.”
Smart marketers take these livestream events, edit them, and publish this content to social media as recorded webinars and snippets.
Another type of video will also gain attention in 2024: video customer feedback.
Most companies survey their customers to find out what is going right or wrong in the company (NPS, CSAT, etc.). But in 2024, expect to see more companies collecting video customer feedback in addition to typical written responses.
One interesting use case we’ve seen at Alchemer is when companies collect feedback in American Sign Language (ASL) from their customers with speech or physical disabilities. These customers can sign their feedback using the video feedback capture product on our survey platform. It’s a great feeling to be able to help an underserved community by using the power of technology to connect people.
Red light: Marketers are starting to cut their connection to third-party data
Stricter privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies are forcing B2B marketers to take a closer look at where they get their leads from. In 2024, expect marketers to begin cutting their relationships with third-party data providers and getting serious about collecting first-party data.
What does that mean? HubSpot has one great overview of first, second and third party data. Suffice it to say, list buying is being replaced by list building. Because this is a longer-term issue, some companies may take the transition in stride, but the trajectory is clear.
First-party data – data collected directly from your company – allows marketers to personalize campaigns, build long-term customer relationships, and improve the overall customer experience.
The benefits of using first-party data include:
- Quality and accuracy
- Control over customer data and privacy
- Data ownership
- Customization and personalization in marketing campaigns
- Improved targeting
- Cost efficiency
Third-party data raises significant privacy concerns, particularly because it is data that companies collect and aggregate from sources other than their own customers or users. Key privacy concerns related to third-party data include whether the user has explicitly consented to sharing their data, whether the data is accurate, and where the data comes from.
Marketers know all this. But recent regulations are forcing them to do more and faster.
In 2024, expect marketers to abandon their reliance on third-party data and get serious about collecting third-party data.
Yellow Light: Marketers should exercise caution when using an AI chatbot
You’ll hear a lot of hype about AI in the coming year. Some of it will be great and true. Some of this requires a little caution when applying it to your business.
Marketers have long been interested in chatbots, and generative AI promises that one day an algorithm could resolve customer queries, make sales, and reduce cart abandonment. But that day is not today.
Despite the interest in AI chatbots – a market that Statistica reports is expected to be worth around $454.8 million by 2027 – Marketers in 2024 should tread carefully with any chatbot that generates content at the moment of request without a human filter.
Forrester analyst Rowen Curran recently warned against the use of autonomous generative AI in chatbots What it means Podcast episode: “Right now, if you allow systems to create arbitrary content without a human being involved, the risk of generating content that could negatively impact your brand is very, very high.”
That’s not to say B2B marketers and their customer support counterparts won’t use AI. B2B marketers are using generative AI to produce content at an unprecedented scale. Customer support agents can use AI to pull relevant help articles during a call.
AI can and will be part of our marketing for the foreseeable future.
However, be particularly careful with customer-focused generative AI. There are too many risks associated with fully autonomous AI chatbots. People are still needed.
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Marketing won’t get any easier in 2024, but knowing these three trends in advance can help you prepare for the year ahead.
To be successful this year, dust off your video camera, prepare for first-party data collection, and keep people in the loop with chatbot.
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