B2B Marketing Digest - May 2026
Dear Reader,
May is bringing a slightly different layer into focus. We’ve spent the past months talking about AI, speed, output, structure, and strategy. But there is another side of this shift that is much quieter and far less discussed.
As marketing becomes more connected, more data-driven, and more dependent on AI tools, it is also becoming more exposed.
In this edition, I wanted to explore something that most teams don’t actively think about: where risk is quietly building inside everyday marketing work.
A special thank you to Lubova Vaivode, Cybersecurity Leader and Women4Cyber Latvia member, for bringing a perspective that marketing conversations often miss. Her insights add an important layer to understanding not just how we work today, but what responsibility comes with it.
Alongside this, we continue to unpack the bigger shifts shaping B2B marketing from changing buyer behavior to evolving operating models and the growing gap between strategy and execution.
I hope this edition gives you not only perspective, but also a reason to pause and reflect on what sits underneath the work we do every day.
Warm regards, Kristīne
Hot Updates
Before You Restructure Marketing, Make These 5 Decisions
A recent Gartner-backed perspective (via Sally Witzky) highlights a common mistake in marketing leadership: CMOs jump straight into org charts when restructuring their teams. But structure is not the starting point. The real risk is misalignment is building a team that looks right on paper but doesn’t reflect where the business is actually going.
Instead, five decisions should come first:
Enterprise priorities (3–5 year direction)
Required skills (AI, agility, business thinking)
Operating model (centralized vs hybrid)
Resourcing (tech, talent, partners)
Business integration (how marketing connects internally)
What this means for B2B marketers: Structure is about future readiness. If your org design doesn’t reflect where the business is going (AI, speed, customer-centricity), it will create friction instead of growth.
Social Intelligence Is Replacing Social Media Strategy
At Social Media Week (in partnership with Sprout Social), a clear shift emerged: brands are not struggling with content, they are struggling to turn social data into decisions.
Most teams still operate in a familiar pattern: publish then track engagement then move on.
But high-performing teams are paying attention to a social intelligence loop:
Conversation: what audiences are actually saying (comments, reactions, trends)
Detection: filtering what matters
Interpretation: understanding intent behind those signals
Activation: turning insight into action (campaigns, product, messaging)
Outcome: measuring business impact and feeding it back into the system
Example: Comments are now outperforming likes as a metric. They indicate intent, questions, objections - an actual buying signals.
What this means for B2B marketers: Social is real- time research layer. If your team is still optimizing for reach, you’re missing the signal. The advantage now comes from how quickly you can translate audience behavior into decisions across marketing, product/services, and sales.
Feature Insight
The B2B Buyer Has Already Decided (Before You Show Up)
New LinkedIn benchmark data points to a fundamental shift in how B2B decisions are made: 92% of buyers start their journey with at least one vendor in mind, 41% have already chosen a preferred vendor before formal evaluation begins. This changes everything. At the same time, the traditional demand generation engine is weakening:
Organic traffic is declining across most companies
Paid search is becoming more expensive and less efficient
Gated content (webinars, eBooks, reports) is steadily losing performance
And yet one metric remains strong: demo requests are increasing (+9.5%)
Buyers are doing more research independently, through AI tools, peer conversations, and trusted networks, long before they ever visit your website or fill out a form. By the time they request a demo, they are shortlisting. Meaning: You’re not entering the decision process early enough to shape it.
What this means for B2B marketers: You are no longer competing at the point of conversion. You are competing at the moment of preference formation, when buyers are still invisible to your funnel. This is why brand investment is rising, and why platforms like LinkedIn are gaining share: they allow you to influence buyers before intent is visible.
Branding now is about being mentally available at the exact moment a decision begins, or more simply: If you’re not known before the search, you’re not considered during it.
Deep Dive Article - Interview - Lubova Vaivode
Marketing today doesn’t look risky, but it looks efficient: faster campaigns, AI-driven content, seamless data flows.
But underneath, something has quietly changed.
Marketing has become one of the most data-intensive and system-connected functions in the business and with that, one of the most exposed.
In this conversation with cybersecurity expert Lubova Vaivode, we explore where risk is actually building inside everyday marketing work, what teams often overlook, and why responsibility for AI and data usage is still unclear.
Tools & Tactics
The Execution Gap: Why Strategy Doesn’t Turn Into Growth
Recent McKinsey research highlights how the strategy in company should be the consistant action:
72% of leaders say growth is their priority
Only 22% believe they have the team and resources to deliver it
And it shows up in marketing every day. Teams:
collect customer data, but don’t use it in decisions
run campaigns, but don’t connect them to pipeline
invest in AI tools, but don’t redesign workflows
Where the gap actually happens: In practice, it shows up in three places:
1. Data without action- 63% of companies collect customer data, but only 15% use it to drive growth decisions. Insight exists, but nothing changes because of it.
2. Activity without prioritization- More campaigns, more content, more tools, but no clear link to where growth will come from.
3. AI without workflow change- Teams adopt AI for tasks (copy, images), but keep the same processes. Output increases, but business value doesn’t
What leading teams are doing differently: They treat growth like a system-
Define clear growth bets (where revenue will come from)
Allocate people and budget intentionally
Track progress weekly, not quarterly
Connect marketing metrics directly to pipeline and revenue
What this means for B2B marketers:
If your team: has insights, but doesn’t act on them. Runs campaigns, but can’t tie them to revenue, uses AI, but hasn’t changed workflows …you’re not underperforming because of strategy.
You’re stuck in the execution gap.
Quick Hits
Creator + AI = A New GTM Layer
Creator marketing is becoming infrastructure. AI is now being used to: analyze millions of creators and content patterns, match brands with high-performing creators based on real performance data, predict which formats and voices will drive engagement and conversion. At the same time, data shows that user-generated content can outperform polished brand content by up to 46% in driving sales. While 93% of marketers say personalization drives purchases, only 13% are actually using advanced data-driven hyper-personalization.
What this means for B2B marketers: Distribution is shifting from brand-led to creator-led. The advantage is no longer just what you say, but who says it and how it spreads.
LinkedIn Is Taking Budget
According to recent benchmark data across 100+ B2B companies:
LinkedIn ad spend grew 31.7%
Google spend grew only 6%
Resulting in a 5× faster shift toward LinkedIn investment
At the same time:
Organic traffic is declining for most companies (median -1.25%)
Paid search traffic is down significantly (median -39%) with rising costs (+24% CPC)
And critically:
67% of high-traffic websites are seeing declines
While conversion rates are increasing, meaning fewer but higher-intent visitors
What this means for B2B marketers: Buyers are not searching more, they are deciding earlier. LinkedIn is gaining budget because it reaches decision-makers before they search, it influences the buying committee (avg. 13 stakeholders), it builds preference before intent becomes visible. Or in simple word`s Google captures demand, LinkedIn shapes it.
Future Signal
In an era where AI can produce volume instantly, your competitive advantage is no longer how much you produce, but how uniquely you position your brand. Ensure your SMEs are active on LinkedIn and your content reflects a clear, human Point of View.
P.S. Which of these trends is impacting your Q2 strategy most? Reply and let us know; the most critical topics will be featured in our next series.
You choose- the most critical topics for you will be included in the next series. Leave the topic here.
Closing Note
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