What Is B2B Marketing? Guide to 2025’s Best Strategies

Mastering B2B marketing can be a challenge.

We’re used to being marketed to as consumers, but try to turn the tables and market to an entire board of key stakeholders... 😨 Let’s not even mention the red tape and all those pain points that need solutions!

But where there’s a B2B business, there’s a way to market to them.

In this guide, we’re covering everything you need to know for business-to-business marketing success, including:

• The definition of B2B marketing.
• The differences between B2B and B2C marketing. 
• The best tried and tested B2B branding strategies.
• Examples of B2B businesses doing excellent marketing.
• The latest trends to keep on top of if you want to build the best B2B campaigns.

Let’s start by defining the meaning of B2B marketing👇

What is B2B marketing? 

Two good B2B marketing examples are Monday.com’s B2B brand strategy on LinkedIn. Another out-of-the-box example is the way Gong plans and executes its Super Bowl adverts. It’s companies like these that sell solutions to help businesses automate or enhance their processes.

The goal of B2B business marketing is to attract and convert leads into customers. In the digital age, this means that you need to be able to capture a prospect’s attention quickly and keep it. This can be done through educational content like white papers or value-driven blog posts.

The 6 differences between B2B and B2C marketing

Now that you know the answer to the question, “What’s B2B marketing?” it’s time to look at how B2B and B2C marketing differ.

There are many key differences between B2B vs. B2C marketing, but the most important are the audiences they target:

Here’s a rundown of the six major differences between business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing:

Knowing the differences between potential buyers in B2B and B2C showcases how the tone, targeting, and style are quite different. What’s more, demand generation strategies that work for B2B don’t always work for B2C customers, and vice-versa.

The B2B marketing process explained

Before you start strategising your B2B marketing plan, take a minute to understand the buyer journey first. This will help you, as a B2B marketer, improve your customer’s overall experience when interacting with your brand and speed up the buying process.

How can you use the B2B customer journey to improve marketing efforts?

A B2B buyer’s journey is the process potential buyers go through before buying a new product or service. It usually consists of three main touchpoints: awareness, consideration, and decision.

At Cognism, we’ve developed a process for marketing to B2B based on our customers’ journeys. We’ve also created a list of must-have B2B marketing tools that help us scale and improve processes.

It’s a process that’s been highly effective in generating quality leads and improving the overall experience of our marketing development representatives (MDRs).

A huge bonus - it creates brand loyalty at the same time! And that’s an incredibly valuable attribute you want going forward.

Improve your win rates by bookmarking this page and saving this informative B2B marketing process template 👇

Now let’s dive into the details of our four-step marketing process:

1. Awareness stage

Here, your buyer realises they have a problem, and they start researching solutions. 

Example: B2B video marketing, such as Slack’s here, is an excellent way to build brand awareness. Their “So Yeah, We Tried Slack” campaign works because it’s funny and showcases how Slack improves workplace communication, gaining viral traction and raising awareness.

When companies start searching for solutions like yours, it’s called intent. Intent data for digital marketing plays a big role in the awareness stage. With it, you can reach prospects ready to buy and offer them the perfect solution before your competitors do.

Here’s an example of how intent data works with a marketing and sales intelligence tool like Cognism: 

2. Consideration stage

At this stage, your buyer puts all their research together and considers the best solution to solve their pain points.

Example: Alternative pages optimised for B2B SEO are essential at this point. Cognism has an Alternatives Hub that gives potential buyers all the information they need to make an informed decision. When creating these pages, just be sure to be fair—don’t completely destroy your competitors. It doesn’t look good! Another hilarious example of a winning competitor page is Screaming Frog.  

If you didn’t get in front of your potential customers before they started considering solutions, your sales team would need to explain why your service or product is better than your competitors. Your content marketing team would need to create battle cards to help them sell. At Cognism, we use Crayon as a single source of truth. This way, each team has access to the most important and accurate customer marketing data. 

3. Decision stage

At this stage, the buyer makes a purchase decision for a solution that meets their needs, adds the most value, and fits their budget.

