Like many entrepreneurs, I used the final couple of months of 2021 to replicate on what occurred in the course of the 12 months and to plan for 2022. Due to the unprecedented occasions of 2020 and 2021, I spent extra time than common taking inventory of the state of B2B advertising and assessing what the main focus of my content material must be in 2022 and past.
The COVID-19 pandemic turned 2020 right into a nine-month-long train in disaster administration for a lot of corporations. Enterprise shutdowns and work-from-home insurance policies pressured many B2B entrepreneurs to pivot their go-to-market technique and to make fast and substantial modifications to their advertising plans and techniques.
2021 was a combined 12 months in a number of methods. The US economic system skilled a sturdy restoration, and COVID-related fears and considerations eased considerably with the rollout of vaccines, the approval of vaccine boosters and the event of efficient antiviral therapeutics.
Then, close to the top of final 12 months, the Omicron variant appeared, and the world confronted the prospect of one other main surge of COVID-19. Within the US, that surge is now nicely underway, however there may be proof the Omicron variant could produce proportionately fewer extreme instances of COVID-19, and there may be hope that this surge shall be shorter than earlier ones. So 2021 demonstrated that COVID is not more likely to disappear any time quickly.
There’s little doubt the pandemic modified the expectations and behaviors of shoppers and enterprise consumers, and it is also clear that a few of these modifications will persist after COVID-related considerations recede. The present problem for entrepreneurs is to find out which of these modifications shall be longer-lasting and the way their advertising methods might want to evolve to achieve success.
Over the previous a number of weeks, I have been pondering via whether or not or to what extent the occasions of the previous two years ought to have an effect on the content material I publish right here. My goal for this weblog has all the time been to offer content material that readers will discover informative, thought-provoking and helpful. I have been gratified by the engagement this weblog has obtained, and I consider it is largely reaching its major aim.
However there’s all the time room for enchancment, and subsequently, I will be making a couple of modifications right here starting subsequent week. Throughout every calendar month, I plan to publish three new kinds of posts.
Ebook Evaluations – Many necessary matters can solely be addressed adequately in a full-length ebook, so I will be writing a ebook evaluation publish on a month-to-month foundation. Most of those critiques will focus on books which have been just lately revealed (often throughout the previous 1-2 years). Sometimes, nevertheless, I’ll evaluation an older ebook that’s significantly related for entrepreneurs within the present enterprise atmosphere.
Analysis Spherical-Ups – Common readers of this weblog will know that I steadily focus on the findings of marketing-related analysis research. Over the previous a number of years, the amount of such research has elevated dramatically, as corporations have realized they are often efficient for constructing thought management.
These Analysis Spherical-Up posts will briefly summarize the outcomes of just lately revealed analysis research. Every publish will often cowl 2 – 4 research, though I’ll often concentrate on a single examine after I consider it is significantly worthwhile for entrepreneurs.
Deep Dives – Analysis signifies that enterprise professionals worth content material sources that present reliable and in-depth data and insights. Till just lately, weblog posts weren’t sometimes seen as a superb car for addressing a subject in an in-depth method, just because the standard view was that weblog posts must be comparatively quick.
That is altering, and I now steadily see longer weblog posts which can be extra like characteristic articles in a periodical. For instance, the Harvard Enterprise Assessment web site and the Sloan Administration Assessment web site commonly publish longer on-line articles.
So this 12 months, I am planning to publish one publish every month that gives a extra in-depth remedy of an necessary subject. This can allow me to deal with sure matters in a extra cohesive and complete method.
The remaining one or two posts every month shall be just like these I have been writing since I launched this weblog greater than ten years in the past. I am hoping to incorporate a couple of posts based mostly on interviews with main advertising and enterprise thinkers, and I plan to publish a number of posts offering sensible, “how-to” steerage that readers can put to fast use.
Let’s have an awesome 2022!
Picture courtesy of Amanda Slater by way of Flickr (CC).
