15 B2B Marketing Trends That Demand Your Attention in 2023

As the business landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, staying ahead of the curve The B2B marketing Trends landscape is continuously evolving as the competition in the B2B market becomes more intense and it continues to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.70% (2020-2026). The preferences of B2B buyers have undergone a significant shift in recent years, and this has been highlighted in the 2022 Demand Gen B2B Buyer Behavior study.

According to the study, 55% of respondents have noted an increase in the length of the B2B purchasing cycle. Additionally, a quarter of B2B decision-making committees now have seven or more members, and 88% of B2B buyers still rely heavily on web searches when making decisions. This demonstrates that B2B buyers are now distinct from what they were in the past. Hence, it’s time to update your B2B marketing strategies to keep up with the changing times.

As we move into the new year, it’s essential to have a fresh and impactful B2B marketing plan to maintain a competitive edge in the market. To help you achieve this, we have compiled a list of the top 15 B2B marketing trends to revitalize your marketing campaigns in 2023.

15 Must-Watch B2B Marketing Trends for 2024

in B2B Marketing Trends is more crucial than ever. With 2024 on the horizon, it’s essential for companies to adapt to emerging trends that will shape the future of business-to-business interactions. From advancements in technology to shifts in consumer behavior, the coming year promises to bring transformative changes to the way businesses approach their marketing strategies. In this blog, we’ll explore the 15 must-watch B2B marketing trends for 2024 that will help you stay competitive and drive success in the new year. Buckle up and get ready to dive into the future of B2B marketing!

1. Podcast Marketing Takes Center Stage

Podcasts are a powerful tool for connecting with your target audience and building a community around your brand.

Many B2B buyers prefer consuming content through podcasts, making it a convenient option for busy executives who can listen while on the go.

According to SEJ News, a staggering 54% of podcast listeners are likely to purchase from the brands they hear on the shows.

So, make sure you have a strong presence in B2B podcast marketing this year.

Unlike B2C podcasts, B2B podcasts tend to focus more on information and less on entertainment. Hence, your podcast should address your target audience’s pain points and present your brand as the solution.

However, don’t make the mistake of making your podcast too dry or boring. You want to engage and excite your listeners, not put them to sleep.

If you’re looking for inspiration, take a cue from Salesforce. They have created a series of podcasts that cover various aspects of their services, including:

• The Salesforce Admins Podcast, which focuses on administrators who help build a positive employee brand image.
• The Good Day, Sir! Show, a Salesforce Podcast that discusses custom software development.
• The Salesforce Developer Podcast, which features insightful and entertaining stories from developers.

2. TikTok Takes its Place at the C-Suite B2B Marketing Trends

You might not have expected to see business executives on TikTok, but it’s quickly becoming a crucial part of B2B marketing.

In 2023, B2B TikTok marketing will be a major trend. According to Hootsuite, TikTok is the sixth-largest social media network with a massive global reach. Additionally, a significant number of TikTok users can also be found on Facebook (84.6%) and Instagram (83.9%). This provides B2B brands with an opportunity to create a presence across multiple social media channels through TikTok. Additionally, TikTok can help drive traffic and improve search engine rankings. The in-app purchase feature on TikTok has also made it possible for businesses to sell directly from their TikTok accounts.

When incorporating TikTok into your B2B marketing strategy, keep the following tips in mind:

• Make sure your TikTok videos are authentic, polished, and tailored to your brand.
• Post regularly for better engagement, aim for at least 1-3 times a day.
• Showcase your unique brand identity.
• Stay up to date with trending sounds, videos, and hashtags.

Creating TikTok content that appeals to a B2B audience can be challenging, but Sage Accounting Software has succeeded by partnering with users to showcase their products and reach new audiences through user-generated content.

3. Putting the Customer First in Content Marketing

It has been reported that 70% of customers are more likely to purchase from brands they trust, according to Adobe Business.

In 2023, it is crucial for B2B marketing trends to focus on building trust with customers. One effective way to do this is through customer-focused content marketing. This approach allows you to connect with your target audience and demonstrate your commitment to serving them. To create content that prioritizes the customer, it’s important to first have a clear understanding of who your customers are. One way to achieve this is by developing a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer that takes into account factors such as their pain points, age, budget, and how your products or services can impact them.