Example: ROI calculators are everything at this point. You want to show your buyers what value they can get from your product. Cognism has an ROI calculator, and so do the marketing champs at HubSpot. Another tactic is to create compelling case studies. When businesses see how similar companies have performed with your help, they’ll be signing on the dotted line in no time!

Bonus tip: you can embed these case studies into your blogs like we've done here 👇

4. Retention stage

Marketing’s role doesn’t end when customers sign. B2B companies need to build on their current and new buyer relationships.

Example: A marketing email signature is one example of a B2B marketing technique you can use to achieve this. You can refresh relationships with relevant content sent via personalised emails. Another example is creating a rewards program for buying champions and referrals. Here’s our customer advocacy program. 

Once you’ve got your process down, it will be easy to implement an inbound and outbound marketing strategy.

5 steps to building a B2B marketing plan 

The B2B buyer’s journey is unique in that you’re not selling to an individual but to an entire team or group of people, all of whom might have a say in the purchasing decision.

And the journey is no longer simply about prospecting, demoing, and closing. It’s about educating, offering value, and solving pain points.

Your customers are struggling to make these purchases.

This is because there are many solutions, new technologies, suppliers, and services to consider.

To win sales opportunities, you’ll need to create the ultimate strategy. To help you do that, we’ve got five tips to help you create the perfect B2B marketing plan for the business-to-business market:

Here’s a breakdown of each step:

1. Establish your TAM

Start by outlining your ideal customer profile and TAM. This is an essential part of B2B product marketing and ensures you only target the right leads for your business.

💡 Tip: If you need help calculating your Total Addressable Market, try our TAM calculator.

2. Decide on your goals

Secondly, set actionable goals for each member of your marketing team. By tracking B2B marketing metrics and KPIs, you can stay on top of and optimise your team’s performance.

3. Establish your value proposition

Consider what you can offer prospects that your competitors can’t. Then, decide on your messaging and value drivers for each target audience and key account. (You might be interested in using account-based marketing for this.)

4. Plan outreach

Take everything you’ve learned from the above steps and plan your outreach content to drive revenue.

5. Create content

Start creating educational content that drives demand, adds value, and builds brand awareness.

If you’re interested in learning about B2B marketing strategies that work, read Cognism CMO Alice de Courcy’s Diaries of a First-Time CMO. These accounts document Alice’s lived experience after 5+ years as a CMO in marketing, scaling Cognism's ARR from $3m to $50m to over $100m.

5 examples of strategies for effective B2B marketing

There are several B2B marketing activities, channels, and strategies you can use when marketing to B2B.

Here are five examples of the most important B2B marketing strategies that have been proven to assist in the revenue growth of B2B companies:

1. B2B Campaign marketing

Campaign marketing plays a significant role when marketing to B2B organisations.

A campaign to sell your product or service requires extensive planning before execution. This type of campaign is typically conducted through B2B email marketing. The results are analysed to measure each campaign’s effectiveness.

However, companies like MailChimp have launched multi-channel campaigns with great success. For example, Mailchimp’s “Did You Mean Mailchimp?” campaign was a creative multi-channel marketing initiative that played on humorous mispronunciations of the brand’s name, such as “MailShrimp” and “KaleLimp.” This approach reinforced brand recognition and positioned Mailchimp as a leader in email marketing.

The campaign included a series of short films, music collaborations, and even unique products like “FailChips.” These creative elements were designed to engage audiences across various platforms and media.

But if something of that scope is outside of your budget, you can stick to email. Check out Cognism’s best B2B marketing campaigns.

2. B2B Content marketing 

B2B content is arguably the most important step of a B2B digital marketing strategy.

Online and offline content aids in attracting, converting, and retaining buyers. It typically consists of written, audio, and video content published on an organisation’s blog and then shared across social media channels for more organic traffic.

Organic traffic is a crucial part of a B2B content marketing strategy. You’ll want to invest in hiring a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) expert to get the top result for your product or service when buyers search online. If you don’t already have an SEO expert, then have a look online for a beginner’s guide to SEO or check out Moz’s Whiteboard Friday. The SEO team provides weekly educational videos where industry experts break down B2B digital marketing topics. 

