Top Macro B2B Marketing Trends to Look out in 2022

Hello!

It is time to look at the key B2B marketing trends for 2026.

Following a trend from previous years, 2026 will witness the evolution of many B2B trends from recent years. The increasing influence of B2C marketers will also have a significant impact. What macro trends are likely to have the greatest impact on businesses in the next year? Here are five macro B2B marketing trends you should be watching in 2026.

Top Macro B2B Marketing Trends to Look out for in 2026

1. Advanced (Marketing) Acceleration

In many respects, there is no longer such a thing as “digital marketing”—it is simply marketing in a digital world.

The events of 2020 accelerated customer demand for digital channels and experiences, building on trends that had already been developing for years. Key drivers include a major generational shift in the workforce and the rapid pace of technological change.

With this in mind, 2026 will see the vast majority of B2B firms (those that have not already done so) adopt a truly digital-first, digitally driven philosophy in both marketing and sales.

This shift fuels what is known as digital acceleration—an intensified focus on digital tactics and channels that many B2B marketers already have in their toolkit, now deployed with greater emphasis and strategic intent.

Here are a few examples of what this acceleration will look like:

Video

Video has become the dominant medium. Research from Cisco estimates that by 2026, online video will account for over 82% of all consumer internet traffic—more than four times higher than in 2017. Many B2B firms are still not fully capitalizing on video’s power, but that is expected to change in 2026.

B2B buyers crave video content at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Vlogs, team presentations, product demonstrations, explainers, tutorials, and customer success stories are just some of the bite-sized formats B2B marketers should invest in.

Virtual events

When COVID-19 shut down nearly every in-person conference and trade show from March 2020 onward, virtual events became the immediate alternative.

Regardless of how the pandemic ultimately resolves, virtual events are here to stay. Their popularity is expected to grow in 2026, evolving toward more hybrid formats that combine broadcast-quality production values with the reach of virtual environments.

Delivering high-quality virtual events now requires investment levels comparable to in-person productions. This year’s Adobe MAX conference illustrates the level of production quality audiences have come to expect.

SEO and SEM

Organic and paid search are nothing new for B2B marketers, yet the surge in digital usage and the growing importance of corporate websites are prompting heavier investment in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), mirroring B2C practices.

For SEO, marketers are converging content strategy with both on-page and off-page tactics. There is also growing emphasis on semantic search, search intent, and voice search as engines and user behaviors continue to evolve.

Similarly, SEM and PPC are taking a larger role in driving qualified website traffic.

Marketing automation and email marketing

Marketing automation surged in popularity in the early 2010s, cooled toward the end of the decade, and is now experiencing a strong resurgence. The software is projected to more than double in sales (from $6.08B to $16.87B) over the next five years.

Driven by trends such as personalization, account-based marketing (see #4), and retention marketing, marketing automation and email marketing are becoming even more central to B2B strategies.

2. AI-Powered Marketing

It is difficult to overstate the impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) is having—and will continue to have—on our lives. Often called the fourth industrial revolution, AI is bringing changes as profound as mechanization, mass production, and automation before it.

While fewer than one in five organizations currently use AI for marketing and sales, two-thirds of B2B marketers are now planning, evaluating, or implementing AI initiatives. AI helps marketers work more efficiently and intelligently at scale by delivering better insights, faster analysis, and streamlined routine tasks.

Here are just a few examples of AI-powered marketing trends to watch:

Customer Insights

AI tools have become increasingly adept at analyzing unstructured data such as images, video, and audio. Tools like Gong, for example, provide transcription and analysis of recorded sales calls to uncover insights that improve messaging, customer service, and team productivity.

Other AI companies, such as Affectiva, are developing solutions that measure tone and sentiment in a person’s voice so marketers can detect enthusiasm or indifference during calls and adjust in real time.

Personality Insights

Crystal is a Chrome extension that analyzes thousands of online data points to reveal a prospect’s, customer’s, or colleague’s personality profile directly on their LinkedIn page, helping users communicate more effectively. It even suggests phrases to use or avoid.

Buyer Intent Data

Buyer intent data identifies people currently in-market for your solutions based on behaviors such as searching specific keywords or visiting your site or a competitor’s. Personalized campaigns informed by predictive insights into their stage in the buying journey can then be deployed.

AI-Generated Content

AI content tools like MarketMuse help plan, research, create, and optimize relevant, authoritative, and helpful content.

