The new era of B2B marketing has arrived

A new era for B2B marketing has been activated – and there is no going back! Whilst we’ve seen B2B marketing evolve over the past decade, with tech advancements and the impact of global events, the change we are in now is the most rapid and impactful we have seen by far. And it’s been activated by Google’s recent announcement.

Google’s search box transformation – is the biggest change for them in 25 years. Before we get into what the impact will be for B2B marketers, here’s a recap on what Google is changing:

Google has a new intelligent search box: More intuitive than ever, it dynamically expands so you can describe exactly what you need.

A new era of search agents: You can easily create, customise and manage multiple AI agents for your many tasks, right in Search.

Agentic coding in Search: Search can now generate custom tools, dashboards and interactive experiences in real-time based on exactly what the user needs

Expanded personal intelligence in Search: Search is becoming deeply personalised, understanding not just the world’s information, but the user’s individual business context too.

In short, the way that users will be able to search moving forward will have a huge impact for B2B marketing. We are moving from short specific search keywords and phrases towards a dynamic, personalised and highly sophisticated way to immediately gain the answers we need.

Multiple studies, including research from Gartner and Forrester, indicate that 70% to 80% of the B2B buying journey already takes place online before a buyer ever makes direct contact with a vendor. What the new era of B2B marketing looks like is – the majority of prospects will shortlist using AI search (without hitting your site) – and then hit your site to affirm their top choices. This is big, and this is specifically what you need to know and do about it.

How to feature in AI search

Highly relevant content that meets the needs of high intent searches is absolutely essential. Static websites with general content will not fly. SEO was heavily focused on keywords and key phrases – the future is that every word on the page will count – not just the allocated keyword/phrase.

Impact for B2B marketers: organisations need AI driven web page structure and the right content appearing in the right way to be pulled for prospect searches.

Brand reputation will set you apart

When you get to that stage of appearing in a high intent AI search context and you get shortlisted by a prospect, they will then hit your site. It has to immediately connect and convey why you are the best choice. That means a powerful and clear purpose, vision, mission, differentiated approach, proof points and a strong UX to quickly and seamlessly take the user from you being shortlisted to being the top choice.

Impact for B2B marketers: with 70% to 80% of the B2B buying journey already taking place online before a buyer ever makes direct contact with a supplier – dynamic Google search will only increase this.

ICP understanding is paramount 

If you don’t understand your customers – exactly who you are targeting and how they think – you won’t create content they are searching for. The high intent nature of where AI search has gone is great for users – you can find exactly what you need. But, it means you need to be closer to your customer’s needs, motivations and how they think more than ever before.

Impact for B2B marketers: you will need to have a deeper understanding of your Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) to create content to meet their high intent searches.

Customer journey mapping will inform strategy

Most organisations fail to map out the customer journey from awareness through to enquiry and conversion for different segments. Those that jump straight into trying to appear in AI search will only go so far. Those that understand the types of searches by prospects at different stages of the customer buying journey will gain greater success. It’s also highly likely that organisations which have been more niche in the past where search was less of a focus to find partners to work with – will now want to reap the benefits of high intent search.

Impact for B2B marketers: use customer research to inform the customer buying journey for different segments to inform your search strategy and content choices.

Publishers will have a choice to block AI search summaries

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that new rules will put  “publishers, like news organisations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google”. The report comes after complaints by media that their website click-through traffic has dropped since Google has posted AI summaries at the top of search results.

Under the new rules, Google will also have to ensure that publisher content is “properly attributed” with clear links in AI search results. Publishers will have the choice of what content appears.

Impact for B2B marketers: for the publishers you’re working with find out if your content will appear in Google AI search results/not. You’ll likely want your content to appear to ensure your brand is readily found for relevant searchers.

Less website clicks will become the norm

With Google AI and other AI search platforms delivering often the full answers searchers need – what’s the incentive to visit your website? It’s very likely that your website clicks will drop due to this. But, fewer clicks isn’t necessarily a negative – if the clicks you are getting are highly relevant and high intent. If your site demonstrates strong brand reputation and UX then your conversion rates should go up.

Impact for B2B marketers: the challenge comes with making sure you appear in AI search – because if you don’t – prospects might never reach your site to see all your key messages and proof points.

We hope you have found these points of view around the new B2B marketing era interesting and helpful! We’ll be sharing more on this as Google rolls out the changes and the impact becomes reality, including a report soon – The new era of B2B marketing: How AI search is reshaping the buyer journey.

Get in touch with any questions or if you’d like to partner with Embrace Marketing to support with transitioning your B2B marketing strategy and digital presence to meet the new search era.

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