Robin O’Connell, Sr. Content Solutions Consultant, LinkedIn
AI and efficiency. The two words on every marketer’s lips this year. Everyone’s celebrating AI as the saviour of marketing productivity, but few are asking the harder question: how do we ensure it doesn’t just lead to more of the same, creating content that blends into the background? Because in B2B, average has never been enough..
AI’s potential for marketing and communications is vast and becoming clearer every day. This wave of technology will completely change B2B marketing, but if we use it to simply churn out generic, AI-generated ads and content, chances are your customers won’t even notice them..
Because AI-generated content is built on averages, and what’s already out there isn’t cutting through.
The market is already noisy and getting noisier. In the US, the volume of marketing content is growing at over 12% year-on-year, and the average person scrolls past 100+ ads a day, yet recalls barely 10% of them. Because the truth is that most marketing isn’t underperforming; it’s not even being noticed.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in B2B, where a culture of risk avoidance has led to a crisis of creativity. Analysis by System1 found that 71% of B2B ads are so forgettable that they are not likely to drive any business results, failing to build fame, salience, and ultimately business growth.
- How did we get to this point? AI isn’t to blame. It’s the assumptions that we built B2B marketing on:That we sell to companies that are logical, serious, and not emotional in the way they buy.
- That we can measure every dollar, every impression, and fully understand the ROI of every activity.
- And that in order to be successful, every piece of content needs to push customers down a linear funnel that leads to an immediate purchase.
Here, as in all strategy, lies the problem. In the assumptions that we make.
Because we now know that people make those buying decisions and are very much driven by emotion. If we try to measure every dollar and optimise for ROI, we just get closer to the point of sale and make attribution look better, but don’t actually drive growth. And that being first to mind, pre-consideration, is the biggest indicator of success in a B2B sale. More so than an efficient ‘ROI’ from your advertising.
So, what happens when we place some of the most advanced technology ever created on top of a playbook built on faulty assumptions? We risk taking poor work and delivering it at the speed of light.
Just take a look at some of the essential best practices for B2B advertising that the top AI models are currently recommending:
- “Focus on value & ROI. Use data, case studies, and testimonials to prove ROI and effectiveness”.
Data, case studies, and testimonials are great. But if the goal is to stand out, to be remembered, then we need a new approach. And this is what AI often misses: that the unique approach is often the right one.
- “Create high-quality, educational content. Offer whitepapers, webinars, eBooks, and reports as lead magnets. Use gated content to capture leads and nurture them through the funnel.”
If you have a piece of content that is valuable to your audience, makes you stand out, and identifies you as a thought leader – don’t hide it behind a gate. There’s no quicker way to limit your reach than to lock away your best assets. That’s a short-sighted ROI mindset at work.
- “Use account-based marketing (ABM). Target specific high-value accounts with personalised ads and content. Coordinate across channels for a unified experience”
ABM has its uses, but to build a strategy on ABM alone is dangerous if your goal is growing a brand. Marketing is about attention and scaling that attention to as much of the market as possible. ABM should be a niche tactic, not the centrepiece of your marketing strategy.
A few short conversations with AI like the above will tell you that the assumptions that have constricted B2B brands, and have led to a crisis in creative effectiveness, are rife in its thinking.
Houses aren’t built on shaky foundations, and using AI to create, optimise, and influence our marketing strategies today with the information that is out there is as shaky a foundation as I can imagine.
AI may spark a revolution. But not every revolution ends well. And applying AI as is, means that the B2B marketing revolution will be doomed to failure.
So, what to do?
The answer lies in critical thinking. In building the right foundations in our strategy. And in using AI responsibly by questioning the assumptions it makes.
Ruthlessly prioritise creativity.
As marketing leaders, we need to set priorities for our teams. And AI-created content produced at the speed of light that does not resonate with our audience should not be a priority. AI is a creative tool, not a replacement for creativity. Step one for content design in B2B should be how do we capture attention? And anything that takes away from that needs to be deprioritised.
Use better AI.
Blindly adopting a technology in any instance is riskier than not using it. As marketing leaders, we need to think about the AI tools we employ as new hires. And we need to vet them just as meticulously. Couple that with partners that can adapt to your strategy – that is the beginning of the right foundation.
Question everything.
Employ the forgotten skill of the 21st century. Critical thinking. We cannot afford to take our hands off the wheel with AI. We need to question assumptions. And prioritise ruthlessly. That starts with measuring the right things, and it can’t just be efficiency. It’s tempting, and we will no doubt see incredible efficiency gains. But we need to track effectiveness hand in hand. Where is the value? Where are we unlocking human potential? Those are the right questions.
Change is coming. And with these changes comes the power to transform the B2B marketing discipline forever. But in the words of the late, great Uncle Ben – with great power comes great responsibility. It’s up to us, the marketers and the creatives, to move this industry in the right direction.
AI will completely change B2B marketing. But whether it elevates us or automates us into oblivion is entirely up to us.