5 Trends in B2B Marketing That Will Define 2023

The B2B marketing industry changes rapidly, with new trends emerging and old ones dying out every year. To stay on top of the game, marketers must constantly adapt and find new ways to reach their audience. But what do we expect to change in B2B marketing in the coming years? Let’s look at the five biggest trends likely to define B2B marketing in 2023.

B2B Marketing Driven by Data

The biggest trend we expect to see in B2B marketing in the coming years is the shift from marketing driven by opinions to marketing driven by data. In recent years, B2B marketers have had to rely on their gut feelings to decide how to position their brand, create content, and choose their marketing channels. This has led to many different opinions about marketing strategies and an even bigger gap between B2B brands. But as the industry evolves, marketers will have more data to support their decisions. This will lead to a lot less ambiguity in B2B marketing, and a lot more consistency across brands. The biggest shift will come from adopting artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. AI is already being used by many marketers to automate tedious and repetitive tasks, such as content creation and lead scoring. As the technology continues to improve, we expect AI to become an important part of B2B marketing strategy.

Video Content Will Dominate (and Live Stream will be a big winner)

Video has grown in importance in B2B marketing for the last few years, and we expect it to take over completely in the coming years. Video has been a successful way for B2B marketers to engage their audiences, particularly on social media channels like LinkedIn and YouTube, where it has been shown to increase engagement by an average of 98%. We predict that as video continues to perform well, more B2B marketers will rely on video content. This will be especially true as live streaming becomes more accessible to marketers.

Dark Social Will Become Even More Important

With B2B buyers constantly searching social media, messaging platforms, and other private networks for product information, these ‘Dark social’ activity is making it harder for marketers to measure attribution.

Dark social traffic doesn’t seem to have a specific source, which creates a challenge for marketers trying to monitor website referrals and social media activity. Dark traffic often results from people sharing website links through email, SMS, and private messages. Because dark social links don’t have tracking code automatically appended, it is not possible to know how the website visitor found the content.

Discoverability plays a huge role in B2B buyer education. Especially as B2B buyers today spend more time in self discovery before contacting a sales agent. They want to learn, compare and review product options well before speaking to sales so Marketing must drive funnel conversions through smart use of dark social channels.

AI is Going to Be Utilized By All Marketers

As we mentioned above, AI has grown in importance in B2B marketing for the last few years. And as it becomes more accessible, we expect all marketers to start using it to automate their marketing efforts. This means that B2B marketers will have more time to focus on creating high-quality content and finding new ways to engage their audiences. By using AI technologies to do the more repetitive and less important tasks, such as lead scoring, marketers can spend their time more wisely and create better content. This will lead to a more consistent and higher-quality marketing experience across all B2B brands. The biggest shift will come when AI becomes accessible to a larger audience, i.e., it’s no longer just available to tech-savvy marketers. AI has been limited by its high cost and technical complexity, but as the technology becomes more accessible, even non-technical marketers will be able to use it.

B2B Lead Nurturing Will Become Even More Important

As B2B marketers start to rely heavily on dark social and AI, the importance of lead nurturing will go up. Lead nurturing is the process of engaging potential customers and helping them become a sale. In B2B marketing, lead nurturing often takes the form of drip marketing campaigns, i.e. sending out automated emails over the course of several weeks or months. These campaigns are designed to help B2B marketers convert their leads into sales. As B2B marketers start to rely more heavily on lead nurturing to close sales, lead nurturing will become even more important. This is because it’s easier to nurture leads over a long period of time than to try to make a sale immediately. With more competition and marketing noise, B2B marketers will have to find new ways to stand out, which is easier to do with a consistent campaign over time.

Summary

The B2B marketing industry changes rapidly with new trends emerging and old ones dying out every year. To stay on top of the game, marketers have to constantly adapt and find new ways to reach their audience. But what do we expect to change in B2B marketing in the coming years? Let’s take a look at the 5 biggest trends that will define B2B marketing in 2023. The biggest trend we expect to see in B2B marketing in the coming years is the shift from marketing driven by opinions to marketing driven by data. As the industry continues to evolve, marketers will have more data to back up their decisions. And as new technologies become more accessible, they will be used by all marketers. Video content will completely take over, dark social will become even more important, and AI will be utilized by all marketers. To top it all off, B2B lead nurturing will become even more important as marketers focus on consistent, long-term campaigns.

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