These tools surface topic opportunities that interest your audience but are not yet covered by competitors, then generate a first draft that can be refined and edited—saving significant research and writing time.

Predictive Analytics and Lead Scoring

Predictive analytics uses historical data to forecast future outcomes. Platforms such as 6sense, Infer, and others apply AI to identify and prioritize your best leads, helping optimize campaigns, accelerate pipelines, and improve win rates.

Assisting Repetitive Tasks

AI can also handle repetitive tasks. Otter, an AI-powered transcription app, captures meeting notes and allows users to extract key information with minimal cleanup.

3. An Agile Approach to Marketing

While agile marketing—an iterative approach inspired by software development—has long had its advocates, the events of 2020 pushed marketers across industries to seriously consider its benefits.

At its core, agile marketing follows the “80%” rule: valuing speed to market and continuous optimization over waiting for perfection. According to research from Merkle, 85% of marketers plan to increase their use of agile methods in the coming years.

Here are a few ways an agile approach will shape B2B marketing:

Customer centricity

Customer centricity goes beyond traditional customer-experience initiatives. An agile mindset places the customer at the center of planning, processes, products, services, marketing, and sales—shifting from an inside-out to an outside-in approach.

Experimentation

The rapid experimentation and iteration seen during the pandemic exemplifies agile thinking. Today’s market rewards high-growth firms that respond quickly to changing customer needs and are willing to test ideas—even those that may fail—in pursuit of innovation.

Testing and optimization

Agile marketing places high value on ongoing testing and monitoring. Campaigns run in continuous “beta” mode, with marketers closely tracking data and making iterative improvements.

A/B and multivariate testing can now be applied across email, landing pages, websites, advertising, and social media to enhance performance.

Continuous improvement

The goal is constant enhancement. In an uncertain economic environment, focusing on high-value initiatives while pursuing continuous improvement delivers the strongest return on marketing investment.

4. Strength of Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Over the past few years, ABM has evolved from buzzword to a core strategy that aligns customer success, sales, and marketing teams around revenue generation. According to research from Terminus, only 8% of firms remain in pilot mode and 43% are in early implementation stages, while just 13% report fully integrated sales and marketing teams within their ABM programs. In 2026, ABM is expected to become the dominant approach for driving B2B growth.

Here are a few ABM trends and impacts to watch:

A focus on revenue, not leads

One driver of increased ABM adoption is the continued shift from volume-based lead generation to revenue-focused outcomes. Economic pressures have accelerated this change, with tighter budgets prompting companies to prioritize customer-oriented programs that protect existing revenue.

Customer retention

ABM is equally powerful for retention. It is well documented that acquiring a new customer costs far more than retaining an existing one. ABM strategies can nurture customers from onboarding through advocacy with personalized, intentional outreach.

Sales/marketing integration, not just alignment

ABM requires true integration between sales and marketing, not merely alignment. The “land and expand” mentality demands that teams work jointly on initiatives rather than operating in silos.

5. Buyer Enablement

In a survey of more than 250 B2B customers, Gartner found that 77% rated their purchase experience as extremely complex or difficult. B2B buyers have become more independent and self-directed, demanding personalized experiences and taking greater control of the buyer’s journey.

Buyer enablement offers a solution by flipping the script of sales enablement: just as sales enablement helps sellers sell, buyer enablement helps buyers buy by providing the content and support needed to make confident decisions and navigate the process smoothly.

B2B firms can leverage buyer enablement to capture attention, earn trust, and ultimately close deals.

Create buyer-centric content

Content should educate and inform prospects so they can make better decisions while also showcasing expertise and authority. As Jay Baer puts it: “Stop trying to be amazing and start being useful.”

Make your website a robust resource for buyers

In a digital-first, buyer-first world, the company website is both the most valuable marketing asset and the most valuable sales tool. A robust buyer resource requires a content strategy focused on what buyers seek at every stage of their journey.

Reducing friction along the buyer’s journey

Customer-experience programs map every touchpoint from stranger to customer. Buyer enablement aims to remove friction at each stage—many firms now ungated most content and offer multiple contact options (phone, email, live chat, social, forms).

The only constant in marketing is change

Many other B2B marketing trends—both macro and micro—will gain momentum in 2026, while fads will come and go. This list highlights key macro trends worth watching in the year ahead.

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