3 hot trends for your B2B marketing strategy in 2026

What’s going to be hot in B2B marketing next year? Our Managing Director Becky shares three top trends which she thinks will be big in 2026.

Brand is back

Finally, brand is back on the radar! Is the era of short-term strategy, narrowly focused on activation for rapid lead gen passed? Let’s hope so! I’ve always been a huge advocate for the power of brand strategy to support sustainable growth. Having data more readily at our fingertips and economic pressures for many businesses encouraged a push for quick results. In reality though short-term thinking brings short-term results!

McKinsey’s State of Marketing Europe 2026 report has found that Europe’s marketing organisations are going back to basics, with CMOs ranking branding as their top priority. Interestingly gen AI and agentic AI were ranked towards the bottom. The report shares the importance of marrying faster tools with traditional fundamentals: trust and emotional connection to give customers clarity, consistency and a sense of security.

Where to start? If you’ve been neglecting your brand recently then start by reassessing your brand positioning and relevance to your vision, purpose, Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs), objectives, points of differentiation and creative storytelling framework. Get that right and you have the backbone to map out your brand campaigns for 2026.

Activation still matters

Now, I am an 100% advocate of the importance of brand. But I believe that you do need to balance brand and activation together for the best results. Research from Les Binet & Peter Field shows that the most effective ratio is roughly 60% long-term brand investment and 40% short-term activation. It’s about creating a system where both pipeline and perception grow together.

A straightforward way to consider this is for each campaign across the year you balance the effort and spend 60:40. For example in Q1 you have a webinar, report and new product launch for activation and consistent brand storytelling, case studies and quality thought leadership content to maintain brand trust, credibility and connection.

ABM gets a boost

I’ve never heard Account-Based Marketing (ABM) mentioned as much as it is right now! And it’s music to my ears! The B2B buying journey is fragmented and trying to speak to a vast target audience in the same way across multiple verticals only takes you so far. You end up spreading yourself too thinly and nothing sticks.

ABM provides a highly targeted approach which instantly creates more meaningful connections with prospects. It’s based on a deep understanding of their context, wants, needs and pain points alongside relevant case studies and social proofing specific to that account. By joining up marketing and sales, everyone heads in the same direction – aligned approach, messaging and outcomes. The results are increased win-rates for high value sales and better use of time, resource and budget.

Tech and AI innovations are making ABM even better. It’s now a lot easier to identify specific targets, better understand intent (site visits, content consumption, keywords) and utilise predictive intelligence (buying journey signals).

Looking for a partner to help achieve your growth targets in 2026? Get in touch to chat about your B2B brand strategy and demand generation plans.

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