3 Key Marketing Trends in B2B
Overview
As Australia's B2B market adapts to a landscape shaped by digital transformation, sustainability mandates, and increasing competition, businesses need to rethink how they engage with customers and drive ROI through smarter marketing.
1. Understanding the Entire Customer Journey – From Specifier to Site
B2B customer journeys in the industrial sector often involve multiple decision-makers: engineers, procurement officers, project managers, safety consultants, and executives. This means brand awareness is just one part of the equation. Marketers must map and influence an entire matrix of stakeholders over an extended buying cycle.
What this looks like in practice:
This means educating both the specifier (procurement/engineer/project consultant) and the end user (buyer/site manager/operator) with technical content, case studies, and ROI calculators tailored to their unique pain points.
Key tactics:
- Use marketing automation and CRM integrations to identify and nurture different buyer personas within a single account.
- Align media and content with each phase of the journey, from awareness (via whitepapers and video explainers), through to consideration (case studies, tender support), to conversion (consultation offers, account onboarding).
2. Expanding Digital Beyond Google & Meta for Greater Reach
Traditional search and social channels like Google and Meta have their place but the real power for industrials lies in omni-channel campaigns that combine digital intent signals with B2B-specific media platforms and partner ecosystems.
Where B2B audiences live:
- Niche platforms such as LinkedIn, Engineering News, Australian Construction Review, or even YouTube for technical demonstrations.
- Trade forums and industry newsletters where procurement or project leads seek vendor credibility.
- Field sales enablement via geofenced display and retargeting campaigns synced with physical site visits or expos.
Examples in action:
- Use LinkedIn ABM (account-based marketing) campaigns to reach logistics decision-makers while retargeting operations personnel with equipment use-case videos on YouTube.
- Amplify ESG initiatives through industry-specific publisher networks to influence councils and government procurement officers evaluating tenders.
3. Implementing Smarter Targeting Strategies – Driven by Data & Intent
Precision targeting is essential when your audience is niche and high value. B2B marketers need to move beyond demographic segmentation to behavioural and firmographic targeting.
Smarter strategies include:
- Leveraging IP and firmographic data to target companies by industry, size, and location; e.g. targeting mining contractors in WA or infrastructure developers in NSW.
- Deploying intent-based advertising by partnering with platforms that monitor content consumption patterns (e.g. safety regulations, equipment financing, or sustainability compliance).
- Using first-party data from CRM systems, loyalty platforms, and dealer networks to build custom audiences and lookalikes.
Smarter creative matters too:
- A video that highlights tech innovation in mineral analysis can act as a top-funnel awareness piece, while a download link to a full technical spec sheet becomes a mid-funnel conversion point.
- Showcase digital lift management systems via interactive ad units that simulate cost savings for property developers.
Ready to Take the Lead in B2B Marketing?
With long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder journeys, success in B2B demands a more intelligent, data-led approach to media strategy. By embracing omni-channel reach, deep customer insights, and smarter targeting, brands can maximise ROI, influence key decision-makers, and future-proof their growth.
At ADMATIC, we specialise in helping B2B marketers turn complexity into clarity and media into measurable outcomes.
Let's build smarter, together.