B2B Marketing
B2B marketing is increasingly expected to deliver the level of experience buyers are used to having as consumers. Success depends on marketers adapting — and quickly. Explore our B2B marketing insights to stay ahead.
Insights
Blog
B2B Customer Communities Need An AI-Powered Reboot
AI doesn’t have to replace the human connection that makes B2B customer communities valuable. Used purposefully, it can help community managers reduce repetitive work, improve customer experiences, surface business insights, and connect community engagement to measurable outcomes.
Blog
Your Processes Are The Weakest Part Of Your AEO Strategy
Many marketers know the best practices they must implement to get mentioned and cited by ChatGPT, Google, and Claude but still struggle to implement answer engine optimization (AEO). Marketers sync with web developers about the technical prerequisites of visibility: server-side rendering, Bing’s IndexNow protocol, monitoring for indexation issues, and more. They’re well aware of the […]
Webinar
Does Your Content Matter? Measuring Buyer Engagement In An AI World – APAC
Join us September 8: Learn how to identify and measure the content that influences buyers and drives revenue — and receive Forrester’s Agent-On-A-Page Template.
Blog
Preference Matters More Than In-Market Intent Alone In Modern B2B Buying
The traditional performance marketing model assumes that marketers can influence buyers once they enter the market, but today’s B2B buyers often begin their search with strong preferences already in place. Intent signals frequently reveal existing demand rather than create it, making many late-stage marketing efforts a pursuit of opportunities that are already leaning toward a competitor.
What is B2B marketing?
B2B marketing refers to strategies and tactics that firms use to reach, engage, and influence business buyers or organizations rather than individual consumers. It often involves longer buying cycles, multiple stakeholders, and more complex decision criteria. The goal is to generate demand, build relationships, and support revenue growth.
How has B2B marketing evolved in recent years?
B2B marketing now demands the level of personalization, agility, and experience that customers expect in consumer settings. Today’s buyers are more informed, independent, and digitally driven. Marketing leaders must embrace new tools, data, and cross-functional alignment to stay competitive.
What are the biggest challenges facing B2B marketers?
Common challenges include poor data quality, misaligned business and marketing goals, and lack of trust in measurement. In addition, marketing must adapt to the complexity of buying groups, rapidly shifting customer expectations, and AI-driven search.
What key metrics should B2B marketers track?
Though funnel metrics such as lead conversion, pipeline influence, and marketing-generated revenue remain the most common, marketers should also track brand perception and preference, engagement metrics, account-level outcomes, customer retention, and customer lifetime value.
How does Forrester support B2B marketing leaders?
Forrester offers research, frameworks, and advisory services to help B2B marketers refine their strategies, improve execution, and measure impact. We guide clients in integrating marketing with sales, applying data and AI, and evolving in complex environments.
Blog
B2B Marketing Is Moving Faster Than Its Foundations Can Handle
Eighty-eight percent of B2B marketing organizations have adopted AI tools or developed their own, yet marketing leaders continue to report unclear AI strategy, difficulty measuring impact, data infrastructure challenges, and uncertainty about where AI should be applied. In other words, many marketing teams are moving quickly to adopt new capabilities before establishing or firming up […]
Webinar
Does Your Content Matter? Measuring Buyer Engagement In An AI World
Join us September 2: Learn how to identify and measure the content that influences buyers and drives revenue — and receive Forrester’s Agent-On-A-Page Template.
Blog
What Optimizely Customer Zero Teaches About Agentic AI Governance
This is the story behind writing Customer Zero Case Study: Optimizely Shows AI Success Requires Operating Model Governance. When I Went Looking For Agentic Marketing, I Found A Constraint Early in my career, my dad handed me a copy of The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. The book introduced me to the theory of constraints: Improve […]
Blog
How Adobe Adapted To ChatGPT And Gemini Reshaping B2B Buying
To me, the most interesting part of Adobe’s customer zero story is that when AI disrupted how buyers learn, Adobe couldn’t buy a solution because the solution didn’t exist yet. This is a story of marketing and technology leaders adapting an operating model under pressure and feeding those lessons back into products. At Adobe Summit, […]
Blog
AI Is Accelerating The Great GTM Reset For Partner Ecosystems
B2B leaders have spent the past few years asking how AI can make their teams more productive. That internal focus must transition to a bigger question that demands more urgent attention: How do we respond to AI changing how buyers discover, evaluate, and choose providers? That question sits at the center of what I call the […]
Blog
The Quiet Fix For Silos — Frontline Marketing’s Biggest Self-Inflicted Problem
When every marketing team plans independently, buyers experience the consequences: overlapping communications, competing priorities, and inconsistent journeys. The solution isn’t a new org chart. It’s a new approach to planning.
