It’s official, we’re now well into the new year. It’s hard to believe we’ve already reached the quarter-century mark!
Late last year, a thoughtful LinkedIn post from Rachel Cone-Gorham talked about how “2025 will belong to the brands that dare to be human.” She laid out six areas where this will be the case.
Rachel’s comments resonated. We’re working in an environment where customer engagement and personalization efforts distinguish one organization from another. “Being human” is the connective tissue between buyers and sellers.
Her post inspired my thinking about marketing in the B2B space. So, here are a few macro trends compiled from observations and conversations with clients and colleagues.
1. Brand Importance is Back!
Throughout 2024, I wrote about how branding was re-emerging in importance. Creative branding is now officially back after a hyper-focus on digital marketing and lead generation programs. It’s once again recognized as the critical competitive differentiator for capturing the mindshare of potential buyers.
This impact is real. LinkedIn’s B2B Institute reports that when B2B buyers make a purchase decision they typically choose the better-known, distinct brand.
Winning brands will be big on personality, showing their human side to foster engagement and emotional resonance. Brand priorities will focus on increasing awareness and building authority through ongoing customer conversations and personalization strategies that showcase knowledge and relevance.
It turns out, these branding efforts support digital marketing and lead-generation. As E-Marketer reports, brands that invest in awareness-driven tactics alongside performance-driven efforts typically see better results in lower-funnel conversion rates across digital channels.
2. A New Focus on Marketing Qualified Accounts
As customer decision making has become more complicated, so has the customer journey. It is not uncommon to find more than 10+ voices in a buyer’s decision-making committee – from department heads to C-Suite officers and all the major players in between. Outside advisors may also be involved.
Driving awareness across this diverse group is one challenge; building influence is yet another. This is causing a re-think of outreach issues along the customer journey and the approach at various stages.
The result is that an increasing number of marketers are simplifying funnel marketing and putting buyers in just two categories – “I’m not ready” and “I am ready” – and then working to move them from one to the other.
It’s also why there’s a shift from Marketing Qualified Leads to Marketing Qualified Accounts. This change focuses on audience intel and looks at the challenges of various personas in major accounts. Data collected on their interests, problems, and purchase intents helps to inform custom, personalized messaging and pinpoint the best channels to reach key players.
3. Frequent Content that Stands Out
This is another area where I’m repeating comments from last year. Creating great content has long been a goal so it’s hardly a new trend for 2025. Rather, the emphasis will be to create more content for delivery across more formats and more channels with increased frequency.
Epsilon reports that up to 80% of customer discovery happens pre-sales. The chart below published by Technology Advice on B2B trends details how a majority of buyers consume up to seven pieces of content before engaging with a vendor.
It also points to the need for multiple touchpoints across channels. As a result, content portfolios should consider a wide gamut of forms from insights and social posts to videos, podcasts, and interactive landing pages. And here’s one surefire B2B winner: client case studies that feature third-party experts.
4. The AI Evolution Continues
As AI rapidly evolves, an increasing number of applications will be launched that test the value of the human element. Meanwhile, here are a few AI issues marketers need to think about now:
· Significant improvements in GenAI may make marketers more likely to rely on it for content creation. Beware! Quality and imitation issues will remain. In addition, surveys reveal that customers unsubscribe from content marketing they deem to be AI-generated. The bottom-line: Use GenAI to help formulate but not publish content.
· The “Agentic Era” is here with marketers using AI agents that speak and respond to chat and emails indistinguishably from humans. Once again, be prepared! When customers learn AI is being used, they view it as a negative experience that will need to be addressed.
· AI is being used for social listening. This AI application appears to be a real positive. It provides an effective way to learn more about what clients and customers are looking for.
· Buyers are shifting their research from SEO to AI models. For marketers, this means ensuring content is optimized for both. Live web training is available.
5. Values and Community
Last, let me return to Rachel’s post and two distinctly human issues she points to that are relevant in the B2B world – values and community.
Consumer preferences, increasingly shaped by Gen Z, look to companies with a stated purpose. The B2B world is not immune. Many B2B buyers elect to work with companies that share their values, particularly when all else is equal on the playing field.
Community is also important. It’s a way for companies to connect and share knowledge both online and off. In a B2B marketplace increasingly characterized by collaboration, partnerships with like-minded companies are more likely to be born from engagements within B2B communities.
Welcome to 2025. In the spirit of these trends, let it be big, let it be grand, and let it be human!