AI can augment the content creation process, enhancing efficiency and creativity, but it’s not a standalone solution! The human touch remains crucial for strategy, tone, and authenticity. 

Whatever you do, ensure that every piece of marketing content is valuable and informative and keeps your audience top of mind.

3. B2B Digital marketing

Also known as B2B online marketing, digital marketing helps promote your brand so you can better connect with prospects.

Your strategy’s digital side includes email, social media, paid channels like Google ads, text messages, and B2B influencer marketing.

B2B marketers understand that posting generic content on social media is no longer an option. Instead, brands are expected to create a social presence, building themselves as experts in their field. If a customer can’t find you on social media, it will result in a lack of trust. That’s why B2B branding is so important.

Many brands seek influencer marketing for a brand boost, while others are experimenting with Instagram and TikTok.

LinkedIn has created the best B2B campaign opportunities for Cognism. Here’s a guide to our LinkedIn marketing strategy.

4. B2B Performance marketing

In relation to digital marketing, performance marketing combines digital channels with paid advertising, such as Google ads, and B2B brand marketing across channels.

Performance marketing allows you to manage your company’s digital advertising spend, generate targeted leads through ads, and build brand engagement.

The preferred channels are Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Here’s a guide that explains how to create powerful Google Ad campaigns for your B2B products.

5. B2B Product marketing 

Product marketing builds brand awareness of a B2B service or product and promotes it at scale. Product marketers are responsible for a product or service’s positioning, messaging, and value proposition.

Customer case studies, webinars, and sales collateral are all vital approaches to B2B marketing, helping to encourage business audiences to buy.

To achieve the best results in product marketing, you need to first research your customer’s needs. Then, discover their pain points and ensure each piece of content includes messaging that resonates and offers a solution.

A good example of well-thought-out product marketing is Salesforce’s Trailhead - a free, interactive learning platform designed to help individuals and businesses master Salesforce’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

It offers a gamified experience, allowing users to earn points and badges as they progress through various modules and trails. These trails cover a wide range of topics, from basic introductions to advanced Salesforce functionalities, catering to all skill levels.

By providing hands-on challenges and real-world scenarios, Trailhead enables users to apply their knowledge practically, thereby enhancing their proficiency with Salesforce tools. This approach not only educates potential customers but also encourages the adoption of Salesforce products by demonstrating their value and applicability in real-world situations.

Read our article focusing on the twelve best B2B marketing strategies for even more in-depth, tried and proven strategies!

B2B marketing best practices - 6 tips!

B2B marketers need two things to be able to run successful revenue-generating campaigns, and they are:

• An excellent marketing strategy
• Aligning the entire team with best practices

By following best practices, you can ensure your B2B strategy fits your sales goals for a united, more streamlined company.

Here are our six best practices for B2B marketing:

1. Have a plan

All good marketing starts with a plan. First, decide on your goal for each campaign. Then, research your target audience before strategising your way forward.

Once you know what you want to achieve, set B2B marketing KPIs to ensure you stay on the right track. Periodically review your marketing plan against your KPIs. If it’s not working, don’t be afraid to change it.

2. Harness the power of data

Good quality GDPR-compliant data will do wonders for your account-based marketing campaigns.

Firstly, you’ll have access to the right contact information for your prospects, and your B2B marketing campaigns will be more personalised and effective.

Secondly, by using intent data, you’ll be speaking to people who are actually in the market to buy while following your local privacy laws.

Even better, a data-driven marketing campaign helps you make faster and better decisions, reducing spend and lost customers.

Data providers like ZoomInfo and Cognism can provide global data to help power marketing campaigns. 

For example, an enterprise logistics company used Cognism to find verified emails and mobile numbers globally. This led to immediate and impressive results. Here’s what they said:

“Some of the bigger customers that we’ve brought on are in the pharmaceutical market.” 

“We won a company in this industry worth over £100,000 last year. That contact information came from Cognism, so it played a key role in that deal.”

