What 2026 has in store for B2B marketing (and how to stay ahead)

In 2025, B2B marketers spent much of the year scrambling to keep up with new AI tools, rising targets, and the pressure to deliver more with less. Could 2026 quiet the noise enough for a simpler question to take centre stage: what’s actually driving results now?

The answer will probably lie in using technology wisely, understanding real buyers in real markets, and creating relevance that works across borders – all while economies and politics remain unpredictable. Buyers are more selective, timelines are subject to change, and attention is harder to win. People want clear content, simple journeys, and the freedom to interact in whatever way suits them, whether that involves a person or not.

The trends redefining B2B in 2026

Here are six trends we think will define B2B marketing this year:

1. Visibility now includes AI systems, not just humans

Search goes well beyond ranking on Google. AI now reads, summarises, and surfaces content to buyers, sometimes before a human even sees it. Zero-click answers, structured data, and algorithmic recommendations mean your content can be found – or overlooked – by machines first.

For brands expanding internationally, this raises the bar. Optimising content requires both technical accuracy and real authority. Schema, metadata, and structured content matter, but so do named authors, detailed case studies, and market-specific insight. Purpose-driven elements, like sustainability or ethical practices, also influence how buyers judge your brand in risk-sensitive sectors.

Organic and paid search need to work together in this environment. Well-structured, authoritative content improves visibility and trust, while paid campaigns can amplify your most valuable assets, ensuring they reach the right decision-makers at the moments that matter.

2. AI becomes part of ABM’s engine room

The initial rush around AI has settled. It’s now central to identifying the accounts that matter and guiding decisions across marketing, sales, and operations. When applied carefully, intent data, predictive analytics, and automated account scoring can make ABM campaigns both broader in reach and sharper in focus.

But AI cannot replace human insight. It can highlight trends, suggest actions, and automate content distribution, but it can’t read a boardroom, navigate internal politics, or pick up subtle cultural cues. Teams that combine predictive models with local knowledge uncover opportunities that would otherwise remain invisible.

For search marketers, this means using AI to inform keyword targeting, localised landing pages, and multi-channel campaigns. Paid search can be guided by predicted intent signals, while organic content can focus on the topics and queries AI shows will resonate with high-value accounts.

3. Depth beats volume

B2B buyers are busy, under pressure, and arguably more sceptical than ever. Generic marketing, such as superficial blogs or broad-brush ‘ultimate guides’, carries little weight. Content with real depth, such as meaningful research, authentic customer stories, and clear, data-driven insight, works better.

Depth doesn’t mean everything must be long-form. Pair your flagship pieces that answer pressing questions with shorter, focused content to keep audiences engaged. Break them into videos, podcasts, webinars, or themed blog series to deliver value in multiple formats. Involving colleagues from across the business can add perspective, as long as outputs stay consistent and credible.

This approach also helps in search. Engines and AI discovery tools reward content that shows expertise and trustworthiness. Paid search can then amplify your best content, ensuring it reaches the accounts most likely to convert.

If you want an example of how deeper perspectives can shape marketing, take a look at Oban’s Viewpoints, a publication where team members share first-person insight on how AI is reshaping B2B marketing.

4. Buyers engage across formats

B2B buyers still read, but written content shouldn’t be the only focus. Busy decision-makers also absorb insights through video, audio, and interactive tools like calculators, configurators, or quick diagnostics. Again, your deeper flagship content can be repurposed across these formats. Breaking a detailed report into videos, podcasts, interactive tools, or mini-articles helps the same insights reach audiences in the way that suits them best.

Smaller, focused communities, such as LinkedIn groups, invite-only Slack channels, or curated virtual roundtables, are also where deeper conversations take place. Messages shared by analysts, local experts, or trusted influencers carry weight, but only if the voices are genuinely relevant and respected.

From a search perspective, Google now surfaces videos, YouTube clips, and interactive formats often above standard links. With search and social starting to overlap, it helps to create content that works well in both places. Targeted paid promotion can then make sure these richer formats reach the niche audiences you want to influence.

5. Omnichannel engagement becomes operational

B2B buyers move constantly between channels – researching online, talking to peers, attending events, or interacting with sales at odd hours. To succeed, you need to reach them consistently, not just occasionally.

Marketing data should inform sales conversations and nurture campaigns. Personalisation should make things easier, not feel gimmicky. Paid search, organic search, account-based strategies, and visibility in AI-driven tools should all work together, so every touchpoint reinforces the next. Even small gaps or missed local nuances can make a brand invisible when buyers are deciding. In a crowded, AI-driven market, clarity, perspective, and distinctive insight are what make a brand stand out.