Blog
The Content Bottleneck Has Shifted: Why Enterprise AI Isn’t Enough
The constraint marketing leaders are running into is no longer about content generation. It’s scaling marketing without losing trust, quality, or control.
Blog
B2B Marketing Has A Purpose Problem
According to our recent research, most B2B marketing leaders (96%) see their function as a strategic partner or the primary driver of growth for the business. Yet they believe (47%) that many of their peers see marketing as a support or promotion function that handles sales requests, promotes news, and executes launches. This disconnect, for […]
Blog
AI Is Reshaping B2B Brand And Communications Investments
AI is changing how B2B brand and communications teams invest, operate, and prioritize work. As companies look for practical ways to apply AI across marketing, leaders are reevaluating program investments, talent needs, and the capabilities required to drive growth. Forrester’s 2026 Brand And Communications Survey reveals a more deliberate approach to these decisions, particularly in areas tied to digital engagement, brand visibility, and influence.
Blog
As AI Use Expands, B2B Marketers Become More Selective About Agency Spend
B2B marketers have long relied on agencies for scale, specialized expertise, and execution support across brand and communications. In fact, 93% of respondents to Forrester’s 2026 B2B Brand And Communications Survey use agencies in some capacity. What is changing is the relationship itself, as AI-driven efficiencies enable teams to bring more work in-house.
Blog
Use 2027 Budget Optimism To Drive An AI Reset
Budget optimism is rising as 2027 approaches — but more spend alone won’t improve outcomes. Use this moment to reset your AI investments. Prioritize the readiness, governance, and context required to make it truly work.
Blog
High-Performing Portfolio Marketing Isn’t About Doing More: It’s About Saying No
Many teams struggle because they try to do everything — and when everything is a priority, nothing is. Learn how the best portfolio marketing teams protect and use their time.
Blog
CMOs Are Asking The Wrong Question About AI And Marketing Roles
Every B2B CMO I talk to right now is asking a version of the same question: What roles do I need on my team for the future? It is a fair question. It is also the wrong one to lead with. AI is not changing marketing by introducing a fixed set of new jobs to […]
Activate Buying Groups. Accelerate Growth.
Your buyers don’t make big purchase decisions as individual leads. Learn how to operationalize the Forrester B2B Revenue Waterfall™ and align marketing, sales, and revenue development teams around the buying-group opportunities that fuel growth.
Blog
Marketing Matters More To Growth Momentum Than Ever
Growth momentum is one of the most sought-after objectives in business. When it builds, buying groups move with greater confidence, internal teams align almost effortlessly around common priorities, and individual successes compound into larger business outcomes. Many B2B organizations undervalue one of the strongest contributors to growth momentum: marketing. Marketing doesn’t build momentum by simply […]
Blog
Budget Planning 2027: B2B Marketing Leaders Must Prioritize Focus For Resilience
B2B marketing leaders entering the 2027 planning cycle must rethink traditional budget planning and shift toward focused, outcome-driven investment strategies. In an era of AI-driven disruption and market volatility, success will depend on where organizations concentrate spend, divest low-impact initiatives, and invest in resilience-building capabilities.
Blog
European Marketers Are Playing It Safe With AI — That’s The Problem
European marketers are rapidly adopting AI, but most applications remain focused on efficiency rather than customer value. New research reveals a growing gap between AI adoption and customer impact, highlighting the need to move beyond productivity gains and use AI to create differentiated customer experiences and competitive advantage.
More posts