One of these things will happen to all B2B Marketers in 2017

It's that time again when the Internet is alight with the predictions for the year ahead. But here's what's really going to go down in 2017.

I’m not a betting man but I’m willing to bet anyone in our industry that one of these things will happen to you in the year ahead. Any takers?

  • An agency will insist you use Virtual Reality as part of your next campaign (sorry Earnest clients probably us)
  • You’ll start the year cynical about the role of chatbots in B2B, then you’ll realise
  • You’ll become disenchanted with mobile display advertising because the numbers will suggest that most of the click throughs are the result of fat fingers

A tongue-firmly-in-cheek look at where
B2B marketing is really at

  • But you’ll get wise to the fact all your campaign activity needs to be mobile optimised when struggling to review that 72 page guide on your smartphone screen on the way home
  • You will attend a B2B marketing event where someone will in all honesty tell you that content marketing is the next big thing
  • You will create an infographic that hasn’t got any numbers in it whatsoever but you don’t know what else to call it
  • You’ll realise that you should be putting subtitles on your video because everyone’s watching them with the sound-off
  • You will lose 300 followers on Twitter, but will gain 302
Toy robot walking • Predictions 2017

What will the future hold?

  • Your management team will insist on repositioning your brand as thought-leaders but will be unable to point you in the direction of any thought-leaders
  • You will receive a surprisingly effective direct mail piece in the post and remember that direct mail can be surprisingly effective
  • You’ll reluctantly download a podcast because everyone’s banging on about them and then determine that everything should be a podcast
  • You’ll briefly consider the impact of voice controlled devices on your marketing, but when you ask Siri it’ll say ‘Sorry I don’t understand that question’
  • You’ll dismiss the fact that AI will take over your job for at least another year, until in December someone called IBM Watson turns up for work and spits out your P45

Happy New Year – here’s to a great 2017.