The AB2B Manifesto

1) As AI becomes more accessible, it's easier than ever for anyone to “do marketing” – the ambition level must go UP

(aka, lack of ambition is an ick)

The democratization of AI brings countless new ”content creators” and ”experts” to the field. It causes way too much noise, generating way too little trust because everyone sounds the same.

You know what we’re talking about.

If AI is a content farmer’s best friend, it's also a brand’s enemy. If we’re being honest, most of the content published before ChatGPT was even a thing was total crap. With the rise of AI-generated content, we’re about to be buried in a whole lot of 💩 created by brands sounding like empty shells.

• For marketers, this evolution emphasizes the significance of human creativity and strategic thinking – and the importance of taking advantage of the available tools to support that. Content in many forms will still be needed, but the ambition level must be higher, much higher (which, in our opinion is only a good thing).

2) Search becomes different… again!

AI interfaces like ChatGPT have become search engines. At the same time, AI is increasingly incorporated into traditional search engines.

What’s more, the ways people search for information keep evolving (voice & visual search, searching from TikTok instead of Google, all that we’ve already heard before).

And just some time ago, a CEO considering partnering with us even asked whether or not SEO work would be needed at all beyond 2024. 

It’s like asking if you’re still going to need food beyond 2024.

Of course, the answer is a resounding YES…. but the recipe for SEO-friendly content may differ a bit.

Questions every marketer is (or should be!) asking right now:

• What kind of content will be relevant in the future, and where should it live?
• How to stand out and differentiate?
• How will zero-click searches affect my traffic and conversions?
• How do I make search —or answer— engines (like ChatGPT) pick and recommend MY content over the other options?

And so on.

All this (and more) is changing the SEO game, likely leading to organic search as we know it becoming less important and emphasizing the importance of direct connections, communities, and topical authority of trusted brands.

3) Authenticity and algorithms – who can we trust?

The more companies believe they can outsource their marketing to AI, the more the internet will be filled with half-thought, no-value-adding, and/or entirely hallucinated content.

Do you remember the “SEO heist guy”? Yeah. Those things are happening.

And then, on top of that, there are deepfake videos, AI-generated images that look real, singing AI Sauli (which we love, btw), and so on.

Oh man, this is not going to help with those trust issues ... (and helping parents ‘figuring out the internet’ is about to take a whole new turn…).

In any case, trust in search results is very much linked to content quality – but whose content can you really trust, after all? Where are the actual, original thoughts and thinkers?

• The key takeaway from this for the marketers? With everyone shouting, the depth and authenticity of your voice become even more important than before. This highlights the significance of brand, trust, and… again, creativity and strategic thinking. 

4) Targeting and tracking becomes (even) more difficult

People are becoming more aware of their online privacy rights and demanding greater control over their personal information.

Ad blockers, browser restrictions, and tightening privacy regulations such as GDPR change how we collect and handle data – just to name a few issues affecting marketers.

Previously, advertisers could rely on precise targeting and retargeting to deliver their message. Now, traditional methods of tracking user behavior through third-party cookies are becoming obsolete.

• Without granular user insights, advertisers must focus on contextual targeting and first-party personalization.
• Engaging content, a strong organic social media presence, AND a reliable brand help us gain first-party data, which has become more important than ever.
• This change requires a deep understanding of the target audience and a strategic alignment between content and advertising.

5) The rise of the commercial organization

In many organizations, sales & marketing data is still a mess. Tech plays one part in that, but it all starts much earlier.

Many companies still operate in sales & marketing silos, and there are no processes in place to actually break them. Or, in some cases, companies work hard in designing great processes only to realize they don’t work in real life.

There is, for example, no marketing to get the wheel rolling.

Another big question for many is collecting, using, and storing data, and even understanding what type of data is relevant, and which is not. How do you legally and ethically handle data in marketing and throughout organizations in the first place?

And while all this is going on, forerunner organizations think of the whole commercial operation as one, and talk about commercial organization or RevOps, and make tech & data decisions to unify their operations and tech stacks. 

Today, technology is much more accessible than it was even 5 years ago.

• No-code platforms, easy-to-use or native integrations, etc., do not require putting everything on a single platform as long as the data flow is ensured. Knowing how to use tech is rarely the real problem, thanks to intuitive UIs.
• Strategic thinking to understand how to build great processes, how to build a sustainable data infrastructure, which tech to choose, and how to make sure it actually brings the value it should is more crucial than ever.

6) Marketing takes more space in the buying process, and many things traditionally sold by sales reps can now be sold online

We have been talking about online/digital sales becoming a thing in B2B for years. And even more years have passed since everyone started repeating the good ol’ “70% of the buyer's journey is complete before a buyer even reaches out to sales”...

The combination of these mantras is still very much valid –  maybe even more now than ever; A company relying solely on outreach tactics in their sales will not scale easy.

There is a clear shift towards self-service. 

If you enable buyers to make purchases with low or no-touch sales processes, conduct sales through websites, e-commerce platforms, or digital marketplaces, and increase operational sales efficiency through technology & automation,  there’s no need to hire an army of sales reps anymore.

What should marketers think of this? Well, what a huge opportunity! The online sales channels need customers, and marketing will play a central role in bringing them in.