New research suggests optimism in the marketing industry is building. Rachel Lofthouse of Fox Agency explains how B2B brands can increase their foothold in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Get yourself a bigger bite of the B2B pie
With marketing teams under pressure to prove their direct contribution to growth, there’s no doubt that financial caution remains high across the industry. For B2B brands, this means budgets being directed towards activity that delivers immediate, measurable impact. From lead-generation and account-based marketing (ABM) to tightly targeted campaigns, B2B marketing activity today is designed to drive tangible results.
However, the latest IPA Bellwether Report underscores that industry optimism is building and looks set to carry into early next year. In this complex environment, B2B brand marketers must balance immediate ROI with sustaining visibility, credibility, and trust through long-term brand-building. Those prepared to navigate both should be the best positioned to capture market share from more cautious competitors.
So, where are the opportunities for B2B tech brands to gain attention among the overload of content – and how can their agency partners keep them ahead of the curve amid changing buyer behavior?
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Buyers are doing significantly more research before they engage with a brand, yet traditional search is no longer the default route to discovery. AI tools, instead, are reshaping how this research happens. In fact, recent research from Forrester showed that 94% of B2B buyers now use an LLM, such as ChatGPT and Claude, during their buying journey.
B2B brands must seize buyer attention before competitors do by proactively placing their message in front of key audiences through ABM, LinkedIn, Meta, earned media, and programmatic advertising. Even more so in growth industries – such as industry 4.0, connectivity, SaaS, and automotive – where competition is fiercest.
There’s also a significant opportunity to not only leverage AI to unlock hyper-personalization and outpace competitors, but to spot unmet or emerging customer needs at scale and speed. The ability to create immediate differentiation at scale is vital, particularly in complex B2B industries. Marketing must play a role in simplifying those complexities, being present earlier in the sales journey to give buyers something helpful that is right for them.
Marketing doesn’t end with a sale. B2B tech brands must use continuous personalization to maximize product value for customers, driving retention and upsell. This also builds customer testimonials, critical for fueling authentic advocacy amid increased scrutiny of information truthfulness.
In a world of multiplying complexity, B2B tech brands require agency partners who know their worlds, can talk their language, understand their customers, define their strategy, and join the dots to deliver impact.
Think about it this way: every B2B industry has multiple categories, solutions, innovations, teams, and silos. Within every company, there are also multiple divisions, regions, offices, and business units, resulting in multiple priorities, perspectives, and points of view. And multiple business lines result in multiple datasets, business models, buying committees, personas, sales teams, attribution models, and more.
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Simplifying this complexity to truly capture target audiences requires more than the traditional client servicing model. More than ever, B2B brands need proven expertise and commercial know-how in their field. This requires agency partners to fully immerse themselves in their clients’ worlds, through stakeholder workshops and interviews, spending time on-site – particularly for those in industrial sectors – and leveraging competitor intelligence. This will enable your agency to go beyond the immediate project, instead looking at the bigger picture from a strategic perspective to deliver solutions that show quick value and engage the right audiences.
Looking ahead, the brands that turn this complexity into an advantage will drive immediate revenue while building enduring brand trust. Success relies on blending data-driven, ROI-focused campaigns with creative strategies, with this approach vital to building credibility, strengthening customer loyalty, and securing lasting visibility
In 2026, strategic brands that are relentless in the pursuit of both short-term growth and long-term trust will not just keep up – they’ll lead.
Fox Agency
Fox Agency is an integrated agency for global B2B tech brands on a mission: To grow, expand, transform, accelerate, go-to-market, get investment. Or simply, get...