At Intent Amplify™, we follow this B2B marketing trends by creating a profile of our ideal customer. Through research and analysis, we discovered that B2B decision-makers require a wealth of information to make informed choices. As a result, we created blog posts that target keyword trends and address topics our potential clients are searching for online. Additionally, we added case studies to showcase our lead-generation strategies and results to further illustrate the value we bring to our clients. This content marketing strategy has helped us attract new clients and improve our search engine rankings. Adopting a similar approach in 2023 can help your brand achieve similar success.

4. Embrace a Multi-Channel Approach in Your Go-To-Market Plan

The go-to-market plan that worked in 2022 may not be effective in 2023, as customer needs and market conditions are constantly evolving. To stay ahead of the curve, it’s important to utilize the latest marketing tools. That’s why we recommend embracing a multi-channel approach in your go-to-market strategies. This will help you determine which marketing strategies will be most effective for your business in 2023.

Typically, go-to-market plans consist of five key pillars:

• Product analysis
• Sales proposition
• Product messaging
• Sales
• Marketing strategy

By incorporating multi-channel marketing across all five pillars, you can collect valuable customer data and broaden your brand’s reach.

HubSpot is an example of a company that follows this B2B marketing trend. They use social media to interact with their audience, content marketing to educate them, and email marketing to foster relationships with potential customers.

5: Digital Ads Are Making a Comeback B2B Marketing Trends

After experiencing a slowdown in the previous year, the outlook for B2B ad marketing is bright for 2023.

According to a report, the global advertising market is expected to grow to 5.4% in 2023 and 5.1% in 2024. To stay ahead of the competition, it’s crucial to elevate your paid advertising strategies in 2023.

Here are some tips for successful B2B ad campaigns this year:

• Identify high-intent keywords in your industry using tools such as Semrush and Google Analytics.
• Establish clear objectives for your ad campaign, such as increasing brand awareness, driving traffic, or generating leads.
• Segment your target audience to ensure your campaigns reach the right people.
• Choose the right ad format that aligns with your objectives. For instance, text ads are best suited for low-budget campaigns with limited visual content.
• Leverage Google Ad extensions to add buttons, collect leads, and more.
• Regularly conduct A/B tests and monitor the performance of your ads to continuously improve.

6. The Rise of Dark Social B2B Marketing Trends

The term “dark social” has been gaining a lot of attention lately, and it’s a B2B marketing trends to keep an eye on in the coming years.

Dark social refers to when someone shares your content with their friends or colleagues through instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. The problem is, you don’t know who is sharing your content or how often it’s being shared, hence the term “dark.”

With over 2 million active WhatsApp users and 988 million Facebook Messenger users, there’s significant potential for businesses to expand their reach through dark social media. The key is to create content that people want to share and to make it easy for them to do so by adding share options on your content.

7. The Continuation of Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has been a crucial aspect of B2B marketing trends for years now. With an estimated 100 million people on social media networks, it’s essential for businesses to have a presence on these platforms.

However, the way businesses create and promote their content on social media networks will change in 2023. Simply posting bland, promotional content with a direct call to action will not be enough. To build a user-friendly brand, businesses must add a personal touch and emotional value to their social media content.

Innovative approaches to social media marketing can also help businesses stand out. For example, businesses can build their employer brand by collaborating with their employees on social media handles, as Microsoft does by sharing employee stories and participating in events together.

8. B2B Press Release (PR) is a Must

B2B PR encompasses various tactics, from being featured in the New York Times to launching a Product Hunt campaign. A successful example of B2B PR is IBM’s “Every Second Counts” campaign, which highlights the importance of addressing data breaches and cybersecurity for IT leaders. The ultimate goal of PR campaigns is to establish a trustworthy and authentic reputation for the brand. The approach will depend on the brand, the PR team or B2B PR agency, and the short-term goals.

The significance of PR is driven by the desire for trust among customers. Trust is paramount for prospective customers, and they are more likely to purchase from a brand they trust, even if they don’t have an emotional connection with it, rather than one they like but don’t trust.

A well-planned PR campaign is an effective way to build trust and get customers familiar with your product or service, as well as connect with top leadership and understand what makes your brand stand out from others in the market.

