2025 Digital Marketing Trends for B2B Businesses

Did you decide your digital marketing will be “business as usual” in 2025? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

If stagnation and regression is your goal, sure. But we’re guessing that’s not what your CFO input for the 2025 budget.

The digital marketing landscape is changing. Quickly. But how will those changes impact the go-forward plan for industrial B2B?

We got you. Let’s dive into exactly what’s changing, how it impacts the industrial B2B sector, and what you can do to plan for it.

After working with thousands of clients and reviewing their data, we can make data-driven decisions to help you move the ROI needle in the right direction.

We also know that not all businesses benefit from the same trends or advice. What works for our B2C companies may not work for our B2B partners and vice versa. Using our 20+ years of experience with industrial marketing, we can sift out the nonsense.

To gear up our industrial B2B guidance, we asked ourselves:

• What issues is the industry facing?
• What were the performance trends from last year?
• Where does growth come from?
• Where does efficiency come from?
• What are your takeaways?

Answering these questions can help businesses like yours narrow down the 2025 digital marketing trends that make the most sense for your operation and budget.

What Issues Is The Industry Facing?

Folks like to count digital marketing and industrial B2B out, but the stats say otherwise.
For industry digital consumption or the amount consumed by a visitor per session, manufacturing websites enjoyed a 12% bump this year. Conversion rates rose, going from 1.61% in 2023 to 1.72%. Manufacturing was one of the few industries to see an increase.

Naysayers also like to say search marketing is dead. We hear this all the time. But, again, let’s look at the data, which shows it’s alive and kicking. 

At OuterBox, with our large industrial client base, we see search bring the majority of traffic to industrial B2B websites, clocking in at roughly 43% of total traffic. And it still leads the charge in new customer acquisition and return on investment.

Won’t AI kill SEO? AI and digital marketing aren’t enemies. They’re buddies. Links are being added to Google’s AI overviews, and chatbots are powered by search engines. The goal is to be in the source from which these newer tools pull. That’s a win today and a win tomorrow.

What Were the Performance Trends from Last Year?

Device engagement revealed desktop is still king over mobile by 2-3x. At OuterBox, using our proprietary lead form analytics tool LOOP, we still see 80% of total sessions coming from desktops. 

An investment in a solid responsive design is the answer to a great desktop experience without neglecting mobile. The need is speed. With optimal load times and great UX, those desktop users will engage for up to 6.61 minutes compared to 2.1 on mobile.

The goal: Based on industry and performance trends, B2B marketers should maximize performance with a robust digital framework that targets all phases of the customer journey, even post-purchase customer retention marketing.

Where Does Growth Come From?

Once your SEO and paid media are solid, what’s next? Growth statistics for next year point to social media channels. 94% of the 5 billion global internet users are also social media users. It’s a channel you can no longer ignore. Sales from social media are set to grow 71% over the next two years.

For B2B industrial companies that don’t use eCommerce, you might sail past social media as a possibility. Well, paddle on back.

Social media is a channel for brand awareness and client engagement that can eventually lead to sales. It’s a long game. These platforms are seen as a genuine medium that can garner trust and authenticity. It’s an opportunity for quick touchpoints for a buyer researching and comparing companies.

Knowing your audience and the channels they’re on can help launch a content strategy. No matter the channel used, short-form video is what’s gaining momentum. Show what your equipment can do, tour your tradeshow setup, or attract new hires by showcasing your culture. You just need a cell phone. 

These growth trends align with personalization. Almost 80% of businesses say customers spend more when their experience is personalized. Plus, half of consumers say they will be repeat customers after a positive personalized experience.

In 2025, expect to see marketers kick it up a notch with:

• Onboarding content for new customers
• Support content for existing customers
• Personalized emails and landing pages

Sounds like a lot of work. That’s where efficiency (and OuterBox) comes in.

Where Does Efficiency Come From?

Marketing technologies are the stuff of dreams. Those dreams include nightmares. 

They can be daunting and complicated, but the right MarTech can fill the gaps in efficiency many B2B companies feel. 

The big lifesavers in MarTech and the amount of marketers using them include:

• Keeping up with people = CRM systems (86%)
• Moving marketing = marketing automation and journey management (78%)
• Finding results = marketing analytics tools (88%)

We know the price tag may worry you. The good news is that not all effective MarTech tools are expensive, and many are scalable. There’s a fit for your organization and a partner like OuterBox can help you make adjustments. Work smarter, not harder.

Our good friend AI is another great tool for efficiency, with developer use cases like coding on the rise. 31% of B2B marketers are using AI for chatbots, coding, and design. Meanwhile, another 30% is using AI for content development.

Disclaimer: AI is a fantastic foundation for ideas and solid starts, but avoid copying and pasting content. Google will dock you for that. Plus, your customers aren’t robots. They need a clear brand voice from an actual person.

What are your Takeaways?

With the right data and an understanding of your buyers’ journeys, you can empower your marketing by:

1. Leverage your current website traffic and elevate the user experience, thereby improving your bottom-line conversion rate.
2. Utilize buyer intent for your search and paid media content (LOOP Analytics is a great tool for this), then invest in other channels to create multiple touchpoints in the buyer journey.
3. Embrace personalization to create even more relevance in your marketing, improving engagement rates and pushing people down the funnel faster.
4. Find efficiency opportunities with Martech and AI to save yourself time as well as increase your output.

Ready for 2025? Let’s do this. Contact OuterBox to learn how to put these trends into practice.