“I’m inundated with members of the team asking me if they can have a licence, so we are considering getting some more.” 

You can read the full case study here. 

3. Create visual content

No one wants to read a blog that’s just long paragraphs of words. Business-to-business content marketing doesn’t need to be boring!

Spice up your blogs, website, and B2B marketing campaigns with visual assets like videos, GIFs, infographics, and high-quality images.

Visual content encourages engagement with your buyers and strengthens your brand image.

4. Create a brand identity

Speaking of your brand’s image, the best thing you can do for your company is agree and stick to a brand persona.

Brainstorm your B2B brand strategy: how do you want to be perceived? What are your values, tone of voice, and visual identity?

Customers remain loyal to consistent and transparent brands, so building a brand and creating awareness around it will only increase your position in the B2B market.

5. Focus on pain points

When you know who your customers are, you’re better able to add value to their day-to-day lives.

Buyers no longer want to be sold to; they want to be offered something that can help them solve ongoing frustrations. Swoop in with the perfect answer to their problems and the best B2B marketing solution, and you’ll be their go-to provider of choice for years to come.

6. Experimentation is everything

At Cognism, we’ve learned that the perfect B2B marketing strategy doesn’t exist.

Hard work, perseverance, A/B testing, and experimentation are the tools that will help you thrive in the B2B space.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the SaaS marketing industry is constantly evolving; you need to stay updated on the latest innovations and trends.

Foster an experimental, scientific mindset in your team. Run weekly sprints to launch campaigns quickly and acquire initial learning for your best chance at record-breaking marketing revenue.

Current B2B marketing trends

B2B advertising is constantly evolving - from direct mail and trade catalogue “industrial marketing”, as it was called in 1929, to the launch of smart data, AI search, and B2B social media marketing. New products and innovative technologies are always revolutionising the way we do business.

So, what are the key trends this year? 

• Brand building: According to the LinkedIn B2B Marketing Benchmark Report, nearly 70% of B2B marketers are allocating more resources to brand-building initiatives, recognising the importance of differentiation in crowded markets. Creative campaigns, particularly those involving short-form and social videos, are noted for their high return on investment. This shift underscores a strategic move towards fostering memorable and engaging brand experiences.

• Artificial Intelligence: AI is currently at the heart of the B2B advertising revolution. It’s increasingly being used for ad targeting and to enhance content creation in digital marketing. It can process large audience data sets to refine ad targeting and messaging, aiming for more precise and effective ads and quick-win content. 
• Data-driven decision-making: Being skilled in data analysis is becoming crucial for fine-tuning strategies and clearly illustrating value to stakeholders. An impressive 82% of marketers feel assured in their ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of their campaigns, highlighting the increasing significance of data literacy. 
• Personalisation: B2B marketing is increasingly focused on personalisation, AI-driven automation, and account-based marketing (ABM) to enhance customer engagement. Businesses are leveraging first-party data and AI-powered insights to deliver hyper-targeted content and tailored experiences.
• Video marketing and interactive content—such as webinars, virtual events, and immersive demos—are gaining traction, helping brands build deeper connections with prospects. Platforms like LinkedIn now host many short, engaging videos that command attention and encourage dark funnel shares.
• Social selling on LinkedIn and other professional networks is becoming essential for lead generation.
• Sustainability and purpose-driven marketing are also influencing B2B decisions, with brands prioritising ethical and eco-friendly business practices to align with customer values.

These evolutions require B2B marketers to stay agile and react quickly to a changing world and industry.

Here are even more B2B marketing trends and predictions. 

Marketing in B2B FAQs

Expand confidently with Cognism's compliant, globally accurate data.

Better marketing with tech

B2B marketing solutions have only gotten smarter and more efficient over the years, making it easier than ever to save time on tasks that used to take hours and hours to complete. 

One such tool is Cognism, a sales intelligence solution that brings you more quality marketing data - meaning better relationships and more revenue!

And that’s what’s most important, right?

Want to learn more?

Book a demo today👇