9: Webinars will remain relevant in 2023

The pandemic era has seen a surge in the popularity of webinars as a means for companies to connect with their audience and attract new leads. This trend is expected to persist in the coming years.

Webinars offer businesses the opportunity to reach a global customer base and expand their reach. They provide a personal touch to virtual communication, allowing companies to demonstrate their products and services in real time.

Through webinars, companies can establish stronger relationships with their customers and address any questions or concerns on the spot. This makes webinars an effective B2B marketing trends, particularly for software companies looking to showcase their products to a live audience.

A recent study shows that 73% of business executives find webinars to be a valuable tool for generating leads.

10: AI Continues to Climb

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major force in B2B marketing. In 2020, we noted that marketers need to learn to work with AI instead of relying solely on it. By 2022, a multitude of tools with varying levels of AI capability were available to support B2B marketers in curating, automating, optimizing, personalizing and more.

In 2023, businesses will be able to leverage machine learning to streamline their marketing efforts, from automating email sequences to digitizing data to minimize manual errors.

AI has the potential to provide leaders with new insights and enhance B2B marketing performance, but as we mentioned before, innovative technology requires equally intelligent human intervention. At Intent Amplify, for example, we use AI-based software to enhance our database and analyze marketing campaign results, but it’s the expertise of our marketing specialists that leverages AI information to generate marketing and sales-qualified leads for our clients.

11: Micro-Influencer Marketing in B2B

Influencer marketing, once a popular B2C trend, has made its way into the B2B realm. As customers place increasing emphasis on a brand’s reputation and values, this trend has gained momentum, accelerating in the last two years due to the pandemic.

Gone are the days when creators needed millions of followers to be considered effective influencers. According to Marketing Chart research, micro-influencers, those with fewer than 15K followers, have the highest engagement rates across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

A prime example of this trend in action is SAP’s video marketing efforts for its Sapphire Conference. The brand partnered with several influential figures to promote the event through live videos, resulting in over 20,000 attendees.

12: Email Marketing Stays Strong

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for B2B brands. It has been used for years to promote solutions and will continue to be effective in 2023.

However, to maximize the impact of your email marketing efforts, it’s important to update your strategy. Start by segmenting your email subscribers list and removing anyone who hasn’t interacted with your brand in the last 6 months. Next, create personalized email content for each segmented group. Instead of bombarding subscribers with promotional content, use your creativity to draft engaging and unique email copy that keeps them interested in your brand.

For inspiration, look to Canva. They frequently run challenges to encourage users to try their premium services and share their brand hashtags on social media platforms.

13: Diversifying Advertising Beyond Google

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered how B2B marketers approach advertising on Google. The cost-per-click (CPC) has been skyrocketing on Google Search since 2020, making it challenging for B2B marketers to see a positive return on investment (ROI) when promoting high-end services and solutions.

As a result, B2B marketers are exploring alternative advertising networks, such as Microsoft Advertising (previously known as Bing Ad), StackAdapt, and Choozle. In particular, LinkedIn stands out for its job-title-specific targeting capabilities and the ability to create unique audiences.

While purchasing audience data on LinkedIn can be costly, with an average CPC of $40, the average click-through rate (CTR) on sponsored posts is 0.44%, higher than any other platform currently available.

14: Embrace Visual Search

Visual search has become a powerful trend in B2B marketing trends, thanks to advancements in technology like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens. These tools make visual search more user-friendly and accurate.

With visual search, users can snap a photo of an object, such as clothing, and find out what it is and where to buy it using Google Lens or Pinterest Lens. The apps can also identify landmarks, making it easy to find new places.

For example, if someone takes a photo of the Eiffel Tower, Google Lens will identify the landmark and provide the location (Paris, France). This can be a valuable strategy for local B2B brands to increase their visibility.

15: Implement gated content

While creating gated content can be time-consuming, it can be a worthwhile investment in the long run. Gated content can include eBooks, courses, videos, or tools that are designed to educate or assist the customer.

To access gated content, visitors typically have to provide their full name and email address. This information can then be added to your CRM or email marketing software for follow-up.

It’s important to link your gated content to your website to ensure that those who sign up are interested in your company’s offerings. Backlinko uses this B2B marketing trends to build their email list.