The challenges for B2B Marketing have never been tougher.
As AI evolves at lighting speed and economic uncertainty continues to shape the SME landscape, one message is clear:
Marketing in the B2B space is simply going to get more complex.
To stay ahead, businesses must understand the shifting dynamics shaping this environment.
There are number of themes attributing to the challenge:
👉 Customer attention is at an all time low
We are in an era of attention deficit. As humans, we’re overwhelmed with information. Bombarded by notifications, feeds, and content at every turn. How many times do we pick up our phones, lose 20 minutes, and can’t even recall why we picked them up in the first place.
Research is showing that we have 2.6 seconds to make an impression, we have 275 distractions every day and there is even thinking that a gold fish has a better attention span than humans.
Companies need to work harder to stand out in their market place.
👉 Increase in AI Overview and click less marketing
Search behaviour is evolving fast. Google dominance is waning and businesses need to think beyond SEO. They need to be embracing AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Around 60% of searches are now “click less”, meaning users find what they need directly within AI-driven summaries or featured snippets.
Visibility is harder to earn. To stay seen, brands must continually evolve and invest in visibility strategies, blending human creativity with AI-driven insight
👉 Sales Journeys are getting more complex
As a marketing strategist, I would argue that sales journeys have never been linear. But it’s definitely the case that they are now more squiggly than ever. The complexity of the customer sales journey is increasing.
Daniel Priestly has talked about the 7-11-4 rule since 2015. The crux of the rule is that before a customer commits they needs 7 hours of time, 11 different touchpoints and 4 different platforms where they see your company. As customer attention declines, there’s a compelling argument that suggests these numbers should now be doubled. It simply takes more touchpoints, time, and trust before customers feel ready to buy
👉 Consumers are engaging off platform
Customer are seeking wider opinions in many channels.
LinkedIn comment threads, Slack communities, Reddit discussions, and podcasts, buyers are seeking peer opinions and real experiences.
Sometimes termed as ‘dark social media’ . This is making it increasingly hard to develop consistent multi channel presence.
Here’s my key takeaways for B2B Marketers:
✅ Invest in Brand Strategy – the importance of brand has never been greater. Businesses need to develop strong, clear, consistent brands, that truly make emotional connections with their audience. The customer attention and increased number of touchpoints mean your business really needs to stand out. But also needs to do this consistently. Brand experience is paramount to success. I offer a unique approach to creating a Brand Framework. Post | Feed | LinkedIn
✅ Strategic thinking has never been more important. Stepping back and considering the business dynamics and challenges will be a key driver to success in the B2B space.
✅ Innovation is key – if you want to stand out in your market place you need to be driving innovation in terms of your marketing, your positioning and your messaging.
✅ Hyper- personalisation is expected – Customers want instant, personalised responses from businesses on questions they have. Businesses need to be able to answer exact queries. Adapting AI or a business model that does this quickly is important.
✅ Omnipresence is a necessity – Consistency and being seamless across platforms and devices is expected. This topic has been key in branding for a while. But this now goes wider. Ensuring information and insight for customers is also consistent and seamless.
If you’re and SME needing support with your marketing and brand I offer brand and marketing audits to support SMEs to be more strategic. Reach out for a Zest Session to discuss the fresh perspective I can bring
