B2B vs B2C Marketing: My Key Takeaways as a Marketer

Although video tutorials are becoming more popular, some companies still shy away from using them because it can seem like a massive undertaking to write, film, edit, produce, and distribute a video. Businesses can use video tutorials throughout the sales funnel to address specific customer needs at each stage, from initial awareness to post-purchase support. Podcasts are a great way for even small businesses to get their name out there.

Sometimes, I even use AI-powered chatbots because they’re extremely capable of qualifying leads and guiding prospects through the sales funnel. Using AI tools in B2B sales enables teams to focus on high-intent leads, improve close rates, and shorten sales cycles. In addition, HubSpot’s personalization tools help me easily identify low-hanging content opportunities. In 2026, AI has shifted from a supportive tool to the central driver of B2B marketing strategy.

A lack of guidelines may deter some B2B marketers from using generative AI tools; other reasons include accuracy concerns (36%), lack of training (27%), and lack of understanding (27%). This article focuses on answers from the 894 B2B respondents. Propolis helps B2B marketers confidently build the right strategies and skills to drive growth and prove their impact. The report provides a clear view of the agencies setting the pace in Meanwhile, ArmstrongB2B and Tangerine secured second and third place in our content specialist rankings.

New for this year, the report also includes a dedicated client satisfaction section focused on the metrics that matter most to client-side marketers, including NPS scores, average deal size, client retention rates, pitch rates, and customer testimonials – offering a more commercial and transparent view of agency performance. This feature allows users to identify their target B2b marketing content audience using filters for company, seniority, and domain. I work in B2B, so my target audience includes companies needing high-quality content. Showing the human side of your company and demonstrating the expertise of your people can be a key differentiator, increasing sales and building trust. This includes everything from research reports and case studies to video series and interactive tools – all designed to demonstrate expertise, build trust, and help prospects make informed buying decisions. Climate tech company Greenly created a legislation checker tool that helps companies understand which sustainability regulations apply to them.

AI cannot replace subject matter expertise, original thinking, or genuine perspective. AI excels at transforming long-form content into multiple formats — turning a webinar into blog posts, social snippets, email sequences, and video scripts. AI can also support visual content creation by helping teams adapt existing assets for different channels, buyer segments, and campaign goals.

We looked at several other dimensions to identify how top performers differ from their peers. The five most frequently used metrics to assess content performance are conversions (73%), email engagement (71%), website traffic (71%), website engagement (69%), and social media analytics (65%). Email (44%), organic social media platforms (44%), blogs (40%), and email newsletters (39%) round out the list. The most frequently cited noncreation challenge, by far, is a lack of resources (58%), followed by aligning content with the buyer's journey (48%) and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (45%).

Collect and analyze customer insights

It’s no wonder, then, that — according to a 2025 CMI report — 71% of B2B marketers use email newsletters in their content strategy. While it’s important to incorporate hard numbers, high-quality statistics, and original research, it's equally important that your facts and figures resonate with your target audience on a personal level. Here are some other trends to look out for as you build your own B2B content marketing strategy.

B2B social media marketing should be engaging and fun, while still helping you get closer to closing business with your customers and prospects. Just because you work for a B2B company doesn’t mean your social media presence has to be dry and super formal. C5's GPT offers expert advice and resources to solve your marketing problems. Katy French is a Column Five Content Marketing Director and B2B marketing expert, having spent 15+ years educating and empowering marketers to transform their brands. See how our content strategy team works or explore our full case study portfolio.

Top B2B Marketing Companies

• A content marketing strategy is not a content calendar.
• They focus on visibility that compounds, content that builds trust, and tools that turn efficiency into an edge.
• Here are some other trends to look out for as you build your own B2B content marketing strategy.
• Then define the target audience — that is, the specific human prospect looking for the brand’s products or services.

They go beyond rule‑based workflows to provide contextual, intelligent decision-making in marketing tasks. This mirrors how human teams solve complex problems—different specialists collaborating toward shared objectives. Track how early you identify buying signals compared to when deals actually close. Guide quarterly content strategy around emerging needs rather than outdated assumptions. Companies using predictive intent models in their Account-Based Marketing strategies report being able to identify high-value accounts 3-4 weeks earlier than competitors using traditional methods . This article breaks down five concrete ways AI agents are reshaping B2B marketing and provides actionable steps to the right AI marketing tools to implement them in your organization today.

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Almost as many (45%) said they lack the tech to support data-driven decision-making. That may indicate that B2B marketers have improved or focused more on crafting better-targeted content in the last 12 months. Rethink off-the-shelf metrics (because there is no shelf). Not how many people downloaded a white paper … Also new to the list this year was communicating across organizational silos, with 40% indicating that it’s challenging. Another challenge that’s not going anywhere — aligning content across sales and marketing (43% cite it as a challenge this year compared with 45% the previous year).

Email campaigns share content, digital ads promote gated resources, and social media amplifies your best pieces. Digital marketing includes paid and organic tactics that drive online visibility and engagement. You will learn how leading companies generate qualified leads and establish market authority. Each edition breaks down what brands did, why it worked, and what you can learn from it – building your content swipe file with creative approaches you can adapt for your own strategy. A strong B2B marketing example is Typeform’s ‘Get Real’ campaign, which surveyed 1,300 people about influencer marketing and presented findings through an interactive landing page with embedded video responses from 146 contributors.

Additionally, B2B content marketing requires strategically distributing content to reach your target audience. This may be in the form of blog posts, infographics, case studies, white papers, tutorials and educational videos among many others. When you’re marketing to other businesses, longer conversion paths are the norm.

New Analysis Suggests The CMO Role In The Fortune 500 Is At A Crossroads

Not all businesses are your ideal customers. If you don’t know who you’re targeting, what problems they face, and how they make decisions, your content won’t resonate, let alone convert. A strong B2B content marketing strategy ensures that every piece of content serves a purpose, reaches the right audience, and delivers measurable results. Sponsored i Agencies shown here include sponsored placements. They publish blog posts, create case studies, and post on different platforms — yet only 22% of them consider their content marketing a success.

In fact, one survey found that 55% of tech-focused B2B buyers rated video as the “most useful” type of content. 91% of businesses now use video as part of their content marketing. But after publishing 100+ posts, I’ve figured out a structure that works really well on the platform.