Wat aan het begin van 2025 goed werkte biedt geen garanties meer voor je marketingstrategie in 2026. Eén grote speler in die verschuiving is natuurlijk AI en de vele ontwikkelingen die dat teweeg heeft gebracht, maar ook menselijk zoekgedrag en wensen zijn veranderd. Om toch weer sterk aan de slag te kunnen met je marketing in 2026 zetten wij de belangrijkste B2B marketingtrends 2026 voor jou op een rijtje.
The B2B marketingtrends 2025 in review
Every year, we take another look at the marketing landscape and tell you what the most important trends will be for the coming year. Last year, we predicted that:
- AI would be here to stay;
- we would need to focus on video, zero-click, and user-generated content;
- increasing privacy legislation would require adjustments;
- there would be a growing demand for authenticity from customers.
Broadly speaking, we can say that these predictions have come true, but they are certainly not finished developing yet. These will be the B2B marketing trends in 2026.
AI as a colleague
AI has become an integral part of the daily work of many marketers. It is now used in creating content, analyzing data, translating web pages, and as a feature in tools such as Google Ads. The truly savvy marketers are building entire agents themselves that can take over standardized tasks. This will only continue to develop further in 2026 as the possibilities increase. One development we are gradually seeing more of is hyper-personalization. AI can easily create different versions of an advertisement or newsletter and automatically assign them to people with specific characteristics. Depending on how you collect your data, this can be based on previous website behavior, purchases, retargeting information, or predictions per target group. Thanks to AI, this can be deployed more easily and at a much lower cost. Privacy legislation does, however, remain an important factor to keep in mind. Designing based on target group characteristics is useful, but designing based on individuals infringes on their privacy and quickly becomes unethical.
Zero-click-content is king
We have seen this trend emerging for quite some time: people want to find an answer to their question with as few clicks as possible, preferably zero. Now that “searching” via ChatGPT has increased enormously and AI overviews have been introduced in search engines, this trend has accelerated rapidly. Research by Search Engine Land showed that at the end of 2024 40% of searches still resulted in a click. AI overviews have drastically lowered this number. Pew Research Center reports that after seeing an AI overview, only 8% still click through to one of the websites in the search results, and a meager 1% clicks on a link within the AI overview itself. And that was just a year ago. By now, the click-through figures may look even more pessimistic.
The articles you produce will therefore generate less traffic in the coming year, but that’s okay! Brand visibility remains an extremely important factor in the eventual conversion. The approach to writing your articles changes, and with it the KPIs you should be measuring. Focus on presenting your brand clearly and providing easy answers by writing for GEO. Measure success by the number of views you get, how often you appear in AI (overviews & LLMs), and shift your goal from clicks to brand visibility and building authority.
Privacy will always remain important
Many companies have now implemented the correct cookie banner, Google has switched to a more privacy-focused system, and the EU continues to maintain a strong focus on privacy legislation. From a technical perspective, things seem to be in good shape. However, shifts are also noticeable in how data is measured. Due to the rise of zero-click content and GEO, more and more value is being placed on the data you can collect yourself. Think of the valuable email lists you collect, or have already collected, for newsletters and whitepaper downloads. This is often an underutilized dataset, which you can use to set up highly relevant email or retargeting campaigns without the need for third-party cookies. This data can therefore form a strong foundation for the B2B marketing trends of 2026.
Authenticity and trust in times of AI
Running counter to AI developments is the growing desire for authenticity. Now that so much content is being created by AI, a counter-movement has emerged: the “we’re a bit AI-tired now” group. LinkedIn is full of the “ChatGPT dash,” the rocket emoji, and uninspired content that keeps repeating the same things. The hype also seems to have passed its peak in terms of audience interest. Authenticity has always been extremely important, think of a payoff that truly matches the company culture and avoiding rainbow or green washing. Now, AI usage has been added to that equation. Depending on the target audience you want to reach, using AI-generated content (text, photos, and videos) can backfire and detract from your company’s authenticity. It is particularly younger audiences who speak out against excessive AI use and who actively avoid brands if they do not trust or consider a company’s AI usage to be ethical.
From product thinking to proposition thinking
One development we personally see a lot is the shift from thinking in terms of your product to thinking in terms of your proposition. What is it that truly makes your company unique, and why should a customer choose you? From a product management and product marketing perspective, this can be quite a difficult question to answer. After all, you are deeply involved in the subject matter. So, how do you zoom out again? This is a question marketers are being asked more and more often. Competition is high, few markets are still stable, and the need for a distinctive proposition has therefore increased once again. We notice this directly in the growing number of requests for our proposition workshops.
Translating marketing metrics into clear language for the CFO
Another internal trend is the shift from the what to the why. It is less and less about ROAS, CPC, or all those other KPIs. Instead, the questions are why does it work or why doesn’t it, and do we need more or less budget? Especially in uncertain times, marketing is quickly seen as the cost item where cuts can be made. Marketers therefore need to be much better at explaining what marketing delivers. Not in terms of clicks or impressions, but in leads and revenue. That is, of course, easier said than done, because the crystal ball doesn’t always work. Fortunately, predictive marketing can help with this.
