5 B2B Marketing Trends for 2024/25
You need to know about these 5 trends
Welcome to this edition!
B2B Marketing is changing a lot in 2024:
1. GenAI popped out of nowhere and disrupted every workflow
2. Buyers now prefer to buy with a self-served buying experience
3. Marketing budgets have decrease - it's the end of growth at all cost
In this context, new trends are merging.
And I took some time to analyze 5 B2B Marketing Trends for 2024/25
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1. B2B VLOGs are a new way to connect with a profesionnal audience
I’m noticing more and more businesses showing the behind the scenes of their operations. Why? Because people love to know what’s REALLY happening in the trenches.
As for now, the trend is mainly adopted by agencies, marketers, solopreneurs, and coaches. But I think this trend will last and more industries will launch B2B VLOGs, as they did with podcats.
Here is a screenshot of a VIDiq keyword research for “B2B VLOG”:
2/B2S (Business to Solopreneurs) is a growing new category
It’s not a big news, there are more and more solopreneurs everywhere in the world. People can make a living thanks to the ‘gig economy’ and the flexibilization of the labour market. Businesses love to hire freelancers (it’s cost effective) so there are more and more solopreneurs.
This created a new category that is between B2B and B2C = B2S. It feels like selling to a business (ROI focused) but with more emotions and faster decisions cycles. It’s creating new business models and marketing strategies.
Here are some industries with a large number of freelancers in the US:
Source: statista ‘proportion of freelancers in US industries’
This is how the US gig economy is expected to progress over the next few years:
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3/No-code + AI help startups to build products fast (really fast)
The entry barriers to create a tech startup have never been so low. You don’t need a 12-month development roadmap to build a product anymore.
You can build a platform on Bubble, connect it to OpenAI APIs, and automate your workflows with Make or Zapier. That’s how teenagers in their bedroom are competing with big corporations now in 2024.
Here is what people are searching for on youtube (thanks to VIDiq):
No code is particularly trending in those countries according to Google Trends:
I identified 4 interesting tools for you:
Make helps you automate workflow
Zapier helps you automate workflow too
Bubble helps you build no-code apps
Webflow helps you build no-code websites
4/B2B Businesses are investing in ‘intent signals‘
Cold outreach is getting harder and harder. Because of GenAI and emailing tools, we receive more and more emails. So the competition is fierce and people feel flooded.
That’s why B2B Marketers are now investing more to detect buying intent with technology. They want to know who is interested by their solution to focus only on the best deals.
For example, they are typing these keywords:
I’ve identified 4 solutions that focus on this trend:
https://www.apollo.io/
https://www.zoominfo.com/
www.rb2b.com (US only)
www.leadpipe.com (US only)
5/Personal brands are now a central part of marketing strategies
This trend really took off in 2022 and is still continuing its growth in 2024. B2B profesionnals are using social media (linkedin, X) and communities more and more.
They also follow new types of medias (youtube channels, newsletters, podcasts) instead of following brands or market research companies.
In this context, the knowledge is more decentralized. That’s why personal brands are popping everywhere around you. People love to learn from other people who have a unique opinion. This trend is also clear thanks to keyword trends.
Evolution of personal brands keyword:
Evolution of personal branding keyword:
And it’s creating sub categories:
Here is my analysis about personal brands:
1. They are reversing the influence pyramid
Previously, you had to have a strong career or a big business to have an online influence in B2B. Now, some influencers are in the 'best creators lists' alongside Fortune 500 CEOs because they posted consistently for 1 year.
2. It's not as easy as it seems to build one
You need the right level of experimentation, authenticity, and industry expertise to grow a personal brand. You also need hard skills like copywriting, public speaking, video editing, and above all the art of grabbing attention.
3. Personal brands are faster to build
It's hard to build a company brand, you need years. Personal brands are faster to build as people can quickly relate emotionally. That's because our brains are wired to sympathise with other humans that look like us.
4. Personal brands are a solid revenue channel
Some people still doubt that they drive revenue. Yet, I can attribute at least $500K to this channel in my previous business. A personal brand well positioned in an industry builds awareness, engagement, authority, and trust which compound into revenue.
5. Businesses need to launch PB marketing programs
A company can leverage the network effects of their employees. It all comes down to 4 aspects: approbation from employees, incentives to post online, guidance from mentors, and a system to track results.
6. Linkedin influenced this trend
I believe personal brands in B2B became popular when Linkedin decided to give more reach to personal accounts than company pages. It forced businesses to speak in their name to reach more customers.
7. Personal brands are moving towards infotainment
We will see more behind the scenes, stories, and hybrid lifestyle/work content. Famous B2B entrepreneurs are already starting to turn their online presence into an ongoing sitcom. People simply love to know what happens behind the successes and failures.
If you liked this edition, tell me in the comments and I will share a part 2 !
If you enjoyed this newsletter edition, you’ll love my paid Substack newsletter.
For $15 per month, you get access to 3 eBooks, 2 exclusive newsletters per month, my full library of LinkedIn posts, and membership in my Slack community. It’s the boost you need to improve your content strategy.
This is spot on. Great commentary 👏
Amazed that there is such few engagement here
Part 2, todoodooto dooo doooo!