Five clear trends in B2B communication in 2024

If you want to reach out and really touch people with your messages, you need to think twice. It's easy to get stuck in a rut and keep doing what used to work. But the world is changing and sometimes it's a good idea to think about the implications for your company's communication. Here we highlight some of the trends that are currently evident in B2B communication in 2024.

From repetitive messages to authentic stories

It's easy to get stuck in static messages. You want to promote your benefits and think that the clearer you make them, the more engaging your communication will be. The only problem is that it risks becoming quite repetitive. Just as your brain may stop listening to a constant buzz in the background, the recipient stops paying attention to what you are saying.

That's why the trend in B2B communication is to focus on authentic stories instead. By highlighting your benefits in a human context, you create both recognition and engagement. It's called storytelling, but it's not so much about story as dramatizing a benefit in a relatable way. Messages are all well and good, but it's easier to remember a scene than a line break.

From AI alienation to human emotions

As you know, there is a lot of talk about AI and in the marketing context, it is a lot about being able to create personalized communication. Everything from replacing customer service with chatbots and emails that are tailored to the recipient. Of course, this creates great opportunities, but it also has a downside. Because in a world where more and more is automated and robotized, the feeling of authenticity is also disappearing.

Just as increasing digitalization has led to a backlash where people increasingly demand the tactile - the printed matter, the human encounter and the physical experience, the human touch remains important. In the future, when more and more interactions are automatically generated, the authentic experience will be more important than ever. This suggests that online communication will continue to need to be complemented by human encounters, trade fair presence and physical events.

From digits to real identification

Numbers are often seen as an effective way to highlight benefits. Especially in B2B communication, it always feels good when you can prove that something is 25% more efficient or has an ROI in three years. At the same time, numbers are something that speak to the rational part of the brain, a part that is rarely involved in decision-making (even if we like to think so). Juggling numbers is therefore not enough.

That is why the trend is now towards creating real identification. Finding the individual cases, stories and arguments that really speak to the recipient and their situation. Creating a genuine bond with the target audience and demonstrating an understanding of their challenges and concerns.

From micro-influencers to corporate ambassadors

At first, there was a lot of talk about influencers and Key Opinion Leaders. Companies paid them to promote their brands to a large following. Then there was a trend towards micro-influencers, people who were big in their niche even though they might not have hundreds of thousands of followers. But the relationship was still business-like.

Instead, the trend is now to try to take advantage of so-called corporate ambassadors. These are people who voluntarily use the company's products or services and thus have a genuine relationship with the brand. As the relationship between them and the company is non-commercial, it creates much more credibility. Take advantage of them, for example, by inviting them to nuance or participate in groups to evaluate new products already at the planning stage. This increases their incentive to promote the company's products, for example on social media.

From one size fits all to personalization and trust

Marketing has long involved broad, sweeping advertising campaigns aimed at everyone. Messages have been relatively generic and thus difficult to make relevant to the individual. Social media has in a way created greater opportunities for diversification and segmentation, but it is still relatively blunt.

The trend is therefore towards more personalization to build trust at the individual level. Account Based Marketing via LinkedIn is one approach, and has been popular for a number of years now, but whatever the method, it means companies are focusing more on identifying, engaging and converting the most valuable and relevant business customers. This can include real-time updated websites, segmented landing pages, interaction-based newsletters and ads that show different content to different accounts and decision-makers, based on their geographical, demographic and behavioral data.