6. Global ABM demands localisation

When you work internationally, one message rarely works everywhere. Real local insight is what drives success, because language by itself isn’t enough. Content, channels, and tone all need to fit the cultural and business reality of each market.

For teams growing across borders, hybrid events that mix in-person and virtual elements can be an efficient way to reach different audiences. Local experts play a key role in interpreting behaviour, search habits, and regulatory details. Machine translation can help with scale, but it cannot replace cultural understanding, especially in high-value B2B markets where credibility and trust matter most.

The rhythm of the B2B year

The B2B year has a natural rhythm, and campaigns work best when they match how organisations make decisions. For many B2B teams, a typical year might look like this:

Early year (Jan to Mar)
Budgets land, priorities are agreed, and target accounts are confirmed. This is the moment when people are open to new thinking. It is a strong time for thought leadership, strategic ideas and longer campaigns that shape the year ahead.

Mid-year (Apr to Jul)
Teams are deep in evaluations, conferences and pilot programmes. Buyers want to see how things work in practice. Demos, webinars, trials and steady nurturing tend to get the most traction.

Late year (Sep to Dec)
Deals move forward, vendors are shortlisted and planning for next year begins. Decision-makers want clarity and proof. Targeted outreach, ROI stories and practical content help them finalise choices with confidence.

Key B2B shows worth watching in 2026

Not every B2B brand has the time or budget for major industry events. But even tracking them from afar can help you understand where the market is heading, which topics are gaining momentum, and how your competitors are positioning themselves. If you can attend, the value often comes less from the exhibition floor and more from the concentrated access to peers, buyers, and new ideas you won’t get elsewhere. Example events to consider in 2026 include:

• London B2B Growth Expo — March
  A pulse check on ABM, pipeline strategy, and what’s shifting across UK/EU markets.
  
  
• EXPO REAL Asia Pacific, Singapore — June
  A window into cross-border infrastructure, logistics, and investment trends shaping global expansion.
  
  
• eCommerce Expo, London — September
  Where B2B and B2C thinking increasingly overlaps – useful for understanding how buyers expect digital experiences to work.

If you’re attending these or others, here’s how to make it count:

• Build pre-event momentum with the content and conversations you want people to remember you for.
  
  
• Prioritise live engagement – small demos or micro-events often outperform generic stand activity.
  
  
• Follow up quickly and with relevance; interest fades fast once people get home.
  
  
• Feed what you learn back into your mid- and late-year planning so the insight becomes action, not just notes.

A practical B2B checklist for 2026

• Use AI to bring clarity, not complexity. AI is useful when it sharpens decisions. Let it support keyword choices, content ideas and account scoring, but keep humans in charge of interpretation and priorities.
  
  
• Understand buyer journeys market by market. B2B buyers do not behave the same everywhere. Local buying cycles, decision structures and search habits matter. Tailoring campaigns to each market avoids wasted effort.
  
  
• Make ABM genuinely local. Strong ABM reflects local language, culture and commercial reality. Adapt landing pages, case studies and creative so they speak directly to local priorities and regulations.
  
  
• Create content that matters. Quality wins. Focus on pieces that deliver clear insight, demonstrate expertise, and are easy to discover. Use paid campaigns to amplify these high-value assets to the accounts that matter most.
  
  
• Share data across marketing, sales and operations. Insights work best when every team can act on them. Linking search data, campaign results and buyer feedback helps sales move faster and helps operations plan ahead.
  
  
• Choose channels based on local behaviour. Search trends, social habits and event preferences differ by country. Shaping the channel mix around local behaviour improves reach and relevance.
  
  
• Mix virtual and in-person engagement. Hybrid engagement scales well while keeping a personal touch. Use local insight to decide which events, demos or webinars should be live, virtual or a mix of both.
  
  
• Prioritise trust, compliance and EEAT. Expertise, transparency and responsible AI use matter to search engines and buyers. Being clear, compliant and trustworthy is as important as the campaign itself.
  
  
• Lean on local expertise when you expand. Local specialists see things AI and global teams can miss. They help refine messages, spot effective channels and navigate local constraints so campaigns land well.
  
  
• Measure what really shows impact. Clicks alone don’t tell the story. Track retention, expansion and advocacy, and use these alongside search and campaign data to guide ongoing decisions.

Looking ahead

Planning a B2B campaign in 2026? Oban combines real market insight with smart use of AI to help your brand grow internationally. Get in touch to find out more.